February 19, 2024 – Spending is a part of everyday life, but when costs rise significantly, knowing how and where to save can be frustratingly difficult. How do you save when everything seems important?
One answer is to divide your budget between the wants and needs, with the rest going to savings. Experts will often direct people to the 50/30/20 budget, explaining that you use 50 percent of your money on important things, 30 percent on the wants, and committing the remaining 20 percent to savings.
That’s all well and good, but how do you do that quickly?
Independent Australian budgeting app Simplsaver has an automatic approach rolling out this week, with a new feature designed to calculate the “Extra Weight” your budget may have.
Developed to improve financial hygiene and encourage saving, Extra Weight shows what might be unnecessary in any budget, and what these costs are doing to the total savings once the important costs have been taken away. Any amount left could be used for further spending or savings, potentially helping people to put away more money for when they need it most.
“Budgeting isn’t always easy, especially when money is just constantly coming out. Working out what to keep and what to cut can be really difficult,” said Leigh Stark, Founder of Simplsaver.
“To help, Extra Weight aims to explain how everyone’s budget can be improved, with the hope that it makes saving that little bit easier for all,” he said.
Simplsaver’s Extra Weight joins another new feature, spreadsheet exporting, alongside Simplsaver’s Risk of Recession score, an exclusive metric designed to interpret how the Consumer Price Index could affect items in a budget.
The app is built on the idea of being fast, simple, and private, allowing you to build a budget in as little as 30 seconds, sorting costs quickly and easily, some of which are pre-filled to save time. What’s more, everything is stored only on your device to keep financial data private.
“Building a better budget isn’t always easy, and the cost of living crisis doesn’t help,” said Stark. “The good news is you can sort your budget quickly on your phone, and even take away some learnings from what you’re currently spending. It doesn’t have to be hard. It can be simple.”
Simplsaver is available now on the App Store for the iPhone and Vision Pro, but works on the iPad, too. An Android version is currently in development.
Simplsaver is free for the first five budget costs, and is then priced at $6.99 per year. A portion of the proceeds always go to charity.
Learn how it works with our 30 second real-time demo video or the VR experience. Alternatively, check out the press kit.
