The New Year is upon us and it’s a fresh new start for many of us. This also means a bunch of resolutions, some of which are going to need a lot of work. Some others might need money to make them happen too. It’s also the time of year where we decide to spend carefully, to be careful with finances. That’s easier said than done. Some of us prefer to keep noting down our expenses in a diary while some of us may prefer using apps on our mobile phones. The thought is that, if you can effectively but easily jot down all your expenses, you’ll be able to better control your expenditure. 
We’ve seen a large number of apps that let you do this but none better than the oddly named, MoneyLover. There are several reasons to like it. Unlike most others that are not as intuitive, but are expensive or have a monthly subscription model, MoneyLover is free. It uses an ad-based model but it can be removed for a very minimal fee of Rs. 249*. It’s well-worth it. The thought behind the app is that it’s supposed to be simple to use. It is. It is fun, looks good and most importantly, records all your expense details.
| MoneyLover lets you add expense entries with the press of a button, or a few. Simply add the value you spent, what category that expense falls under and you’re done. For example, if you ate out at a restaurant or if you went shopping or just paid your internet bill, you can enter these details in seconds. You can also add specifics of that expenditure. All of this takes no more than 10 seconds to do. Past expenses can also be added if you want to catch up. MoneyLover captures all of this information and stores it in a month-by-month format categorization. You can retrieve this information any time just by requesting details for any period of time. |  |
Let’s say that the kind of spending doesn’t fall into a specific category, MoneyLover lets you add custom categories to the list and even assign an icon to it. A tap to the left menu and selecting Categories opens up a screen to do all this. That takes care of all of the entry of payments.
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All of us have some estimate our budgets and MoneyLover lets you enter this limit as well. That way, you know how much buffer you still have for the month, till you get your next pay cheque. MoneyLover lets you even enter your monthly income manually if you need it. There is even a feature that keeps a tab on your bank account but that’s a paid feature. You could do without it. The budget feature we were speaking about is also present in the left menu, like most of the features. Some of our payments are constant and need to be paid every month or every few. This could be something like a monthly instalment or internet bills. Such repeated expenses can be entered through the Bill feature. You no longer need to keep entering the same event every month. Using this feature makes estimating monthly expenses a lot simpler. |
MoneyLover is an app that works with the Indian rupee, but it’s also available for other locations. This is particularly useful if you’re travelling on holiday, or work to international locations. You’ll notice this feature if you use the Events feature or the Travel mode. You can choose the currency of that region and the event you’ll need to use this currency.
| The mobile phone is an easy place to enter in expenses but what makes MoneyLover really cool is being able to open up a pretty identical looking interface on the web browser on your laptop or PC. You can run through your expenses for the past few months, the future or even make entries as needed like you would on your phone. |  |
While there are other apps that are far more advanced and offer a ton more features, MoneyLover keeps thing light. It’s easy to run, it’s accessible anywhere and you can also download themes for icons. This make the MoneyLover interface very lively and it’s one of the nicest designed apps around. It’s well worth the money and besides saving a whole lot of headache and confusion, it also help saves quite a lot by making it a habit. * Prices are subject to change. Please refer to the mentioned app for latest prices.
