Spending Wisely Saves Money: Apps, Coupons, & More
MONEY
“Save money on the big, boring stuff so that you have something left over for life’s little pleasures.”
- Elisabeth Leamy -
Household budgeting can result in less financial stress, so it's important to wisely plan out your purchases to fit your lifestyle and means. Some budgeting and debt experts advise cutting expenses down to the bone in order to more quickly achieve financial goals such as getting out of debt or purchasing a home. However, austerity is not popular, and is difficult and frustrating to maintain in the long term. Instead, let’s prioritize our financial needs, making sure we are making forward-thinking decisions when it comes to purchases. Planning ahead will save a lot of money, as it’s usually more expensive to do or buy things last minute. Doing research into consumer goods you know you will need to purchase will result in higher quality and lower prices.
The best way to redirect money is to reduce unnecessary spending in other categories. You can accomplish this a number of ways. Plan your purchases of bigger ticket items such as appliances, furniture, cars, electronics, and other items around annual sales periods. To avoid buyer's remorse, wait to make purchases. Impulse spending can take a huge chunk out of any person’s budget. Careful planning can anticipate your needs, so that you are not forced to pay extra because of time or necessity. Some strategies to save money at the store and for other household essentials include coupons, price-checking apps, cashback cards, and shopping sales or in bulk. We will go over these options in more detail below.
Coupons.com: Offers thousands of coupons, product deals and more.
Coupon Mom: Focused on food, with grocery deals, drugstore and restaurant discounts.
Proctor & Gamble (P&G): Proctor & Gamble's online store is brimming with discounts and certificates for everyday products. Find significant savings on brands like Olay, Gillette, Crest, Pampers, Duracell, and Tide.
Ultimate Coupons: Over 3,500 Stores. 60,000+ Free Promo Codes, Discount & Deals.
Valpak: ValPak may be familiar to you from the marketing mailers you receive each week; you can go to their website as well to check out their deals.
Groupon: The site is best suited for experiences rather than products; however it can have unbeatable deals, and new businesses will often offer steep discounts in order to get their name out there or entice a customer to select their business instead of a competitors.
LivingSocial: The best daily deals on experiences that are good for groups.
There are multiple ways to save money on items you have to buy anyway, and one of the easiest ways is to download a rebate app, so you can get cash back for those necessary purchases. Some apps require you to select the stores where you frequently shop. Others award points for any product on which they have a discount. You may be asked to take a photo of your grocery receipt in order to receive your points or rebate. You can choose to receive your rebates in cash or as a gift card, depending on the app. There are numerous rebate apps available, so pick the one that fits your lifestyle best, or use multiple apps. Below are some top examples.
Ibotta gives you cash back whether you shop in-store, online, or while traveling or dining out. There are no promo codes or coupons to keep track of. Before you go shopping, you search the app for deals you like, then afterward, you upload a photo of your receipt. You can also use a loyalty card in-store or a supported debit card through the app to purchase the item.
Rakuten is a well-known cash-back app that claims to offer savings at over 3,500 stores and does payouts via PayPal or check. It also offers travel discounts on flights, hotels, and car rentals. The app offers three-monthly direct payments.
RetailMeNot is one of the first cash-back apps and is primarily a coupon finder for every major brand you can think of. It also allows users to activate online offers and receive personalized discount notifications, though not at every store. It is available as an app, through the website, or as a chrome extension.
Fetch Rewards allow you to earn cash back on groceries and other everyday necessities such as household cleaners. You can earn rewards points redeemable for gift cards by scanning your receipt or submitting an eReceipt. Fetch fans like the app's simplicity, but privacy may be a concern for some, due to a social feature that shares shopping and spending information.
Dosh is an app that focuses its discounts on over 600k hotel partnerships that get you cash back for purchases. Cash-back offers are deposited into the Dosh wallet and can then be transferred into bank, PayPal or Venmo accounts. Rewards can also be donated to charitable organizations. There is no receipt scanning required to get cash back, but there are maintenance fees. Purchases must also be made with credit rather than debit. They also partner with well-known Brands such as Walmart, Disney, and World Market for your every-day purchases.
Checkout 51 is a rewards app that gives users cash back on grocery and gas purchases. To take advantage, you must first add offers to the app, then click "redeem" to check off items purchased. Finally, a receipt must be photographed and uploaded. Cash back is added to your account once the receipt is verified. It also serves as a coupon app, allowing users to save even more money when shopping. New deals are added on Thursdays.
Neighborhood Nosh (formerly known as iDine) has a rewards structure that is based on how much you spend over the course of a year. You will receive: 5% cash back on annual spending of less than $750, and 10% off purchases of $750 or more per year. Rewards are given in the form of an American Express gift card once your rewards balance reaches $20.
When it’s time to purchase literally anything, we can always take a few quick seconds to double check that we are getting the best deal for the item or experience. Here are a few price-comparison tools. Many of them are specific to an industry, but all of them have value, and are highly rated. Don’t be overwhelmed by the options. Pick one or two price saving apps or browser extensions and you will begin saving money immediately.
Capital One Shopping is a free browser add-on that helps you save money while shopping by automatically comparing prices, applying promo codes, and alerting you to better deals. It is supported by tens of thousands of websites. They are also quietly searching behind the scenes to ensure that you are getting the best available price while you are shopping, which is arguably the most useful feature they have. It saves you from having to switch between browser tabs to see if Amazon has the best deal, or if it’s Walmart, Target or any other online retailer. Capital One Shopping even alerts you to deals on eBay from individual sellers. It also calculates shipping times and delivery costs when comparing prices. Credits are automatically accumulated as you shop online. For example, you'll get 2% back on Walmart purchases and 7% back on Microsoft purchases. Loyalty points can also be earned by shopping or eating out near your home or office. These local offers will earn you 4% back when you use a linked credit or debit card to make purchases with Capital One Shopping. Credits can be redeemed as online gift cards to major retailers.
Honey claims to save users an average of 17.92% on everyday online shopping. Because of important differences, there is no reason not to have both Honey & Capital One Shopping. Both pop up helpful boxes in the top right corner when you are shopping to let you know how much they are able to save you. When you shop online, you'll earn credits, typically between 1% and 20% of the total purchase. Both services typically provide credit amounts that are comparable. Honey is better for non-US shoppers who want gift cards for retailers in the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, or the European Union, or who want to donate their credits to charity. Honey works with over 40,000 retailers, including Macy's, J. Crew, Lowe's, Adidas, Stubhub, Ulta, Sephora, GameStop, Nike, Target, and Amazon. You can redeem your points in three ways: Cash back, PayPal shopping credit, or a $10 gift card from participating stores once you've earned 1,000 points. You can also look through the Honey website to find the best deals and offers of the day. Unlike Honey, Capital One Shopping Credits cannot be redeemed for Amazon, Target, or Walmart gift cards. Honey, which was founded in 2012, has been around slightly longer than Capital One Shopping, which was founded in 2014. Honey also appears to have a larger user base (17 million vs. 3 million).
The Camelizer (formerly camelcamelcamel) is a free online shopping browser extension/add-on. The Camelizer's developer created three websites: one for Amazon, one for BestBuy, and one specifically for Newegg. The plugin gathers all of the information from these price tracking websites and price tracking alerts are also available. This allows you to set a desired price, and Camelizer will notify you via email or Twitter if the product falls below that price. This is a great way to keep track of products on your wish list that you won't buy unless they're on sale. Simply add a price drop notification to Camelizer and then ignore the product until you receive an email about it.
Giving Assistant is a unique shopping website that helps its members in finding deals and donates a portion of member purchases to the shopper's preferred nonprofit. Once you've downloaded it, you'll receive a notification if the retailer you're looking at offers cash back. To activate, click the button, and then click again at the checkout to apply coupons. You will also be able to select the percentage of your cash-back earnings to donate to your cause. Doing good has never been so easy.
ShopSavvy is a full-featured price comparison app. It includes a barcode scanner, a QR code scanner, product search functionality, and price comparisons across multiple retailers. ShopSavvy also informs users about price matching policies at specific stores. You can set up alerts for specific items or categories and be notified when an item goes on sale or is back in stock. Keyword search, restaurant menu scanning, and personalized deals are also important features. It’s is the only price comparison app that provides “price history” charts with multi-retailer support — this feature allows you to determine whether an advertised "sale" is truly a good deal or just a marketing ploy.
MyCartSavings includes all of the features you need to compare and track prices from your mobile device, such as product keyword searching, barcode scanning, and voice searching. When you search for a product, you'll get real-time pricing data that allows you to easily compare prices across retailers. In addition, the app offers coupons and daily deals from major retailers such as Amazon and Walmart. MyCartSavings distinguishes itself from other apps due to its price tracking capabilities. Users can enable price tracking for a specific item and receive notifications when the price falls to or below the amount they are willing to pay for the product.
BuyVia offers personalized deals. Users can tell the app which stores, products, and categories they are interested in, and the app will then send them deals based on their preferences. Other features included are barcode scanning, sale notifications, and price drop alerts. The app can also be used to find coupons for nearby shops based on your location, making it an excellent choice for users who want to support local businesses.
Grate is a price comparison app aimed primarily at users looking for deals on groceries, personal care products, beauty products, and electronics. Grate distinguishes itself from similar apps not only by comparing prices between retailers, but also by its review aggregation capabilities. The app also allows you to search for products based on their ingredients, making it simple to find food and beauty items that meet your specific wants and needs.
Rakuten is a mobile app and browser extension that allows you to quickly compare prices, find deals, and earn rewards. It is available in both an app and browser extension form, and it will work in the background to find relevant deals, coupons, and promo codes. If the app discovers a lower price on another website, it will notify you so you can save money by switching websites. Rakuten is distinguished by its cashback feature, which allows users to earn cashback on purchases made on major platforms such as Walmart, Amazon, Sephora, Lyft, StubHub, and others.
Price.com has an app, a website and is a Chrome browser extension. You can compare prices at major retailers by typing a search, scanning a barcode, or uploading or photographing an item. When you open the app, you'll see a plethora of coupons for dozens of retailers and services that you can use both online and in-store. And, as with the other apps, you can set a price alert if you want to buy an item at a specific price. It claims to partner with over 20,000 different stores and offers cash back at major retailers such as Walmart and Target but also travel sites such as Booking.com, Expedia and IGH hotels.
Shopmania shows you prices from hundreds of online stores but also other information that you may not have taken into account and can help you make the right decision. Reviews, technical specifications, and product comparison features make narrowing down your purchasing decision a breeze.
PriceGrabber lets users compare online and in-store prices, and it even collects Groupon deals in 160 U.S. cities. They offer a valuable weekly email newsletter to keep you in the loop for the best deals on the internet.
Flipp is a price comparison app that displays current weekly deals from over 2,000 major retailers. The app functions as a local flyer display: it uses your location to suggest the best deals in your area. You can find deals by searching by store, or you can search by item to compare prices across multiple flyers. According Flipp, users saved an average of $45 per week. Aside from traditional price comparisons, this app allows you to create shopping lists and watch lists, share deals with your contacts, and save all of your loyalty cards in one place.
Coupons & Deals
Price Comparison Tools
“He who will not economize will have to agonize.”
– Confucius -
Rebate Apps
“The art is not in making money, but in keeping it.”
– Proverb -
“I clip coupons all the time. Why should you pay more for something that someone else is paying less for?”
- Sarah Michelle Gellar -
