Paid Apps

Let me just start by saying I’m extremely frugal. I rarely pay for anything I can live without. (Of course there are times I say “cost be hanged” and get what I want, but that is very rare!)

Anyway, suffice it to say, this trait extends to the app store for my phone. I usually don’t even look at the paid apps! But at the recommendation of two people I trust implicitly (my husband and my best friend), I actually spent money on two apps—and I’ve never regretted either purchase.

PrayerMate—my husband told me about this app. It is a structured, yet fully customizable way to keep up with your prayer list. You can list requests to pray for everyday or categories to pray for every day, then specify how many of the requests in that category to pray for each day. (Then it scrolls through all of those things repeatedly over how ever many days it takes to cover them all.) The possibilities are endless. Plus, it is right with you all the time. Someone asks you to pray, you can put the request right on your list. You can lock it with a password if there is sensitive information. It is so convenient to log in whenever and wherever you are and remember who you want and need to pray for. It’s awesome! Cost: $2.99

MotivatedMoms—my BFF knows how much I hate to clean house. Almost as much as I hate to cook. But at the first of this year, I knew I had to somehow get a handle on things. She suggested this app. The price made me balk—especially when I realized they make you buy it again each year. But after using it for the past three and a half months, I think it’s a steal! Much cheaper than a housekeeper! :) 

Motivated Moms is a to do list (Yes, another one.), but it is focused on the house. Not only does it have daily tasks listed (yes, you can delete the ones that don’t apply to you and add ones that do), but the beauty of this app lies in the weekly and occasional tasks that get assigned a day— you know, the stuff you never actually remember to do. (Again, you can add, delete, or change a to do date.) With this app, not only have my bathrooms, floors, and kitchen stayed relatively clean on a weekly basis, but I find it now takes less time to do those tasks because I haven’t let things get out of hand. Also, I’ve done things I would never have done--like clean various shelves in the fridge or wipe down the kitchen cabinets or the front and top of the washer and dryer. I confess, I rarely do everything listed on a day, but each task I get done is more than would have happened on my own, so I don’t worry too much about the rest. I know some of those occasional tasks will come back around again and I’ll have another chance. I generally work hard to get most of the daily and weekly tasks done on any given day. And once I’ve marked off most of that day’s tasks, I then mark off the one task called “house” on my TeuxDeux list. (You’ve gotta love cascading lists—the generality on the main list and a more detailed list to mark off elsewhere! And all of my list apps are grouped in the same folder on my phone.) Cost: $9.99 That’s for the year, but well worth it. 

There you go. The two apps that pried open my wallet! What about you? Do you use any paid apps that are worth every hard-earned cent? Let me know about them, too!