While some of us aspire to a minimalistic lifestyle with as few possessions as possible, others like creating and curating collections over the years. If you are of the latter camp, I’ve got some good news for you: You can easily catalog and manage your collection using your smartphone!

Managing a personal budget is rarely fun, but sometimes it’s needed. Whether you find yourself overspending on impulsive shopping, or on a holiday with only so much cash, being able to track your expenses can be invaluable. Expense Manager is a free (ad-supported) Android app with over half a million downloads, and over 6,000 reviews with a 4.5-star average.

Sculptris is a 3D design tool by Pixologic, makers of the $699 professional 3D tool ZBrush. It comes from a good home, but unlike its sister app, Sculptris is entirely free. We’ve covered Sculptris in the MakeUseOf directory in 2012, but today I’d like to take you a bit deeper into the app and show you how it works.

Unless you work out of random coffee shops, your work environment is around you every day, all day long. Building your own custom workstation can go a long way towards making things more comfortable and productive, but what about inspiration? Having beautiful, amusing or thought-provoking artwork hanging around your office or home can seriously upgrade the atmosphere.

Quick! How many synonyms for the word “awesome” can you come up with, right now? If it took you more than a moment to come up with around ten synonyms, your vocabulary may need some help. Professional writers aren’t the only people who should know plenty of words. Everyone uses language every day, and there’s often a single word that can replace five other words and mean exactly what we want to say.

Valentine’s Day is upon us! It’s that time of the year again, and you might want to impress your significant other with a gift that shows how much you care (and what a huge nerd you are). To help you, I’ve scoured the net and found three websites with some beautiful jewelry that is decidedly nerdy. Two are mainly aimed at the ladies, but one is for guys – so if your boyfriend is a geek, scroll down for a piece of jewelry he is sure to appreciate.

The Amazon Kindle is an amazing device. Just a few short years ago, getting quality books for free wasn’t an option. You could always go to the library, but then the book wasn’t really yours to keep. With the Kindle, all that has changed. There’s an endless supply of free books offered on Amazon. Some are timeless classics which have become public domain works, while others are new works by budding authors looking for exposure and recognition.

YouTube Remote is a fantastic and free Android application by Google that lets you control YouTube on any PC using your smartphone. I found out about it thanks to commenter TKCOLE, who recommended it in the comment section of our Best Of Android page. I was so impressed with it, I decided to write up a tutorial showing exactly how to set it up and what it does.

It is easy to forget to drink enough, especially in winter time, and especially if you’re not very physically active. But it is important to take in enough water, both for weight loss and just for your general well-being, energy level, and more. Today, I would like to share two simple, fun and free apps that you can use to monitor your water intake and be reminded to drink more often.

Does the name Joel Spolsky mean anything to you? If so, you’re going to want to read this post, because it showcases Spolsky’s latest and greatest project. And if not, you should know this is the man behind Stack Overflow, WebPutty, Joel on Software and several other notable projects. His latest project is called Trello, and it’s a project management system.