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It’s that time of year again. The time of year where you set New Year’s Resolutions to help make changes in your life. If you’re reading this post, you must want to become more financially stable in the upcoming year. Have no fear, we have plenty of helpful money saving tips to help kick start your resolution and get you on the right track. If you haven’t already, I recommend checking out my post about budgeting. A proper budget is a HUGE part of figuring out what parts of your life you can trim some costs.
Since I’ve already pretty much cut my spending down to the basics using my budgeting sheet, I’m now focusing on how to save even more money on the things I have left. This includes grocery shopping, gas, fun, shopping for christmas or birthday presents, etc. You can usually still save money even after you think you have trimmed all the fat. You just have to get creative! I want to give a HUGE SHOUT OUT to my amazing boyfriend for helping me compile this list and for telling you about the apps he’s been using that I haven’t gotten to yet! Here are our recommendations for money saving tips and resources to help with your New Year’s Resolution.
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Contents
- 1 Apps to Help Save Money While Shopping
- 2 Plugins to Help Save Money While Shopping
- 3 Apps That Save You Money Without Effort
- 4 Apps to Help You Invest Your Money
Apps to Help Save Money While Shopping
1. ìbotta
This is my favorite app to take to the grocery store. Have you ever noticed that some groceries rarely ever go on sale like milk, eggs, bread etc? This app gives you money back for buying those essential items. You answer a quick question or watch a 30 second video to “unlock” the money, scan the barcode on the item, and take a picture of the receipt. I love that it divides it into different retailers near you AND categories of items to make it easy.
There are even some restaurants and breweries on the app. For instance, there is a Rock Bottom Brewery near us that gives you $10 off when you spend $20 at Rock Bottom Brewery. That’s around 50% off your tab if you can spend just over $20! If you sign up using my link, you’ll get $10 automatically put into your account after you redeem your first rebate.
2. Target Cartwheel
Target is one of my favorite places to shop. It has everything I need from groceries, to pet supplies, to pharmacy needs, and so much more. I used to shop elsewhere because it was a bit pricier than other stores, but that all changed when I found the Cartwheel app. It’s really easy to use and helps you to stack savings on top of each other! All you have to do is scan the items in your cart before (or while) you check out using the Target Cartwheel app then have the cashier scan your phone to get the discounts. The app will tell you about any secret sales going on in the store that are only available to Cartwheel members.
This app was already awesome, but recently they added something even cooler! You get rewarded every time you use the app. If you score some discounts using the app, it adds points to your cartwheel and once you hit 5000 points, you get to choose a perk. If you don’t use your app when checking out, you can still scan your receipt to score the points.
Some examples of what your 5000 point perk could be are: a Free bag of candy, a free toy up to $15, a free bag/k cup pack of coffee, free laundry detergent up to $15, free bacon and eggs, free 12 pack of soda, free cookware or bakeware up to $20. These perks are always cycling so they may or may not be available when you go to redeem your perk, but it gives you a little bit of an idea as to what is offered. This will definitely help you save money while shopping.
Red Card Savings
If you want even more savings, get the Target RedCard. I went with the debit option so it links to my bank account just like my regular debit cards. The difference is that I get 5% off my purchase after all of my other discounts when I use my RedCard. This even includes the food bar! SCORE!
3. RetailMeNot
This is another awesome app to help you save money while shopping. Before you check out, open up the app and search the name of the store you’re in. You can use this in store or online. Some stores only offer online codes, but there have been many times that I got the item I went to the store to get for over half off or even for FREE just by checking the app first. Every penny counts when you’re trying to save money!
If you’re shopping online, I always hop on my app and type in the name of the company I’m buying something from before I hit purchase. This app can save you so much money in the long run!
4. Walmart Savings Catcher
This is another app I love to use. When I’m not shopping at Target, you can usually find me at Walmart. A lot of people laugh when I say I do almost all of my home and grocery shopping at Walmart instead of a traditional grocery store, but I get the last laugh. Walmart price matches any stores in the area that have a lower price than theirs IF you scan your receipt into the Walmart Savings Catcher app within 7 days of your purchase. I’ve saved HUNDREDS of dollars in the past year and a half since I found this app, with little to no effort on my part. However, if you only buy Walmart brand items, it won’t help you out much as they can’t price match it with other stores.
Plugins to Help Save Money While Shopping
1. Honey
My boyfriend actually found this one, and I’m sure glad that he did. Honey is a plugin that you install on the browser you do most of your shopping on. When you get to the checkout screen, a notification will pop up saying that Honey has found some codes to try. It will then automatically try all of the codes it found for that site and let you know if any of them save you money. How cool is that? It takes all of the searching for discounts out of shopping.
2. Swagbucks
This is a great plugin whether you’re shopping or just browsing the internet. Add it to your favorite browser and it will reward you for using it as a search engine (randomly). When you go on a site that they offer cash back on, a banner appears at the top of the screen. Make sure you hit the activate button before purchasing something. Swagbucks will then keep track of your purchase. After your purchase is validated, your Swagbucks account will be credited with the % of your purchase they promised.
Apps That Save You Money Without Effort
1. Acorns
Tyler loves to use this app because it automatically rounds up your purchases to the nearest dollar when you use your credit card. It then takes that money and invests it into stocks. You’re able to choose what level of risk you want to enter into the market at and Acorns does the rest! This one doest cost $1 a month BUT we have found that we make way more than $1 a month off of it. If you sign up by clicking here, you will get $5 in your account to start off.
2. Digit
We LOVE Digit! Tyler and I can both agree that we are our own worst enemy when it comes to saving money. Digit helps us fight ourselves. It analyzes your bank account, finding leftover money or money spent on unnecessary things. It then sneaks money out of your account. The goal is to take just enough to make money a bit tighter without you really realizing it. It has helped me save hundreds of dollars to help pay for Christmas presents in the last few months. I was actually surprised how much money Digit had saved without me even realizing it.
3. MINT
This is another app that Tyler RAVES about so I’ll let him take it away on this description! It links up with every bank account, credit card, and student loan that I have putting them all in one place. It also shows you your credit score for free and monitors your activity to give you actual meaningful tips. For example, it noticed I spend under $100 a month on gas. It recommended I switch to a specific car insurance plan for people who don’t drive very often saving me, a few hundred dollars a year. MINT also noticed I had an old 401k account with a previous employer that I hadn’t contributed to in years. It asked if I wanted help rolling it over into a rollover IRA account.
As you can see, it offers pretty cool and insightful tips! Oh, and it’s also FREE! This is the best app I’ve used for managing my money and I wish I had found it years ago!
Apps to Help You Invest Your Money
1. Wealthfront
My boyfriend uses this to invest his money and likes that he doesn’t have to constantly monitor his investments. I’ll let him tell you a little bit about this app. It starts out by asking some details about yourself and your financial situation, how much you would like to add each month/year and what your investment goals are. It constantly evaluates your portfolio and changes it periodically to maximize account growth for free. Did I mention it was all FREE? This is a great investment option for a beginner to the investment world. You can access Wealthfront through their app or by visiting their website, whatever your preference is.
2. Motif
Motif is a pretty cool app. It’s one that my boyfriend uses to diversify his portfolio and invest. The great thing about this app is that it already has predesigned clusters of stocks for you to invest in that have a specific theme, investing style, or multi-asset model. I’m a numbers gal so I love the detailed reports they give you. It helps me understand how the market is affecting my portfolio and gives you tips about smart trading. Lastly, it helps you track your progress towards your investment goals, which is always nice to see.
We’ve been working to save money for a long time, and these are our favorite money saving tips. We’re finding new and useful apps, plugins, and websites all the time to help us meet our savings goals. What are your favorite money saving tips? Don’t forget to save this pin for later so you can find it!
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