This is my honest review. All links to Ibotta are to my referral link. When you join, you will also get a referral link to share with your friends to earn additional cashback.
What is Ibotta?
Ibotta is a free cashback rewards and payments app that gives you cash for everyday qualifying purchases when you shop and pay through the app. Your qualifying purchases can be bought in-store or online. There’s a wide variety of offers that range from groceries, clothing, electronics, or wine and beer. There are over 2000 retailers and websites to choose from.
Personally, I mostly use Ibotta on in-store grocery purchases, and for this post, I’m sharing how I earn cashback on groceries. For online purchases, I typically shop through Rakuten or Upromise cashback portals.
How I save on groceries with the Ibotta app:
The first step to start earning cashback is to join. It’s FREE!
Join Ibotta HERE!
After joining, there are many ways to earn cashback from over 2000 retailers and websites, however, I concentrate on finding grocery savings on products that we use.
Every week, I create a meal plan and grocery list based on my favorite grocery stores’ sales flyers, what’s in my pantry and freezer, and what deals I can find on Ibotta. There are many different ways to earn cash back on groceries through Ibotta and for years, I’ve earned cash on my family’s grocery favorites and staples.
Maximize your Earnings with Deal Stacking:
My favorite offers on Ibotta are the ones I can stack with store sales and/or manufacturer’s coupons. A recent example that I was thrilled about was for Cetaphil body/face wash. It’s our preferred brand, but it can be pricey.
However, Giant of PA had the 8 oz bottle on sale for $5.89 (Orig. $7.39) + an additional $6 off if you bought three, making the price $3.89/bottle. That’s an ok price but what made the sale super sweet was that I could stack it with the Ibotta promotion: $3 off, up to 3 offers allowed. The final price was .89/bottle!
Free after offers:
Lately, Ibotta has been offering more “free after offer” items. During December 2021, they offered $20 in freebies all at the same time. This was nice because the threshold to transfer your cash is $20. I took advantage of this offer because all of the products were things that I use or treats that my kids enjoy.
Examples of “Free After Offers” from Dec 2021.
Non-Brand Specific offers:
Ibotta often has special deals where you can earn on a product from any brand of your choice. See the below photo for examples. The payout on those non-brand-specific items is far less than the brand-specific, but it gives me a chance to earn cashback on staples I buy every week, such as yogurt, snack foods, eggs, milk, produce, bread, spaghetti sauce, pasta, etc. Also, every little bit helps me get to the $20 threshold (more on this below).
Bonuses:
A bonus is an extra cashback offered for completing specific offer redemptions. Ibotta might offer bonuses when you redeem a minimum amount of offers within a timeframe or refer a certain number of friends. You earn cash back on a completed bonus in addition to the cashback they receive for redeeming specific offers.
More Ibotta details:
- You can download the Ibotta app on iOS and Android devices and the app is required to submit a receipt.
- Verify that your purchases are qualifying for offers by scanning the product bar codes in the app.
- Many of my favorite grocery stores participate with Ibotta, but they are set up differently. Some stores, such as my local favorite, Giant of PA, require a manual upload of the qualifying receipt. When you are ready to shop, add your desired offers to the app, snap a picture of your receipt at the prompt and upload it to your app.
- Other stores, such as Weis Markets and Target, require you to link your loyalty account to your Ibotta app. When you are ready to shop, add your desired offers and use your linked loyalty card in the app at checkout, and you will earn cash back on the qualifying offers, usually within 48 hours.
- For the record, manually uploading receipts doesn’t take a lot of effort.
- Always read the offer details for offer requirements or exclusions and expiration dates.
- Offers can be removed at any time if Ibotta hits its limit, so redeem in a timely manner.
Show me the money!
Once your earnings reach $20, you can use the Ibotta app to transfer your earnings to a linked bank account or Paypal, or redeem for gift cards. It can take up to 3 days for the funds to be transferred to your accounts.
Is Ibotta worth it?
Personally, I think the Ibotta app is worth having. Keep in mind though that there will be weeks where the offers you choose could be less than $1, and there will be weeks where you have a lot of worthy offers. I still submit receipts on those slim weeks, because I want to hit the $20 threshold as soon as possible. Any money I earn through the Ibotta app goes right back into my grocery budget.