You know that saying ‘There’s an app for everything’?
Well there’s numerous apps out there that can save you some money or help you make some extra pennies.
I thought I’d share just a few of my favourites with you today – these five apps are the ones on my phone that I’ve used in the last week…
Too Good To Go
I’m a huge fan of Too Good To Go! It’s really gaining in popularity with businesses and customers so I’m hoping you’re already on board with it but just in case, it’s a free app that allows you to buy unsold food from local shops, cafes, bakeries, and restaurants in your local area at the end of each day to save it from being thrown away.
I’ve written about Too Good To Go lots of times on here and shared many of the bags that I’ve been lucky enough to get for us so I’ll leave you to have a read if you do want to know more but I can tell you that we’ve had some amazing bags in the past with everything from groceries to sandwiches.
We don’t get them too much at the minute as we’re really trying to cut down on carbs and sugar because of my diabetes and you basically get what you’re given but if you can be flexible than I would absolutely recommend downloading the app and giving it a go!
Airtime Rewards
Airtime Rewards is another app that I’m a huge fan of and have had great success with personally in the past. It’s super easy to use – once downloaded, you can then connect your bank and/or credit cards which is super easy to do. I updated my bank card this morning and it took me about 30 seconds.
Once you’ve connected at least one card, you’ll automatically earn money back from participating retailers when you spend with them using that card. That money then accumulates and can be redeemed to reduce your phone bill with a simple hit of the redeem button. It’s a no-brainer as it takes minutes to set up and then you sit back and wait to see the money roll in.
( I mean, less of a roll and more of a trickle but still….)
All of the big mobile phone providers (and lots of smaller ones) work with Airtime Rewards and it’s literally as simple as using your connected card with one of the retailers on there to earn money back. They partner with Visa and MasterCard to track purchases so it’s all done automatically – no clicking certain links or using any special tracking on your side.
It’s super safe to do as they’re official partners of Visa and MasterCard and they currently have more than one million people actively using their app which is massive and obviously how they tempt the 100+ retailers to sign up to work with them to give us money back when we shop.
Just in August, I transferred £20 to my phone bill which is a win win!
Use my referral code ECBBDBYY and get a bonus pound if you spend using one of your nominated cards within 7 days!
I’ve written in more detail about Airtime Rewards here.
PetrolPrices
At the risk of repeating myself from last week’s Five Frugal Things post, I hope you’ll forgive me for a little bit of repetition as it was actually writing that post about this that inspired this whole post. 😉
I have an app that I use to check prices of fuel in our area before we put petrol in and it saves us a few pounds every week which adds up over the course of a month and then a year.
To give you an example… The petrol station nearest to our house is currently 137.9p per litre for diesel whereas the next one down the road is 135.7 so an extra couple of minutes in the car, in the direction that we’re usually travelling anyway will save us 2p a litre.
Then there’s another petrol station that is pretty much on the route of a drive I do weekly which is known for it’s cheaper prices so if I know I’m going to need diesel then I’m going to try and get it when I’m there if it’s going to be worthwhile. AT the moment, it’s 133.9p per litre.
I have a 60 litre tank so empty to full will save me £2.40 on a full tank if I was to get it from the cheapest petrol station rather than the nearest. We drive quite a bit as I work 25 miles away and live 20 miles away from the kids so comparing prices saves enough to make a quick 30 second check on an app well worth it.
And that’s just based on the nearest one to where I live which is actually still cheap based on the prices I am seeing on the app I use each week. The two most expensive near me are BP petrol stations and they’re 139.9p and 146.0p – the second one is on the main road so I would have expected that one to be more expensive and would never have used that one but the first one is just an average town centre petrol station so if you don’t compare the prices you could be paying £3.60 more than me per tank which isn’t a huge amount on it’s own but depending on how much diesel you use, it could add up quite quickly.
One tank a week would add up to £187.20 a year, one tank a fortnight would mean you paying £93.60 a year more and even if you’re a light driver with just one tank a month going into your car, you’re still going to be paying just short of £50 more than I am.
The app I use is PetrolPrices but there’s plenty more out there to play around with,
Vinted
I made a promise to myself at the start of the year that any clothes I bought this year were going to be considered purchases that would be pre-loved where possible and Vinted is the app that has really helped me with that. I’ve bought everything from work clothes to holiday clothes on there and twice, I’ve actually seen something in a shop that was a bit more than I wanted to pay so I’ve searched on Vinted and found the exact same item on there for a little less.
I’m also a huge fan of selling on Vinted and the app is super easy to sell your unwanted clothes on there – here’s a post about how much I managed to make in one weekend of selling.
TopCashBack
I’m pretty sure you’ve all heard of TopCashBack by now, if you haven’t then you need to immediately go register, download the app and then come back over here and read this post all about how to earn cashback just by going about your day and spending where you normally would.
If you do want to register then use my refer a friend code and you’ll get a bonus £10 when you start earning money (which will be in no time) and honestly, you’ll be annoyed at yourself for not doing this sooner.
So if there’s any of thes apps that you don’t already have on your phone then that needs to be your next job today – get them downloaded.
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