The days of clipping paper coupons are over for most of us. But, even if we still receive the Sunday newspaper at our homes, who has time for clipping and sorting the few printed coupons that are included anymore? The near disappearance of paper coupons doesn’t mean there are fewer savings opportunities though. Now we have free mobile apps to help save money on our regular buys like groceries, gas, and more.
Free Apps for Sunday Circulars
If flipping through the Sunday Circulars used to be part of your weekend routine, you can bring it back with mobile apps that do the same thing… virtually. Use your smart device to download free apps like Flipp, an aggregator that makes print ads interactive by adding features like virtual “clipping,” localization, digital shopping lists, favorite stores, and more. You can even create a “watch list” and have the app send a notification when it finds a sale or coupon for items on your list. That will save you money and time!
Free Apps for “Cash Back” Offers
After you’ve saved with coupons and time limited offers directly from brands and retailers, you may be able to earn some “cash back” via mobile apps like Fetch Rewards and Ibotta. Fetch asks you to snap a photo of your receipt from any retail expenditure and, in exchange, it will look for opportunities to give you points from their partner brands. You can redeem those points as gift cards primarily. Ibotta requires you to search for cash back opportunities before you shop. Then, you upload the receipts that include those items so Ibotta can tally up your cash back earnings. Ibotta earnings can be redeemed in $20 amounts.
Free Apps for Saving on Gas
When it comes to saving on gas, Fetch and Ibotta can help. But another way to keep tabs on this ongoing expense, is by using a price tracking app like GasBuddy when it’s time to fill up. The one thing to be aware of about price tracking is that it’s solely reliant on constant customer input, and gas prices can change in just a few hours.
Depending on how ambitious you are about saving, it can still be valuable to download apps that are specific to any stores you shop regularly. So, if you’re really in the market for the biggest savings possible, don’t rule out using more than one app to do some price comparison if you have time.
