Ashley's Coupon Lesson - Part 2

I already explained the "old fashioned" way of couponing.  Clipping, filing, handing the coupons to the cashier.  With apps, however, there are tons of other ways to save money.  With some apps you can load coupons directly onto your rewards cards.  Others will supply coupon codes or bar codes that you can scan at the checkout.  More recently, there have been apps that involve choosing your coupons or deals, and when you purchase the item that money is deposited into a PayPal account, rather than being deducted from your total at the checkout.

Here are some of my favorites:

Kroger.  Of course, this is my favorite.  It will show you the weekly ad (which often doesn't even show the best deals), your rewards to date, an somewhat inconvenient "grocery list" section, and coupons.  These coupons load directly onto your Reward Card.  Keep in mind at the register that if you have a $.50 off coupon loaded on your card through this app, and a $1 off coupon in your hand, the one pre-loaded on your card will automatically be used.  I've had some cashiers go ahead and take my coupon in hand and deduct it on top of that, but really they aren't supposed to, and most the time I don't realize I've done it until I'm looking at my receipt afterwards.

Grocery IQ is another good one, and it's on my phone, but I haven't used it as much as I should.  I know it involves a lot of grocery coupons and I believe it will load them onto your card.  It's possible Kroger isn't an option and that's why I haven't used it much.

Coupon Sherpa - This one is great for retail shopping.  It has a list of stores (American Eagle, Ann Taylor, Banana Republic, Bath and Body Works, Best Buy, etc) and when you are at the check out, you can click the store you are at, and it will bring up a coupon.  The store will scan the bar code on your phone, or type in the coupon code, and you'll get whatever the deal was ($10 off $30 purchase, 20% off total purchase, etc).  This one is great.  Basically free money with next to no effort or time.  I'm shocked how often I'll check the app while they are ringing my stuff up and it'll save me $10+.  David likes this app too!

Ibotta is a new app I just recently signed up for.  I'm not sure if I like it or not.  You pick out the deals you want, answer a question, or "learn a fact" and then when you purchase the item, you scan your receipt and the bar code and they will "authorize" the purchase and the money goes into your Paypal account.

By the way, all these apps are free.
Enjoy!