Times are hard. There isn’t a soul who isn’t worrying over job losses, pay cuts or simply just not enough money for a reasonably comfortable life. With the end to the pandemic nowhere in sight, there’s little option but to spend very carefully. Well, there’s an app to help you in this process. Several, actually, but ChintaMoney has its own take on how to help users stay within the budget.

Understanding fully well that there are impulse shoppers and those who just wing it until they run out of money, ChintaMoney goes at it from another direction. It helps you create ‘buckets’ of spending money for different compartments and tries to encourage you not to exceed these sub-budgets. The app even rewards you for staying within the limits.

ChintaMoney founder Narahari Rao says he has been a victim of his own over-spending, finding himself with no money left to pay the rent, in earlier times. That’s when he met future co-founder Uday Wagh, whose trick to solve the over-spending problem was to set out envelopes of cash and spend only by using what’s in them. Inevitably, the two pals figured this method should be digitised and extended to everyone to use. Right on cue, the ChintaMoney app is available free on the Google Play Store. It has a one-tap registration.

The first thing to do is obviously know how much you have each month — and how much you don’t, presuming you have EMIs or loans to deal with. Next, you create ‘buckets’ and set an amount for each. Ordering food, shopping online, all get their amounts, depending on what your habits are. It’s up to you to add your fixed expenses as well, but it’s probably just easier to work with the ones you can control. You’ll need to give the app permission to put a floating bucket to use when it needs to. You can also build a profile. As you log what you spend and save, you’ll get suggestions on how to improve the balance. As you use the app, it will learn your patterns and current level of ‘financial fitness’. The app automatically detects shopping apps and kicks in to assist by keeping you informed of your status and whether it’s smart to buy. It also suggests payment methods and points the way to offers. If you stay money-fit through improved habits, purchases lead to earning ChintaMoney coins for every expense you reconcile via the app. These coins can be redeemed for exclusive offers and deals with partner merchants. ChintaMoney is a freemium app with most basic features available free of charge to users. The team ensures bank-grade security assessed by third-party auditors. ChintaMoney was among the 10 start-ups that successfully completed the 13-week mentor-ship-driven acceleration program of Techstars, Bangalore.

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