Ibotta is one of the leading mobile coupon apps that pays you to shop for everyday grocery items. Like I've said before, these apps are like reverse coupons. You get the discount after you purchase the items instead of at checkout, but it's the same ultimate effect.

While most of Ibotta's cashback coupon rebates are for specific items or brands, they also give free cash-back on generic “Any Brand” offers with no brand requirements whatsoever.

If you purchase any of the items listed below at a participating grocery, online, or drug store, then simply take a picture of your receipt and upload it into the app. Your account will then be credited for the cash back – all for free!

Online Ibotta Offers

• $0.25 cash back on any brand Pasta – exp 08/16/18 NEW!
• $0.25 cash back on any brand Protein Bar – exp 08/11/18 NEW!
• $0.25 cash back on any brand Mixer – exp 09/17/18 NEW!
• $0.25 cash back on any brand Frozen Pizza – exp 08/10/18 NEW!
• $3.00 cash back on any brand Beer & Fireball – exp 09/14/18 NEW!
• $0.25 cash back on any brand Sports Drink – exp 09/01/18
• $1.00 cash back on any brand Sour Cream & Cape Code Waves – exp 01/31/19
• $0.25 cash back on any brand Frozen Chicken – exp 09/26/18
• $0.25 cash back on any brand Almond Milk – exp 08/19/18
• $0.25 cash back on any brand Dog Treats – exp 08/12/18
• $0.25 cash back on any brand Energy Drink – exp 08/08/18
• $0.25 cash back on any brand Multi-Purpose Cleanser – exp 08/13/18
• $3.00 cash back on any brand Beer & Jose Cuervo Especial – exp 09/07/18
• $0.25 cash back on any brand Frozen Pizza – exp 08/08/18
• $3.00 cash back on any brand Beer & Jose Cuervo Especial – exp 09/07/18

I'll keep this post updated and running with every active generic Ibotta cashback offer I can find.

Site	Highlights	Payout & Rating
BBB Rating: A+ Signup	Offers increase in value as you go. Tons of different earning methods. 💲5 signup bonus.	$30 $30 $30
BBB Rating: A Signup	Unique and numbers ways to rack up cash. Paid out over $200 million back to users. Another 💲5 signup bonus!	$5 $10 $15
No BBB Rating Signup	Survey-focused, with payouts and bonuses as you progress in the form of Loyalty Bonus Points Cool Poll Predictor guessing game.	$5 $10 $15
BBB Rating: A+ Signup	Get your 💵 quickest thanks to their payouts. Nielsen backed, meaning more offers and product trials than most.	$3 $3
No BBB Rating Signup	Great ratings based on my research, but They wouldn't let me in, so they have a major Anti-Goob strike against them.	$10
BBB Rating: A Signup	They offered me the most surveys to start. Community and forums are nice. 💲2 signup bonus!	$50 $50
No BBB Rating Signup	I was offered the most surveys from them. Low payout threshold is 👍 Earned the most $$$ overall here!	$5 $10

In 2005, when HIF was only a figment of my imagination, I was heavily into the “make money online for free” scene. It's actually what I considered making HIF about until I got into freebies!

Most of the offers involved paying a little money and getting little more back via a check in 10-18 weeks. There were scams and you had to stay on top of things, but if you were diligent and read the fine print, it was a cool little world where you could make some side money.

One of the popular methods were survey sites. They paid less than the big offers, but you could make a quick buck today versus waiting 18 weeks for a bigger check.

Flash forward to earlier this summer. I heard the term beermoney and began looking into it. Turns out, that's what the free money online scene had evolved into! As in you won't get rich, but you'll earn a little extra beer money. 😄 🍺

As I read more about beermoney, I started recognizing names from 15 years ago. With times still tough for so many, I figured why not put together a list of the best survey sites that legitimately pay out in 2018.

There are 3 simple rules when it comes to the best survey sites.

If you follow these rules, you're golden!

For starters, make a new email account and only use it for survey sites. I prefer Gmail, but any free email service will work. The goal is making sure your personal or work email doesn't get slammed with survey offers.

Next, you'll want to get a free Google Voice phone number. This way if a legit survey company is ever acquired by a shaddy company, they can't sell your phone number to spammers!

Last, if it sounds too good to be true, then I promise it is. Make sure not to waste your time on any site that promises big, huge paydays. I participated on these sites during my downtime – watching TV at night, waiting for my girlfriend to get ready, sitting on the subway, etc.

Over the course of a month, casually taking surveys, I made enough to buy a few rounds at the bar this weekend. I could have made a little more if I spent less time watching The Expanse!

Survey Tips I've Learned

On top of those Rules, I picked up two key tips to maximizing my time and keeping my sanity on beermoney sites.

Always remember you can give fake info or select the “don't want to answer” option. There's no law against telling somebody on the Internet that you're Bob T. Bobbertson III from Tucson, AZ, a 90 year old Southern Baptist worth a million bucks. Perhaps while answering some questions, Mr. Bobbertson's eyes frequently slip to the screen as the Mariners continue their date with destiny. Who knows what he might have clicked!

Though be warned – the more inconsistent answers you give, the less surveys you may qualify for. That's why I always pick the “choose not to answer” option if I don't feel like giving away my personal info.

Finally, shop around! Each of these sites are running surveys or studies for specific brands or products. That means one site might want a single guy taking their surveys while another wants married moms. After joining multiple sites, you'll quickly notice which sites are giving you the most opportunities.

Armed with these tips, you can make money during your free time starting today!

Top Survey Sites

Without further ado, let's get to the best survey sites!

Inbox Dollars is a platform run by Cotter Web Enterprises, a company with an A+ BBB rating. They pays users cash for participating in polls, taking surveys, playing games, watching videos, and reading emails. They're not only one of the oldest sites on this list (up there with HIF in total age!), but they're also routinely rated as one of the top survey sites.

One reason users tend to love InboxDollars is the more you use their features, the more opportunities you're given to make money. For example, those who read the paid emails every day will continue to regularly receive them. However, if you don't read the emails or delete them without opening, InboxDollars will skip days and email you less. However, if surveys are your jam and you keep taking them, InboxDollars will start offering you more of them. They basically let you choose how you want to earn money.

Hands down one of the best bonuses offered on this list is InboxDollars gives all new users $5! Seriously, just for joining, you get $5 added to your account.

Payout for offers range from $.50 all the way up to $50. Most emailed offers are super easy to complete, though the higher paying offers tend to take at least 5 minutes. There are also high-paying offers that require you to sign up for other products or trials, but I personally skip all of them. My research shows those offers typically are approved within two days.

One wrinkle is their high minimum threshold required to cash out, which is $30. They also don't offer PayPal, but they do allow for Prepaid Visa cards (which have no fee) or you can get a physical check via snail mail with a $3 processing fee.

InboxDollars ultimately is an excellent platform for making a little extra money on the side. I give it based on their longevity, BBB rating, awesome signup bonus, amount of offers, and ease of use! If their payout methods weren't stuck in 2002, I'd bump them up to 5 stars.

Swagbucks is another tremendous money-making option run by Prodege, an A rated BBB company. Not only that, but I've written about Swagbucks frequently and many Hiffers have been earning rewards with them for over a decade!

Swagbucks' two biggest perks are their numerous ways to earn rewards and money along with their extensive history of paying out rewards. In September 2017, they hit a milestone of paying back $200 million to their users!

[Read more…]

Veteran Hiffers may remember the Nielsen Home Scanner I wrote about in 2010 and again in 2013. They've since merged with another company and become the National Consumer Panel.

As luck would have it, I'm a consumer who lives in a nation and loves being on panels, so I was happy to see the NCP is now accepting new applications where you can make money off your normal, everyday purchases!

Upon joining, you're sent a handheld scanner, which is used to scan the barcodes of all your purchases. Each item gives you points, which you redeem for prizes and household items.

Cash Giveaways

Once you become a National Consumer Panel member, if you scan at least one item each week, you'll earn one entry into their Quarterly Sweepstakes where you can win a $500 Visa prepaid card. On top of that, for each week you send NCP purchase information, you earn one entry into NCP's Grand Prix Sweepstakes where you can win $20,000! Every quarter one lucky panel member wins!

In addition, every month, 20 members who sent in purchase information every week of the month will win a Visa prepaid card.

Hiffer tips, tricks, and loot scores

While scanning individual barcodes after a huge shopping trip might sound tedious, Hiffer Theresa sent in this ingenious tip – take the scanner to the store with you! Then all you have to do is scan items as you add them to your cart! Another idea is to scan items slowly instead of all at once. My friend scans a few items each night while watching TV and I've heard of others getting their kids to do all the scanning 🙂

Have any Hiffers joined National Consumer Panel over the past few year since they changed from Nielsen. What are your thoughts on it? How long does it take to earn enough points for decent rewards? Let us know in the comments!

Amazon has come up with another “huh, interesting, I could see this working out” idea called Amazon Cash. As the name suggests, it's a way for you to turn cash into Amazon credit. While that might seem counter intuitive to some, I know there are people out there like yours truly who tend to spend cash in my pocket far faster than if I put it in the bank or have it as store credit.

Confused? Let Amazon explain!

Since people love free money, they're offering $15 or $7.11 in free Amazon credit to new users through 6/30/18! Simply generate a barcode by clicking the “Get Your Barcode” near the top left. Then either print it out or send it to your phone via text and visit a participating merchant like CVS, Gamestop, 7-Eleven or a dozen more stores. You'll then pay $60 in cash and have the store scan your barcode, which will give you $60 Amazon credit PLUS a free $15 Amazon credit on top of that.

If you want the free $7.11 in credit, then you only need to add $30 at a 7-Eleven.

So in effect, you pay $60 or $30 in cash and get $75 or $37.11 in Amazon credit! You can then go online immediately and spend the credit on anything Amazon sells.

The free promotional credit for both offers ends 6/30/18 and you have until 7/31/18 to redeemit.

I'm not a huge stock trader. I'm more of a sock trader, in that I'm always unwittingly trading left socks with the person using the washing machines after me at the laundromat.

When I first started investing, I found the online brokerage fees of $7 per trade to be a bit steep. That's why I joined Robinhood a few years ago and never looked back. They're an app-based brokerage account regulated just like all the big Wall Street companies. What sets Robinhood apart are their no-fee trades, which means you never pay a commission when you buy and sell stocks. The only drawback is they don't have great research options, but I always got around that by using all the free research tools on other websites. Then I go back to Robinhood and make my free trades there 🙂

While that's all well and good, Robinhood is running a promo giving away free share of stock to anybody who joins! For no money whatsoever, you can get a free share of a surprise stock. While it's completely random what you get, you have a 1 in 150 chance of getting a share of Facebook ($178.92), Apple ($172.50), Microsoft ($84.14) and a 1 in 100 chance of getting a share of Ford ($12.36), AMD ($11.12), or Vereit ($7.92) – all for free! The lowest stock you can get for free is priced at $2.50, so there are no garbage or penny stocks being offered here.

How to Get a Free Share of Stock

To get your free share of stock, simply sign up via their app and wait for your account to be approved. You have to be referred by somebody in order to get your free share, so it's important you go through a link here on HIF. You can only have 1 account per person, so they confirm your identity with your social security number (similar to how tobacco freebies do!) using bank-level SSL and 128-bit encryption.

After your account is approved, open the app and click on the “Free Stock” link in the menu. You should then have a share of stock to claim! You then have to wait 2 business days before you can sell the stock and then wait another 30 days before you can transfer the money out of the app and into your bank account.

With the number of readers HIF has, I'd be shocked if a few Hiffers didn't get a share of those mega expensive stocks! In fact, I'd love for Hiffers to share what they got in the comments just so we could see how much free money was given out.

Robinhood has an overview of this promo on their site, along with a few FAQ about it.

Fingers crossed you're one of the lucky Hiffers to hit it big with a share of Facebook or Apple. Good luck!