I’m a little bit obsessed with my Ibotta app. Especially right now when there are a ton of great deals!

If you have no idea what I’m talking about, here’s the Ibotta gist in FAQ form:

What the heck is Ibotta?

Ibotta is an app which basically lets you do “backwards couponing.” What I mean by this: Instead of clipping out coupons before you go to the grocery store, you scan your receipt AFTER your trip and get cash back instead of getting it taken off at the store.

Let’s cut to the chase: How do I get my cash back?

Once your earnings hits $20, you are able to cash it out for an online gift card of choice or you can hook up your PayPal account for your cash to be sent there. I always just choose to get an Amazon gift card for the most versatility and load it right into my Amazon account, but there are tons of other gift card choices.

What kind of items have coupons?

Okay, I have to break this one up into sections. You’ll find:

1. Tons of stuff you would normally buy. For instance, if I go to the Target section on Ibotta to look for current offers, I find plenty of things that are on my normal shopping list: bread, milk, mayonnaise, yogurt, toothpaste, diapers, just to name a few right now. And these aren’t obscure brands, we’re talking Kraft, Yoplait, Crest, Pampers.
2. A lot of newer brands and products that are trying to get a following. Depending on the deal, or if a sale is happening concurrently at the store, I’ll often try the new brands since I can get them cheaper than I normally would. We’ve actually found a lot of great new stuff this way, such as A2 milk, Skyr Icelandic Yogurt (our new fave- yum!) and the Zarbee’s brand of children’s products. (Disclaimer- those are affiliate links. If you happen to view the products and then purchase them, I would get a small commission that does not affect your price. Though I don’t really recommend buying yogurt on Amazon- I just wanted to link to the image!)
3. Tons of organic products. This is where Ibotta really seems to shine. A lot of times I would pass up the higher priced organic or natural products because we all know they’re priced higher. But they’re also the ones that usually have the best rebate, like $1.50 or $2 back. It’s totally worth it to me to try a healthier option if I can get the price point down.
4. Generic items. I love this one, because you’d never find a coupon in the newspaper for bananas, apples, bell peppers, etc. But Ibotta throws these freebie coupons in all the time, called “Any Item” or “Any Brand” offers. I’ve currently got coupons for any generic bread, baby food, blueberries, and literally one for anything. Yes, I can purchase anything and get $.25 back for it. This one actually shows up pretty frequently.

Okay, walk me through this. What exactly do you do?

1. I make a purchase. (I usually try to check Ibotta ahead of time and plan to get certain items, or I happen across items in the store and look them up to see if there are any current offers in the app.)
2. I go home and start putting things away.
3. I use my Ibotta app to “Redeem” any offers that I happened to pick up on that trip. This means I hit the Redeem button, the app instructs me to take a picture of my receipt (so they can verify the purchases) and sometimes instructs me to scan the product’s bar code as well.
4. Ibotta tells me how much I earned and adds it to my account.
5. Later, after I have at least $20 saved up, I cash it out for an Amazon gift card.
6. I buy something fun on Amazon. (Usually a toy for Lincoln or a new cloth diaper. This is how I justify these purchases.)

Any tips on maximizing my cash back?

Yes! Just like with regular couponing, try to buy products when there is an offer in Ibotta AND it’s on sale at the store, too. That way you’re doubling your earnings. At Target this works really well when they’re doing one of those “spend $15 on such and such and get a $5 Target gift card.” For instance, when I was buying baby food pouches to have on hand for the diaper bag, Target would often have a $5 gift card offer with a $15 purchase of Plum products. I would match that up with an Ibotta cash back coupon to maximize my savings. This last month I had an extra bonus opportunity, too, a $5 offer for redeeming just three coupons in early April, so I jumped on that one. I got some organic chicken nuggets, A2 milk, and Pampers easy ups, all of which were already on sale at Target, plus I scored the extra $5. Actually, after I redeemed these things on the app, I ended up qualifying for two other bonuses that I didn’t even know about, so I ended up with another $3 and $2 back at the end of my receipt scan. Insanity. I think I got back like an insane $20 from that one receipt and I barely bought anything. (Disclaimer- not every receipt is going to get you $20, but every once in awhile the stars align for that kind of amazingness.)

Anything else?

Teams! One of those bonuses I mentioned above “magically” worked out for me because my team happened to redeem a certain amount all together during the allotted timeframe. The more people on your team, the easier it is to get those extra bonuses. Team members are easy to add, too, because Ibotta can find your friends on Facebook who have the app and automatically includes them in your team.

I’m convinced. How do I sign up?

1. Download the Ibotta app.
2. Create an account or use Facebook to log in.
3. If you’re feeling it, use my referral code so I can count you on my team and possibly get some extra referral bonuses! My referral code is “ujpfhbv”. Weird, I know.
4. Start saving yo’ money!