Whilst recently working on a mobile marketing research paper I ended up drinking all too much coffee and ordering a box ofNFC tags from RapidNFC in the early hours of one morning. Today, almost a month to the day after first putting them to use in my dissertation I have found a use to actually start integrating them with my life. So without further ado; the first of these nifty NFC tricks is my very own…
NFC Wallet Expense Tracker
Now unfortunately this thing isn’t magic enough to simply detect the money that the money has left however it does provide a simple way for me to scan my wallet with my phone and easily input expenses on the go. The NFC tag sits snugly inside a back sleeve and initial tests with my Samsung S3 have shown that it can even scan when the tag is inside the wallet.
So what happens when you scan the NFC tag I hear you ask…
Well right now it takes the phone to a very crude form created using Google Forms (shown below) that allows me to input the essential data whilst Google date and timestamps the inputs for me when I hit ‘Submit’ and that is all it takes. From here a spreadsheet is generated behind the scenes that allows for reviewing and manipulating the data at a later time on my laptop or pretty much any web device.
Over time as I’m spending real money, with the tag as a constant reminder to input my expenses, I expect to build a full profile of exactly what I spend that is also categorised for easier analysis. With a few custom formulas I can see how much I’ve spent in total, I can break it down to the last day, week, month or year and can even narrow it down to see how much I’m spending in each category so if something seems to be going overboard I can keep note.
The Future of the NFC Wallet Expense Tracker
I put this together for myself and I’m sure as I use it more I’ll come up with some more interesting ways to use it. I’d be lying if I said it didn’t occur to me after making this that there might actually be interest in a commercial version of something like this however for now, it is just me and my money management 🙂
