Top 5 UK budgeting tools for 2023

When you start a debt solution with Money Wellness, each time you do an annual review, one of our advisers goes through your income and expenditure and puts together a budget with you. Many customers become absolute ninjas when it comes to sticking to that budget and making every penny count. But many customers are also looking for ways to help them stay on track budget-wise.

There are many websites, apps, and tools that can help you organise your finances, which makes it easier to live on a budget. We’ve picked out some of the best.

MoneyHelper's budgeting tool

When it comes to budgeting tools this might be the best. Although it’s not an app, a version of the tool is available on mobile. Unlike many other apps, because this is a government website, they aren’t trying to sell you anything extra. The sole purpose is so you can work out where your money is going, to the penny. It’s free and easy to use, and it definitely helps when converting things from weekly, fortnightly and four weekly, into monthly figures.

Monzo

Monzo is a ‘brickless bank’. For this reason their app really has it all. From the main page on the app, a simple click in the top right corner will tell you everything you’ve spent this month and on what. Another click will tell you what came in on previous months and what you spent. You can also set up ‘Pots’ and start saving. If you struggle to organise your money, Monzo might be worth considering.

Starling Bank

Voted Best British Bank every year between 2018 and 2021, Starling Bank are coming up with some nifty features to help their customers. They have many similar features to Monzo, including a spending insights tool. However, probably the most discussed feature is their saving one. Whenever you pay for something, Starling can round up the cost to the nearest pound and put the extra change into a saving account. It’s like saving, without even trying to save.

Emma

Type in best budgeting apps into Google and the likelihood is this app will get mentioned. If you have more than one bank account, you can connect them all to Emma and manage your money from one place. There are lots of insights into your spending, you can cancel paid subscriptions, and you can receive daily balance updates.

Citizens Advice

This is a really thorough budget calculator and once you’ve completed the questions, if it looks like you could do with some tips on how to make savings, they’ll point you in the right direction.