FREE cash back apps to help you save your pennies!
We highlight 5 FREE cash back apps we use daily. PLUS, we give ‘SAVE WITH SAM’ tips for maximizing your saving!
Groceries, water bills, a Disney+ subscription – gosh, life expenses add up! Plus, with rising costs yearly we need to stretch our dollars as far as they will go! Here’s some of our favourite FREE cash back apps that can help save you the small stuff. There’s even a diaper-saving combo mentioned in app #5!
I’ll be honest here, these are not ‘get-rich-quick’ apps. However, as a stay at home momma, I am happy to collect the 5 cents here and there wherever I can! They add up quickly and use what would otherwise go in the trash.
1. Caddle
Their self-description is “Make some extra cash by uploading receipts for Cash Back Rebates, answering surveys, writing reviews & giving your opinion on ads!“
Caddle is my first-choice in FREE cash back apps to suggest for families. I use it daily to answer surveys, and always scan every single receipt we get into it. They are proudly Canadian, and the app is only available in Canada. Caddle is the largest daily active survey panel in the Canadian market, so while it’s not a well-kept secret, it is definitely a bandwagon to jump on!
With at least a survey a day paying at minimum 5 cents (and usually taking less than a minute to finish), there’s an incentive to load up the app every day. Their bonus of “Submit More Receipts” gains you the opportunity to claim up to 20 receipts a week for 5 cents each too. These extra receipts can include restaurants, petrol, entertainment, etc.
Their main objective is brand partnerships that give you cash back for buying featured items that change weekly. Food, home products, pet food, and tools are heavily featured here. They also scan your receipts for their partners and offer you REVIEW: opportunities on products you purchased for higher cash back of $0.25-0.35 each!
They also advertise “The more you scan, the more opportunities that unlock”. I just scan every single receipt we get. Caddle will tell me which are approved or not, but they do have a long list in the Scan More Receipts offer you can reference.
Cash out at $20, which honestly is a great low tier that is totally achievable. Our family of 4 plus a dog is able to cash out at this level every 3 months. Cash out with Interac e-transfers, which are super convenient too.
Save with Sam TIP: Set an alarm every day to do your 5 cents Caddle survey! Mine is set for just after we put our boys to bed. This is also when I dig through my purse for the day’s receipts to scan in, though you have 2 weeks from purchase date to scan them in for credit.
If you’d like to join Caddle (and help me out with a referral credit!) click on the below link OR use the code below at sign up!
–> http://ssqt.co/meA2o02
Or use the referral code: H29PLW0P4Q
2. Checkout 51
Their self-description is “Get new offers weekly, buy from any store, snap a photo of the receipt and earn cash back!“
Checkout 51 has high value offers on lots of categories you are already shopping for. This makes Checkout 51 another GREAT option among free cash back apps.
Typically partnered with premium brands, there’s a good chance one thing you buy a month can be scanned into the app for cash back. As I’m writing this, items on offer this week include Scrubbing Bubbles, Windex, Breyers Ice Cream, Pop-Tarts, Ziploc, Advil, and 75 options in the Beer, Wine and Spirits category to name just a few.
They also offer “Extras” for cash back, through surveys and online retailers. Some online partners include Uber Eats, Groupon, Hotels.com, and Hello Fresh. Surveys are an easy way to grab some pennies while you’re sat in a parking lot with napping kids in the car, but make sure you have some time as they typically show as taking 7- 20 minutes each. If you select a survey and you are not a match for their target demographic after a few questions, then you will at least get credited a couple pennies for your time.
I find Checkout 51 gets me to their minimum checkout tier of $20 super quick, despite using their app to redeem offers only once or twice a month. They send you either a cheque in the mail or PayPal. I’ll be honest, you need some patience as they say give 5-15 days for PayPal and 15-30 days for the cheque.
Sign up at https://www.checkout51.com/account/signup
Save with Sam TIP: Check the offer to see if Checkout 51 cares where you buy the item from. If it says “All Stores”, then as long as the item is clearly identifiable on the receipt, buy it ANYWHERE. Checkout 51 also doesn’t care what you paid and will give you the listed cash back in the offer regardless. This means you can shop wherever has that item the cheapest (Clearance? On sale? Dollar Tree? YES to all!)
3. Receipt Hog
Their self-description is “A fun and rewarding way to turn receipts from everyday shopping into cash.”
Send every receipt you get into the app and watch the “coins” accumulate! Through paper receipts and digital receipts you get either coins, Hog Slots spins, or Sweepstakes entries for each receipt.
Retailers are grouped into certain categories which determine what you get “paid” per receipt. Grocery stores and pet supply stores get you coins for example (amount earned is based on spending tiers). Department stores grant you spins. Every receipt is eligible for a sweepstakes entry, and they do a drawing every month.
The system can also connect to email and online accounts so it can read digital receipts automatically. This is handy for Amazon, Costco, and Walmart orders we place! Instacart, Zehrs, Fortinos, and many others are on this linkable accounts list.
We scan every receipt we get into the system! I have found that their automated system is pretty good, but if the system flags a receipt as “Unreadable” or “Old”, there is no telling it otherwise or correcting it. All I can do is try to re-submit it.
Redeem your Hog Slots spins at any point. These typically give tiny coin payouts (and a little dopamine rush watching the icons roll!).
Payout tiers for Amazon, VISA or PayPal are 1000 coins ($5), 2900 coins ($15), 4300 coins ($25) and 6500 coins ($40). It pays to keep accumulating in this free cash back app!
Save with Sam TIP: Make sure to ask for a receipt! Fast-food outlets seem to be the worst culprits for not giving paper receipts anymore. Through testing, I have also found that Receipt Hog does not like the MasterCard/Visa only slips. The system wants the full itemized receipt.
If you’d like to join Receipt Hog and GET 5 FREE HOG SPINS (plus help me out with a referral credit!) click on the below link OR use the code below at sign up!
–> https://app.receipthog.com/r/glul3502
Or use the referral code: glul3502
4. Air Miles
Their self-description is “Get Bonus MilesTM on your groceries by snapping a photo of your receipt and submitting through our app.”
Super simple is what I am ALL about! Among the free cash back apps listed here, I love the Air Miles interface.
Air Miles makes it so easy to get a few free miles with every grocery receipt by literally just scanning the receipt into their system and letting it automatically find the matched offers. You don’t have to select the items on the receipt before scanning, which I appreciate when I’m sitting down to scan receipts in all my other apps.
If there is an offer you think should have been applied but didn’t, their “Submit an inquiry” seems to be super quick and efficient too! On a Costco trip, we bought a 50 pack of apple juice, which appeared on the receipt as simply ‘Oasis 50ct’. The system did not recognize that as the apple juice offer, but a quick inquiry message granted us the 4 bonus miles. Same with a different inquiry on eggs, which Costco sold as a 2 pack, but the auto-system only recognized as one line item. Easy inquiry sent, and bonus 3 miles added!
Redemption is in either Cash Miles or Dream Miles, which you can set your accumulation preference for. Dream Miles redemptions are a whole rabbit-hole of cool products and travel services, with such varying levels of amounts needed, you’ll just have to explore! At 95 Cash Miles, you can cash out $10 for any of 76 different eVouchers (for nearly every company I can think of) or redeem instantly in store at Shell gas stations and Pharmasave.
Save with Sam TIP: When we fly somewhere and need to rent a car, we always do it with Air Miles Dream Miles. With our Cash Miles, we typically save up and purchase an Ultimate Dining Card eVoucher to use for our no-cook nights!
Sign up at https://www.airmiles.ca/en/join/qr.html
5. Pampers Club
Their self-description is “Start turning diapers into rewards!”
Our kids have both done well with the Pampers brand diapers and sensitive wipes. Comparable in price to other shelf brands, we appreciated that the Pampers Club gave us a little extra coin back to us in a simple app.
Pampers diapers and wipes come with QR code stickers or long redemption codes on them that you enter into the Pampers App. The amount you get per diaper code scan is based on the diaper size. As your baby grows, so too does the amount you get! The more you scan, the more you can earn too, as they offer a $2 bonus for every 5 diaper package scans. Wipes packages are worth 5 cents a bag, which add up when you use them as much as we do!
They also have Bonus Offers periodically for some big boosts – like getting $3 for your first Easy Ups or Swim Diapers scan.
Pampers Cash can then be spent on $5 paper coupons or digital gift cards ($5, $10 or $15 amounts) from their Rewards catalog.
Save with Sam TIP: SUPER important if you use Pampers diapers – Get BOTH the Pampers Club app AND the Checkout 51 app. The Checkout 51 app has a Babies & Kids category, with Pampers as a main feature. As long as you buy the box anywhere except Walmart, get back a whopping $4.00 cash back per box!
If you’d like to join Pampers Club and GET $2 BONUS after your first scan (plus help me out with a referral credit!) click on the below link OR use the code below at sign up!
–> https://tinyurl.com/4nzz2bxj
Or use the referral code: 13A45B5
BONUS in Free Cash Back Apps: Flipp
If you are trying to save money, but are sketched out by apps that take your information or buying habits, then please just get the Flipp app. This is a robust little search tool that houses all your local grocery and department store flyers. It allows you to browse them all digitally or search for a specific item through all to see if it is on sale.
Simply type the item in the search bar, and it will bring up all references to that in current flyers. I find searching for brand name and also generic helps make sure I see all the offerings (eg. milk vs Neilson). This can help you get the best deals on your shopping list.
PLUS, if you shop at a store that does price matching (like No Frills for us), then clip the item to your list directly in the app and show it at the store checkout. No messy newspaper flyers to juggle, just tap and show!
If you are using free cash back apps already, then this is a perfect way to cross-reference deals as well!
DOUBLE-DIP in all your FREE cash back apps!
Check all of your apps for opportunities to double-dip. For example, Biotrue eye drops have been on two of the apps for a while ($4 cash back on Caddle and $4 cash back on Checkout 51). Last week I was using the amazing FLIPP.CA app, and I found the item on sale for $13.49. If this is a product you use for example, it was a good time to re-stock as you would have been saving almost $10 each when combining both app cash backs and a sale price!
I hope there has been something here to inspire! Let me know how else you are saving your pennies!
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