When Couponing Pays You - How I Got Free Trash Bags AND Cash Back

Have you ever heard someone say it pays to coupon? That it saves you money? Well, using coupons in general doesn't necessarily, but being smart with them certainly does! I mean, spending $5 to save $1 doesn't save you a dollar, it costs you $4. But when the item was on your grocery list anyway, then you are saving money.

I don't normally clip coupons. I don't get my hands on many but when I do I find they are usually for items I don't use. But I have my own methods of saving and cutting cost. I feel like my "purchase" last night won them all. I'm so excited about it! 

I know I've mentioned the Ibotta rebate app before. That's what I use as my alternative to coupons. You can earn cash back on all sorts of staple items - food, grocery, household... you name it. Often they have food rebates that aren't brand specific, too. Currently one of their rebate options is $1 back on any size box of Hefty brand kitchen trash bags or large garbage bags. On top of that, they have a few bonuses running, including $1 back on any grocery item, and $5 back when you redeem one rebate! That's an option of getting $7 back, which is what I did. 

I live in a tiny town mostly made up of privately-owned stores, but we do have a Family Dollar, so that's where I went to find my goods. I needed trash bags anyway, and they had Hefty brand for $5, so I knew I'd at least get the box for free and a dollar back besides. Turns out I got a better deal than I went in for ... trash bags are considered grocery, so I got to use all three rebates, including the "$1 back on any grocery purchase", and after checking out I discovered they were on sale, so that put an extra .25 in my wallet. 

Here are the figures:

Trash bags $5.00 $4.75 on sale

                                 .29 tax

                             $5.04 total spent

                             +$1 redeeming Hefty rebate

                             +$1 redeeming Any Grocery Purchase rebate

                             +$5 redeeming Shopping Spree Bonus (when you redeem 1 rebate)

                             =$7 worth of rebates redeemed

                     So,    $7.00 in rebates

                            -   5.04 spent

                              $1.96 money earned in addition to getting the trash bags free!

Technically I saved even more than that because I had a few dollars on a gift card for Family Dollar that I needed to use up anyway, so I actually only spent $2.94, which is an additional savings of $2.10. But I realize most of the time nobody shops using free gift cards, so this was an extra bonus.

Some of these rebates still have a few days on them, so if you download the app you can get some freebies, too! I got to cash out some Ibotta earnings today and am heading over to Amazon to use my $20 gift card as soon as I get this post published. 

Want to give it a try? Check it out here: https://ibotta.com/r/meomgbc