Every Penny Counts: Saving Money with Ibotta

If you’ve ever met Korey or me, you know that we’re what most people would describe as frugal. We aren’t cheap, though. Neither of us mind spending money on good quality items if the value is there, but we don’t like to overspend either. Several months ago, we learned about an app called Ibotta and have been successfully using it for long enough that I can feel comfortable giving it a positive review. In fact, between the two of us, we’re well over $25o in reward dollars.

The best way I can describe Ibotta is like a cross between a digital coupon, a rebate and a click through site like TopCashBack or eBates (probably a topic for another post). For many of the stores I shop at (grocery stores in particular), there are options to receive a certain amount of money back for certain brands or types of items. That money accrues in a virtual account that you can eventually transfer out via PayPal or can convert to any number of gift cards.

As a more detailed example of the branded variety, you might have an offer that gives a two dollars back on the purchase of AXE Body Spray. There are also a number of “Any Brand” options too. For example, a few weeks ago, there was an offer to get a dollar off any gallon of milk. A lot of these are no brainers because we’re getting the items regardless. Others are easy ways to try new things. Last week, there was an option to get paid to try a jar of pesto sauce. It cost $2.78 and there was a $3 reward.

So how does it work? At some point, you need to select the offers you want to get. This can be done before or after your actual visit to the store (so it works retroactively), but I normally like to look in advance so that I can see if there’s anything in particular I want to buy. Next, you buy the stuff. Then finally, you verify your purchase in the Ibotta app. You do this by using your cell phone camera to scan the UPCs of the items you bought and to take a picture of your receipt. That’s it! The money usually appears in your account before you can finish unloading your groceries.

Sounds pretty good, right? As the infomercial would say, “But wait, there’s more!” And with Ibotta, there is too. There are a few other easy ways you can get more money back on the shopping you’re already doing. The first way are bonuses. Occasionally, there are just random promotions to tack on additional money. For example, before Christmas there were two options I took advantage of. You could redeem 4 rebates and get $10 or redeem 20 rebates and get $30. This stacks on top of the normal cash back you get as well. What this meant was in the end, I effectively got over $50 of free groceries. And now before the end of the year,** you get an additional $5 on your first branded redemption.**

The final icing on the cake is that there are also team based bonuses. If you redeem rebates and the people that you know through Ibotta also redeem rebates, you get additional money. So what are you waiting for? You get $10 just for signing it up using my link and you’ll be part of a team big enough to earn the team bonuses if you do your part. Worst case scenario, you got a free $10 for downloading an app.

Have any questions or know of a good deal you want to share? Let me know @TalkToErik.