'Pennies' for Apple Watch Makes Budgeting Your Money Simple

[MacRumors]

While I have tried a variety of personal finance management and budgeting tools on iPhone, iPad and the web in the past, most have been too complicated to become part of my daily routine. Pennies for Apple Watch takes a different approach, however, offering a clean and simple solution for managing your finances on your wrist.

After downloading Pennies from the App Store, open the iPhone app to customize your budget, including name, start date, frequency, currency type, budget amount and money left in your budget at the time of setup. The budget will then automatically appear on Apple Watch, with a Glance view showing your daily amount remaining and the full app providing deeper functionality.

Firmly pressing the Apple Watch using Force Touch in the Pennies app will bring up options for inputting amounts spent or received, alongside a history of your spending and quick access to the Glance view. You can add notes to amounts spent or received by tapping on the label below the dollar figure and choosing from the preset options or using Siri to set your own.

With color coded rings that appear green when you are well within your budget, and red when you are getting close to your spending limit, Pennies for Apple Watch is a simple and convenient way to manage your finances on the go. If you are at a shopping mall, for example, you can easily input amounts spent at each store without needing to take your iPhone out of your pocket.

Pennies for Apple Watch is $2.99 on the App Store.

Article Link: 'Pennies' for Apple Watch Makes Budgeting Your Money Simple

 

[iConnected]

I struggle to reconcile the benefits of this app with my perception of the typical Apple Watch buyer

 

[sampaul]

Looks really good. Needed something like that on my watch.

 

[decimortis]

For a brief second, I thought the heading said something else.

 

[spiderman0616]

I want Mint to make something that's more useful on the watch--like a way to quickly to check my balances at a glance without checking my phone. Right now it doesn't really do that.

 

[hauntvictim]

I struggle to reconcile the benefits of this app with my perception of the typical Apple Watch buyer

Exactly!!!

 

[Jessica Lares]

I see they finally added the option to add a description/note. That took way too long considering it was updated 6 times before then. Such an oversight that was.

 

[Winter Charm]

I struggle to reconcile the benefits of this app with my perception of the typical Apple Watch buyer

What about a college student or med student that gets one as a present from their parents?

 

[emilebennett]

Hi Guys, I thought I'd pop my head up and say hi - I'm the sole designer & developer behind Pennies, it's great to get close to the community and understand what you all want and need out of the app.

I totally agree that features like 'Notes' were a long time coming. A lot of this was simply down to lack of sales to pay for development work. Pennies has had a new lease of life and I'm working almost full time now finessing and extending it to be the most simple, and powerful budgeting app for everyday people.

As a true indie dev, there is so much work to do it's hard to keep up with request for features, and also hard to remain true to the vision for Pennies - total simplicity. But, I am here, I'm working hard and I'm listening...

Thanks for all the support so far, and lets hope sales keep up so I can keep working on my baby!

Cheers

Emile

 

[DavidTheExpert]

Joe, thanks for sharing these Watch apps that you've been finding. It's hard to find good ones since the userbase is still relatively very small. These are very useful as page-2 stories.

 

[iConnected]

What about a college student or med student that gets one as a present from their parents?

As well as an iPhone? (required for the vast majority of Apple Watch functionality).

Perhaps so. But they still wouldn't be "typical" Apple Watch buyers.

 

[lazyrighteye]

I want Mint to make something that's more useful on the watch--like a way to quickly to check my balances at a glance without checking my phone. Right now it doesn't really do that.

Agree. My budget monitoring is well entrenched in Mint. For me, it's the best money management app I've tried to date. Their Watch offering, however, is wrought with opportunity. Current experience feels very "Look, we're on Watch!" Lacks meaningful substance.

 

[emilebennett]

I appreciate Joe is highlighting the Watch extension in his article, but people with the expendable income who have a shiny Watch on their wrist need to budget too... there's the old saying 'look after your pennies and the pounds will look after themselves'. People don't get rich just by spending

And let's not forget...it's an iPhone app too!

 

[tennisproha]

I struggle to reconcile the benefits of this app with my perception of the typical Apple Watch buyer

ballin on a budget? lol

----------

I appreciate Joe is highlighting the Watch extension in his article, but people with the expendable income who have a shiny Watch on their wrist need to budget too... there's the old saying 'look after your pennies and the pounds will look after themselves'. People don't get rich just by spending

And let's not forget...it's an iPhone app too!

good point and well said.

 

[spiderman0616]

Agree. My budget monitoring is well entrenched in Mint. For me, it's the best money management app I've tried to date. Their Watch offering, however, is wrought with opportunity. Current experience feels very "Look, we're on Watch!" Lacks meaningful substance.

Yep--in fact, it's so lacking that I removed it from my Watch completely. I use Mint MAINLY to check all my balances. If I can't do that, I don't need it. I think that would have been the main thing I would have wanted to have it do were I on their development team for the Watch. Unfortunately, I do not have the knowledge or talent.

 

[PilotC150]

My problem with Mint is that it assumes your budgeting happens between the first day and last day of the month. I get paid twice a month (the 15th, and the last day of the month) so that doesn't work for me at all. Plus, my family does our budgeting starting on the 15th, and go through the 14th of next month. If this budgeting app will allow for that type of functionality we might have to give it a try.

Right now we're using a custom web app that I wrote to keep track of expenses, but this might be able to replace it, especially if multiple people can all hook into the same account/budgets.

 

[spiderman0616]

I struggle to reconcile the benefits of this app with my perception of the typical Apple Watch buyer

How very judgy of you. I would have never been able to just casually give Apple $400 for a new watch. I had been hoarding gift cards for months in order to get this thing, and could never have just simply deducted it from the bank account.

We also use trade in credit from our old iPhones to pay for our new iPhones every two years, and some iPhone models that are compatible with the Apple Watch are now basically free on contract.

Maybe I'm not typical, maybe I am. I acknowledge that looking at my signature makes it seem like I have a house full to the top with Apple gear, but that's not the case. I buy things when there are good refurb deals or when I can sell an old model to get at least decently close to the value of the new one. A lot of people do it this way because Apple stuff retains its value so well.

----------

My problem with Mint is that it assumes your budgeting happens between the first day and last day of the month. I get paid twice a month (the 15th, and the last day of the month) so that doesn't work for me at all. Plus, my family does our budgeting starting on the 15th, and go through the 14th of next month. If this budgeting app will allow for that type of functionality we might have to give it a try.

Right now we're using a custom web app that I wrote to keep track of expenses, but this might be able to replace it, especially if multiple people can all hook into the same account/budgets.

Yeah--I don't put any stock in what Mint tells me as far as budgeting. I just like that it aggregates all our accounts into one place so I can look at balances.

 

[C DM]

I struggle to reconcile the benefits of this app with my perception of the typical Apple Watch buyer

You might be struggling, many others aren't.

 

[tongxinshe]

It's strange to know someone buys luxury items like smartphones and smartwatches, while at the same time tries to save pennies in this day-to-day life.

 

[C DM]

It's strange to know someone buys luxury items like smartphones and smartwatches, while at the same time tries to save pennies in this day-to-day life.

So because someone might have money to spend on something that isn't inexpensive, that means they shouldn't manage their money? And even beyond that, even if someone can spend money on more expensive things, does that mean they shouldn't look for good deals and just pay whatever instead of perhaps paying less when they can?

 

[monaarts]

I struggle to reconcile the benefits of this app with my perception of the typical Apple Watch buyer

I budget everything, including spending money for things like my iPhone or Apple watch, and I'm Apple's typical buyer. Just because I make enough money to spend it carelessly if I chose to doesn't mean I will. I'm saving for early retirement, my kids education, vacations, paying off my house early, etc

If anything, I think your comment shows how financlky irresponsible you are.

 

[knemonic]

The convenience of this is superb, I've been using a simply checking account app to keep a budget and just replenish it each week, this is much simpler.

 

[Rufuss Sewell]

Are you guys for real?!?

I thought everyone was trolling but now I'm starting to think you're serious.

Obviously people who can afford an Apple Watch and iPhone are pretty good at managing their money. This app helps people manage their money.

In other words, people with an Apple Watch are the perfect target market for this app.

If you don't need this app (or something like it)... because you don't care to manage your money... I can make a pretty safe bet that you also can't afford an Apple Watch.

 

[jayducharme]

This looks like a more useable distillation of a typical spreadsheet app. I like how it was adapted for the Watch.

But I wonder why the numeric keypad is laid out that way. Why not stick with a standard calculator layout? It seems like I'd be second-guessing every number I enter because they're not arranged like I'm used to.

 

[gorkt]

I LOVED the original Pennies app on the iPhone. I am so glad it made it to the watch!