Have you ever come out of a grocery store, a mall, or an airport terminal only to realize you have absolutely no idea where you parked your car? You try to think back to when you entered the parking lot and began the winding tour of lanes to find a spot, but you were talking to a friend on the phone instead of paying attention to what you were doing and then you jetted indoors without so much as glancing up to note the numbered pillar nearest your car. And now you’ll find yourself relegated to walking up and down the aisles, clicking your fob until you hear the telltale honk that says you’re within range of your car. Yeah, we’ve all had one or two of these moments. But if you’re often hurried and you’re one of those people that juggles a million things at once, then perhaps you find yourself in this situation frequently. In this case, the Honk application may be just what the doctor ordered.

According to tech website Gizmodo, this app is “the Swiss Army Knife parking app”, and considering how many simple yet useful features it embodies, they’re not far off. Although it will cost you $0.99, it could just be the best buck you ever spend. As you may have guessed, the main goal of this app is to make sure you never again forget where you’ve parked your car, whether you’re in a gargantuan parking structure, you’re at a concert, sporting event, or other venue with a sizeable lot in which sections are largely indistinguishable, or you’ve secured street parking in a busy area of the city that you’re not very familiar with.

All you really have to do to get started is take a picture of where you parked. Your photo should have some identifiable landmark in the background to offer you a visual aid (a lettered/numbered pillar, unique shop signage, street signs, etc.). From there you can select the memo function to write notes as an overlay on your pic. You can use this handy feature to fill in information that will help you find your car again (like the name of the street you’re on as well as the nearest cross street, or the number on a pillar if it’s not clear in your photo). And you can leave markers or breadcrumbs on a map to help you find your way back.

In addition, you can input the amount of time you’ve got on a parking meter and set the app to alert you when your meter is going to run out (in 10 minutes, 5 minutes, 1 minute, and so on). And if you close the app, you can see the time you have left with a quick glance at the Honk icon on your desktop. This will ensure that you not only avoid a parking ticket for failing to feed the meter, but that you can actually find your way back to your car to do so.

But that’s not the end of it. You can also use this app to find services in your immediate vicinity, such as parking, gas stations, ATMs, and cafés. It may not help you find tow services or United States, Canada, or Europe car rentals should your clunker get stuck, but it can definitely guide you back to your car with ease, ensure that you don’t wind up with a parking ticket when your meter expires, and get you to basic amenities in your area. That’s a lot of useful functionality for a 99-cent app.

Editor’s Note

Thanks to Evan Fischer for this guest post. He is a freelance writer and part-time student at California Lutheran University in Thousand Oaks, California.