Coupon Apps: Saving With Your Smartphone

As smartphones become more and more ubiquitous, we’re seeing all kinds of innovations being designed for mobile technology. One category that is growing is the mobile coupon front, with a lot of people are using their smartphones to snag and redeem deals. Naturally, I will explore any and every new avenue of saving money, so I’ve been intrigued to see this area develop. Last year at the Safeway Just4U event, for example, they unveiled the accompanying savings app that you could use while on the go to load deals to your card. Up until last week, I was using a first-generation iPhone (In true frugal fashion!), but unfortunately Apple doesn’t allow older devices to upgrade past iOS 3.1.3, so I hadn’t yet been able to try any of coupon apps out there. Last week, I received an iPhone 3GS as a gift, so one of the first things I did was install several coupon apps that I’d been anxious to try.

Coupons.com App

One of the apps I’ve been experimenting with is the Coupons.com app. This is an extension of their website, and basically gives you a hub on your smartphone from which you can browse and select printables. Once selected, you can either email the coupons to yourself for printing later, or if you have a select new printer, you could print them wirelessly. The app also lets you browse through savings card offers, which you can add to your various club cards when you login with your Coupons.com account. You can also browse smartphone-specific offers to add to your iPhone’s “Passbook” app, which you would then pull up on your phone and present to the cashier to scan the screen. This is probably the most unique feature of the app, since these coupons are unique to mobile devices. I have yet to try redeeming one of these coupons, but I’ll report back once that happens! The Coupons.com app is pretty straightforward and easy to use – it’s really just a supplement to the website, another way of making it more convenient to access and save coupons that you want to use.

Grocery IQ

Another app powered by Coupons.com is the Grocery IQ list app. This app is pretty neat and has a lot of functionality; you can create your own mobile shopping list, search for products to add, browse relevant coupons, use the GPS to pull up local store information, use the voice memo to add products to your list, or even utilize your phone’s camera to scan a barcode for an item you’re running low on to add to your list. You can also sync your list with someone else, which I could see being really useful – a smartphone shopping list is the ideal thing for someone like Jai, who will lose a paper list in 30 seconds. 😉 When I go grocery shopping, I usually have a notebook or large piece of paper with me so I can work out the total as I go – I treat my coupon shopping almost like a longform math problem, so my lists have running totals for cost before coupons, after coupons, and so on. I don’t know that I could make the transition to using lists on a smartphone unless maybe they built a calculator into the list (You can input prices, however). I know I’m the minority with that though! However, I will totally use this for outsourcing lists to Jai.

Do you use mobile coupon apps, and if so, which ones?

18 Responses to “Coupon Apps: Saving With Your Smartphone”

  1. 1
    Pam says:

    As frugal as I am you would think I use these, but I usually don’t. I need to start though! I don’t have an iPhone but these should work on my android.

  2. 2
    Beeb says:

    Pam – you are correct, both of these have Android versions as well.

  3. 3
    daisy says:

    This looks really convenient!

  4. 4

    I am pretty hooked on RetailMeNot – does that count? LOL

  5. 5
    Angela says:

    I’ve used the coupons.com and retailmenot apps.

  6. 6
    Juliek says:

    It’s definitely sounds like a cool app, but I’m like you where I have lots of column and info for everything!

  7. 7
    Dawn Lopez says:

    I am finally just starting to use apps, which is strange I know! This sounds like a great one to have, love to save money, thats for sure! Thanks for sharing!

  8. 8
    Kristyn says:

    i didnt know that coupon.com had an app i need to download that! i do have and use other coupon appps though to save me some money!

  9. 9
    Linda B says:

    I have a grocery IQ on my android phone but havent gotten around to it much. Look like I need to! I love saving money!

  10. 10
    Jennifer says:

    Cool, good to know! I have yet to explore my coupon app options.

  11. 11
    Brett says:

    i haven’t been using apps for coupons- i got a new phone and totally forgot to install the apps. guess i’ll do that today!

  12. 12

    I like the sync feature of the Grocery IQ one. I am awful about forgetting my coupons at home.

  13. 13
    Janel C says:

    I love digital coupons! Clipping and storing real coupons is no fun!

  14. 14
    Stefani says:

    I use the Safeway app and didn’t know of these others. I will have to download them to my iPhone. I love using coupons.

  15. 15
    Catherine says:

    I use Grocery iQ so I always have my favorites list with me!

  16. 16

    I haven’t used any apps like these. I thought that they would be too complicated but if they are as good as you say then maybe I need to start. I always forget to take my coupons but never my phone!

  17. 17
    Minta says:

    I haven’t used apps like these either. I do have a smartphone so maybe I should look into this..thanks for sharing!

  18. 18
    Aurelia says:

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