I use my phone for some leisure - social media scrolling, reading, and watching shows. But I also use it for some very practical routines - banking, calendaring (which I'm just now converting to), budgeting, and grocery shopping.
Today I thought I'd share some of my favorite apps and how I use them!
Marco Polo
Marco Polo is a video chat app. It's been my main source of communication with Shannon since she moved to Idaho. We use it so much that sometimes we forget that we haven't actually seen each other in person in months! The great thing about MP is that instead of chatting live, we can send clips to each other and listen when we have time. The only problem is, it's very easy to ramble on for 40 minutes about what I'm going to order for lunch at Chick-Fil-A. Luckily for Shannon, she can speed up my message to get it over with quicker.
Chatbooks + Instagram
This combo of apps is how I record our family memories. Chatbooks is a photo book service that automatically prints books and mails them to you depending on how you set it up.
I have a subscription called "Family Memories" that comes straight from my Instagram account. Every time I have 60 photos, a book gets printed. The books are numbered by volume and have the dates. For example: Brittish Family Memories, Volume 22, April 2019-September 2019. Each book costs me $10 to print and ship. Whenever a book is ready to be printed I get an email from Chatbooks letting me know, and I can go into the app and select which photo I want as the cover and eliminate any photos I don't want included in the book.
I like using Instagram as my resource for my Chatbooks (they are linked so I don't have to really do any work. If I post a photo on Instagram, it automatically goes in my Chatbooks unless I go into the app and tell it not to). In an effort to reduce my social media use, I tried closing my Instagram account and adding my photos to Chatbooks straight from my phone, but it was more work. Instead I decided to "white wash" my Instagram feed (delete all of my followers and every account I followed) and then only follow a few family members and very close friends. The main purpose of my Instagram account is just to get my photos into Chatbooks, so I post a lot because it's basically our family journal.
For Christmas every year, I make each of my kids a Chatbook with their photos from the year. These are priced a little differently and can be more than 60 pages (the $10, 60-page books are for subscriptions). The non-subscription books are 20% off for Black Friday, so that's when I place my order.
As a sidenote, I use the free version of PicsArt to make collages for Instagram posts. This helps get more photos into the books with less expense.
Venmo
Venmo has become really handy in the past year. It's a money transferring app. I was very resistant to using it at first, but now that it's in my life, I love it.
You know that friend you're always trying to give cash to, but they won't take it? Do you have this friend? If not, you should get one and then send her money on Venmo.
Venmo makes it quick and easy to pay people back. I use it to pay my hairdresser, I've contributed to fundraisers, and I've even send friends money for lunch when I wanted to "treat" them but couldn't meet with them in person.
One thing to know about Venmo, if you're going into it fresh, is that it has a social feature to it, so it will show you thinks like, "Stacy paid Louis." It doesn't show the amount of money, but it does show a transaction took place. Personally, I am fascinated to see who is paying whom for what (there are a lot of emojis involved), but I have changed my settings to private so my transactions can't be viewed by others. I think this feature is really weird, but I also love to snoop. Heehee.
Google Docs
There are a few documents I have on Google Docs that I access regularly. One is my singing time plan (I am the music leader for the children at church). I used to type up my plan and print it, but now I just access it on my phone if I need to look at it (I print a copy for the pianist still - she's not a cell phone gal). Another is my personal journal. I prefer to type from my computer, but it's nice to have the option of typing from my phone occasionally.
I love that Google Docs allows me to have access to certain documents from my computer or my phone.
Chick-Fil-A
Let's be honest, if you're going to eat at a place anyway you might as well earn some free stuff. AMIRIGHT? The Chick-Fil-A app gives you points for your purchases which you can later use to redeem free food. Don't do the math, though. There's no need to determine how much money you've actually spent at Chick-Fil-A. Just enjoy the free stuff you eventually earn.
From the Chick-Fil-A app, you can order your food (though I prefer to just order the good old fashioned way at Chick-Fil-A), you can add funds to the app so it pays when you scan the QR code (I just started doing that this week), and sometimes, you get a free reward just because! (Though not nearly often enough!)
Cafe Rio
The Cafe Rio app gives rewards, too, and the thing I really like about Cafe Rio is that the rewards can potentially add up fast. Cafe Rio has days where they give bonus points, sometimes up to triple points! So if you go on a triple point day, you can really bank on the points and get your $10 reward even sooner.
You can order from the app, but I usually order in person because there are some customization I like to make that aren't in the app (however, the app does have a pretty good selection of customizations available). The Cafe Rio app also let's you transfer your gift card balances to the app so you don't have to keep track of your gift cards, should you have an overabundance of Cafe Rio gift cards floating around. I haven't used this feature, but I might try it! In the past, Cafe Rio has had an amazing Black Friday deal where you get an additional $10 gift card for every $25 gift card you purchase. I hope they don't figure out what a steal that is, lest they stop doing it.
My favorite part of the Cafe Rio app is the sound it makes when you earn points. You can either scan it at the register or scan your receipt yourself. I like to scan the receipt myself so I can pause for a moment and enjoy the "Woohoo!" it makes. It's the simple things in life.
Sam's Club
I have memberships to both Sam's Club and Costco (my mom and I split the memberships so she takes care of Costco, and I take care of Sam's Club) (I also have plans to do a Costco vs Sam's post soon).
One thing that gives Sam's Club a bit of an edge is their app. They have a "scan and go" feature that is life-changing. You can scan all your items and check out on your phone, and you never have to go through a line. You just show your phone at the exit. You don't even have to have your Sam's Club card with you if you the app. There have been times my card has been in Scotty's wallet, and I've still been able to go to Sam's Club, whereas, five years ago, if I didn't have my card, I'd arrive at Sam's Club, realize I forgot my card, and have to go home or beg customer service for a temporary print out. Sam's Club doesn't even require you to show a membership card at the door anymore!
The Reading Apps
I debated doing a separate post about reading apps, but I'm just gonna tackle everything here in one post.
First off is my country library's app. This is a must-have for putting books on hold and renewing them. In combination with that, I have the Overdrive app which is how I check out audiobooks and eBooks from my library. The waitlists on Overdrive can be a bit slow-moving sometimes, but if I keep it nice and full, there's always something coming available.
If you're not familiar with Goodreads, it's a place to review books. You can give books a rating and review and see what your friends have to say about the books they read. I've been using Goodreads for at least ten years (previously just online). I get a lot of great recommendations from seeing what other people are reading, and I know which friends I share similar book tastes to, so I know whose reviews are the most relevant to my own book selection.
Last year I signed up for an Audible subscription (Audible is an audiobook service through Amazon). It was $16 per month (after taxes) which got me one book credit per month. I admit, $16 for an audiobook seemed a bit steep until I looked at the pricing without the subscription. I decided to do the subscription because I wanted to own all of the Harry Potter books on audio (partially because the Overdrive waitlist took months for me to get the first book). I've listened to the Harry Potter books multiple times, and I'd like to force my kids to enjoy them as well, so they are a good investment for me.
I used my subscription to get all of the Harry Potter books and then I canceled. I still have access to all of my audiobooks in the app, I just don't have an active subscription right now. Audible occasionally offers book credits to active subscribers 3 for $35, which ends up being less per book than the $16 per month, so I was able to get my Harry Potters faster and cancel sooner by doing that. I even picked up a few freebies along the way.
The Kindle app coincides with Overdrive, Most eBooks I check out from the library are compatible with the Kindle app, so that's how I access them. I have an Amazon Prime membership, and Amazon Prime does "first reads" which allows members to pick a free early "copy" of an eBook from a selection of books each month. I've read a couple of good books through this service.
Finally, I have Deseret Book's app, Bookshelf Plus. This is a subscription service that allows you unlimited audiobook access from hundreds of Deseret Book publications. For those who aren't familiar with Deseret Book, it's a company owned by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, so it's primarily churchy stuff. The subscription has two pricing options. One is $9.99 a month, which isn't too bad for unlimited audiobook access, if you like the content Deseret Book offers. The other option is to purchase a Platinum Rewards Membership for $25 and then get the subscription for $6.99 a month. This doesn't really save much money (only about $10 across the span of a year), but I did it this way because the Platinum Membership comes with a few small perks, such as a subscription to LDS Living (which I've yet to actually read) and a free birthday gift.
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And there you have it! A list of some of my favorite and most-used apps. Is there an app you love that I might be missing in my life?
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