I Bought A . . .

Food seems to be a huge expense, and if not planned carefully, is an expense that one can spend to much money on. (me included!)  Now that I do the majority of the meal planning, cooking, and grocery shopping, I am always looking for ways to save money.Of course I have seen that TLC show 'Extreme Couponing' and wish that I could become that organized, know where to get coupons, and be familiar with the stores that actually allow one to save that much money. However, I wouldn't know where to start, and momentarily am to lazy to research it. Plus, I don't have that much room in my house to 'stockpile' as the extremists on the show do. Madison already shares half her room with our minor food storage. It seems that you have to be willing to 'stockpile' to save that much money anyways.

However, my sister introduced me to an app called ibotta . (Yes, the post title is a tad misleading)  Ibotta doesn't give you coupons, but actually rebates you cash. You can download ibotta as an app as I have for a smartphone, or it can easily be accessed as a computer program.

The ibotta app icon

 Oh... did I mention the app is Free!!

 From what I have earned so far, it is easy and even saved me some money. All you need are the redeemable items that you have bought as well as the receipt. This is how it works.

When you first go into the app, it gives you a list of topics/categories. I have only used groceries so far, it seems to have the best selection of everyday items that I purchase.

Once you have clicked on a category, it takes you to a list of stores. As you can see, it is only the major chain stores. So far, I have only used Walmart, but my family uses Winco, and I am thinking of switching my weekly grocery story to Smiths. There are more stores then shown here such as: Sam's Club, Sprouts, Kmart, Ridley's, Costco, and even more.

When I click on Walmart, I get a list of redeemable items for purchase and then below them the amount that they are redeemable for. All I have to do is click on the item and watch a short advertisement to unlock it. Below I have shown some of the items that are up for rebates. Of course there are a few others, and some are name brand and specific. These are just a few of the everyday items that I can redeem almost weekly. Every few days new rebates are put up and I just try to stay up on them to check if any items that I am going to buy will be on there. 

'Any brand' food and items that are available, even including the generic brand.

More.. Milk is also just one row beneath.

Once I have unlocked the rebate, all I need is the items I purchased and the receipt. Here is an example of one that I just did today.

Before I ran a quick errand to Walmart, I looked over the rebates and saw that Beech-Nut little squeezable snack things had a rebate for $1.00 if I bought three. I saw that on my list I put that I needed to buy a few of these squeezable fruits for Madison, (and yes, I was going to buy at least 3). In the past I have bought the generic brand because they were 4 cents cheaper. However, after a little bit of math, I found that with the rebate I actually saved 88 cents on buying the name brand baby food using the ibotta rebate.

Go ahead and check my Math!

All you need to earn the rebate is the items bought and the receipt.

If you bought multiple items on the same receipt, it is easiest to redeem all the items and then just scan the one receipt for the whole purchase instead of multiple times. The app comes with a scanner for the receipt and also a scanner for the item purchased.


This seems like such a little thing, and I won't be rich or save millions of bucks using it in the minimal fashion that do. However, my sister, who still lives at home, just saves my parents receipts from Winco, and actually makes a little bit of money. If only we could all be so lucky.