Ask the Readers: What are your favorite free apps?

by Crystal on January 4, 2012

Today’s question is from Sarah:

My sister and I (both moms of little ones) were unexpectedly blessed with iPods this holiday season. So I’m wondering what the best free (or almost free) apps are for stay-at-home moms who are working to be more organized, save money, cut our grocery bill, meal plan, etc.? – Sarah

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Jan January 5, 2012 at 10:29 am: My Fitness Pal- free diet tracking and you can check in with friends
Runkeeper- is a GPS program for your phone for keeping track of how far you walk (or run or bike)
My Feeds- for reading blogs on the go- makes them mobile friendly
AT&T Uverse- on my phone I can watch any show I DVR’d at home on my phone
Amy January 5, 2012 at 12:06 pm: Is there any app that can help me stay in control of my finances? I want one that will help me budget and also help me balance my income with my bills. I want to be able to just put in my income and bills and it tell me howw and when to pay my bills along with other categories like gas and food etc.
Elizabeth January 5, 2012 at 1:55 pm: If you already have Netflix at home you can get a free Netflix app for ipod touch, ipad, and Android smart phones. My daughter likes to watch movies on her smart phone – it’s too small a screen for me but when we’re in the car it’s great for her.
Lisa January 5, 2012 at 3:53 pm: I love these free apps:

Ebay
Gasbuddy
USAA (my bank)
ShopSavvy (scan something and it will tell you the prices of that same item in nearby stores)
Lemon (save receipts in here)
Chess with Friends
Kindle
Weather Channel
FAC Free (fake a call, if you are stuck and need to “get away” to answer it)
Translator
Zippo Lighter (fun to wave, “concert” style)
Mapquest
Kathy January 5, 2012 at 5:14 pm: Also for a quick checklist there is Colornote on Droid
Elizabeth January 5, 2012 at 9:58 pm: Thank you so much for asking this question! I have picked up a couple of apps that I probably wouldn’t have found out about otherwise.

I like pinterest, words with friends, Dave Ramsey has his own app with clips from his radio show including debt-free screams Pandora and Gas Buddy are great too.
Jennifer January 6, 2012 at 2:28 am: Thank you so much! I don’t even know how many I just downloaded!

Won’t mention ones I’ve seen above…but one’s I like…

DisneyWorld by Undercover Tourist (tells wait times for rides at DW along with menus for restaurants in the parks-there’s other apps for DL)

Ant Smasher- game my 5 year old likes. smash ants as they crawl on screen

Google Goggles- scan a product, artwork, storefront, or foreign language and it googles the product and gives info on what you scanned.

Juice Defender- (don’t know if this is just for Androids) conserves battery life

Toddler Lock- good for little kids. Kind of like a doodle pad with some sounds. You have to touch all 4 corners to exit the app. So little kids can’t get out of it and mess up your phone.

Zebra Paint- 5 year old loves it. Just a coloring book. Lots of pages to color.

Winter Wake Up- alarm clock that checks the weather in the morning and will wake you up 15 min earlier than what you set the alarm if the weather is below a certain degree (whatever degree you set). Gives you notice that you may need to scrape the car. Also wakes you a little earlier if it’s snowing. Checks weather 1 minute before the “early time” so it knows when it should go off. Haven’t used it but coworker recommended it and thought someone might get use out of it!
Julie January 6, 2012 at 9:20 am: My all time favorite is ziplist. First you have to create a computer account, though. You can put in your recipes online, make a shopping list, etc. When you have the app it automatically adds from your computer account. If you want to buy ingredients for a recipe, just pull it up on app (all in folder) and click “add to shopping list”. Great for easy shopping list. Plus, when going to cook the recipe I never have to find my printed copy – just pull up on app!
Delores January 7, 2012 at 12:27 pm: I thought I already submitted these, but can’t find them, so will add them again (sorry if a repeat)

iBreviary — daily prayers of the Liturgy of the Hours
ExpenseSense — manual tracking for budget. Mint, mvelope, pageonce, etc never meet my needs because inevitably, they can’t access one or more of my accounts. And with ExpenseSense, I am forced to track stuff myself, sort of like writing food down, it helps me realize where the money is going
PriceBook — I wish I could select when I use a coupon, but I love the PriceBook App because obviously it is so helpful

Great post!
Cheryl January 7, 2012 at 10:49 pm: Notica is a sweet little app that lets you take a picture and add a note to it. Here’s how they describe it: “Notica is the ultimate way for you to connect the things you see with what you want to remember about them. Stuff like “This is the shop that’s having a sale next week” or “That’s the kind of chair I’d like for our kitchen”, a street show you saw, a movie to watch, a location to remember with a photo. Notica does just that. ” It’s not free ($2.99), but worth it because I have no memory cells left.

http://www.cleversome.com/notica/index.php?tab=Notica
Lynette January 8, 2012 at 7:43 pm: “Square” is a great app. You set up an account and can take credit cards using your phone. They send you a small “square” device that you use on your phone or ipad. I work for a very small company and used it at a conference, it was great! So basically anyone can now accept credit cards!
Jason January 9, 2012 at 2:06 pm: Weekly ads & sales is another great free app – it allows you to browse your local store’s sales papers.
Angela R January 17, 2012 at 4:40 pm: So glad you asked this question! I just got my first smartphone last week and now it’s so decked out with great apps thanks to all the suggestions!