How I save & generate cash back with mobile apps & credit cards
Money. This is probably what everyone is most concerned with and stressed about nowadays. The most important thing is making it and the second most important thing is saving it.
I generate cash back two ways: rewards from credit and charge cards and using apps. I often “double dip” by linking my cards to apps. For example, the Swagbucks gives 5% back when you shop on Amazon. My Amazon card also gives 5%. Several apps give cash back by either forwarding digital receipts or scanning in the paper copies. When I need to shop on Amazon, I open the Swagbucks app, click on the Amazon link, log on, and make the purchase charged to my Amazon card. I use credit cards that give me rewards for every purchase I make. I either use a general cash back card or a retailer-specific card, like an Old Navy or Children’s Place card. This month I have made over $200 in rewards. I have redeemed them for free cash (PayPal or Visa cards), statement credits, gift cards (Grubhub or other restaurants) and I even got my son’s birthday present for free on Amazon with my rewards points! I make sure the purchase is within my budget, however. I do not just make a purchase to make a purchase—I don’t want to end up in debt or end up paying interest. Instead of using cash or my debit card, I just use my credit cards within my budget then send the money either at the end of the week or by their monthly due date. I do always carry some cash both for emergencies and for tipping.
These are the apps that I currently use to generate cash back with my everyday purchases. I have posted them linked both to my referral codes as well as without. If you use my referral code, we both get free money. If you don’t use my referral code you can of course still sign up, however neither of us will get the bonus.
Dosh—Referral | No Referral—Securely link credit and debit cards. Shop in-store and online and Dosh deposits up to 10% cash back into your Dosh wallet. Set it and forget it.
Drop—Referral | No Referral—Securely link your credit and debit cards. Shop in-store and online. Play Supercharge once daily to gain more points. Select five of your favorite places to shop and get extra points whenever you use your cards there. These are your “Power Offers.” Redeem points for gift cards. Set it and forget it.
Ebates—Referral | No Referral—Securely link credit and debit cards for in-store cash back. Shop online through the Ebates site or app by clicking on the retailer’s link. Earn up to 40% cash back. There are also promo codes and deals.
Swagbucks—Referral | No Referral—Shop through the Swagbucks site or app by clicking on the retailer’s link to earn cash back. You can also play games, answer survey questions or watch TV shows and movies to earn money. I just queue up videos and leave them running in the background and open up a new tab on my browser.
Shopkick—Referral | No Referral—Earn cash back in the form of ‘Kicks’ when you walk into a store by checking in to the store on the app. Earn more points by scanning selected products with the app. Earn even more points by scanning in your receipt.
Ibotta—Referral | No Referral—Select certain products on the app that you are going to grocery shop for. After purchasing those items on your next grocery run, scan in your receipt as proof.
Checkout 51—Referral | No Referral—Select certain products on the app that you are going to grocery shop for. After purchasing those items on your next grocery run, scan in your receipt as proof.
SavingsStar—No Referral Needed—Link your store cards. Select certain products on the app that you are going to grocery shop for. After purchasing those items on your next grocery run, scan in your receipt as proof.
Coupons—No Referral Needed—Link credit and debit cards. Select certain products on the app that you are going to grocery shop for. Coupons are linked directly to your card.
ReceiptHog—No Referral Needed—Scan in any receipt for coins. Get bonuses to spin the slots to win free shopping trips and more. Take surveys for extra coins. Redeem coins for gift cards or cash via PayPal.
CoinOut—Referral | No Referral—Scan in any receipt from any retailer for any amount and instantly get cash deposited into your wallet.
FetchRewards—Referral | No Referral—Scan in any receipt for any amount from any grocery store, convenience store, club store, drugstore, or liquor store. Points are automatically added. Redeem points for gift cards of cash cards.
ReceiptPal—No Referral Needed—Scan in any receipt for any amount from any retailer for points. Also forward e-receipts for points.
Target—No Referral Needed—If you shop at Target you can use the app to find sale items and clip digital coupons called “Cartwheels.”
** Combine Cartwheels with the mobile coupons you clipped in Ibotta, Checkout 51, SavingsStar, and Coupons**
** Sign up for the Red Card, a debit card (this is NOT a credit card, you do NOT need good credit or even ANY credit for this card) that links to your checking account and gives you 5% off everything in the store
(Linking your regular debit card allows the apps to see your Red Card transactions)
>>Scan your Target receipt into the appropriate apps<<
***I recommend making Target one of your Power Offers for Drop. Combined with the Cartwheels, Power Offer, Red Card, mobile coupons, and cash back, this is a money-making store!***
To continue with the Amazon example from above, if I needed to make a purchase from Amazon I would click on the Amazon link through the Swagbucks app to get 5% cash back. I would make a purchase using my Amazon credit card to get 5% cash back. ReceiptPal would track the e-receipt and give me points. When my product arrived, I would take a quick picture of the receipt to scan it into ReceiptHog, FetchRewards, and CoinOut. If there were a promotion for the retailer Amazon going on through the Drop, Dosh or Ebates app, I would receive an additional percentage of cash back when I paid off my Amazon credit card bill at either the end of the week or end of the month because all of my other accounts are linked. If there happened to be a coupon available for the product I selected, I could select on any or every app it was available on—Ibotta, Checkout 51, SavingsStar, and/or Coupons—then scan the receipt in there too for additional cash back. If Amazon had a coupon available on their site I could use that as well as a mobile coupon from each of the couponing apps, cash back from each of the rebate apps, and finally I would pay with the cash back rewards credit card.
I use my credit cards for every purchase I make unless I am tipping someone—then I tip them in cash. By law under the FCBA, the maximum liability for fraudulent credit card transactions is $50. When a credit card is used, the money being used isn’t yours—it is borrowed money from the issuing bank. If your card is stolen, the credit card company is going to fight to get their money bank. With a debit card, you must fight to get tour money bank.
Under the EFTA, the potential liability for fraudulent activity on a debit card is virtually unlimited. This is also why I do not keep much money in my checking account. I keep it in savings or a money market. I also do not link these accounts to my debit card. To access the money in these accounts, I need to either log into my bank’s website, mobile app, or visit a branch. While banks and credit unions do have FDIC insurance and investigate reported fraudulent activity that is reported, these investigations take time. It is better to wait for a new credit card than to have your liquid assets tied up.
I generate cash back in these six essential areas:
Even for a family who uses WIC and/or SNAP to make most or all of their grocery purchases, if they shop at a supercenter and also purchase their non-food goods at the supercenter, a rewards card offering 3-5% cash back combined with the couponing, rebate, and receipt rewards app will help them save a lot of money.
Gas/convenience store purchases
For gasoline and convenience store purchases, I combine this with the rewards program offered by the gas station down the street from my house to save even more money.
There are credit cards targeting dining out specifically and some that have the rotating option of dining out and some that have it as one of its many perks.
Travel, flight, hotel booking
Cards for travel, flights, and hotel booking are usually very specific unless it is an American Express card. American Express offers excellent benefetis not only for travel, hotel, and flights, but overall having any American Express card in your wallet is very beneficial as a consumer for the many perk.
Retail cards are very specific and are the ones that I own the most of. I took an evening and looked over our bank statements and saw where we shopped the most. For our family it was Target (debit card), Old Navy, Amazon, Children’s Place, Express, Best Buy, JCPenny because of the Sephora inside their store…and there were a few more that had some good perks. I spread out the timing of applying for the cards because too many inquiries at once are bad for your credit. I always try to find the product we need or really want used first, but if we need it immediately or cannot find it, I go to one of our preferred retailers and use our rewards credit cards to purchase it. This gives us a lot of perks. Last summer I was able to get seven free tops from Old Navy with all the points that I had! I used my Amazon points this month to get my son’s birthday present for free, and the month prior to that I used the cash back I had saved up from Christmas shopping to pay off what would have been three months’ worth of credit cards bills!
For everyday spending, like hitting the drive-thru for coffee or a Happy Meal for the kids, a card that is tailored for straight cash back or offers that as an addition to other perks is ideal.
Nerd Wallet is a great app to not only compare credit cards, but they offer free credit monitoring through TransUnion VantageScore as well as cash back rewards when you link all your cards. They will also monitor your spending habits to help you track your financial health and growth if you link your accounts.
Track and examine expenses
Use skills, knowledge, and tools that you can with the resources at your disposal to help you stick to your budget
Government and community aide programs
Rebate, coupon, rewards apps
Leftover discretionary funds
One general rule of thumb is the 50/30/20 rule. It is advised that no more than 50% of your net (take home after taxes) income should go to necessities (rent, utilities, insurance, household supplies, minimum credit card payments etc.), no more than 30% should go towards discretionary spending, and the remaining 20% of your income should go towards financial goals such as savings, retirement, educational planning, and getting out of debt faster. These exact percentages of course will not work for every situation—nearly 80% of Americans live paycheck-to-paycheck, most have less than $1,000 in their savings account, and with the typical worker earning about $44,500 per year, having the recommended 3-6 months’ worth of salary saved up in a savings account, putting away the recommended maximum of $5,500 per year in a retirement account and still being able to make ends meet is drastically unrealistic if not impossible.
To start saving any money, you must know where your money goes. Look at your expenses for the past few months. What are you spending money on? What are your necessities that you absolutely must pay for each month, and how much do they cost? I’ve included a generic Excel budget sheet that you can plug numbers into each month. You could also use an app on your phone, a different Excel template, a table in Word, or just plain old pencil and paper!
Next, where do you think you could save money—either by cutting back or completely cutting out? Could you car pool? What about using Netfix, Hulu, and/or Amazon Prime instead of paying for a cable package? Could you stream Pandora for free instead of paying for YouTube Red, Sirius XM, or Apple Music? You can trim and shift some things around plus combine it with the savings and earnings from the rewards, couponing, and rebates apps.
After trimming your expenses, fill in the rest of your budget sheet trying to get as close to the 50/30/20 ratio as you can. It is okay if you can’t get perfect percentages. You need to eat, and you need a place to live. Your well-being and happiness are most important.
Now that you have your ideal budget, how are you going to stick to it? There are plenty of Apps to help you. I use Mint and WalletHub along with an Excel spreadsheet. I need to see things on paper, but I love the ease of automation as well. Both Mint and WalletHub offer free credit scores as well as insight into which credit card offers would be best for your situation. They let you know when your bills are due next and when the due date is coming up. WalletHub also monitors your savings and gives you tips on how to improve your credit.
You could further automate your savings with the Qapital (Referral | No Referral) app. In the first six months I started using this app, I saved up an additional $1,500 without thinking about it! Qapital automatically saves for you using the rules that you set. You can have it transfer a certain percentage of your pay, transfer a certain amount, round up each purchase, only transfer when you make certain purchases, follow the 52-week savings plan, and many others. You could simply have your bank account make scheduled transfers for you. You could transfer a certain percentage or amount yourself. You could throw loose change into a jar everyday then turn it in at the end of the year. At the end of the month, any leftover discretionary funds you have you could transfer into savings. You could follow the 52-week plan. You could do a combination of a few or all these things!
(For the 52-week savings plan, you begin on Week 1 by saving $1. The next week begins Week 2 by saving $2. For Week 3 you save $3, then Week 4 $4 and Week 5 $5…at the end of 52 weeks (one years’ time) you have saved $1,378!)
It seems excessive, but I use several apps at once to monitor my credit because they report to different bureaus and update at different times. If I notice something wrong, I can dispute the error through the app. I only use the free apps.
Your complete credit report is free once per year at Annual Credit Report.
