In times of crisis, savings apps. My mobile has become an excellent finance manager

Runaway inflation, high prices and not optimistic future prospects. There is no bun oven economically, and managing to save a few euros at the end of the month is not bad at all. In the last year, I have used my phone more than ever for this purposebeing more aware than ever in how the mobile can change the control of our finances in a more than efficient way.

I want to share with you how I keep track of my accounts, the apps I use, the ones I’ve discovered, and how easy it ends up being to save a few valuable euros at the end of the month just by using my phone.

Neobanks and their usefulness

In the world of neobanks I started with Revolut, creating an account in order not to pay commissions when I paid outside of Spain. Over time it has become a much more useful tool, and that is the virtual cards that allow this type of apps are the perfect prepaid. In my case, I use Revolut, but practically any neobank app shares the functions that I am going to tell you about.

My Revolut account is currently the equivalent of that prepaid card. Every time I want to make an online payment of a certain amount, I just send money to Revolut, create a disposable virtual card (single use) and pay with it so that no bank details are stored in Google or on the website where I pay. Using neobanks disconnected from the main account, in which we have the bulk of our money, is also a way of being more restrained with spending, at least in my case.

Centralized monthly expense management

Controlling every expense we make can be almost sickening, although there are those who take it to heart. In my case, I prefer have a global photograph of all my expenses. There are multiple applications like Speende here, although I use the simplest of all: Bobby. Bobby is an app to update the subscriptions that we are paying, but nothing prevents us from entering what we pay for mortgage or rent, electricity, water, etc..

In my particular case, it is more useful for me to know that if I earn X, after expenses I have Y, to manage that amount Y and distribute it between savings, leisure and unforeseen expenses. Apps like Speende allow record every euro you spenda good alternative to the classic detailed accounting in programs like Excel.

Savings on a daily basis

everything is expensive, but there are more and more apps for daily savings. If we talk about the shopping basket, supermarket apps are a great ally. Many of them have discount codes, notify about offers and allow us to alleviate the cost of the weekly basket in a certain way.

If we talk about eating out, here I use apps like El Tenedor both to discover new restaurants and to get significant discounts on them. This is a fairly unknown app in my closest circle, and saving between 20 and 40% on each account is not a minor issue.

There are also apps like Waylet to save when refueling, as well as some apps to know fuel prices in my area. With gas prices rising, these apps are updated more frequently than ever and have a little more care than a few years ago.

Internet purchases, cashback and scrape euros from wherever you can

In addition to apps to buy cheaper or manage my economy, I also use apps that allow me to save in another way. Price trackers are a great solution, and there Keepa is a perfect tool that notifies us when an Amazon product drops in price. We can use it through a Telegram bot or by email, wonderful. It also has a Chrome extension, and it shows you the price history directly on the Amazon product page.

I use Goin as a cashback app, I didn’t really believe in this type of platform, but at the end of the year you end up with a large outlay. Basically, these types of apps give you back certain cents for each purchase (supermarkets, shops, etc.). It is not difficult to end the year with 20 or 30 euros, which is a ridiculous amount, but what better in your own pocket than in someone else’s.