Hand-held money saving

Posted by Anita Brook at 20:08 on 8 Jun 2010

• Print
• Share
• Comment

According to recent research carried out on behalf of LG, money saving apps are amongst the top ‘must-have' downloads. Here's my pick of the crop for keen shoppers looking for the best deal.

RedLaser: This is a really neat app that lets you scan barcodes and then search online for lower prices. Swipe your iPhone camera past the barcode and get checking. For big items, such as fridges, sofas and very expensive hand bags, this is well worth the money, you'll make back the £1.19 it costs to buy in no time.

Local Sale Finder: This app costs nothing and delivers vouchers and discounts direct to your phone for use in your local area. Just flash your phone at the participating shop and save some cash. If you live in the sticks, this isn't so great, but city dwellers (or visitors) can enjoy discounts in more than 40,000 outlets, including restaurants, clothes shops and hotels.

Voucher Cloud: A similar idea to Local Sale Finder, but with national as well as local deals. This is a great site for anyone looking for discounts, not just those with an iPhone, as vouchers can be printed off as well as sent to your mobile.

PetrolPrices Pro: In order to carry all that shopping you've bought, you'll need to take your car. PetrolPrices Pro will find you the cheapest fuel in your area, searchable by town or postcode.

iXpenselt: Perfect for anyone on a budget, this app's designed to help you keep track of daily expenses. You can even store photos of receipts and securely save passwords for your bank accounts. Customised, detailed reports of your monthly expenditure are available to view, meaning you can't hide from that extra pair of shoes you bought. Or, if you look at it another way, by keeping track of the money you've saved using these apps, you can justify those shoes!

It's not just iPhone's that have useful apps, Android, the Google operating system for mobile phones, is growing in popularity, with some great money saving kit available, such as ShopSavvy, which works in a similar way to RedLaser. For a guide to Android apps, visit BroadbandGenie. Free Android apps are available to download.

With ways to save quite literally in most of your handbags, think before you shop and check those apps.

• Next entry
• Previous entry