I love cashing in on the opportunity to get a little (or a lot!) of money back on purchases that I’d be making already. You certainly need to be careful not to spend in order to save, but if they are things you’ll buy anyway, why not cash in?! I use these 7 tactics whenever I am buying groceries and household items to earn back a little something on my bill.
Grocery Store Coupons from Brands
There are countless brands that offer coupons online or in exchange for an email sign up. They are small amounts and obviously, you don’t want to sign up with every brand individually, but I like to do this with brands I am passionate about to show my support. I’ve done a little round-up of a few of my favs below, but be sure to check out the top items that you buy every week to see if they offer a kickback too, you never know!
There are tons of sites where you can print brand coupons and get even more into this.
Grocery Store Coupons from Stores
A lot of the stores themselves will mail you coupons if you have an account with them. And you usually create an account when you sign up for a loyalty card which will also send you money. My local stores normally mail me coupons every few months and there is always at least one totally free item, so be sure to open those mailers!
Digital Coupons from Grocery Stores
I love that you can pair your loyalty card with digital coupons as well. I usually open my grocery store’s app before I enter the store and search the coupons section for the items I’ve planned on purchasing. My store (Ralphs, owned by Kroger) lets me add those coupons to my loyalty card so that when I scan the card the eCoupons also get deducted. I don’t have to scan them individually or say what items I have in that order. It’s a great way to save a few dollars each time I go to the store.
Cash Back from ibotta
ibotta is a great app and I’ve had a lot of success earning cashback through grocery shopping. The basic concept is that you add cashback deals to your account and then verify your purchases either through a linked loyalty card or with an upload of your receipt. Then you can redeem that for cash via Paypal, Venmo, or gift cards.
I think the big thing that sets them apart, is that they offer bonuses. So if you redeem a certain number of deals or deals with certain brands or in a set time frame – you can earn a bonus and a lot of the time, it’s big! For example, you may earn a few small amounts on the individual items you buy, 25 cents on chips, a dollar on coconut water, etc, but when you redeem 5 different times over the weekend, you may get a weekend warrior bonus worth $5. You can really stack this up to be a nice chunk of change.
Points from Swagbucks
I’ve been using Swagbucks for a while and have never earned much from them but occasionally they offer pretty good opportunities to earn points for signing up for things you’d be using anyway. You won’t earn a lot from Swagbucks but they do have a new-ish feature where they are offering points (that can be redeemed for gift cards) when you buy certain grocery items in-store and upload a photo of the receipt. It’s a bit clunkier than ibotta in my opinion, but a lot of times the same brands participate, so you can double dip!
If you are new to Swagbucks, sign up with my link for $10 bonus!
Cash Back from Rakuten
Rakuten is my favorite cashback app for online shopping and lately, they’ve had some great in-store promotions as well. It’s usually not specifically for grocery stores but I do make sure to use them when I pay for grocery items via online retailers. I like to buy some kitchen staples via Amazon Prime Pantry and oftentimes you can cash in on cashback through a site like Rakuten. Other current online grocery retailers include Sam’s Club, Kroger Ship, Albertsons, Pavilions, Thrive Market, Walmart, Target, and Cost Plus World Market.
If you have not tried them before, sign up with my link for a $10 bonus!
Credit Card Cash Back
You need to be careful with credit cards for sure, but if you know yourself and are good with them, cash in on those benefits! So many cards offer cashback and many offer groceries as a bonus category for more back or a higher set of points on purchases. Know the cards you have in your wallet and be sure to use the one that will give you the most back on your grocery purchase!
Does anyone else have favorite ways to earn and save money while grocery shopping? Let us know in the comments!