Budgeting is essential for financial success, and while I know there are budgeting apps out there I wasn’t sure which ones were the best budget apps for couples.
The best budget apps for couples are:
- Mint – The best budget app for iPhone users, with the most downloads & best reviews.
- GoodBudget – The best budget app for Android users
- You Need a Budget – The easiest budget app to get started on quickly
- Every Dollar – The best app that’s totally free (with a paid option)
- Trim – The best app for helping you save money each month
- Personal Capital – The best app for helping you plan for retirement
But that’s just a handful of the ones I looked at.
Some do everything and incorporate spending, saving, and investing along with budgeting. Others focus just on budgeting.
So check out all of them (most are free or have a free trial or option) and see what fits your needs and style best.
That way you can pick the one that works best for you and your spouse and get about enjoying life without financial stress.
If you can only pick one budget app?
Then, it would definitely be Empower (formerly Personal Capital) (click to learn more on their website).
Especially since it’s FREE!
When our money is a mess, our life is a mess. Overdraft fees, late bills, dings on our credit scores, and arguments with our spouses can all come from not having a good, solid, financial plan. And if we let it go from bad to worse, for some, that leads to foreclosure or eviction, and maybe even divorce.
I get it. I was there too once, but there’s a better way.
Empower (formerly Personal Capital) makes it easy to access all your financial accounts in one place, get advice on where to invest your 401k, see your true net worth in seconds, get tax advice, and a host of amazing free tools that have gotten them high praise from The New York Times.
Get the app for Apple, Android, or just log into the website using a desktop or laptop. Did I mention it’s FREE? This one small step today can lead to a bright and better tomorrow.
So CLICK HERE to see if Empower isn’t the answer to your financial challenges.
What are the benefits of budgeting and budgeting apps?
A budget as your roadmap to financial success, and a budget app is simply a tool that helps us navigate that map. Without a budget, people are forced to make assumptions and guess on both income and spending, and often this leads to debt and poor choices.
Would you head out cross-country without a map or smartphone with GPS? Most likely the answer is no. Without a map, we only hope we will reach our destination.
But a map gives us a plan. If we take a wrong turn, we see where we need to go next to get back on course. A budget is EXACTLY the same.
If you and your spouse want to retire with dignity someday, not incur massive amounts of debt, avoid bankruptcy or either buy a house or eventually a nicer one, the budget is your key to achieving those things.
Why?
Because instead of just spending until the money runs out or the bank gives you a notification you are overdrawn, you tell each and every one of your hard-earned dollars where to go.
You are getting intentional with your money.
When you do that, you will spend less. Plus using one of these best budget apps for couples with your spouse ensures that there is no misunderstanding (at least about money).
Budgeting apps simply put the power of budgeting and being intentional with money in a convenient format you can access anytime from the convenience of your smartphone.
If you’re just starting out in your relationship, financial marriage counseling (click to read it on my site) can be a big help in getting you both on the same page about money.
So I highly recommend you take a moment and review my highly shared post on that subject.
Ever tried this kind of budget? 🤔 pic.twitter.com/a6tNXMhk0u
— Minted™ (@TheMintedApp) July 26, 2020
The proven perils of NOT budgeting!
We all know we should be budgeting.
But remembering to budget is challenging! If we’re out on the town or we get invited out by friends, no one wants to poo-poo the idea because we hadn’t budgeted for that expense or if we have to stop and check-in with our spouse.
Thus, many people just keep reaching for the credit card and enjoying life.
The trouble is, without a budget, many couples end up deeply in debt. Money fights and money problems are also in the Top 3 Reasons for Divorce (click to see my article which lists them all), so figuring out a way to budget that doesn’t take all the fun out of life is crucial!
Luckily, there are some great budget apps that you and your spouse can access 24/7 on your smartphone.
These apps can transform your life, your budget, and even your marriage or relationship by eliminating the guesswork, keeping debt in check, and helping to ensure you and your spouse are on the same finance page.
— Digestive Improvement | Mindset • Habits • Freedom (@DigestImprove) July 24, 2020
How can I be better with money?
A person can learn to be better with money by having a plan; knowing how much money is coming in and where those dollars need to go. Typically a budget is the best way to manage this process.
Most people who “aren’t good with money” are impulsive. They see they spend.
So, while there’s nothing wrong with seeing something and wanting to buy it, once we hit adulthood, we no longer get the luxury of acting like a child. We have to learn to plan, to save, to live within our means and communicate with our spouse about financial decisions.
We also have to learn the difference between a need and a want.
Like any behavior we want to change, we have to focus on the benefit we will get from making that change. In this case, those would be:
- Getting out of debt
- Not fighting with my spouse about money
- Not treading water or Living Paycheck to Paycheck (click to read my best tips on getting out of that rut!)
Once you can see the benefits then you have to change your habits and behaviors that are preventing those changes from happening. Understand it will take at least 2 weeks to successfully change a behavior pattern. In some cases, it may take much longer.
So fake it until you make it.
And by that, I mean that any new behavior, like using one of these best budget apps for couples will feel unnatural and uncomfortable at first. We are changing the patterns in our brain and the brain naturally wants to do what it’s always done.
But if you don’t want to do what you’ve always done, which is the key to getting ahead, you have to push through until it feels natural.
A budget is a great place to start getting good with money, and since most of these best budget apps for couples are free, what have you got to lose?
Ways to keep your personal information safe online https://t.co/Qe3tlR51pB pic.twitter.com/OqgYGjIqba
— 41 Action News (@41actionnews) October 5, 2017
Is Mint good for couples?
Mint (now owned by Credit Karma) is highly recommended for couples, and is the most downloaded budget app for iPhone users. It also has the best reviews. It allows couples to not only track spending together, but also investments, bills, and credit scores.
But let’s examine it a little more closely.
Mint connects with every financial institution out there, at least in the US. So that means at your fingertips, you can get bank balances, credit card purchases, credit scores, investment account balances and growth, and much more.
And because Mint refreshes in real time, you’ll always get up-to-date info.
And yes; it’s free!
As for the budgeting aspects of Mint, it looks at your spending history by category. Then it simply tells you how much you’re spending in each category by month and year.
Want to save more? Mint makes it easy to project how much would be saved by cutting back in certain categories.
It’s available for Android and iOS and in a web version so you can use it across platforms.
Are budget Apps Safe?
Budget apps are reasonably safe and used by millions of people every day. Most feature safety features like secure encryption and multi-factor authentication. But, of course, anytime we are linking our personal financial information with someone else’s website there is a minor risk.
After all, we all likely remember some of the big website breaches that have happened over the past decade with big names like Target and Home Depot.
That being said, even just logging into your own bank’s website will have risks too.
So the question is really more are the security risks worth the trade-off of the gained convenience. AND are the company(s) we’re using reputable and do they have a policy in place that covers you in the event of a breach?
The good news is that banks do typically cover any charges related to fraud or stolen personal information.
More good news is that in most cases, budget apps don’t allow purchases or transfers; they are simply reporting transactions. So that alone makes it hard for a would-be thief to use your data even if they could access it.
U.S. law also offers protection in addition to what card companies offer.
The Fair Credit Billing Act limits consumer liability to $50 for ANY unauthorized charges on credit cards. If you report it before any charges are made, that liability actually drops to zero.
The Electronic Fund Transfer Act basically covers debit card transactions in the same way.
To be extra safe, see if your bank recommends one budget app over another and verify what protections would be granted to you for using that (or any) budget app.
Who finds budgeting hard? This is my challenge number 2. More specifically, sitting down at the beginning of the month to tell my money where to go. It should be so easy with the Dave Ramsey Every Dollar app that’s FREE!! But the 1st comes and goes, then… https://t.co/sgZeNF9p4c pic.twitter.com/OdKxQfoUL4
— Kat Patrick (@dreaminspiresHL) January 29, 2019
What is the best free budget app?
Most of the different budget apps have a free level and then you have to pay to get access to certain features.
Every Dollar, for instance, is totally free, unless you want to link it to your bank account.
For me, I want a budget app for the convenience, so if I still have to sit down with a spreadsheet, log into my bank’s website, and update my budget, that sort of defeats the purpose.
But then, as I said, most of the budget apps have a free and a paid version.
So of the ones that are free or have a free version, my pick for the best free budget app, would be GoodBudget. Good Budget does have a free and paid version, but you can do a LOT with the free version, including syncing it with a spouse, and you get 10 expense categories.
It’s available for Apple or Android, but you can also log in on desktop or laptop too, and rates 4.5 stars on the iTunes store.
— Middle Class Dad (@middleclassdad1) December 17, 2018
What are the best money management apps?
Money management, while tied to budgeting, is a little different and a bit more big picture.
When it comes to money management apps, my all-time favorite app is from Empower (formerly Personal Capital)! It is one of the best money management tools on the planet, especially if you have many different financial accounts.
It does help you track your spending, but it also links your retirement accounts too and shows you your net worth in real-time.
The best part is, this app is totally free!
People pay through the nose for financial advisors, but Personal Capital can get you much of the same info all in a convenient and free system. It even projects your expected investment and retirement returns over time.
Set retirement goals, spending patterns and let Personal Capital work for you, letting you know if you’re on track and making suggestions as you go.
If I had to just pick 1 money management app, it would definitely be Empower (click to learn more on their website).
Just click that link to calculate your net worth right now and see how easy it is!
Get the app for Apple, Android, or just log into the website using a desktop or laptop.
Which is the best budget app?
That’s obviously a subjective question.
Mint (now owned by Credit Karma) is certainly the most widely reviewed and downloaded app, but sites like Trim and apps like Empower, being a little more specialized, may actually help you more and not overwhelm you by trying to do everything.
Ultimately, since many are free or have free versions, try a few and see if one (or multiple) doesn’t stand out as the best for you and your spouse.
But I would start with Mint.
.@livemint has a neat iOS app to track the Budget. It’s called Mint iBudget. Also on Android https://t.co/OeH7UZkKIL pic.twitter.com/FHCnT0Jqn6
— Venkat Ananth (@venkatananth) February 24, 2016
What is the best budget app for Android?
Almost all apps these days are available for both iOS (Apple) and Android.
That being said, users on each platform don’t always see eye to eye (for instance in the Google Play Store, Mint only ranks 4 stars and only has about 25% as many reviews as they do in iTunes).
Somewhat surprisingly, GoodBudget ranks the best on the Google Play Store. As with iTunes, they rate 4.5 stars and have over 8,000 reviews.
What is the easiest budget app?
Like the term “best budget app”, the easiest budget app is also subjective.
That being said, certainly one that just focuses on budgeting instead of trying to be all things to all people would go a long way towards simplicity.
For that reason, I’m going to suggest You Need A Budget as the easiest budget app. Check out their YouTube video and see if you don’t agree.
So now let’s review the . . .
9 Best Budget Apps for Couples You Need in 2021
1. Trim Budget App
Web-based. Not available as a traditional app.
Almost all of us have some subscriptions we are still paying for even though we have no use of them anymore, right? This program can help.
For instance, you are no longer using your old Netflix account but your partner’s instead.
Or you use Spotify but still pay for Pandora?
Well, you won’t have to spend that extra money anymore on things you never really use. This app is here to help you get rid of them and save the money up instead.
This may not be a couple’s budget app in the traditional sense of the word but it helps you save money in all those places that just drain it for no reason.
When it all adds up, you get a pretty nice sum you could either save up or spend on some of the things you need.
This app will send you a text containing all of those subscriptions that you pay and then you can cancel them by just replying with Cancel and the subscription name.
There is a free version you could use to find all of your forgotten subscriptions and cancel them.
It can also help you cut your spending in many other ways. For instance, by talking to your service providers to get them to lower your monthly bills or it can track your spending in order to pay attention to the habits that are draining your budget additionally.
When you put your expenses under control, you can also set up a savings account on this app and set aside a few dollars every week, day or month and help your savings goal.
All in all, this app is a useful addition to anyone’s budgeting efforts and it can work great for couples as well.
Check out Trim (click to learn more on their website) today and see how much you can save and see why they have been recommended by the likes of the New York Times and Fortune Magazine.
2. Empower (formerly Personal Capital)
5 stars on the Apple App store with over 13,000 reviews.
Personal Capital deserves to be at the top of the list of the best budget apps for couples for good reason. It is one of the best tools for budgeting you will ever use, especially if you have a lot of accounts.
It helps you track your spending, have a better overview of your retirement portfolio and track your net worth.
The best part is, this app is completely free for everyone to use.
People often pay huge amounts of money for someone to sit down with them and tell them how much they could have in a decade or something similar if they saved a certain amount of money.
This app, however, does all of this for free and counts all of the returns you could expect over time.
With this app, you can set up your own retirement goals and measure if you are on the right track of meeting your goals or if you need to change anything in your spending habits.
Empower (click to learn more on their website) could be a great addition to your budgeting tools as a couple because it’s very good to have a personal budgeting advisor in your pocket and being able to track what you can save together over the years.
It’s available for Android and iOS and in a web version so you can use it across platforms.
3. Honeydue
4.5 stars on the Apple app store with almost 3,000 reviews
Next is one of the best budget apps for couples in regards to budgeting and finance.
You have to create an account and then invite your partner to join. Then you are supposed to plan your budget. This is quite a flexible option and you can choose how much of the expenses you want to share and how much you want to pay individually.
There is an in-app chat where you can talk about your expenses and also react to certain payments with smiley faces to signal if something is off or if the payment is okay.
This is a fun way to budget your expenses and also communicate about them. It also features support for 10000 banks in the US.
It’s completely free to use.
It’s available for Android and iOS.
4. GoodBudget
4.5 stars on the Apple app store with over 8,000 reviews
“This is an app formerly known as EEBA and it’s a budgeting software which uses an envelope budgeting system (click to read my article which details the system overall).
The envelope system, championed by financial guru Dave Ramsey, calls for paying in cash and on payday, dividing up a cash withdrawal into different categories on envelopes.
For instance, dividing your money into separate categories like grocery, entertainment and so on and spend only from those categories on those things.
This can be a tedious job, so the app does it for you. In the free version, you get to create up to 10 categories and you can sync up your budget with your partner.
It’s available for Android and iOS and in a web version so you can use it across platforms.
5. EveryDollar
4 stars on the Apple app store with almost 2000 reviews
This is a monthly expense tracker and manager created by financial guru Dave Ramsey and his team.
If you don’t know Dave Ramsey or have heard of him but don’t follow him, his core beliefs are a huge part of the financial success my (Jeff) wife and I have seen,.
So I highly recommend you take a moment and review the basics of his plan which he calls Dave Ramsey’s Baby Steps (click to read my comprehensive breakdown of his steps).
You can make your budget from scratch and move from there. It’s very easy to set everything up – you can do it within minutes – and you can group all of your expenses and modify your expenses.
In the free model, you have to add all of your transactions manually but in the plus version, you can just add your bank accounts, and your expenses get recorded automatically.
There is a special feature called local providers where you can seek the help of local experts with your finances.
Given how many people Dave has helped attain financial freedom, this should definitely be on everyone’s list of best budget apps for couples.
It’s available for Android and iOS and in a web version so you can use it across platforms.
6. Mint (now owned by Credit Karma)
4.5 stars on the Apple app store with a whopping 400,000+ reviews
Mint is certainly the most widely-known of the best budget apps for couples, and for good reason.
Created by Intuit, the original founders of Quicken, Mint brings “together everything from balances and bills to your credit score and more. It’s your financial life, in one place that’s easy to understand.”
“Create budgets, track investments, discover new ways to save and more.”
It’s available for Android and iOS and in a web version so you can use it across platforms.
7. You Need A Budget
4.5 stars on the Apple app store with almost 3,000 reviews
This app is quite popular because it has a unique approach to managing your expenses. Instead of the traditional budgeting, you get to build your own budget based on your income.
You just have to follow a few simple rules – give every dollar in your income a job, embrace the big expenses, learn how to live on your last month’s income, roll with the punches if you overspend your money and so on.
It’s well worth considering on your list of best budget apps for couples.
It’s available for Android and iOS and in a web version so you can use it across platforms.
8. PocketGuard Money & Budgeting
4.5 stars on the Apple app store with over 2,000 reviews
PocketGuard, as you can guess, can help curb out of control spending. Thus, if over-spending is where your budget tends to get derailed, this could be a great way to go!
Like some of the others, PocketGuard connects your bank & credit accounts and then tracks your spending.
It also lets you know when you’ve overspent compared to how much you allotted for that spending category.
Easy to set up and connect to your accounts, this one is a breeze to get going quickly and simply. Like companies like Trim, PocketGuard also tells you when you’re overspending on a certain bill or account and alerts you if a cheaper option is available!
It’s well worth considering on your list of best budget apps for couples.
It’s available for Android and iOS.
9. Mvelopes (now owned by Every Dollar)
4.5 stars on the Apple app store with over 2,000 reviews
As the name implies, this one is like Dave Ramsey’s Envelope System (click to read my article which gives you all the crucial details) in an app form.
If you aren’t familiar with the envelope system, it’s a way of budgeting where you have an envelope for each category of spending in your budget.
This is for personal spending and not recurring bills.
You put cash in each one every payday based on your budget. And when the cash is gone in that envelope, you don’t spend anything else for that category until the next payday.
Obviously, this presents a challenge with plastic and online spending. So for that reason, Mvelopes make it easy to still follow those principals in our digital world.
Their basic plan starts at $4.00/month but you can upgrade to get one on one training and quarterly access to personal finance trainers.
It’s available for Android and iOS and in a web version so you can use it across platforms.
Final Thoughts
In this post, we took an in-depth look at the world of budgeting and specifically budgeting apps.
We covered the who, what, when, where and why a couple needs to budget and be on the same page. But we also answered all the top questions related to budgeting as a couple.
Specifically, though, we reviewed the best budget apps for couples. That way, you can choose the one that works best for you and your spouse.
Managing your budget as a couple isn’t easy and definitely not romantic. But with these apps, it can at least be a bit easier and simpler.
What has been your biggest financial challenge as a couple?
If you’re in the situation where you think refinancing student loans or consolidating credit card debt might make sense, the folks over at HonestLoans make it easy to get the best offers in under 2 minutes.
You could possibly save thousands a year. And you have nothing to lose in checking – it doesn’t even ding your credit report.
About the co-author of this post:
Joel Syder works as a relationship and dating life coach at Origin Writings and Australia2write.
He likes helping couples get through various stages of their relationships and writing articles for Academic Brits, academic service.
While I (Jeff) have years of successful financial & budgeting experience and run several million-dollar businesses and handled the accounting, P&L and been responsible for the financial assets of them, neither Joel nor I am accountants or CPAs. Like all my posts, my posts are opinions based on experience, observations, research, and mistakes. While I believe all my personal finance posts to be thorough, accurate, and well-researched, if you need financial advice, you should seek out a qualified professional in your area.
Image by Omar Medina Films from Pixabay