Keeping your personal finances in order with a program like Quicken means you can tell quickly how much wriggle room you've got til your next payday. But when you're out and about and contemplating an un-planned (okay, impulse) purchase, chances are you're laptop's not handy. But your phone surely is. Enter, Quicken Beam. Sign up for the free service, and whenever you want, you send a text message and receive back your balance and your last five transactions.

 

Go to www.intuitlabs.com.

 

Click on "Get Beam for Free".

 

Then click "go to site".

 

Click Sign up (use your existing QuickBooks, Quicken.com or TurboTax login if you have one).