Five mobile apps to help you manage your holiday spending and beyond

The holiday season, which is just around the corner, is a great time to derail your budget. However, there are plenty of mobile apps that can help you manage your budget and still save money since they are always with you. Here are a few to help you stay within your budget this year.

Mint
Mint helps you stay top of your spending and cash flow. From creating budgets to tracking and paying bills to sending you alerts for unusual account charges, Mint is like having your accountant following you around. It even provides tips for reducing fees and saving money. Mint is owned by Intuit, which specializes in financial and tax software and tools. This might give you piece of mind since you will have to share financial information with them to get the most out of this app.

Paribus
Have you ever purchased something only to see the price come down a week later? Many stores have a policy that offers a refund if the price of an item drops within a certain amount of time after you order it. Paribus watches for price drops at stores with price adjustment policies, like Amazon, Home Depot, Office Depot, and Staples, just to name a few.

How does it work? You connect your email to Paribus, which operates in the background to monitor emailed receipts for opportunities to get money back. Whenever you’re eligible, Paribus files price adjustment claims on your behalf and you keep 100% of the savings. There is one hitch – you have to give Paribus access to your email account in order for them to deliver on their service. If you have an email account you use exclusively for promotions and receipts, this system could work especially well for you.

Wally
Wally brings all of the financial information into easy view so you can quickly take control of your finances. You can set a savings target, spending budget (helpful in the holiday season) and income, which you can quickly reference on the main screen. It lets you quickly create and view expenses, keep track of money saved and your saving goals. Neat features include social and location tools for your expenses, allowing you to record not only how much you spend, but also where and with who, as well as detailed infographics of your spending.

You Need A Budget
You Need a Budget (YNAB to those in the know) is unlike any other budgeting app you’ve used before. YNAB helps you stop living paycheck to paycheck, pay down debt and manage unexpected expenses. It’s built around a fairly simple principle – every dollar has a job.

You Need a Budget forces you to live within your actual income. If you get off track (and who doesn’t occasionally?), YNAB helps you see what you need to do differently to balance your budget. Although users pay a small monthly or annual fee for YNAB, the service and support are worth it. Online classes with a live instructor for Q&A to help you learn budgeting basics are included.

GoodBudget
Did you ever have different envelops or jars to help you budget. Well GoodBudget is the digital version.  It helps you manage your finances using the envelope budgeting method without carrying around a stack of envelopes when you need to make payments.

Instead of trying to reconcile envelopes with a spouse or partner later, your budgets sync across all of your devices from iPhone to Android so everyone knows where money is going. The app can help you learn how to save for big purchases and actually put that plan into place so you can save for a vacation or a new car.