Groceries or me … who wins the battle?

Sometimes I get so discouraged at the price increases at the store that don’t line up with the non-increases in our take home pay! I have spent the last 31 years working hard to stay within our grocery budget but the battle to stay afloat is a never ending one. Especially with my search for better and healthier foods!

Recently I had a friend share this app with me, and I’m going to share it with you. It’s a little bit of work (and requires a smart phone) BUT I was able to get $17.50 rebated in my very first (and small) shopping trip. It’s called Ibotta. And it works like this.

You download and open the app (it works for most major grocery stores, the list is included) and look for rebates you’d like to ‘unlock’. Sometimes you have to answer a question, sometimes they show you a short video. Once you have unlocked all the rebates for items you plan to purchase on your next trip, simply go to the store. You can open up your shopping list and find all the things you planned to get.

The ‘verify purchase’ part is what I’m still working on streamlining, but basically you scan the bar code of the item you purchased (currently I do this at home as I unpack groceries) and when you are finished, you take a picture of your receipt (I do mine in stages since my receipt is always quite long), and you are done! Within 24 hours the rebate money (once it reaches $20) is sent to your PayPal account!

You can earn extra money (affiliate link info: if you use the links I provided in this post, you get $10 for signing up through me and I get a bonus as well!) I think at this point I’m going to just save this money for some seasonal stock up sales I usually save for.

Is it worth the time?

Yes, it takes a bit of time and organization. I thought it would be easier to unlock my rebates on the computer but it isn’t. It is much faster with the app on the phone (surprisingly). And it is much better if I do it at home rather than in the store (my phone is old and can get pretty slow at times but if I do it at home with my WiFi, I’m fine). But it does take about 10 minutes to search all the rebates I want and answer the questions or watch the videos.

And yes, it does take time to verify the purchases afterward – scanning the bar codes (but this process is SUPER easy to do) and taking the pictures of the receipt. But, of course, if you are better at using a camera than I am, this should only take a couple of minutes altogether (and you might actually be able to do it as you put the item in your cart — I haven’t worked to streamline this process yet).

So, is about 10 minutes a week worth $10-20? Oh yeah BABY! Nothing like 2 hours and $4.00 a week cutting coupons for a final savings of $2.50!

Give Ibotta a try. Let me know if you find this works for you and if it is worth the time.

Here is my new menu plan for the coming week in my Menu Planning Monday. Please feel free to download my FREE, fully editable, Month at a Glance menu planner, my Weekly Menu Planner and my Snacks planner.

What’s YOUR menu for the week?

All Scripture quotations are taken from the NASB.
Unless otherwise indicated, photos from pixaby.com