8 Life-Saving Mobile Apps To Help Make Adulthood Less Brutal
After graduating from college, it might feel like you missed a few important lessons about the real world.
Fear not -- every one of us has experienced that overwhelming feeling of "what now?!" after getting spit out from the comforts of home and college.
All of the sudden, it seems like everything both big and small becomes your responsibility.
You have to find a place to live, clean up after yourself, find new friends and somehow pay for it all.
There are a ton of apps out there promising to keep you better structured and on top of your game, and we've compiled the best ones that we know from experience to help the whole "adulthood" thing work better for you.
Keep in touch with long-distance friends.
Messaging apps are ubiquitous around the world and each country has its favorite.
Keeping in touch with friends and family around the world is a tough thing to do because it seems like there is always one app to make calls, another one to send messages and a different app to video chat.
No more! Booyah is a seamless app that allows you to access your existing groups and contacts on any messaging app (like WhatsApp, Snapchat, iMessage, Line, etc.) for HD group video chat all within that messaging app.
Now a party of friends from all around the world and any device can connect in real-time with each other.
This app is one of the best video chat apps out there.
Get paid and pay fairly.
If your roommates are your friends and your friends are your roommates, eventually you will be doing so many things together you'll forget who owes what.
Splitwise keeps track of rent, utilities, bills, trips and random IOUs so that everyone gets paid back fairly. The app has rave reviews and we can't imagine life without it, because it keeps everyone accountable and makes talking about money way less awkward.
You can also set up reminders for upcoming bills or money that you owe friends, so you aren't the one who always forgets to pay (because that's just embarrassing). The app keeps a running total of money owed, so you can get paid in one lump sum instead of a bunch of smaller payments.
Keep track of your health -- it's important.
As with all things, knowledge is power, especially when it comes to your body.
Glow, winner of a Webby for best Health & Fitness app, allows you to track more than 40 different health signals to help you better understand your body and fertility. Glow monitors your overall health and specifically your fertility so you can better predict when the right time to have (or avoid) sex is.
Over time, the data-driven app offers personal insights on your health and will sync up with other health apps like Fitbit and Jawbone to track other factors which contribute to your reproductive health.
Glow also gets to know you well enough to auto-refill your birth control prescription at your local pharmacy so you will never be caught without it!
Keep your life in-sync and get stuff done.
There are a ton of things to keep track of: lists, errands that have to get done, fun things that you want to do on your next free weekend, work projects and the list goes on.
Wunderlist helps you keep track of all your lists, and set reminders and due dates for the most important tasks. For group to-dos around the house or at work, you can invite and sync up your Wunderlist with your friends so that everyone knows who is doing what, and when it needs to get done.
When your schedules don't match and reading notes on the fridge isn't cutting it anymore, this app is great for roommates.
Get boozy with home delivered alcohol.
Not sure how much we need to add here because you should already be downloading this app based on the headline alone. Drizly lets you review the alcohol selection available in stores near you and promises delivery within an hour for no additional cost.
So when Sunday turns into fun-day or when you realize that you didn't pick up enough wine for your first-ever dinner party, there is no reason to sweat it anymore or drive to the store.
Since you already know how to drink responsibly (we hope), now you know how to purchase responsibly.
Find legit roommates.
Looking for a place to live and for the right roommates is one of the most important and frustrating things adulthood has to offer. It has to get done, but it is So. Freaking. Hard.
There is the terrifying chance that you'll wind up with the worst roommate ever, but also the opportunity to find a real friend who you feel comfortable hanging out with on the couch after a long day at your first full-time job.
Roomi helps you safely and securely find the right place to live in a new city.
The app asks you the most important questions about your living needs right away to make sure that you are connecting with compatible roommates. The app connects through Facebook to verify that users are who they say they are, so while you should go into all situations with your eyes wide open, you have an added layer of trust that you're not about to move in with a total creeper.
Stock your fridge without applying too much effort.
The worst thing to have at home is an empty fridge.
It sucks to come home from a long day (or night) out with nothing to eat. It's also an expensive habit to keep eating out because you are too lazy to do a real grocery shopping trip. Grocery Pal is perfect for keeping your shopping list updated because it also matches the items you want with what's on sale at your local supermarkets and pharmacy.
The app can also match your list against what's on sale online with free shipping so that you can save money without getting cast for "Extreme Couponing." Grocery Pal organizes your list by category and even by aisle so you're in and out of the grocery store in a flash instead of wandering wide-eyed around the store like a lost puppy.
Stay connected with missed connections.
There are a ton of dating apps out there, but the difference with this one is that it helps you find the people who you've already crossed paths with -- literally.
Happn shows you the profiles of people who you've encountered recently around town, showing you when and where you've passed them. If you both like each other, you can send a message and plan to meet for real. This is probably the best way to find out if the cute guy or girl from the coffee shop who you keep making eye contact with is actually single.
Ah, adulthood -- isn't it just a blast?!