Did you know that the average family spends around $8000 on groceries each year? It is no wonder that many families are looking for ways to cut down on their grocery bills. While some people have found success with couponing, it takes a lot of time and effort to really use coupons to save on your regular weekly grocery needs. Luckily there are many ways to save money on groceries and as always, there’s an app for that. Here are five types of apps that can save you money on groceries.
How To Pick A Grocery Shopping App
There are lots of great choices when it comes to picking a grocery shopping app. Fortunately, Jenna from Particular Pantry, helping you make better grocery shopping choices shared with me some of her best tips for grocery apps. Here is all the information you need to pick the right one(s) for you.
Grocery List Apps
When you start searching for ways to cut back on groceries, the first piece of advice you will see is to make a meal plan and write out your shopping list. You’ll see it over and over again because it really is a great way to eat healthier and stick to your budget.
Whether or you not you are a avid meal planner or more of a wing it type, having a grocery list app can save you money and sanity.
Our Groceries is a fantastic app that lets you build your shopping list anytime, anywhere and better yet, you can sync it up with your family members to make sure you don’t miss anything you need. You can also create separate lists for separate stores. My favorite part is that it allows you to assign the items to a specific section of the store so your grocery list is organized in a way you can actually use it.
There are a ton of grocery list apps out there and even some that incorporate recipes to automatically create your grocery list. Some of the best meal planning and grocery list apps are Big Oven, Cozi, Epicurious, and MealBoard.
Grocery Price Comparison Apps
One of the best ways to save money on your groceries is to be an educated consumer. Knowing how much each food item costs and where you can buy it the cheapest is a great way to take charge of your grocery budget.
With apps like Favado, Basket, and Grocery IQ you can create a shopping list and compare prices from your local stores so you can choose the store with the best deals for you specific needs.
Basket is an awesome app that uses crowdsourcing to fill the pricing data for 100s of stores around the country. It is super simple to use, as they say, “Create – Save – Shop”. This app even allows you to compare to prices online which most other grocery comparison apps are lacking.
Grocery IQ is probably the most popular of these apps because it pulls triple duty. You can create your shopping list, compare prices and even upload your rewards cards and coupons. Win-Win-Win
Grocery Store Reward Apps
Speaking of rewards cards, this is another great way to take advantage of sales and specials without the tedious task of clipping coupons.
Target and Walmart both have apps to help save you money on groceries. With Walmart’s Savings Catcher you scan your receipt, then if another store advertises a lower price for any of your purchased items, Savings Catcher will automatically give you the difference with a gift card.
Target’s cartwheel app allows you to load special deals and coupons for a quick scan at the checkout. Recently, Target also added the ability to connect the Cartwheel app to your Target Red Card so all you have to do at the checkout is scan the app and you also get 5% off your total.
Keyring is one of my very favorite apps. I always hate fumbling around for my rewards card at the checkout counter or even remembering if I have a rewards card (thank you mom brain). So with Keyring all you have to do is enter your information and it saves it right on the app. No need to search through your purse, keys, or wallet to find the card. Just scan and reap the rewards (literally).
Cash Back and Rebate Apps
So you’ve made your list and compared prices of the nearby stores, now you get to the fun part, getting paid to buy the things you need. There are SO many cash back and rebate apps available to save you money on groceries it could be an article all by itself. Most of these apps are as simple as checking out the deals, scanning your receipt and cashing out.
If you haven’t heard of Ibotta yet, you haven’t been trying to save money on groceries. This app is by far the most popular app for saving money on groceries because it is the anti-coupon money saving app. You can also earn money by sharing the deals through social media and watching short advertising videos. To make using it a super easy decision Ibotta gives you $10 just for signing up!
Checkout 51 is another popular rebate app that works the same way as Ibotta. Just virtually “clip” the deals, shop, scan, and get money back. Better yet, if you find a deal available on both apps you can get paid twice for the same item! The thing that sets Checkout 51 apart is it’s “Choose Your Own Offer” rebates, where you get to choose what item the rebate applies to.
Apps for Ordering Groceries Online
While many people think that shopping online comes with a high price tag it can actually be your secret weapon to saving money on groceries.
The best part is that most online grocery options are really working hard to stay competitive on price and many even offer better deals than in store pricing. Because these tech-savvy companies know that this needs to be as easy as possible they all come with sleek and simple apps.
Grocery delivery services like Instacart, Peapod, and Shipt all have apps for ordering groceries online. Many of the bigger chain grocery stores are also offering apps for ordering groceries for pickup or delivery including Walmart, Target, and Kroger.
The great thing about using these apps is that it is easy to compare prices between the grocery delivery services and the local store prices. Instacart and Shipt also have special deals offered only through their app and actually beat out the in-store price.
These five types of apps are just some of the many apps to save money on groceries. So there is no need for spending hours clipping coupons that you will inevitably forget to bring with you. Just use whatever combination of lists, comparisons, rebates, rewards, and shopping that works for your family. Which grocery shopping app sounds the best to you?
Related Post: