After all the information I’ve shared the last two days about my plans to save money this year and how to make money with the online survey taking site Inbox Dollars, I completely forgot about an app I have on my phone that also helps save money. It’s called iBotta. A friend of mine turned me onto it last year.

It’s kind of a cool coupon-type app but instead of giving you coupons to use at the time of check out, it pays you back with rebates after you check out. The app lists different rebates that are available each month at a wide selection of stores like Kroger, Wal-Mart, Target, Dollar General, Walgreens, CVS, Family Dollar, Schnucks and more.

You select which items you bought and then you scan them to make sure they match. Then you upload an image of the receipt to earn the rebate. You can cash out the money via Pay Pal once you reach $20 or you can get paid via gift cards to places like Amazon or Starbucks.

And I know you are probably thinking the rebates are only available on items you never buy, right?  Nope.  There’s a wide variety of rebates available from bread, cereal, drinks (including alcohol), toilet paper, produce, medications, toiletries, and more. My favorites are the generic rebates that allow you to buy any type of product to earn it, like a loaf of bread. You don’t have to buy a certain name brand. Any loaf will do.

There’s also generic rebates for produce like carrots, mushrooms, peppers, apples, and more. And the rebates change each month.  And most of the same rebates are available across a wide variety of stores so you don’t have to go to a certain store to earn that rebate. Each rebate usually ranges from 25 cents to $1 or more depending on what the item is. The rebates for alcohol are much higher!

There’s also fun team exercises on the app. If you invite friends to sign up or your friends via Facebook sign up for iBotta, they become members of your team and you can help each other toward goals to earn more money each month.

There’s a second app that I actually just read about and downloaded on New Year’s Eve.  It’s called Receipt Hog. I can tell I’m really going to enjoy this app because I’m not limited to having to buy specific products to earn rewards.

With Receipt Hog, you snap a photo of any receipt and upload it to earn coins. Yep, any receipt! You earn a certain number of coins based on how much you spent and you can level up to earn more.

The receipts can be to any store too, including restaurants, supermarkets, closeout stores, beauty stores, health stores, dollar stores, and more. They just can’t be handwritten receipts and can’t be older than two weeks.

The coins you earn equal money. 1000 coins equals about $5. You can level up to earn more as you load more receipts. There are also sweeps you get entered in to earn more too.  And you  earn pulls on a slot machine for chances to earn more coins which is kind of fun.

I just downloaded this app on New Year’s Eve and immediately uploaded all of my receipts that I still had from Christmas Eve on. I had 200 coins in no time and have already leveled up twice. I’m at level 3. For under $10, I earn 5 coins, $10 – $50 earns 10 coins, $50 – $100 earns 15 coins, over $100 earns 20 coins. I also earn one sweep entry per receipt.

Since this is a brand new app for me, I’m still learning about it so if you have questions here’s a link to their FAQ.  But I’m already looking forward to uploading all of my receipts this year!

In February, I’m also going to add these two apps to my list of savings accounts.