Monday, August 4, 2014

Ways to Save Money While Staying at Home

Since I stopped working, I have been doing my very best to save money in any way I can.  I turn off lights when I leave a room, I open windows on cool mornings and keep the AC turned up to 78.  I cloth diaper, grow a veggie garden, breastfeed, and buy nearly all my kids clothes used.  I shop for bargains and buy groceries based on what is on sale and try to save that way.  But what are ways you can save or make money while shopping?  I have stumbled upon a number of programs and apps that help me do just that.

1)  Amazon subscribe and save does just that save.  I use this for a lot of our household supplies such as toilet paper.  (We have an Amazon prime membership for free two day shipping and free prime TV as well.)  I only buy on Amazon what I can get cheaper than in a brick and mortar store.  My bleach free expensive wipes (because all others break out precious little Owl's pampered butt) are much cheaper on here.  I also look at what coupons there are each month and use those to save even more.

2)  Receipt Hog app.  This is an app I have on my phone that allows me to scan my receipts from groceries, drug stores, pet supplies, etc (in store or online.)  You earn coins for each dollar spent and when you earn 1000 coins, you get 5 dollars.  You also can get bonus coins when you gets spins on the slot machine like thing.  This is pretty slow going but super easy.  In a week, I am up to 250 coins.
Click my referral link if you want to join up.  I earn ten spins and you earn five this way to help you earn bonus coins.

http://app.receipthog.com/share/fx7wquxy.

3)  Checkout 51 is another app I have been using for the past week.  I have saved a dollar on this one.  This had rebates that you can get when you buy that particular product.  You then scan the products bar code and your receipt.  The rebates that are available change every Wednesday.  There are also bonuses on this one.  I am not as sure about this one since I haven't bought any of the rebates just yet.  I will update this once I do that on how easy it is.

4)  Savingstar is another app on my phone.  Every Tuesday there is a new healthy offer which is fruits or vegetables and you save a percentage of what it cost when you buy them.  Then on Fridays there is a Friday freebie where you earn the total price of the product.  I mean what is better than free?  This is the same as the previous app where you scan the bar code and receipt.  It is a bit slower in actually putting the money in your account than the next app I am going to mention.  They say it can take anywhere from 2-10 days (and in some cases as long as 22 days.)  But in a week I will have earned about two dollars on this one.

5)  And my very favorite app I have found thus far is ibotta.  If you haven't signed up yet, you can use my referral link http://ibotta.com/r/lebrfef 
You will earn two dollars when you redeem your first rebate within ten days and I earn five dollars.
This app is the same as the two above but has a lot more offers than just groceries.  They have a few restaurants, clothes stores, and even a few online stores.  You take one question polls, learn facts, get recipes to unlock the rebates.  (Don't worry it is a few seconds to do each one.)  Then you buy the item, scan the bar code, and take a picture of the receipt.  Within a few days (and typically the next day in my experience) it is put into you account.  You can cash out when you hit five dollars.  There are also tons of bonuses that you can do to earn extra money.  In a week, I have already cashed out once for 21.75 and have a dollar in my account again.  I LOVE this app.  When you cash out, you can get paypal or venmo money or gift cards.

6)  Take advantage of Target's awesome coupon policy.  You can stack a manufacturer coupon with a Target store coupon and still use cartwheel.  I am saving tons of money and have actually started shopping for groceries at Target as opposed to Aldi's since I have been doing so well there.  For example, check out the picture below.  I spent 52 dollars out of pocket. for all the stuff you see in the picture below.  (It is 17 Plum Organic pouches if you are wondering.)  Target also has a ton of buy two or three or whatever of this product, get a five or ten dollar gift card back deals.

These are the ways I have been saving and making money.  What are ways you guys have found to make or save money?