I love, love, love new technology. My boys and I love learning new phones, apps, and other tech together—and I’m pretty good at it compared to some of the other moms I spend time with on the soccer sideline! Recently, my boys and I got such a kick when my old phone died and I had to get myself a new iPhone X. Absolutely had to (wink, wink).

The boys, who are far more tech savvy than I ever was at their age, heard about something called animojis from their friends at school. Apparently, you can create and share adorable cartoons that actually copy your voice and facial expressions. It’s so cool; I had no idea my new phone could do that. I’m proud to say I caught on quickly, but it made me wonder what other features my new phone had that I knew absolutely nothing about. Turns out, there were quite a few, like fake phone call apps for when you really need to appear busy and grocery rebate apps, which combine two of my favorite things: shopping and saving.

The best grocery rebate apps basically make me money while I shop. They’ve become as vital to my monthly budget as my smartphone is to keeping in touch with all my old college girlfriends. And, based on the sideline gossip, I’m not the only one who feels this way; all the other moms are talking about which grocery rebate app is best, too. Here’s what I’ve learned from listening in on my fellow soccer mom rave reviews.

The Best Grocery Rebate Apps All Have These Features

Just as certain features have become irreplaceable on our phones—camera, Bluetooth, maps—the best grocery rebate apps also have some features that I can’t live without (as well as some extra ones that make some of these apps even more amazing).  

The best cash back grocery rebate app features are:

• Cash back and gift cards to stores you love: This is the foundation of any great shopping rebate app, kind of like being able to make phone calls is for your phone (though my boys would say the foundation of any good phone is its internet connection). These apps simply must pay you for shopping; otherwise, they aren’t doing their jobs! Most of the best apps do this by giving you points after you make purchases and take photos of your receipt. You can then redeem those points for cash or gift cards to a variety of stores. Rewards vary from app to app.
• New product introductions: Another cool feature that some of the best grocery rebate apps have is helping you to learn about new products. This is usually done by paying you for scanning barcodes. Then, once you’ve scanned the barcode, the app gives you points as well as cool info about the price and details of featured products.
• Game-like feel: One of the things I love most about these apps is that the best of them turn shopping into a game by making it more like a fun scavenger hunt for rewards and points. Now I get excited for each grocery run as I compete with myself to see if I can earn more points than I’ve racked up before.
• Updates on the latest deals: Some of these apps will also give you alerts or weekly updates about the latest deals, which can help you plan your weekly shopping to maximize the reward points you earn.

The Best Grocery Rebate Apps. Period.

Knowing the features of the best cash back grocery rebate apps is a good place to start, but the natural next step is to learn which of these apps have any or all of these features. Here are a few of my own personal favorites:

• Checkout 51: This app is one of the simplest. After you’ve gone grocery shopping, you upload your receipt by taking a picture of it and earn credit for eligible purchases. Once you accumulate $20 of credit, you can cash out and Checkout 51 will mail you a check. Simple!
• SavingStar: SavingStar is a lot like Checkout 51, but it incentivizes healthy eating by giving you the chance to save 20% on your fruits and vegetables every week. I know my boys aren’t happy about this (they’d prefer one that rewards sugary snack foods), but as a health-conscious soccer mama, I love it!
• Shopkick: Shopkick, though, is my hands down favorite. It simply has the most features. With Shopkick, you can get points for taking pictures of your receipts, just like the other two apps on my list. But, Shopkick has additional features that allow you to earn points, called kicks, for other things you do every time you go to the store as well. How it works is simple: you have your Shopkick app open when you walk into a store, and you earn points. If you scan the barcodes of certain items to learn more about them, you get more points. You take pictures of your receipts after your trip, and, of course, you get more points. These extra features offered by Shopkick are great because they give you extra points, which leads to extra rewards! These features also mean that it’s easy to combine Shopkick with any of the other best grocery rebate apps, so you can use multiple rewards apps to maximize rewards! Now that’s a home run! Or should I say GOOOOAAAALLL!

Another thing I really like about Shopkick is that it has an amazingly engaged social media community. In the early days when I first started using it, I was able to go on Shopkick’s Facebook page and get all the help I needed with my questions—plus some bonus tips on non-shopping related mom stuff and a steady stream of absolutely hilarious jokes. You might say the best feature of all was the online friends I made. Shopkick truly kicks it out of the park!

Ready to explore one of the best grocery rebate apps—and have fun doing it? Download Shopkick for free and join a community of loyal Shopkickers who’ve already discovered how rewarding it is to shop with us.

And, if you love social media as much as you love stretching your budget, join us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram for daily shopping inspiration.

Image courtesy obey leesin

Growing up, my mom always got stuck playing referee between my siblings and me. We were always fighting. Nothing serious, of course, just the usual kid stuff, but she still had to be the one to step in and break it up sometimes. Okay, a lot of times. Her strategy was to separate us first, then give us all a good lecture.

Now that I’m a mom of three boys, I can understand why the talking-to had to come second. Safety first, of course. While her speeches always varied depending on what had started our silly argument in the first place, she always ended them with the same line. The only thing that will always be there for you is your family.

It’s a great tidbit to remember, even now, because, adults or not, my brothers and sisters haven’t stopped being impossibly irritating every so often. But, I’d like to add a second part to my mom’s advice. My own mommy saying is, “The only things that will always be there for you are your family—and Walmart.”

And it’s really true. I mean, the Walmart where I live is even open 24 hours a day! No matter what I need or when I need it, Walmart is there for me. Poster boards to help with a last-minute science project at 10 pm? Check. Groceries for the bake sale tomorrow that my kids told me about after dinner? Check, check. Cleaning supplies for the new puppy my kids and my husband just had to bring home? Check, check, check! I can get all this and more at Walmart, all the time, and almost always at much lower prices than I’d find anywhere else.

So, yeah, I’m a Walmart devotee, which is why I was ecstatic recently when I discovered that there were programs that actually give you rewards for shopping at Walmart. Not to name any names, but I think with the new savings I’m racking up, Walmart is now technically there for me more than some of my siblings (they know who they are!).

Kidding, of course! But in all seriousness, the best programs that pay out rewards for shopping at Walmart are easy to use and will help all you other referees, I mean moms, out there stay under budget. Let me share my favorite Walmart rewards programs below.

Walmart’s Savings Catcher: Get Rewarded for Being a Vigilant Walmart Shopper

One of the main reasons I think of Walmart as always being there for me is because I always know what to expect from Walmart’s prices: low, low, low. That’s kind of their thing, really. Maybe that was why I was so surprised when I found out about Walmart’s Savings Catcher, which is a great way to push the store’s prices down even lower.

Walmart’s Savings Catcher is the type of rewards program that I’ve been familiar with for years. The way it works is super simple. If you can find a local competitor with a lower advertised price on something that you recently bought from Walmart, well, then, Walmart will make up the difference by giving you a Walmart Rewards eGift Card or even a Bluebird Card by American Express. It’s like getting paid just for saving your receipts!

If you can find a local competitor with a lower advertised price on something that you recently bought from Walmart, well, then, Walmart will make up the difference…

The downside? You can only use those rewards cards at Walmart, but, at least for me and my family, it’s never long before we have to make another shopping trip there. There are some other rules, too, though. For example, you can only submit seven receipts each week. I’ve never found that to be a problem, though, as that’s a pretty high bar to reach for the average shopper.

Chase Bank’s Reward Program for Shopping at Walmart

Come to think of it, there are actually quite a few things that I’ve been relying on for much of life. I have a favorite brand of shoes, I’ve always driven American-made cars, and I’ve always been a fan of the Chicago Bears (okay, maybe that last one is a bad example). I’ve also always used a Chase credit card.

Earlier this summer, Chase offered a Walmart rewards program to earn points for all the purchases I made at Walmart. This particular promotion was only available during the month of August for cardholders of Chase Sapphire Reserve, Chase Sapphire Preferred, and the Chase Freedom Unlimited cards, which luckily included me!

I was allowed to spend up to $250 (which I did) to earn up to 2,500 rewards points (again, nailed it). When I’m ready, I can cash those points in for travel rewards. Maybe this is wishful thinking, but I’m putting this one on the list because my guess is that it’s only a matter of time before Chase runs this promotion again.

Shopkick: The Ultimate Rewards Program for Shopping at Walmart

The first two of these programs, you may have noticed, are only available at certain times or under certain circumstances. That’s why I think it’s pretty safe to say that I’ve saved the best rewards program for shopping at Walmart for last. Allow me to introduce you to Shopkick, which you can use any time of the year, day or night, to earn major rewards on featured products.

How Shopkick works is incredibly easy and intuitive. You earn points, called kicks, for walking into Walmart, for scanning barcodes on featured products, and, of course, for making purchases. You can then save up those points and trade them in for gift cards to a ton of popular stores. I’ve been using Shopkick for a while because it’s a great way to get paid to grocery shop and now that it’s available to use at Walmart—and at Walmart.com!—there’ll be no stopping me in my quest to stay on budget.

You earn points, called kicks, for walking into Walmart, for scanning barcodes on featured products, and, of course, for making purchases.

And, I’m super into Shopkick’s social media, too. I’m spending I don’t know how much time each day on their pages, enjoying all the jokes that Shopkick makes and sharing funny gifs with other Shopkickers in response to their statuses. Just like my real family, my Shopkick family can always be relied on to make me laugh! Shopping, fun, and savings all in one place—pinch me like my brother used to do when my mom wasn’t looking because I must be dreaming!

Learn how you can earn big rewards for shopping at Walmart. Download Shopkick’s free app 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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Remember when cellphones first became popular and they were used to, well, make phone calls? These days, phone calls are actually only one of a million ways I seem to use my cellphone (i.e why we now call them “smart”phones, ba-da-bing). It’s a map, a camera, an address book, a way to get messages to friends and family, a portal to the world, and, maybe most importantly, a way for me to do all my shopping at tons of stores no matter where I am physically.

I’ve suddenly remembered I was out of face wipes while at coffee with one of my ladies. A few clicks on Amazon and a new pack was on its way—and I didn’t have to spend my social hour trying to remember a mental shopping list. Or, let’s say I’m out of snacks for the kids’ lunches. I can buzz on over to my Target app to order crackers and trail mix while getting a much deserved monthly pedicure. I can even order my family’s dinner at Panera while I’m walking to my car in those silly flip flops and have a big brown bag of soups and sandwiches waiting to be picked up in minutes.

It’s all very convenient, but what makes it even better (and also more fun) are apps that let users get paid to shop online—for free! Imagine this: you order all the things I described above and, oh, you also get paid to do it. Okay, now stop imagining because it’s real! Here are some of my favorite apps for mobile shoppers. Give them a shot so we can all get paid to shop online for free, together! Maybe we can squeeze a second pedicure in this month thanks to the extra space in our budgets. See you at the spa!

Checkout 51: A Free App to Get Paid to Shop Online

My phone has so many functions that I can no longer live without—alarm clocks, notepads, and my work email, just to name a few—but I think the feature that has emerged as my clear and absolute favorite is, without question, the camera. I’m an Instagram addict—and I know I’m not alone! There’s nothing like posting a pic of some clever latte art or a floral arrangement I made for our mantle and just waiting for the little hearts to come pouring in from all my online buddies.

But, I also use my camera for more functional reasons, too. I use it to snap pictures of important slides during presentations at my office and to take pictures of important receipts so that I don’t lose them in the junk drawer. I think that’s why I’ve come to like Checkout 51 so much. It’s basically a rebate app, where you get paid to shop online for free after you make your purchases.

I like to use it both in-store and online. When you use it in-store, you just snap a quick picture of your receipt for purchasing certain products and offers and get paid; when you use it to shop online, you do the exact same thing with your purchases there. Easy, easy, easy!

Pro tips: The Checkout 51 app lists its new deals on Thursday of every week. And, it’s an especially effective choice if you’re in the market for free apps that pay you to grocery shop because you can use it with Amazon grocery.

Get Paid to Shop Online With the Free App BeFrugal

Another thing about my smartphone that I’ve gotten too used to these days to live without is the easy access to information. The website I search the most on my phone is IMDB, short for Internet Movie Database. It seems like I’m always having conversations about actors and actresses, like, “Was James Franco in this?” or, “I know Anne Hathaway was in that.” Sometimes, the only way to settle these debates about who was in what and when is to open up IMDB. What, I wonder, did we ever do without such quick access to information?

This next shopping reward app, BeFrugal, is a cool one because it’s also based on information. It’s another rebate site that gives you cash back for making certain purchases online. I’ve gotten deals for as much as 30% back! The rebates go into your account, and then you can cash them in using your PayPal account. Again, this one is also super easy.

The info part that I like so much is that, with BeFrugal, if you find another site offering a higher percentage back, BeFrugal not only applies that higher rate to your purchases, but it also gives you an extra 25% on top of it. How cool is that? Um, a whopping 25% more cool, I’d say.

Shopkick: The Best App to Get Paid to Shop Online for Free

Games. Have I mentioned the games on my smartphone yet? I’m a big fan of the popular puzzle ones, especially Candy Crush. Man, have I spent a lot of time crushing those little candies!

What I love about this third app, Shopkick, is that it turns any and all shopping into a game. The way the app works is that it gives you points, called kicks, for all kinds of things. When you go shopping at a store, this includes paying you to scan barcodes, purchase featured items, and even to simply walk into some popular retailers.

Shopkick also gives you points for the shopping you do online, as well as browsing webshops, watching videos, and, of course, making purchases. I love using this free app to hunt down piles of points and then convert them into gift cards to all my favorite stores. It’s soooo much better than Candy Crush since it comes with big savings!

So there you have it, three of my favorite apps that will turn your phone into an even more useful part of your life than it already is, i.e. a headquarters for getting paid to shop online with free apps. And, you can even combine apps like Checkout 51 with BeFrugal and Shopkick to take all your savings to the next level—and for doing things you already do!

Sometimes I try to think of ways my phone could be even more useful than it is now. Unless it actually grows legs and goes out and does all my shopping for me, thanks to free shopping rewards apps, I’m not sure it’s possible.

Start getting paid to shop online with Shopkick. Download the free shopping rewards app and join a community of loyal Shopkickers who’ve already discovered the fun of shopping with us on your team!

And, if you love social media as much as you love your smartphone, join us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

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Man is it a lot of work trying to stay up with the latest tech! I totally had to have the iPhone X the day it came out, so I called ahead to my local AT&T store. When I found out they would have six of them in stock on a first come, first serve basis, I decided to spend the night camping out in a tent on the sidewalk. I mean, have you seen the iPhone X? It has a face scan you use to unlock your phone! It’s so cool! How could I pass that up?

So, yeah, I’m the guy who gets each new iPhone on the day they come out, but I’ve camped out for other tech, too, everything from Playstations to the Xbox and even Black Friday sales so I could score a major markdown on a new tablet. Yes, it takes dedication—but it’s also really fun!

The thing that starts to catch up with you after a little while, though, is all the money you spend. It’s expensive to be an early adopter! I know that the other techies who camp out in front of AT&T stores love to bemoan the prices as well. What they don’t know, though, is that there are actually ways to use that new phone or tablet to download free apps that pay you to easily earn Amazon gift cards just for shopping!

With these apps, you can haul in Amazon gift cards for things like going to stores, shopping online (my personal favorite), and scanning new or featured products. Pro tip: you can then buy some of your necessities with the Amazon gift cards that the apps pay you, stuff like paper towels and shaving cream, etc., and save your hard-earned cash for new tech—even if you have to camp outside to get it. Here’s what you need to know about my favorite free shopping apps that pay rewards in Amazon gift cards.

Meet Your New Favorite Tech: Shopping Apps That Pay You Amazon Gift Cards

Believe it or not, I’ve made some really great friends camping out waiting for new tech toys. There was Steve from the PS4 line, who’s as big an NBA fan as I am. Then there was Lisa in the iPhone 7 line; we still like all of each other’s photos on Instagram. And, of course, Carlos from all those years ago waiting for the first iPad to go on sale. I just recently went to his wedding!

I think we’re a special breed, those of us who care so much about technology that we’re down to camp outside of stores on shopping center sidewalks. Maybe that’s why they’ve all appreciated it so much when I’ve introduced them to another very good friend of mine: shopping apps that pay you Amazon gift cards.

Shopping rewards apps are actually one of my favorite uses for the new technology I’m always chasing. They’re pretty simple, really. How these apps work is that they let you earn points for shopping. So, let’s say I have to run out and get some stuff at Target. The shopping rewards apps give me points for things like going into the store, points for scanning barcodes of featured products, and then finally for buying household items I always need. Then, when I have saved up enough points, I can trade them in and—boom!—it’s Amazon gift card time. Hello cord extenders for my new Super Nintendo classic edition!

The Best Free Shopping Apps That Pay You in Amazon Gift Cards

Ok, so I’ve gotten so into these apps, that I’ve now transferred them through the cloud to, I think, three new phones (but who’s counting, besides my wife?). Here are a few of the ones I love to use the most:

• Mobee: Mobee turns you into a mystery shopper, which means that it gives you secret missions (way rad) at stores and restaurants in your area. These usually last between 10 and 15 minutes and they almost always  require you to do something like take a picture of a display in a store or tell them what you thought about shopping there. Then, you get points for the missions you complete, points you can swap for Amazon cards.
• Shopkick: Shopkick is my favorite shopping app because its interface is, in my humble techy opinion, the most engaging. Shopkick turns trips to stores like Target or Best Buy into mini scavenger hunts for points, called kicks. You can easily fit hunting down kicks into your normal shopping routine—or spend a little extra time hunting for them. With Shopkick, you get points for just walking into the store, for scanning barcodes, and, of course, making purchases. It’s so much fun that I’ve got most of my tech friends using it, too. We’re always texting each other tips about how to up our weekly point earnings.

Shopkick gets my vote for best shopping app because the tech it uses turns shopping into a game, which makes me so much more likely to actually head out to the stores instead of putting it off and putting it off until I have to—or my kid is actually out of diapers.

So yeah, these days I’m talking my friends’ ears off about the iPhone X I camped out for and how many points I’m earning in my never-ending quest to score free Amazon gift cards just by shopping. What can I say, as any tech nerd will tell you, part of the fun of getting a new toy, app, or device is talking about it!

Ready to use your smartphone to turn shopping into a game where you win Amazon gift cards? Download Shopkick for free and join a community of loyal Shopkickers who’ve already discovered the rewards of shopping with us—and how fun our tech is!

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 Denys Prykhodov

I have a lot of friends these days who I only follow on Facebook and rarely see in person. Life has taken us in different directions, or to different cities, or just to places where we don’t have the time to get together on the regular like we once did.

As much as I miss them, I love seeing all the interesting things that my old friends get up to. I have a friend from high school who went on to become a fashion model on Instagram and another who lives in LA following her passion to become an actress. A college friend, Dan, is actually a motivational speaker; he travels from city to city sharing tips with people looking for advice, mostly on how to improve their finances. His key phrase always sticks in my head: make money while you sleep.

My friend Dan’s big financial advice is to develop passive income streams, like rental properties or investments that help you earn money while you’re focused on your day job. Which of course got me thinking about… shopping.

Hear me out! I’m a big fan of shopping rewards apps to make money fast while buying the things my family needs anyway—and there are plenty of these apps out there to choose from! I can guarantee you’ll find one you love using to easily earn shopping rewards you can cash in. I even have my own version of my friend’s saying now, although I’ve yet to tour the country giving speeches about it. My saying is: find apps to make money fast for what you buy anyways. Pretty good, right? I know my bank account thinks so. Here are a few of my favorites.

Earny: Quickly Earn Money for Online Shopping

One thing I’ve learned from my friend’s posts on Facebook is that a key to financial health these days is to diversify, diversify, diversify. So, the first of my favorite rewards apps that actually works to pay me for online shopping is… drumroll, please…. Earny!

Earny scans your email archives for receipts from online shopping, then compares whether prices have dropped. If they have, Earny helps you claim the difference in price, either through the retailer or through your credit card company. This is a super cool app to make money fast for what you buy online.

Shopkick: The Best All-Around Shopping App to Make Money Fast

I had a chuckle the other day while I was watching one of my friend’s motivational videos. He said something about how there are certain things in life that you just can’t turn into money-making opportunities, like when you have to run errands all day or when you are getting some of your shopping done on your mobile phone or online. I couldn’t help myself, I had to reply in a comment, “Um, hello? Have you heard of Shopkick?”

Shopkick is my favorite and truly the best of the apps to easily make money fast because with Shopkick there are so many fun and easy ways to earn points, called kicks, that you can then turn into gift cards for Amazon, Starbucks, Walmart, Target, Best Buy, or tons of other great stores.

With Shopkick, you earn points just for walking into certain stores! Then, it also gives you points for scanning barcodes of featured products, and, of course, for ultimately making your purchases. Shopkick, like the other shopping rewards apps on this list, is a free app that even pays you to grocery shop!

Pro tip: you can use both of these apps together, doubling your points and money back. I know, right? WOW!

Once my money-motivator friend heard about how Shopkick works, he became an immediate fan as well. He even messaged me personally to tell me that he was going to start telling the people he coaches about Shopkick and the other shopping mobile apps.

Yes, I know, I probably spend a little too much time on Facebook, just like everyone else, but little interactions like this are a really easy way to stay in touch with old friends. It’s always nice to catch up with them—and it’s even nicer when you can pass each other tips on how to make the most out of your finances and your next shopping trip!

Get to know one of the best apps to make money fast for the shopping you do anyway. 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 our free 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 shopping inspiration.

Image courtesy LightField Studios