Tipsy Tuesday: The Numbers app

Hello, Hello!  Today I wanted to share with y’all an awesome app that I use on a daily basis to help keep track of our budget!  And guess what? If you own an iphone, it’s FREE! because it’s already installed on your phone. (*UPDATE: I've been informed this app is only installed on newer Iphone 5 versions. A friend has the 4S and does not have this app already installed. It is available in the app store for $10. Trust me though, it's totally worth it!) If you don’t have an iphone, I am sure there are similar apps out there, but I apologize I don’t know what they are. Share with us here in the comments if you do! I’ve tried several ways to track our daily spending.  First to check our account daily.  But not all transactions show up right away.  I also have a spreadsheet on my computer that I track our total budget and bills on.  But I don’t keep track of each and every daily transaction on that spreadsheet because it just gets messy and annoying to keep up with when I don’t sit down to my computer every day.  With smart phones these days, who really needs to sit down to a computer very often? 



Enter the Numbers app.  This app gives you a bunch of different templates already pre-made for you to just plug in your numbers and go.  Or if you want, create your own!  There are meal plan tables, budget templates, charts, baby feeding charts, pretty much anything you want.  All on your phone y’all.  Seriously, how much easier could it get?  Once I realized what this app even was I was hooked.  Now I simply enter in each transaction immediately after I make a purchase, ( or a little while later because I have two small kids and my brain is in 50 places at once ), and my budget is updated immediately.  I know where I’m at and that I probably should not splurge on Chick-fil-a for lunch today so we can enjoy a meal out as a family this weekend! With food and gas so expensive these days, you simply HAVE to track your daily purchases or you’ll be over budget every time. 

What’s even cooler is that I can update this sheet, and share the link with my hubby so he knows where we are at and why! He can also enter his own transactions and save them too.  I don’t know how many times he would call and ask me where we were at with the budget and I couldn’t give him an answer right away because I had to go sit down, check the account to make sure all the bills were coming out, that all our purchases we’ve made recently had actually posted, and subtract what was pending to come out, THEN tell him how much we had left.  It was the root of many arguments that’s for sure.  Because I don't bring home the bacon, I do my part to help with the finances.  So I track our spending and make sure the bills get paid on time!  Military life allows little time for them to stay on top of bills and such.  With deployments, training out of town, etc. I so wish I had this app from the start!

I’ve been using this app for 6 months now and trust me when I say it WORKS and it will save you tons of time! And money. And arguments about budget if you actually use it. haha! Communication is key in marriage right? What better way to communicate about your spending than this.
(*NOTE: I’m aware this is now wednesday, but last night when I hit save I failed to also hit publish! )

 

Jessi