Cash Back Shopping Apps

And I don’t mean the credit card kind.  I mean the apps that are available like ibotta, checkout51 and Walmart’s new Savings Catcher.

I don’t earn a lot, but in the last few months, I’ve earned about $20 between the three of them.  Sometimes, I earn a “cash back” on one item multiple times through the different apps – it depends on what it is.

Ibotta especially focuses on name brand items, but occasionally has “generic” items available, like milk, bread and eggs.  Checkout51 pretty reliably has bananas every week, as well as the occasional milk and bread. Ibotta is store specific, ALDI’s isn’t an option there, but Costco (and the local liquor store) is.  Checkout51 doesn’t care where the receipt is from as long as it’s pretty obvious that you bought the item in question.

The WalMart Savings Catcher is a relatively recent addition to my phone – it “scans” through published ads and matches them to items on your receipt – so you don’t have to remember your ads or remember to ask them to match.  From what I can tell, it doesn’t cover WalMart’s entire ad matching policy (doesn’t allow non-branded items like produce and meat), but it gets the rest.   Other than Costco, WalMart is my primary grocery store, so it was worth looking at (and I can still get ibotta/checkout51 rebates on the same receipt).

I’m not hugely brand loyal, so I don’t get a lot of money from these things, but if you are brand loyal or even brand agnostic, you might be able to “make” more than I do.  I don’t even bother to look at the apps until after I’ve already purchased my groceries, so I don’t tailor my shopping to meet their lists. I get the brand I want or the cheapest option – the 25-50 cents that I get from the apps doesn’t make up for the price differences usually.

Disclaimer: I just use these apps, I have no affiliation with them in anyway.  I also know that they are recording what some people refer to as sensitive information, and folks aren’t OK with that.  As I see it, the stores can already trace my purchases back to me via my credit card, so it’s not a privacy issue for me.

Does anyone else use the cash back shopping apps?  Or am I the only one willing to take pictures of my receipt and scan barcodes for some cash back?  Any other apps I should look at?

10 thoughts on “Cash Back Shopping Apps

    1. Mom Post author

      The offers change every week, although there have been several on both ibotta and checkout51 that seem to have been there since I started using them.

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    1. Mom Post author

      It’s not negligible effort, but I have to take a picture of my receipt go through the items and check off any I bought and with ibotta i have to scan the barcode itself. But that’s about it. Takes about an extra 5-10 minutes once I get hone from the grocery store(s)

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    1. Mom Post author

      They’re OK for the effort required. I don’t adjust my shopping habits to match what they’ve got, but just check after the fact. I suspect you could make quite a bit of money if you bought more variety than I do.

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    1. Mom Post author

      Target has their Cartwheel app, and it works “better” for having more non-branded options, but when I was using it, I found that WalMart had better prices, even *after* getting the cartwheel discount. That may vary by area, but I found that the Target brand flour was more expensive than the name brand flour (king arthur) when the flour was “on sale” on the cartwheel app. I just stopped using it because it wasn’t saving me any money.

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