(Happy Throwback Thursday! Given that the no- or low-spend February challenge has begun, I decided to put this piece – originally published on June 11, 2021 – on the front page. Rewards programs have been a huge help to me: for gifts, for household items and for donations to those in need. They’ll be helping me keep my spending low this February. I hope they’ll help you, too.)
Recently DF tore down the old woodshed next to the house. He’d long planned to replace it and in fact had the roofing materials all picked out: metal, so that in the spring and summer we could fall asleep listening to the sound of the rain hitting the roof.
This was the year, and it took him just part of a day to disassemble the thing. It would have been much faster to hit it with a pickax and crowbar, but he couldn’t rip and roar because the “new” shed would use parts of the old one.
More of it than he thought turned out to be usable, so all we had to buy was a couple of treated 2x6s, some special screws and, of course, that metal roofing.
I covered those purchases by cashing in at least $135 worth (lost count at some point) of Lowe’s gift cards from several different rewards programs. So many rewards, in fact, that we were able to buy some more potting soil as well.
Rewards programs for the win! Cheapest rehab ever.
I know I talk about rewards programs a lot, but that’s because they work. They earn us free household items, food, gifts and garden supplies. Which is why I think everyone should at least take a look at these programs.
Which rewards programs?
So glad you asked. Here are the ones that work for me.
Shopkick. This app is really fun. You scan UPCs of certain products at supermarkets, drugstores, warehouse clubs, makeup shops, Hallmark stores and other retailers. Here’s the beauty part: You don’t have to buy them; you just take their pictures, although you get additional points (sometimes lots of them) if you do buy items on the list. In addition, “Bonus Kicks” videos pop up on the regular; most last between six and 30 seconds, and each delivers one point to your total. I have earned as many as 200 points in a day with these videos, especially when they autoplay one after the other. (If you use the above link to download the app, I hope you’ll consider adding my referral code: WIN358965.)
Swagbucks: You get points for Internet searches, watching short videos, completing offers (including, maybe, buying stuff you were going to buy anyway), playing games and being part of “team challenges.”
MyPoints: Click on the e-mails, take a survey, do a little shopping or even pledge to help various causes (such as making a donation to the Red Cross). As a woman of a certain age, I’ve found the MyPoints surveys are easier to qualify for than with some of the other rewards programs.
Inbox Dollars. This program is quite similar to Swagbucks and MyPoints (in fact, it’s owned by the same company). With all three programs you can use the “Magic Receipts” function, which lets you scan register receipts for extra points.
Mr. Rebates. This is my favorite cash-back shopping site, because it starts you off with a $5 gift and lets you request a check (or PayPal) once you get to $10. After that, you can ask for a check every month if you like.
Fetch Rewards. This one’s simple: You scan receipts to earn points, which you cash in for gift cards. Any receipt; I’ve scanned movie tickets, restaurant checks, gas station receipts, even a utility bill paid via credit card. Fetch offers extra points for certain brands, and sometimes special “100 percent points back” on promo items. I like this one a lot, even though its gift cards cost more points than the ones from Shopkick. (If you join and want to use my referral code, it’s E6CK1.)
Ibotta. Another scan-the-receipt app, which gives you rebates for buying specific items. Sometimes that’s only a dime but it’s usually more; sometimes it’s the full purchase price. (I’ve gotten a lot of frou-frou beverages this way, and put them into birthday gift bags and Christmas stockings.) Pro tip: Add in coupons and/or any store special deals and you’ll earn money with Ibotta. Click on the link to download the app and, if you’re so inclined, use my referral code, gtotprb, when prompted.
Extrabux. This is my second-favorite cash-back shopping site. Very easy to use.
Receipt Hog. This is a recent addition to my frugal arsenal. Another scan-the-receipt app, with a chance to redeem points for PayPal, Amazon or Visa gift cards. My referral code is tril5950, if you should decide to join.
You can get PayPal as an option with some of these programs, if you’d rather have the cash. Myself, I go with gift cards: for things we need, for gifts for family and friends, and sometimes just for fun. For example, when I visit my daughter this fall I plan to cash in for a Cracker Barrel gift card so we can go out to eat. Inflation has been spooking me lately, so I’ve started cashing in for supermarket gift cards.
Rewards programs rock
Your mileage may vary. Those who live in areas with lots of shopping options are going to do better than those of us with fewer retail outlets.
But the programs are portable. No matter where I go, my rewards programs go with me. When I visit my daughter, or other relatives and friends, or attend conferences, I’ll be on the lookout for shopping opportunities. Every receipt can be scanned for at least one reward program, so even if I mostly hang out in downtown Austin, Texas, during the Financial Blogger Conference* this fall, I can still earn points by having a meal or buying a souvenir.
Little drops of water, true. But as is the case with other frugal hacks, small amounts eventually add up to true savings.
I’ll admit to a few pangs as I watched my point totals drop. Yikes – I went from 41,000-plus to under 11,000 on Shopkick! Oh, man, I’ve used up two-thirds of the MyPoints and Swagbucks points! It was a little disheartening, until I reminded myself that this is why I go after those points: So I can save money as needed.
The shed makings (and the potting soil) were definitely needed. DF was happy to have saved all that dough. I was happy to have made things happen.
Both of us will be happy once we get a for-real storm to test-drive the metal roof. We look forward to hearing the music of the rain.
And I’m already back up past 15,300 points on Shopkick. Can’t keep a true frugalist down.
Readers: Do you belong to any rewards programs? How do you use the points: for yourself, for the household or for others?
*Anyone who lives near Austin want to have a meet-up? Let’s talk.
Thank you for (many years ago) turning me on to swag bucks. During the height of the pandemic, I used the site a lot and used the gift cards for drive up groceries at Target. Saved me money as well as saved me from going into the store. I hope you are still getting the 10% from swag bucks for what I earn. Thank you again and again.
Thank you, for being such a consistent reader and commenter.
Just cashed in $40.01 yesterday from points earned at Survey Junkie. This time paid out via PayPal and forwarded to my checking account. Previous cash-outs (grand total of $50) went to “giftcards” for Amazon. I love free shopping!
Who doesn’t???
Love them all! I am cashing out $100 in Ibotta in the next week or so. Was able to get all the snacks for my grand kids to take to summer camp and I would have bought them anyway. Also, soon to cash out for $75 in Shopkicks. I usually cash out my My Points, Inbox and Swagbucks right before Christmas.
So much fun! Thanks for all your advice over the years. I have really learned
Good deal on the summer camp snacks! As you said, that’s money you would have spent anyway — but didn’t have to spend.
I tend to save my points for birthdays and holidays, which is likely part of the reason for my dismay. But I’ve got another five months to build ’em back up.
My great-niece likes going Shopkicking with me. Sometimes her mom comes along and the three of us wander through the store, chatting and snapping. Right now I’m waiting for Hallmark to show up on Shopkick, in time for Father’s Day: I’ll take my great-niece and nephew along to get free Father’s Day cards, because Hallmark sent me a $5 coupon, a $2 coupon, my monthly “Just Because” card coupon and a “free card when you buy two” coupon. Pretty sure that those Father’s Day cards will be free — and then I’ll scan the receipts for Fetch Rewards and “Magic Receipts” at either Inbox Dollars or Swagbucks. #GreatCycleOfPoints
don’t have a smartphone, so can’t do Ibotta. Daughter loves that one! I do Swagbucks and Hilton points. Used to do E-rewards and got canned, then they put me back in and it irritated me all I had to go through, so I quit. Same company runs both that and hilton honors. Now it seems like since I quit ER, I get twice as many surveys for Hilton. I have been doing recyclebank and had been getting free magazines for that, but now there aren’t any that I am interested in. It is so time consuming with all the surveys I do, that it gets tiresome after awhile.
Did you hear about the shooting in Austin. Not sure whether it was today or yesterday, but someone went and shot 13 people. It just keeps getting worse everywhere!
I’ve tried a couple but don’t have the time to do all the Swagbucks videos and rarely qualify for the higher point surveys. I don’t want to go through the store to take a bunch of pictures – I need to get in and out. And I don’t buy enough namebrand stuff to qualify for most Ibotta, so I quit doing them. OTOH, we do buy some of the marked down stuff (lots of lunch salads that way and meat that immediately goes into the freezer) and shop Aldi, which is often half the cost of name brands for quality stuff.
I only use Ibotta and only once in a while. I’ve been getting a lot of mileage by shopping in the mark down meat bins and purchasing store brands and weekly specials. I have cashed in my Ibotta points for gift cards several times.
I use my Amazon credit card to get points which I cash in frequently for purchases. I also use several credit cards and frequently cash in points on those cards. I especially like airline credit cards since I’ll start traveling again very soon and love the “free” checked bags on each trip.
If you use Ibotta, I’d urge you to try Fetch Rewards as well. It’s just using the app in the phone to photograph the receipt from supermarket, big-box store, gas station, restaurant or even convenience store. Takes a couple of seconds and the rewards can be very decent indeed. On the way home from my friend Linda B’s house this evening I picked up a couple of things, including a specific brand of ice cream (Breyer’s). Here’s the result:
— It was $5.49, and the store kicked in a 50-cent discount, and I’d also downloaded a store coupon to my loyalty card for an extra dollar off.
— Coupons.com (another app I should have mentioned!) gave me a 50-cent rebate.
— Fetch Rewards gave me an extra 50 points because it was a partner brand (Unilever).
— Fetch also gave me 25 points for taking a picture of any receipt.
— And Fetch gave me 5,000 points because the Breyers brand put me over the limit for a special promotion (buy $15 worth of any Unilever product between May 21 and June 19).
So once the coupons/rebate were figured in, I paid $3.49 for the ice cream and Fetch gave me a little over $5 worth of points. I’ll probably cash in for a birthday gift for my great-niece later this summer. Or I might buy more garden stuff.
Thanks for being a reader and commenter since the MSN Money days.
We use the rewards from our credit card(s) for holiday presents (usually gift cards) or to defray big ticket items. We bought two room air conditioners for the kids’ rooms with (mostly?) rewards GCs a few years ago and I replaced my stand mixer using GCs. The kids love getting restaurant or grocery store GCs as extra gifts now that they’re older.
I cash in rewards credit card points for gifts, too. As your adult kids are learning, every extra dollar helps — and sometimes tht “help” is in letting you treat yourself now and then.
I switched from Ibotta to Fetch and it works great for me. I recently cashed in for some Amazon gift cards and bought books. Sometimes I choose more practical options but every now and then you just need to feed your soul.😉
Indeed you do.
I use Fetch and Ibotta. I have triedSwagbucks, , but have always found it frustrating. It seems like they fail to award me half the points I earn-taking screen shots and appealing is just too much trouble. Their surveys are also long. I have the Pulse, Perksy, Survey Monkey, IQ and Google Opinion poll apps on my phone. The surveys are short-some send $$ directly to PayPal, while the others allow you to earn gift cards.
I should mention that the MyPoints surveys are pretty good. I just skip the ones that look too long.
Those survey phone apps probably come in handy when you’re waiting at an airport or something.
I do Swagbucks and a couple of others. I just paid for a replacement Toaster with Swagbucks. I usually just buy myself workout clothes or beauty supplies with the points because it’s a great way to get myself a treat without spending my own money.
It does stretch the budget, yes indeed it does.
This morning after giving great-nephew a ride to work I stopped to do a little quick ‘kicking. A woman saw me with my phone poised to snap and said, “Are you Shopkicking, too?” We chatted, she showed me where an item I thought was out of stock was, and I let her know that when something really is out at Target, you can photograph the shelf tag with its UPC. Thus far that’s the only store that’s let me do that. #TheMoreYouKnow
And I’m back up past 17,000 points, so it’s been going well.
I love the Fetch rewards program. First thing I cashed out for was a Starbucks gc, then more recently I cashed out for a $5 Starbucks gf and then a $50 Visa gc.
Also adding up points on our credit card for Christmas.
Ibotta and Fetch are my favorites. I still do Swagbucks, but most of my points earned there are from either online shopping or playing the SWAG IQ game every night, which I really enjoy.
I still technically do My Pointe, but all I do is click on the emails so it’s very slow to accrue.
I stopped doing Inbox Dollars because it took so long to get enough points to cash in.
Finally, I stopped using other online shopping portal rebate sites because I wanted to concentrate my efforts on one site and let my points accrue. So, that’s either Ibotta or Swagbucks.
One of my favorite things with but Ibotta is paying with a gift card. I love that you can do it for the exact amount of purchase at the register and it tells only seconds. I’ve earned almost $1100 with Ibotta in 4.5 years without much extra effort, so it’s been great!
That’s a lot of dough!
If you don’t do Shopkick, I think you’re missing out on a lot of points. Although I know you shop at the PX, a lot of other retailers are listed.
Recently found a Shopkick/Ibotta combo: earning 13 cents to eat a particular brand of candy. Am stockpiling them to put in birthday bags and Christmas stockings. This evening I noticed that Ibotta is also offering 10 cents for any kind of candy, so the next purchase will pay me 23 cents. As long as this is offered, I’ll keep redeeming it because why not?
And a couple of weeks ago, Fred Meyer (Kroger) sent me a coupon for a free pint of Brave Robot dairy-free ice cream. Fetch Rewards had a special offer for $2 back on any BR ice cream. Yep, we’re getting paid two bucks to eat ice cream.
I have $100 sitting in my Ibotta account, saving for vacation! I also use Fetch, Rakutan and Shopkick! I’ll take my savings/freebies in any form! 🙂
I cashed in $50 from Ibotta to give a holiday gift and am building it back up. Currently have a little over $366 worth of Shopkick scrip; I plan to hold on to it for spring and summer, when we may need to buy gardening and home-improvement items from Lowes.
I also discovered, to my delight, that both those have Cinemark gift cards as an option. Since the Metropolitan Opera HD broadcasts cost $25, I will be grateful to have a free source of movies.