Hey guys – coming back at ya with another way that I make money from side hustling. One thing you can take advantage of that you might not be aware of is what you bought. Companies are willing to pay you money for taking pictures of your receipts and I’ve compiled the four free apps I use below to take advantage of my receipts. I am calling this my “receipt gauntlet”.
Every time I get a receipt, I save it until the end of the week, then spend some time taking pictures of my purchases with these four apps below and then go on with my day.While the payout from these apps isn’t huge, it’s a little extra on top with not much time spent taking pictures. I make about $105 per year from doing this, and spend about 20 minutes per month doing it.
CoinOut: This app gives you points for all scanned receipts, with a daily limit. The payout per receipt is random, giving you anywhere between one cent and 20 cents per receipt. In my experience, the average price per receipt scanned tends to be between three and four cents.
To cash out, you will need to accumulate a balance of at least $20. I’ve cashed out twice so far in two years of having the app and have about $5 in credit right now, so I’ve made around $20 per year. I would assume the same rate of return for you, unless you do a lot more shopping than I do.
Receipt Hog: Like the others in the group, Receipt hog gives you points for scanning receipts. You can accumulate coins and then cash out coins for direct payment or gift cards.
Unlike some of the others on this list, Receipt Hog only gives you points for certain types of purchases. According to their website, you can get points from the following types of receipts.
- Grocery / Supermarket
- Supercenter
- Club (Cash and Carry)
- Health (Chemist)
- Bargain (Dollar / Pound Shops)
- Drug & Pharmacy
- Liquor (Off-License)
- Convenience & Corner Stores
- Beauty Supply
- Pet Supply
- Toy Stores
- Mom-and-Pops, Bodegas & Newsagents
Over the last few years, I’ve averaged $20 in cash outs per year and this app is a solid earner.
Receipt Pal: This app is the biggest payer of the group. They have a system where you earn points for each valid receipt. Each valid receipt gets you one check towards more points and four receipts earn you 100 points. They have a limit of 300 points per week and once you reach a certain threshold you can cash out your points for gift cards.
Personally, I cash out 3,200 points for a $10 Amazon gift card since your points get more valuable the longer you hold them. In looking back at this app, I’ve cashed out $80 in regular rewards since I began mid-year of 2019. So in 1.5 years I’ve cashed out $80, let’s assume you can get $52 per year from this app.
Also, something cool about this site is they offer daily sweepstakes for users to win $250. I actually won one of these last year and received a $250 visa card in the mail. That was awesome – and I do not expect if you download this app that you will win this to be honest, but it was a really nice unexpected boost. I won’t include this number in my assumed totals. But who knows?
Fetch Rewards: Fetch rewards is an app that gives you points for scanning receipts, and bonus points for scanning receipts from grocery stores. They also have a points system where you get points
Fetch will also give you extra points if you buy certain brands, so this can give you a boost in points if you choose to target those brands. Personally, I don’t do this, so I don’t get many extra points from them, but there is that option for those interested.
Overall, this is the slowest earner of the group, but you could probably earn more from them if you shop for the brands they partner with – they have some pretty good deals. Here is an overview of my earnings. I’ve earned $20 and have about $5 in credit with them over two years, so I get about $12 per year from this app.
Overall, these apps are not going to make you rich. However, you can earn money for taking pictures of your receipts, something that really doesn’t take much time to do. By using these four apps, I earn about an additional $105 per year. That might not seem like a lot, but that amount of money comes from spending five minutes per week taking pictures of receipts – which leads to a dollar per hour of work equivalent that I think is worth it.
If this article was helpful for you, please consider signing up for these apps using my referral link. For each referral link, we will both get bonuses for signing up.
Referral Links:
- CoinOut: https://coinut.com/referrals/new?r=A6KEM9P
- Receipt Hog: No referral code.
- Receipt Pal: https://app.adjust.com/oqlq9t9?label=44TZE2QD
- Fetch Rewards: https://fetchrewards.onelink.me/vvv3/referraltext?code=TH8PY
One callout for apps like this – I’m sure they’re selling your receipt data or data in general in some way to make money. But I really do not care about that, I figure my data is being tracked in some way anyway so might as well make money for it. I hope you guys get good use out of this, I will talk to you next time!
Roth and Roll Finance 