It’s officially the weekend and if your weekends are anything like mine, you’re strategically planning out where and when to grocery and personal shop, according to the coupons available on your coupon mobile apps. I promise, it’s a lot more fun than it sounds, especially when you start to see those savings on items rack up.Most people only think about coupons for groceries, but I coupon beyond groceries. Chances are if it’s something I have to spend money on, I’m on the hunt to see if the brand or store location has a coupon available. To most people saving $.50 on an item doesn’t seem worth the hassle, but when you sit back and add up $.50 on multiple items in your cart, plus a few “free items” in the process it’s so worth it. To be fair, there are plenty of coupons well beyond the cents aspect too. Those are my favorite ;-). I’m still in the learning stages of couponing so I’m nowhere near the level of getting a cart full of groceries for $2.73. Although I would LOVE to be there one day, and prayerfully, one day soon lol, I’m learning that saving money in general is always beneficial. I don’t quite know if I will ever get to the extreme couponing stage when it comes to groceries simply because I don’t tend to find many coupon options for healthier foods. Since I’ve started eating a little cleaner over the last year, I’ve noticed there are never very many coupons for fresh fruits and vegetables. If there are, and you know where to find them, please drop the apps and/or website in the comment section below!
In my search and quest of couponing, I’ve been able to run trial and errors of my favorite couponing apps. Here are the apps I’ve grown to love and use on a regular basis.
1. Retail Me Not
This is my favorite app by FAR. My friend introduced it to me a few years back, but I never really understood its full potential until about a year ago. You can type in the store name to find all in-store and online coupons available at the moment. I used to have a few of the stores individual coupon apps on my phone until I realized I could save space and time by having them all in one place. You can even favorite the stores you use often so you don’t have to search every time you open the app.
2. Ibotta
This app is perfect for those of us who love to save money on groceries. However, this works a little differently than a coupon. You gain money back into your Ibotta account based on the items you bought matching up with what is available in their savings categories. You can withdraw the money once your account has reached $20 or more. $20 may seem like a high number in couponing, but I promise if you buy your groceries according to the Ibotta weekly list you will make the money back in no time!
3. Cartwheel
This is Targets personal app and if you spend as much time in Target as I do then this app will be your new best friend! I downloaded this app about a year ago but wasn’t too interested in the “hassle” of scanning every item I purchase to search for deals. For the last 6 months or so I’ve really gotten the hang of it and even signed up to receive the emails on what the weekly Cartwheel savings will be.
4. Checkout 51
This is a newer app I’ve been using for about 4 months but I’ve quickly grown to love it. This app is extremely similar to Ibotta in terms of how to use is and what to use it for. Even the amount for withdrawal is the same. Ibotta seems to be a little more organized though.
5. Cafe Rio
OK for those of you who don’t know, Cafe Rio, is a delicious chain restaurant very similar to Chipotle, only Cafe Rio’s tortillas are ten times more DELICIOUS and made fresh. Don’t tell my husband, but I officially like Cafe Rio more than Chipotle. Anyway, I’m only using Cafe Rio as an example of a food place we frequently go to that has an app. With every 4 trips we make we get $10 credit to put towards our next meal. That doesn’t even include the 50% off military Mondays and 25% off every other day for military discount we get. Find out if your local restaurant has an app and use it!
If you already use any of these apps or plan on using them please update me on how you like them! If there are other coupon apps you use that you swear by please feel free to comment below so I can check them out.
Have a great weekend y’all!
Brie <3
[10.08.16]
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