I went to the grocery store today (there was a decent pause in the rain). Two quick notes about that:

1. My sister tipped me off on a coupon-type app for your phone. I have never been good at coupons. Not enough time, I hate printing out online coupons only to get to the store and can’t use them, etc. I have found nothing difficult or tedious about this app. So far I have gotten $37 back in cash. I have it automatically transferred to PayPal but there are other options. 

So what is this app? Ibotta. Rebates are available on purchases from all kinds of grocery stores, restaurants, drug stores, convenience stores, clothing and department stores, liquor stores, online stores… It’s incredibly easy to use and you can even redeem things after the fact. Sometimes I have a look at what rebates are available before I get groceries, and sometimes I look afterward. You use the app to capture bar codes, and then your receipt. The money is in your account within a few hours. There are even extra bonuses available for earning so many rebates in a given month or special holiday bonuses. 

Another point: the grocery rebates, for example, are not just for expensive brand items. Sometimes there will even be rebates for “any brand milk”, or “bananas, any brand/amount”, and so forth. 

Given the ease of use, the lack of hoops to jump through, and the nice rebates, it makes sense to put this app on your phone. Use it when you think of it and the rebates will add up.

I have not been paid or given any incentive by the company for writing this review. However, there is an incentive for encouraging others to sign up: Each person who signs up with my code avmowwf and redeems their first rebate will get a $10 Welcome Bonus, and I get $5.00. Nice! 

2. When I went shopping today I did not have any of these items in my cart: Pop Tarts, Pringles, Morningstar Farms soy burgers or crumbles, Kashi products (and darn it, I had just fallen in love with the oatmeal, dark chocolate chip cookies), Nutri-Grain products, Cheezits, or Kellogg’s cereals. Why? Because Kellogg’s has stated they pulled all advertising from Breitbart because “it doesn’t align with the values of our company.” Heck, advertise where you want to – it’s a free country – but making a public, virtue-signaling statement like that and you are declaring war. The thing is, they’re right: Breitbart and Kellogg’s have different values. Breitbart upholds free speech, national patriotism, pro-family values, and traditional American values. Kellogg’s values include donating massive amounts of money to (1) the domestic terrorist organization, “Black Lives Matter”, (2) lobbying efforts to defeat ballot initiatives on the west coast that would have required labeling of GMO foods, and (3)  George Soros (who amazingly looks as evil as he is, an unusual situation) and his foundations which support open borders, abortion, euthanasia, government-controlled state media, and even one global government. In addition, it looks like Kellogg’s is buying ingredients which are (internationally) produced in part by child and forced labor. Not good. 

I and over 300,000 people in the last few days have signed the pledge to boycott Kellogg’s. I’m still holding steady on the boycotts of Target and Lands End. I don’t enter boycotts lightly and I don’t sign petitions willy nilly. Kellogg’s seems not to have learned the lesson that as a retail/cereal/clothing company, you should stick to selling goods/food/clothing, not make pious political statements that alienate half of your customer base.