Pinch Your Pennies And Save Towards Meaningful Goals With Unsplurge
Unsplurge (Free) by Lau Brothers LLC is a great app to help you save up for your goals. Rather than spend money on stuff you don’t need, why not keep track of what you’re cutting back on in order to get the stuff you really want, but can’t afford right now?
I am sure that we’ve all gone through it before — we want something, but just don’t have the funds at the moment to get it. That’s why we need to save up, but it’s such a tough thing to do sometimes. Fortunately, there are now apps that want to make the saving process a little more, fun, so to speak. And with Unsplurge, it’s definitely a nice app to have.
To start using Unsplurge, you will need to create an account. This is so you can join the community of other unsplurge-rs, and see what others are saving up for and how they are doing it. Creating an account is easy enough, and only takes a few seconds to set up.
Once you have created your account, it’s time to start saving. You will have an example goal created for you, but you can edit it or add a new goal at any time. To do this, you will need to go to the Goals tab from the bottom menubar, and then tap on the “New” button in the top right. Unsplurge already has three goal options for you: Earn Shopping Spree (that’s lovely), Save, and Donate to Charity. Of course, these are pretty limiting, and there are tons of different goals that you can set, so you can always make your own with the Custom Goal option.
If you do choose a custom goal (or any of the pre-made ones), you are able to write in the name of the goal, along with an optional description of your goal to share with the community. You can also toggle sharing with the rest of the Unsplurge community, or you can keep it to yourself. The next step in creating a goal is to select the dollar amount, and then save it! Your goal will be set.
If you have multiple goals, then feel free to add them all in the app. However, only the number one goal can be displayed for you to add your savings to, so choose prioritize and choose wisely. Of course, you can also change your top goal at any time from the Goals screen as well, so it’s not set in stone.
When you have a new savings to add to your goal, go to the Save tab, and then tap on that big “New Unsplurge” button. You can then input the amount of money you have saved, and then pick the category you saved in. If the category you want is not listed, you can add it in yourself. The last step is to add a description of your savings, which you can share with others or just keep it private. If it is kept private, it will not show up in the “Town” section.
If you take a look in the Town tab, you are able to see the latest activities from your fellow Unsplurge community members, including savings and met goals. When you feel inspired by someone, or just like what they are doing to save money, you can feel free to give them a like on their unsplurge by tapping on the heart. Give the activity a tap and you can view it in full detail, including any photos that they have, rather than just a tiny little thumbnail. You can also follow other users from this view as well.
When you view your own profile tab, you can add a profile picture, and see how many people you follow and who follows you. Once you’ve been using the app for a while, you can view stats as well, which include the total amount you have saved with Unsplurge, as well as a breakdown of the categories you’ve saved in. Your recent unsplurges will also be shown on your profile if you’ve decided to make them public.
Unsplurge has settings, but they are pretty sparse, with only options for sending feedback and contacting the developer, or logging out of your account.
The one problem I have with the app so far is that there does not seem to be a way to edit an unsplurge, or even to delete it. Once you input your savings, then there is no way to change or delete it, so be careful. I hope that they implement a way to edit or delete unsplurges in a future version.
So far, though, I’m enjoying having Unsplurge around. It’s a great way to help me focus on saving money and working towards getting to my goals. If you’ve been looking for an app to help you do just that, then you will definitely need to check out Unsplurge. The ability to see how others are pinching their pennies and actually reaching their goals is also great motivation.
You can get Unsplurge in the App Store for your iPhone for free.