“This makes me feel bad,’’ said the 26-year-old computer programmer, focusing in on his June purchase of an iPhone, displayed in his online account on the budget-tracking website. On impulse, he bought the new phone rather than repairing his old one. “Basically, a waste of $400.’’

In tough economic times, more and more people are flocking to budget-tracking websites - Pear Budget, Mint.com, money.Strands.com, Wesabe.com, and JustThrive.com - that give users a sense of where they’re actually spending their money each month. Some budget-tracking sites are even rolling out new features such as iPhone applications, Twitter alerts, and Spanish-language options as they compete more fiercely for customers. Personal finance websites, ranging from budget trackers to financial blogs, are becoming increasingly popular and now attract one in four people who use the Internet, according to Comscore.com, which tracks Web traffic.

“There’s been a profusion of these things, in part because of what’s going on in the broader economy,’’ said Paul Kedrosky, who writes an economics blog in San Diego called Infectious Greed. “People feel they have to be more frugal, so budgeting’s in vogue.’’

These budget-tracking websites are becoming so popular that banks are now purchasing the software for their online customers so they can preserve crucial banking relationships. Budgeting software “is the future of online banking,’’ said Peter Glyman, a founder of Geezio, which sells the software to banks and credit unions.

The theory behind budget-tracking websites is that people often know their money disappears fast but they don’t know precisely where it goes. Seeing, in detail, where spending occurs is the first step to curbing it. To help users budget, these sites sort each expense into a fixed or customized category - rent, utilities, clothing, Starbucks, gym membership - and then compare actual spending to that category’s budget amount, specified by the user in advance. The sites’ colorful charts display whether users are under- or over-budget every month in each category.

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