Category: Save

3 apps to make grocery shopping easier so you can have more time to hang with the girls

Posted on by shopkick

People love to talk about signs that you’re getting older and adulting, as some like to say. Things like knowing how insurance deductibles work, keeping a clean house, or not staying out super late on the weekends usually make the list of signs you’re getting older for most. For me, however, it’s sadly been that I just don’t have as much time to hang out with my girls as I used to. We used to do happy hour and brunch all the time, practically every week! But now we have partners, kids, and, of course, grocery shopping to worry about.

However, I’ve found ways to get around all that responsibility, especially the last one. What I’m talking about are apps to make grocery shopping easier so you can have more time to hang with the girls. I’ve picked out my three favorites to share with you. The details are different for each, but the end result is that you’ll feel like you’re getting as close to your girls as you were in the old days.

Basically, what I’m here to tell you today is that you can have your girl time and still get your grocery shopping done. All you have to do is download and familiarize yourself with these three great apps!

Apps to Make Grocery Shopping Easier No. 1: Bestie Shopping

The first app on our list is a special one, because of all the apps that make grocery shopping easier, Bestie Shopping combines shopping and hanging out. What a novel concept! It’s basically a social media app for shoppers. You can use it to follow stores you love, view products posted online, and—this is my favorite part—share your favorite items and deals with your friends.

The best thing about Bestie Shopping is that it’s easy to fit into your schedule because it’s online. You don’t have to make extra time to go anywhere different. I’ve been using Bestie Shopping for a while to create that old experience of going to a physical mall with my girls. Plus, I don’t know how many times one of my friends has pointed me in the direction of a great deal that helps me save money, too. Any time an app can help you save money, that’s a win-win!

Apps to Make Grocery Shopping Easier No. 2: Fooducate

3 apps to make grocery shopping easierAnother key part of being an adult is eating as healthy as you can. For me, that means taking the time to read the labels on certain products when I’m out grocery shopping. The more time I spend carefully going over the ingredients, the better I’m able to determine which foods I should eat. The problem is that all that time adds up!

With Fooducate, finding the health information you need while you’re grocery shopping becomes so much easier. The way Fooducate works is simple. Scan the barcodes on certain products in the grocery store and it gives you the highlights of the nutritional values, both good and bad. The app even lets you compare products by giving them both easy-to-understand letter grades. You can even use it find healthier alternatives and it’s quick!

Apps to Make Grocery Shopping Easier No. 3: Shopkick

The first two apps on this list are great, of course, but I think it’s pretty safe to say that this third one is my favorite app to make grocery shopping easier. It’s called Shopkick and how it works is pretty awesome. First, it has this really cool grocery shopping list functionality that makes it so much easier to plan all of your trips to the store. It helps you save money by giving you points for activities you do every time you go shopping anyway, activities like walking into the store, going down aisles browsing products, and making purchases.

You can then trade those points in for gift cards that are as good as cash. That’s right, you get paid to grocery shop. That’s not all, though. There are tons of ways that Shopkickers can earn rewards right from the app—no need to go anywhere. These include kicks for watching videos and instant surprise kicks from going on Easter egg hunts in the app. Users can also get amazing deals where you can earn big points and rewards by shopping on your phone at stores like Amazon, Walmart, and more!

Of all the apps on the list, Shopkick is definitely my favorite, mostly because not only does it make shopping quicker and easier with its list functionality, but because it also manages to save me money, too!

So there you have it, three of my favorite apps to make grocery shopping easier so I can have extra time with my girls. Of all the apps on the list, Shopkick is definitely my favorite, mostly because not only does it make shopping quicker and easier with its list functionality, but because it also manages to save me money, too! That’s a one-two combo of convenience that can’t be beat.

I highly recommend that you give it a try if you haven’t already. One underrated thing about Shopkick is that it’s also a lot of fun. The point system makes every trip to the store feel like a scavenger hunt for savings, and when you’re having fun—like I do each and every time I get to see my girls—the time really flies!  

Ready to start taking advantage of the best app to make grocery shopping easier? Well simply download Shopkick and join a community of loyal Shopkickers who’ve already discovered the rewards of shopping with us!

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 Rido81

Save money and earn kicks with Seattle’s Best Coffee

Posted on by shopkick

If you were to ask someone whose presence is valuable to you why they enjoy their mornings, they will likely relate it to their routine. The quiet found when the world has yet to wake; time spent with their kids relishing in their morning routine; a workout that makes them feel alive; the first sip of their morning coffee. The takeaway: a morning routine can be something you crave. One of the easiest ways to kick start a new routine is by taking one single step. For us, the simplest step to take is to brew a cup of coffee we can’t wait to sip.

One brand of coffee we return to again and again is Seattle’s Best. After all, they truly did win an award in which they were dubbed Seattle’s Best Coffee. The honor stuck with them, and we can taste why.

From medium roasts, like Toasted Hazelnut or Breakfast Blend, to dark roasts, like 6th Avenue Bistro (you had us at “hint of chocolate”!), Henry’s Blend, or Port Alley Blend, Seattle’s Best Coffee procures only the best beans from Latin America in order for us to all experience the most delicious brews. Whether we’re opening a new K-Cup Pod of Seattle’s Best Coffee or we’re adding the last of our ground coffee into our pot to brew our final cup, the flavor never wavers.

So, what easy steps can you take to create a delicious cup every time?

Step 1: Freshness.

This has a surprisingly large impact on flavor. Begin with cold, filtered water and freshly roasted, properly stored coffeeStep 2: Grind. A medium grind (a texture similar to sand) will ensure the most even brewing for drip coffee pots. Most of Seattle’s Best Coffee comes pre-ground or in K-Cups, giving you a leg up on a perfectly brewed cup of coffee.

Step 2: Grind.

A medium grind (a texture similar to sand) will ensure the most even brewing for drip coffee pots. Most of Seattle’s Best Coffee comes pre-ground or in K-Cups, giving you a leg up on a perfectly brewed cup of coffee.

 

Step 3: Ratio.

One slightly rounded tablespoon of ground coffee for every 6 ounces of water will do the trick.You can always adjust to taste if you prefer your coffee stronger or more mellow.

 

Step 4: Enjoy.

Add your favorite combo of creamer and sugar or drink it straight and taste the difference!

 

 

 

Seattle’s Best and Shopkick have teamed up to help you stretch your dollar that much further. There’s joy in sipping a smooth cup of coffee, and there’s a sense of satisfaction found in knowing you’re saving because you’re drinking coffee you made at home rather than a cup purchased at a coffee shop. Whether you purchase ground coffee or K-Cup Pods from Seattle’s Best Coffee through Shopkick, you’re devoting your dollars to a budget friendly brand that still keeps flavor and taste at the forefront. Plus, you can save even more at select stores by opening Shopkick, scanning Seattle’s Best Coffee, and submitting your receipt when you purchase your go-to roast.

Don’t have Shopkick yet?

Download the app that makes earning free rewards easy and fun today!

Mom-approved cash back apps for groceries

Posted on by shopkick

For most of my life, I’ve considered shopping to be one of my favorite hobbies, although I think it’s important to note that not all shopping is created equal. There are, as far as I’m concerned, two main types of shopping. There’s the shopping I love to do for fun, which includes trips to boutiques, gallerias, and malls. Then there’s the shopping that I’m obligated to do for what I like to call life reasons. This involves trips to places like Walmart, Target, and, of course, out for groceries.

As a mom these days, I’ve found myself having to make far more of the second type of shopping trips than I get to of the first. And I’m happy to do it. I love my kids, and it actually makes the time I do get to spend shopping for clothes and the finer things all the more enjoyable. One battle I continually find myself having to wage, however, is with my budget. I just don’t have the money to spend on fancy shoes that I once did. I have, however, recently found a great ally in this fight, and today I want to share my new ally with you. That’s why today I want to tell you all about some mom-approved cash back apps for groceries.

With these apps, I’ve been able to earn quite a bit of cash back on my grocery shopping. That’s extra money that I’ve been able to put toward my old shopping hobby, making the most of my trips out searching for clothes. There are three main apps I use to do this, and I can’t wait to share them with you!

Mom-Approved Cash Back Apps for Groceries

#1: Checkout 51

Checkout 51 is a cash back app for groceries that you can use to plan your shopping trip before you ever set foot in the store. You just download the app and you can start to browse hundreds of listed offers. When you find one for a product you plan to buy, you simply select that offer, head out shopping, upload your receipt when you’re done, and enjoy your cash back! It really is that simple.

I especially like Checkout 51 because I’m able to have a nice little grocery shopping routine each Friday morning. Checkout 51 updates the offers it lists every Thursday night. This has made it easy for me to include the app into my weekly schedule. I just take a few moments before I get in my Jeep and head out to the store to find the best deals. The only catch is that with Checkout 51 you have to earn at least $20 before you can redeem your savings for cash back.

three cash back apps for groceries#2: SnipSnap

Do you remember those old-school paper coupons that we used to have to use if we ever wanted to save some money when we were shopping for groceries? I sure do. In fact, I still get them fairly regularly through junk mail and my Sunday newspaper, and with this app called SnipSnap, I’ve also found a way to start using them to get cash back on my shopping. SnipSnap is what’s known as a mobile coupon app, and you basically just use it to take pictures of printed coupons. SnipSnap then goes ahead and transforms them into digital, mobile-ready coupons that you can use when you go out to the store.

Like with Checkout 51, I’ve made SnipSnap part of my regular shopping routine. Every Sunday, I sit down with the advertisements that came during the week as well as with the stack from my Sunday paper, and I use SnipSnap to start scanning and storing coupons. It’s such an easy and efficient way to store coupons. I don’t know if I’d turn to coupons nearly as often if I still had to stuff the actual paper copies in my purse.

#3: Shopkick

The last mom-approved cash back app for groceries on our list today is called Shopkick, and it just so happens to be my favorite. How it works is that when you go out shopping for groceries, it gives you points for your normal shopping trip activities, including going down aisles browsing products, making purchases, and even just walking into the store. You can then trade those points in for gift cards to your favorite stores, which are just as good as cash back to me.

What’s especially great about Shopkick is that you can easily use it in tandem with the other two apps on our list. Basically, every week I get my deals from Checkout 51 and I scan my coupons with SnipSnap, and then I use Shopkick to get points on all my purchases. That kind of triple savings really adds up to a nice amount of extra money.

What’s especially great about Shopkick is that you can easily use it in tandem with the other two apps on our list.

Like I said at the start, I really do believe there are two specific types of shopping: utilitarian shopping and fun shopping. They don’t have to be mutually exclusive though. In fact, as I’ve seen in my life, money that you save on your groceries can be put to good use later when you go out shopping for fun.

You just have to have the right apps, apps like Checkout 51, SnipSnap, and—my personal favorite—Shopkick. They fit so easily into your daily routine, that if you’re anything like me, you’ll soon have trouble remembering what it was like before you started to use them!  

Ready to start shopping with one of the best mom-approved cash back apps for groceries? 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 GeorgeRudy

How to save money on groceries: Apps that milk your budget

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As you probably know by now, I’m the mother of three rambunctious but awesome young boys. They live life at a pretty fast pace, whether they’re running around our backyard or going from this month’s hot new video game to whatever the big fad at school is next month. My little guys are almost always in a big hurry for something. Lately, they’ve all been in a major rush to grow up. Not to take on adult responsibilities (none of them are at all interested in that, not yet, anyway), but to get taller.

In fact, I recently went down into our basement and found them trying to stretch to make themselves taller. It was so cute, but it also got me thinking about how fast they’d be growing up, which then got me thinking about their increasingly gigantic appetites, which then got me thinking about something else: ways to save money on groceries, and more specifically to save money on groceries with an app. These days there so many great shopping rewards apps out there, some of which are offered by the stores themselves, others that modernize the old coupon clipping experience, and—my personal favorite—those that give you gift cards for shopping habits you already have.

All of this can be a little overwhelming to the uninitiated shopper who’s trying to stretch her budget, which is why today I want to talk about my own strategies for how to save money on groceries with an app. Hopefully, you’ll find them to be just as helpful as I do!

How to Save Money on Groceries with an App

Tip No. 1: Consistency is Key

One of my most important tips for how to save money on groceries with an app is to find a way to do it that is consistent. This ties into a lesson I’m always trying to teach my boys. They’re always in such a hurry to do new things, to try out for the basketball team, to advance to the next grade, or even to beat this month’s hot new video game as soon as possible. Sometimes they get frustrated when these things take longer than they expect. 

So, what I preach to them is to remain consistent. The same is true for stretching your budget with a great shopping app. If you don’t use it consistently, you won’t maximize the amount of rewards that you can earn with it. It’s as simple as that.

ways to Save money on groceries appTip No. 2: Online and Offline Points Are a Must

Another little tip when trying to save money on groceries with an app that I’ve learned from my boys is to make sure you find an app that helps you save money both online and off. My little guys get lost in their digital worlds so easily, that it always makes me think about how in 20 years even more of our lives will start to be lived online, and that includes grocery shopping.

I’ve started to do even more of my grocery shopping online, using programs like Amazon Pantry. This is especially the case when there are three soccer practices in a week, and I just can’t eke out the time I need to run to the store. A few clicks on Amazon and I can have chips for their lunches, Clif bars or breakfast cereals sent straight to our door. That’s why I need an app that also helps me save money when I’m shopping online. It’s absolutely vital.

Tip No. 3: Find the Perfect App

The last tip that I have for you today is also maybe the most obvious, but you simply must make sure that you find the perfect app. For me, that app is called Shopkick, and how it works is that it gives you points for the shopping activities that you already do every day, things like looking at products online, going down the aisle browsing products, and making purchases. You can then trade those points in for free gift cards.

What’s great about Shopkick is that it’s super easy to use, which makes it no problem to use it consistently.

What’s great about Shopkick is that it’s super easy to use, which makes it no problem to use it consistently. It also turns every trip to the grocery store into a fun little scavenger hunt for points. In other words, I enjoy using Shopkick so much, that it’s not even a chore to make sure I use it consistently. Oh, and it’s one of the best shopping apps out there for rewarding you for the grocery shopping that you do online. It’s just so versatile and fun! I highly recommend it!

With three growing boys at home, correctly managing my grocery shopping budget tends to be a never-ending battle, much like satisfying their appetites. However, with a great app like Shopkick, it all becomes so much easier.

The guys can’t wait to be taller, and I get that. I also know that there are going to be so many more grocery bills between where they are now and the day they reach their maximum heights. This can bring on a bit of anxiety sometimes, but with an app like Shopkick to help me save money, you know what? I think I’m ready to handle it.

Ready to start finding your own ways to save money on groceries with an app? 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

2 fun shopping apps that save money and rack up rewards

Posted on by shopkick

My boys don’t really have the most expensive tastes. I mean, they like somewhat pricey things like video games and movies. What kids don’t? But they can also have tons and tons of fun just playing hide-and-seek with each other at the park. One of their favorite games to play is capture the flag, which in our house is more like capture the old t-shirt, and how it works is that one of them will hide a t-shirt and the other two will have to hunt around to find it. Whoever finds it first is the winner.

It’s simple, but they really do seem to have a blast playing it. It makes me happy because it’s totally free and keeps them busy for hours. It’s a win-win situation! It got me thinking recently how nice it would be if I could have the same amount of fun as an adult and also save money, too. Well, it turns out there is actually a way to do this with shopping apps that save money while also giving you a way to have fun at the same time.

shopping apps save moneySome of them do this by turning trips to the store into scavenger hunts for rewards points and others by letting you create a wish list for the items you’re most hoping to save money on. Whatever the means, the end is more or less the same: major savings while also having a whole lot more fun each time you go out shopping. I’m a huge fan, and I sincerely hope you like these apps as much as I do!

Fun Shopping Apps That Save Money

#1: Flipp

The first shopping app that saves money is called Flipp, which right off the bat even has a fun name…and also reminds me of the last time one of my boys got injured, but that’s a story for another time. The way Flipp works is great for those of us who like to make wishlists. Basically, with Flipp you make a list of all the items out there that you’re hoping to buy and the app uses that list to show you what stores you can find those items at and for the best prices.

It’s really fun to use because this app helps you find things like clothes and electronics that you’ve been coveting for a while at prices you never expected to find them. It’s a great way to essentially alert yourself to when items on your own personal wishlist have become more attainable with better prices. At least, that’s how I use it, and I’ve had quite a bit of luck saving money with Flipp while also racking up major rewards!

#2: Shopkick

This app on my list is the most fun. It’s a shopping rewards app called Shopkick, and how it works is that it gives you points for many of the activities you do each time you go shopping. These activities include scanning the barcodes of certain items to get more information, making purchases, and even just walking into the store. You can then trade those points that you earn through Shopkick in for gift cards to all of your favorite stores.

And if you don’t feel like going anywhere, there are also tons of ways to earn kicks right from the app. These include kicks for watching videos and instant surprise kicks from going on Easter egg hunts in the app. Users can also get amazing deals where you can earn big points and rewards by shopping on your phone.

And if you don’t feel like going anywhere, there are also tons of ways to earn kicks right from the app.

This is a whole lot of fun because it basically turns every trip out shopping into a scavenger hunt for points. If you’ve ever felt like shopping is a boring chore, say goodbye to that. With Shopkick, you’ll instead find yourself looking forward to going shopping so that you can hunt down all the best deals while also having a ton of fun!

So, there you have it. As a mother of three imaginative boys, I think I’m a pretty good resource for finding ways to have fun. The ways I talked about above are among my favorites because they also help me save money while I’m out shopping too, which for obvious reasons is another thing I’ve become quite good at, especially when it comes to groceries.

One last piece of advice: Shopkick is easily combined with the other app I mentioned here. You just simply use them both at the same time, thereby doubling your savings. While both of these apps are great, I just don’t know if I could live without Shopkick. Or, at least how I could shop without it. It’s become that vital to my budget and the fun I have with it has become equally as vital to my shopping routine!

Ready to start using fun shopping apps that save money while at the same time racking up the rewards? Start using Shopkick today to earn free gift cards to all of your favorite stores. Just download Shopkick and join a community of loyal Shopkickers who’ve already discovered the rewards of shopping with us!

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 Dean Drobot

How to get Walmart gift cards for free: Tips for clever shoppers

Posted on by shopkick

I don’t tend to think of myself as a good shopper. Now, I don’t necessarily think of myself as a bad shopper, either. I just don’t think of shopping in those terms at all. To me, shopping has always been something that I enjoy doing, and, even more than that, something I enjoy being good at, which I often measure by my ability to find deals and save money. However, recently, I was telling a friend of mine at spin class about some of the tips I have for getting the best prices and she remarked that I sound like a clever shopper.

I’ve never thought of myself this way, but I have to admit that it felt like a bit of a compliment. That’s why today I want to share with you one of the big pieces of advice that earned me this respect: how to get Walmart gift cards for free. I don’t know about you, but when I shop at Walmart I’m almost always there in search of the absolute best savings. I think this is why some of my most frequently used tips for so-called clever shoppers have to do with shopping at Walmart.

tips for how to get walmart gift cards for free

Either way, I think there is quite a bit of useful information I’ve accrued over the years while searching for these tips and it’s my pleasure to share them with you. Who knows? Maybe you will eventually find yourself using these tips after a particularly intense spin class and having a friend call you a clever shopper.

How to Get Walmart Gift Cards for Free Tip #1: Take Surveys

Let’s start with one of the simplest ways to get Walmart gift cards for free: taking surveys. We’ve talked about this before, but there is a boatload of apps that give you rewards for taking free surveys, and while there are some slight differences, the vast majority of them tend to work the same.

You just download these apps (Ipsos is a good one) and then you enter a bit of information about yourself. Based on that, it sends you surveys and you’re rewarded for completing them with gift cards, oftentimes to Walmart. The real beauty of these apps is that you can do these surveys from your mobile device. I personally like to do them to kill time.

How to Get Walmart Gift Cards for Free Tip #2: Savings Catcher

Another great way to get Walmart gift cards for free is by using the store’s own Savings Catcher app. What the Savings Catcher rewards app does is cross-references the purchases you make at Walmart with the advertised prices for those same items at other retailers in your area. If the app manages to find any other stores that happen to be offering a lower price than what you paid, Walmart delivers the difference back to you.

This is great for a couple of reasons. The first is that it saves you money and funnels those savings back to you via a Walmart gift card. The second is that you can go home and rest easy, knowing that you were able to find the absolute best deal. Believe me, as much as I enjoy shopping, I enjoy knowing that I did the best I could even more!

How to Get Walmart Gift Cards for Free Tip #3: Shopkick

The third tip to get Walmart gift cards for free just so happens to also be my favorite. It’s through a shopping rewards app called Shopkick. How it works is that Shopkick gives you rewards points for activities you do each time you go to the store, activities such as scanning the barcodes on certain products to learn more about them, making purchases, and even just for walking through the doors of featured stores.

And if you don’t feel like going anywhere, there are also tons of ways to earn kicks right from the app. These include kicks for watching videos and instant surprise kicks from going on Easter egg hunts in the app. Users can also get amazing deals where you can earn big points and rewards by shopping on your phone.

Once you save up enough of these points, you can trade them in for free Walmart gift cards, which is really a beautiful thing.

Once you save up enough of these points, you can trade them in for free Walmart gift cards, which is really a beautiful thing. Put simply, Shopkick really is the best savings app for Walmart, and it’s definitely the one that I use the most. I guess my friend would probably call it a clever trick for shopping, but I just think of it as a way to save even more money when I got to Walmart to buy my groceries. How you think of it is entirely up to you!

If you decide to go with any of these, I highly recommend that you choose Shopkick. In addition to helping you earn free Walmart gift cards, Shopkick is also a ton of fun to use. It turns every trip to Walmart into a fun scavenger hunt to get as many points as you can while you’re there. It’s fun like that that keeps you coming back to use Shopkick at Walmart again and again, at least in my experience!

Learn how to get Walmart gift cards for free by using this fantastic app called Shopkick. 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.

Image courtesy pashapixel

Coupon apps for groceries you would be crazy not to download

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Coupon apps for groceries you would be crazy not to download

It feels nostalgic when I bring in the mail and there’s a booklet of paper coupons. When I was growing up, you could hardly get your mail or check your newspaper without finding them. But these days, however, whenever I happen to find a booklet of them in my mailbox, it feels like they were sent to me from another era. So much of what we do these days, from the way we shop to the way we save, is entirely online and digital.

However, I’ve recently found a modern way to use coupons just like we used to when I was a kid. It’s a new concept called coupon apps for groceries, and what it does is it takes the old coupon-clipping concept and modernizes it for the digital age. The general concept is the same—as are the great savings that you can find within it—but the way it works has been translated for our favorite devices, so we don’t have to handle paper coupons at all and can instead conduct the whole process with our tablets or phones.

Surprisingly, I found that not everyone has heard of coupon apps for groceries, which I think is a shame! That’s why today I want to talk about my favorite coupon apps for groceries that you would be absolutely crazy not to download. These are so simple and effective that I just can’t think of a single argument against using them unless of course, you have an odd aversion to saving money!

Use Coupon Apps for Groceries Through Loyalty Cards

CellFire

You know all of those customer loyalty cards that you signed up for and also carry around with you when you go out shopping? Well, this first selection on our list works by sending coupons directly to those customer loyalty cards. All you do when using this coupon app for groceries, is open it, go to the “My Cards” tab, and select the card you want. You can then scroll through and tap all the deals you can use.

Cellfire sends those deals to your loyalty card like magic. If there is a problem with Cellfire, however, it’s that of all the apps on our list, it has one of the most limited selections of participating stores. When there is a store on its list near you, however, Cellfire is well worth your time! At my local grocery store, for example, I recently found 21 coupons, many of which I was able to use in a single trip! That’s the type of value I’m looking for from my favorite grocery savings apps.

Coupons.com

Based on the name of this app, you can already tell that it’s an obvious fit for our list of coupon apps for groceries you would be crazy not to download. Quite frankly, Coupons.com is invaluable when it comes to saving on the groceries that you buy all the time. When you use this app, you get to choose from three different ways to collect your savings.

The first way is through an email coupon that you print and take with you to the store. This one is not my favorite, since it’s somewhat of a logistical hassle, at least in my house where one of my three boys has always used up the ink in our printer. The second way is by printing it directly from your mobile app, which gives me the same problem. The third is my preferred mechanism, and it lets you store the coupon on your loyalty card so you can scan it at checkout and save money instantly!

Grocery IQ

Grocery IQ is another coupon app for groceries that allows you to collect your deals through the loyalty card program that you may or may not have already signed up for at your local grocery store. This one, however, stands out from some of the others that we’re discussing here today. It’s actually best used if you’re the type of shopper who buys the same items each week.

The reason that it’s best for that type of situation is that with Grocery IQ, users start by making their grocery list. Next, the app works for them to match the items on their list with applicable coupons, automatically saving those same items for future usage. Finally, you can collect these coupons all the same ways that you collect your Coupons.com savings: by printing them out from your desktop or mobile device, or through your loyalty card program. My only word of caution here is to be prepared for this one to take a good amount of time to set up.

Use Coupon Apps for Groceries Through Rebates and Discounts

Checkout 51

This app is one of the overall simplest apps on the list. To use it, you just go grocery shopping as you normally would, and then once you’re done, you use Checkout 51 to upload a photograph of your receipt.

Checkout 51 then gives you rebates in the form of credit for any eligible items that you may have purchased. The money adds up quickly, which is good because you need to have $20 worth of saved credit in order to cash out. Once you decide to do that, Checkout 51 will go ahead and mail you a receipt. Simple, right?

Coupon Cactus

With Coupon Cactus, you get discounts on certain items at participating stores. The big difference is here you can do it online, too. Isn’t that nice? Your savings either add up to a percentage of the total price—generally up to 30%—or savings come in the form of a set amount, like $2 off a featured product.

So, it pays to literally keep an eye on the fine print so you know what to expect from this great coupon app for groceries. Once your total savings from rebates and discounts reaches $10 or more, you can cash out via PayPal or get a check issued on a quarterly basis.

SnipSnap

You’d be crazy not to download this coupon app for groceries because of how much you can save with it through rebates. This one is like Coupon Cactus in that is has a fun old-school component to it, one that lets users take pictures of printed coupons, which it then transforms into digital, mobile-ready ones. It kind of recaptures the feel of clipping paper coupons, which is something that I personally enjoy a great deal if I happen to be in the mood.

Users can also browse online directories with SnipSnap and take advantage of coupons that their friends have “snipped” as well, turning it into a shared and social database for savings. This one doesn’t exactly pay, though. Instead, users save their rebate money at the time of purchase like a traditional coupon. The idea is that coupons can all be easily kept in one digital space, instead of having an overflowing little billfold stuffed with paper clippings. To be honest, it’s a lot cleaner and easier to handle.

Use Coupon Apps for Groceries to Earn Shopping Rewards

eBates

Ebates is an app that lets you save by giving you shopping rewards and it actually has a special place in my heart because it was the first one I used when my kids were little. Basically, Ebates is a centralized platform where shoppers can search for deals and coupons that are offered by nearly 2,000 retailers. It’s also pretty handy when it comes to shopping online, which is something I’ve done more of in recent years.

Though, I haven’t used Ebates as much as of late because I’ve moved on to more comprehensive apps to bolster my budget. I’ve actually ended up seeking out newer apps, many of which are way more fun to use! And I’m going to talk more about one of those here soon. First, though, I want to stress that finding a grocery app to earn rewards for shopping that is also fun to use is key because then it’s much easier to remember to use it. At least for me that’s how it works!

SavingStar

I use SavingStar because it pays users to shop at grocery and drugstores. One thing I like about SavingStar is how versatile it is. In fact, more than 60,000 stores are part of SavingStar; they represent more than 100 retail chains.

Also, SavingStar is generally free to use, but you do have to be careful. If an account is inactive for 180 consecutive days, they will charge a fee of $3.99.

To take advantage of SavingStar, users either link their existing store loyalty cards to the app or submit receipts after they make purchases. Their savings add up and users can eventually cash out through PayPal, Upromise, or in the form of Starbucks, iTunes, or AMC Theater gift codes.

Shopkick

Of all the great coupon apps for groceries that you would be crazy not to download, it’s my personal opinion that you would be craziest not to download Shopkick. Shopkick is a shopping rewards app, and how it works is that it gives you rewards for many of the activities that you already do when you go out grocery shopping. With Shopkick, you get your first points just for walking into the grocery store, and then you can continue to earn more points by scanning certain items for more info and, of course, for making your purchases.

You can then trade those points in for gift cards, which are just as good as cash back if you ask me. The reason that Shopkick is my favorite, though, is that it turns every trip to the grocery store into a game, like a fun scavenger hunt for points. With three boys at home, I’m a regular at the grocery store. With Shopkick, I can take that time to see if I can top my previous point totals, saving a good amount of money in the process! It’s truly a win-win situation.

If passing up free money for shopping behaviors that you do anyway is crazy, then you’d definitely be crazy not to use these coupon apps for groceries, especially Shopkick, which not only saves you money but turns your trips to the store into a lot more fun. I know I felt crazy for not finding out about it sooner!

So don’t make the same mistake I did. Start using these great coupon apps to save on your grocery bills today. One of the great things about all of them is that they often work in tandem. For example, I like to use SnipSnap to reap the benefits of the occasional packet of coupons that arrive in the mail and then I also like to scan my receipt with the Shopkick app so that I can be rewarded even more. It’s a nice little system and I highly recommend that you give it a try!

Get one of the best coupon apps for groceries that you would be crazy not to download. Download Shopkick’s free app today and join a community of loyal Shopkickers who’ve already discovered the rewards of shopping with a free, smartphone app sidekick.

And, if you love social media as much as you love shopping online, join Shopkick on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram for a little daily shopping inspiration.

How to get a free Starbucks eGift card for your next bestie coffee date

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I must admit that I am a creature of habit. I know, it sounds so boring! But that’s just the way I’m wired. Anyway, because of this, I have a standing monthly coffee date with one of my oldest and dearest friends. Her name is Jeanette and we’ve actually known one another since grade school! Can you believe that? I pride myself on keeping in touch with my besties.

Anyway, Jeanette and I both just so happen to love Starbucks, from a plain cup of the blonde roast right on down to fancier things like mochas and—my personal favorite—flat whites. We’re also both in fun places in our lives now where we’re raising our families…while also managing the complicated budgets that go along with that. Long story short, the last time we met up, one of the main topics of conversation was whether or not we could find a way to earn a free Starbucks eGift card for our next bestie coffee date. And I’m happy to report that yes, I have found a great way to do just that!

In fact, this discovery has been so great for me, that I’m now using it to earn free Starbucks eGift cards, as well as gift cards to many of my other favorite stores. It’s been so great that I just have to share my discovery with all of you! So, get ready to be caffeinated, because I’m about to tell you about a fantastic and foolproof way that you can earn a free Starbucks eGift card for your next bestie coffee date, too!

How to Get a Free Starbucks eGift Card Through Shopping Rewards Apps

how to earn a free starbucks egift cardI haven’t even told my old friend Jeanette about this yet (I’m going to surprise her!), but I’m happy to share it with all of you because that’s how helpful it’s been for me. My secret for how to earn a free Starbucks eGift card is this simple new concept called a shopping rewards app, and how it works is that it gives you rewards for shopping. What kind of shopping? Basically, all of them! From clothes shopping to shopping for groceries!

There are a few different ways these apps work. Some of them are what I like to call coupon apps, and what they do is re-create the old clipping paper coupons experience, either by offering you a number of coupons to pick from online or letting you use the app to scan and store actual paper coupons that you come across on your own. The other type is a lot more fun because it rewards you for real-life activities that you do anyway when you’re shopping. I’ll go into more detail later, but essentially you just download the app, shop, and collect points that you can trade for free Starbucks eGift cards. Yes, it really is that easy!

The Best Shopping Rewards App to Earn Free Starbucks eGift Card

While there are quite a few shopping rewards apps to pick from, my absolute favorite one to use to earn free Starbucks eGift cards is Shopkick. How it works is that Shopkick gives you points for things like going into certain stores, scanning barcodes to learn more about certain products, and scanning your receipt once you’ve made your purchases. If it sounds like it turns all of your shopping trips to the store into a super fun scavenger hunt for points, that’s because it really does!

One other reason that Shopkick is my absolute favorite of all the various shopping rewards apps is that Shopkick also lets you earn points toward more free Starbucks eGift cards when you do your shopping online. I don’t know about you, but these days my shopping routine has turned into a hybrid between actual old-school, physical shopping and shopping online. What’s great about Shopkick is that it also rewards you for things like making purchases online, visiting certain online stores, and watching videos about certain products. I just love that kind of versatility!

Jeanette and I have been old friends for so long that we always have a million things to talk about when we see each other for coffee, but this time I have our first conversation topic all planned out. I’m going to smoothly and slyly offer to pay for the coffee with my eGift card, and then I’m going to mention how I earned it. That should get us off to the races and talking about shopping rewards apps.

And when it comes to shopping rewards apps, I just can’t stress enough that I highly recommend Shopkick. It’s super versatile, it works at almost all of my favorite stores that I frequent, and it turns every trip down those aisles into a super fun scavenger hunt for points. In fact, I’ve started to like my time with Shopkick so much that I can barely remember what life was like before I had it, much like my long-time friendship with Jeanette! I really hope that you heed my advice here and give Shopkick a spin for yourself. I just know that you’re going to love it as much as I do!

Get to know one of the best shopping rewards apps that you can use to get a free Starbucks eGift card for your next coffee date, as well as one of the best shopping apps, period. Download Shopkick’s free app today and join a community of loyal Shopkickers who’ve already discovered how much you can earn with the help of a free shopping sidekick.

And, if you’re on social media catching up with friends, be sure to also join Shopkick on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram for a little daily fun and inspiration.

Image courtesy photoCD

3 ways to earn free Fandango tickets for a summer blockbuster bonanza

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I have a secret to share today: I was kind of a nerd growing up. I was really into Star Wars, Star Trek, Marvel comics—you name it. If it had capes or spaceships or crazy sci-fi ideas in it, I was a big fan. I remember back then my friends and I used to read a lot of comic books, and one thing we always talked about was how cool it would be if Hollywood started turning these stories and characters into movies. Well, as I’m sure you’ve probably noticed, that dream of ours has come true.

This summer has been a crazy one for blockbuster movies based on the nerdy stuff that I used to like as a kid. It started in the spring with Black Panther (which I loved!), and then it kept going with Avengers: Infinity War, Deadpool 2, and Solo: A Star Wars Story. In fact, there were so many cool comic book movies early this year, that I started to get a little behind. I’m not even ready for the next movie Ant-Man and the Wasp, but you know what would help me keep up a little better with all of this? Free Fandango tickets to the movies so I could see all these nerdy summer blockbusters without having to worry about my budget.

Thankfully, I’ve found some great ways to earn free Fandango tickets—three of them to be exact—and that’s what I want to share with all of you. Another thing that’s really surprised me about all these comic book movies is how much mainstream success they’ve had. I love that I can talk about Iron Man with my aunt, my neighbors, and my co-workers when 12 years ago none of them would have known Tony Stark from Adam. So, let’s get you all some free tickets so you can join me at the movies!

Earn Free Fandango Tickets by Signing Up for Fandango VIP+

free fandango tickets for the summerMy first suggestion for earning free Fandango tickets is to sign up for the Fandango VIP+ program, which you can do right on Fandango’s website. This is a pretty simple, tried-and-true customer loyalty points program. For every ticket you buy to a movie like Deadpool 2, you get 150 VIP+ points. Once you earn 600 points, you can unlock a new reward from Fandango.

My favorite reward for summers that are as full of blockbuster comic book movies as this one is, of course, free tickets, but there are other prizes too. Some of the other things that you can earn from Fandango VIP+ include movie gear, movies that you can stream at home, and other discounts on tickets through Fandango. If you use Fandango as often as I do (which is a lot), you’ll be earning these rewards in no time!

Earn Free Fandango Tickets by Finding Promotions

This one takes a little bit more effort, but it’s still very much worth it. You know when you’re out shopping at Target and they have all those movies for $12 or less near checkout? Well, keep an eye on the label of those because a lot of them have feature stickers advertising promotions that allow you to earn free Fandango tickets or discounted movies.

And it’s not just with the movies at Target. In fact, recently I’ve been keeping an eye out when I go grocery shopping and I’ve noticed chances to earn free Fandango tickets through promotions that come along with the purchase of different products. Some of the ones I’ve seen as of late include cereal, freezer bags, and yogurt. Just make sure to keep an eye out for them the next time you go shopping.

Earn Free Fandango Tickets With Shopkick

This last one, though, is my favorite way to earn free Fandango tickets. It’s called Shopkick, and how it works is that it’s an app that gives you points for things you do whenever you go out shopping, things like walking into the store, scanning barcodes to get more information about certain products, and scanning your receipts once you’ve made your purchases. There are also tons of ways that Shopkickers can earn rewards right from the app—no need to go anywhere. These include kicks for watching videos and instant surprise kicks from going on Easter egg hunts in the app. Users can also get amazing deals where you can earn big points and rewards by shopping on your phone at stores like Amazon, Walmart, and more!

Now, instead of dreading my trips, I get excited about hunting through the aisles to maximize my points. It’s really cool!

Once you get enough of these points—which the app calls kicks—you can then trade them in for Fandango gift cards, or for gift cards to plenty of other stores. It’s entirely your choice. There are two main things that I like most about Shopkick. The first is versatility. Shopkick works at so many of my favorite stores, including my all-time favorite, Best Buy. The second is that Shopkick turns going into the store—something that used to feel like a total chore—into a fun scavenger hunt for points. Now, instead of dreading my trips, I get excited about hunting through the aisles to maximize my points. It’s really cool!     

So there you have it. Based on the success of these movies, I don’t think this trend of summer comic book blockbusters and old sci-fi is going anywhere soon, which means we’re all going to have to keep looking for new ways to score tickets. Unless we want to start missing some of them instead, which for me isn’t really an option.

While there are a few different ways to score free Fandango tickets I would highly recommend using Shopkick. It really is a great way to not only earn free Fandango tickets but to turn shopping into something that you actually look forward to, which in itself is totally worth it!

Ready to start having fun with your shopping while at the same time earning free Fandango tickets for your own summer blockbuster bonanza? Download Shopkick for free and join a community of loyal Shopkickers who’ve already discovered how rewarding—and fun—shopping 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.

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What are good coupon apps to share with my friends?

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Ever since I became a mom, I’ve come to have a much stronger appreciation for the phrase: it takes a village. The main reason is that I don’t know how I could have made it through the early years of motherhood without advice from my friends who’d already been through everything I was experiencing. They were able to pass down baby clothes but more than that they also gave me invaluable advice about when to call a doctor, how to feed, what to do when my new baby started crying in the night, and so on.

I don’t even remember now all the exact recommendations they gave me, I just know that never in a million years will I ever be able to pay all of my good friends back. That, however, will not stop me from trying! One of the best ways I’ve found to payback this advice is by giving my friends tips about good coupon apps. I’m pretty good about finding as many great ways as I can to save money while I’m out shopping, and sharing them with my friends (plus also all of you) is the least I can do to express my appreciation for all that advice they gave me as a new mother.

And I’m happy to share my opinions about good coupon apps with all of you, too! Not only can these save you money, but, who knows, maybe someday you too will need to give some of your friends the best advice about shopping that you can muster. That’s why today I would like to talk about good coupon apps to share with friends. Just like with raising kids, maximizing our savings at the store truly takes a village.

What Are Good Coupon Apps in General?

what are good coupon apps to shareBefore we get into good coupon apps to share with friends, we must first make sure that we have a standard operating definition of a coupon app. It’s hard, after all, to talk about what makes something a good app if some of us are confused by the very concept. Luckily, this isn’t all that hard of a concept to grasp, since as the name implies it’s based on old-school coupon clipping that most of us have been familiar with for years!

Simply put, a coupon app digitizes the experience of saving money while you’re out shopping at the store. For some of these apps, it means that you are literally taking pictures of or scanning the physical copies of coupons that come in the junk mail all the time. For others, it means you can access and benefit from a larger database of digital coupons online and selecting some of the best deals for you. My favorite type of digital coupon app, however, is one that gives you reward points for shopping behaviors that you do already each time you go out to the store, but more on that below!

What Are Good Coupon Apps to Share with My Friends?

My absolutely favorite digital coupon app is called Shopkick, and how it works is exactly as I described above: you go to the store like normal and you earn points for doing what you usually do there, including making purchases, scanning barcodes to learn more about certain items, and just walking into the store. Then you can trade those points that you earn in for gift cards that you can use at your favorite stores in the future to help save on your costs. It’s such a great way to save money that I just can’t tell my friends about it enough. 

I also really like Shopkick because hunting for points through the app turns all my little trips to the store into a scavenger hunt for savings. Sharing it with my friends has been a lot of fun, too, because now it’s like we’re all on one big team, working together to help maximize all of your savings! It’s really brought us closer together than we have been since we all got so busy with our kids, and that in itself makes it all worthwhile! Another great thing about Shopkick is that you can use it together with one of the more traditional coupon apps that I mentioned above, driving your savings up even higher!

Shopkick works at such a wide variety of stores, that I’m truly amazed at how much I’ve been able to save in my budget.

So, there you have it. I would say that Shopkick is a good coupon app to share with friends because it delivers more than just savings. Yes, it actually gives you a way to bond over your trips to the store, turning you into a team of shoppers who share where they found the most points. Saving is great, but sharing your victorious savings stories with your friends is just so much better!

I remember one of the best pieces of advice I got as a new mother was to make the most of all the money I spend on the kids, to look for deals on things like diapers, formula, baby food, toys, and, most especially, clothes, since they grow out of them so quick. Shopkick works at such a wide variety of stores, that I’m truly amazed at how much I’ve been able to save in my budget. Having my friends with me for the ride is a wonderful bonus, too.

Looking for a good coupon app that you can share with any and all of your best friends? Download Shopkick for free and join a community of Shopkickers who love the rewards of shopping with us!

Or join us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram and check in every day on your phone, no matter where you are, to learn about the hottest, newest deals.

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The best money saving apps for shopping online and in-store

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The best money saving apps for shopping online and in-store

One simple truth of shopping these days—at least in my humble opinion—is that overall it has become easier, and I think the reason for this is we now have more choices than we’ve ever had before. When I was a kid, for example, my mom basically had to spend almost her entire Sunday shopping, going to our local grocery store, and then running errands to other little shops where we lived to fill out the other things she needed, whether it was school supplies to help us with our homework or toiletries for the house.

These days, I have the luxury of being able to get so much of what I need online, and then filling out the rest of it with my trips to local stores, often at my leisure rather than as an all-day Sunday event every weekend. If you’re anything like me—and I suspect these days most people are—you use a nice mix of shopping online and in physical stores on a weekly or monthly basis. With all the options available to us now, it just makes good sense to do it this way. With that in mind, I think it’s time that we talk about the best money-saving apps for online and in-store shopping, some of which you can use for one type of shopping, some for the other, and, in rare cases, for both.

Shopping apps have become vital in terms of saving as much money as you can while you’re at the store and enhancing your experience when you’re in those aisles. If you find yourself regularly using a shopping app that only rewards you for one or the other—online shopping or in-person trips—well then, simply put, you’re losing out on half the benefits. So, to help you out, below you will find a great list of some of my personal favorite money-saving apps for shopping online and in-store. I highly recommend giving them a try. They will help you take your shopping game to new heights!

 

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Best Money Saving Apps for Shopping Online and In-Store

CamelCamelCamel

I suspect that like myself the online store that you frequent most is Amazon. Well, if that’s the case, I highly recommend familiarizing yourself with this app, which is called CamelCamelCamel. It doesn’t have much to do with riding through deserts, though. It’s a website and browser extension that shoppers can use to save money by tracking prices on Amazon. It’s really a pretty incredible resource, given the nature of prices on Amazon.

As I’m sure you’ve noticed, prices on Amazon often fluctuate, sometimes jumping by a pretty significant amount. With CamelCamelCamel, you get access to charts and details for extensive price histories to almost every product listed for sale on Amazon. You can see the fluctuations and know when you should buy an item or when you should hold off until the price is reduced in the future. I’ve never tracked it enough to be able to tabulate an exact amount, but I know that extrapolated over a long enough timeline, I’ve saved quite a bit of money shopping online at Amazon with the help of information from CamelCamelCamel.

Online: YES
In-Store: NO

Ebates

Ebates is a shopping portal that offers its users as much as 40 percent cash back on the purchases they make at its partner stores, which includes a healthy list of more than 2,000 options of places to shop. There are no points or anything like this involved. The way Ebates works is that it takes a simple percentage off at the time of checkout and gives it back to you in the form of cash. It’s a pretty rapid way to save money, one that I know I certainly appreciate. What can I say, sometimes you need to stretch your budget fast.

Ebates offers a browser extension like some of the other choices on our list—including CamelCamelCamel and Honey—and it’s a very useful extension. It makes it easy to remember and keep track of all the stores where you can use Ebates to save money. However, I should point out that many stores will only let you use one of these money-saving apps at a time, so when it comes to whether you should go with Honey, Ebates, or even one of our digital coupon apps, it’s best to take your time, do the math (ugh, I know), and carefully determine which app is the best for maximizing your savings.

Online: YES
In-Store: NO

Honey

Like CamelCamelCamel, Honey is also an online only browser plugin app, albeit one with a sweeter name. Honey works with Chrome or Firefox, and it automatically saves you money on your online shopping by applying any available coupon codes at the checkout stage of your shopping process. If you’re anything like me, whether you have a coupon or not, you always spend a second staring at the redeem code section wondering if you’re missing out on available savings. Well, what Honey does is ensures that you get any deals that are readily available.

When you have Honey installed, you simply see a popup while you’re checking out. Once you click that popup, Honey takes it from there, trying out all known coupon codes before ultimately applying the best available option for your bill. Another feature that I’ve grown quite fond of with Honey is that it offers a rewards program for a wide range of stores—3,700 online stores, last time I checked—giving you Honey Gold points that you can later redeem for free gift cards, which, as I’m sure you are well aware, are as good as cash!

Online: YES
In-Store: NO

SavingStar

SavingStar is a digital coupon app that pays users to shop at grocery and drugstores. What’s a digital coupon app? Well, it’s probably exactly what you think it is based on the name: an app that re-creates the experience of shopping in-person with coupons. You remember coupons, right? Those paper things your parents used to hang on the fridge with magnets and keep in that one junk drawer in your house? Well, they’re back—this time in digital form. So, say goodbye to any fears over papercuts!

More than 60,000 stores are part of SavingStar and they represent more than 100 retail chains. It’s generally free to use, but beware. If an account is inactive for 180 straight days, they will charge a fee of $3.99. To take advantage of SavingStar, users either link their existing store loyalty cards to the app or submit receipts after they make purchases. Their savings add up until they can eventually cash out through PayPal, Upromise, or even in the form of Starbucks, iTunes, or AMC Theater gift codes. If you frequently use loyalty rewards cards, this may be a great app for you. If your commitment to them is less than stellar, however, SavingStar may end up costing you money via its service fee.

Online: NO
In-Store: YES

SnipSnap

SnipSnap is in the same digital coupon app family as SavingStar, and it even has a similarly alliterative name, which has at times led me to confuse the two. The way SnipSnap works, however, is actually quite different. It’s more similar to the old school way of coupon collecting that used to necessitate going over paper ads and flyers with scissors and literally cutting out the coupons. With SnipSnap, you still have to do that, but instead of cutting them out you take pictures of the printed coupons with your phone. The app then converts them into easy-to-access, mobile-ready digital versions.

You can also use SnipSnap to browse online directories of digital coupons, thereby taking advantage of coupons that your friends have “snipped” as well. This one saves you money exactly the same way as a traditional coupon does—by reducing the price of your purchases at the time of checkout. The idea behind it is simple and much appreciated (at least by me anyway): that it’s exactly like using coupons used to be except that SnipSnap gives you a much cleaner and more efficient means of storing and using them. Say goodbye, in other words, to the old billfold that used to overflow with the edges of printed coupons.

Online: NO
In-Store: YES

Shopkick

Of all of the money-saving apps for shopping that I use both in the store and online, I’d have to say that Shopkick is my absolute favorite. I first began using this app as an in-store app that I used to save money whenever I went grocery shopping. I used Shopkick to get points—which Shopkick calls kicks—for normal shopping activities that I did each time I went to the store anyway, activities such as making purchases, scanning the barcodes on certain items, and even just walking into the store. Then, when I’d earned enough points, I was able to trade them in for gift cards to some of my favorite stores.

I eventually began to branch out with my Shopkick usage, using the app to collect points and earn gift cards while shopping at other places, including Target or Walmart, Best Buy, and some of my absolute favorite stores at the mall. That’s when I became aware of another major game-changer: it’s also possible to use Shopkick to get points for shopping online. Just like the app awards you points for the activities I mentioned earlier, it also gives you points for things like visiting certain online stores, viewing online products, making purchases, and watching videos, usually about cool new products. It even helps me save money before I even visit an online store because I can use Shopkick to score free online Amazon gift cards! Very cool.

Online: YES
In-Store: YES

I really don’t know how my mother (or anyone else) used to do all of our household’s shopping by just driving out to get things at traditional brick-and-mortar stores. I know she didn’t have another choice back then, but I’ve just become so thoroughly acclimated to my own special system of shopping both in-store and online. Now with these great money-saving apps for shopping online and in-store, I can add extra value to my system. Of course, I highly recommend you do the same.

And if I had to pick only one app to start with, I’d pick Shopkick. As you may have noticed, one thing that sets Shopkick apart is that it’s the rare app you can use both online and in-store, but more than that, it’s also super intuitive and easy to use, and—in my experience anyway—it provides the most value when you’re shopping both online and in-person. It’s also a whole lot of fun to use because it turns all your shopping experiences into fun scavenger hunts for points. I often find myself setting points goals and trying to beat them, and, to be quite honest with you, I wouldn’t be surprised if you ended up finding yourself doing the same thing, too!

Get one of the best money-saving apps for shopping both online and in-store. Download Shopkick’s free app today and join a community of loyal Shopkickers who’ve already discovered how fun it is to shop with us!

And, if you love social media as much as you love shopping online, join Shopkick on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram for a little daily shopping inspiration.

Get Starbucks gift cards for free to help fuel your next shopping spree

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My shopping time is not as readily available as it once was, thanks to the many new pressures that have been brought into my life by adulting. When I was younger, I used to do all-day shopping sprees with my friends, basically any weekend we felt like it or when we came across a particularly excellent sale. These days, those sort of all-day marathons are limited by my busy schedule, and, if I’m being totally honest, by my energy level as well. I just don’t have the unlimited energy to shop all day long like I once did—not without caffeine anyway.

I’m a coffee fiend when I’m out shopping now. In fact, if you run into me at the mall, no matter what time of year or whether it’s indoors or outdoors, I’m probably carrying a coffee—iced for the summer, steaming for the winter. It’s my shopping secret weapon most Saturdays, and just like I enjoy finding the best sales and deals on clothes and other things I’m out shopping for, I also enjoy finding ways to save money on my coffee. One of the most effective methods I’ve found for this is through using apps that help you earn Starbucks gift cards free.

Strange as it sounds, I think free coffee energizes me even more than the normal stuff does. I know, I know, it’s all in my head, right? Well, let me go ahead and share my secrets for how to get Starbucks gift cards for free with you today, and you can tell me if you notice some extra energy too!

How to Get Starbucks Gift Cards for Free With the Starbucks App

get starbucks gift cards freeOne of the most obvious ways to get Starbucks gift cards for free to help power you through your next all day shopping spree is by using the Starbucks app. The way this one works is super simple. Just download it, buy your Starbucks drinks like you usually do (I’m a vanilla almond milk latte drinker, myself), and earn free coffee.

Every time you make a purchase at Starbucks—which if you’re anything like me, it’s somewhat frequently—you earn a star, and once you get a certain amount of stars you can put them towards a free drink. Oh, and another nice little feature is that you also get a totally free Starbucks beverage on your birthday. All the gift cards you earn populate onto your app, too, so you don’t even have to carry around the actual plastic cards in your purse, which can be tough to remember sometimes when you head out shopping. Trust me.

How to Get Starbucks Gift Cards for Free by Taking Surveys

Taking free surveys through an app on your smartphone is another way to earn Starbucks gift cards for free. Groan. I know, but those type of survey apps actually do work, that’s why you hear so much about them. The survey app that I personally use is called MySurvey, which I like because it gives you both reward points as well as sweepstake entries. Basically, with MySurvey there’s always a chance you can win something bigger than a free cup of Joe.

Anyway, with most surveys, you’ll earn around 200 points, and you can also get an extra 150 points for each friend that you encourage to sign up, as long as they too go ahead and complete a certain number of surveys. You can redeem those points that you earn through taking surveys in the form of payouts via PayPal, Amazon, or—ding ding ding!—Starbucks gift cards. Last time I checked, it took 1,100 points to get a $10 Starbucks gift card.

How to Get Starbucks Gift Cards for Free by Shopping

I saved the best for last today. This app that helps you get Starbucks gift cards for free is my absolute favorite. It’s called Shopkick, and how it works is that it rewards you with gift cards for shopping. With Shopkick, you earn points for all the normal behaviors that you do each time you go to the store, behaviors like scanning barcodes on certain items to learn more about them, making purchases, and even just walking through the doors. And for those days when maybe you don’t have time or energy to go to the store, you can still get points from online shopping and video watching towards your next free Starbucks drink! You can then trade those points in for—that’s right—Starbucks gift cards, as well as other gift cards too.   

What I like about it the most though is that while earning you Starbucks to keep your energy levels up, it also turns the shopping experience into a game.

What I like about it the most though is that while earning you Starbucks to keep your energy levels up, it also turns the shopping experience into a game. Instead of thinking about how tired I sometimes get when I’m out in the aisles, I find myself consumed with getting as many points through Shopkick as I possibly can. Shopping basically turns from a draining activity into a really fun scavenger hunt for points. And, believe me, I want to find all the points that I possibly can!

So yes, while I don’t think science will ever back up my assertion that free coffee has a stronger kick to it than the stuff you pay for, I’d still like you to give my free recommendations for how to earn Starbucks gift cards for free a try. That way when you’re finished you can report back with your findings.

And hey, even if you don’t find free Starbucks to be any more energizing, the worst case scenario is that you still have a free beverage of your choice, and you could do much worse than that. After all, we are all getting older and keeping the energy up for a full day of shopping isn’t as easy as it used to be!

Start to get Starbucks gift cards for free so that you can have all the energy you need to fuel your next shopping spree. Download Shopkick’s free app today and join a community of loyal Shopkickers who’ve already discovered how much you can earn with the help of a free shopping sidekick.

And, if you’re on social media catching up with friends, be sure to also join Shopkick on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram for a little daily fun and inspiration.

Image courtesy photosvit