What if I told you that almost every receipt you come in contact with is equal to some form of cash?  Seriously.  I’ve already told you about Receipt Hog, which allows you to earn points towards cash rewards just for scanning your receipts.  Now, let’s talk about your receipts and available coupon apps!

Coupon apps are an easy way to receive additional savings on your grocery trips, and sometimes even make money when you use coupons during your trip.  They take a little extra time, but they really work!  Today, I would like to cover a few of my most favorite coupon apps and how they work.  

The following four apps all offer certain products for a specific time period that, if purchased, will give you cash back if you submit the receipt to verify the purchase:

Checkout 51

This is a simple app to use,  and you can use it on a computer or a smart phone; it works on both an Android system and an iPhone platform.  (I prefer to use my Android smartphone because it has been quicker and easier for me, but you can use either or both.)  After you create an account, you will be able to see what products are currently offering cash back opportunities!  

Offers change on Wednesday night, and some of the produce items will be renewed, which are always my favorites. There are a variety of options, including fruits and vegetables, body wash, lotions, etc.  Sometimes the brands are lesser known, or the offers are store specific, but this is one of the easier apps to use because all you have to do is shop, open the app, scan the receipt or take a picture, and select the product that qualifies for redemption. Once you hit $20 in rebates, you can cash out and receive a check.  Easy peasy!

Snap!
(This is no longer available in most areas.)

This is another really easy app to use; it is through Groupon.  Snap often has regular household items, such as milk, bread, fruit and other things like that.  There are usually a lot of cleaning products, and sometimes they have some combination deals where you have to purchase two things together (like soda and chicken).  This app also has offers cash back for specific items purchased on Amazon.

This app works the same as Checkout51:  create an account (I use my Groupon account), go shopping, upload your receipt and select the offers that qualify. Unfortunately, this app will often reach their redemption limits quickly, meaning there is a limit to how many people can redeem a specific item.  So, if you see something on it that you know you plan to buy, don’t wait!  Produce items go very fast. 

Shopmium (use my referral code YAHGMMTN, please)

This app is fairly simple, although it has a couple more steps than the first two mentioned.  Nothing difficult, but you have to scan the bar code of your purchased item and then redeem it, this way they know you really have the item in hand.  This isn’t an uncommon practice, so don’t be discouraged or alarmed.

A minor drawback to Shopmium is that it doesn’t offer a lot of common household items or typical brands.  There are a lot of brands I’m not too familiar with, but they offer a decent reward for them if you are willing to try them.  Overall, the app does pay well when you find an offer that you want to redeem. For example, it had Nabisco Cookies and it paid $1 for my purchase, plus I had coupons to use at the store and it was a BOGO free, making it a very good deal for me.  This app also pays directly to your bank account, making the money available almost right away after it has been confirmed.  I’m not against this app at all, just know that it usually won’t be the most used one.

Ibotta

This is probably my most favorite coupon app because not only do they offer many types of popular items, they also have what they call “any brand” items.  That means, no matter what brand of bread, milk, spaghetti sauce, noodles, etc, you can redeem it.  Of course, they also have well known brands available, too, but you have more options.  It is another good app for produce items, which again is one of my favorite redemption items (there are rarely coupons for these, so I’m happy to have coupon apps).

This app requires the most effort, but it is not difficult.  It just has extra steps.  Ibotta requires you to have an account, of course.  Once you’re in the app, you sort the offers by store, whereas the other apps generally don’t care at which store you made your purchase, just that you bought the product they are offering.  Having to select a store to see offers is good and bad for this app–sometimes you can shop more than one store for a certain item and get money back at both locations.  The downside is that not every store offers the same items, but thankfully most of them are very similar.  A great thing about this app is you can sometimes shop online for other items that are not strictly grocery purchases. 

After you’ve chosen your grocery store, you then have to “unlock” each item you plan to redeem.  This “unlocking” can include reading a short fact, watching a short video, reading a recipe or taking a short survey.  Most require a combination of these tasks and they are always simple.  Once you have completed them, the item is unlocked and you can redeem it.  Be sure to have all of the items you plan to redeem from one receipt unlocked because you can only upload a receipt one time.  Like with Shopmium, you will need to scan the item’s bar code before submitting the receipt.   The app walks you through the steps pretty easily, so don’t feel like it’s going to be too difficult.  It really isn’t hard, just a little more time consuming (still not bad though).  

Ibotta pays decently, and because they have so many options available usually, I’ve made the most money with this one.  They also take into account your team’s efforts, so be sure to sign up using your Facebook account.  If your “team” (Facebook friends or people you have invited) earns $10 in rebates in a month’s time period and you have earned $5 in rebates, you often will get a bonus (in May, I received an additional $2 bonus thanks to teamwork). They pay after you have earned $10 and can receive it through Paypal, or you can redeem it through a variety of gift card options.

Checkout51, Snap, Shopmium and Ibotta are my top four coupon apps that I always turn to after every shopping trip.  Each of them has their own time frame of submitting a receipt for an offer after a purchase, so be sure to do it pretty quickly following your trip.  I honestly do mine as soon as I get home, usually before I put everything away for easier bar code scanning.  After your trip, don’t forget to scan your receipt into Receipt Hog!  With all of these coupon apps, you’re going to have nice extra cash back to put in your pocket!  

Those receipts ARE cash, so use them wisely!

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