6 important apps for budget-conscious mums

Moms know how important budgeting and keeping track of spending is. They also know how complicated it is to keep track of paper coupons, in-store and online deals, rebates, sales, and those unexpected costs that pop up.

Now, however, your smartphone can help you keep your budget in check and find deals even you didn’t know existed.
Below are top 6 budget-conscious apps for mum’s who want to keep track of daily family spending.

1. CouponCabin: CouponCabin is a website, an app, and a browser sidekick. Use the app to take pictures of paper coupons for scanning at the store, for getting notifications of nearby deals, and to find freebies and coupon codes. Deals can also be found on the website, and the browser sidekick will alert you to available deals when you are shopping online. There is even a blog that highlights savings you can take advantage of over the bustling holidays.

2. Grocery Pal: Grocery Pal lets you browse weekly sales from a variety of grocery, drug, and discount stores—and you can set the stores you shop at. Build shopping lists, organize lists, share and send lists, and sync with other users. Compare prices across stores. There are also a wide variety of printable coupons available—just browse by category, choose, and print! One added benefit: multiple users can share and sync lists. How cool is that?!

3. RetailMeNot: RetailMeNot has deals, coupons, and notifications when you are near a deal. You can also save your favourite stores and coupons, and get notifications when your saved coupons are expiring. You can also search for in-store and online deals on the website. The Real Deal blog highlights holiday deals and ways to make the most of RetailMeNot. Are you a regular traveller? You can also connect to international versions of the app.

Read also: 5 new slangs to stay cool on Social Media (SM)

4. SnipSnap: Never forget a coupon again. SnipSnap utilizes the camera on your phone to get rid of that pesky stack of store and restaurant coupons. Just take a picture, and the app creates a scannable coupon that can be saved on your phone. You can also take a picture of an item you want to buy and the app will search deals for you. You can also search those deals yourself, and you can connect with friends to share your favourite deals. Notifications come up when you have an expiring coupon, or when you are near a store you have a saved coupon for. A blog with a blogroll offers tips and tricks.

5. Ibotta: Do you struggle with paper coupons? If so, try something different. Ibotta offers rebates on a variety of items and at a variety of stores. Simply go to the app and unlock cash rewards on items you are interested in. After shopping, take a picture of your receipt, scan barcodes, and you will have your rebate in your Ibotta account within 48 hours. You can also link a store loyalty account. By doing this, you won’t have to scan or photograph your receipt, for your card will do the work for you. When you have $20 in your account, you can transfer it to PayPal or venom, or convert it to a popular gift card.

6. iReconcile: Need help sticking to your budget, whether yearly or even daily? This is the app for you. You just set up your budget, and you can select only the categories that you need. You can rollover money left from one month’s budget into the next months. Since this is an app, you can add your expenditures as you go about your day and follow a daily or weekly budget when on the run. Create reports, split transactions, and autopost recurring charges. There are video tutorials inside the app itself.

RipplesNigeria …without borders, without fears

Join the conversation

Opinions

Support Ripples Nigeria, hold up solutions journalism

Balanced, fearless journalism driven by data comes at huge financial costs.

As a media platform, we hold leadership accountable and will not trade the right to press freedom and free speech for a piece of cake.

If you like what we do, and are ready to uphold solutions journalism, kindly donate to the Ripples Nigeria cause.

Your support would help to ensure that citizens and institutions continue to have free access to credible and reliable information for societal development.

Donate Now