Time is of the essence when it comes to coupons and deals!

Watching a lot of court shows lately and in a court of law, this is an important line to add on any contract. What it means in the law system is that a person can't take their sweet time for years, it means they need to pay back your loan to them as soon as possible.

Couponing is much the same. If you don't make the time to go and buy a good deal, you'll miss out. Case in point, tonight's couple items...

I saw on Saturday that a couple of my e-rebate apps had scrubbing bubbles items on it. One was a buy two SC Johnson products and get $3.00 back and another app had buy any 2 scrubbing bubbles bathroom and get $4.00 back. Combine that with a Food Basics deal for $3.00 a bottle, and that's pretty good. Combine THAT with a manufacturers coupon I printed from online I had for buy one get one free, and now that's a great deal. 

Couldn't bring myself I go out to grab any of these this weekend and went out tonight instead. Well one of the apps was sold out tonight, so instead I got two bottles for $1. Still good, but we all like the idea of being "paid" to take stuff out from the store. 

Another of tonight's deals I missed the boat on was Pledge Floor cleaner. One one of the apps for $7 back a bottle, and I have a manufacturers coupon for save $5 each. Walked down the aisle and ran into a lady who was very excited to see a "fellow couponer" and asked if I was in on the Pledge deal. I said I hoped so and she said, yeah this was her third lap going to different cashiers to get the deal. Of course, when I got to the spot on the shelf she had cleared the shelf of all pledge products. Whomp whomp. 

So, note, another good tip is to make your shopping day either Thursday or Friday, when most of the apps have just refreshed their deals. After the weekend, all the other die hard couponer a have cleared the shelves and the available deals from the apps. 

Step 2, App's that give cash-back

So your binder is organized and you are ready to go.. But first, lemme take a detour..

On my iphone I have 6 money saving apps that are easy and actually work. I've tried to think about how these apps actually make any money on their end, but the opportunity here for everyday people like us to save a couple bucks a trip is offered, and you bet I'm taking it!

The idea behind these apps is to influence your purchases to try a certain brand or item. You go shopping, come home, open the app, and submit photos of your receipt to redeem offers like "Get .25 when you buy milk" or "Get 1.00 when you buy any 2 Febreeze scented sprays". Click on the things you bought in that trip, hit send, and wait for the approvals. All of these apps will send you a cheque when you reach a certain amount in your account, and I recently received my first $20 cheque from one of these apps. Easy, quick, and another few cents saved. 

Oh, and the apps will give you the credit no matter what you paid for the item. As long as the item is easily identified on your receipt, you will get the credit. This means you could use a coupon on the item in store, then come home and redeem it on the app (maybe making the item free). 

What I use, in order of preference :

Checkout 51 - good combination of generic items (buy any milk, bread, apples) with brand names we actually want to buy from. Large selection, and this changes every single week. They've also started bonus offers recently, where buy a couple of specially flagged items and get bonus credit back. This is who I got my first cheque from.

Zweet - again, lots of generic items and brand items. Weekly turnover of offers. Difference here is you also get Zweet points for purchases too, which after 650 points you can redeem as charity donations, gift cards and such. 

Snap (by Groupon) - same as the two above, except I find their deals run out quickly. Any generic deal is gone the same day, and what is left is sometimes not a favourite brand. You can also only redeem some offers once (like milk), like, ever, but they usually have high value credit backs for the items that are there. 

Save.ca - this app isn't the best to be honest, but every once in a while they get a couple good items on it. I believe they say their offers change weekly, but you can probably check it once a month as 75% of the deals stay the same. For sure, the website version of the this site is better for printing coupons!

CartSmart - same as save.ca. Okay for some offers, not so great for most.

Changio - this is an interesting app that does points instead of money, but for everywhere including groceries, fast food, department stores and restaurants. It also has a "scan" feature that awards points without having to buy the item (like scan this product's barcode in the store and get 5 points). I've just found this app and it will take me a long while to get up to the redemption point, but you need 2000 points to basically redeem anything. It's a great app if you are going to that place anyways (restaurants and fast food are my major go-to's), but I wouldn't structure my buying plan based on it. 

So those are the "redeeming" apps I've been using. On top of those cash-back apps, I also have a couple other apps that are geat:

Flipp - so my half hour of research a week is basically on this app. There is an awesome "search" function that will search for a keyword amongst all active flyers in your area. So you need a bathroom cleaner this week, and you have a coupon for Lysol?.. Plug "Lysol" into the search area and it'll show you results of that search (where it's on sale), what flyer they're in and more. It even allows you to "clip" the offer to a shopping list, which I use religiously for price matching (freshCo and Walmart both will price match based on digital flyers). Great app, highly recommend. 

PC Plus - if you shop at any of the stores that accept this points program, then you need the app to "load offers to the card". Basically, it'll award you extra points for select purchases, which you can redeem later at checkout for cash (I think it's in $5 increments). Sobeys and a couple other stores have similar rewards cards, which take no time to sign up for and to beep through at checkout. It all adds up!

Hope that covers all the digital pieces. Even if you don't do the physical couponing, these apps are a nearly effortless way to get a couple bucks back on everyday purchases.