Saving strategies
Most people want to save more money, but it’s not always the easiest thing to do. Your expenses seem to keep adding up yet your income fails to keep pace. What are you supposed to do to put more money in your pocket?
You could go through your budget and see what expenses you can cut, but that only goes so far. If you’re ready to get serious about saving money, you may want to enlist the help of a friend or five. When I say friends, I mean apps. There are so many apps out there that will help you save money, but here are some of my favourites.
Mint
Many users feel that that Mint is one of the best budgeting apps available to help you save money. Not only is it free, but it’s also designed by Intuit – the same company that’s known for its other financial products such as TurboTax and QuickBooks.
With Mint, you’re able to connect all of your accounts, which includes bank accounts, credit cards, investments and even loans. With all of your information available to Mint, the program can analyze your data and create a budget for you. Also, the software will remind you of any upcoming bills and alert you if it detects any suspicious activity.
Using Mint is like getting a free, unbiased opinion of your finances. That being said, you are giving the program direct access to all of your banking information, which may be a dealbreaker for some people.
Mylo
For those who want to save and invest, Mylo may be the right solution. Once you connect your financial accounts to the app, it works in the background, so you don’t even notice the money you’re saving.
Mylo uses a rounding up feature to help you save. What that means is that it’ll round up your purchases to the nearest dollar or a higher amount if you choose. For example, your lunch could cost you $6.40, but Mylo will round up that purchase to $7. The extra 60 cents would then be invested for you.
The app does charge a fee of $1 a month or you can upgrade to Mylo Advantage which is $3 per month. The extra fee gives you access to investment account options which are managed by Tactex Asset Management.
Reebee
Do you want to save money on groceries? Of course you do, so download Reebee now. As soon as you launch the app, enter your location and start saving. Reebee gives you access to all the flyers to stores in your area and covers categories such as groceries, home, electronics, health and more.
So how does this app help you save? With all the digital flyers at your fingertips, you can easily find out what’s on sale at any given time. Do you need something specific? Search it on the app to see where you can get the best price.
Since you can create a shopping list by tapping items in the flyer, you can plan your meals around things that are on sale. If you shop at a store that price matches, have the app handy at check-out so you can take advantage of deals without going to multiple stores.
You Need A Budget
If you need a money overhaul, You Need A Budget (YNAB) comes highly recommended. Like many other apps on this list, YNAB syncs to your financial accounts so it can analyze your spending. What people like about YNAB is that you do have the option to manually input your data. That makes it a good alternative for people who don’t want to give up their banking passwords to third party companies.
According to YNAB, they’re able to save users about US $600 a month and more than $6,000 in the first year. That seems well worth the US $7 monthly fee that the service charges. So how does YNAB save you so much money? It’s all about being intentional with your money, so you have control over it. The YNAB method is based on four simple rules:
1.Give Every Dollar a Job - Decide where you want your money to go, so every dollar has a goal
2.Embrace Your True Expenses - If you focus on your actual bills, you’ll be ready for any situation
3.Roll With the Punches - Your budget can change quite a bit on a month-to-month basis. Adjust accordingly until you find a rhythm that works for you
4.Age Your Money - By learning to save, you can stop living paycheque to paycheque. More importantly, you can start to save more.
Rakuten
The reality is, you’re not going to be trying to save money 24/7. Sometimes, you’ll need to spend, but that doesn’t mean you can’t save money in the process. The website/app Rakuten allows you to earn cashback on purchases made at select online merchants.
The process is simple. Head over to Rakuten and log in to your account. Once there, click the partner merchant where you plan on making purchases. Now do your online shopping as you usually would. Any qualifying purchase will be tracked back to your Rakuten account where you’ll earn cashback.
With the Rakuten app, you’ll receive alerts whenever there are any deals available. You can even earn extra cashback when you shop exclusively on the app. Of course, you can also monitor your purchases in the app so you can keep your spending under control while getting some money back.
Final thoughts
Saving money is made easier with the right apps. The trick is to either make things automatic or to start using the apps as part of your routine. Once you understand how the apps work, you can use them to your advantage and save more money.
Please note that Oaken Financial has not independently reviewed the apps referenced in this article.