Travel is always on my mind. Everyday I think of my next trips. I keep a mental list of places of where I want to go next. The only way for me to get to this mental bucket list of places is to always be on budget and live frugally. Most people I know live the same way whether they have to or not. Some people live frugally because it is the only way they can survive. Others it is the thrill of the deal. It doesn’t matter the motivation, “Waste not, Want not” is not a bad way to live. With this being my motto, I have spent the last year utilizing shopping apps. I have written a blog post on my savings at the grocery store with coupons. This is one thing I will probably always do, but now I am integrating shopping apps too. I will use my trip to WalMart the other night as an example.

WalMart is not my favorite place to shop but for somethings, it is the only thing in my town. I follow a few blogs/websites called www.CouponDivas.com and www.Cuckcooforcoupons.com. I was reading some tips and followed some links to print several really good coupons. This was my inspiration for me to go on an extreme couponing trip to Walmart. My goal when I went was to maximize my coupons with my shopping apps. So I proceeded to only look at the price of things with coupons and the money I would get back by using Ibotta and Checkout51. These apps both offer rebates and bonuses for certain items purchased. It is very easy to use. By using these apps and my coupons this is how my savings played out: At checkout I saved a total of $20.25 with coupons. The other magic happens when I get home. I put all my goods on the counter. With Checkout51 all I have to do is check the items I bought on the app and then scan my receipt. With this app I only saved $2.75. With Ibotta I have to check all the items I bought, then verify them. You verify by scanning the UPC and then the receipt. With Ibotta I got $5.75, plus a $2.50 in a bonus for submitting enough rebates. Then I moved on to scanning the Walmart on the Walmart app. On this app there is a link called “Savings Catcher”. All you do is scan your Walmart receipt and for 7-14 days it will automatically check competitors ads, it will automatically give you the difference for an advertise price that is less at one of the competitors. You can save this up and get it on a Walmart gift card. So far in 2 days I got $1.79. Then I scan it on an app called Receipt Hog. This app gives you “coins” for your receipts. These coins add up to cash or gift cards. It also stores my receipts in my phone. If you do the math you will see I am up to $33.04 so far. There is still potential to earn more within the 2 weeks of that shopping trip.

All of these apps are free. I also do Mpoints and Shopkicks. These apps are ones you just check in at certain stores and get points. These points add up so you can cash them in for gift cards to places like Target, Marshalls, Home Depot, Lowes, Walmart, Starbucks and many more. This all free too. This may seem silly to some, but I find it entertaining.

I have two more shopping apps I use. One is the United Mileage Plus. This one I just make purchases at participating retailers thru the app. When I buy a gift card thru the app at a participating retailer I earn sky mileage with United.I have earned a total of 7500 miles from this app. This a little over 1/3 of a saver ticket on the continent of USA. It all adds up! The second is Ebates. This is an online shopping app. This one you can rebates for shopping at many stores like Target, Kohl’s etc. If you join off of someones referral (hint, hint, over to the left or bottom of my blog is the referral link)you will earn $10 off your first rebate is earned. If you are shopping, then you might as well earn money back.

By using my apps I have earned over $400 in money or gift cards and 7500 sky miles in one year.Some of these apps I just started using. To me that is equivalent to a round trip ticket somewhere or if your really good a whole trip somewhere. This alone is my passion and motivation, I find it a fun game I like to play.

Are there shopping apps you use? Are you interested in learning the shopping app or sky miles game? If so let me help you. I can teach you and your friends to save or make money doing simple everyday things.