The iPhone Mom

Another free money app, this time Money – Free from the iBear Soft company. This app has decent reviews on iTunes but it’s a bit much for me. Too many details, graphs and information. I need baby steps when it comes to budgeting.  The financial side of this app looks very, very thorough but again it’s a bit much for me. All of that being said, Money – Free is free so if you’re still looking for the perfect app to help you manage your financial life then it’s worth checking this one out.

Price when Reviewed: Free

See the app at iTunes

Seller: iBear Soft/Andrey Pilyugin

Full version of Money available for $4.99 (this is a sale price)

This story from the iPhone Download Blog cam through on my Twitter feed. It was news to me that you could get a refund for an iPhone app. After reading the story I read the comments and found it interesting how the refund policy affects the app developers. If the comments are an accurate depiction of how it works and a developer was willing to offer a refund themselves, I think I’d rather go through them so they could keep that 30%.

How to Get an iPhone App Refunded

I am allergic to budgeting. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it. But every once in awhile I get the urge to try and “cure” my allergy so I decide to give budgeting a try again. Now that I’ve got my iPhone I’ve been searching for a magic app that’s going to suddenly make me not spend money like it grows on trees. Let’s just say I’m still looking.

But in the meantime I’ve been trying out a couple of the free budget apps that are available and I have to say that Home Budget Lite is a decent app. It allows you to keep track of your income, expenses and set up a monthly budget. You can also enter in your accounts (savings, checking) and how much money you’ve got in each one. Once your accounts are set up and you’re keeping track of expenses you can mark which account the expenses are coming from and your balances will go down.

When you set up your budget there are plenty of categories and sub-categories to choose from. If you can’t find just the right one you can always create a custom category. On the budget screen you can watch a green line that shows you how you’re doing with your spending. As you spend money in each category the line will turn blue. If you spend more than your budgeted amount the line turns a dreaded red.

If you visit the help section before you start using Home Budget Lite you’ll find that it’s pretty easy to get started. For a free app it does a fine enough job of helping you track expenses and budgeting. I’d like to find an app that will allow my husband and I to share a budget. Something that we could both update and share using our separate phones. If anyone knows of an app that can do this please leave me a comment or send an email.

Price when Reviewed: Free

See the app at iTunes

Seller: Anishu, Inc.

A full version of Home Budget Lite is also available at iTunes for $4.99

These are toys that will multiply in the middle of the night. You start off with two and before you know it they’ve taken over your house.  Most of the figures don’t have moveable parts but that doesn’t seem to matter at all to my four year old son. These toys have been involved in all sorts of adventures at our house. If Star Wars isn’t your cup of tea then there are other variations. We’ve also got some Spider-man/superhero ones, Indiana Jones and I’ve seen Transformers and G.I. Joe in the store.  I’ve bought some in Walmart and Target and ToysRus has a good supply. But I’ve also found it hard to find different ones in the stores so I’d suggest looking online if you’re wanting to start a serious collection.

Shopper is quickly becoming my favorite grocery shopping app. I like the fact that this app lets me easily move around the aisles on my list so that each store’s list becomes customized. I can create multiple lists for the stores I shop at. A household and grocery list at Costco. A craft project and grocery list for Walmart. You get the idea. I really like the fact that this app lets you mark whether an item has a coupon to go along with it. That’s an important feature for me. If you give Shopper a try then I highly suggest going to the Setttings screen and checking out the “What’s New” section. It has a great overview of the features you’ll find in Shopper. I do miss the ability to access your lists on the internet like you can with Grocery Gadget. Let me know, do you have a favorite shopping app?

Price when Reviewed: $.99

See the app at iTunes

Seller: MidCentury Software/Mark Krenek

Animal Guesses is a whole different type of app for your iPhone. It’s something called a “web app”. Have any of you heard of web apps before? I hadn’t but when I asked my husband he knew all about them.  I’m wondering if I’ve been under a rock or if this is one of those instances where my not being a “techy in the know” comes into play. A web app is an app that you access through the internet. As my husband explained to me, it’s an internet page that does something. There’s a BIG list of web apps available at www.apple.com/webapps.  You’ll want to bookmark that page on your iPhone. You browse through the list and then tap on the one you’re interested in. The web page opens up and there you go. Here’s the cool part- tap on the plus sign at the bottom of your screen and select “Add to Home Screen”. From now on you’ll see an icon for the web app on your home screen. You can tap that icon and the web app will automatically open up.

So enough about web apps in general, how was Animal Guesses? The idea behind the app is a guessing game – you vs. the game. It starts out telling you to think of an animal and will then ask you yes or no questions about the animal. Depending on your answer you’ll get different questions. Finally the app will ask you “Are you thinking of….” and you answer yes or no. If you answered no then you’ll be asked to type in what animal you’re thinking of and answer a few questions about that animal. From then on the animal will be included in the possible answers. As you play the game it goes from being simple to more complex over time.  There are two versions of Animal Guesses, a free version and a $.99 version. In the free version you can save up to five animals. The paid version allows you to save more and this will make the game more difficult over time.

I think Animal Guesses is a great thinking game for elementary aged kids. It gets them reading and thinking. There aren’t any bells or whistles to this app. No moving pictures or loud music, just a simple game that has kids actually using their brains. I like it.

See the free version at apple.com here: Free Animal Guesses (Then click on the company link to learn more about the game.)

For more information and to see the $.99 version click here: Animal Guesses

Lately it’s been very nice to hear about free things and IconApps tells me that Giftster is now free. You can read my review of it HERE.

Kijiji brings you family friendly classified ads for your community, first on the internet with www.kijiji.com and now on your iPhone. It’s like Craigs List but without the creepy vibe. I asked the folks behind Kijiji how they kept the ads “safe”. They tell me they don’t allow any personal ads or ahem…”service” ads.  They have a staff that scans through the new and pending listings and eliminates anything inappropriate. They also have recruited users who watch the website. That all sounds great to me…so how’s the app?

Well, I really liked it. It is simple to use and does a nice job letting you search ads on your phone. The design is nice and the app works smoothly. You can select your location or use your iPhone’s location if you’re out of town and in the mood to search the classifieds. You can browse current listings and see everything that’s advertised in your area.  If you tap the “What?” button then you can break the ads down by category and even subcategory. After that when you tap the “Browse” button you’ll only see items in the category that you’ve selected. To view an ad tap on the one you like and you’ll see all the details.  From here you can tap “Respond” to contact the ad poster via the Kijiji app. Scroll down and you’ll see a button that says “Watch”. This lets you add the ad (clever) to a list that’ll show you everything you’ve marked to watch on Kijiji. If you want to post an ad of your own on Kijiji you can also do that through the app. Just tap the “Post” button at the bottom of your screen. Next to that you’ll see the “Watch” button I mentioned earlier. This brings up the list of ads you’ve flagged.

I liked the simplicity and ease of use with the Kijiji app. Combine that with the fact that it’s free and family friendly and it’s going to become my first stop for searching internet classifieds.

Price when Reviewed: Free

See the app at iTunes

Seller: Marktplaats BV

The folks at Kijiji recently asked a group of mom bloggers to submit their favorite apps for a “Top Ten Family-Friendly iPhone Apps” list. Guess who was in that group? Yep, the iPhone Mom herself! Click HERE to see the entire top ten list.

Now here’s the great news for my readers. To go along with the Top Ten list Kijiji is giving me a $25 iTunes card to use in a giveaway.  Yes, you read that correctly – a $25 iTunes card is going to one of you. Think of how many $.99 apps you could get with that! Or is there a pricey app you’ve had your eye on for awhile? This could be your chance.

Here’s how it’s going to work. Submit a comment telling us your favorite family app for one entry into the contest. For a second entry visit www.kijiji.com and check out their classifieds. Then come back and leave another comment telling me you did it. The contest will close next Monday, August 3rd, at 10:00 pm MST and a winning comment will be chosen.

Thank you to Kijiji for the generous giveaway. Be sure to read my review of their new iPhone app. Here’s a preview – I liked it. Happy Commenting and Good Luck!

I was in Barnes & Noble today and read an interesting sign. They’re offering a free Starbucks coffee from their cafe to anyone who’ll show them the Barnes & Noble app on their iPhone. The sign says the offer can be discontinued at any time so flash your iPhone for a freebie as soon as you can.