Ever since I decided to be my husband’s sidekick in business, I’ve had to be really fastidious about budgeting.
As the Secretary-slash-Accountant-slash-Treasurer (along with many other job titles) in our small company, I am tasked with preparing, as well as filing, taxes and reports which rely greatly on the accuracy of recorded financial figures.
We also both threw ourselves to the mercy of entrepreneurial elements when I left my corporate job last year. This meant tracking every centavo spent on groceries, food, clothing, etc., keeping a tight lid on expenses and making sure that we have savings set aside after every budget cycle.
I used to record our household cashflow in an Excel sheet at home which meant that I collected receipts all the time and wrote down the “un-receipted” expenses on a small notebook. I did my record-keeping once a week and going through the small mountain of receipts one by one to transfer them to the Excel file was a total nightmare. More often than not, I would realize I’m missing a receipt or two and would have to either recollect where I misplaced them or try to approximate the amount if retreiving the receipts was no longer possible.
I would always let Bee know of my wish to have a budget application on my iPod (which I always carried around with me anyway) where I could input expenses as they are spent and where I could check where we are in terms of our budget anytime, anywhere. So one day, we both went shopping for a budget app on iTunes (which led me to buy a few that I wanted to try) but eventually none really worked for me and I reverted back to my old Excel-recording ways.
I did my budgeting according to date/a calendar cycle. This was the main reason why I didn’t like the existing budget apps for iPhone in the market. They were mostly category-based and although I eventually lump my expenses into different categories (such as Food, Gas, Office Supplies) at the end of my budget cycle, I always input my expenses and my budget on a calendar basis, date-by-date.
Sure, I have a particular budget in mind for Food, Grocery, Clothing, etc. but I find it too tedious to keep track of expenses on each and every one of those categories - what’s more important for me is that, at the end of the day, our weekly expenses do not exceed our weekly income.
WalletWhiz. Your budget is in your hands.
And so this is the story of how I (supposedly) inspired Bee to develop a budget management tool called WalletWhiz for iPhone that allows users to set a budget and keep track of expenses using a Calendar View, a Categories View or both. It is the first and, as of now, the only budget calendar available for the iPhone and iPod Touch. I was so happy when he decided to develop this application because it meant I no longer needed to sort through a stack of receipts once a week (I could record my expenses right after I leave the checkout counter at the supermarket or after I pick up the tab at a restaurant!) and I can navigate through my budget cycles by Calendar View. And, it can also be exported via CSV format so it makes it easy for me to re-use the data using my Excel spreadsheet. Happiness!
I am also ecstatic over the fact that because Bee developed an app like WalletWhiz, not only I but other people - relatives, friends, iPhone and iPod Touch users, can greatly benefit from this budget management tool (especially since people are growing more conscious of their spending habits during these uncertain economic times ).
(For those who would like to check out WalletWhiz, just click on the image above or search for “WalletWhiz” on iTunes. It’s a very helpful tool for personal finance management - I know because I not only “inspired” the app, I personally use it every day 
).
