I find that often my lists have lists. Now recently I find myself checking out a variety of "lists" apps for my iphone. So now my apps have apps. I have, however, found a few worth sharing that others may enjoy learning about as well. Some I have kept, others have gone by the way side over the past year. In no particular order of importance....
List Wrangler: I find that this one has great templates for setting up the re-occuring lists that you use daily, weekly, monthly, yearly. The ability to customize, set dates, reminders and all that sort is very helpful. I only wish that this app integrated with my icloud calendar. It does not.
Todoodles: This app was okay.However, I found it lacking in some ways that the already free "reminders" app on my phone does not already accomplish the same thing. I was not overly impressed with many of this apps features, and kept wishing it would do more.
Remember the Milk: I like that this has a website as well where you can update and integrate items. I also liked that these lists could be customized somewhat. Yet I wasn't in love with this app either.
Checklist: This was a complete waste of 99 cents in my opinion and did absolutely nothing but allow you to create a singular list, which plenty of other free apps already do and do better.
A Personal Assistant: This app is interesting in that it allows you to manage a variety of online accounts all from one place. It is convenient and quick.
Ewallet: I have heard great things about Ewallet but haven't actually used it. I haven't heard anything bad about it however and those that I know who have tried it or continue to use it really enjoy it.
Grocery IQ: This app is fun and useful. It has barcode scan ability. List sharing ability. (a huge perk!!) and I can integrate my coupons. This is a winning app for my family. Oh and it's free!
There are so many more great apps out there that I know people use, please list any that you love in the comments section so that those of us with Type A personalities and a need for even further list making, organizing, etc. can check it out.
Showing posts with label Apps. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Apps. Show all posts
Monday, January 14, 2013
Friday, February 10, 2012
Friday Favorites
Fast Customer - This is only available for United States and Canada - no more waiting on hold for Customer Service...this app will connect you to customer service reps without waiting on the line. I am not sure if it is available for anything other then iPhone but felt it was too good to not post.
Southwest Turkey Meatballs with Cilantro Dipping Sauce
Decals on Canisters - step by step instructions on how to make them and apply them and even make the decals dishwasher safe.
Couponing for Beginners - from Frugal Girls - they have a coupon database on their website.
Thursday, January 5, 2012
Guest Post: Review of ToodleDo
Organization can make or break you. If you’re anything like me, I have lists, then have more lists and then have list of lists and finally a list to organize the lists … and before long all of that gets thrown into the shredder without thinking twice. What I was lacking was a central place that could store all of my to do lists in a way that made logical sense.
Then I found ToodleDo, a cloud service that allows you to sync up your to do list with your computer, iPad, Android, iPhone, even your Blackberry.
But ToodleDo is the ultimate of ultimate to-do lists. What makes it that way?
It allows you to get as anal with your to-do lists as you care or want. You can categorize them, then prioritize them, assign them, and setup reminders to your heart’s content. You can have it send you daily reminders of the most pressing things on your list and have that wonderful satisfaction of crossing off (okay – clicking a check box) when you gleefully finish an item on the list.
The service is FREE – with some limitations or you can get an annual subscription that has other capabilities including – nested to-do lists. Wait. Nested to-do lists? What are those?
Let’s say you’re going to have a dinner party of guests, but there’s a lot of things to do in addition to the other 10 things you have on your list. For example:
- Clean dining room
- Fix blinds
- Remember Sally’s permission slip
- Get Roast from Piggly Wiggly
- Polish silverwave
- Take car in for tune-up
- Call to have prescription refilled
- Clean the flower garden
- Rake up the leaves
- Clean the kids room
It all gets jumbled until you can nest the to-do list or batch them into better pockets:
- Thursday's chores
o Fix blinds
o Take care in for tune-up
o Rake leaves
- Kids
o Call to have prescription filled
o Clean kids room
o Remember Sally’s permission slip
- Sunday Dinner Party
o Cleaning dining room
o Get roast for Piggly Wiggly
o Polish silverware
o Polish silverware
Okay – that might be just a minor plus but it can help in some when needing to organize some tasks.
Something else you can do is email the to-do list to whoever else is a collaborator. That’s kind of cool when schedules get bent out of shape everywhere and you need a central place to focus on the things that need to get done.
And if you’re into micromanaging, you can estimate the amount of time it would take to complete a said item. Why would you want to do that? Because if you micromanage things right down to the minute, ToodleDo can then assign you a task to do. Have a 20-30 minute spot between projects or appointments? ToodleDo can tell you to vacuum the living room or get bills ready for next week or whatever 20-30 minute project you have defined.
All told – ToodleDo is a great, comprehensive task, to-do list with a whole host of features and tools that can help better organize your life.
BIO: LordSpooner aka Michael is a sadist, bondage enthusiast, a fetishist, a geek, an all around good guy who everyone thinks would never hurt a fly. (Little do they know.) Having a passion and love for all thing technological, he's found a niche being a tech-geek for those around him. You can learn more about him on his blog or on FetLife
BIO: LordSpooner aka Michael is a sadist, bondage enthusiast, a fetishist, a geek, an all around good guy who everyone thinks would never hurt a fly. (Little do they know.) Having a passion and love for all thing technological, he's found a niche being a tech-geek for those around him. You can learn more about him on his blog or on FetLife
Monday, December 12, 2011
Making a dollar go a long way.
From September to New Year's in our household there is no shortage of holidays and birthdays celebrated. Between the Jewish holidays that come in the fall, the Christian holidays that come in the fall, and 6 birthday celebrations, and 2 anniversary celebrations, we are always looking for ways to stretch our money. We host most of the above and it seems there are always overnight guests, extra people at the table, and just more mouths to feed, presents to purchase, and things to do, than time or money sometimes want to allow.
So each year I look for ways to cut costs, save a bit here and there, to spend that bit in another spot. In other words rob Peter to pay Paul if you will.
There are two great iPhone apps that I have used to help me keep track of where all the money seems to go and how our family is spending that money. The first app is a free app that can be purchased through iTunes called Mint. Mint is a really handy tool in that it is not only a budget tracker, it interfaces with whichever bank accounts you set it up to interface with and can directly use the information from your bank accounts to track where the money goes without you having to do much beyond initial set up. (I love when my devices work smartly for me). Mint also has some great "alert" features that you can use to keep you up to date on spending limits, areas of concern, or over all information.
The other app that I find very useful is iReconcile. iReconcile is not a free app, but I do prefer it over Mint in that it does "more" and it does it a little bit better. The app itself will cost $19.99 annually (backup features etc.) but I find that $20 to be well worth it when it comes to long term financial planning, tracking, spending tools, and information gathered. It will allow you to drill down to the smallest of details, and also sum up to an annual level. Himself prefers to not know the small details, but wants the bigger picture and wants me to be able to explain things in further detail should he ask. For my purposes I love being able to drill down to the tiniest of details, yet easily roll it up into a neat summary.
But making a dollar go along way isn't just limited to tracking where the spending happens. You can still make wonderful holiday memories without having to break the bank. Think in terms of daily affordable luxury items. Many of us don't even realize just how much money goes out the door each day on that daily latte, or that daily muffin in the morning before work. Or maybe it's the afternoon pick me up at the food truck outside your office space, or perhaps it's the quick pizza on the go for the kids in the evening because you forgot to defrost something to cook for dinner. With a small amount of pre-planning, you can save a bundle. While it is too late to do this for this year, it's not to late to start thinking about next year.
So perhaps make small changes for the new year. Maybe you make a menu plan for the week/month. Perhaps your plan involves using a crockpot a bit more to avoid that last minute pizza, or maybe you do a big cook ahead day twice per month and freeze a few dinner options so that on the days when life is hectic and you don't want to cook you can simply take something out of the freezer, pop it into the oven, add a salad and bread, and you are good to go. Maybe you keep a supply of pizza dough ready to go in your freezer so you can make great tasting homemade pizza at a fraction of the cost of buying one.
Perhaps for the new year you take the "latte challenge". While I would not dream of challenging you to give up your daily latte every day of the week (although that in and of itself is a great challenge) I would challenge you to give it up two days a week and bank the difference. Have a jar, or envelope, or even a spot in your savings account, where you designate the "latte" money to go. If you do this twice a week, that's a $10 savings, $40 monthly, and by next December you have $480 saved that you can now add to the holiday budget to go toward whatever holiday expenses you may have. And you will find you won't even really feel it missing. Imagine then, if you will, if you do that daily instead of just twice a week, at what the savings would be.
And while I am using the term "latte"... i really do mean whatever your affordable luxury is. For some it's a latte, for others its that daily candy bar, for some still it's cigarettes. Whatever your item is, make a life change, even if only once or twice a week, bank the funds, and use it at the end of the year for something better. Your body will thank you, your wallet will thank you, and your happiness in knowing you achieved a goal will be a reward in and of itself. And if all else fails, give yourself a sticker for each day you achieve this, it works for my oldest daughter, she says stickers are *the* best! Perhaps she's right.
And lastly, in making your dollar go along way, think outside the box. Instead of buying expensive wrapping paper, think of fun and creative ways to wrap a present. Have a bottle of wine you need to give, knit a wine cosy, or decoupage a brown bag and put it in that, or simply tie a pretty bow on it and take it as is. After all, people are going to not only appreciate your efforts, but they are appreciating the gift itself more so than what it was wrapped in, boxed in, or otherwise packaged in.
Happy Holidays!
So each year I look for ways to cut costs, save a bit here and there, to spend that bit in another spot. In other words rob Peter to pay Paul if you will.
There are two great iPhone apps that I have used to help me keep track of where all the money seems to go and how our family is spending that money. The first app is a free app that can be purchased through iTunes called Mint. Mint is a really handy tool in that it is not only a budget tracker, it interfaces with whichever bank accounts you set it up to interface with and can directly use the information from your bank accounts to track where the money goes without you having to do much beyond initial set up. (I love when my devices work smartly for me). Mint also has some great "alert" features that you can use to keep you up to date on spending limits, areas of concern, or over all information.
The other app that I find very useful is iReconcile. iReconcile is not a free app, but I do prefer it over Mint in that it does "more" and it does it a little bit better. The app itself will cost $19.99 annually (backup features etc.) but I find that $20 to be well worth it when it comes to long term financial planning, tracking, spending tools, and information gathered. It will allow you to drill down to the smallest of details, and also sum up to an annual level. Himself prefers to not know the small details, but wants the bigger picture and wants me to be able to explain things in further detail should he ask. For my purposes I love being able to drill down to the tiniest of details, yet easily roll it up into a neat summary.
But making a dollar go along way isn't just limited to tracking where the spending happens. You can still make wonderful holiday memories without having to break the bank. Think in terms of daily affordable luxury items. Many of us don't even realize just how much money goes out the door each day on that daily latte, or that daily muffin in the morning before work. Or maybe it's the afternoon pick me up at the food truck outside your office space, or perhaps it's the quick pizza on the go for the kids in the evening because you forgot to defrost something to cook for dinner. With a small amount of pre-planning, you can save a bundle. While it is too late to do this for this year, it's not to late to start thinking about next year.
So perhaps make small changes for the new year. Maybe you make a menu plan for the week/month. Perhaps your plan involves using a crockpot a bit more to avoid that last minute pizza, or maybe you do a big cook ahead day twice per month and freeze a few dinner options so that on the days when life is hectic and you don't want to cook you can simply take something out of the freezer, pop it into the oven, add a salad and bread, and you are good to go. Maybe you keep a supply of pizza dough ready to go in your freezer so you can make great tasting homemade pizza at a fraction of the cost of buying one.
Perhaps for the new year you take the "latte challenge". While I would not dream of challenging you to give up your daily latte every day of the week (although that in and of itself is a great challenge) I would challenge you to give it up two days a week and bank the difference. Have a jar, or envelope, or even a spot in your savings account, where you designate the "latte" money to go. If you do this twice a week, that's a $10 savings, $40 monthly, and by next December you have $480 saved that you can now add to the holiday budget to go toward whatever holiday expenses you may have. And you will find you won't even really feel it missing. Imagine then, if you will, if you do that daily instead of just twice a week, at what the savings would be.
And while I am using the term "latte"... i really do mean whatever your affordable luxury is. For some it's a latte, for others its that daily candy bar, for some still it's cigarettes. Whatever your item is, make a life change, even if only once or twice a week, bank the funds, and use it at the end of the year for something better. Your body will thank you, your wallet will thank you, and your happiness in knowing you achieved a goal will be a reward in and of itself. And if all else fails, give yourself a sticker for each day you achieve this, it works for my oldest daughter, she says stickers are *the* best! Perhaps she's right.
And lastly, in making your dollar go along way, think outside the box. Instead of buying expensive wrapping paper, think of fun and creative ways to wrap a present. Have a bottle of wine you need to give, knit a wine cosy, or decoupage a brown bag and put it in that, or simply tie a pretty bow on it and take it as is. After all, people are going to not only appreciate your efforts, but they are appreciating the gift itself more so than what it was wrapped in, boxed in, or otherwise packaged in.
Happy Holidays!
Thursday, November 17, 2011
Apps for Domestic Service Part 2
Productivity
Pocket Informant - powerful Calendar, Notes, Contacts, Task functions to your device (iPhone, iPad, blackberry and android). It is capable of creating events, has task grouping, GTD/Franklin Covey style tasks, Google, Toodledo, and Desktop sync.
Saving Money
Mint - It has easy budgeting, timely alerts, helpful graphs, investment tracking, help to achieve goals, bill reminders, and ways to find savings
Grocery Pal - Find sales your local grocery and discount stores.
Apples2Oranges - lets you compare two prices, even when the item sizes are different. Also does calorie count.
Recipes
Spark People - Food and fitness tracker as well as healthy recipes
Betty Crocker Cookbook - 2,500 tried-and-true recipes at your fingertips
Cooks Illustrated - 50 of Cook’s Illustrated's all-time best recipes, along with a collection of popular and practical supermarket ingredient reviews, recipe videos, and kitchen timer and shopping list features
How to Cook Everything/How to Cook Everything Vegetarian - "Thousands of recipes and variations; how-to illustrations; menu ideas; and Mark Bittman’s straightforward cooking advice for simple good food. App-only features include recipe timers, easy-to-use shopping lists, and Favorites folders. Best of all, each app is self-contained, so no network connection is required, making these apps the ultimate on-the-go kitchen companions."
Smoothies - dairy free - 100% vegan smoothie recipes
21 Day Vegan Kick Start - recipes and resources to improve and regain your health and includes step-by-step recipe photos.
FoodGawking - has food porn and then links to the recipe/resource. Go to the bottom of the page and you will see the link for download on iPhone
Fooducate - You scan the barcode and it will tell you what is actually in the product (basically telling you things you don't understand on the label) and then it will also give you healthier choices.
Green
iGrowit - it is for the USA and UK. Find out what vegetables you can plant right now, follow detailed growing instructions that will take you from preparation and planting all the way through to picking and eating your home-grown vegetables, and recipes to use those vegetables in
Green Genie - Over 100 projects and tips (and growing), sharing strategies and info with others, a breakdown of certified green products, full glossary of green terms, a collection of essential reading, links to the best green websites, an explanation of the different kinds of plastics and their recyclability, alist of green organizations and many other features
Around the House
Remodelista - search files of the sourcebook of products and posts, my Design files bookmarking feature, ability to look at posts in categories.
Dwell - Modern architecture and design
Selecting Wines for Dummies - Articles on popular wine topics, favorites wine list, sharing wines with your friends, sound clip for pronunciation, food and wine pairing tool and several other features.
DwellGawking - like FoodGawking but for dwellings
CraftGawking - again like FoodGawking but for crafts
Tip Junkie - Great website has a free app that looks good too. You can “Heart” your favorite tutorials from ALL of the Tip Junkie sites to “bookmark” them for easy access later, participate in the Tip Junkie Community
SixThreeFive also left a comment on the last post of her favorite Android apps but I noticed a few of these have links to other devices.
Chore Checklist - helps me have a checklist of daily, weekly, biweekly and monthly chores.
Our groceries - Lets you share and create multiple grocery and other to-buy lists. Just sync your phone and you won't need to call home to see if you need milk.
ShapeUpClub - Logs my excercise and calories.
Easy Money - keeps track of your credit and debit cards, as well as your walled and change. You just have to remember to use it... Has bill reminders, budgets, and other things as well.
House Maintanence Schedule - I don't personally use this, we live in an apartment, but it helps you remember to clean your waterheater, you vents, and other seasonal chores.
Chore Master Pro - Allows family members to gain points for doing chores. We don't use this one, but if we had children old enough, I think I would.
FetLife Domestic Servitude group had a good thread on this subject too so please check it out for some members favorite apps.
Just a few other links you might find some good apps...
From AppGuide - Best Chore Management Apps
50 Best Android Apps from PCWorld
Gizmodo The Best Android Apps
Please share in the comments your favorite apps that help you in your service.
Thursday, November 10, 2011
Apps to Help your Domestic Service
All the apps are either linked to their website which has a link to the app or the iTunes store. But please google the name if you want to see it has an app for other devices such as Blackberry or Android. We use a AppAdvice to get most of our apps for free (this is geared to iPhone and iPad but again google for name of app for use on other devices.) Things that normally charge will do free for limited time so please bookmark this site as a resources to find apps. They also have an AppAdvice app - which is how we actually use/read it and I find it is worth price. But view the website not just the above link but the whole website for a while and see what you think.
Productivity
For a to-do list/task list organizer - Toodledo - it is a great tool. It has customizable alarms, you can set priority levels on them and break the projects down into tasks, you can share with others, it has folders, tags, contexts, subtasks and more to organize, search and sort through your tasks. It also syncs with Google calendar and gmail.
Reference
Skygrid - basically really powerful newsfeed. If you are needing to find something out on the web and having problems, put that topic in and it will take some time - usually a day and start pulling in everything it finds on the topic. It is really good to if you don't have time right now but let it pull stuff in and then when you are sitting in a doctors office or have 10 mins you can browse through the things it found on the topic you were needing.
Dropbox - sharing files anywhere. It has been an amazing tool for us for business but we use it when we sit just with a wall between Master and my office because it is so easy to use it for sharing files. You just drop and drag to a folder that is on your computer and it will upload it to be shared with those you specify. There is a little pop-up notification on the toolbox when someone has shared something with me. You then will also be able to access it anywhere because it is saved up in the cloud. So I can save a list of household needs and measurements and when out and about, I can access it.
Evernote - Take a note of anything. I like it because I can save websites, news articles and things I know might not be there at some point but evernote will save it for me forever as long as I want it. I can then access it anywhere. So if I read a great article online about wine, I save to evernote and when shopping for wine pull it up up on evernote.
HowCast - videos on How-To. How to do almost anything.
Free Wi-Fi Finder - just what says
Remember that many magazines will give you issues via their app for free if you have a (paper) subscription to them. I have Martha Stewart's Living and Everyday Food and love the issues on the apps as they have extras like videos or more photos. It is nice to read the recipe right on the iPad instead of trying to keep my magazine open on the counter or ripping it out.
Saving Money
Gasbuddy.com has an app that we use all the time to find the cheapest gas. The other night Master saved 14 cents a gallon not traveling very far down the road to get it either.
The Coupon App- pretty much says it in the title what it is huh? :)
Barcode Scanner - it is for the Andriod but Gizmodo has a list of barcode scanners for other devices too. You can scan barcodes or data matrixs and then the app will find you the lowest price.
Menu Planning/Shopping Lists
PepperPlate.com - Not only a great website but has an app too so you can access everything you have on PepperPlate.com. Pepper Plate has a place to store recipes easily from their recommended sites as well as other sites. You can create shopping lists, menus and it also has a planner. From the home page - it looks like the app allows you to set timers and has a feature so your iPad won't dim when you are using to read a recipe while cooking. I have been only using it for a couple weeks but love everything I have used it for so far - and just love the interface.
GroceryIQ & NutritionIQ - Grocery IQ is a great app for creating shopping lists. You can have multiple stores, add details such as size, price and quantity, organize by aisle, has barcode scanning and predictive searches, print or email coupons and it can share with multiple devices and syncs the lists to them so if maybe you went shopping that day and then later one after work another member of your household stops by grocery store and they will be able to see an updated list. Nutrition IQ isn't as powerful as Grocery IQ but gives you categories of food - nutritious foods and you can click on a category such as fiber and it will list all nutritious foods with fiber. You can then add them to a shopping list and it has the ability to check them off as you shop just as Grocery IQ does.
Around the House
Handyman App - it is from the magazine The Family Handyman. It has some old issues to flip through on it but if you want current issues you have to pay for them. The old issues they have available are full of great information though. You can read the forums and blog on the app too. The forums are full of problems and solutions.
Good Housekeeping @ Home - has stain buster, do-it-all cleaning tips, home decor gallery and news & tips.
ColorSmart by Behr - it has a feature if you use with iPad2 or phones with cameras - where you can take a photo of your room and then upload it so that change the paint so you can see how it would look. ColorSnap is the Sherwin-Williams app that is like Behr. SnapShop is a similar app but for furniture.
Houzz - is basically for inspiration when I want to redecorate or when I start thinking of our dream home and want more ideas. But it is just a gallery of photos that you can save and make notes on each photo for future reference or also upload photos you find inspiring. I think this app is only for iPhone or iPad.
Flashlight - I admit it - I have used the iPad for a flashlight before trying to find my way around in the dark. It casts off more light then the little maglite I have in the junk drawer.
Recipes
I use the Epicurious app quite a bit when needing a recipe or have an ingredient I want to use - I can a search there.
Soup Master - I got this app for free but it has so many recipes that I do feel it is probably worth the $1.99. It will list like 5 chicken noodle recipes but all are a little bit different. But the variety of recipes is beyond what I could ever think of for soup.
Whole Food Recipes - It has categories such as bugget, quick and easy, cooking with kids, you can target special diet needs such as gluten-free, diary-free, lowfat, vegetarian/vegan and so on, and you can also search by ingredient, build a shopping list from the recipes.
All Recipes - they have a free version and a paid/pro version that doesn't have ads and has just a few more features. I use the free version and have liked it just fine. But I can see the paid version might have some benefits if you use All Recipes quite a bit. Because it will access your recipe box, allow you to create shopping lists from the recipes and just a few more features that you can't get with the free version. But the free version allows you access to all the recipes, doing search by 1 ingredient or up to 8, by nutrition or name. It also allows you to bookmark favorites on the app.
Big Oven - can search 170,000+ recipes, add recipes to grocery lists, and automatically synchronize those grocery lists, search by ingredient
Pocket Cocktails and Cocktails HD - It is an app for iPhone/iPad. It has recipes for cocktails. They now have their Christmas cocktail section up right now and during Halloween they had some really good cocktails that were great way to celebrate the holiday. They have a full screen photo for every drink, search by drink name or an ingredient. Also includes a Pocket Sommelier. There is a list of tips and tricks such as how to coat a rim of a glass, how to make layer drinks, zest fruit and so on. Even though I have an iPad I use Pocket Cocktails as Cocktails HD hadn't come out when I first got Pocket Cocktails. They are both 99 cents so not bad for all recipes and information it gives you.
Green
Good Guide - find health, environmental and social performance ratings for 120,000 food, personal care and household products, has barcode scanning built in to retrieve product ratings while you shop, you can personalize by selecting issues you care the most about such as is a product tested on animals if that is a top priority for you - you can select that to make sure it tells you how that product rates in that area. It also allows you to create shopping lists.
Locavore - find local, in-season food, seasonal recipes, nearby farmers' markets & farms that sell the products you enjoy.
iRecycle - tells you how, where and when to recycle just about anything by inputting your location and also shares new with tips and ways to make green changes to your life. Another app that I think is similar is My Recycle List.
Part 2 of this will be apps that I haven't used but heard good things about and a few other resource lists for finding applications.
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