You’re going to spend money this holiday season. You might as know the best and easiest ways to save cash on your purchases. Learn how to get cash back and save with discounts on most retailers. This is the perfect option for those that hate using coupons.
The major money holidays are on us.
Thanksgiving just happened, Christmas and Hanukkah are on the way and month after that is Valentine’s day then Easter follows 2 months later.
Gifts aside, the sheer amount of food being bought for all of these can be a budget killer.
Saving for the holidays is hard enough but budgeting can be even harder. If you’re struggling to stretch those pennies, use every trick in the book to help you stay on top this year.
If you don’t know about cash back apps, you should learn.
This year I have found a way to keep my spending on track using cash back apps. Rakuten, Ibotta and the new Walmart app.
These apps are no joke. This year alone I’ve gotten a $100 back from everyday purchases. And that’s with barely using them! I forget all the time to add the rebates or upload my receipts.
Legit Ways To Save Money Every Single Day
I really can’t explain well enough how easy they are to use. It’s something you have to try out for yourself to see the benefit. The first time you use any of these will be a small challenge. It just takes a few tries to get used to navigating the apps. But after 1 or 2 times you’ll be a pro, and the day you get that first check in the mail, you’ll be hooked for life.
What are cash back apps and how do they work?
Rakuten
Hands down the best app for saving money. The Rakuten app and website are so easy to use and it legitimately gives you cash back. The best part, you can use it on smart devices and on traditional computers, like desktops and laptops.
You can use it at hundreds of stores and they always seem to have some sort of promotion going on. For instance, this past week there were Cyber Monday deals going on all week long. And there will definitely be Christmas then New Years deals happening.
It does 2 things for you. It shows you the sales going on on the websites and in stores, with the discount codes to use, and then the amount of cashback you will get on your purchases. You can use as many discounts as you can and still then get cash back.
I personally use it most often with Walmart or Amazon purchases. But just this week I used it for Vitamin World and got $21 off my $36 purchase and 4% cash back on top of that. So that would be 60 cents cash back. That 60 cents is added to all the other cash back deals I’ve gotten over the past year and I’ll get my check in the mail!
Here’s what I mean: Whenever the kids need new school uniforms, I just go through the Rakuten website to get to the Walmart link and then buy what I was going to purchase anyway
Here’s what it looks like on the website’s home page.
The big banner scrolls through with deals of the day/week and the tabs on the right are your most recently used links. That way if you have favorites, you can just get to them easily without having to look in their long, long list of stores available. They even have an easy button you can add to your browser bar to make it even easier that will let you know when you’re on a website they offer a cash back bonus for.
They also do cash prizes for referrals. Meaning YOU GET PAID real money when someone uses your referral code to sign up and make purchases. Send that thing to all of your friends and neighbors, it will save them a ton of money and earn you cash. Rakuten typically pays $5 per referral, but around the holidays they often increase it to $25. That’s a heck of a deal! Send just 4 people to the site and you can get $100! By basically doing nothing except helping your friends save money.
Go here to sign up for Rakuten today. Before you make another online purchase.
Don’t shop online often, well you can still use Rakuten. If you add your debit or credit card on file in the website, you can then link it up to the stores they have on their database and when you make a purchase in the store, they will credit your account with the current cash back promo it offers.
Right now there are 56 stores on there, but they add more all the time. These are all big name stores that you could find at most malls or outlets.
Ibotta
Ibotta takes a little bit of time and effort to use, but it does pay in the end. I get about $5-$10 a month with it.
You may spend about 10-15 minutes a week adding rebates to your app and then another 5 minutes adding receipts as you shop. But that is only if the store you use doesn’t automatically work through the app. A lot of stores will let you add your store’s loyalty card to it. Then you don’t have to do anything more than add items to your app and remember to swipe your card.
It’s easy to use once you get the hang of it, but you have to play around in there a few times at first.
Ibotta also offers features stores and deals of the day now. It works similar to Ebates this way. If you click on the store and go to the website directly from the Ibotta app, you get the cashback amount it featured on your purchase total.
It’s worth it to have both Ibotta and Rakuten so you can compare the cashback deals and use whichever one is offering the highest amount at the moment.
For instance, when I bought $100 worth of gifts on Groupon I got 10% cash back through Ibotta instead of the 4% I would have through Rakuten because they were the featured store that day. Normally the cash back amount would have either been the same or more on Ebates but about 10 seconds of research made me an extra $6. Not bad to make money on things I was going to buy anyway.
You should totally check out the Ibotta app and see for yourself how easy it is to make extra money.
Don’t Waste Another Day…
Spending your hard earned money without getting anything in return. Get on those websites and apps and watch as the pennies and dollars add up.
You’ll be excited when that first check shows up in your mailbox!
For more details on how to save money and make money, check out more from LazyGeniusMom.com
How to Get the Best Deals on Amazon.com
Use Online Grocery Shopping to Maintain Your Grocery Budget Easier
North Carolina, USA