Coronavirus, significant inflation, the Ukraine war, soaring energy prices, climate change, a looming burnout epidemic – these are challenging times. Luckily, there are apps! Many great apps. We’ve listed the best apps in the categories of finance, energy saving, healthy eating, sports & mindfulness, travel, and couch potato, so that 2023 can be an unprecedentedly advantageous, healthy, happy, and relaxed year for you.
Get your finances in order
A recession, an inflation rate of around 10 percent in 2022, energy prices that resemble gold prices, and rising interest rates for loans – the economy is stirring up quite a bit of trouble. The following apps will help you save money or even earn extra money.
Dyme: Fix your financial holes
Dyme started with a mistake: the founder forgot to cancel his gym membership. This led to an app that allows you to have all your bank accounts in one place and see all your subscriptions and fixed expenses in one overview. The app helps you with budgeting, forecasting, and canceling “zombie subscriptions” with just one tap.
Too Good To Go: Save, also for the environment
Too Good To Go is almost “too good to be true.” For a few euros, you can order a surprise package consisting of leftover food from a nearby business such as a supermarket, bakery, restaurant, or hotel. This way, delicious food is eaten instead of thrown away. Thanks to TGTG, 17.5 million surprise packages have been saved from the trash.
Peerby: Sharing tools as a savings tool
With Peerby, you can borrow and lend items to people who live near you. From electric cargo bikes, drills, and kitchen steps to Sarah blow-up dolls, chocolate fountains, mobility scooters, and garden gnomes. Usually, borrowing costs between 0 and 20 euros per day, which is almost always cheaper than renting from Bo-rent. The downside: you have to have a paid subscription. Do you have useful items yourself? Earn money by renting them out!
Energy saving
In the past year and a half, the price of gas has increased almost tenfold, causing electricity prices to skyrocket as well. All the more reason to save energy, with the following apps!
Apps from energy companies: save thanks to smart insights
The larger and better energy companies, such as Greenchoice and ENGIE, have launched apps that provide insight into your consumption – whether or not based on smart meters – and provide handy tips for saving gas and electricity.
tadoº: warm recommendation for smart heating
Tado: with tadoº you no longer have to set the temperature for your home, but you can control it separately for each room. You don’t have to heat where you’re not, so you save energy. You can create a schedule for this, but you can also use geolocations to automatically turn the heating on and off based on your location. Note: you do need smart radiator knobs for tadoº.
Charge Assist: faster insight into available (and cheaper!) charging stations
If you use the app Charge Assist (built by us), you can quickly find a cheap(er) charging station. You can filter by price and power type and choose from a variety of payment methods. By scanning the QR code on the charging station, you can start charging quickly. Notifications let you know when a charging station is available. Conveniently, thanks to smart algorithms, Charge Assist knows when you’re in a hurry, and you get priority.
Nutrition and health
Eating healthily is one of the cornerstones of a healthy body – and therefore feeling good.
FitChef: balanced meals based on your calorie needs
With FitChef, you receive a new menu every week with simple recipes based on your macro and calorie needs. And there’s also a weekly shopping list included. From breakfast to dinner and from protein-rich to low-carb, FitChef has the perfect recipe for every moment, which is also tailored to factors such as how much you exercise, your eating goals (such as weight loss), and your dietary preferences.
Mijn Eetmeter: a healthy body through the Wheel of Five
Do you want to know if you’re consuming enough vitamins, minerals, and energy? Then fill in the food diary Mijn Eetmeter from the Dutch Nutrition Center, which provides customized advice. Mijn Eetmeter contains over 100,000 products, and for products outside of the Wheel of Five, healthier alternatives are suggested.
AH Mijn Leefstijlcoach: challenged to live healthier
Mijn Leefstijlcoach, an app from Albert Heijn and VGZ, contains more than 70 change programs (“challenges”) for better eating, sleeping, exercising, and relaxing. A coach helps you successfully complete the challenge in question through videos, exercises, and recipes. Fun fact: Pinch took part in developing this Flutter-app.
Sport & mindfulness
In addition to healthy eating, exercising and mindfulness exercises are other important pillars for feeling good (better) about yourself.
Strava: the ultimate sports app
Strava, with 100 million users in 195 countries, of course, cannot be missing from this list. With the app, you can record and discover sports activities, but it is also a social network that allows you to share activities and form clubs. The app contains 30 types of activities, of which cycling and running are the most well-known. Strava has numerous fun and useful features, such as real-time location sharing for emergencies and segments for popular routes where you can set records.
Nike Training Club: make workouts work
Nike Training Club is the go-to app for workouts and wellness. From HIIT, cardio, and total body fitness to yoga and mindfulness: renowned trainers, athletes, and wellness experts provide training in all shapes and sizes. To help with motivation, you can set goals and become part of the Nike community.
Headspace: calm and clarity in your mind
Headspace was created by Andy Puddicombe, a former Buddhist monk who wanted to make meditation more accessible. The app contains a huge number of meditation and mindfulness exercises for less stress, more happiness, and better sleep, among other things. There are exercises for work-related stress, parenting issues, and waking up in the middle of the night. The app stands out for its user-friendliness.
Travel
Due to COVID-19, we have all been unable to travel or have done very little. The following apps will make your next trip even more enjoyable.
Tripsy: the ideal travel buddy
Tripsy is your ideal travel buddy: it is a travel planner that makes it easy to share your itinerary, receive flight notifications, and request travel itinerary suggestions.
GoHere: the best tips come from friends
There are already enough tourist guidebooks and city apps. With GoHere – an app from the Pinch team – you get the most valuable travel tips from your friends. This way, you can avoid commercial suggestions and discover and share the coolest places.
Polarsteps: share your travel experiences with the world
With Polarsteps, you can easily share your travel experiences and tips. You can also use the app to plan your trip. Another fun feature: you can turn your travel diary into a photo book.
Travel Diaries: a diary is the best memory
Thanks to the Travel Diaries app developed by Pinch, you can create a travel diary through a web and mobile app. The online editor is designed to look like a real book, and you can add photos, maps, and stories. You can share and print the diary.
Relaxing at home
Easy and high-quality entertainment at home helps to relax. Take advantage of the following tips for quality streaming apps.
Picl: watch theater films at home
Picl makes it possible to watch films from the theater at home, and you can pay at a theater of your choice.
Cinetree: stream curated content
Cinetree is a streaming service for curated content. Each week, the app, together with makers, enthusiasts, and experts, selects new, amazing titles. Each film is personally introduced and contextualized.
Pathé Thuis: the cinema at home
Do you feel like watching a (mainstream) film, but can’t go to the cinema? With Pathé Thuis, you can watch movies on your own device. A subscription is not necessary; you pay per movie.
