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!

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!

Ibotta is one of the many 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 during checkout.

While most of their cashback rebates are for specific items or brands, Ibotta also occasionally runs generic offers with no brand requirements whatsoever. I don't know what took me so long to come up with the idea of compiling all the generic offers together in one post, but here we finally are!

If you purchase any of the items listed below at a major grocery, online, or drug store that participates with Ibotta, simply take a picture of the 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 Tamales (exp 4/30/18)
• $0.25 cash back on any brand Cranberry Juice (exp 12/31/17)
• $0.25 cash back on any brand Whole Oranges (exp 1/1/18)
• $0.25 cash back on any brand Whole Watermelon (exp 11/8/17)
• $0.25 cash back on any brand Pre-Cut Watermelon (exp 11/8/17)
• $0.25 cash back on any brand Carrots (exp 2/28/18)
• $0.25 cash back on any brand One Gallon White Milk (exp 12/1/17)
• $0.25 cash back on any brand One Gallon White Milk (exp 1/1/18) – This is a second, seperate offer that's valid at Walmart only

On top of those offer, my Ibotta app also has the following generic offers, though I'm not sure why they're not listed on the website or how to directly link to them.

Offers marked with a have been recently updated or added to the list.

App Ibotta Offers

• $0.25 cash back on ANY ITEM! (exp 11/13/17 at 2:59am)
• $0.25 cash back on any brand Candy Bar! (exp 11/14/17 at 4:07pm)
• $0.25 cash back on any brand Foundation
• $0.25 cash back on any brand Blush
• $0.25 cash back on any brand Highlighter
• $0.25 cash back on any brand Toothpaste (exp 11/7/17 at 10:41am)
• $0.25 cash back on any brand Bagged Ice
• $0.25 cash back on any brand Jelly
• $0.25 cash back on any brand Garlic (exp 11/13/17 at 2:59am)
• $0.25 cash back on any brand Fresh Berries
• $0.25 cash back on any brand Avocados
• $0.25 cash back on any brand Potatoes
• $0.25 cash back on any brand Motor Oil (exp 11/12/17 at 3:00am)
• $0.25 cash back on any brand Carpet Cleaner
• $0.25 cash back on any brand Laundry Stain Remover

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

Similar to their free $10 credit offer this summer, new Amazon Cash customers can receive $5 in free Amazon credit by adding $25 or more to your Amazon balance via Amazon Cash.

Amazon Cash is a new way to load currency onto your Amazon balance by visiting a participating merchant like CVS, Gamestop, Cumberland Farms, Kum & Go, Kwik Trip, or many others. You then hand over cash and have the store scan a barcode on your phone, which automatically adds credit to your Amazon account. It's a way to use hard currency to buy something on Amazon, as opposed to needing a credit card to shop online.

So in effect, you walk into a store with $25 and leave with $30 in Amazon credit. You have until 12/16/17 to load the Amazon Cash to your account and you have until 12/31/17 to redeem your credit.

Now through 9/30/17, you can get a free $15 Gap eGift card when you make any purchase online using Visa Checkout as payment. This applies to purchases from the following websites:

• Gap.com (code MORE gives 20% off your purchase, while code FREE4FALL might give free shipping on all items.)
• OldNavy.com (also offering 30% off sitewide on 9/21 only)
• BananaRepublic.com
• Athleta.com

You can only redeem this offer once per customer and you'll receive the eGift card via the email you use at checkout. The email should come from gapoptionsgiftcards@cashstar.com within 3 business days.