Budgeting can be a steep hill to climb, but with the right tools in your arsenal, saving, investing, and keeping an eye on your everyday spending can be easy. But with so many free resources and apps to choose from, where do you start?

I love using Microsoft Excel and Apple’s Numbers app to keep track of my budget for each quarter/year, but it’s also convenient to use apps on my iPhone to log daily expenses and income. Here are eight free iPhone apps you may use to budget smart and save smarter.

1Simpler Budget to Track Your Overall Budget

The first thing you might want to do in your budgeting journey is to use a budget tracker to log your expenses, transactions, budget, and savings.Simpler Budgetis a free budgeting app for easy tracking, with a colorful intuitive interface and neat categories that make budgeting less intimidating if you’re just getting started.

With this app, you’re able to tailor your monthly budget for different categories and track your spending in each, create custom categories, and see your overall spending habits and insights. You’ll also be able to see if you’re over or below the previous month’s spending, track savings, and view top spending categories. Each transaction you log is visible in a ledger-like format for easy tracking. Simpler Budget stands out from other budgeting apps because it’s super easy to use, and uses budget categorization that’s quick to learn and track.

With a premium subscription ($14.99/month or $89.99/year) to Simpler Budget, you can use features like bank connectivity, expert classes, and community access.

2Daily Budget for Short-Term Budgeting

If you’re looking to stick to a strict daily limit on expenses,Daily Budgetis a good short-term savings app to help track your everyday spending. What makes this app stand out, aside from being a budget tracker, is its interface and minimal design, which allows you to view your daily spending limit and set realistic short-term goals.

Daily Budget has categories like high incomes, smaller incomes, and transactions. Using these you can ultimately calculate your daily budget and facilitate easy saving. You can back up your data on the app for free, and sync with iCloud. Daily Budget has a Pro version (one-time payment of $9.99) with features like CSV file reports and deeper insights.

I like to use Daily Budget to track my daily spending closely, track any extra income I might be getting, and save up for future expenses by sticking to a calculated daily budget.

3Money Masters to Increase Financial Literacy

Financial literacy is key to your long-term budgeting and investing goals.Money Mastersis a money mentor app that can help you gain knowledge on the go. I always gravitate towards apps that use gamification to help me learn subjects that I wouldn’t enjoy simply reading about, and Money Masters is one of them.

This educational app is a treasure trove of valuable money advice that has helped me learn the basics of saving, building emergency funds, and investing as a beginner. Money Masters offers free, bite-sized, gamified lessons to help you gain knowledge about investing and saving, regardless of where you are on your financial literacy journey.

The app is a fun way to learn, offering chapter-wise modules, XP, coins, and trivia to help learn about stocks, mutual funds, bonds, real estate, and crypto. You can also stay current on financial news, read articles, and level up as you progress through your lessons. What I like about the app is that it strips away any inhibitions you may have regarding tackling a broad subject like investing, making it feel much more digestible through structured, gamified lessons.

4Bobby to Track All Your Subscriptions

Bobbyis a dedicated budget app that will help you keep track of all your subscriptions, from streaming platforms to iCloud. This app comes with a simple interface where you add all your subscriptions, enter the expenses for each, and log the first billing date. Bobby then sends you reminders before your payment is due, which will help you complete payment or remind you that your subscription fee is being processed (if you’re using autopay).

The app will calculate your average spend on subscription services every month and show you how much you spend every month in total. You can add subscriptions from the app’s list of widely-used services, or create a custom subscription that you cannot find on the list. With a one-time purchase ($0.99-$1.99), you can unlock unlimited subscriptions,Face ID, andiCloud backup.

Although I have autopay set up for all my subscriptions, I like to use Bobby to know when money is leaving my account, track how much I’m spending on subscriptions every month, and cut down on unnecessary subscriptions when needed.

5Chronicle to Organize Your Bills

If you’re someone who, beyond tracking your expenses by logging your spending on a budget tracking app, likes to keep track of your bills, a virtual bill organizer can be beneficial.Chronicleis a dedicated bill app to help track your (usually repeated) bills, such as utilities and internet, subscriptions, and rent, so you don’t miss out on any payments.

You can log when your bills are due the amount to pay, enable reminders, and add a payment URL to make payments much easier. If you have autopay enabled for a bill, that can be logged on the app, so your expense is automatically recorded. Chronicle’s calendar view makes it easy to track upcoming payments, and once you log a payment, you can view which bills have been paid and what’s due.

I use Chronicle to remind me of bills for which I disable autopay, or bills that have a varying amount due each month. It’s also helpful to track things like credit card payment dates to increase your credit score, especially if you’re someone who doesn’t want to rely on auto payment in case of issues with your banking app or portal.

The app offers extra features like iCloud backup, income tracking, calendar integration, and free trial tracking under its Chronicle Pro subscription ($11.99/year).

6Loot to Create a Virtual Piggy Bank

Loothelps you save for both long and short-term goals consistently, helping you plan and hit saving goals effectively. This virtual piggy bank helps you create custom saving goals (for example, saving for a trip), enter an amount to save, and calculate how much you need to save each day to reach your savings goal within a set timeframe.

The app has a fun and simple interface, with a virtual saving jar that gets filled with coins/notes every time you log your savings. You can view your progress each day, edit your savings goal, and delete jars you don’t want to track savings for.

I started using Loot to separate my budget tracking from saving goals since I wanted to keep a closer eye on my short-term savings for certain purposes. I also prefer using Loot over my banking app, which usually tells me about my savings every month, because of the app’s easy-to-use interface, creative touch, and progress bar for better motivation.

You can unlock unlimited savings jars on Loot with a one-time purchase ($2.99).

7Bring! to Save On Groceries

Bring!is a shopping app that will help you save on food-related expenses throughstructured grocery planning. The app can help you create and, more importantly, share your shopping lists with those closest to you since it’s a free app available on iOS and Android. The interface is simple and intuitive, with each item on your grocery list accompanied by a simple graphic. Bring! also has an “Inspiration” tab to help you find quick recipes, and quickly add ingredients to your grocery list from recipes you like.

As someone who is guilty of straying away from my shopping lists often, I’ve tried a few apps that have helped me stick to my grocery and meal plan, and Bring! is one of the best. While most grocery apps offer a simple list feature, Bring! takes it a step further with its automatic sorting feature, which neatly organizes your grocery list into categories and makes shopping much more efficient. You can also create custom items on your list (useful for when I’m buying Asian spices and condiments), and add tags like “Urgent,” “Offer,” and “If Convenient” to make your shopping smoother.

Bring! has helped me save a lot on groceries with better planning, which has cut down on impulsive buying. You can integrate the app with your Apple Watch for convenient shopping, use Siri or Alexa to add items, or use it with Shortcuts to make a quick addition to your shopping list.

8TravelSpend for All Your Travel Expenses

Love to travel, but want to keep an eye on every cent you spend?TravelSpendis atravel budgeting appthat helps you keep your travel expenses separate from your normal budget tracker, especially if you’re an avid traveler or have a separate travel fund that you don’t want to mix with normal expenses.

With TravelSpend, you can log expenses like transportation, food, accommodation, sightseeing, and entertainment. The app will then show your total and average spend per day against your set budget for the trip, and insights about your spending habits for the trip.

With a TravelSpend Premium subscription ($4.99/month or $24.99/year), you can log income (gifts, salary, and so on), view more insights about your spending habits, and create custom categories. You can also integrate the app with Apple Wallet so that any transactions made through Apple Pay are automatically logged.

You can find many more free apps on the App Store for your specialized needs, including investing, money management, and discount or coupon apps, depending on what you’re looking for. You can also use apps likeGoodbudgetandHoneydueif you’re looking to budget or save with a partner or family member.