25 Free iPhone/iPad/Android Apps to Save Money Everyday

Earlier I mentioned how smart phones can help you in managing your personal finances. Today we’re going to talk about the different apps that will help you save money if you’re using a smart phone.

Now, some of these apps are currently installed on my iPhone, while the others are contributed by SMB, my friends and colleagues.

1) RedLaser (Free)

RedLaser is Apple’s version for Google Shopper. They both share the same function. What they do is to help you compare prices of online and offline goods, so you’ll see where you can find the better deal. All you have to do is to use your tablet’s or phone’s camera, take a picture of the bar code, run the application, and let it compare the bar code with the rest of the products found online. If my phone’s not with me, I use my iPad and this app. It works wonders. Usually, what we do is to window-shop first, scan bar codes, compare, and then determine which items we can buy offline.

2) Gas Cubby

Let’s admit it. We do spend a lot of money in maintaining our vehicles. We might as well make sure we are making an investment, not really an expense. One of the things I like about Gas Cubby is I can keep track of a lot of things about my car. Of course, I’ll know how much I’m spending for gas, but it also permits me to monitor my mileage and the local gas prices. Moreover, I can set alerts so I’d know when it’s time to change tires or check oil.

3) TripAdvisor (Free)

My wife, my friends, and I just love to travel. Whenever we get the chance to do so, we take it. However, we want to be conscious travelers. This simply means we plan ahead first before we take the dive. It’s difficult to spend a lot of money for unnecessary expenses, more so foreign currency money. One of the best apps to use for any avid traveler is TripAdvisor. It simply contains a lot of user-generated information from people who have been in your preferred destination. We know which restaurants to go to, what activities to do, and even how much money to spend and bring. When we get there, it’s as if we know the place for such a long time.

4) Skype and Google Voice (Free)

Just because Google Voice is so identified with Android you can no longer download it in your iPad or iPhone. That isn’t exactly true. I do have both of these apps installed because some of my friends and contacts are in Google Voice, and they have no intention of shifting to Skype. This is also helpful since it’s possible one of them breaks down. At least you’ll have some form of backup.

Both are free, unless you’re going to buy some Skype credits. These two apps assist me in talking to friends, colleagues, and some clients who are currently far away from home, especially abroad. They save me tons of money from roaming charges.

5) Nike Training Club (Free)

Surely, you’ll be quite shocked why I included this. It’s for health and fitness, after all. However, I’d also like to emphasize that you need to take care of your health properly if you want to save a lot of money. Health care, even if you have insurance or we have Medicare, isn’t cheap at all. You don’t want to spend your savings on medications and treatments, right?

There are several exercises you can browse on the app, and you can also keep track of your progress, which is the most important thing.

6) Epicurious Recipes and Shopping List (Free)

My wife and a lot of her girl friends have this app installed in their iPhone and iPad. Epicurious is probably one of the biggest food websites in the world. But this app is the bomb. It doesn’t just lists down all the decadent recipes, but it also tells you what recipes to buy. You can make it your own shopping list now.

7) Coupon Clipper (Free)

If you enjoy discounts—I think everybody does—then surely you’re going to love this app. Coupon Clipper displays all the coupons and double-take deals available in your local neighborhood. You can skip scanning magazines and dailies or even buying them. This is also a great place to spot potential places for great bargains. We already found a couple.

8) Mint (free)

This application helps you to manage your budget and keep a track of it. When you spend more or cross your budget limit you get sent alerts by this application. So by using this application you can save your money and can unwanted or unnecessary spending.

9) eBay Mobile

This application helps you bid on your favorite goodies anywhere, anytime, anyplace

And you can see the status of your own auctioned item. Same As eBay, on eBay mobile application you can purchase anything you want and on this application, too you can do a whole lot of bargain. This is a very useful android application.

10) ATM hunter

Many of us use ATM card of one bank in another bank’s ATM center to save our time. We neglect the charges for using such ATM service as we save our lot of time. It is true that it takes too much time to go to ATM centre of our bank if we are new in that area. But ATM hunter helps you to find nearest ATM centre of your bank. By using this application you can save charges for using other bank’s ATM.  So get this free application.

11) Wi-Fi finder

This application allows you to access you to the internet at a considerably faster speed. It is faster than the 3G network. This application helps you to find all the free Wi-Fi hotspots nearby you. So it helps you to save your very precious time and money.

12) Skype

This application helps you to have a video call with other people for no price that is absolutely free of cost. If you have to call on landline it is the best option because, due to international texting it is really cheap option. Skype is a very good option for longer call.

13) Gas buddy

This application enables you to find the latest petrol prices in the petrol pumps near you. This application also allows you to find the nearest petrol pump near you and is a time saving application.

14) Google Maps

This application helps you to find roads to reach your destination, low traffic roads areas, nearby restaurants and hotels, etc. This application is based on Google Maps and so, it is accurate and reliable. This application helps you in new places, cities or countries.

15) Coupon Sherpa

This application offers you coupons and exclusive deals at shops. You can search the name of the shop or the category of the article you want, contact merchants, buy coupons and e-mail them to your friends and relatives. This is a very useful application for shopping lovers.

16) Grocery Gadget

This application helps you to update your grocery lists. This application helps you to find nearest supermarkets, grocery shops, etc. that offer considerably low cost and provide better quality goodies. It can scan bar codes, provide pictures of the item, compare between prices at two shops and much more.

17) PayPal

This application enables you to access your PayPal account. Not only this but it also allows you to carry out transactions, check balance and do much more. This is an outstanding application for all the PayPal users and another interesting thing is that, that you can snap a photo of your check and credit the money to your account absolutely free of cost!

18) MapQuest

This successfully replaced my Garmin GPS. This is free of cost Satellite guided GPS navigation system which has amazing voice control. You don’t need to buy a costly (near obsolete) GPS device.

19) Price line

Needs no introduction. Specially useful for unplanned stay over or travel needs. You can bid on flight/hotel or car en-route airport. On our recent road trip we saved good amount of money on hotel rooms using this app.

20) Foursquare

This is an app which combines local media (social media with local emphasis). When you are visiting a mall or a shopping complex, the app can alert you on the deals that are going on at nearby shops/restaurants.

21)  App-O-Day

Get one app a day for free. Even a game which usually costs money can be obtained for free through this app. Its like Groupon for smart phone apps.

22) NetPlenish

Using the NetPlenish app, you can scan bar codes of everyday things you need to buy. Then, this app compares and finds the best price across retailers. It can also indicate the best deal from your shopping list, so that you don’t have to go shop hopping buying individual cheapest items.

23) Amazon Kindle (free)

You don’t have to spend money on buying Kindle reader from Amazon, because this free app allows you to read e-books on your smartphone. With more than a million free books available for download from the Kindle Store, you will never run out of books to read.

24) GroceryIQ

The shopping list app makes your shopping list really interesting. This helps you arrange buying list by aisle of the grocery store. You can also scan and record favorite items for future consideration.

25) Pennies ($2.99 per month)

Pennies lets you establish a monthly budget and track your daily expenses against it. The app displays a fuel gauge that indicates how much money is still left in your monthly budget at any given time of the month.

Now that I am editing the article after writing it down a few weeks back. I now feel listing 25 apps is a tedious job. SMB helped a lot in writing this article, I am thankful to her for this. Some of the apps may not be available for android phones.

Readers, Do you use any of these? And, do you know of any other apps that is worth mentioning here?