The iPhone Mom

This app, 55 Free Baby Samples, features a list of companies that you can contact regarding free baby product samples and coupons. The developers have included the contact information that you’ll need and the app also lets you add in offers that you’ve heard of. Your job is to browse through the list and then tap on the contact button for the offer you’re interested in. The app will then call the number directly.  (The app does provide a few website addresses but they appeared to be for more general baby websites. The majority of the contacts were phone numbers.) The list had a quite a few offers for formula samples, diaper rash ointment, baby food and even coupons for Orajel. Blessed Orajel! Overall, it looks like there’s some good stuff out there.  Unfortunately, I tried out the app in the evening when companies were closed so I wasn’t able to actually request anything.

This is a free app and it’s nice to have the contact information for all of the companies that are currently offering samples.I’m not one to spend hours on the phone requesting coupons but if I see an offer for something that I use all the time I will pick up the phone. Personally, I won’t be using 55 Free Baby Samples every day but it is something I’ll check out every once in awhile.

55 Free Baby Samples will also link you to the website babytobee.com for more free offers.

Price when Reviewed: FREE

Seller: Total Ecommerce LLC

This review is for all of you hardworking moms and dads who work outside the home. ProOnGo Expense is an app that will help you keep track of your receipts for work expenses. I’m a stay at home mom so business expenses aren’t something I deal with. Mine would all fall under the category of mental health and probably involve large purchases of chocolate and cherry cokes from Sonic. I went ahead and made up some expenses and I’m going to do my best to explain the app.

Expenses can be added for regular expenses, mileage or time. You can manually enter in your receipt data or take a picture and use the app’s receipt reader. The receipt reader is supposed to take the data from your receipt and enter it into the app for you. Once you’ve entered in expenses you can export them. Exports can be done as an excel spreadsheet, xml file or fax. You can also export the data directly into a QuickBooks online account.

I was able to do the basics with the app without creating a ProOnGo account. I couldn’t get the receipt reader to work so I’m assuming you’d need an account to use that feature. It does seem like a great time saver. I liked how the app lets you edit out your personal information before you upload the receipt to the ProOnGo server. The features that I was able to try out were successful in keeping my pseudo receipts organized. I also really liked the fact that you can export your receipts. I tried it out with an excel worksheet and it worked like a charm.

I was unable to find the specific details about what’s required for a ProOnGo subscription. I do believe that there’s a limit on the number of receipts you can send off to the Receipt Reader.  The app is available for both individuals and businesses. I’m sure it’d be revolutionary for those who are using paper forms right now. One app quirk that I noticed involved the “headers” and buttons on the top of the screen. When I would switch between screens they’d often overlap and become unreadable. I’m sure it’s just a bug and hopefully something that can be fixed in an update.

Has anyone out there had real world experience using this app? You know…with actual business expenses?

**Update 2/18 – Max from ProOnGo has given me some additional details. Thanks!

• Receipt Reader is a monthly subscription. Prices found here.
• Receipt Reader can take from 1-4 minutes to upload a receipt and you have to keep the app open for about 5 seconds. After that you can shut the app down and when you come back your receipt should be there.  When you join you get 10 free receipt uploads. My conclusion, I probably wasn’t patient enough in waiting for my upload. Typical me.

Price when Reviewed: $.99

Seller: ProOnGo, LLC

Disclosure: I received a free copy of this app for review purposes.

I love finding apps that can reinforce what our kids are learning in school. I was excited to learn about PennyMe, an app that helps your children practice their money counting skills. Money gave both of my girls trouble. Part of that is genetic, there’s a reason I’ve never worked as a cashier and why I stay far away from the PTO cash box. The other part of the trouble came when it was time for homework and we looked at the worksheets. It’s hard to learn to tell a penny from a dime when you’re working off a black and white copy and my girls struggled trying to remember what looked like what.

Now that I’ve established that we’ve got challenges when it comes to counting money let me say that I’ve given PennyMe a try and I’m thrilled with it. It does a fantastic job offering practice exercises with money and the money looks like real money! There are two ways to play. The first is “Quiz”. Here you are given some coins and asked to select the matching amount of money. The coins can be moved around the screen just as if they were real money. In the easy mode the coins are shown along with their value. (Ex: a penny has 1c on it). In the normal mode there are no hints, the coin is all you’ve got to work with. In “Count” you are given a monetary amount and you need to drag coins into the middle of the screen until you’ve reached the set amount. You can use whatever combination of coins that you like, as long as you reach that total. Again, easy mode displays the coins value and normal mode shows you just the coins.

The only suggestion I have for PennyMe is to create a way to track scores. The games keep a score as you play but when you’re done the score is gone. There is also a timer that counts how long you’ve been playing. It would be nice to see that recorded as well. I wish this app had been around when my girls were in the first grade learning to count money. It’s going to be a terrific tool for my son when he gets there and I think he’s going to have an edge over his poor big sisters.

Price when Reviewed: $.99    FREE

Seller: Acoco Interactive

Disclosure: I received a free copy of this app for review purposes.

I use Quicken Online Mobile in combination with the Quicken Online website. We’ve used Quicken software for our personal finances for many moons. It works but I was somehow always off in my register. Not off by pennies or dimes but more. Much more. Don’t ask me how I did this but every time I’d start over again and within a couple of months I was off. Which meant that when I reconciled things with the bank I had to do all the subtraction myself anyway. Kind of defeats the purpose of using software doesn’t it?  My husband upgraded my OS a few months ago and I couldn’t find my Quicken CD to reinstall the software on my PC. While I was searching for help online I discovered that Quicken offers a free online tool. It’s basically Quicken on the internet and you record all of your transactions there. It automatically reconciles with the accounts you setup so you are always up to date. There are some quirks to using it and it’s taken some getting used to but it’s working fairly well for me. I’m hoping as they continue to upgrade and rework things it’ll become even more user friendly. What I really like about using the mobile version of Quicken is the fact that there’s an app that syncs with my online account. I open up the app and there’s my account information, all the good, bad and ugly right there on my phone. I can see the projected outlook for my account (ugly), the activity (bad) and I’ve got the ability to add in transactions using the app (good if I remember to do this!). Whatever I add in the app shows up in my account online and whatever I do online shows up in my app. No excuse for not knowing what’s what. Which I suppose is a good thing!

I’ve also tried out Mint.com (a similar online money management tool) and they too have an iPhone app. I didn’t like it as well as Quicken but I know people who absolutely rave about it. It’s a very thorough experience but I, personally, preferred the simpler Quicken, even with it’s quirks.  Interestingly, Quicken recently purchased Mint so I wonder if they’ll eventually merge together. It’d be great if they took the best of both websites and created something financially spectacular. As spectacular as my bank account always being reconciled now!

Price when Reviewed: Free

Seller: Intuit, Inc.

I really like the concept behind Bank of Mom and it’s a very nice looking app. I think with a couple tweaks it could be a very useful app for my family. Bank of Mom is designed to help you keep track of your child’s “virtual bank account”. In it you can record money that is earned and money that is spent. This is a great thing for us because we are absolutely sporadic about paying allowance. I never carry cash and am always forgetting to go to the bank to get ones and quarters for allowances. With this app I can record what they earn without really paying out the cash. I keep the money but the app tells me what they’ve got in their accounts. If they want to spend their money I can provide the funds, then note a withdrawal. For example, if we’re at Target and my daughter sees a Littlest Pet Shop she wants to add to her menagerie I’d check to see how much money she had in her account. If she had enough I’d pay for the toy but mark down a withdrawal in her account. Bank of Mom is also designed to let you keep track of minutes earned for computer, T.V., video games, etc. There’s also a spot for you to track what your child is earning money for.

This app is very easy to navigate and it has an appealing design, but I do have a few suggestions. First, a help section within the app would be great. Something that can explain the different sections and icons. Next, it would be nice to be able to see an available account balance on the screen where you enter transactions. You can see this on the main screen but it would be helpful (to me at least) to also view it where you add withdrawals/deposits. Lastly it would be nice to have the option to view the money separate from the TV/electronics allowance.  It’s handy being able to see the running totals together on the main screen but it’d be nice to have a unique input section for that category. Just a few suggestions from a mom, not a programmer.

One last note: there’s always the worry though that by going this route your children will never know that a dollar bill is an actual thing, not just something magic inside Mom’s debit card. I wouldn’t use this app to teach your kids how to manage their money but instead as a tool for those of us who don’t (or forget to) give their kids cash. I’d use it to store totals on  my iPhone instead of in my brain. A good thing in my case because my brain is notoriously unreliable and according to my ten year old I owe her about ten months of back allowance.

Price when Reviewed: $1.99

Seller: Gomu Gomu

Any pet lovers out there? I don’t know that I’d put myself in the “Pet Lover” category but I am a pet owner.  Ginny is the 1 1/2 year old Havanese/Yorkshire Terrier member of our family. Or “The Dog” as I call her. She was purchased for a very specific purpose -to help our middle child, Miss S. overcome her extreme fear of dogs. Extreme is probably an understatement. Paralyzing phobia would be more appropriate. Things were so bad that if the school bus pulled up and one of the moms had brought a dog to the stop she would refuse to get off the bus. Many times I had to walk over to the bus and literally carry her off. It was a paralyzing fear. A hysterical “Mom there’s a dog in the truck next to us and if I get out of the van it will eat me so I’m going to scream and embarrass you in the Wal-Mart parking lot and if you’re lucky five people you know will drive by” fear.

So we got a dog. I won’t go into the details behind the decision. Let’s just say it wasn’t my idea and my husband suffered for that fact for a good long while. The first month Miss S. refused to come downstairs or be on the ground when Ginny was out and about. She would park herself on a kitchen chair and would not, could not move until someone had a hold of the puppy. Then practically overnight she got over it. One minute she’s afraid of Ginny and the next she’s carrying her around like a baby, putting diapers on her and pushing her in the doll stroller. No joke, now it’s the dog’s turn to be afraid because she knows Miss S. is going to love her to death someday. For that reason, in the interest of protecting our furry little investment, we got pet insurance. Yes, pet insurance. My husband happens to work for Pets Best Insurance so this was an easy decision for us. We’ve been happy with our policy and I was really happy with what they covered during Ginny’s first year. I was looking for any reason to be grumpy about having a dog and expensive vet bills would have been at the top of my list.

So in the end my husband was right and the family dog was a good call for Miss S. (He’s probably going to read this and rub that statement in my face.) Now why is this post on the “iPhone Mom Likes” page? Well in the end, when all is said and done, the iPhone Mom likes Ginny and what she’s done for our family. And the kids would be heartbroken if anything happened to her so the iPhone Mom likes Pets Best because it’ll be there for us when Ginny tumbles out of the toy shopping cart while Miss S. is shopping around the house. Or when she swallows one of the Star Wars figures that the boy leaves lying around the house. Or when she finds my emergency chocolate stash that isn’t hidden as well as it should be. Hope they don’t read this or they’ll probably have  cause for raising our rates!

If you’re interested in learning more about Pets Best and what they offer click here. Do your own research but know that so far we’ve been happy with our rates and coverage.

It’s no secret that I love the Coupon Sherpa app. Well I got an email today giving me a heads up about www.couponsherpa.com. The developers have taken the idea behind their app and spun it into a website. They have been busy and let’s just say this website is now on my list of bookmarks. At the top.

If you are interested in coupons and saving money you must check out their website. It gives you information for online deals, mobile and printable coupons and grocery coupons. The site is easy to navigate and I love how everything is categorized and sorted. For example, when you’re looking at the online coupons you can view them by store, category, expiring soon, most recent and those with free shipping.  The grocery coupons section gives you the top printable grocery coupons – for the last 24 hours, seven days or all-time. That’s just some of what they’ve done. They’ve also added a “digg-like” feature where visitors can vote on which coupons are the best bets. You can tweet the coupons from the site and also leave comments. There’s also a coupon newsletter that will come to your inbox every week.

Luke and Jesse Knowles are the founders of Coupon Sherpa and I’d like to give them a public “WOW!!” I’m completely impressed. They are also behind two other sites: www.mrfreestuff.com – where you can find free samples and products – and www.mrssweepstakes.com  – where you can find online contests.

But enough talk – go visit www.couponsherpa.com and spread the word!

The iPhone Mom loves www.couponsherpa.com.

Read my thoughts here and then go pay it a visit!

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