Save money and control costs with mobile apps
It’s not just energy costs that are rising. Food, petrol and many other goods are also becoming more expensive. It’s not easy to keep the balance between income and expenses. Special apps can help you stay in control here and see if you can put something aside after all.
There are apps that actively help you save and then there are apps that show you where your money is and how much you have left. If you combine the two, you’ll make ends meet better and you might be able to treat yourself to something else. We have a few tips for you.
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Save money through apps: through cashback, price control, benefits
If you can get an item cheaper somewhere or want to save money through special offers, then this usually requires an adjustment in your buying habits. If you are willing to drive a little further to fill up or to meet your daily needs in another supermarket, you will notice this in your wallet at the end of the month.
The following apps can help you save a few bucks here and there despite the rising costs.
TankenApp with petrol price trend
This app is “from us”. In other words, the company Ströer Media Brands GmbH, which also owns GIGA or T-online.de, has made an app for monitoring petrol prices. But since it is actually quite practical, we present it to you.
The name “TankenApp with fuel price trend” is a bit clumsy. Let’s just call it “TankenApp” for short. It shows you either the open gas stations around your location or around a location you have entered.
You can then choose according to which criteria the gas stations are listed. To save the most, you should sort by price and then choose the best combination of price and distance.
If you enter the size of your tank or the free tank content, the app will show you how much you can save compared to the most expensive gas station. In our test, that was over 22 euros!
Alternative tank apps:
| apartment | Characteristics |
| ADAC fuel prices (Android, iOS) | Free and without ads. Fuel prices and nearby charging stations are displayed. An integrated route planner lets you find the gas stations. |
| correctly-tanken.de (Android, iOS) | Ad-financed app that clearly shows the prices of the surrounding gas stations. |
Control expenses with budget book apps
At the end of each month, many wonder where all the money went. In the past, everything was written into a budget book to keep expenses under control. Today you can do it digitally and use an app that not only saves you a lot of work, but also shows in the form of statistics how the money flow is moving.
However, you should be aware that you first have to put some work into your household book! Not only do you have to understand how the respective apps work, you also have to create accounts there, enter recurring payments and, above all, diligently enter every income and expense there. If you buy a hamburger on the go for 1.29 euros or an ice cream for 2.50 euros, you have to enter this in the same way as every gas station, every purchase or a donation to a beggar. Even the smallest expenses add up to too much money at the end of the month and you can only see where it goes if you log every penny.
Money manager
Even the free version of the “Household Book: Money Manager” app is very useful for keeping a household book. If you use it to monitor your expenses, you might soon save enough money to get the premium version for $5.99.
The scope of services is very high and there is also an option to continue the household book on the PC or to export the entered data as Excel sheets. After entering some basic data, you can get started immediately. Over time, you will then create your own accounts or categories that fit your financial profile.
On the one hand, the app is suitable for private individuals who want to get their income and expenses under control, but on the other hand it is also suitable for tradespeople because you can use it to do double-entry bookkeeping.
Alternative housekeeping apps:
| apartment | Characteristics |
| Bluecoins (Android, iOS in progress) | Also very extensive app with many reports and analyses. |
| SayMoney – Budget Book (Android, iOS) | Ad-free, easy-to-use app with voice input option. |
Cashback, Payback & Co: Digital “discount stamps”
In the past, some supermarkets used to have “discount booklets”. There were small stickers for every purchase that you stuck in a booklet and when it was full you got paid out 1.50 marks in cash, for example. Offers like Payback work in a similar way. You can collect points with every purchase and then pay with Payback points, for example.
Shoop works a little differently: In this case, however, it is a cashback system when shopping. You buy from certain retailers and then get part of the money back from Shoop, which is later transferred directly to your account.
Shoop supports various online providers, you can also use Payback in shops and especially when shopping for groceries. If you get into the habit of looking for payback campaigns before you go shopping, you can often get 15-fold points at Rewe, for example. This will quickly give you enough points to either have money paid out to you or to dust off cheap bonus items.
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