I love my smartphone! I go to bed after scrolling through Facebook and LinkedIn posts. I wake up to Instagram photos of what I got up to last night and who I need to send apology txts to after a crazy night out. It tells me how many calories I’ve consumed AND then deducts how many calories I’ve burned based on how much I’ve walked. But most importantly it helps me save and make money! Here are the apps I use and how and why I love it so much. If it takes too much time or effort I don’t use it. Here are my easy breezy apps that save me bling.
Budgeting: I use mint.com and my bank app to keep on top of my budgets. I can easily see if I’ve over spent on my restaurants and food budget and then I’m able to pull back on the eating out reins. Whoa, lill’ fella. You can set up an alert on some credit cards that will send you a txt or email when you’ve reached your budget limit. Here is CIBC’s Credit Smart Alerts.
Free Stuff: I use my PC Points App, Canadian Tire App, Starbucks App, and Cineplex App to get free stuff. I don’t have to cram my card full of points cards that take hours to find when I’m in line. I simply flash my phone at my favourite retailers and instantly save on movies, food, coffee and more. I’ve calculated that I save around 5% when I use my PC Points app and shop at No Frills and 10% off Cineplex Popcorn and movies when I get every 10th movie free.
Trading Stocks: I love my stocks and I like to check in on them every hour on the hour. Some people have pets or kids – I have stocks. I use Bloomberg for news, futures, and currencies, and BMO Investorline for my RRSP and TFSA and Interactive Brokers for my non-registered accounts. I can trade like a pro from my phone and see my dividends and option premiums flow into my account real time. You need to be on top of the market to take advantage of any opportunity.
Saving On Gas: Gas Buddy is an app I have on my home page. Depending where I am when I need gas, I can scan the immediate area and find out where the cheapest gas is. I can also check my “go to” station to make sure that the drive out to it is worth the discount. Gas Buddy scans the immediate area so if you’re in a different part of town or another city – it’ll always find you the best price. Saving pennies per litre on fuel weekly can end up being hundreds of dollars over the year!
Those are my favourite apps! You’ll love your phone as much as I do once it saves you hundreds over the year,
Dave
