Deals

I wanted to make a quick post during this crazy shopping season to talk about how to make the most of shopping portals so you can get as much cash back or points as possible! (I will be posting my personal referral links…if you sign up through me, I will get some extra points and you might too…no cost to you!)

I’ll elaborate…

Shopping Portals

What are they? Why do they matter? Is it worth the time?

What are they?

Well, online shopping portals are an easy way to make back cash, points, miles, etc for shopping you are already going to do. Most airlines, hotels, and credit cards have shopping portals. There are also many cashback portals as well like Rakuten (formerly Ebates) and portals for points where you can cash them in for giftcards like Swagbucks. I’ve personally redeemed over $1500 worth of Amazon giftcards or cash through Paypal giftcards from Swagbucks since I started about 9 years ago. It’s one of my favorites.

How do they work?

Well, to use them, you simply go through whichever shopping portal you choose and search for the store you want to shop through. Then, click on that store. The portal tracks your activity and takes you to the store’s website. That’s it. Shop like normal, and you will get whatever type of currency back based on the percentage that the portal is offering in your account. For example, I just made quite a few purchases at Kohls. I went to Swagbucks, typed in Kohls, clicked on the link and was taken to the Kohls normal site. I spent $169. Swagbucks was offering 4% back. A few days later, 677 points were posted to my account. I only need 2200 to get a $25 Amazon giftcard.

Is it worth your time?

Well, considering it adds about 20 seconds to your time and you receive great benefits, then YES!!! It’s free money people! I never buy anything without getting something back whether it is through shopping portals, points on my credit cards, or other cash back apps that I wrote about in this post! Sometimes you can even use a combination of these to double or triple dip! That makes me super happy! I know, I’m a nerd. But, I’m a nerd with more money in my pocket!

How to pick which portal to use?

You want to use portals, but you’re thinking that there are so many! How will you choose? I decided a while ago to just pick one and start earning consistently. And, I chose Swagbucks because it is so easy, and I earn points through other ways as well from them. And, you can use coupons and still get points while some of the sites (like the Chase or Southwest portal) don’t allow for this. But, it is personal preference. The point is to get at least some kind of currency back (airline points, cash, etc) for your shopping! If you want to get the highest percentage back available and you don’t care about using different portals, I have a fun website for you! Some genius knew that one day people would ask this question and created a website called Cashback Monitor. You go here and type in your store and they will list all the available offerings. I used this recently for Wayfair. They did not have any offerings on Swagbucks, so before I made my purchase I decided to check if anyone else had any offers. The only shopping portal that did was the Southwest airlines portal! Since I wasn’t using a coupon, I was good to go! We bought a new light for my dining room. I clicked on the Southwest shopping portal, making sure I was logged into my Southwest rapid rewards account and it took me to the Wayfair site. I made my purchase and a few days later, I had 390 points post to my Southwest account! Sure, its not that many, but I’ll take something over nothing! It only took 3400 points per person to fly to Denver recently so that helped me reach that for one of us! And, when done every time you shop, it adds up quickly!

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What are you waiting for?

So, what are you waiting for? Shopping portals are such an easy way to earn some money back on purchases that you are already going to make. If you have to spend money, then you might as well get a little back, right? Hope this helps and if you have any questions leave me some comments! Have an amazing Christmas!

As a homeschooling mom of 4 and a lifelong cheapskate, I love the chance to make some money as long as it requires little to no extra work added to my busy routine. If I can make a little cash back on some apps in 5 minutes or less of effort, then sign me up! So, I put together a little post about my top 4 cash back apps for grocery and restaurants.

I’ll elaborate.

Here is my list of my current top 4 favorite cash back apps (I’ve tried a bunch). Disclosure:If you use my referral links for each of these, I will get some money back if you sign up through my link. This costs you nothing and on a few of these, you earn some points as well from using a referral link…thanks in advance!

1. Fetch Rewards
2. Dosh
3. Shopkick
4. Ibotta

Fetch Rewards

Fetch Rewards gives you points for scanning your grocery receipts. They have a list you go through when you first sign up of their partner products. Click them all. Then, when you go grocery shopping, you will scan your receipt. If you happened to buy any products on the partner list (like Goldfish, Gatorade, etc) then you earn extra points. If not, you always get a minimum of 25 points. Even if you just run in Dollar General and buy a pack of gum, it’s 25 points.. You can cash out at 5000 points.They have a large selection of $5 giftcards or you can keep scanning until if you want to get larger denominations. This might not sound like much money. But, who cares if it takes forever to get there! If takes me less than 2 minutes to scan my receipts then it’s not like I’m putting in much effort. Between Costco, Wal-Mart, Aldi, Kroger (we go through lots of food), I scan every time and even if I don’t purchase any partner products, I still manage to get about 250 points per month, usually more. In less than 6 months, I’ve received $20 cash back in the form of Amazon giftcards! This is FREE money! Use my referral code, AJ1FF, during signup and you’ll get 2,000 Fetch Points ($2.00 in points!) just for starting. Download it free here or enter AJ1FF.

Dosh

This one is fairly new to me, but I already love it. You link your credit card, and then simply shop. If you use your card at a restaurant or store that is on their list, you automatically get rewarded (usually between 3%-5% cash back) as soon as your credit card transaction is complete. It requires no effort on your part at all—nothing to scan, no code to use! I have earned money back at Pizza Hut, Firehouse Subs, Dunkin Donuts, Smashburger, and buying a pair of shoes online at Journeys! You can search by city and choose to see a list or a map of locations. It truly couldn’t be easier. When you hit $25, you can cash out via Paypal or Venmo. Check out the app and start making some easy money! This helps me justify my current unsweet tea obsession at DD:/

Ibotta

This was the very first grocery cash back app I ever used. I still like it, but it is very much hit or miss and as far as offers go and requires a little bit more work than the others. You can pick the store where you are going, click the offers you are interested in, and then when you purchase them, you will upload your receipt. Most of the time, the offers are for popular brand names. Sometimes, however, they have “any brands”. For example, it will list “any brand of milk” and you can get between .10 and .50. The name brand offers are always worth more. You can cash out via paypal, venmo, or pick a giftcard once you hit $20. I have earned $295 in 2 years and all I did was click some offers and scan my receipts. I recently took a new mom in our church some diapers and I made $3 back because I bought Pampers (they were on sale and I used a coupon so after Ibotta, each pack cost me less than $4.50). All of the main stores are on the app. Here are some current offers for Kroger.

And, here is proof that you can make some money with a little effort and consistency! I will say that Ibotta goes through times where it is awesome and times where it is incredibly lackluster. But, it is still free money and I feel like it’s worth it. If you like to earn free money, sign up here or enter qbjcqlg.

Shopkick

This cash back app is a little different and requires the most effort. But, it is also the easiest and quickest of them all to hit the threshold for cashing out which is why its on my top 4 cash back apps list versus some others. The app uses your location to determine which stores are closest to you. It uses your location and bluetooth to know you are in the store. When you enter a store, you will open up the app. Sometimes you earn “kicks” just from walking in the store. Then, the app will list the products that will earn you kicks. Find one of the products listed for that store and click on the its picture in the app. Scan the product’s barcode in the window that pops up in the app. If it matches, the app will chime and you will earn the kicks. This sounds like a lot of work and if you’re my husband you might find it annoying, but if I’m in Wal-mart shopping in the health and beauty aisle and there are offerings there, then I might as well scan. Kicks per product range from 10-50. Wal-mart almost always as 800+ scans available and you only need 1250 kicks for a $5 giftcard! That’s two trips to Wal-Mart. I just cashed out for $25 Paypal card. If you choose to redeem for Target, you get a barcode that you can scan in the store! It’s truly so easy and free money. Sign up here and we’ll both get 250 kicks or enter FUN696629.

I hope you enjoyed my top 4 cash back apps list and it helps you to start earning some easy passive money back on spending you are already doing!