7 Easy To Use Apps That Will Save You Thousands

With the cost of everything going up seemingly every minute we are all struggling to save as much money as possible.

There’s the old faithful, get the Sunday paper, cut out the coupons and get some money off.

This will save you money as well, but what if there was a way you could save money, even more than cutting coupons, with just your phone?

Here are 7 apps that will not only save you money, but some will even earn you money.

Upside

Originally I downloaded this app just for the money back on gas, and that in itself is worth having this app.

As of right now I’ve saved over $40, and my wife has saved even more.

This app now offers so much more, including restaurants that you are likely to be going to anyway, or should try.

One of my favorite wing places in my area just started offering cash back using the Upside app, which is all the excuse I need to go there.

Ibotta

The first time I heard about this app a friend of mine told me that he decided which beer to bring based on this app.

He was coming over for dinner and wanted to bring a 6 pack. He opened Ibotta and looked to see which beer he would get the most amount of money back on.

This is amazing when you’re planning what you’re getting for your groceries each week, especially if you order your groceries online and simply pick them up as it also has a chrome extension you can download.

We have used this to get hundreds of dollars back by doing our grocery shopping online, and picking them up at the store. Not only does this save us money, but also time because we don’t have to do the shopping either, just drive to the store, load up and leave. An added benefit is that it limits impulse shopping, which probably saves just as much as using the app.

Drop

Drop is a family favorite, well a wife favorite anyway. I never use it, not because it doesn’t save you any money, but because my wife is so good at taking care of it for me.

Using this app we have made hundreds of dollars.

You can link your credit or debit cards to the account and when you make purchases you get money back.

In addition you can also play games or take surveys to make even more money. My wife typically will take both our phones at night while we are watching TV and do this. She's been able to replace our curtains, get new computer accessories, and buy so many other things simply playing games on her phone.

Rakuten

If you shop online, at all, this is a must to have.

By downloading the chrome extension on your computer anytime you shop it will pop up and ask you to apply for the Rakuten cash back.

Using this one thing I’ve saved over $200 over the years. This is money back on things I was going to pay for anyway.

You get the money once every 3 months, deposited directly into your paypal account, or you could get a check mailed to you if you’ve made enough on it.

Fetch

With this app you scan your receipts, any receipt, and get money back.

You can look inside the app and see what stores and even what items get you the most cash back, but it isn’t required to make money from this app.

We have scanned the most generic receipts ever and still got points, things like chinese restaurants, chiropractor appointments, doctors appointments, really any receipt you have you can scan and make money from.

Google Rewards

This is probably the easiest app to save and make money.

You download it and run it in the background, and every so often it will ask you questions based on places you’ve gone to, or things you’ve Googled.

If you’re an android user you can save up as much money as you want, but you can only use it with the Google play store.

When I was an android user I saved over $80 and bought the entire series Fringe, one of my all time favorites. I also used it to purchase several different books, and even some items on Pokemon Go when that was popular.

If you use an apple you can still get rewards, and some would argue that it’s even better.

You connect this to your paypal account and once you hit $2.00 they deposit it into your account. So rather than being limited to just Google Play you can spend this on anything, even transfer the cash to your checking or savings account if wanted.

Shopkicks

Shopkicks has features similar to Ibotta, Rakuten, and Fetch, in that you get money for buying certain things or by connecting your debit and credit cards to it and making purchases.

Where it differs though is that you can also get points by just going places.

When you open the app it will tell you what stores will give you “walk in” kicks, or points.

They do this so you walk into a store, and hopefully buy something. However, the truth is you don’t even have to walk into the store, simply driving near the front door usually will get you the kicks.

If you are in the store, they also have scan kicks you can get. These are point’s you’ll get for scanning specific items, no purchase necessary.

Finally, even if you don’t link your credit or debit cards, you can still get some kicks for purchases, as long as you also scan the receipt of your purchase.

Use All Of Them

Each of these apps have helped my family to save some money. Some have saved use just a few dollars, others several hundred.

The best thing you can do then is to use as many as you can handle.

Like I said, I don’t use drop, however my wife does, and keeps making us money. Some of the other apps you can use at the same time, for instance you can scan a receipt for Fetch that you also used Ibotta to get money back from. And if you’re able to use a cash back credit card to make purchases you can save even more money.

Do what you can handle, and help fight the continued rise in cost of living.