Save on Wine and More with Ibotta

Most of what I do on this site are wine reviews to help consumers find good, inexpensive wines. While I love making wine recommendations, part of my mission is to help wine lovers stretch their dollar a little bit further. Sometimes that’s done by sharing specific bargain wines. Sometimes it’s by sharing where to shop in order to get a great deal. And sometimes it’s done by sharing ways shoppers can take advantage of extra discounts. Today, I’m highlighting an app, called Ibotta, that can help you save on wine — as well as on food and other things you buy at the grocery store.

A disclosure up front, I am an Ibotta affiliate. That means if you click any link in this article and sign up for Ibotta, I’ll get earn a referral fee. It’s not much, but it helps me pay for hosting and keep this site running. Regardless, I wouldn’t recommend Ibotta if I didn’t believe in it. I’ve been a user for about a year and half and it has saved me a lot of money.

The way Ibotta works is through cash back offers for many of the things you buy — including wine. You go to the app, select the store where you shop, look through the available offers and “add” the offers you want. After you purchase the products, a credit is applied to your account that you can later redeem. For some retailers, you need to take a photo of the receipt and upload it through the app in order to prove you purchased the products, but for some retailers you can link your shopper card, through which Ibotta confirms your purchases automatically. They also have a browser extension you can install for additional savings when you shop online from your computer.

Offers will vary by region and retailer. Therefore, the offers I see may differ from the ones you get where you live and shop. The offers also change over time, which means you need to check it shortly before you go shopping for the latest offers.

While these will surely change and may not be available where you live, at the time I’m writing this article there are over 40 wine-related cash back offers available to me. Some examples include:

• $3.00 cash back on Coppola Diamond Collection
• $2.00 cash back on JUSTIN Cabernet Sauvignon
• $3.00 cash back on CK Mondavi wines
• $3.00 cash back on Rodney Strong Alexander Valley Cabernet
• $3.00 cash back on Campo Viejo
• $2.00 cash back on Mezzacorona wines
• $4.00 cash back on San Simeon wines of any variety

That’s just a handful of examples, but as you can see, the savings can really add up!

Although the focus on this website is wine, that’s not all you can save on with Ibotta. They have offers for all kinds of stuff on your grocery shopping list. Cheese, crackers, pasta, vegetables, bread, condiments, meats, staples, you name it and they have offers. Basically, if you’re not using Ibotta you’re throwing money away.

I will admit, that it can seem rather tedious and overwhelming at first to scroll through all the offers every time you go shopping. Here are my tips on how to make using this app a little easier:

1. The app has a search feature, so after you write your shopping list be sure to search for everything on your list to see if there are related offers.
2. There is category navigation at the top of the app. So if you’re interested in a specific category, like wine, go to that section to see all the current offers.
3. Take some time to scroll through all the offers available a few times and add everything of interest to you. Yes, this will take some time, but after you purchase those items, they’ll appear in the “buy it again” section of the navigation, making it easy for you to find offers for things you regularly purchase.
4. Always check the “new offers” section of the navigation to see offers you haven’t seen before.
5. Always check the “any item” section of the navigation for offers that are not brand-specific. For example, $0.10 off any brand of wine. These offers are typically a low amount, but every little bit helps.
6. Some offers only apply to specific versions or sizes of a product, so be sure to check that. You can scan the item with the app while you’re at the store to be sure it matches.
7. Combine these offers with savings you can get through sale prices and coupons. It can make a huge difference in your shopping bill.

Convinced yet? If so, sign up for Ibotta and start saving!

What tips do you have to help folks to save more? I’d love to hear from you.