5 must have Phone apps to save money

Let your smart phone save you money! Here are the best apps to download to save you money and time.

1. Target Cartwheel: If you are like me, you visit Target a lot. I mean a lot; a lot. Enough where you know when staff turnover happens. Luckily the Target Cartwheel exists because it always updating with new 40% off coupons and new Target coupons. Plus, Target offers free wi-fi, so you don't need to have an active phone plan to use Cartwheel.

One of the biggest reasons to why I love Cartwheel is that it automatically offers the coupons found in the newspaper. This means I don't have to buy one extra paper for more coupons, its already there and loaded.

The one disclaimer to this is make sure to read the fine print. Target only allows 4 transactions per one time use of Cartwheel, sometimes less . I hate when my total is higher than the total in my head because of this reason. Be careful.

Also, don't forget you can use a manufacture coupon with a Target coupon, which provides extra savings! Also, when combined with a gift card, the savings can get really good.

2. Ibotta: This app gives you money back after you make purchases at the store. You have to download the rebate onto the phone by watching a 1 minute long ad (or less), then after you purchase the item, you take a picture of the barcode of the item and your receipt using your smart phone. Once you hit 20.00 in the app, you can transfer the money to a PayPal account. It's pretty quick and an easy way to save a few dollars here and there.

The only disclaimer is that after 12 months of inactivity, you get charged 3.99 to keep your account open. The 3.99 doesn't come out of your PayPal or bank account, but rather any left over money in your Ibotta Account.

3. MobiSave and Checkout 51: Pretty much the same thing as Ibotta. There are different stores to shop from via this app than in Ibotta.

4. Starbucks: If you like Starbucks, you must get this app. It allows you to upload a gift card onto the app (which is nice for budgeting) and each purchase you make you earn stars that add up to free drinks. When you run out of money on the gift card, you can re-up by using your debit card or going to a cashier and having them add money to your virtual gift card.

Also, it seems like each week Starbucks offers promotions to earn stars at a faster rate. I think this week is buy 3 drinks within 7 days and get 100 stars (125 stars is a free drink). Also, you get a free drink on your Birthday and each holiday season they come out with the Starbucks holiday win game which adds a whole load of different ways to earn free drinks (I think I earned 5 or more free drinks last year).

Having this app is the perfect way to get more bang for your buck when it comes to Starbucks.

5. 7-11: They actually offer tons of free goodies on this app. I mean the goodies are like pints of ice cream, slushes, small bag of chips.. but still if you are looking for a freebie, this is a good place to find it.

6. Safeway: I happen to live in an area where there are a lot of Safeways. I assume other regions have grocery stores that do this too..

Anyhow, the Safeway app is great because it is very similar to Target in the fact that all I need to do is click a button for the coupon to download to my phone.

Saves time and money.

Also, I tend to get free items at least once or twice a month and 10.00 off 50.00 or 2x the gas points when I buy produce, etc. This is a great way to save some cash.

Also, did you know that Cheveron is a Safeway gas station? That means if you have tons of gas points from Safeway you can redeem them at Cheveron?

One of my biggest tricks to save money is to buy gift cards at Safeway for items that I know I want to buy...

Basically, I buy the gift card and get points to use off of gas which makes it an extra bonus to something I was going to buy anyways.