If you’re like me, you probably have a savings account but not a plan for putting money in it. These apps are specifically designed to help with your savings plan.
I should let you know that this is NOT a sponsored review. This is a REAL review. No company asked us to do this, I just did this out of my own curiosity and desire to pass along some good tips.
Money Box
This was by far the most user friendly app I reviewed. It had a simple tutorial displayed the moment I opened the app or used a feature for the first time. The app is designed to help you save money for specific goals, like school, a car, or a vacation, and helps make that goal solid in your mind. You can upload a picture to represent your goal, and it asks for a goal name, amount, and finish-by date. It asks how frequently you want to add money to your savings, and even has a reminder option to keep you on track.
The biggest downside of this app was that it doesn’t have a calculator to break down how much money you need to add each time to stay on track and meet your goal on time. This is fairly simple math (goal amount divided by number of months to finish-by date) but I had hoped to see this feature present.
FiftyTwo
This app is a savings challenge and I adore the concept. The first week, you put $1.00 in your savings, next week $2.00, next week $3.00, and continue increasing deposits by $1.00 for fifty two weeks. This is a sneaky way to save money because the increase is slow but steady. If you’re ambitious, you might try increasing in $2.00 or even $5.00 increments.
However, this app has ads, my number one pet peeve. Although it did have a tutorial when I first opened the app, the directions weren’t as clear, though the app is fairly simple so it didn’t take long to orient myself. My other issue is that I couldn’t figure out how to indicate that I’d deposited the money. Overall, I’d say take the concept of this app and use it to build up your savings, but I think you could keep yourself on track just as well using the calendar/reminder app already on your phone.
PiggyBank
The design of this app was super cute and has a little piggy bank to represent your savings goal. Like Money Box, this app is to save for specific goals, and it has a calculator so you know how much to deposit to stay on track!
This app didn’t have a tutorial at all, but it only has a few buttons so figuring out how to use it was simple. My biggest issue was that you must upgrade the app to have multiple piggy banks. If you only have one savings goal, no big deal, but that’s probably not realistic.
My Pick?
After reviewing these apps, Money Box is the one I decided to keep. This app is extremely user friendly, has no ads, and pushes you to think seriously about your savings goals. As far as its lack of a calculator, well, I guess basic math never killed anyone.
