From apps that sell your unwanted shoes to other frugal gals, to money apps that make investment easier, there are plenty of free tools these days to help you get ahead with your money.
1. Grocery IQ
It is easy to spend more money when you fall into impulse buying, especially when there is a new raw health bar on sale.
The app allows voice recognition to create your list, adds your frequent buys to favourites and helps record aisles to avoid walking into extra isles where you might have something catch your eye.
The app also has a multi-barcode scanner to make it even easier to add to your shopping list when you see an item running out in your pantry.
Available on iOS for Apple and Android.
2. Acorns
For finance newbies to finance gurus, Acorns is the next big app to give you an easy way to automatically invest your spare change.
Acorn links up to your debit and credit cards, rounds up each of your transactions to the nearest dollar, and then invests the spare change in a diversified stock portfolio that is in line with your investment goals and the amount of risk you’re comfortable taking.
This app is completely free to download, but keep in mind that a monthly account-keeping fee is charged when you have a balance in the app.
The monthly fee is just $1.25 for accounts with a balance of up to $5,000, and 0.275 per cent per annum for accounts with a balance of $5,000 and over.
There are no fees on $0 balances.
Available on iOS for Apple and Android.
3. eBay
eBay has been around for a while – but then, so have those shoes at the back of your closet!
Why keep adding to the pile of stuff you never wear, when you could sell them and save the money for something special?
The eBay app lets you simply take a photo using the app of any long-forgotten items you’d like to sell.
The app also has a barcode reader so if the thing you’re selling still has its barcode, you can scan it and create a new listing even quicker.
Start a mini-marketplace in your own home.
Get in quick, before GST begins to apply to overseas online shopping in July.
Available on iOS for Apple and Android.
4. Unsplurge
Saving for your next getaway? Or maybe it’s time to pay off your debt?
Unsplurge is a budgeting app that makes it fun to save – you can log all your expenses, add images to your budgets, and become part of a community that post tips and tricks to save.
It’s also a digital accountability buddy, as your friends can have their own Unsplurge account and you can share your success and compete to save using the app.
Available on iOS for Apple only.
