Many people argue that in tough economic times such as these, we can’t afford luxuries like smartphones. But in many cases, smart phones are actually a great economic investment. There are scores of applications that you can access through your 4G Slide Android Phone, or other similar mobile devices, that will help the most frugal minded consumer. With a small investment of one of these phones, you can do anything from balance your monthly budget to track your spending habits so you can see where all of your money is going. Here’s a list of a few savings centric applications currently on the market.

My Coupons
This is a new approach to an old idea but the difference is the ease of use. We’re all familiar with when our parents would go through the Sunday paper looking to see the coming week’s deals. They’d clip as many coupons as they could so they could save. With My Coupons, you can do the very same thing only from a single source. You don’t have to go out and get the paper in order to browse through the latest coupon offers. With this app, you’ll get new coupon lists sent to you phone every day. You can even share them with your friends by Tweeting or posting them on their Facebook page. These coupons are offered both locally and nationally. It has the added bonus of being able to scan a product’s bar code so you can see if there’s a coupon available. It’s a must have for any family looking to cut back on their monthly grocery bill.

GasBuddy
Gas prices are always fluctuating but right now, prices have risen so much lately, that it’s a topic on the minds of most consumers. The prices rise to such a height at times that it’s hard to make room for everything else in your budget when the price of gasoline skyrockets overnight and you’re then left with a huge gap in your bank account. For anyone looking to find the cheapest prices around, there’s the application GasBuddy. This app is free for anyone to use and it tells you the station nearest to your location and what their price is. It’s updated by a network of users and you may find it a handy tool at saving on gas.

ShopSavvy:
This application is less about tracking your spending and more about buying at the best deal possible. You can go online and enter in the product you want to purchase. From there you’ll be able to see if anyone else is selling the exact same product cheaper than the price that you’ve found. You can even do this while standing in line at the store before you buy it so you’ll know if you’re getting the best deal. It’s very simple to use and all you have to do is scan the bar code with the device’s camera and then the app will do a massive search online. This app won’t track your spending habits but, it will get you the best deal possible.

If you’re strapped for cash, there are many things you can do in your daily life to curb expenses, and your phone is just another approach. If you’re worried about your monthly bills and are looking for different ways to cut back, some of these apps might work to your benefit. Technology is best used when it’s for a purpose so use it to positively impact your bills and bring your finances under control.

Nearly A Nerd welcomes web programmer and enthusiastic new Droid owner Joel Doetsch who’s also blogged his favorite Android apps.

So, sick and tired of all the iPhone hype, you took it upon yourself to go out and buy a Droid today. Maybe you were ready to break into the ever expanding smart-phone market, maybe your friends were all laughing at your LG8300. Whatever the case may be, you now have a Droid. It’s sleek, it’s powerful, and…the ringtones are godawful.

In the old days, one would either pay the exorbitant amount of $1.99 for a new ringtone from an app store, or go the more tech-savvy route and install bitpim and illegally force your own ringtones onto it. Either way, the issue was solved. You can’t do that with the Droid. I know, you’re probably questioning that $200 purchase now. I mean sure it has a free GPS with turn by turn directions, but what’s that worth if I can’t even listen to my favorite Miley Cyrus song every time someone calls me?

Well fret no more. Here are the simple instructions for getting all your crazy ringtones onto your phone.

First, we prepare the phone.

The Droid comes with a 16GB SD card already installed. It should also come with a USB cable. You’ll want to attach it to your computer and to the Droid. If you can’t figure out which end goes where, please contact your nearest tech savvy friend.

From the Droid, at the top of the screen you’ll see the USB connector icon. If you pull that down on the touch-screen you’ll get a box called “USB Connected”. If you then click that box, you’ll get the option to “Mount” (you’re a dirty person by the way). Hit that, and now you’re connected to your PC.

In your PC, go to “My Computer” and you’ll see a Removable Disk. If you click on that, there will be a number of files and folders already on the SD Card. Create these folders if they aren’t already there

Create a folder called media inside that folder create another folder called audio

Finally, inside that folder create 3 more folders:
ringtones
notifications
alarms

Those 3 folders will take care of all the different types of ringtones you’ll need on your fancy phone.

So now your phone is prepared to take in music, now how do you get it there?

Go to the marketplace and download an app called Ringdroid. This is an application that allows you to cut pieces of an mp3 out for use as a ringtone. It’s also free as of this writing. Also useful would be to download an application called Astro, which is a file manager. But it’s not completely necessary

Once you’ve done that, take your Miley mp3 and copy it into the main SD Card directory (what you saw when you first opened the removable disk). Use windows “safely remove hardware” button to unhook your USB and then turn off the USB on your phone the same way you turned it on.

Open the Ringdroid app, and select your song. From there it’s basically straightforward. Pick the start and stop points, and hit save. You can also delete the original mp3 from the top directory to save space. Rinse and repeat for any other In my experiences, it’s automatically saved it in my ringtones directory. If that’s what you were going for, then stop. You’re done. Congratulations!

If you want it in a different directory you can either

A) Reconnect your USB, go to the ringtones directory you created earlier, cut and paste the file into the directory you want it to go into (notifications or alarms)

or

B) Use the Astro file manager to do the same thing. It’s a fairly intuitive program, so I won’t get into the details of that. If you can’t get it to work, you’d best go with option A.

I hope I have enlightened, entertained, and otherwise enamored you with my instructions. Have fun, but don’t hold me responsible when your co-workers beat you within an inch of your life for having “The Safety Dance” constantly play when you’re called.

-Joel Doetsch