4 Awesome Financial Applications That Are Free

There are several free budgeting tool applications that can help everybody keep better track of their finances, and spending habits. These tools allows users to sign into their own personal account and electronically connect through a security portal and have their spending habits broke down to show the consumer an overall picture of their accounts. We are going to take a look at what I feel are the top four money management and budget management tools that are free to consumers to use.

The first one that we are going to look at is BillGuard.

Billguard was rated number one application in 2013 and 2014 by PCMag and TechCrunch magazine and along with being rated number one by CNNMoney for being the best application for money management.

The application is great for tracking your spending habits over time and comparing your habits to months previous in order to show you where you are doing great or where you are doing bad with spending or tracking on your budget. This app will also compare your spending habits and scans the internet for coupons that match your habits in order to save you time and money when you go to the store.

BillGuard sends personalized messages to it members in order to notify users if they've shopped at a merchant who has been breached, this is very helpful especially for the last couple of years where large department stores data has been breached and consumers credit cards has been compromised.

There are three categories to BillGuard, there is the free version that entitles you too: Smart Inbox, Spending Analytic's, Transaction Intelligence, Card Fraud Alerts, Data Breach Alerts, and Card Concierge.

The second version cost $2.99 a month and it entitles you will too: everything the free version offers plus, Live support 24/7, Lost wallet recovery, Credit Monitoring from one bureau, Identity Restoration.

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The third version cost $6.99 a month and entitles you too: everything the first two versions offers plus Credit Monitoring from all three credit bureaus, Full Identity Restoration, Black Market Surveillance, SSN Fraud Alerts and $1 million ID Theft Insurance.

The second service that we will look at is Mint.com

Many of you have heard of this awesome application called Mint.com. This is a free money management tool that is built by Intuit which brought us Quicken. The key features of this application is for you to be able to view all your accounts in one place so you know where you are spending to much money and the areas that you are saving money in.

Mint.com is a great tool to help you build your financial budget, especially for people that have never lived by a budget before. This budget tool comes with all the step by step instructions to help you build your budget, start a savings plan, and helps you pay down your bills.

If you are an investor in the stock or commodities market Mint.com offers a nice tool to help you track your stocks and commodities. There are also some good learning tools to help new investors learn about investment strategies.

Another great feature with Mint is that you can keep track of your credit score at anytime with this program.

When you sign up for Mint you do not have to give them any credit card information. Many people including myself get really skeptical about being charged for something when it is advertised as a free service. But with Mint you do not have to worry about this, they will never ask for your credit card information.

The third app we will look at is called Checkbook.

This application is very similar to the Mint.com application but with Checkbook you can transfer funds from one account to another account. This application is a great tool to manage your personal written checkbook, set up a budget for your home, keep track of spending habits and etc.

This tool is also free and easy to use.

The forth tool we are looking at is Spending Tracker.

Spending Tracker is another easy to use free application for tracking your expenses and helps you setup and run a household budget. Just like the other apps it offers you great looking charts and graphs to help you with all your budget needs.

Save money when grocery shopping.

Save money when grocery shopping.

Have you noticed that over the years food prices are sky rocketing through the roof? I go shopping pretty much every time that my wife goes to the grocery store, not to monitor her purchasing habits but just because I like shopping just as much as she does and it is a great time for us to spend together.

We both work well together when it comes to purchasing food. We shop for the best prices, but we do not buy generic unless we know for sure that it is just as good as the name brand items. We have ran across a few generic items that were definitely not worth the compromise to buying generic to save money.

We are not health nuts and only eat vegetarian style far from it, but we do eat a wide variety of items. We try to stay away from processed foods and eat more of a healthier diet of fresh vegetable, fruit, and meats. We do try and stay away from foods that are high in sugars and carbs, just because we are trying to watch our weight. So many pre-packaged foods and processed foods are loaded with ingredients that are not good for human consumption.

There are many ways to save on your food bill no matter what type of diet or how your family lives and eats , but it does take some work on your part to make some changes in your lifestyle to make this work. Her are a few ideas that have helped my wife and I save money in the past on our grocery bill, I hope these will help you out also.

Make a shopping list. With today’s technology there are many apps for smartphones out on the market for making a shopping list, pick one at put it to use. On my smartphone my wife and I will work on a shopping list at least a week ahead. When something comes to her mind she will shoot me a text to put it on the shopping list, then on pay day we will take the list and do our grocery shopping. We always go to the store with a plan, and if we stick to this plan and stay focused we do not over purchase and waste money. Another reason to make a shopping list is so we can sit down the night before and go through our coupons and find the ones that line up with our list, this way we do not forget about giving the clerk the coupon for the item's we buy, using coupons can save us a lot of money if we use them correctly.

Don’t shop hungry. This has been said for years, but it is a good statement to live by. When you are hungry you will buy out the store and most of it you dont need. One thing that I found is that when I shop while I am hungry I will have less patience and I will not grab the first thing I see on the shelf and I will not comparison shop for the best price.  When you are hungry you will also make some serious bad choices for the food you eat especially if you are on any sort of diet.

Shop at warehouse stores.  You will find a lot of items at discount prices if you purchase in case lots. Yes you have to pay for a membership fee, but the most I ever had to pay was $35.00 for year. I made that up the first time I went shopping. Canned vegetables, soups, rice, pasta, cereal, chips, these are just a few items that have long shelf life and can be purchased at a fraction f the price than at a normal grocery store. This is an excellent way to purchase at a reduced rate and stock the shelves at home.

Discount Food Stores. This is really popular in Florida, we have several discount food stores all around the state. These stores are a no thrill type of store where you even have to bring your own grocery bags and you have to bag your own groceries. I can walk into one of these store and cut my weekly grocery bill in half. Granted a lot of the food at these discount stores are generic, but most of what I have purchased at these places is just as good as name brand food at normal grocery stores.

Purchase fresh fruit and vegetables locally.  Most communities have farmer markets and local fruit stands. These are excellent places to purchase home grown fruits, vegetables, eggs, and sometimes even locally grown beef, pork and chicken. Usually the food from these places are very high quality, organic and most of the time free of hormones. I love shopping at these types of places, I build a rep-or with the farmer or the owner of the fruit stand and I can sometime make a barter with the person or find out if they have something seasonal that is coming in shortly.

Prepackaged Food. Don’t ever purchase food that is prepackaged for you. For an example, in the produce area of the store you will find vegetables like onions, peppers, and celery already cut up and packaged. If you look at the price it will be three to four times more expensive than the non-cut up product. Also when you go through the frozen food section you will find bags of frozen vegetables, frozen meals and many other pre-packaged food and processed food. The cost of these foods will definitely drive up the price of you grocery.

Comparison shop. Keep all your receipts from shopping for strictly groceries. At the end of a month write down the main items that you usually purchase with the prices. Take the list to several different grocery stores in your community and compare prices. You may be astounded to find that even though you thought you were getting a great deal at the store you most often shop at you could save money by shopping at a couple different stores. My wife and I do this, we will purchase all our canned goods at warehouse store, then all our meat products at our local butcher shop, and then our remaining items at a big box store along with our toiletries, and household items.

For many people the grocery bill is one of the most costly expenditure in their budget. Saving money on your grocery bill will help put money back into the budget to help pay off other debts you want to get rid of or save this money to add to your investment portfolio. Every area where you can save money will help to make your dreams come true and help you to be financially independent.