A free Thanksgiving Dinner. Yes, that’s right. In the crazy year that is 2020, I’m getting a free turkey roast, green beans, French’s Onions, gravy mix, a 2 liter of Coke, potatoes, stuffing, cream of mushroom soup, and cranberry sauce for FREE! This is definitely not the first time that I’ve received the entire amount spent on groceries back, and I suspect that it won’t be my last.
I don’t use Ibotta all the time, but over the last couple of years, I have scored some really great deals, had the opportunity to try some new products, and saved over $340. If you don’t already have an account, you can use my referral link, and I’ll be very grateful. That also means that you’ll be in my Ibotta team which can allow you to earn extra bonuses if we both redeem a certain number of offers.
When I first started using Ibotta, it was solely focused on groceries, but it has since expanded into other areas. One of the biggest expansion areas is click-through cashback, but I’ve found their payback ratios are not quite as good as Top Cashback (which is a topic for another post) — so I digress.
The place where I find that Ibotta is worth the time is where they started — in the grocery store. Ibotta came up with a model to bring grocery store coupons into the 21st century. Rather than include coupons in a Sunday newspaper that very few people actually subscribe to any more, manufacturers or stores can offer digital coupons through the Ibotta app.
Once you install the app on your phone, you can browse by store or search for particular items to see what the current deals are. Most offers are added with a single click, though some others do require that you play an ad or click through a survey. In general though, it’s very non-invasive.
Then you go grocery shopping. You find the items that are on your list and can even scan the barcodes in the store to make sure that you’re getting the right item. That can be an important step because most offers are for a specific size or variety of the item. Scanning the item as you shop also potentially saves you a step down the line.
There are also often “Any Item” offers. These can be extremely broad and can literally be any item, or can be in a specific category like any tomato or any box of cereal. When you find everything that you wanted, you pay for your groceries just as you normally would.
The next piece has changed a bit over time. Originally, you always had to scan your receipt after checkout and scan the barcodes of any items that you hadn’t checked in the store. For some stores, that’s still what you need to do. You’ll identify the offers that you used and and submit your receipt. The app will show you the money that you’ll be getting back.
However, for specific stores, you can link your loyalty reward account or scan a barcode on the receipt to save a few steps. In either of those cases, Ibotta then validates that you actually bought the items that you said you did. They use your barcode scans and the copy of your receipt to do so.
The one last tip I have is to look for the bonuses that pop up from time to time. They occasionally have incentives for redeeming a certain number of offers over a weekend, around a holiday, or even in a month. These bonus offers stack with the standard offers so they can really add up quickly. Oftentimes, with a good bonus offer, you can get almost everything you buy for free.
And really that’s it! Once your offers have been validated, the money will show up in your Ibotta account. You can transfer it to your bank, send it to Paypal, or use it to get digital gift cards — some of which even come with a bonus value.
So what are you waiting for? Sign up for Ibotta today. This is definitely an area where you can stretch your dollars by spending this, not that.