Not Your Grandmama's Rebates: Save Money With This Old-School Grocery Shopping Hack

Soaring grocery prices are a common complaint for many Americans, so it can pay to know different ways to save money. Looking for in-store discounts, grabbing coupons whenever possible, and shopping at the most affordable grocery chain can all help. However, there's also a decades-old grocery shopping hack that you may have never taken advantage of before: rebates.

Just like how $100 bought a lot more groceries in the 1960s, shopping rebates were also quite different back at their inception. Dating back to the 1960s, traditional rebates were mail-in, meaning that shoppers would pay the full price of an item upfront, mail proof of their purchase to the manufacturer, and wait to get a check reimbursing the promised portion of the cost. If that sounds a bit exhausting, there is good news; Today's rebates are primarily digital and are processed much more quickly.

When it comes to groceries, rebates are readily available and while you no longer need to mail paper receipts in, you do need a functioning smartphone. You'll also need to know which apps can help you save on groceries. While many of these apps offer in-store or online coupons, some, like Ibotta, Upside, and Checkout 51, offer cash back on grocery purchases that work similarly to how the rebates of yesteryear did.

Rebate programs don't exist due of the benevolence of the retail industry. Instead, they exist to encourage more purchases. However, savvy shoppers can still use this to their advantage. For starters, checking available offers in your cash back app of choice before heading to the store can allow you to plan your trip around the most cost-effective items. To get reimbursed, you'll typically need to submit a photo of your receipt (though some apps, like Upside, have you connect your payment method so it can track and reimburse your purchases more instantaneously).

Another method to try is app stacking. Because modern grocery rebate programs operate digitally, shoppers can potentially have their purchases tallied multiple times through different apps. At the very least, you may be able to qualify for multiple offers across the same receipt, helping you maximize the amount of cash you get back from your shopping trip. Even though most of this cash back will be no more than a few dollars or even cents per individual item, this can still add up over time. Ibotta, for instance, claims that its users save an average of $218 per year.