There’s a learning curve to many things in life. Take my spin class, for example. As a jogger, before I started I was a bit skeptical. How much exercise could you really get while sitting on a bike? Still, I went to my first class determined to sweat, and sweat I did. I pedaled, and pedaled, and pedaled so furiously—even when the instructor told us to slow down—that I just about fainted right out of my seat. Turns out spin class was hard, just as hard as jogging if not harder, and there was a learning curve I had to conquer.

That’s true of many things in life (ahem, dating), even simple things like finding the best cash back apps. That’s what I want to help straighten out today, though: how shoppers can choose the best cash back apps. On the surface, you might assume one is as good as the next, but the more complex truth is that each functions a little differently. Some are like digital versions of old paper coupons, others give you rewards for the shopping you do, anyway. Regardless, it’s essential that you first know what features all of the best cash back apps must have. After all, it literally pays to find the best!

Must-Have Qualities for All the Best Cash Back Apps for Shoppers

While the exact details of how each works varies from app to app, there’s some functionality all the best cash back apps should have. Here are a few features and qualities I consider vital:

• Free to use: This is probably the simplest but most essential quality. You shouldn’t have to pay a monthly fee to use an app to get cash back. You also shouldn’t have to pay if you don’t hit a certain level, and you definitely shouldn’t have to pay just to download the app. After all, the goal here is to save you money on the shopping you do every day!
• Available for iPhones and Androids: In my personal opinion, all of the best cash back apps for shoppers work with both platforms. That’s important not only because you might switch phones someday and you want to take all your rewards with you, but also because usually the more people using the app, the greater the savings.
• Saves you money both online and off: Let’s face it, we’re doing as much shopping these days on our phones and computers as at brick-and-mortar stores. No matter which one you choose, your shopping app should score you points wherever you shop.
• Fun to use: In order to maximize your savings, you have to use a cash back app every time you step into the store. In order to make sure you’re doing that, using that app has to be fun.

The All-Time Best Cash Back App for Shoppers

My personal all-time favorite cash back app for shopping hits all these marks and is ridiculously fun to use. It’s called Shopkick, and how it works is that it turns your shopping trips into a fun scavenger hunt for points. Shopkick gives you points for all the things you do anyway while shopping, like scanning products for more information, scanning your receipt, and even just for walking into certain stores. The best part is, once you’ve earned those points you can trade them in for gift cards to your favorite stores, which can seriously boost your budget!

Take it from me: Shopkick really is as good as it gets.

So, while learning curves may be part of life, the road to finding the best cash back apps for shoppers should have very few twists and turns. Take it from me: Shopkick really is as good as it gets. It’s a ton of fun and has made my trips down the aisles way more engaging. With Shopkick, every last trip to the store is less like a chore. You’ll be having so much fun you won’t even be thinking about all the money you’re saving. Won’t that add up to a happy surprise?

Conquer the learning curve and see for yourself why Shopkick is the best cash back app for shoppers. Download Shopkick’s free app and get ready to be wowed. Welcome to the fun, Shopkicker!

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I’ve learned a lot over my years as a shopper. I’ve learned not to beat myself up for missing a sale: there’s always another one on the horizon. I’ve learned to share my shopping tips with friends because they’re likely to return the favor. And, I’ve learned that while some savings are good, more savings are better. Or, more precisely, I’ve learned how to use two different apps to double my rewards and savings. Cha-ching!

I’m talking about pairing store-specific apps, like Walmart’s Savings Catcher app, with shopping apps that work at many stores to collect even more Walmart rewards. Shopping apps, for those who don’t already know, are apps that give you rewards and points for things you already do while shopping, like walking into certain stores or scanning the barcodes on featured items. You can then trade these points in for cash back or for gift cards at your favorite stores.

Much like how I share shopping tips with friends and assume the good karma will come back my way eventually, I want to share how I earn Walmart rewards with shopping apps with you all as well.

Earn Walmart Rewards with the Savings Catcher App

To really maximize your Walmart rewards, it’s important to make sure you’re using the Walmart Savings Catcher app regularly. Savings Catcher rewards you by cross-referencing your Walmart purchases with the advertised prices of the same item at other local retailers. Then, if any of those other stores have a lower price, Walmart delivers the difference back to you. It’s a great app because it gives you peace of mind that you got the best deal.

It’s also super easy to use. Here’s how it works:

• Scan your store receipt after you go shopping at Walmart: This is as easy as it sounds. Once you finish shopping, take out your phone, open the app, and scan your receipt.
• Let Walmart compare the prices: You don’t actually have to do anything; Walmart will compare what you paid to the advertised prices at all local competitors.
• Enjoy your savings: If Walmart finds the same product someplace else for a lower advertised price, it will deliver the difference back to you in the form of a gift card.

To me, it’s really this simplicity that makes the Walmart Savings Catcher one of the best apps around for making cash to bolster your budget. But to really push your savings, you should combine it with a third-party shopping app.

How to Add More Walmart Rewards with a Shopping App

When I first discovered shopping rewards apps, I didn’t realize you can use them to double dip on the rewards and discounts you get with apps like Savings Catcher. Boy am I glad I figured that out. Simply by combining my favorite shopping rewards app, Shopkick, with apps like Savings Catcher I’ve saved a lot of money!

How Shopkick works is that it gives you points just for walking into a Walmart (and other stores), for scanning barcodes on certain products, and for scanning your receipt—which you’re going to be doing anyway at Walmart. While the Savings Catcher app is busy making sure you got the lowest price on everything, Shopkick is giving you rewards points you can later turn into gift cards to buy more of the things you love, at places like Walmart!

Put simply, the Walmart Savings Catcher app and its competitors are great, but they’re all even better when combined with Shopkick!

One important thing to note, though, is that Shopkick isn’t limited to Walmart. You can combine with apps from stores like Whole Foods and Target, too. Put simply, the Walmart Savings Catcher app and its competitors are great, but they’re all even better when combined with Shopkick!

I hope this all helps you rake in the Walmart rewards. If I had one last piece of advice, though, it would be not to limit yourself to Walmart. Open up that Shopkick app wherever you go. You never know what secret scans and special deals are hiding in the aisles! Plus, now that you can pair store apps with Shopkick it has never been easier to get more for less.

Learn how you can earn even more Walmart rewards by combining the Savings Catcher app with a great third party shopping app. Download Shopkick now and get ready to be wowed. Welcome to the fun, Shopkicker!

If you’re as social media savvy as you are shopping savvy, join us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram for daily fun and inspiration.

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I spent years clipping coupons. They’d come to me two ways: in flyers that came in the mail, and in my Sunday paper. I’d stack them all up, sit down with a cup of tea and a pair of scissors, and go through them methodically, snipping my favorites, which I’d then tuck into a coupon organizer that I kept in my purse.

What can I say? It was a great way to save money during college, and then during my early twenties, and then right up until the present when I have a family of my own and three growing boys. It pains me to say it, but recently I had to retire this old practice. Not because I stopped wanting to save money (never!) but because new technology gave me other ways to save. Now, I’ve moved on to scanning my grocery receipts for cash back.

If you’ve never heard of this marvel, don’t worry. It’s a relatively new way to save, one that’s been made possible largely by shopping rewards apps. Basically, how this all works is that after you’re done shopping you just take a quick second to scan your grocery receipt, and in exchange, you get points you can later trade for cash or gift cards! No coupons necessary. I know it’s a new concept, which is why I’d like to spend a bit of time today explaining how you can scan your own grocery receipts for cash back, too!

The 411: How to Scan Grocery Receipts and Get Cash Back

The single most important thing to know about how to scan your grocery receipt for cash back is that you need an app that turns your receipts into cash back. There are a variety of these apps on the market, but the best are shopping rewards apps, which give you cash back or gift cards for the shopping you do anyway. That includes, of course, scanning your grocery receipts. Also, you want an app that gives you many different opportunities to earn points, that you’re able to use at your favorite stores, and that is a blast to use.

Once you have the app that’s right for you, the rest is quite easy. You just open the app, choose the store receipt you want to scan, and point your smartphone at the receipt. Voila!

To Turn Grocery Receipts Into More Cash Back, Make a Routine

Back in my coupon clipping days, I’d generally save anywhere from $.50 to $10 a week. In and of itself, that doesn’t seem like a lot of money. However, I was not just an occasional coupon clipper, I was a regular, and over a year that can add up. Maybe $52 a year isn’t much, but $520? That can make a huge dent in your budget!

These days, I find the key to scanning grocery receipts for the most cash back is consistency. In order to establish a habit, I just made scanning my grocery receipt a part of my regular shopping routine. Now, whenever I finish shopping, I take a moment in my car to use one of the top retail shopping apps for cash back to scan my receipt right then and there. I make sure I do it before I even leave the parking lot. In the beginning, it took a little patience and remembering, but now I hardly even give it a second thought. I just crank up the tunes and scan away!

For the Most Cash Back From Grocery Receipts, Set Goals

Another tactic from my old couponing days that has proven useful with these news apps is setting savings goals. I remember back when I was sitting down with my stack of ads every Sunday, I’d make a little game out of my savings by setting a goal. Usually, I’d put it at $8, but sometimes if I was busy I’d drop it down to $6, or if I was feeling especially ambitious I’d up it to as much as $20!

I’ve always loved a good challenge, and so setting goals like this was an engaging way to make sure I stuck to my coupon cutting routine. These days I’ve made scanning my grocery receipts for cash back a major part of my shopping routine, but I still like to challenge myself. As I’ll show you in the next section, all my favorite rewards apps give you fun points for your purchases, so what I like to do now is set a goal of a certain amount of points and see if each week I can beat it! Feel free, of course, to develop your own system that works for you.

Make the Most of Scanning Grocery Receipts for Cash Back With the Right App

In my opinion, the absolute best shopping rewards app is called Shopkick, and how it works is simple: Shopkick gives you points for your normal everyday shopping activities, including walking into stores, scanning the barcodes on certain items for more information and—of course!—making purchases and scanning your receipts. You can then trade those points for gift cards to your favorite stores. It’s as simple as that!

Shopkick gives you points for your normal everyday shopping activities, including walking into stores, scanning the barcodes on certain items for more information and—of course!—making purchases and scanning your receipts.

It’s quite a bit easier to navigate than the old coupon clipping system was, and I have a ton of fun with Shopkick. I’m always setting points goals for the week, and then beating them, whether I’m doing it by scanning my receipts, by scanning the barcodes of certain items in the store, or by combining the many different ways there are to earn points.

Scanning my grocery receipt for cash back with Shopkick has become just a part of my everyday shopping routine, and I hope that with everything you’ve learned, it becomes part of yours, too. I remember way back when I clipped coupons I’d see other shoppers at the store with their little binders of coupons, too. Now I see them using Shopkick instead and it warms my heart!

Ready to have some fun scanning your grocery receipt for cash back? Download Shopkick for free and join a community of loyal Shopkickers who’ve already discovered how rewarding—and fun—shopping with us can be!

And, if you love using your smartphone to stay up on social media, join us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram for daily shopping inspiration.

Image courtesy stokkete

So you’ve been Shopkicking for a while now, and you’re wondering if there are ways to improve your game. Did you know that some Shopkickers consistently earn enough kicks for a free gift card a month?

Whether you’re saving up for a big payout for the holidays, a birthday, or a family vacation; you want to reduce your Walmart, Target, or Amazon bill each month; or you just like to treat yourself to a fancy Starbucks drink every week, take a hint from some master Shopkickers. Here are there top tips on how to get Shopkick points fast—and earn a gift card a month!

10 Top Pro Tips to Get Shopkick Points Fast and Earn a Gift Card a Month

1: Make A Plan

Go with a mission in mind.

Christy McElwain from Ohio plans her shopping trip around kicks in advance. “I make a plan before I leave the house. I end up doing a big circle and I don’t end up wasting time or additional gas.”

Donna Panelli from California makes a list of scans in the same order as her grocery list, and maps that list out based on their locations in the store.

“If you want to go a step further,” notes Melissa Barker from Dallas, TX, “you can add the kick items to your shopping list with an asterisk* to make sure you don’t miss a thing!”

Becky Kaloczi from Ohio tackles Best Buy by focusing on a few key areas, such as video games, small appliances, and electronics. By doing so, she says she can get in and out with 100 scans in an hour!

2: Team Up to Get Shopkick Points Fast

Go Shopkicking with your friends and family to rack up kicks more quickly.

Virginia Doyle-Diamond from Navarre, FL says, “Go Shopkicking with a friend who also has Shopkick. You can find kicks faster by telling each other which aisle certain products are on.”

Cheryl Avery Bigelow from Las Vegas, NV recruits her kids to help track down where products are located in the store as a scavenger hunt. “Not only do I get kicks,” she says, “but it makes shopping fun for my kids.”

Shopkicker Doug Miller from West Palm Beach, FL has even teamed up with other Shopkickers he’s met in the aisle! “The most fun I ever had Shopkicking was at a Target in Palm Beach,” he says. “We met another couple doing the same thing, teamed up, and got through several hundred kicks in record time. The four of us went out for drinks afterward and laughed ourselves silly comparing each other’s Shopkick stories.”

3: Get Your Invite Kicks

You can get Shopkick points fast kicks by inviting friends, making it one of the speediest ways to earn a gift card a month. If you’re going to recruit friends and family to go kicking together, don’t forget to have them download using your referral code—and get your kicks for inviting them!

Lara Gonzaga from Fort Worth, TX even earns an extra 250 kicks when she’s out Shopkicking by telling others about it in the aisle. “While you’re out Shopkicking, start asking people close by if they have the app,” she says. “If they say no, tell them briefly about it and send them an invite to join right there in person!”

4: Make It a Habit

Nicole Cribbs from North Carolina says, “It only takes 21 days to form a new habit. You just have to get in the habit of checking Shopkick every time you walk into a store!”

Shopkicker Diane Kesel from Syracuse, NY starts her morning by checking Shopkick alongside her coffee.

Carolyn Brown from North Carolina recommends checking the app wherever you are. You never know when there could be a store close to the gym, office, or whatever, and “you never know when you might land those jumbo kicks,” she says.

5: Make Shopkick Part of Your Workout

The best way to make Shopkicking part of your routine? Make it part of your fitness routine!

Susie from Sarasota is walking her way to 10,000 steps and kicks on the weekends. “Shopkick is my cardio” is her mantra, and she loves to get rewarded with free gift cards for all the steps she puts in while on scan missions.

Got a full day planned for getting those steps in alongside your kicks? Kyle Jackson from Ocoee, FL says don’t forget to “wear comfortable walking or running shoes!” 😉

6: Create a Date Night

We know of at least one husband and wife team that makes every Friday night a shopkicking date night.

Suzanne McLaughlin Reil from Titusville, FL and her husband even make a full day of it. “We first hit our local stores to grab everything we can, then head to East Orlando (about 30 minutes away) to do a movie, meal, and Shopkick some more,” she says. Suzanne and her husband often finish their date off with a treat at Starbucks using their kicks for a gift card.

7: Go for the Big Kicks

If you haven’t linked your card or aren’t doing your online shopping through Shopkick yet, you could be missing out on major kicks every time you make a purchase.

Michele Carrera Patterson from San Diego says, “make sure all your cards are linked. I get a lot of kicks by using my debit and credit cards!”

Susan Perryman from Los Angeles, CA (she even works at Shopkick) also scores major kicks when booking her travel on Hotels.com and Booking.com through Shopkick.

It’s no surprise—travel can often account for some of your biggest purchases, so why not get kicks every time you book?

8: Don’t Forget the Discover Tab

Pro Shopkickers know never to miss new kicks in the Discover tab.

“Check your app daily and use the Discover section to gain a few kicks,” says Surbhi Kasbaum from Orange County, CA.

As a bonus, Shopkicker Wendy Chan from California says that while scrolling through Shopkick for surprise kicks she often learns about latest trends. “I find some awesome products that I wouldn’t have known about otherwise.”

9: Make Sure Your Alerts Are On

Don’t you hate it when you leave a store and realize you forgot to take your app out? Make sure your Shopkick notifications are on so you receive handy reminders to open the app when there are kicks nearby!

“I always have my notifications on so I can be notified that I’m able to get kicks while shopping,” says one Shopkicker.

10: Have Fun

Finally, a Shopkicker from Brooklyn, NY says: “The best tip I can give is to just HAVE FUN while Shopkicking!”

We couldn’t agree more!

Want to jumpstart your plan to earn a gift card a month? Login now, refer a friend, and start getting Shopkick points fast!

Image courtesy Ivanko80