My Favorite Coupon App – ibotta

As much as I would love to say I am an expert couponer and can save a ton of money in the checkout line, that really isn’t a reality for me. I have never been able to get into a groove of finding and printing coupons, remembering to bring them to the store, and most importantly actually needing and buying those items.

One of the few apps I regularly use for coupons is ibotta. This is a “cash back” app that features rebates at popular retailers. If your purchases align with what they are featuring that week, you scan those items, take a picture of your receipt and money is deposited into your account.

Here are a few of my favorite things about ibotta:

1. For me at least, this is an “after the fact” sort of couponing. I purchase the items I regularly would have, and once I am home and about to put away my groceries, I whip out my phone, peruse this app to see if anything I bought was featured, redeem the money if possible, and go along my way.
   1. You could probably be much more lucrative if you looked at the app first and planned your purchases around the featured items (i.e. bought one brand over another based on who is offering coupons).
2. They have “any brand” cash back opportunities for certain items (including produce!). For example, they may feature apples, and as long as you have apples somewhere on your receipt, you will get that money put into your account.
3. They even have “any item” cash back opportunities pretty much every time I go into the app. Note – these are only $.25. I do not think it is worth anyone’s time to do all of this for a quarter, but if you are already in the app and redeeming other coupons, you might as well grab this one too.
4. ibotta offers rebates at my three favorite stores – HEB, Costco and Target.
5. These rebates are stackable with any other coupons you might have, other deals going on at the store, clearance prices, etc.
6. You get a $10.00 welcome bonus once you redeem your first rebate.
7. Once you have $20.00 in your account, you can transfer the money to yourself through Venmo or Paypal! I love not having to wait for a check in the mail. You can also request gift cards for an amount slightly higher than what you redeem them for.

Overall, this is a favorite money-saving hack of mine. There is no up front commitment, just savings on the back-end if things happen to line up. Let me know if you give it a try!