Here are nine of the best money-saving apps on iOS and Android smartphones and tablets. They can give you discounts when shopping, help you manage your finances, and help you save more effectively. This loose change is then invested into one of five Acorns-managed portfolios, which you select, and has the potential to increase in value over time. Given the nature of the stock market, it does have the potential to decrease in value, too. After the initial setup, all of the saving and investing happens in the background in an automated fashion, which makes Acorns a good option for those who have trouble motivating themselves or remembering to set aside money every month. Download For: In addition to presenting all your financial information, the Mint app detects your credit score and displays it for you in a graph along with actionable tips for improving it. All data is rendered in stylish charts with large text making it easy to tell where your money is, what it’s doing, and where there’s room for improvement. Download For: All you need to do is present the chosen Groupon coupon when purchasing the selected product or service to get the discount. The savings offered by Groupon aren’t small either, with examples of the type of coupons available including $140 off of a mattress topper, $15 off of Lindt chocolates, a three-months-free subscription for the Pandora Premium music streaming service, and $40 off an Apple Watch band. Using the Groupon app is free. Download For: What sets Qapital apart from its rivals, though, is its gamification of goal-oriented savings through the implementation of applets (small, mini apps). Each applet can be set up to transfer a set amount of money to a savings goal when a specific requirement is met. You can have some money put aside when you meet a fitness goal or when your favorite sports team wins. You can even set an applet up so your account transfers money towards your goal when a specific person tweets or when it begins to rain. Download For: Deposits towards your savings goal happen continually throughout the month at varying amounts but only happen when the system detects that you can afford it. Digit is a set-it-and-forget-it app for saving money, and it’s ideal for those that often get stressed about bank account management. Download For: The Shoeboxed app works by using the camera on your iOS or Android device to take a photo of a paper receipt and then extracts all of the expense, payment method, date, and location information and saves it digitally. This data can then be sent in an email or exported as an Excel document or other file format. Information from all scanned receipts can also be searched from within the app or on the Shoeboxed website, which is convenient when trying to match expenses with an item or date. Download For: These points, referred to as Swagbucks, can be redeemed for gift certificates, and that’s all there is to it. Something that’s particularly cool is that you can redeem Swagbucks for a PayPal gift certificate, which is essentially extra money that you can spend on anything, such as groceries, or deposit into your savings account for a rainy day. Download For:
