Last week I started a series per your requests on some of the most useful apps I use on my Android phone. They may also be available for iPhones; however, I do not review those. You can check for them on the iPhone store if you are interested. We began with the Amazon App, Dark Sky and Drupe Dialer. At the end of last week, I told you to come here this week and I would tell you about a “real way to save some dollars.”
If you drive a car get ready to save! The more you drive the more money you save with GasBuddy. Check for it on the Google Play Store at dblclx.com/gp_gasbud. If you are not using it you are losing money. With the GasBuddy app you can look up local gas prices by stations’ locations nearest to you or by price in an area. You can also check gas prices if you are going on a trip by zip code. The prices are entered by members, who sign up for a free account like you and me. Therefore, they are usually spot on accurate.
Other interesting pieces of information a free account offers are occasional recall notices on your vehicles, if you enter your car make, type and year. One other thing I take advantage of is online at GasBuddy.com where I save much more money. Go to their site (gasbuddy.com) and sign up for the “Pay with GasBuddy” card. You link it to your debit/credit card you normally use to pay for your gas. Then when you buy gas at most stations (but not all for more info, dblclx.com/gasbud_info) use the GasBuddy card and get an additional $0.05/gallon off of your gas purchases.
Here is something I do not often do here…kind of an advertisement (unpaid and unsolicited). I buy most of my gas at Sheetz. If you get a My Sheetz Card, they give you $0.03/gallon off on your gas purchases. With that member card entered and then paid for with the GasBuddy card you get $0.08 total off per gallon. It is safe, really works and I have been using it for years savings lots of money on gas. It may work this way with other memberships too.
Next is Google Keep (dblclx.com/gp_keep). The basic reason I like this is that you can take a note. You can enter text, lists and even a bulleted list with check-off boxes. You can share notes with others, like your grocery list. Then whoever is going by the store has an updated list. Another is the ability to record a voice message. After you record your message it immediately transcribes it into text. The transcription is usually quite accurate but as I have said before – do not trust a transcription from a computer for any important writing. You also can set time and location reminders for your notes.
The next interesting feature in Google Keep is “grabbing text” from a photo. In Keep I can take a photo with text on it, put it in a note and click the menu and choose “Grab image text.” Then it quickly scans the graphic and creates a plain text copy. You can then manipulate the text as if you had typed it. This is not always perfect but is accurate most of the time.
Finally, it is free, syncs immediately across all of your devices and accessible online at keep.google.com.