As a parent of I love anything that’s free or saves me money. I like to make my phone less of a distraction and help my save time so I can better focus on my family. Below is 10 free apps I love and use to make our life easier.
Cozi
Cozi is great for the family as a way to keep all connected. The best part is everyone in the family has their own account but is within a shared account. You can decide who sees what. It has a calendar (the free account only has by the week, have to pay for monthly). It has lists where you can do your shopping lists, to-do list, gift lists, or anything else you can think of. Another great function of it is you can find recipes from a list of over 100. You can also edit them once added to you box to improve to your taste. You can even add your own from scratch or from a website. It also has a no screen dim function while you use it on your phone. From the recipe page you can add everything on to the shopping list and your calendar for even easier family meal planning. Lastly under the family tab is a journal that allows for photos, and stories so you can capture them as they happen. As a family we have just started using this app and we already love it.
Target
I love this app.I just scan from my phone and see if there are any discounts I can apply. I myself have saved over $400 just with this app alone. If that’s not great enough you can also buy online and have it ready for pick-up within 2 hours. Just drive to a designated spot in the parking lot and they bring it out to you. When you have kids this is a prayer answered.
Pampers/ Huggies
you will be spending loads on diapers and wipe. Unless of course you go the cloth diaper route. I wasn’t about to do that, I barely handle a blowout without gagging. With this app you can scan the barcode of diapers and wipes and collect points towards gifts. My wife and I got a Mellisa & Doug wooden block set for free from them just using the points.
Dropbox
This may be an unthought of one. I’m using this to share hundreds of high resolution images with family on the east coast. There is a free account that you can sign up for where you get 2GB. I have a paid for account, mainly because I also have hundreds of design projects that I have to store. There are other photo sharing apps but this one is great if needing to share more then just photos.
Sound sleeper
White noise was a savior when my daughter was little. We where surprised that it worked. We were driving home and Aaliyah was absolutely loosing her mind. I tried all the usuals singing, shushing, holding her hands. I heard of white noise is like being back in the womb for babies. Put it on and boom quite.
Endless reader
this is funny and educational. With this app you can can spell simple words by matching letters with their outlines. Next set is you do the same matching but with a few of the words within a sentence, after which you get a short animation of the monsters doing what the sentence was. It’s great when you need a good quick distraction.
Spotify
The reason I choose this over iTunes is just the free aspect. They both have their pros and cons. I make playlists for myself, work, lullabies for the kids. Aaliyah loves the arial soundtrack and I’ve had to, multiple times, sing as Queen Ursula full voice ”Poor Unfortunate Souls” which she love me doing. I made a playlist of the country music I was raised on which I sing as a lullaby to my kids which as of lately my daughter has been requesting. They also have full lullaby renditions of real songs which is a nice change up from twinkle twinkle little star and hush little baby.
Wonderlist
My wife an I use this religiously. From to do list, shopping list, gift ideas for each other and the kids, temperature and what time we give the kids medicine when they are sick, and for business stuff. I like how I share and link our lists and they update in real time. I also Create lists I can keep to myself. Like a list of gifts I can get for my wife. Little tip men, whenever your wife or girlfriend says she likes something take a picture &write it down in wonderlist or where ever. That way when Christmas, birthdays, and anniversaries come up you have a list of things to choose from. I also do a list for things she wants me to make, things I want to make her. Another tip, create a list of things YOU wants so when she asks you, you have an answer.
Amazon
I don’t use this to shop online. I use it to price match at Target, Walmart, and wherever else will let me. My wife saved $20 over Christmas on a LOL surprise pack. We’ve also saved money on dvds, baby items, various toys, games,
Tinybeans
I’ve just discovered this app and so far it’s great. With unlimited free storage, you create albums with all your photos and memories which will all be put on your calendar to share with your family. It has a milestone tracker so you can add all your kids stats like weight, height, milestones, and age. It’ll even help you with memory suggestions to help get you thinking. You’re family can order prints, posters, cards, magnets, canvas prints and more. I’m sure everyone will love this app.
