The following is a guest post contributed by Roger Elmore, who writes on the topics of hospitality management schools.  He welcomes your comments at his email Id: rogerelmore24 @gmail.com.

If you are like me, keeping track of your spending habits does not come easily. In between trying to have a career and a personal life it’s hard to find the time to sit down and analyze exactly where your money is going each month. Luckily, iPhone users have the ability to manage their money no matter where they happen to be. Check out these apps that can assist you with your finances, and if you are trying to save money don’t worry, these apps won’t cost you a thing.

Mint

This personal finance tool literally does all of the work for you, all you have to do is create an anonymous account on the Mint.com site and add information about your bank, credit card, loan, and investment accounts.

Each time you log in, Mint automatically updates all of your accounts so you always know where you stand. Users can utilize the budget tools which allow them to set monthly spending limits for anything from bills to entertainment expenses.

You can download the Mint app for the iPhone so that check the balances on your accounts no matter where you are. Need to check how much you have left to spend before you decide to go to that expensive restaurant tonight? Go to the overview screen, where you can access each of your budgets and view transactions within each category.

Mint also alerts you on activity on your accounts so that you will always know when you have exceeded a budget, received a finance charge, or gone over your credit limit.

Budget Tool

This app created by Consolidated Credit Counseling Services helps users manage their money by keeping track of overall expenses. Budget Tool is a hassle-free way to way organize your budgets and stay on top of your spending.

Simply add your transactions to one of six common spending categories to make sure that you are staying within your budget. This app also helps users set realistic goals by supplying them with a recommended budget based on their income, as well as providing tips on how to reduce spending and save money. To make sure you are living within your means, you can compare your current budget to the recommended one and see where you might need to cut back on what you buy.

If you need more of a visual idea of how you are managing money, you can view graphs and pie charts that break down spending by categories. Prefer to use a computer to view and keep track of your finances? This app allows you to export spreadsheet compatible reports simply through sending an e-mail.

Pageonce Personal Finance

This app gives users the ability to track and manage their online accounts no matter where they are. Rather than logging into all of your financial accounts separately, this one-stop app allows you to view all of them in one place.

To get started users simply have to add their login information for their bank, credit card, investment portfolios, and shopping accounts. This app helps you keep track of your finances and budget your money by allowing you to view account balances, transactions, and statuses.

Pageonce Personal Finance also has bill management tools that give users the ability to view accounts for bills and utilities such as cell phone, insurance, cable, electricity, gas, and Internet. Rather than going through piles of mail you can save yourself some time and view billing statements in Pageonce. You also never have to miss a payment as you can check bill due dates and expiration dates right from your phone.

More than just a finance tool this app also lets you keep track of your frequent flier miles, travel itineraries, mobile minutes, and text and data usage.

Crystal’s Questions:
Do any of you have an iPhone (I don’t)?  If so, have you used these apps yet?

If I had a smart phone, I’d want that read-a-barcode app that tells you where the item is being sold the cheapest…easy reasearch baby!