My Favorite Apps to Save Money

Now that we have my obsession with credit cards out of the way, I want to cover a topic that may appeal to a wider range of you reading my blog: money-saving apps.

I am not going to waste your time with ones that have shady tactics or require a bunch of work. In fact, I will rank them based on how often I use them and how useful I think they are. Between these apps, Denise and I have saved about $2,000 over the last year and a half. In fact, some of them have become sort of a game for me (or are actual games!) in trying to maximize savings, leading to “the look” from Denise when she knows I am headed out for another grocery run or a mystery shop.

Photo I have likely received in response to a “Where are you?” “The grocery store…” series of texts.

And so, let’s begin!

**Disclaimer: I have included some referral links for some of these apps. I would really appreciate you using those to sign up for these apps if you are interested and if the information is useful to you. Ultimately, I am recommending them based on their usefulness to you!**

1) Ibotta

You may have seen ads for this app recently, yet it is not used by as many people as I would expect given how great it is! This has been my personal favorite app over the past year, and between the two of us, we have saved over $1200 in the last year and a half of using it. Ibotta is part electronic coupons and part online shopping. While I have not used the online shopping side of it, I know that it rivals Rakuten (an app I won’t talk about here because it is more widely known, but I still recommend it). Ibotta is environmentally friendly and much easier than going through the paper and clipping coupons. It has virtually any major superstore you would shop at (Walmart, Target, Kroger, etc.) and also local places (Schnucks, Hy-Vee, County Market), making it very versatile for anyone who shops for their groceries.

What I like:

• Each store is organized into categories, making it easy to jump to specific ones if you are looking for something in particular.
• The coupons commonly include major brands that we buy, saving us a great deal of money on something we would already be getting anyway. For those of you with small children, diapers, wipes, snacks, and other products are commonly featured on there as well!
• There are frequently free items–sometimes random and disgusting, sometimes familiar and delicious. I’m willing to try anything that’s free!
• Ibotta offers regular bonuses that maximize your savings. For example, in the past, I have had a couple bonuses that showed up at the same time that allowed me to get an EXTRA $15 if I redeemed 20 offers within a week’s span. That is $15 in addition to the coupon savings. In my last grocery trip, I spent $90, but with Ibotta and a couple other apps, I got $50 back!
• The app tells you when specific coupons will expire, and many of them also reset 24 hours after you have used them.

What I don’t like:

• Some of the offers can be a bit obscure, but I also understand that this involves brands trying to make a name for themselves. If you are needing items that are organic, gluten-free, Keto, etc., this could be even more useful for you.

I don’t really see any reason not to try Ibotta. I try to make sure I don’t use the coupons just because I am “saving” money due to the fact that I may spend money I don’t need to. I really do believe it has resulted in a ton of money being saved, and I love the challenge of trying to achieve some of the bonuses.

I have included my referral link here (my referral code is rtvgmde). I would appreciate you using it if this introduction to Ibotta has been worthwhile to you. YOU get a bonus for signing up and following the instructions as well, and I hope this ends up saving a great deal of money for you!

And the others (these will be MUCH shorter write-ups)

2) Field Agent

This one may be a bigger stretch for some of you, as it involves some work, but it is one of my favorites! Essentially, Field Agent involves different forms of mystery shopping. I have earned over $200 in the last six months or so, and it has been through a wide range of jobs. Field Agent regularly has jobs pop up in its app, most of which are within a 10 mile vicinity of me. I have the option of going in and accepting whatever jobs I want. From going to a nearby house and taking 3 photos for an insurance company, to getting pictures of the paper product aisles at Schnucks (4 different times now!), to scanning items and answering questions at Sam’s, I’ve just about done it all. Most of these jobs have been ridiculously easy, and typically I will do jobs that pay me $5 to do something that takes about 5 minutes.

One of my favorite things to do is in the “Buy & Try” section of the app. I can buy a particular item, try it (must have taken them forever to come up with the “buy & try” name…), and then give my thoughts on the product. Not only will they pay me to give my thoughts, but they will fully reimburse the cost of the product! I have gotten paid to eat ice cream and write about it a few different times!

If this sounds like something you would be interested in, I would be grateful if you would use my link here. Thank you and enjoy!

3) Shopkick

I am kicking myself (pun 100% intended) for not using this app sooner. I have already earned almost $25 just in the last 3 weeks of using it, and it has allowed me to get some awesome items for incredibly cheap. Shopkick gives you points for walking into stores (some of them), scanning various items, and/or submitting your receipt with one of the featured items. You can then use these points for gift cards of different amounts. A great example of how much this can save you happened yesterday. I saw that CVS had a bag of Starbucks Coffee with Essential Vitamins (which is delicious, though I would never pay full price for anything Starbucks) on sale for $5.99. Shopkick was offering 1200 points back (250 points = $1, so almost $5), so I got a 9 oz. bag of Starbucks coffee for just slightly over $1. While there are not a ton of items at each store, it is absolutely possible to stack this with Ibotta and other apps (I have done just that a few times) to save even more money.

I have my referral link here (my code is GOAL276519) to help you get started, and I hope you enjoy it as much as I have!

4) Coupons.com

While this is listed as a website, it is in fact an app with digital coupons for a good deal of stores like Walmart, Meijer, Target, and Walgreens, though not as many as Ibotta. However, one of the best parts of it is that they will commonly have some of the same coupons as Ibotta. Since both are paperless, there is no way for it to show that you used both. All you have to do is “clip” your coupon before shopping, upload your receipt, and they will send you money via PayPal. Pretty easy!

I don’t have a referral link for this one; just a regular link to take you to a download. Enjoy the savings!

5) Fetch Rewards

This is a pretty straight-forward app. Upload your receipt, and you will get a guaranteed (though small) amount of points for each receipt. You will receive additional points for certain brands, and on the home page there are some really good offers for certain products. Earlier this week, I went to Binny’s and got a 12 pack of Summer Shandy (don’t judge) on sale for $11.99. Fetch was offering 3,000 points ($3) back with the purchase of a 12 pack, so I essentially got it for $9. A great deal!

I have my referral link here (my code is TKVYJ), and I would appreciate you using it as you sign up for more savings!

6) ReceiptPal and Receipt Hog

Both of these apps are virtually the same: upload receipts, answer occasional surveys (if you want–definitely not required!), and get points to exchange for money through PayPal or for gift cards. Receipt Hog recently allowed me to do a survey, sent me a free, brand new product (King’s Hawaiian Sweet Pretzel Rolls!!), and paid me to give my thoughts on them! While these apps don’t give a ton of money, it takes me about 30 seconds to upload my receipts to them after I get home from shopping, so it really is not much of my time.

I do have a referral link for ReceiptPal here, but I don’t have one for Receipt Hog. Just this link to take you to the app. Happy saving!

7) SavingStar and Checkout 51

These two are similar to Ibotta and Coupons.com. They show you offers at a variety of stores, you click them before you go shopping, and upload your receipt to get money deposited into your account. Once again, I mainly use these to double up on some coupons in other apps like Ibotta to maximize savings. While I haven’t saved a ton with them (about $25-$30), it’s better than nothing!

Here is a link to SavingStar, and a link to Checkout 51 as well.

8) Krazy Coupon Lady

I mainly follow this app (and email list) to have someone else do the work to send me great deals at different stores. Some of them are insane, but occasionally there are ones sent out that can even make you money by purchasing the product! They will typically tell you exactly which apps (mainly Ibotta) to use in order to save on different items.

Here is a link to their app!

And a bonus app that is completely random but awesome…

9) PetSmart

Yes, the PetSmart app. Why, you ask? Because it contains a Candy Crush-like game that is a much greater use of your time. When you play the game, it includes three levels and three different coupons you can earn. The last few times I have played, the coupons have been for 15%, 20%, and 25% off a single item (you get all three if you finish all three levels of the game). I got Charlie’s food this week and saved $11 on it just by having finished the hard level of the game! The coupons reset just about every month, so you could easily save over $100 a year through the app. AND YOU PLAY A GAME TO GET THE COUPONS.

Final Thoughts

These are definitely not the only apps out there, but they are ones that I have found especially useful and pretty easy to use. There is no reason why you can’t be saving a ton on your groceries and regular day-to-day purchases. It may just take a little bit of homework and time!

Be sure to reach out and let me know if there are any awesome apps you use to save money as well!

Credit Cards, Part 2

First, I want to start off by saying that I was blown away by the response to my first blog post. I had nearly 250 views from simply posting it on my Facebook page, which was way more than I expected! More importantly, I was happy to hear from people via Messenger, text, and in-person conversations wanting to know more. Feel free to reach out anytime you want to talk, especially if you are considering applying for one!

In this Part 2 (and it is my plan to have it be the last “part” on credit cards, unless people reach out and want more to be written!), I want to go into more detail on the types of credit cards out there, some of the benefits they provide, the important differences in the points and miles world, and the dreaded annual fees that should not be dreaded anymore. This one will be just a bit longer and more intensive than the last one, so buckle up!

For the most part, there are three different types of credit cards out there:

1. Generic cards that simply help you have a credit history and do not earn any rewards.
2. Cash back cards, which usually earn a set percentage back on each purchase and/or have set categories (sometimes rotating in different quarters) that earn a higher percentage.
3. Points/miles cards, which can be exchanged for cash or gift cards, used to book travel, or transferred to travel partners to use with them.

For the sake of keeping it simple, I am going to focus on points/miles cards because they are the ones that are not as straight forward in how they work.

Picture this: you see a commercial, and it features Jennifer Garner. She is talking about the Capitol One Venture card, which earns two miles on every purchase. Sounds great, right? I mean, two miles is better than one (not surprisingly, I was really strong in math class, if you couldn’t tell), which means they will add up faster and be of more value. It’s a no brainer, right?

Maybe.

Let me use an example. You are deciding between two hotel cards, the Hilton Honors Surpass card and the World of Hyatt card. The Hilton card has a sign-up bonus of 150,000 points, earns 12x points on Hilton purchases, 6x points on dining, groceries, and gas, and 3x points on every other purchase. On the other hand, the Hyatt card has a sign-up bonus of 50,000 points, earns 9x points on Hyatt stays, 2x points on public transportation, dining, travel, and fitness memberships, and 1 point on every other purchase. Both cards have a $95 annual fee (more on the fact that annual fees are NOT evil later on).

The obvious choice: the Hilton Honors Surpass card.

And in almost every case, the WRONG choice.

A common misconception is hearing a number of points/miles offered by a credit card and assuming that you should treat that as equal to other offers. Let me explain with another real-world example.

Let’s say you are heading to St. Louis for a 3 day trip and you need a hotel. Using the same dates in late July for each, and choosing a similar type of hotel in a similar area, here is what I found:

1. The Hampton Inn near the Arch is 30,000 points/night, meaning it would cost me 90,000 points for my stay. This hotel is $119/night. Of course, COVID-19 is shifting prices down, but this is a terrible deal for the amount I get for each point. You are getting about 0.4 cents/point.
2. The Hyatt Regency at the Arch is 8,000 points/night, meaning it would cost me 24,000 points for my stay. This hotel is $129/night. That is far from the best deal I have seen from Hyatt (that would probably be spending 12,000 points on the Hyatt Place in Champaign for a football Saturday night room that can be $350+), but you are still getting about 1.5 cents/point.

This is certainly not the only thing that should impact your decision of which card to get. A couple other factors, especially for hotel cards:

• Does it come with a free night if I pay the annual fee? The Hyatt card does, but the Hilton card does NOT. Well, it does, but you have to spend $15,000 in a year to get it, which is absolutely ridiculous.
• Are there a lot of these hotels in the places I see myself travelling to? Hyatt only has two hotels in all of the St. Louis area, with the other one being 30 minutes outside the city. On the contrary, Hilton has 38 in the metro area. That is a massive difference, and is often true in many areas.

So now that we have dispelled the notion that all points are equal in number, it is important to quickly note that points are also not equal in their flexibility.

Let’s use a couple travel-based cards for this comparison. The Delta Gold American Express card is one that I talked about in my last post. While its current offer is not a great one, I am going to use its typical high offer of 60,000 miles for the sake of this post. You would get those miles by spending $3,000 in 3 months, and the annual fee of $99 would be waived for the first year. You would earn 2x miles on purchases with Delta, dining, and groceries, and your first checked bag is free when flying with Delta. The Chase Sapphire Preferred card, on the other hand, gets 60,000 points after spending $4,000 in 3 months. There is a $95 annual fee that kicks in after the first billing cycle, but the card gets 2x points for travel and dining.

Just based off of this information alone, I would guess that most of you would believe the Delta card would appear to be the best offer. Here are some reasons:

1. No annual fee. There are a lot of cards that push this because, on its face, it sounds very appealing to people (I’m looking at you, Discover, with your recent commercial of movie and TV show clips saying “No” for the fact that none of their cards have annual fees). More on annual fees in a bit.
2. 2x miles on groceries. Chances are you are going to be spending more on groceries than travel, so that is appealing.
3. Less spending to get the bonus. You have to spend $1,000 less to get the Delta bonus, which may be a lot more manageable.

You’re probably catching on to my structure in my posts and are ready for me to tell you that the Delta card is actually not the better choice. But you would be very, very….correct if you thought that.

Here are the reasons why the Chase Sapphire Preferred card, generally considered the best rewards card available on the credit card market right now, is a better choice over the Delta card and virtually every other one as well:

1. Those 60,000 points are MUCH more flexible than the 60,000 miles from Delta. While those miles will not expire with Delta, they can really only be used for one main thing: booking flights with Delta. The 60,000 points that come with the CSP can be used in many different ways: a straight cash deposit worth $600 if you wanted to send that to your bank account, purchasing gift cards (some at a 10-20% discount through the Chase portal), booking travel through that same Chase portal (your points are worth 25% more in that portal, meaning a $750 flight would cost 60,000 points), or–best of all–using transfer partners with Chase. Those include United, Southwest, Hyatt hotels, IHG hotels (think Holiday Inn and a few other chains), and so many more. By using those points in a 1:1 transfer, it gets a lot more value out of those 60k points—easily over $1000 if you play it right.
2. Because of the flexibility, they can be worth a lot more as well. Delta operates what is called a dynamic award chart, meaning their point values are all over the place in value. If you recall from my last post, it cost me 47,000 miles + $50 to book a flight to London and from Dublin worth $900. A great deal, definitely, but a very rare deal. I have seen roundtrip flights from Chicago to Miami that cost 50,000 miles and might be $250-$300 if you used cash. It’s just very hit or miss. I know a lot of you out there like Southwest, and while virtually no one likes United, you can still likely find a good deal when you have that much flexibility to find flights with more than one airline (the same is true with a variety of hotel chains).

For those still bothered by the thought of paying an annual fee, consider this:

• Would you rather me hand you $300 and ask for nothing in return, or would you rather me hand you $600 and expect $95 in return?

The lesson here? Don’t look at the fee when determining which card to get; look at the overall value. We do not hold onto a lot of cards with an annual fee once we have had it for a year. We are able to downgrade to a no annual fee card like the Chase Freedom Unlimited card and still keep all of the points we got from the other card. That’s right: you don’t lose your points when you downgrade. It’s the best of both worlds. You still have the points, and you are no longer paying an annual fee. The same is true of a lot of other cards.

However, there is a segment of cards that we have held onto that have annual fees: hotel cards. The reason? The free night certificate we get each year.

This past week, we were feeling a little too cooped up in the house, so we decided to head to St. Louis for an overnight trip. Denise has the Marriott Bonvoy Boundless card, which has a $95 annual fee but comes with a free night certificate each year as long as she pays that fee. Yes, that night is not technically “free,” but the hotel we got in downtown St. Louis was absolutely beautiful (see pictures below) and would have cost us around $200 to stay at if we had used cash. Her free night cannot be used at every Marriott hotel–it is redeemable all the way up to 35,000 point hotels, and points are determined typically by the location of the hotel–but it can be used at about 2/3 of their hotels around the world.

• 

  Denise tried to hide but couldn’t!

• 

  First time seeing a record player in a hotel room!

• 

  A TV built into the bathroom mirror? Obnoxious.

• 

  One of the biggest showers I have ever seen in a hotel room.

Again, feel free to reach out via text, Messenger, or in person if you want to talk more! If you are considering applying for a card, I would really appreciate you reaching out to me for any advice. I hope these two posts have changed what you may have thought about credit cards!

Credit Cards, Part 1

What if I told you that between me and Denise, we have earned over $10,000 in credit card rewards over the last two years?

Would you believe it if I said it was probably the easiest $10,000 we have ever earned?

If you are like I was up until 2018, you probably have one or two credit cards that you use for some purchases. You likely get some cash back on it–maybe 1% or 1.5%–and you have built up a few hundred dollars doing that.

Or maybe you are like I was until 2016, where you use a credit card for just a few expenses in order to help out your credit score and then put everything else on a debit card.

Or maybe you don’t have a credit card because people (cough*Dave Ramsey*cough) have told you that they are the devil reincarnated and will steal your soul if you use them.

Everyone has an opinion on credit cards in some form, but mine was completely altered in 2018, and we have never been more financially sound because of it.

During the summer of 2018, I saw a random Facebook sponsored ad (though we all know those aren’t random and are, in fact, part of Facebook’s stalking of everything we search, say, and probably think) about a group called 10xTravel. The ad talked about the founder, Bryce, and how he and his wife had gone to Thailand for just hundreds of dollars. Well, of course, that suckered me into the world of “credit card hacking.” Sounds super shady, doesn’t it? I can assure you that it’s completely legal, and there are hundreds of thousands of people doing it all across the country. It has become one of my biggest hobbies, to the point that I had to turn to this blog in order to write more about it. That’s mainly because most people I talk to about it in person (no offense to anyone!) seem disinterested or don’t believe it. I get it, because I can be really annoying when wanting to talk about it because I am so passionate about the topic!

You see, when I got the Chase Freedom Unlimited credit card back in 2016, my first big boy credit card, I was so excited about the $150 sign-up bonus and the unlimited 1.5% cash back I got on all of my purchases. We had just gotten a house, so what a perfect time to put all those purchases on that card!

However, let’s stop for a second and really think about the math here. We are going to assume that I already got the sign-up bonus for the card. If I put $3,000 on that credit card, I get a grand total of $45 cash back. While that’s better than the grand total of nothing that I would get back with a debit card, it is still a pretty insignificant amount given how much I spent.

That’s one of the biggest reasons why Dave Ramsey trashes the use of credit cards; people get so fixated on that cash back that they might end up spending more than they would normally, completely wiping out any cash back benefits. And I totally agree with him on that point. If that is you, then I completely advise against what I describe below.

However, if you feel you have a good grip on your spending and controlling it, then it’s time to take advantage of the expenses you already have! Let’s use that same example from earlier with the $3,000 in expenses being put on a credit card. Using the Freedom Unlimited card, you are getting $45 back. However, the purpose of credit card hacking is to apply for new cards in order to get the lucrative sign-up bonuses that they offer.

A great example is the first card I got once I discovered this activity in 2018: the Delta Gold American Express card. While I would have gone a different route now with what I know today, at the time it was an excellent choice. The card was offering 60,000 miles if I spent $3,000 in 3 months. We were heading on our first big trip abroad to Germany, Austria, and Czechia, so I knew spending that much with traveling and some of the medical expenses we had would be no problem. We were also going to be flying with Delta, and the card came with some nice perks for that.

For those that are unfamiliar with miles offered through credit cards, the value of those miles is vastly different from one airline to the next. It can be really complex; however, to give you a real-world example, I’ll talk about an upcoming trip we were supposed to be going on but had to recently cancel (thanks COVID-19). We were planning on flying to the UK and Ireland in early June. I used Delta miles back in October to book our flights. For one ticket from Chicago to London and then Dublin back to Chicago, it was a cash price of right around $900. It cost me 47,000 miles for that same ticket. Keep in mind that the sign-up bonus alone was 60,000 miles. Earning that sign-up bonus required nothing more from us than just putting our regular spending on it. There was no annual fee for the first year of having the card, so it cost us nothing to get those 60,000 miles.

Now, think back to the two examples I have offered here. You have $3,000 in expenses coming up. Do you:

A) Put those on your cash back credit card and earn $45, or

B) Get approved for a new card, meet the minimum spending requirement in the given time limit, and earn enough miles to pay for more than $1,000 in flights/hotels/whatever you want?

I think the choice is pretty clear, and we are not talking about a difference of $50 or $100 here. We are talking about thousands of dollars in the bigger picture.

Now, if you have reached the end of this novel, realizing that I have it listed as Part 1, and are thinking, “There’s more to this??”, you may think this is too much work. I certainly did in the beginning. I can assure you, though, that it is a very simple process once you get an understanding of it. I have had several people audibly gasp and tell me we are crazy when I tell them how many credit cards we have. I currently have 6 open cards, and Denise has 7. 13 credit cards between two people?? How horrible is your credit?

It’s actually never been better. We both have never had higher credit scores. On the scale of 300-850 that determines your credit score, we are right at 800. That means:

• Banks trust us.
• We can buy a new car with no interest charged because, once again, banks trust us.
• It will be easier to get a new house or refinance our current mortgage because, you guessed it, banks trust us.

So if this sounds interesting at all, I highly encourage you to do the following:

• Go on Facebook and follow 10xTravel. There were about 15,000 members when I joined in 2018, and today they are approaching 60,000. It has a very active membership (completely free), with around a hundred posts a day on a variety of financial and travel topics. I get nothing from suggesting this. They have not told me to write about them, nor do they know I have written about them. I have learned so much from the people who run the page and would love it if others did too.
• Reach out to me if you have any questions about a particular card you are interested in or if you want some advice. I am more than happy to talk about it, especially during this quarantine! Feel free to message via Facebook, email (kklemm89@gmail.com), text, or call.
• Consider your upcoming expenses. Do you have a big purchase you have to make? Are you sending your kids back to daycare? Or would you end up scrambling to spend enough to get the sign up bonus? We base all of our new credit cards off of expenses we already know about or ones that come up unexpectedly. I recommend you consider what you have coming up and make decisions using that information.

I hope you enjoyed my first post, and there will be many more where that came from (and they won’t all be about credit cards–I promise!).