Saturday, November 14, 2015

Saving Money with Your Smartphone - Ibotta

It's probably not surprising, given that I'm always looking for ways to save, that I have lots of apps on my phone that save me money.

I like coupons. However, I never seem to remember to check for printable coupons before I go to the store; and, even when I do, only a few of them ever seem to match what I wish to purchase.

Enter Ibotta. I was introduced to this app by a friend of mine who enjoys saving money, too, and it quickly became my favorite coupon app. Firstly, it allows you to save on non-name brand items. You can get $.20 off any brand of bananas! It often has discounts for any (or non) brand pasta, coffee, ice cream, potatoes, tomatoes, apples and many more. In addition, it has quite a variety of name brand items. Of course, they don't have just food coupons, they have offers for other merchants, like $15 off $75 at Eddie Bauer or coupons for $10 off any HP printer at Best Buy.

You can go to their website to select current available items and print a shopping list; or, if you don't remember until you're in the store (like me!) you can browse the list on your app. You can even take a look at the app after you've already shopped and gotten your items home to see if there's any coupons for items you already purchased if you forgot to look earlier (also like me!).

It's pretty simple to save using Ibotta:

  1. Sign up at Ibotta.com or download the app from your app store (if you use referral code of qfivxeh, you'll receive $1 right away just for signing up!)
  2. Browse the shopping list on the website or on your app
  3. Add items that interest you on the website or on the app (by clicking on the little heart icon in the top right of the app screen)
  4.  You might need to "unlock" certain offers by answering a single survey question, viewing a recipe, or watching a short advertisement.
  5. Shop!
  6. Take a picture of your receipt, select the items you purchased, verify, and submit
    • It's possible, if you have a loyalty card with your retailer, that you don't even need to take a picture of your receipt! See Ibotta.com under "Help" for details!
  7. Watch your savings grow!
Please share your favorite money-saving apps in the comments below! And, if you have friends who like saving money, please feel free to use the sharing links at the bottom of this post.

Keep on pinching!