I often talk about Rebate Apps and Shopping Portals being great ways to make some easy money for your travel fund. I thought it might be helpful to give you some specific examples using my regular usage so that you could see just how much savings potential there is. I had already planned to make all these purchases but I sometimes adjusted quantities on the grocery items to match up with available offers.
EBATES
This was my January Ebates Statement. I earned $95.86 between 10/1/18 and 12/31/18.
I received a Quarterly Rebate Check (known as My Big Fat Check) for this amount on 2/15.
I earned Cash Back Rebates for that quarter for my Online Holiday Shopping, Hotel Reservations, and a Boxed Warehouse Club order of household staples (garbage bags, toilet paper, coffee, etc).
IBOTTA
This is a typical Saturday morning Grocery Run.
I match ad specials, to paper or digital coupons then to Ibotta Rebates.
When I get home, I scan my receipt and they credit my account. Simple.
Most of the items I bought were on sale plus I had coupons.
For Example – The Whole Earth Sweetener was on sale for $1.99 and I had two $2 coupons. I bought two at no cost and still got $1.50 back in rebates.
The Green Giant Veggie products were on sale, I had a $2 off purchase of three items coupon plus $3.25 Ibotta and $3.50 Check Out 51 (another less robust Rebate app I use) Rebates. The cost for the three items was $10.47 minus the $2 coupon and $6.75 in Rebates bringing it down to a total cost of $1.72.
Bonuses Earned
Sadly, I missed out on a $3 Bonus that I didn’t see. If you bought 3 Alcohol products that had Rebates, you got a $3 “Boozy Bonus”, lol. They usually have those type of pop up bonuses around holidays, or like this one Super Bowl Weekend. I had bought a bottle of wine and a 6 pack of beer so I missed by 1 purchase. Next time!
I try to be aware of those bonuses before starting my shopping trip. Ibotta runs more bonuses around the weekends than they do midweek. That works for me because I do my biggest shopping trip early in the morning on Saturdays. For this week, I knew about the “Big Game” Bonus and how many rebates (9) I needed to redeem in order to score the additional free money. It sounds like a lot, but it’s not that hard. I also don’t buy things I wont use just to get the rebate or make the bonus. That would be conterproductive.
It’s not hard to to earn $80 – $100 per month in rebates on my regular grocery shopping. There is not much work involved, just a quick review of available Ibotta Offers and Bonuses and a quick receipt scan when I get home from the store.
With Ebates, it just depends on how much shopping I do during the quarter and how many reservations I make through the app. I would say I make about $70 – $90 per quarter just clicking through their site to make purchases. I do try to watch for high percentage rebate days for things like Hotel Reservations, in order to get the most I can back from my purchases. That’s usually not a big deal since they run a higher day about once every 7-10 days.
Using one or both of these apps may be an easy way for you to earn some extra cash for your adventure fund! Visit my Previous Blog Posts Tab to find other helpful articles on Rebate Apps, Shopping Portals and Travel savings ideas. You can also find Sign up bonus Referral Links in my Money Saving Links Tab.
Dream, Plan, SAVE, Adventure!
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