15 money-saving smartphone apps

It's the time of year when non-stop shopping and overspending may feel like an inevitability. But if you have a smartphone, it may be able to help you make this holiday season your cheapest one yet.

These days money-saving smartphone apps are everywhere, and they can help you find the best deals, take advantage of coupons and keep within your holiday budget.

Here are just some of free apps that you can use to rack up savings this season:

1. Toshl (iPhone, Blackberry and Android): Need insight into what you're really spending? This expense tracker displays where your money is going in a chart format. The app also will alert you when it's time to watch your spending.

2. ShopSavvy (iPhone and Android): Ditch those sales flyers. With this app you can scan an item's barcode and it will show you which nearby store or website offers the lowest price for the same product. It can also provide wish lists and price alerts.

3. Google Shopper (iPhone): This app not only helps locate the lowest prices in your area and online, but also accesses regional deals offered by Groupon, Living Social and similar sites. In addition, it offers reviews, specifications, videos and other information for some products.

4. Coupon Sherpa Mobile Coupons (iPhone and Android): No need for a coupon organizer--this app provides hundreds of in-store coupons on your smartphone.

5. KeyRing Reward Cards (iPhone and Android): Are your loyalty cards impossible to locate or taking up too much space in your wallet? Download this app to scan and store existing loyalty cards, join new programs and receive mobile coupons via your phone.

6. RedLaser (iPhone and Android): This barcode-scanning app not only provides price information for better comparisons, but also checks food allergens and nutrition information, and can even find books in your local library.

7. TheFind (iPhone and Android): If you're tired of bouncing from store to store in search of lower prices, this app does the leg work for you. It searches the web to find the best deals both online and at local retailers. It also can help locate hard-to-find items.

8. Cellfire (iPhone, Android and Blackberry): Yet another reason to forget about clipping, printing and storing coupons, this app lets you load coupons from retailers directly onto loyalty cards. It also will send a mobile reminder that you have coupons for the store you're entering.

9. The Coupons App (iPhone and Android): This app provides real-time coupon delivery and daily deals for the stores, restaurants and gas stations you frequent. It's like having a personalized coupon book on your phone.

10. PriceGrabber (iPhone and Android): Scan an item's barcode or type in the product name and find out who is selling what you're looking for at the best price. This app also provides information about products, services, merchants and sellers.

11. Price Check by Amazon (iPhone and Android): Search for items via barcode scan, image scan, image search, voice search or text search, then get detailed price comparison information for millions of products from Amazon.com and its many merchant sellers.

12. Foursquare (iPhone and Android): Track your location using this app and you'll be automatically alerted to deals at nearby stores, movie theaters, restaurants and other venues. You'll also be notified about daily deals from Groupon and other similar sites.

13. Grocery Smarts (iPhone and Android): Not only can this program track items and prices in the latest store circulars using your grocery list and location, but it can also cross-reference manufacturer coupons with the ads and display the prices for each item.

14. Grocery iQ (iPhone and Android): This intuitive shopping list app lets you build new lists quickly using predictive search and barcode-scanning features. You can categorize and organize shopping lists by aisle or store, print or e-mail coupons, and scan barcodes of grocery items to create a list that can be organized by food group. This list can be e-mailed to yourself or whoever is doing the shopping for you.

15. SnapTell (iPhone and Android): Using your camera phone, this app's image-recognition technology will access requested information to find the best price on DVDs, books, CDs or video games. This app uses barcode scanning or a visual search from a photo or title to find more info, compare prices, purchase an item or store its details.

Of course, these apps can only do so much if you haven't made a careful shopping plan to begin with. But once you've done that, they can make sticking to your budget easier--and maybe even more fun.

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