Forget queuing at the bank in your lunch hour and fix your finances at the tap of a screen with one of these money-saving apps
Words by Caroline Corcoran
Cleo
Like a bank manager without the musty grey suit, Cleo describes itself as an ‘artificial intelligence money-managing assistant’ – it syncs up with your bank to send you texts suggesting how much you should limit your spending each day. Maybe keep that trip to Whistles on the down-low. Meetcleo.com
Acorns
If saving seems unachievable, do it without realising. You sync your card and pay via the app, so that when you buy things, the app rounds the price up to the nearest pound and you hardly notice the difference. Acorns then squirrels away the remaining pennies as they build up and invests them in stocks and shares for you. Genius. Acorns.com
Finimize
My Life (FML) An app that helps people decide what to do with their savings – invest them, recommend an ISA – based on the amount they have saved. It's free and takes three minutes. Still in Beta, there’s a waiting list, but that somehow makes it feel cool and mysterious (unlike spreadsheets). Finimize.com/mylife
ShopTagr
Tracks prices and provides you with price alerts for items on your fashion wish list. Add the items you're shopping for – you can customise right down to size and colour – and the app will notify you when they're on sale. Shoptagr.com
Money Girl Podcast
The tagline is ‘quick and dirty tips for a richer life’, which gets our attention, but it’s actually good, too. Plug in during your commute and get financially savvy on a host of different themes.