Review: Pennies

This is by far one of the best budgeting apps available at the App Store! Not only does it thrive on simplicity and financial assistance, but it surpasses the plethora of various budgeting apps available with it's amazing visual user interface - it's the visual voice mail of budgeting apps!

Features

When dealing with finance, you can expect to find a hodgepodge of numbers, decimals, pie charts, graph charts, and other budgeting elements, but with Pennies you don't have to worry about having to decrypt all this information because it does for you, through its simple UI.

If you're familiar with how a gas gauge works, then you'll have no problem keeping track of your finances. As you can see by the image above, the home screen of the app reveals your finance gauge for "this month," along with the option to add an expense or revise your budget. In addition, the home screen also presents your Top Expenses and Statistics. Click "add expense" after purchasing something, and keep track of what it was with the available icons. The icons include categories such as food, amusement, travel, electronics, groceries, and more. Once you've added an expense, watch in joy as your budget gauge drops closer toward the red-tinted empty zone. Select the Expenses icon on the lower dock to bring up the visually stimulating list of category icons and total amount spent in each category. If you recently made a return, simply select the red subtraction symbol to delete the expense and reimburse your budget gauge.

Finally, click the third icon on the dock to review your history and export your CSV.

Breakdown

The attractive user interface and visual gauge really sets Pennies apart from the rest. The gauge actually bounces when you hit Empty! Pennies goes seamlessly with the iPhone, and really comes handy for those inept with their budgeting. Unfortunately, there isn't a bar-code scanner and automatic tax calculator here, but then again, that's beyond most apps. Aside from this, Pennies has it all.

Verdict

Budgeting takes work work on the consumer's part, but with Pennies, the consumer can keep a much more organized record of what what they're buying, what their daily average is, and how much of their budget they have left for the month. To adjust your budget -- in case you wanted to create a specific budget for holiday shopping for example -- simply tap the arrow at the upper right hand side of your gauge and slide to your desired amount. If you're a high roller and spend more than $100,00 a month, tap the additional arrow made available and enter in your budget using the keypad. Again, to export your CSV, tap Export and choose enter an email address where you'd like it sent.

This really takes the guesswork out of shopping and staying on budget ... but the key is to stay on top of your budget and actually enter in every order, purchase, and payment you make. Overall, Pennies is the best app available if you're interested in looking for a high quality, visually pleasing budgeting app.