I spent years clipping coupons. They’d come to me two ways: in flyers that came in the mail, and in my Sunday paper. I’d stack them all up, sit down with a cup of tea and a pair of scissors, and go through them methodically, snipping my favorites, which I’d then tuck into a coupon organizer that I kept in my purse.
What can I say? It was a great way to save money during college, and then during my early twenties, and then right up until the present when I have a family of my own and three growing boys. It pains me to say it, but recently I had to retire this old practice. Not because I stopped wanting to save money (never!) but because new technology gave me other ways to save. Now, I’ve moved on to scanning my grocery receipts for cash back.
If you’ve never heard of this marvel, don’t worry. It’s a relatively new way to save, one that’s been made possible largely by shopping rewards apps. Basically, how this all works is that after you’re done shopping you just take a quick second to scan your grocery receipt, and in exchange, you get points you can later trade for cash or gift cards! No coupons necessary. I know it’s a new concept, which is why I’d like to spend a bit of time today explaining how you can scan your own grocery receipts for cash back, too!
The 411: How to Scan Grocery Receipts and Get Cash Back
The single most important thing to know about how to scan your grocery receipt for cash back is that you need an app that turns your receipts into cash back. There are a variety of these apps on the market, but the best are shopping rewards apps, which give you cash back or gift cards for the shopping you do anyway. That includes, of course, scanning your grocery receipts. Also, you want an app that gives you many different opportunities to earn points, that you’re able to use at your favorite stores, and that is a blast to use.
Once you have the app that’s right for you, the rest is quite easy. You just open the app, choose the store receipt you want to scan, and point your smartphone at the receipt. Voila!
To Turn Grocery Receipts Into More Cash Back, Make a Routine
Back in my coupon clipping days, I’d generally save anywhere from $.50 to $10 a week. In and of itself, that doesn’t seem like a lot of money. However, I was not just an occasional coupon clipper, I was a regular, and over a year that can add up. Maybe $52 a year isn’t much, but $520? That can make a huge dent in your budget!
These days, I find the key to scanning grocery receipts for the most cash back is consistency. In order to establish a habit, I just made scanning my grocery receipt a part of my regular shopping routine. Now, whenever I finish shopping, I take a moment in my car to use one of the top retail shopping apps for cash back to scan my receipt right then and there. I make sure I do it before I even leave the parking lot. In the beginning, it took a little patience and remembering, but now I hardly even give it a second thought. I just crank up the tunes and scan away!
For the Most Cash Back From Grocery Receipts, Set Goals
Another tactic from my old couponing days that has proven useful with these news apps is setting savings goals. I remember back when I was sitting down with my stack of ads every Sunday, I’d make a little game out of my savings by setting a goal. Usually, I’d put it at $8, but sometimes if I was busy I’d drop it down to $6, or if I was feeling especially ambitious I’d up it to as much as $20!
I’ve always loved a good challenge, and so setting goals like this was an engaging way to make sure I stuck to my coupon cutting routine. These days I’ve made scanning my grocery receipts for cash back a major part of my shopping routine, but I still like to challenge myself. As I’ll show you in the next section, all my favorite rewards apps give you fun points for your purchases, so what I like to do now is set a goal of a certain amount of points and see if each week I can beat it! Feel free, of course, to develop your own system that works for you.
Make the Most of Scanning Grocery Receipts for Cash Back With the Right App
In my opinion, the absolute best shopping rewards app is called Shopkick, and how it works is simple: Shopkick gives you points for your normal everyday shopping activities, including walking into stores, scanning the barcodes on certain items for more information and—of course!—making purchases and scanning your receipts. You can then trade those points for gift cards to your favorite stores. It’s as simple as that!
Shopkick gives you points for your normal everyday shopping activities, including walking into stores, scanning the barcodes on certain items for more information and—of course!—making purchases and scanning your receipts.
It’s quite a bit easier to navigate than the old coupon clipping system was, and I have a ton of fun with Shopkick. I’m always setting points goals for the week, and then beating them, whether I’m doing it by scanning my receipts, by scanning the barcodes of certain items in the store, or by combining the many different ways there are to earn points.
Scanning my grocery receipt for cash back with Shopkick has become just a part of my everyday shopping routine, and I hope that with everything you’ve learned, it becomes part of yours, too. I remember way back when I clipped coupons I’d see other shoppers at the store with their little binders of coupons, too. Now I see them using Shopkick instead and it warms my heart!
Ready to have some fun scanning your grocery receipt for cash back? Download Shopkick for free and join a community of loyal Shopkickers who’ve already discovered how rewarding—and fun—shopping with us can be!
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Image courtesy stokkete
