My Honest Review of Ibotta

My honest review of Ibotta – is it worth it? How does Ibotta work? I give you all the details: how I use Ibotta in my weekly shopping, plus tips for how to make the most money while still buying real food.

I quit using coupons several years ago because they took up too much of my time. I also felt that as we transitioned to real food, there weren’t a lot of old paper coupons that fit our lifestyle.

Fast forward a few years and I tried no less than FIFTY different apps as I was developing my course Grocery Budget Bootcamp. I included an entire lesson on grocery shopping online and another section on apps, and I wanted to make sure I knew how the apps and stores worked for myself, before offering them as an option to members.

Many were not worth the time and effort for the amount they saved.

Then I discovered Ibotta and it quickly became one of my favorite apps!

Not only is Ibotta FREE to use, but they make it SO easy to save money. I know many of you might be on the fence when it comes to coupons and apps in general, so let me share my own honest thoughts on Ibotta – I’m breaking down not only how Ibotta works, but also my best tips to help you save time, make money with Ibotta, and even how to find savings on healthy foods!

WHAT IS IBOTTA?

What is Ibotta? Ibotta is a FREE app that allows you to get cash back for items you purchase. So just how does Ibotta work?

1. Download the Ibotta app for free. Click HERE to do that (it works whether you’re on the computer or on your phone).
2. Open the app and browse through the available rebates, unlocking rebates for things you were going to buy anyway. (You unlock the rebate by tapping the plus sign.)
3. Shop at the store like you normally would.
4. Upload your receipts.
5. Get paid!

And that’s it! Really truly, it’s SO easy to use and you can start earning money right away!

Ibotta works at TONS of different stores…grocery stores like Whole Foods, Safeway, and Trader Joe’s, pharmacies like Walgreens and CVS, clothing stores like Kohl’s, restaurants, convenience stores, home improvement stores, specialty stores like Petco, and even your favorite stores online.

I’ve made using Ibotta a streamlined part of making my grocery list.

• Once a week, I make my meal plan and scan through the Ibotta rebates for one grocery store. You can save the stores you frequently shop as your favorites by tapping the heart, and they’ll automatically show up at the top of your list in the future.
• I only look at the categories that apply to me (for example, I usually completely skip PERSONAL CARE, KIDS & BABY, and CANDY & SWEETS).
• Sometimes I’ll check one other store as well to see if there are any additional rebates (some offers are store-specific) and if I’ll be nearby anyway.
• I shop like I normally would.
• I upload my receipts as soon as I get home. If anything is missing, it’s easy to add it by tapping “Verify more items” and scanning the bar codes directly from my purchased products.
• I get cashback in my account within 48 hours (but it usually only takes a few minutes)!

IBOTTA REVIEWS: PROS AND CONS TO USING IBOTTA

PROS:

There are rebates for generic and/or store brands.

Every week there is some sort of rebate for “any brand” items, like any brand of milk or any kind of yogurt. Right now, there are 6 rebates for “any brand” items, saving a total of $0.45 for things you’d never see a coupon for. Even if there’s just $0.50 of savings on the typical week, that’s $26 in just one year.

There are rebates for healthy food.

Again, as I type this, there are currently 3 rebates available for fresh produce. There are 4 available for fresh meat and a handful of others for things I’d normally stock in my kitchen, like yogurt and cheese. That’s another $5 saved on things you’d buy anyway and wouldn’t have a coupon for. Over a year, that’s another $260!

There are rebates for household items.

Toilet paper, paper towels, cleaning products, trash bags… you buy some of these items too, right? So do I, and it’s always nice to save some money whenever I can on these things.

You can save on things that are harder to save on.

Rebates for wine, liquor, or diapers?! Yep, Ibotta has these too. We like wine, and I use vodka for Homemade Vanilla Extract. My kids aren’t in diapers anymore, but if they were, I sure wouldn’t pass up a $4 rebate when I saw it!!

CONS:

There’s a temptation to try new things.

This might not be a bad thing for everyone, but it’s fun to try new things and Ibotta makes it too easy to offer a rebate for doing it. They often have “seasonal” rebates that align with holidays or big events (like the Super Bowl) and it’s VERY tempting to give in! At the same time though, I can’t blame Ibotta for my lack of self-control!

THE BOTTOM LINE ON THE IBOTTA APP

I’ve been an Ibotta user for several years now and I’ve gotten over $1000 in actual cash back!

I love Ibotta! Hands down, Ibotta is my favorite way to save on almost everything I buy. It’s SO easy to use and it works for things I was already planning to purchase.

Ibotta makes it super easy to withdraw the money you’ve earned too. You just expand the profile link that states your balance and click “withdraw.”

You can get a real cash back deposit via Paypal or Venmo or choose a gift card. Cash-out with as little as $20 earned!

If you work it right, you can even MAKE money using Ibotta! Keep reading for insider tips!

15 WAYS TO MAKE MONEY WITH IBOTTA

1. LINK YOUR STORE LOYALTY CARD

Ibotta works with over 2000 retailers, but they work directly with a handful of stores. These stores are called Preferred Partners, and you don’t even have to scan in your receipts when you shop there.

This is important to note because you MUST link your store loyalty card or reward program with Ibotta to receive rebates from them. And it’s recommended that you do it at least 24 hours BEFORE you shop.

When you shop with your store loyalty card, Ibotta will automatically sync with your purchase history and give you cash back for the rebates you have unlocked before making your purchase. You don’t even have to scan your receipt! Plus you get the goodies from your rewards program.

2. LOOK FOR BONUS REBATES

There are always bonus rebates going on for various items and they’re often linked to the current holiday season, or to redeeming a certain number of rebates within a week.

For example, around Christmas, there was a bonus rebate for buying a certain amount of baking items. I’ll often see a midweek bonus or weekend rebate offer for extra cash bonuses for redeeming a certain number of rebates in a specified timeframe.

Bonus rebates are icing on the cake for rebates you were going to redeem anyway because if there’s a bonus rebate, there’s likely an individual rebate too!

3. WATCH FOR RECURRING REBATES

As you use Ibotta for a little while, you’ll notice that some rebates will show up over and over again. This is by design because even if you redeem a rebate, the rebate promotion AS A WHOLE is still going on.

This means you can take advantage by redeeming the same rebate again during the rebate promotion period!

How do you do this? Simple. Ibotta has a rule of “one receipt per rebate,” meaning you cannot submit the same receipt for multiple identical rebates.

The workaround though, is to pay for a second item separately – specifically, an item that you’re pretty sure will show up again and submit the second receipt when the rebate shows up again a few days after redeeming it the first time.

4. BUY THE SMALLEST CONTAINER

Some rebates are for specific products at specific sizes, but some will say “valid on any variety, any size.” Use these to your advantage and buy the smallest and ideally, the cheapest size you can. This will give you the most savings and maximum profit!

5. SHOP AT THE DOLLAR STORES

Not all dollar stores are created equal, but for those where everything is priced close to one dollar, definitely use the Ibotta app when you shop there!

6. USE YOUR PRICE BOOK TO PRICE SHOP FOR THE BEST DEALS

Creating a price book is the easiest way to know what stores have the best deals on items you buy most often. I wrote about how to make a price book here and gave a real-life example of how a price book can save you money.

Note: A price book is one of the best ways to get rock-bottom prices on your most purchased items! Learn more about using a price book and all my money-saving strategies in Grocery Budget Bootcamp. Grocery Budget Bootcamp enrollment is currently closed, but you can join my FREE Fight Inflation Workshop and start saving money on groceries tomorrow!

If you use your price book to go to the store that has the best deal, you can not only save money but also MAKE money with Ibotta.

7. STACK REBATES TOGETHER

There are times when there are rebates for a specific brand of something, as well as “any brand” rebates. When this happens, you can redeem both by purchasing just one item!

8. STACKING REBATES WITH SALES AND COUPONS

I don’t use many coupons anymore, but I simply can’t NOT mention the tremendous savings when you stack rebates with sales and coupons. Let me walk you through this for a second.

Coupons are usually released to coincide with sale prices. Ibotta rebates are a form of advertising that works similarly to coupons.

This means if you find a rebate in Ibotta, there’s a good chance the item is currently on sale or will be on sale the next week… which means there’s a decent chance there will be a coupon in the Sunday paper too. Don’t forget to check for digital coupons too! They’re nice when you don’t want the hassle of traditional coupons.

In short, we have a triple whammy: sale + coupon + rebate app(s)

Coupons for real food don’t come around that often, but that’s why I like Ibotta so much – you can save on healthy food without even trying!

Note: Ibotta does have a few restrictions on using coupons with cash-back rebates. It is against the terms of service to combine paper coupons with Ibotta rebates on purchases at Walmart and Dollar General, for instance. However, you can use coupons at other retailers.

9. LOOK FOR DEALS ON LOW-PRICED ITEMS

You can really maximize your savings with Ibotta when you combine rebates with items that are already a low price to begin with.

Be on the lookout for other single-serve items that are regularly priced at around $1 each. Granola bars, yogurt drinks, dried fruit bars, and flavored yogurt are just a few examples.

While I typically make Homemade Granola Bars and Homemade Yogurt, sometimes it’s nice to try something new or in a different flavor. It’s also nice to have items like this on hand for a quick toss-in-the-bag snack or for when the kids go on a field trip and need a completely disposable lunch. I aim to pay just 25¢ for each of these single-serve items and using Ibotta helps me reach that price!

10. REFER YOUR FRIENDS

Ibotta is not an MLM company, but they do encourage you to refer your friends because together you can earn more money! If you sign up with my link, you automatically get a $5 bonus when you sign up (and so do I)! If you have friends who are not Ibotta users yet, you can share your referral code with them and you both get a bonus.

11. KEEP YOUR RECEIPTS!

I briefly mentioned this earlier, but now you have more than one reason to keep your grocery receipts because you can unlock a rebate up to 7 days AFTER you make a purchase!

Rebates are officially released on Thursdays, but they sometimes can take a few days before they’re live in the app. My suggestion is to check for new rebates on Thursdays and go ahead and shop. Then when Sunday night comes, do a quick once-over to see if any rebates were added for things you already bought. If so, add the rebate to your list and redeem that cash!

12. SAVE ON MOBILE SHOPPING

Ibotta has rebates for mobile shopping too. The “mobile” category shows you all the mobile options, and this also changes depending on the season.

If you prefer shopping on your computer, you can also download the Google Chrome extension for Ibotta and activate your mobile rebates before checking out that way.

13. SAVE ON GROCERY PICK-UP AND DELIVERY

If you would rather order your groceries for pick up or delivery than shop in-store yourself, you can still use Ibotta! Make sure you link your online retailer to your Ibotta account, add the cash-back offers to your list, and place your order. You’ll receive your cashback within 24 hours of your grocery delivery.

14. SAVE AT THE COMMISSARY

We’re not a military family, but I have friends who are, and they almost always shop the commissary. While the commissary accepts manufacturer coupons and military coupons, they do not accept grocery store coupons and you can only use one coupon per item.

Now that Ibotta has added the commissary as a store option, you can shop at the commissary AND redeem the rebates!

15. SAVE ON WAREHOUSE MEMBERSHIPS

Finally, there’s even a rebate for a Sam’s Club membership! Many people are hesitant to join a warehouse because of the membership fee, so this digital offer is a great way to save on that fee.

I save over $75 a month if I shop at Costco instead of ALDI, and I know the prices for Sam’s Club are similar to Costco. This goes to show that shopping in bulk really does save you money and using Ibotta to save on the membership fee is a no-brainer!

FINDING HEALTHY FOOD IN THE IBOTTA APP

At first glance, you might notice a lot of processed foods on the Ibotta app. That doesn’t help out much with our real food goals! However, I’ve also found a lot of healthy options on Ibotta.

I mentioned earlier that I use Ibotta weekly, and every week I see a huge variety of rebates for healthy food in Ibotta.

To give you an example of what you can find – and how much you can save on everyday purchases – I wanted to share with you a sampling of the healthy food rebates I found in Ibotta.

A few things to consider:

1. Because I found all of these rebates for healthy food in Ibotta in just one afternoon (plus a brain dump of recently redeemed rebates), you can easily redeem all of these within a one-month grocery budget cycle and save BIG TIME.
2. Because these rebates are time-sensitive (i.e. they have expiration dates) AND it’s not always easy to save money on real food, I encourage you to buy healthy food in bulk whenever you can.
3. Each rebate has a different rebate limit. For example, I would redeem the ice cream 5 times (because there’s a limit of 5), the yogurt rebates 3 times, etc. Your purchases may or may not be required to be on the same receipt, so read the rebate in Ibotta carefully to take advantage of the ones that will work for you.

EXAMPLES OF HEALTHY FOODS IN THE IBOTTA APP

• Dairy/dairy alternatives. Things like 50¢ on Halo Top ice cream, $1 on organic milk, 75¢ on cottage cheese, and 50¢ on eggs.
• Pantry. How about $1.50 on almond butter, 50¢ on chickpea pasta, $1 on pasta sauce, and $1 on 2 packs of Larabars?
• Beverages. $1 on coffee, 50¢ on juice, $2 on cold brew, and 45¢ on water kefir.
• Produce. 25¢ on sweet potatoes, 50¢ on Brussels sprouts, and 25¢ on blueberries.
• Meat. 75¢ on sausage links, 50¢ on tuna, and $1.25 on pork chops.

This is by no means an exhaustive list – I didn’t even write down half of the rebates that I found! There is a significant savings right there in these individual rebates alone, but at least half of these healthy food rebates qualified for bonuses too. If I took advantage of all the rebates I found that I would actually purchase, I’d qualify for another $14.50 back in bonus rebates…

That means the total amount I could save in ONE MONTH through rebates and bonuses on healthy food in Ibotta is $95.05.

HOLY SMOKES!!

I’ll be honest – I know I’ve been saving money on healthy food through Ibotta, but this is the first time I’ve actually calculated the potential savings. THAT’S INCREDIBLE!

IBOTTA FAQS

SIGN UP FOR IBOTTA HERE!

Use this link to sign up for Ibotta and get $5 back after you upload your first receipt!