What are your favorite 5 apps on your phone?

1. Too Good To Go I just recently learned about this app and I’m obsessed. Designed to reduce food waste, Too Good To Go partners with local restaurants and stores to offer food that didn’t sell at reduced prices. My favorite thing to do on Friday nights is to get a surprise bag from a local pizza place and veg out in front of the TV. This is a very reasonable thing for a 50 year old person to do. $5.99 and I get enough pizza for dinner and lunch the next day. I’ve also gotten surprise bags from grocery stores, filled with a delightful assortment of fresh and canned/boxed items, all within date, and all things my family will eat. A $25 value for $7.99. Being cheap gives me such a thrill! And I also like the idea of reducing food waste, but mostly just being cheap.
2. Duolingo I currently have a 1565 day streak on Duolingo. Super proud of that. I’ve been learning Spanish for over 4 years. I cannot speak Spanish. But I can understand a little (un poco) if the speaker speaks very slowly. I also use it to practice playing chess. I recently learned they do music lessons too! I use the paid version because I accidentally forgot to cancel my free trial, and every February I get charged like $80 and I’m like “Doh! Forgot to cancel Duolingo.” But I enjoy this app so I don’t mind paying for it.
3. Libby My library app. I have a long commute to work so I listen to audiobooks all the time. I go through a couple of books a week.
4. Spotify For my music. I use the free version so I have to listen to ads. I just dissociate when the ads come on. They gave me a several months long free trial of premium and it was nice, but I won’t pay for this app.
5. NYT Games to play the Wordle every day. My favorite games are Wordle, connections, the Mini and Midi crossword, Spelling Bee, and Strands. I did pay like $18 for a year of this app because they locked all the games I liked 😡 but $18 a year wasn’t that much and it was worth it to me.

I do have all the social media apps but I didn’t list them because even though I use them a lot, they are not my favorites. I often delete them off my phone entirely because they are so addictive and I find myself wasting so much time.

Smartphones are amazing tools! It’s hard now to even imagine life without one, even though I grew up in the 80s. My phone helps me organize my life, keeps me connected to family and friends, and literally puts the entire world of information at my fingertips. But doomscrolling eats up hours of my life. It’s a delicate balance.