Sometimes you find an app that, after an hour of immersing yourself in the settings and getting everything just so, you use it forever and wonder why no one is talking about it like they talked about Flappy Bird. Then you remember that the app in question is a budgeting app, and think: oh, that’s why. Budgeting is a nasty but necessary thing, and along with money, is considered a private affair to most. Because budgeting is a useful and good idea there are, of course, several hundred apps that do just that.

My foray into the budgeting app world revealed a gem in the midst, and a free one at that. Expense IQ is that gem. It’s free; it’s pretty; and I’ve had about 3 ads in as many months. The app doesn’t require any personal information, nor do you have to make an account to use it.

Expense IQ can be as complicated or as simple as you want it to be. You can use it for simple income and expense logging, or you can set up budgets, bill reminders, reports on your money spending habits, etc. For example, you can input your paychecks, then log how much your groceries cost when you go to the store.

If you pay for the premium version of the app, you can get a yearly income/expense report, instead of simply by month or week. With the premium version you can also set up cloud sync, as well as make security on your finances a bit tighter by requiring a PIN on startup.

Though it can be a bit of a hassle to get into the habit of recording what you spend, it’s easy once you do. Habit, after all, is an iron shirt.

Expense IQ is a handy app for those of us who need to keep track of our money, and, for the curious, a good way to find out how you spend your money.

Expense IQ can be found on the Google Play Store.