Long post ahead; I apologize now!
Who here
doesn’t like to save money?
*crickets
chirping*
If you know
me at all you know I love saving money. Sales, deals, coupons; you name it, I
probably use it/have heard of it. I am in no way an expert on it nor am I an
extreme coupon person. That would just take too much time! But when it comes to
everyday, money saving tips I got the scoop! I’m sure most of you have heard of
the following things I am going to tell you about but you might be skeptical.
On some I have inserted an image of my total savings just to give you an idea
of how much money you could be saving! Most of these are through specific apps
on your phone (which should be available across all devices). So keep on
reading to find out how to save some mullah!
1. Ibotta: This
is by far my favorite app out there for in store shopping. Ibotta is a cash
back app in which you unlock rebates, buy those products and scan your
products/receipt when you get home and viola! You get money back. I love using this
app and I have gotten into the habit of looking at available rebates before I
go shopping. Wal-Mart has the largest amount of rebates (go figure) so that’s
where I do most of my shopping. They also have Target, CVS, Walgreen's, local
grocery and specialty stores and they even have some places like Best Buy and
Joann Craft stores (those are different, you have to have the checkout person
scan the barcode within the app to use it at these stores). Just make sure you
look through the requirements for cash back before going to these specific
stores. My lifetime cashback as you can see below is over $300 and it’s totally
worth it! I have my cashback go straight into my PayPal account which I can
then transfer to my bank account. You can “cash out” once you hit $20 and you
get a $10 welcome bonus just for signing up and submitting a rebate! You can
also cash out your earnings by getting a gift card as well. Some that are
available are Target, Wal-Mart, Amazon, Best Buy and more! Use my code utqfawt
to get started!
*Tip for Wal-Mart pay users: If you use Wal-Mart pay like I do
sometimes, you know that you don’t get a physical receipt that it’s on the
Wal-Mart app. All you have to do is e-mail it to yourself and you can scan the
QR code from there to still get your money back.
2. Ebates: This
is another great app that you can use if you do a lot of online shopping. I
know in today’s world it can be easier to buy things online and I know a good
amount of people now do their Christmas shopping online as well. Why not earn
money while spending it?! With Ebates you just download the app (or go through
their website) search for the online store you are going to purchase from, and
click on the link to get to the website. That’s it! Once you make your purchase
Ebates will credit you with however much percentage was listed and viola! It’s
that simple. There are a TON of stores that participate. Throughout the year
Ebates has random days or weeks where you can earn double cash back and
sometimes they have promotions where you can earn up to 10% cash back! It doesn’t
matter how you pay for what you’re buying so you can use PayPal, gift cards or certificates and you can still use promo codes as well. Ebates is also great because
they also list sales that are happening on websites and sometimes have money
saving codes as well. Unlike Ibotta, Ebates will send you a “big fat check” every
quarter and it can be directly sent to your PayPal or they will mail you a check, whichever you choose. My next payout is next
month and I'm getting $24 back! It sounds like a gimmick but my total back is
over $140. Click the link to get started!
* Reminder:
You must go through their website or app in order to receive money back.
3. Wal-Mart: If
you do your grocery shopping at Wal-Mart, they have an app you can download and
you can use their feature called Savings Catcher. Once you checkout, you open
the app, find the little piggy bank symbol for the Savings Catcher and scan
your QR code. Wal-Mart automatically compares prices to similar stores (Target,
Dollar General, other grocery stores) and if a store advertises a lower price,
Wal-Mart gives you the difference! You can set it to where it automatically
loads an e-gift card that you can use in store or you can add it all later at
your convenience. I have mine set to where it reloads automatically. You can
then either set it to where your Wal-Mart Pay uses it when you check out or you
can use it later as a gift card. If you use Wal-Mart pay all you have to do is
click “Submit Receipt” after you pay and that’s it!
4. Target
Cartwheel: I feel like everyone knows about this one! The Cartwheel app is an
app for Target shoppers and it kinda works like Ibotta. You create an account
(you can sign in with your Facebook like Ibotta which I forgot to tell you!)
and you can go through all the available offers. Some offers are $$ off but
most are % off like 5% or something of the like. The Up & Up brands are
almost always on there. What’s nice is that as you’re shopping you can scan the
item you’re about to put in your cart to see if there is an active offer for
that item, instead of having to scroll through all of them before you shop. It
will let you know if there is an active offer for that item and if there’s not,
it will let you know of a similar item that is available. For instance, if you
scan Tide detergent and there isn’t an active offer it will show you one for
the Target brand of detergent. At checkout all you do is show the checkout
person your barcode associated with your Cartwheel (found within the app) and
voila! The offers are applied. Most associates will ask if you have a Cartwheel
app. I know Target also offers 5% off always for using your Target credit card
so if you combine that with your Cartwheel you’ll save even more.
5. Printable
Coupons: I love actual coupons. Having the physical piece of paper in my hand
that says I can save $1.00 makes me happy and helps me feel good about saving.
There are always coupons in the paper on Sunday but I found recently that they
kinda suck (You’ve seen those. “This is not an actual coupon, go online to
print”). You can create an online account with the P&G brand saver and you
can print coupons from there. Another site I love using is coupons.com I have
gotten a good amount every week from this website.
*Tips with
coupons: One of the great things I love about couponing is combining them with
Ibotta. For instance: I have a coupon right now for $4.00 off a Neutrogena
makeup product. Ibotta has an active rebate right now for $4.00 back on any
Neutrogena makeup product. Combine the coupon with your Ibotta offer and bam! A
$7.00 makeup product has made you a $1.00 profit. I know it doesn’t sound like
much but if you think about you’d essentially be getting that product for free.
This happens quite often (not so drastic savings all the time) but it’s pretty
neat to have a paper coupon and an electronic offer at the same time.
6. Survey Mini: A lot of people don’t know about this app. I didn’t know about it until my
good friend Anna told me about it. Survey Mini is an app you download. You
keep your location settings on for it and when you visit stores, you receive a
short survey about your visit (which is why it needs the location turned on
even if you’re not using the app). The questions are generally “why did you
choose this store, how was your food and beverage (if purchased) how friendly
was the staff” etc. The surveys are generally short and usually take less than
a minute to answer. Once completed you typically receive points (100-500 but
100 to 200 is the norm) and once you reach a certain number of points you can
redeem them for gift cards. Sometimes though you can receive offers for $$ off
or a free item. For example, I’ve had multiple “Get a Route 44 free with the
purchase of a regular drink” from Sonic. You show them the code on your phone
and you’re good to go. I have redeemed two gift cards so far, one for a $25 one
for Michael’s and I can’t remember the other one. It takes a while to earn
enough points to redeem but it’s free and doesn’t take much time!
7. Retail Me Not: This is a simple one. It's an app you download and you keep your location on to use it. While you're out shopping, it uses your location to see where you are and it will load offers for stores that you are close to. For instance, if you are in a shopping area with a Kohl's near by it will automatically load all the available offers for Kohl's for you. It won't have the specific ones like you would get in the mail tailored to you but it does have general coupons. All you do is show the barcode or savings code to the cashier and that's it! Savings applied.
I hope this
was informative and helpful to someone. I’m sorry the post is soooo long but I
love saving money and any tips I have I love sharing with other people. Any
money saving tips/apps you use that weren’t mentioned?? Happy saving friends!
