MAKING CENTS: Ring the changes and use apps to mind your money

Consumer advice with Gráinne McGuinness

If you feel a financial spring clean is in order but don’t know where to start, why not turn to your smartphone for assistance?

We already use our phones for organising many aspects of our lives, from fitness trackers to food diaries. Our phones are always with us making it easy to update and keep track of daily activities.

Whether it’s a particular savings’ target or a budget to figure out where the money is going each week, when it comes to financial goals, there is certain to be an app for it.

If you get to the end of the week and find yourself unable to account for how you’ve spent your money then Monefy may be the solution. This free app allows you to keep track of your expenses as you go. You simply tap minus to indicate a spend, select the category for the transaction and enter what you’ve spent.

You can also keep track of income on the app and distinguish between cash and card spending. Use religiously for a month or two and you will have a clear picture of where your money is going on a daily, weekly and monthly basis.

Prefer an Irish version? Check out MyBudgetBuddy, an app created by the Irish League of Credit Unions. It is a straightforward free app that will help you keep track of your spending and also includes contact details and locations for nearby branches.

The proverb tells us “what gets measured gets done”. It’s easy to decide that you would like to save enough for that holiday or new car, much harder to put the money away regularly to achieve your target.

The iPhone app Savings Goals gets users to enter their desired amount and an optional target date. It will then generate a payment schedule for you and help keep you motivated by tracking your progress. The app is only available for Apple devices but Android users can use the highly-rated free app Savings Track for similar results.

In addition to general budget and savings apps, there are a multitude of apps out there to help save you money in specific areas, including some very useful Irish ones.

Dublin-based Killbiller is one of these — a free app that examines your mobile phone habits. It provides a detailed breakdown of your monthly usage across data, calls and texts and then tells you exactly how much you would pay on every mobile phone plan in Ireland. The app can also arrange a switch to the best plan for your needs.

Another app that can save you money is Pricespy — a comparison app for Irish shoppers. If you have a purchase in mind you can use the app to check its price across Irish stores plus online sites.

The site covers a wide range of shopping categories, including sports and outdoor, lifestyle and beauty, and games and consoles.

It compares prices for around 138,000 products from 500 shops and should be an Irish shopper’s first port of call before making major purchases.

Vouchercloud is also aimed at saving you money, on shopping and other activities.

The app is location-based and works by alerting you to discounts and vouchers being offered by retailers near you.

It’s a very handy app to have for days out and holidays — letting you know about special offers and discounts for meals and drinks wherever you are. You can print out vouchers, but in many cases all you need to do is show the voucher on the screen of your smartphone to the retailer.

New parents will appreciate specialist app BabyDoc, which aims to keep users up-to-date with deals on nappies, and all baby paraphernalia. When you download the free app you will be asked to specify your location and your child’s age.

BabyDoc will then let you know all the offers in retailers near you.

DEAL OF THE WEEK

DID Electrical is currently running a promotion to encourage customers to upgrade their electrical appliances.

The Irish retailer says “it’s time to let go” of old and broken-down dishwashers, washing machines, ovens, and fridge freezers.

The promotion offers customers up to €100 off new appliances if they trade in their old model with the store for newer versions, which DID also promises will be more energy efficient and/or save water. To sweeten the deal, when you spend €100 or more online or in-store you will be included in a draw for one of 23 Electrolux dream kitchen makeovers worth €3,000 each.

The competition is running until May 2, with every purchase of €100 or more qualifying the customer for a single entry into the draw.