“How do you do it?” “Teach me your ways!” I get these responses all the time when I tell people that I am and extreme couponer. Have no fear! The resident coupon guru is here to help! Couponing takes a lot of time and organization, but there are four easy ways that you could start saving money without the hassle of paper coupons. It’s so easy a monkey could do it, and the best part is, you can do all of these four steps on your phone.
1. Cartwheel App for Target
I’m addicted to shopping at Target as I can imagine a lot of college women are. You can download this app for free and it will help you save TONS of money. All you need to do is sign up with an email account or even your Facebook account. Cartwheel is a percentage saving app, meaning you can save from five percent to 50 percent on an item. All you have to do is search the product you’re purchasing, and the app will tell you if it’s one of the offers this week. If it isn’t, don’t worry. They update the products every Sunday when the new ad comes out. After you download the app, search through the offers and match them up with what you’re purchasing. Add them to your barcode then show your Cartwheel to the cashier at checkout! BOOM! SAVINGS! I have saved over $850 through Cartwheel in the past two years!
2. Ibotta App
Ibotta’s a free app, just like Cartwheel, except this isn’t a percentage saving app, it’s a rebate app. This app can be used for Target as well as other stores like Walmart, Walgreens, CVS or clothing stores like Kohl’s, Macy’s, Aeropostale, Express and even more! After you download this app, look through the offers at the store of your choosing. Then, click to unlock the item. (You might need to take a one-question survey or watch a 20 second video). Once you unlock the item, go to the store and purchase it. Just make sure to save the receipt! Once you do that, go to your unlocked rebates or hit “verify purchase.” It’ll have you take a picture of the receipt and the item’s barcode, and money will then be added to your account. SIMPLE! Once you reach a certain total, you can cash out your money in any way you’d like, whether it be in a personal check or sent to your PayPal account.
3. Double Up
For double the savings, use Ibotta and another rebate app. You can use the same product on each of the apps! Other rebate apps include Checkout51, MobiSave, Saving Star and multiple other apps that you can find just by searching your app store (you could even use Cartwheel).
4. Price Match, Price Match, Price Match!
I think people may forget that most stores price match to Amazon and other retailers. This is a huge money saver, especially on big ticket items like electronics. If you find a video game, TV, movie, headphones, camera, printer ink or anything else, look on Amazon or competing stores’ websites for lower prices, and the brick and mortar store may match it. Now, most of the chain stores like Walmart, BestBuy and Target don’t vary much in their pricing, which is where Amazon comes in. When price matching with Amazon, the product description needs to say “Shipped and sold by Amazon,” or else they won’t accept it.
There are so many other ways that you can save money, but these are a great start if you’re just getting afoot in the couponing world.
Now go forth and start saving!