By Lindsey Schibelhut, Senior Reporter.
The art of saving money through couponing isn’t in how well you can clip, but how well you can click.
For most struggling college students or households, the ever increasing cost of groceries makes it difficult to go shopping on a regular basis. To cut down on these costs, many people cut coupons in order to save even more money when buying food. But what if you could not only cut coupons, but once you’ve saved up $20, you could receive a check in the mail for the amount you saved? Following in the footsteps of services such as, ebates.com, is the free iPhone and Android app Checkout 51.
Checkout 51 is essentially a rebate app, which can be used either alone or in conjunction with coupons you may have already physically clipped out. To start saving money you’ll first need to create an account. This can be done by going to www.checkout51.com,or by downloading the app. From there, you can login with your Facebook account or use an email address and create a password. Once you’re logged in, make sure you’re set to the correct state where you live, then you can view the deals that pertain to your area (but usually they are all nation-wide). Now it’s all about clicking those deals!
On a positive note, I really have enjoyed using this app. I’ve been able to look through the various offers and cash in on food items I wouldn’t usually think of buying. One of those items has been cereal. Checkout 51 has had a weekly consistency of having a $1 dollar off coupon for Life cereal. Usually Life is around $2.99 a box, so by using the rebate offer you are essentially getting it for $1.99, or less if it’s on sale.
Other food and/or personal items on the app have been: Oreos, Country Crock, ketchup/mustard, Minute Rice, Kraft string cheese, Dove soaps, Venus razors, alcoholic beverage offers, Empire Kosher Turkey, Earnest Eats Hot Cereals, Wild Garden hummus dips and Halls cough drops among others.
Uploading my receipt to the app has been relatively easy and usually it gets processed within a short period of time. To upload a receipt after a shopping trip, in the main part of the app where the offers are, there is a button down at the bottom that says “Upload Receipt.” Follow the prompts it provides you, and once your receipt has been approved the money amount will be added to your account. When you finally hit $20 dollars you can then “cash-out” and Checkout 51 will mail you a check within 5-15 days. Checkout 51 even sends out an email to alert you as to when they have officially mailed your check.
My only complaint about Checkout 51 is about the frequency at which they change their offers. They change the offers weekly (on Wednesday), however it’s not always the case. At one point, after using the app for multiple weeks, I thought the same offers were going to stay on the app all the time. Then, around the Super Bowl, I noticed them varying up the selection choices a bit. But it still does continue to be the same items up for clicking each week. So if those foods are frequently bought, then you will be saving all the time – if they’re not? Well, the offers might start to get boring.
Checkout 51 also seems to curtail the offers to being nationwide rather than making it individualized based on location. It would be nice to see them match deals with your local grocery store ads for the week so that you could possibly double down or triple down on your coupon savings.
Based on my experience with the app so far, I would still recommend it despite some of its negatives. I even earned my first $20 dollars pretty quickly and have already received my first check. The app is simple to use, the interface is easy to navigate and it’s a different way of earning a little extra spending money on the side.