Update on the Three Apps to Help Save Money Through Shopping

On September 26, 2016 I wrote a post entitled Three Apps to Help Save Money Through Shopping on my using three apps to help save money. Today I wanted to update my progress so far.

The three apps that I'm using are Checkout 51, Receipt Hog and iBotta. The premise is simple, buy the things you need and get paid back by using rebates and uploading receipts. Here is where I stand with the three apps.

Receipt Hog

This app is the simplest one to use. It doesn't require any particular purchases or purchases at any specific retailers. All you do is scan your receipts and get coins in return. Once you reach 1000 coins, then you can cash out for either $5.00 to your Paypal account or in the form of an Amazon gift card.

As you can see from the picture to the right, I am at 615 coins, which is almost 2/3rds of the way to my first $5.00 cash out. In using the app, I have discovered that there are a few limitations to the app.

First, you can only accrue 100 coins through receipts based on their points scale per rolling week. After you reach 100 coins, all receipts regardless of the amount spent will be worth 5 coins.

Secondly, you can only upload 20 coin earning receipts during a rolling week period. After that you'll get a Coin Receipt Threshold notice and have to wait for the amount of receipts you have scanned to pass the seven day mark.

Thirdly, you can only upload up to three receipts from the same retailer on the same transaction date. So if you visit Dunkin Donuts or Starbucks more than three times a day, only your first three receipts will be authorized, so I would recommend that you be selective on which receipts you upload.

You can also earn coins by taking surveys and earning spins on the slot machine. You can earn spins by hitting weekly goals and by uploading receipts from retailers such as Best Buy, Home Depot and Barnes and Noble.

Checkout 51

This app works by buying specific products regardless of the retailer and once accepted, you get credit for the item. Each item has its own rebate amount and once you reach the $20.00 mark, you can cash out in the form of a check.

As you can see from the image to the right, I have earned a total of $23.60 in rebates since first using the app. I want to wait until this week's worth of rebates ends on Wednesday October 19th before cashing out. Gotta maximize that cash out. Right?

iBotta

This app is the most complex of the three to use. The app requires you to purchase items for rebates at specific retailers. Though many rebates can be redeemed by purchasing at multiple retailers, if you purchase an item at a non recognized retailer, then you can't get credit for your purchases. This app requires that you be very careful of what you buy and where you buy it. But the good thing is that this app starts you off with a $10.00 credit after your first upload and you can accrue money relatively quickly.

This is especially seen if you link your Facebook account to the app. Any of your Facebook friends that use the app will become part of your team. When they redeem rebates, you can reach "team goals" which in turn helps you earn more money.

So as you can see, I have earned $19.75 worth of rebates and once I reach $20.00, I can cash out to my Paypal account or choose to cash out in the form of a retail gift card. Some require you to cash out at $25.00. With Christmas around the corner, cashing out to a retail gift card would help with gift shopping.

So that's all for now. I'll come back to the apps in about a month or so for another update. If you haven't downloaded the apps, I suggest you do so. Give it a shot.

Until next time,
FH

Three Apps to Help Save Money Through Shopping

I really must apologize to everyone reading this page. I really didn't realize that I hadn't updated this page in almost a year and a half. That is really unacceptable. So starting with this post, I hope to rectify that by highlighting three apps that I have starting using in order to save some money WHILE shopping. Ok, I know, that sounds like a contradiction. But if the apps are true to their meaning, money can be made by just shopping. So let's not wait any further and dive head first into these money saving apps.

Checkout 51

While checking out this weekend's coupons and circulars, I came across an ad for an app called Checkout51. This Apple and Android app is pretty simple to use. The app has a number of items that you can earn cash back with every week from Thursdays to Wednesdays. All you have to do is to purchase those items at any location that will issue you a printed receipt. Then using the app, you take a picture of the receipt, upload it and in the app you highlight the item(s) listed on the receipt that are eligible for the rebate. Then once the receipt is approved by Checkout51, your credit is placed in your in-app account. So how does it turn to cash.

Once you reach $20 dollars or more worth of credit, then you can chose to "cash it out" and it will be mailed to you in the form of a check. That's it. Keep in mind that some items have restrictions as to where you can purchase an item to get credit for it. You can shop at the small local mom and pop shop, to chain stores like Walmart and Kroeger's to the big box wholesale club stores like Costco's and BJ's. The key is to get a printed receipt that clearly states the items you purchased.

So far, I've been able to accrue $4.90 since yesterday. We'll see how the rebate deals are in the near future, but for someone who has two hungry teenagers, any ways to save money helps. While talking to my sister about this app, she turned my on to the next two apps.

Receipt Hog

Receipt hog, which is also supported on Apple and Android is also very easy to use. This is how it works. You can scan up to 20 receipts in a rolling 7-day period and depending on how much the receipts are for, you can get coins, sweepstakes entries and slot machine spins. The location of the receipt that you scan determines the rewards you get. And there really is not limit as to what businesses you can scan receipts from. From supermarkets, stores, retail shops, gas station, bars and restaurants, you can upload receipts to earn points. Receipts cannot be more than two weeks old and have to be printed from a register, not hand written. You can also earn coins by linking accounts and filling out surveys through the app.

When you reach 1,000 coins, you can cash out to either a Paypal account or your Amazon account.

So far I've earned 303 coins since yesterday. And since you can scan in receipts from anyone in your household, you have virtual limitless receipts to chose from.

iBotta

The iBotta app is one that is a bit more convoluted to use. While you can choose from many different retailers, you are only limited to the items they list as being part of the rebates. Most have multiple items that need to be purchased in order to qualify for said rebate. And once you unlock a rebate, depending on the item, it is eligible to be redeemed across multiple retailers. Some rebates are generic so all you have to do is buy the item regardless of the brand, which broadens the amount of savings. You can also link it to apps like Groupon, Best Buy and other retailers Now, the good thing about the app is that upon your first rebate and receipt upload, you earn a $10 dollar bonus.

As with the other two apps once you reach the minimum you can cash out. Where this app differs from the others is that there is a wide array of gift cards that you can cash your money out to in addition to Paypal and Venmo.

What do I think about these apps. Like I said earlier, if they are true to their words, then I think all three have the potential to earn some cash by just being diligent. My sister said she fell off in keeping track of her receipts with the Receipt Hog app so she hasn't been able to cash out a reward. For families this is definitely a godsend. You just have to look at the lists, see what you need and upload your receipts. AND you can still clip and use your coupons as long as the items you buy meet the parameters of the rebates on the apps.

You are only limited by your resilience and imagination. I promise to update where I stand with these apps in a few weeks.

Until next time,
FH

Using Store Flyers To Save Money

Another way that I try to save a few dollars when doing my food shopping is by perusing various stores and their flyers. Using the little key chain cards that stores love to give out to their customers can really save you some money and get you some bang for your buck if really know how to shop.

As you can see above, I like to look at a variety of weekly flyers to find the best deals. Even chain pharmacies like Walgreens and CVS can provide amazing deals if you look closely. Here's an example of one such sale I took advantage of.

CVS a few weeks ago had the 12oz bag of Starbucks Breakfast Blend coffee (just like the one to the right) at $6.99 per bag. Now if the flyer noted that if you bought $20 dollars worth of Starbucks products, you would receive a $5 dollar Extrabucks rewards coupon to use on any purchase before February 15, 2015. Not that I needed any more incentive to buy three bags of coffee but utilizing the sales to get coupons to be used at a later date is something I couldn't resist. Especially since what I was buying was something that I would use.

So I turned around and used the coupon on a sale that CVS had a week or two later for three boxes of Crispix cereal. Now Crispix is one of the few cereals my daughter enjoys and as one of the Kellogg's "Healthy" offerings, it is one of the most expensive selections. The sale had the cereal at buy 3 boxes for $7-dollars. Using my coupon, I ended up getting 3 boxes for $2-dollars. I can't even get a regular priced box for under $4-dollars so to get 3 for $2 was an amazing coup. That is the key here. Buying stuff you need with the coupons you earn instead of just buying stuff for the sake of getting a coupon or to use a coupon.

That seems to be the methodology of the extreme couponers you see on TV who fill up four to five shopping carts worth of products that they will just sock away so they can use manufacturers coupons to reduce the price of the products they want. Don't get me wrong, it looks amazing on TV to see the large amount due whittle down to virtually nothing after the coupons are scanned in. But its not something that I can do. I do try to buy things that are on sale in order to stock the back-up pantry and if I have a coupon for items on top of a sale price, I try to use it. But back to the key point from above.

Make a list, stick to it and buy what you need. We've all been guilty of walking into a store without a list and leaving with bags full of stuff that caught our eye as we walked down the aisles. Hell, that even happens when we have a list. The key is to fight the urge to buy something that is not on your list. You need to show some willpower, moderation and frugality. If a sale focuses on a store brand rather than a corporate brand name, take advantage of it. There's nothing wrong with a store brand especially when you are trying to stay within budget like I am.

The day will come when you can splurge, but by then if you re-train your way of doing shopping by taking advantage of sales, you won't feel the need to do so. But that is just me. I can only make the suggestion. You guys have to make the effort.

You have any suggestions on what works for you? I'd love to hear about it. For the next post, I did a little test on how much coffee I can get out of a 12oz bag of coffee in the Thermos I received for Christmas and how it compares in terms of price to a daily cup of coffee bought at a store.

Until Then,
FH

Frugality Sucks and Its Really Hard to Keep To The Plan

As I've posted in recent weeks, I've been trying to find ways to lower expenses and save money in a financial situation where I am not making as much as I have been in the past few years. A couple of nights ago, the weight of my goal hit me squarely in the face when I found myself re-routed due to train construction. 

Fast track was happening on the 6-train and the re-routing would have consisted on taking an express bus from 125th Street to Hunts Point Avenue, just to get off the bus to take the train to my stop to HOPEFULLY catch my bus before it stops running for the night. Yes, it is just as convoluted as it sounds. And time consuming to boot especially since I was working an opening shift the next morning after a closing shift. The other option is to take the express bus that leaves me four blocks from my house. Now here is where I realize what I am trying to accomplish with my frugality and how my life has truly changed since my bar days.

In years past I wouldn't have even given a second thought of catching a cab home from 125th Street, or dropping the $6 bucks for the express bus. Hell, I would have sat at the Live Bait Bar on 23rd Street and had a couple of cocktails while waiting for the scheduled bus to arrive. Instead I stood at the bus stop 20 minutes dreading having to spend 2+ rides worth of Metrocard rides on one ride. That's to the degree that I am trying to maintain a budget. Unfortunately, the unlimited ride Metrocards don't work on the express buses. Now, luckily I got home no later that I would have if the train and bus were working normally. But I guess after a busy shift at work, walking to the express bus from Union Square and walking the four blocks home from the stop on Bruckner Boulevard, I was much more tired than I thought. To the degree that I woke up the next morning feeling like a truck hit me and I felt as if I was hungover at work without having done any drinking. So what keeps me from coming off the rails and spending money in ways I shouldn't? Routine.

I stick to the plan by maintaining a strict routine. I don't carry any of my credit cards to avoid the temptation of sitting in a bar (I'll go into this in a later post), spending money while waiting for the bus or using them to shell out for a cab ride. I don't carry any cash so that I don't spend any money frivolous manner. What I do maintain as a part of the routine is a journal. I have one journal that keeps track of earnings and spending. I have a second one called Building the Best You: A Two-Year Discovery Journal by Caroline Harper. Here is how the journal is described:

How can you become the person you’ve always dreamt of being? Personal transformation begins when you take stock of where you are and what you’re doing right now…and work to change it. And with this two-year self-discovery journal, based on the tenets of Positive Psychology, you’ll not only see results from year-to-year or even month-to-month; an amazing difference is visible day-to-day. All you have to do is answer some basic questions and take five minutes of “focus time” daily to get there. Best of all, charting your entries is an affirmative experience, because you’re responding to queries like “What am I grateful for today?”, “What challenged me?”, and “How can I overcome that challenge?” It highlights the courage, joy, hope, forgiveness, and love that live inside you.

The unique and attractive design places year one and year two questions in two side-by-side columns, so you can easily compare answers, notice patterns, and celebrate how far you’ve come in only 12 months.   

The questions are very repetitive but the idea for me is to create my routine by maintaining my journal and putting what I feel to paper to avoid taking it with me to bed and carrying it over into the next day. My maintaining of a routine journal certainly helps with the budget aspect since I keep both journals together and if I update one, the other one reminds me to update the other. It also helps me realize that this journey isn't easy and many a sacrifice has to be made to reach the level where I want to be both financially and spiritually.

So I take the good days with the bad and keep rolling with the punches. It sucks but so can life sometimes. No? Ok, enough of the complaining. LOL. I go back to my efforts to save money in my next post in the form of using store circulars to save money on items that we need on a daily basis and to try and stock the pantry for a later date.

Until next time,
FH