Holiday Shopping on a Budget Using Apps

Oh my!!!  Its almost time to start serious Christmas shopping and I can’t wait to hop in the car with my mom and her sister for our annual shopping trip the day after Thanksgiving.

And this year, I will be using a different approach.  Shopping Apps!!

I don’t have a smart phone, but I do use my iPod all the time to do basically the same thing a smart phone can do.  Such as, finding deals using apps and not having to run to each store to compare.  Not only is that saving me gas, but it will also save my aching feet!!

I read a post at A Bowl Full of Lemons, I love her blog, and would like to share with you about using different apps to find deals and coupons this holiday season.  I’m all for that!!

I personally have tried ibotta, but it doesn’t work well with my iPod because it doesn’t have a bar code scan function and that means Publix is out for me.   I have the 4th generation and any iPod after that you can use with no problems.  But I do use it with other stores, such as Walmart.

My fav app is Favado and is great for holiday shopping and at the grocery stores.  It compares the store sales in my area very well.  What I love about using the app is when I checked for a sale at Publix and Target, it not only compares sales but there is a paper clip that shows you where to find coupons.   Ex:  Barilla pasta on sale for $1.59 BOGO at Publix and then it showed me the coupon to go with it to make both jars $.30!  All on the same screen.   I also noticed that the app showed a few more coupons that I could use compared to what I saw on the website I use for my weekly shopping trip to Publix.  You can also have items sent to your email.  This helped with printing or clipping more coupons.  I think this will really help when comparing with CVS and Walgreens too.

SnipSnap allows you to take pictures of your paper coupons instead of cutting them out and having a digital version of it on your device.  What a great help that will be during the holidays.  Never have to dig in your purse again for fly away coupons!

Target Cartwheel is new to me. I don’t shop there often and I’m ashamed to say that because they have really good deals and let you stack coupons and I adore their $1.00 bins.  So maybe with this app I will be sure to check it out more often.  The app will help you with finding all the sales and what coupons to use in the store.

RedLaser I have used and enjoyed.  You can search for local deals, search ads, use code scanning for price comparison (my favorite part) and find out information about a certain product using the barcode.  Just scan a code on a product you want to compare and you will see the stores in your area that offer that product and how much it costs.

TECHY NOTES:  Some of these apps are optimized for say the newest iphone or Android devices and you must have a camera feature to use all of these.  Be sure to click on the link of each device to find out more information and if your device works with these apps.

I would love to hear your experience with any of these apps or do you have any apps you love and would like to share with us.

Have a wonderful shopping day,

Tammy