As a working Mum, life can be a constant juggle. The week can sometimes feel like a blur with meetings, deadlines, pickups and drop offs. With the 2017 school year underway, wouldn't it be great to find some easy to use Apps to help simplify your working and family life?

I regularly seek help from a variety of online tools and have channeled my own experiences to put together a list of the of the best 'must-have'  Apps to help working mums manage their busy lives.

Shopwings

Shopwings is a online delivery service that has recently launched in Sydney and Melbourne (after a successful launch in Germany), that uses personal shoppers to select, buy and deliver your groceries from a variety of stores within two hours! Sounds too good to be true doesn’t it?

The groceries are hand picked by personal shoppers who care about the choice of fresh goods. The delivery fee is pretty good value for same day two-hour delivery, and the first delivery is free.

I was drawn to it because I wanted to arrange online delivery with Aldi, but they don’t offer it. So I placed an order via Shopwings and the overall experience was very good. I did have one small hiccup that the customer service team resolved quickly for me. My groceries were delivered via motor bike -  they usually deliver by van or car, which wasn’t what I was expecting. So my bread was a bit squashed and a few of the heavier items such as a watermelon were not included. Once I let Shopwings know I was unhappy, they were quick to respond and gave me a refund for the bread and then sent through a voucher. I have since used the service a number of times and am hooked.

Working Mum takeaway  - the two hour delivery window is a complete gem and it can be same day delivery. Plus stores like ALDI don’t yet have online home delivery service.

Canva.com - a graphic design gem for non-designers.

Designed by women for women, Canva is my go-to design resource on a weekly basis. One of the best and most simple to use, free graphic design tools out there. Founded by Melanie Perkins, Canva is an Australian start-up that evolved out of the need to develop an online graphic design tool for non-graphic design people. Simple drop-and-drag technology that uses ready made designs for FB, Twitter, blog posts. For mums short of time. Canva is a great go to app to solve those last minute party invitations, Fb posts, Linked profile updates etc. I use it equally in business as well as in my home life.

Working Mum takeaway - great for professional, last minute kids party invitations.

Invitation created in canva.com using one of their ready-made invitation templates.

Trackmyspend

If  you're trying to get your finances under control, Trackmyspend is an easy-to-use app produced by the Money Smart government website, set up and administered by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC).

This App is designed to keep tabs on your expenses by following some easy steps. Budgeting is made heaps easier with this App.

TrackMySpend App allows you to keep tab on your expenses on the go. It takes some time to set up and some discipline to maintain but it is definitely worth it. You can track your spendings by employing any of the following methods:

• Expenses by categories
• Expenses incurred while travelling or an outing
• Expenses incurred in relation to work or project-related work

Working Mum takeaway - you can't manage what you can’t see! Trackmyspend puts the visibility (and the discipline) back into your life by giving you a clear picture of your purchasing habit and helps you gain control of your money.

Acorn Australia 

Invest spare change automatically from everyday purchases into a diversified portfolio. The Acorn Australia app links with your bank account and credit cards, rounding up daily purchases and automatically investing the ‘change’ into a diversified portfolio of ETFs. The idea is to create an easy entry into the stock market for new or part time investors, removing traditional entry barriers such as high fees and buy in prices.  The service launched in Australia in February 2016 (started in the USA) and was the first market outside the USA. It has 160,000 users nation-wide and growing!

For example, if you buy lunch for $10.50, using your credit or debit card, the Acorn app will recognise this and allow you to round up the cost to $11, the $0.50 of which you can allocate to your growing Acorn investment portfolio.

The downside is that you need to be prepared to hand over quite a bit of personal information and link your bank account. But if you can get over this barrier, then the actual sign-up process is pretty simple.

Like any other financial institution, there are fees to pay. For accounts with investments under $5,000 you will be changed $1.25 a month, which works out to $15 a year.  For accounts over $5000 you will be changed 0.275%, which is the cost for use of the platform as a fully fledged investor.

Working Mum take-home - Whilst I have shares set up with my husband, I’ve never really taken a direct interest in investing money in the stock market. Acorn has given me the opportunity to become interested in the market, with very little downside.

WhatsApp 

WhatsApp is an extremely popular mobile messaging service with over 1 billion daily users. You may think it’s just another messenger app, but there are a few useful features unique to WhatsApp that make is a vital App for working Mums and a must-have for your phone as well as on your desktop at work.

The groups function is by far the best, enabling you to set up specific groups based around a particular activity or event. A quick count and I have over 15 groups set up on Whatsapp that help me manage a range of activities for both myself, my work and my family. Here is a sample:

• Work group - informal chat about the comings and goings in the office.
• Sports groups for my children - timetabling, photos and ride-sharing to and from the various sporting activities.
• Family group - photo sharing and coordination for the busy lives of the the family.
• Specific event groups - groups set up for a specific event or activity eg: holidays with friends, Easter camping, summer 2016 and so on.
• Dinner / book clubs
• Film group

WhatApp securely encrypts messages, calls, photos or videos so that only the recipient can read or view the messages. Not even WhatsApp can view your messages. Photos uploaded to Whatsapp can be automatically set to load into your photo role. You'll also save a little money on text charges through your carrier and across platforms.

Working Mum takeaway - Setup it up for specific short term activities - such as September 2016 holiday at the beach, where you can invite all the families you are away with. Organise dinners, BBQs, check up on kids, share holidays snaps.

Disclaimer: Disclaimer: The information provided in this is article is general in nature and is not intended as financial or investment advice and should not be relied on as such. You should always seek your own independent advice from qualified specialists as per your own specific circumstances.