Grocery Apps - The Frugal Family Series

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In addition to cash back websites, grocery apps are another great way to earn a passive income. To date, we haven’t earned a ton of money from these apps but I’ve earned almost $20 in one app, which is the cash out rate and I’ve already earned a $5 reward with another. I never say no to free money so even though these grocery apps just add a little bit back into our budget, they are worth using to me.

Ibotta

Out of all 3 grocery apps I will be sharing with you, this one is the most worthwhile. Once you download the app and create an account, you are able to input your zip code and stores local to you will become available. You can search the app by store or category. Once you select an item from a certain store, all you have to do is purchase the item, scan the barcode and snap a picture of your receipt. I love Ibotta because of all the apps, it has the best selection of stores and items for receiving cash back. Ibotta also offers cash back on online purchases at select retailers. For a while, they were running a deal of 5% cash back on Jet.com purchases, so I definitely took advantage of that. If you use Ibotta for online purchases, make sure you check the cash back rate against, ebates, Swagbucks and Topcashback to see which one offers the best deal. The payout for Ibotta is $20 so depending on how much of the selected products you buy from the stores that are available, it may or may not take a while to cash out. To reach the payout sooner, you can always refer friends to Ibotta to earn an extra $5 per new user and your friend will receive $10 to their account.

Checkout 51

This app is similar to Ibotta in that it offers cash back on grocery items. However, Checkout 51 has a very limited selection of items so I’ve found that I haven’t made as much as quick when compared with Ibotta. Since downloading the app, I’m only at $1.50 and the payout rate is $20. I’ve seen Checkout 51 offer $.25 back on a dozen eggs and our local Aldi sells them for $.78/dozen so that was an awesome deal! This app may seem like a waste of time to some, but I’m okay with waiting for the cash back to accumulate.

Receipt Hog

Receipt Hog is an app that rewards users for uploading pictures of their receipts. Depending on how much you spend, you will be rewarded a number of coins. As the coins accumulate, they can be redeemed for rewards ranging from $5-$40 (cash in your PayPal account, Amazon gift cards or magazine subscriptions). Essentially, Receipt Hog is paying users for the data they receive from the receipts. Prior to snapping a photo of each receipt, I’m usually asked one survey type question (typically I’m asked to rate my shopping experience on a scale of 1-5 stars). So far, I’m up to a $5 reward and am letting the money accumulate until I can max out at $40. Again, not a significant amount of money, but right now it’s enough toward free products on Amazon or a free coffee!