Week 34: How I Earned Lots of Money Back with Rebate Apps
Welcome to Week 34 of the How I Saved Series! Each week I use my own shopping trips as examples of how to combine sales and coupons to keep your grocery budget low. Add in Ibotta rebates, and you’ll really be saving big time. If you want to learn how to get cash back with rebate apps, and other money saving tips, just keep reading!
If you’re new, you can check out the rest of the How I Saved Series here.
Tip: Check out the Money Saving Resources page to see what resources I use to plan my shopping trips!
This post may contain affiliate links. You can view my full disclosure policy here.
Update: After this post, I will be moving to a monthly format for the How I Saved series. This will give me the opportunity to write about more topics!
ON TO THE DEALS!
Here’s how I saved the week of August 20 – August 26:
GROCERY SAVINGS:
I am doing a pantry use-up challenge over the next few weeks, so I won’t be buying nearly as many groceries.
Check out the post: 10 Surprising Advantages of Doing a Pantry Challenge
MEIJER:
I combined coupons, sales, and of course Ibotta rebates to get a few great deals at Meijer. Plus, Meijer’s reward and digital coupon program, mPerks, had an outage last week (that didn’t affect me), but they gave everybody a $5 off anything digital coupon for the inconvenience. I had to put that to good use!
Here’s what I bought:
- (2) Cottonelle wipes ($1.19 each) – Priced at $2.19, with two 50 cents off newspaper insert coupons and two 50 cents back Ibotta rebates
- (2) Sunny D (50 cents each) – On sale for $1, with two 50 cents off newspaper insert coupons
- Bush’s Savory Beans (50 cents) – Sale priced at $1, less a 50 cents off coupon that Meijer mailed me
- (4) Buddig lunch meat (25 cents each) – Priced at 69 cents, less a 75 cents off 4 newspaper insert coupon and $1 cash back from Ibotta
I used the $5 off digital coupon from Meijer.
I also used a 25 rebate on ‘Any Item’ from Ibotta, and earned an extra 50 cents back for redeeming 9 Ibotta offers in August.
Amount Spent (not including Ibotta rebates): $1.89
Amount Saved (not including Ibotta rebates): $10.22
Percentage Saved: 84%
If you want to learn how to slash your grocery budget in just 5 days, check out the FREE Grocery Shopping Makeover Challenge!
Ibotta Savings: $2.75
As mentioned above, my Ibotta rebates were:
- 25 cents off any item at Meijer
- $1 back on Buddig lunch meat
- 50 cents back with August bonus
- $1 back on Cottonelle wipes
I earn cash back from Ibotta on almost every shopping trip. You can redeem your earnings for money or gift cards to zillions of places.
New to Ibotta? Sign up below and earn an extra $10 on your first rebate.
Click here to sign up for Ibotta, and get a $10 welcome bonus through this link!
Signing up through the app instead? Use code uwhaflc to get your $10 bonus.
Gasoline Savings: $3.36
I still had almost half a tank of gas, but saw a much lower price at a certain gas station, and guessed (correctly) that the price was about the spike. I saved 42 cents per gallon.
Miscellaneous Savings: $8
We washed and vacuumed the car ourselves, saving at least $8 compared to having it washed and vacuumed elsewhere.
Rebate Earnings: $175.90
So exciting! My quarterly payout from Ebates arrived, in the amount of $115.90.
I cashed out my Ibotta earnings for $60.
Both payments came through PayPal, right to my checking account.
If you order things online, you simply must be using Ebates. They have cash back offers for most retailers! Just head to their website, search where you want to shop, click through to that site, and shop like usual. Then they’ll send you a check every quarter for the cash back you earned. It’s SO easy!
Once you’re signed up, you can refer your friends and family to Ebates, and earn even more cash back!
GRAND TOTAL SAVINGS (AND EARNINGS) FOR WEEK 34: $200.23
TOTAL SAVED YEAR-TO-DATE: $3738.33
Related articles:
- 5 ways to save money on groceries without using coupons
- 30 Delicious Ways to Use a Pound of Ground Beef
- How I Use My Foodsaver to Save Hundreds of Dollars a Year
- 10 money myths that are keeping you broke
- Where to start when you’re flat broke
- 5 easy meal planning strategies for beginners
- 12 things frugal people don’t do
- 12 *more* things frugal people don’t do
You can catch up on the rest of the How I Saved posts here.
Don’t forget to check out the Resources Page for tons of other money saving resources!
Have you ever earned money with rebate apps?
