LET’S MAKE SOME MONEY!!!

I have been teaching couponing classes for over TEN years now, but lately my most frequently asked questions don’t have anything to do with coupons! Everyone wants to know what money saving apps are the best.

I figured it was high time we took a deep dive into other ways you can save money using apps or services that are just waiting for you to join in the fun…

First, I want to talk about a few apps or websites that you can use that actually MAKE you money!! ANNNNNDDD… these are tools you can use that take little to NO extra time to do it!! WIN WIN!!!

I would not recommend anything to you that I have not tried myself, so these are apps that are my personal favorites… I’m sure there are tons more we could add to this list so feel free to share your favorites with me and I can check them out.

In the meantime… here are my 6 FAVORITE MONEY MAKING APPS!!

FIRST THINGS FIRST….

If you are going to do ANY sort of shopping online, you need to go through Rakuten (used to be Ebates). Just by clicking on their site FIRST, you will earn extra cash back on your online purchases. That’s FREE money for something you are doing anyway!

I installed the browser thingy (I don’t know what it’s called), but anytime I’m on a site that offers deals I get a neat little pop up that allows me to choose if I want to earn a few extra bucks…. Uhhhhh… HECK YEAH! Every. Single. Time.

So before we go ANY further… make sure you sign up for that FIRST!!

Click on THIS LINK … or the picture… and you will get $10 in your Rakuten account!! Every few months, you will receive a “Big Fat Check” sent via PayPal with all your cash back money. Do yourself a favor and don’t count on that money. That way, when you get a little bonus in your PayPal account it will be like getting a birthday present in your bank account! So fun!!

What did I tell you… FREE MONEY!!

SET IT AND FORGET IT!

This app is by FAR my new favorite for making money!! It will take you about 5 minutes to set up your Acorns account and you are all set to make HUNDREDS of dollars!!

You will link up your checking account(s), credit and debit cards and for EVERY purchase you make, Acorns will round up your change to the next dollar and then invest your change!
I have never really played with the stock market so to me this is a pretty safe way to get my foot in the door.

Think about it… you spend $15.35 at Target… Acorns will take that .65 and add it to your portfolio. They will take out your “Round-up Investment” every day or so depending on your spending habits. You can see by my snapshot, it literally is the leftover change that you are investing! ANNNND… you don’t even have to think about it after you set it up!

In the event that your have what we in the Morris house call a “grit-your-teeth-tight-month”, where you literally need every penny in your checking account, you can pause your investing. The app even has a fail-safe built in. If Acornssees that your account is low on funds, they will automatically pause investing to help you avoid overdrafts! That’s pretty cool (and super considerate)!!

I’ve had this service for over a year now and have MADE over $500 just by squirreling away extra change!! The hard part is leaving that money there to keep growing (haha).

If you sign up through THIS LINK, you will earn a FREE $5 to get started!

SHOP WITH CONFIDENCE!

I told you this was going to be easy! The next app I have to share is called Earny! This is another one that you just have to set up and let it do its thing.

How many times have you bought something only to find it on sale a week or so later?? That super duper sucks! This app will protect your purchases for just such a situation! It’s basically like price insurance. That’s the way I look at it.

The trick with this is to make sure you get an email copy of your receipts. You can register your email account, your Amazon account, and credit card so purchases made can easily be tracked for future refunds.

This one DOES require a subscription for the full coverage of your purchases, so I would suggest you sign up for the free 30-day trial (then set up a reminder to opt out) and see if it ends up being worth it to you to sign up for the full service. If you are a big online shopper or traveler, then this might be the app for you. The monthly fee is around $8, so you have to make sure you will earn back at least that much to make it worth your while.

Pro Tip: Sign up to be notified through the app when you have refunds!! Otherwise, you might forget all about this and be crazy surprised when you finally peek and see the money you missed. Those refund amounts don’t last forever apparently. Just sayin’…

Other than those notifications, once you set this up, you literally don’t need to do anything else to make money back with this app!!

THESE NEXT THREE APPS WILL TAKE A LITTLE BIT OF WORK BUT WILL BE WELL WORTH THE EFFORT!!

ONE EXTRA STEP FOR EXTRA SAVINGS!

Now, 90% of you probably already use this app and know the value of it! For those 10%-ers… listen up!! YOU NEED THE IBOTTA APP!!

Out of all the rebate apps out there, this one is by far the easiest to use and morph into your weekly grocery planning. Think of this as extra digital coupons!!

First, make sure you are signed up for the app. That should take all of 5 minutes.

Next, sit down to prepare your weekly shopping trip. If you remember from your couponing class, after you browse your ads, you will pull up the Coupon Database! As you have been using this tool to clip your coupons from your Sunday newspapers, you will likely have also noticed similar coupons with “Ibotta” in the source column. YES! These extra rebate coupons are ALREADY loaded in the database for you (you’re welcome)!!

All you have to do while preparing your list is click on the Ibotta link and add the offers to your account! I do this WHILE I’m preparing my list so I don’t add more things than I know I am buying that week, and because quite frankly, I’m lazy (haha).

After you finish your shopping, your EXTRA STEP is to then pull up the Ibotta app and snap a picture of your receipt to redeem your offers!! That’s it!!

This app is constantly updating and changing with the times. There are even some stores now that will allow you to use your rebate money to make purchases AT the store!! That’s crazy awesome!! The less money that leaves your checking account the better, am I right!?! OR…if you prefer… when your account reaches at least $20 in cash, you can have that money transferred back to you via PayPal, Venmo, or a gift card of your choice. SWEEEEET!!!

Happy SHOPPING (and SAVING)!!

REWARDED FOR SHOPPING? YES, PLEASE!

Shopkick is such a fun app, but it will take a few extra minutes while you are at the store. All you have to do is whip out your cell phone while you are walking the isles and snap pictures of products! It kind of makes shopping a GAME!

This is also a fun app to play with if you have some free time while watching movies, or waiting around for your kids… keep reading… you’ll see why…

You can earn “kicks” six different ways:

1 – Earn points just for walking into the store! Heading to Target? Walk in and you get 25 “kicks”. You know you are going anyway :), why not rack up points while you are at it.

2 – Scan barcodes! The app will give you select products to find in the store. You just need to scan them and you will earn “kicks”. That’s it! No purchase necessary. So, if you are a little early for football pick up and there is a CVS across the street, but you don’t really want to spend money that day, you can kill some time by wandering the store snapping barcodes and earning points towards your next Amazon gift card. I’m just saying…. that’s a possible way to use this app :).

3 – Purchase select items and snap a pic of the receipt. If you decide to purchase items that are suggested in the app, just prove the purchase with a pic of your receipt and bam! You earn MORE points!

4 – Link up your debit card! Even if you don’t purchase select products, you can earn points just by shopping your favorite stores with a linked card! I mean… this is just getting crazy!! Seriously, if you ONLY do this, you will accidentally be earning money through this app when you shop.

5 – You can also earn by going to your favorite stores online through their links, but honestly, I personally earn more cash through Rakuten than this option, and there are so many more ways to save that I have not used this piece through this app. But hey… it’s an option.

6 – Simply watch some videos. These apps are marketing tools for manufacturers! Take them up on their rewards by basically watching commercials. I think I spend way too much time in kid pick up lines because this is one of the things I do to pass the time. I’m stuck anyway, so watching a few 30 second videos and earning extra “kicks” fills that time nicely. OR.. if your kids force you to watch another episode of Paw Patrol against your will, use this tool as a welcomed distraction. (Did I mention I’m a terrible mother?)

When you have earned enough “Kicks”, you can redeem them for gift cards to many popular stores!! Quick example, 2500 kicks = $25 Target gift card, where you can then go back to Target, and earn more “kicks” to earn more gift cards and WEEEEEEEE… the cycle goes on and on!! Doesn’t this sound fun!?! Well it is!!

Pro Tip: If you have to bring your kiddos along with you while shopping, let them to the searching and scanning for products! It will keep them busy and occupied and you get to keep your sanity.

SHOPPING + VIDEOS + SURVEYS = $$$!

Swagbucks is kind of a combo app of some of the ones we have already discussed.

It’s like Rakuten in that you can earn Swagbucks by doing your regular online shopping but by going through their site. It is also super easy to add the SwagButton to your desktop to make it SUPER obvious when you are on a site that has special offers!

I have both Rakuten and SwagButton on my browser and there are loads of times they both pop up with offers so I can choose the better one, or it might just be one or the other. It pays to have both.

Go get that all set up… like right now… it will only take a minute… I’ll wait right here….

Swagbucks is also kind of like Shopkick in that you can earn Swagbucks by watching marketing videos in your spare time.

Swagbucks goes one step further though because you can also earn bucks by doing surveys. These aren’t those jankey surveys that take you down a rabbit hole of spam, but actual surveys from actual companies who actually want to know your opinion and not just hoodwink you into signing up for things you don’t need.

Swagbucks is like Acorns in the fact that you can earn bucks by simply linking your debit and credit cards and getting rewarded for purchases without having to do anything else!!
You can choose to funnel all your goodies through this one app, or spread the wealth and see how many ways you can double dip on your purchases and your time. Then you will get paid to shop over and over and over again!!

Now… are you ready for one more HUGE tip for really amping up your earnings on these apps??

Install each of these apps on EVERY shopper’s phone in your household, but log in with the SAME account information!! 

This way, when ANY of you are out shopping you are ALL also earning toward your next rewards!! I’ll let you decide how to divvy up the earnings, but I have found that the work is much easier when there are lots of helping hands.

Let me know if there are any more apps that are YOUR favorites and I will check them out!!

Coming up next: Money SAVING apps! We will talk more about actual coupon apps, grocery planning apps, and maybe some fast food/restaurant apps that also offer great deals!!

FULL DISCLOSURE: Yes, all these apps and services that I have mentioned in this newsletter are ones that I use and love. I am sharing my absolute honest opinion about these apps (pros and cons). These companies do NOT sponsor my content in any way (although I might not turn them down if any of them knew I even existed – haha). However, some of these companies do offer referral bonuses, so the links in this email may earn you some sign up bonuses by clicking the links, and I might also get a small bonus as well. Just a win, win. I would still tell you about them even if I didn’t get anything in return. 🙂