Every time I go to the grocery store I am amazed by the increasing rise in food prices. And, don’t even get me started on how much it costs to see a movie in the theater. Inflation plays a huge part in all of our lives. Adverse weather that affects crops can boost the prices of the food we put on the table. Higher movie budgets force theaters to start charging more for admission. Every price is affected by some other outside factor.
Lucky for us, there is a mobile app that is designed to help combat the high prices. It’s called Ibotta. I have been using Ibotta for over a year now and received well over $100 back on the groceries that I normally buy.
Ibotta Stores
Before we go into more detail about what it is and how to use Ibotta, I think it’s important to know what stores accept it. The list is long and I know there is a store for everyone. The list below is current as of January 28, 2014.
- 7-Eleven
- Acme Fresh Market
- AMC Box Office
- Babies R Us
- Best Buy
- Bi-Lo
- Boyer’s
- Buehler’s
- Chili’s
- City Market
- Costco
- Country Mart
- CVS
- Dillon’s
- Dollar General
- Dominick’s
- Duane Reade
- Edwards Box Office
- Family Dollar
- Farm Fresh
- Food Lion
- Food4Less
- Foods Co
- Fred Meyer
- Fry’s
- Gerbes
- Giant Eagle
- H-E-B
- Hannaford
- Harris Tetter
- Home Depot
- Homeland
- Hy-Vee
- Ingles
- Jay C
- King Soopers
- Kroger
- Lowe’s
- Martin’s
- Meijer
- Military Commisary
- Owen’s
- Oathmark
- Pavilions
- Pay Less
- Petco
- PetSmart
- Pick ‘N Save
- Piggly Wiggly Midwest
- Price Chopper
- Publix
- Qdoba
- QFC
- Ralphs
- Randalls
- Reasor’s
- Redner’s Markets
- Regal Box Office
- Remke Markets
- Ridley’s
- Rio Ranch
- Rite Aid
- Ruler Foods
- Safeway
- Sam’s Club
- Scott’s
- Shoppers Foods
- ShopRite
- Smith’s
- Sprouts Farmers Market
- Stop & Shop
- Target
- Tom Thumb
- Toys R Us
- United Artists Box Office
- Vons
- Walgreens
- Walmart
- Wegmans
- Whole Foods
- WinCo Foods
- Winn-Dixie
How to Use Ibotta
To get started using Ibotta you will need to download it to your mobile device through either the Apple App Store or Google Play.
Select a store and choose an offer
After you open the app up on your phone, you will need to select one of the stores that I listed above. Once you have done that, you can select an available offer. Ibotta is currently working with most of the major grocery brands. Some of them include; Glade, Barilla, Healthy Choice, PediaSure and much more.
Choose a product task
Once you have chosen the product that you are looking to purchase, you will be given a list of tasks to complete. The tasks will determine how much money you will receive back. You could receive $0.25 for liking the brand on Facebook, $0.75 for answering a trivia question or $1.00 for watching a short video. Once you have completed a task, it will be added to your account Balance.
Time to go shopping
Now that you have picked out the products that you need to buy and you have completed the offers associated with them, it’s time to go shopping. Head to your selected store and buy all of the items that you need.
Verify your purchases
Your shopping is complete and you are back home. Now it’s time to verify the purchases that you just made. Log back into the app and Ibotta will ask for you to take a picture of the store receipt. They will then verify the purchase within 24 hours. Once it’s verified you will then have access to the money associated with each offer.
A few of the retailers are considered preferred partners. If one of these is your store then all you need to do is link up your stores loyalty card with your Ibotta account.
Get paid
Once you have verified your purchases and you have been paid it’s time to cash out. Your earrings can be paid out using paypal or you can choose a gift card. Some of the gift cards available include iTunes, Redbox, Starbucks and more.
Final thought
I will look for any way possible to save money. I see no reason that you should ever pay full price for a product. Once of the best things about Ibotta is that it can be used along with any manufacturers coupons and store coupons that you might have.
I hope Ibotta is also available in our country. I love going to grocery stores, but to see the price that continues to increase, makes me alert. So I watch carefully what to put in my cart.
Right now I think it’s just the US however I wouldn’t be surprised if it is available in other countries soon.
How much have you been able to save over what period of time so far? About how much time did you invest to save that?
The time invested was very little. If there is an eligible product that I need to pick up all I need to do is complete the small tasks which take me a couple of minutes and then just scan my receipt when I am done shopping.
And how much have you saved over what period of time?
I love iBotta, I just think of it like extra coupons. It’s really one of those things where the time is worth the payoff. It’s super quick to qualify and easy. I’ve probably only made about $10, but it’s still $10 more than without it, with minimal invasion in my life.
Agreed. No clipping coupons needed. All you need to do is complete a few tasks and take some photos.