11 Best Cash Back Apps for Grocery Shopping in 2024
For a lot of people, it’s difficult to save money because they don’t have enough. But using cash back apps to cut down your expenses is definitely the easiest and coolest way to have extra money to save. Because guess what? We all buy groceries – and so with these best cash-back apps, you can save enough money.
From the consumer price index, you could see that food cost has increased by 10.8 percent over the last 12 months. It’s the reason why households in the lowest income quintile have no choice but to spend $4,099 on food alone.
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So, grocery budgeting is now tighter than ever – but surprisingly, you could spend less if you use a cashback app.
A Reddit post I came across inspired me, even more, to write this article because I noticed that users of these apps were saving some cool money.
These are some of the replies to a question someone asked about whether cash back apps are worth it.
If you read the comments, you could see the Ibotta and Rakuten cash back apps being mentioned. I’ll show you how to use both apps – as well as other great apps available. So without further ado, let us get down to business.
Best Cash Back Apps For Grocery Shopping
These are cool cash-back apps you can use for free in order to save money on groceries. Everything you need to know about these apps has been mentioned below.
1. Ibotta
You get over 2,000 stores to shop from on the Ibotta app. Some of these stores are Aldi, Food Lion, GetGo, Food City, Family Fare Supermarket, Coborn’s, Acme Fresh Market, Allen’s Grocery, and Albertsons.
Ibotta App Ratings
The Ibotta app has a 4.2 out of 5 stars rating on Trustpilot – including 1,229 reviews. Also, on Google Play, Ibotta has a 4.5/5 rating with 607,000 reviews.
The last is on the App Store, where Ibotta has a 4.8 out of 5 stars rating with over 1.5 million reviews. This makes Ibotta one of the best cash-back apps for grocery shopping.
How Ibotta Works
After you’ve downloaded the free Ibotta app – you can shop “in-store” or “online” to get cashback rewards.
This is how the in-store works: you first have to open your Ibotta app and select a store you want to shop at (you’d be able to see cashback available at each store before adding it to your list).
So for example, if you added Aldi, visit an Aldi store, make your purchases, and submit the receipt to Ibotta via your phone. Cashback would be paid to you within 48 hours.
In the same way, you can shop at partner stores directly “online” through the Ibotta app on your phone.
Cashback would be paid to you as well. Ibotta even has a Chrome extension, which you can install on your browser to notify you of available offers when you shop on any website.
The minimum payout is $20 on Ibotta – which you can withdraw via PayPal. You can also use your money for Target, Sephora, Walmart, Amazon, or Starbucks gift cards.
Read this Ibotta complete review to understand the app very well – in case.
2. ShopKick
There are so many retailers that have partnered with ShopKick where you can shop to get cash back rewards.
Some of these retailers are Nestle, Carter’s and OshKosh, Crate & Barrel, BevMo, JCPenney, Target, Disney Stores, and TJMaxx. ShopKick has been around since 2009 – it’s based in Redwood City, California.
ShopKick App Ratings
ShopKick has been rated on Trustpilot, App Store, and Google Play Store. It has a 3.1/5 rating on Trustpilot with 824 reviews, a 4/5 rating with 232,000+ reviews on Google Play, and a 4.6/5 rating with 73,700 reviews on Apple Store.
How ShopKick Works
After downloading the ShopKick app, sign up, and link your debit or credit card to it. Then you can browse the available retailers on the app to shop for cash back rewards! Rewards received on ShopKick are called “Kicks”. These kicks can be converted to real cash after some time.
When you accumulate a minimum of 2,500 kicks, you can use that for $10 gift cards to brands like Barnes and Noble, American Eagle, Best Buy, Sephora, and Amazon. Withdrawing your kicks as PayPal cash is also an option.
In all, ShopKick is a very good cash back app for grocery shopping.
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3. Receipt Hog
Another best cashback app for grocery shopping is Receipt Hog. The app is available for both Android and iOS. You can shop at many retailers including Kroger, and Amazon – just to name a few.
Receipt Hog App Ratings
The app has good ratings and user reviews on both App and Google Play Stores. Receipt Hog has a 4.7/5 rating on Apple Store with 133,600 reviews – and a 4.4/5 rating on Google Play with 169,000+ reviews. So obviously, Receipt Hog is well-liked by users.
How Receipt Hog Works
The cool thing about Receipt Hog is that you can shop at any store and get cash-back rewards! Normally, most apps reward you when you shop at any of their partner retailers or stores – this is not the case with Receipt Hog.
After you’ve downloaded the app on your phone, sign up with your email address or Facebook. Therefore, whenever you shop, scan your receipt and upload it on the app (The Receipt Hog app has an in-app scanner you can use). Once you’re done, you’d get your cash back in “coins”. These coins can later be converted to cool money when you reach the cashout threshold.
You can use the coins for gift cards to Kroger, Amazon, Target, and others – or withdraw them via PayPal.
4. Fetch Rewards
You can get cash back rewards on Fetch Rewards when you shop at Pepsi, Starbucks, Colgate, Lipton, Lay’s, Sargento – and more.
The Fetch Reward app is available for Android, and iOS. It is a very convenient cashback app to use if you want to save money on your daily grocery purchases.
Fetch Rewards App Ratings
Fetch Rewards is very popular, because of that it has many app reviews both on Google Play and App Stores.
The app currently has a 4.8/5 rating with 2.5 million reviews on App Store alone! Moreover, the app has 10 million+ downloads on Google Play plus a 4.6/5 rating and 464, 000 reviews.
How Fetch Rewards Works
You get the chance to shop at every retail store for cash back – you can shop at liquor stores, supermarkets, pet stores, gas stations, and many more.
The app is free to use – another cool thing is that you don’t have to browse through the app to add offers to your list or whatsoever.
You just have to shop at a store, scan your receipt, upload it to Fetch Rewards and get rewarded.
Fetch Rewards also introduced online shopping for cashback – it’s called the eReceipt. That means you can buy anything online at brands like Costco, Amazon, Target, etc, and still get cash back.
Fetch Rewards pays in points – receiving 1,000 points equals $1. Expect between 25 and 30 points per receipt. The app will give you 3,000 points if you decide to download it today.
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5. Checkout51
With Checkout51, you can get cash-back rewards when you buy groceries or gas. There are more than 5,000 gas stations you can shop at.
Also, some of the retailers you can shop at are Dollar General, Nestle, CVS Health, Johnson & Johnson, and Kellogg’s. The cashback app works in the United States only. You can download it for both Android and iOS.
Checkout51 App Ratings
Checkout51 is a reputable cashback app because of that it has very high ratings on Trustpilot, BBB, Sitejabber, App Store, and Google Play Store.
The app has a 4.1/5 rating on Apple Store including 6,000 reviews, and a 4.2/5 rating – including more than 73, 800 reviews on Google Play Store.
Currently, the Checkout51 app has been downloaded more than 10 million times on Google Play Store alone!
How Checkout51 Works
When you download the Checkout51 app, create your account within a few minutes and head to the offer section.
Browse through the offers and add your favorites to your shopping list. After you’ve bought what you added to the list, redeem and check it off on your receipt – and finally upload the receipt using the app’s camera.
Once you’ve uploaded the scanned receipt, expect your cashback reward as soon as the receipt is approved. The minimum cashout on Checkout51 is $20 – which can be sent to you in a form of checks, or PayPal cash.
6. Fluz
You can get up to 35% in cashback rewards when you use Fluz for grocery shopping. The app isn’t very popular, but it works great.
There are many retail stores you can shop at for rewards – including Pizza Hut, Chipotle, Wayfair, and Finishline. Fluz is owned by Fluz Fluz, LLC.
Fluz App Ratings
The Fluz app has a 4.6/5 rating on Trustpilot with 80 user reviews. It also scored 3.3/5 on Google Play Store with over 300,000 user reviews, and 3.8/5 with 785 user reviews on App Store.
Fluz has fewer user reviews compared to other cash-back apps because the app hasn’t been around for so long. However, it’s a very good cash-back app to use for grocery shopping.
How Fluz Works
The app allows you to shop in-store or online at any of their retail partners for cash-back rewards.
When you download the Fluz app and finally sign up, browse and select all the items you plan on buying at any of the retailers. Once you’re done, go shopping in-store or online as you always do.
After that, enter the total shopping cost into the Fluz app to buy a gift card. This is possible because you initially have to connect either your debit or credit card or PayPal account to the app.
Immediately after doing this, Fluz would send you a gift card code which you’d use to make the actual payment to the cashier. For online shopping, you just have to enter the code when checking out finally.
Once you’ve earned a minimum of $26, you can receive a direct bank deposit, Venmo, or PayPal payment.
7. Flipp
Download the Flipp app and get free coupon codes to shop at brands like Kroger, Ample Food Market, M&M Food Market, Real Candian Superstore, Walmart, Marche Adonis – and others. The Flipp app is straightforward to navigate – it’s available on App Store, Huawei AppGallery, and Google Play Store.
Flipp App Ratings
Flipp has an overall rating of 4.7/5 with 226,000+ user reviews on Google Play – as well as 4.8/5 with 249,200+ user reviews on the App Store.
Again, the app has been downloaded by millions of people (Google Play alone has 10 million+ downloads). Flipp is one of the best apps for grocery shopping at a discount.
How Flipp Works
When you download the Flipp, this is what you’d do – first enter your postal code to enable you to get easy deals from stores in your region.
After that, move on to add items to your shopping list. There are so many items that could be added – groceries, baby samples, electronics, home and gardening related items, etc. After adding the items, Flipp would notify you when there are cool deals for the items.
In general, there are many loyalty card coupons that you can clip on Flipp – including additional digital coupons to help you shop at your favorite stores.
You wouldn’t get cash back rewards per se, but you’d save so much money if you use the Flipp app for grocery shopping.
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8. Coupons.com
If you’re a savvy shopper, Coupons.com is a great website to get digital coupons and printable coupons for grocery shopping.
On Coupons.com, you can shop at stores like Walgreens, Kroger, Meijer, Food Lion, and Walmart – just to mention a few. The website has an app that works perfectly on Android and iOS.
Coupons.com App Ratings
Currently, the app has an overall rating of 4.7/5 on the App Store with 127,000 user reviews. It also has over 5 million downloads on Google Play – with a 3.7/5 overall rating and 44,700 user reviews.
How Coupons.com Works
I call Coupons.com “the coupons hub” simply because there are thousands of coupons you can get for shopping. The app is free to download – so after downloading it on your smartphone, you can browse the many coupons available.
The first way to save money is by using “printable coupons”. On the app, you can search for various categories (groceries, apparel, pet products, baby stuff – etc.), and print out coupons available after you’ve provided your contact.
You can also use “digital coupons”. This requires the linking of your loyalty card – so that you can get up to 50 coupons per retail store – fantastic!
But how do you get loyalty cards? You can get loyalty cards when you join loyalty programs of retail stores or brands. Brands like Costco, Albertsons, Walgreens, Target, and others – all have loyalty programs.
9. NCPMobile
NCPMobile was previously called the Nielsen Homescan – the platform has been around since 1987. The NCPMobile app basically allows you to scan barcodes of products after shopping in exchange for cash back rewards.
NCPMobile App Ratings
The NCPMobile app works on both Android and iOS. The app has a 4.3/5 rating with 3,000 user reviews on App Store, and a 4.4/5 rating with 35,000 user reviews on Google Play Store. There are over 1 million people currently using the app.
How The App Works
So, there are many ways to earn from NCPMobile. The obvious one is scanning the barcodes of every product you buy from a store.
There is an in-built barcode scanner inside the app that you can use for that. You would be paid accordingly for doing this.
Apart from scanning barcodes for money, you can participate in sweepstakes for rewards – membership perks are also available.
NCPMobile rewards you with 1,000 bonus points when you sign up. Once you’ve accumulated 6,000 points which equals $10, you can get a gift card or voucher.
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Other Cash Back Apps For General Shopping
10. Rakuten
Signing up for Rakuten will allow you to get cash back on every purchase you make through the app. Rakuten is a very popular cash back app – it was formerly called Ebates. Downloading the app is absolutely free – you get a $10 bonus after you’ve spent your first $25.
There are more than one thousand retail stores and brands on Rakuten, including Kroger, Amazon, eBay, JCPenney, Staples, and Lowe’s.
Rakuten claims that it can help you save up to 40% on items – which is so amazing. The payout minimum is as low as $5 – once you’ve earned that on Rakuten, you can withdraw as a paper check or PayPal cash.
11. GetUpside
Did you know that there is an app called GetUpside that can give you cash back rewards when you fill your car’s tank, dine at a restaurant, or buy groceries? GetUpside allows you to save more money on groceries and gas.
If you also want to save money on groceries and gas, it’s simple – when you download the GetUpside app, link your debit or credit card to it.
From the app, you can choose the gas station, store, or restaurant you want to visit and specify the time. Wait for your cash back after you’ve made the purchase – so quick. If you use GetUpside, you can save from $300-$400 per year!
Other apps that can give you cash-back rewards are
- BeFrugal
- MyPoints (Gives you a $10 bonus upon signup).
- Swagbucks (Gives you a $5 bonus upon sign-up).
- ReceiptPal
- Drop (Get a $5 bonus upon signup).
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Final Words
You can now cut down your expenses by using any of the cash back apps listed above. If you asked me which are the best – I would say Ibotta, GetUpside, Rakuten, and Flipp. For a single pick, I would say – Ibotta. But don’t forget that Coupons.com, Fluz, Checkout51, etc are also very good!
Apps like MyPoints and Swagbucks would let you answer survey questions, watch videos, play games, and do other activities – to earn extra money apart from shopping for cashback.
With the Drop app, you can also save more money every year (I’m again reminding you that there’s a $5 bonus waiting for you when you sign up for Drop).
Nonetheless, all these apps are amazing – and should help you cut down your expenses, because that’s the ultimate goal. I hope that this article gave you enough value.
Download the apps and start saving like crazy. I’m wishing you more dollars and freedom!
Manuelo is an entrepreneur and a personal finance nerd. He is the founder of Dollars And Freedom. An expert in side hustles, online gigs, and everything about making money. His works have been featured on major financial publications, like Business Insider, GoBankingRates, Investopedia, Entrepreneur, and more. When he’s not busy with his blog or writing for others, you’ll catch him hanging out with loved ones or reading books on stoicism and self-development.
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