So you are a college student, and therefore you have bills, loans and debt and maybe jawline acne resulting from stress about these bills, loans and debt. Alternatively, you are a hobo who found this issue of the Pipe Dream on a city bus and happen to have an iPhone. Either way, you are bound to find some of these apps to be useful tools as you continue to search for ways to support your current standard of living. They’re all free!
Shopkick: Shopkick is a mobile app that gives you rewards and offers simply for walking into stores. You fire up the app when you walk into Target or Best Buy, for example, and instantly collect walk-in “kicks,” which you later trade in for gift cards. You also usually have the opportunity to scan certain items and rack up more kicks. It’s fun, and I’ve personally redeemed mobile Shopkick-exclusive coupons with the app, too.
RetailMeNot: RetailMeNot is a wildly popular coupon website that now offers its service in the form of a mobile app. You can manually open the app and search for in-store coupons whenever you please, but it also sends a push notification to your phone when you get close to places like the Oakdale Mall. Clicking the notice will take you to a page in the app that lists coupons available for nearly every store in the mall, and you just show your phone at the register. This app also offers online promo codes.
The Coupons App: Do you do a lot of driving, or just a lot of spending? The Coupons app is a mobile app that updates to show you the cheapest gas prices according to your location. Additionally, it provides printable and mobile coupons for places like Starbucks, American Eagle and Office Depot.
The Target App: Even Target has an app worth downloading. Once you designate your store, you can shop the weekly ad ahead of time and plan your purchases accordingly. It includes mobile coupons that can even be added to your Passbook. The app will also link you to the website’s daily deals.
Wrapp: Ever want to give your friend a gift on Facebook? Then this app is perfect for you. Wrapp is an easy way to give free and paid gift cards to your Facebook friends. You must have a Facebook to use it, and the app will tell you when a friend has opened your gift card. You can give several free gift cards at any given time for stores and websites like H&M, Threadless, trials for Hulu Plus and digital subscriptions to magazines and newspapers. These are free for you to give and get, but you also have the option of buying paid cards for hundreds of other stores.
Mint.com: Ever have the urge to manage all of your finances on your iPhone? Mint.com is the most foolproof way to manage your budget with easy-to-use personal finance tools and calculators. You can track your spending and monitor your online banking account from your phone, and once you hook up your accounts, it’s simple to set monthly and weekly budgets and alerts. One of my favorite features is that the app updates in real time, so you can see exactly how much you spent at any store right from your phone. It even offers monetary advice — why don’t you have an IRA yet — and the app will show the funds that you’ve earned.