If you try to save money and keep a budget, there is a good chance that you found it hard at some points. When trying to get your finances on the right track, you almost always face some challenges. Your car breaks down and you have to pay $600, your phone falls out of your pocket, which leaves you with a $200 bill, you get an unexpected invoice…
Fortunately you are not alone that why we need to save money elsewhere to provide for the expected expenses. Last year we listed 25 money saving apps , here are 14 more that really works! We’ve sifted through the clutter and identified 14 excellent money-saving apps so you can save effortlessly for a rainy day.
14 Money saving apps that works
IFTTT (If This Then That) is a free service that allows you to connect different web applications together (Facebook, Twitter, Evernote, Text, Dropbox…). The connections are called “Recipes” and enable you to automate various tasks.
Here are some examples of recipes that you can use to automate your finances:
If you send a text and tag it #cargas Then IFTTT will send your gas spending to a Google Drive spreadsheet so I can keep an eye on the expenditures
If you send a text with #Finance and indicate how much you spent Then IFTTT sends the information to your personal budget spreadsheet. There are many other cool recipes as I explain here. Keeping track of your spending will be as easy as pie now!
Invisiblehand is a free extension available on Chrome and Firefox that automatically notifies you if the product you’re shopping for is available more cheaply from another site. So let’s say you see a lawn-mower on Amazon that costs $180, Invisiblehand will discreetly gives you a link to a competing websites that sell the same product for less than $180. Quite handy if you are used to buying on the Internet! But if you prefer buying in traditional stores and still benefit from attractive prices, there is an app for that too.
Red Laser is a free mobile apps for Iphone, Android and Windows Phone that allows you to scan product codes with your camera so you can compare prices and find local retailers. Red Laser has been downloaded over 30 million times and has been mentioned many times by the press.
With SavedPlus your “everyday spending builds up your savings automatically”. This free mobile app available for iPhone and Android automatically saves money whenever you buy something. So let’s say you decide to save 10% every time you spend, the app will automatically transfer 10% of your weekly purchases to your savings account. SavedPlus claims to help their users save $350/month on average.
The best part? This app is free!
Every Thursday, Check out 51 updates with a new list of offers. To benefit from discounts you just have to pick the ones you like, purchase them at any store and upload a photo of your receipt using your mobile phone. Checkout 51 sends you a check after your account reach $20. This app is available on iPhone and Android devices.
Cartwheel is the simplest app ever to save money with your mobile phone (iPhone and Android Devices). You just have to choose from hundreds of offers that are added regularly, show your printed or mobile barcode at your store checkout and save money.
Receive coupons and discounts from retailers such as Starbucks, Macy, Victoria’s Secret, H&M and many more. You can use the mobile app to both take your deals on the go and get automatic alerts when there are promotions nearby. It’s available for web, iOS and Android.
Shopkick has a very unique approach when it comes to saving money. It’s based on the principle of “kicks”. “Kicks” are points you earn by scanning and purchasing products, they are redeemable for gift cards and merchandise. So after a day of shopping for example the app (available for iOS and Android) will let you know that you got a free latte from Starbucks or a download from the iTunes store. ShopKick will also show you various discounts and deals you can get.
Skyscanner can do many things for you. It’s a passenger flight, hotel and car hire search engine that enable you to browse for flights, hotels and cars via price and location so it definitely has a role if you want to save more money when traveling!
Decide
Decide is an iPhone app unlike any other. It allows you to scan a product bar code to know its price and volatility. It also advises you to either buy the product now or to wait u to 2 week for the price to go down. If you decide to wait, you will get an alert when the price goes down.
Want to save money on gas? With GasBuddy you know in real time which place is the cheapest to fill up. The app is available for iPhone and Android.
Gilt
If you like luxury goods you are going to love Gilt! Gilt is a website and iPhone app that gives you incredible deals on name brands (up to 60% off). Today the app has more than 8 million members who shop the best fashions for women, men, kids and home.
Google Shopper is an app available for Android that recognizes products by photo, barcode scanning and voice and text search. Once Google Shopper has identified the product, you can find local and online prices together with other information such as review, specs and more. This is quite handy if you want to know whether you are getting a goal deal and if you can get that idea cheaper elsewhere.
Feeling lost in your budget? With Expensify you can sync your credit cards and bank accounts so you can follow all of your purchases. Every information you upload to this app will be filtered into a user-friendly expense report online. Expensify is available on iPhone, Android and Blackberry.
Bio : Simon Cave is passionate about Digital Entrepreneurship and Personal Development. He helps people reach Financial Independence on his blog The Becomer.
This is a great list. No excuses for paying full price anymore when there are so many tools to help us out to find the best price.
A great list. I see three or four I plan to put to use immediately.
I LOVE IFTTT – I’m so glad to see it made the top of your list 🙂
Found your blog cause I was searching for IFTT and liked it. I might start using it for my site..
BTW, you can include rentme247.com which is a car hire site that I also came across and been saving some money on my car rentals