In yesterday's post I mentioned how I made money by grocery shopping. Today, I will mention some apps I use that will save you money just by purchasing those products. Most grocery stores will obviously not pay you to buy their products (except Wallmart, I have actually gotten money from Walmart when a coupon's value was greater than the price of the item!!).

1. Ibotta

I mentioned Ibotta app yesterday. However, I didn't say much about it. Ibotta is an app available on your smart phone. All you have to do is buy your groceries normally. Then you open the app Ibotta which you have downloaded. You can click on this referral link for easy download. You can then search for any items you may have purchased and add the items you want. Once you are ready, you click on Redeem and take a picture of your receipt. Then you verify each item by scanning the barcode and upload the receipt. Then, the savings are added to your account, which you can withdraw or exchange for giftcards. the picture below shows an example of what you can redeem at Target.

2. Checkout 51

If you find Ibotta to be too much work, you can try Checkout 51, another app where you can save money for every day grocery items. Just like Ibotta, with Checkout 51 you buy items and the add them on Checkout 51, but this app only requests you upload the picture of the receipt, you do not have to verify each items by scanning the barcode. Checkout 51 usually rewards you within 48 hours of sending the receipt! You can cash out once you reach a $20 minimum.

As you can see in the picture below, items such as eggs and bread give you $0.25 each. You may think that is not much, but four of these items are one dollar, and each dollar helps!

3. SavingStar

SavingStar requires more work upfront, since once you download the app, you must enter or scan your cards from different stores into the app. For example, CVS has a card, or Harris Teeter has a card. You input that information to link them. The most important thing to remember with SavingStar, is to "activate" or add the items you want, before shopping for the items. Since they are linked with your card for that particular store, it will automatically pay you once you have purchased the item, as long as you activated the offer. This however, makes it take longer to receive the rebates. Sometimes up to three weeks later. But I view it as a savings....and I do not have to do extra work for it. I usually activate most of the offers available on SavingStar, unless I am absolutely certain I will not buy a product, so that it will automatically pay me. It can't get easier than that!

4. MobiSave

MobiSave is another app that needs the items to be activated before you so shopping. Yet, this app does not request any store cards. You activate each item you want before you shop and once you finish shopping, you take a picture of the receipt. MobiSave will pay you quickly, and the best thing about this app is that it will transfer the money for each item directly into your paypal. You don't need minimums to transfer them out, and you can also treat this as another savings account paying you "interest" :)

MobiSave is one of those apps that has rare products, but it works great!

Most of these apps aren't connected which means that if you buy diapers, and you find a rebate on Ibotta, Checkout 51 AND SavingsStar....guess what? You can redeem them all!

There are obviously more apps that save you money, but these are the four I use most.

What other apps have you used that you find useful? Are you willing to give any of these a try? Why or why not?

All cents and dollars add up, so start on saving! :)