Friday Favorites - Money Saving Grocery Apps!

Along with my decreased spending for October, I'm also looking for new ways to save more on the money that I *do* spend.  Aside from mortgage and utilities, the single category that I have regularly have the highest spending in is groceries.  I've tried a lot of things to save money on groceries.  Coupons get forgotten and left behind, then expire before I can use them.  Meal planning fails because, well, I have a hard enough time deciding what I want to eat for dinner *tonight* - never mind four nights from now.

The ONE thing that I have been able to keep up with doing regularly for the past couple months is using grocery savings apps.  They all work the same general way: purchase items from their list of offers, then upload copies of your receipt to the app and redeem said offer!

Snap by Groupon:  Snap is the most recent addition to my app collection.  It is my least favorite of the three, but still worth using.  The offers they give are often limited in the number of people who can redeem them, so if you see one you like, you'd better use it fast!  It's also been the slowest one to approve receipts.  The last one I submitted took 8 days to process.

Minimum for redemption: $20

Method of payment: Check

Checkout 51: Checkout 51's offers run from Thursday-Wednesday.  They also limit the number of people who can redeem a particular offer, but I've always been able to redeem everything I actually wanted.  You can also star the offers you're most interested in buying and it keeps a running total of how much you'd get back if you purchased all of your favorites.

Minimum for redemption: $20

Method of payment: Check

Ibotta: Ibotta is my favorite of the three.  In addition to the grocery savings, they periodically have rebates for clothing stores, restaurants, and pet stores.  The offer redemption process is a little more involved than with the other two, though.  Some offers require you to take a poll or watch a short video, but they're rarely long enough to be annoying.  You also are required to scan the barcode of each product before uploading your receipt.  If it's so involved, why is it my favorite?  There are usually more rebates to choose from, plus you can earn extra rewards from bonus trophies (like buying purchasing items from a certain brand on two separate trips.)  The cash redemption itself is also the simplest.

Minimum for redemption: $10

Method of payment: Paypal, Venmo, or partner gift cards like Starbucks and iTunes

 Now, some General Tips:

• You can redeem offers on as many apps different as you want!  By mixing and matching app offers, you can make the most of your rebates.
• Most rebate offers have no minimum price for redemption, so you can stack sale prices + coupons + rebates for maximum savings!
• Finally, don't buy something just because it's a good deal.  If you're not much of a cracker person, don't buy them just because you can get $3 back!  It may sound obvious, but I have a tendency to get the "But it's so cheap!!!" bug.  Saving money on things is only helpful if it's things you'd have bought anyway.

There are others out there, of course, like Walmart's Savings Catcher, but these are the three I personally use.  If there are other apps for saving money on groceries that you think I should check out, let me know!  Unless they're only available on iTunes.  In which case, don't taunt me.

Disclaimer: This post contains referral links.