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It’s a Saturday night and you want to have a few drinks. However, you’re a little low on cash and don’t want to end up spending a fortune. These 10 apps will help you save money on alcohol, whether you’re an alcoholic or just want to make a great time with friends even greater.
See an app that’s not on the list and should be? Let us know in the comments down below.
Table of Contents
1. Ibotta
Ibotta is an app that gives you cash back for scanning your grocery receipt. If a product you purchase matches what’s on the app, upload your receipt and get free money. Keep in mind that your purchase must be at one of their partnered retailers.
Most of the products found on Ibotta are for groceries. However, there are plenty of options for alcohol as well. Take a look at the image below as an example. If you purchase a 12-pack of Guinness Blonde American Lager, you can get $4 back on your purchase.
The reason Ibotta is willing to give you free cash is because they make money from selling what you purchase as market data. Just be sure to scan the entire receipt, or you might not get credited. Once you receive a minimum of $20 in your account, you can cash out to PayPal or for gift cards.
It works at restaurants as well. For example, buy a mixed drink or cocktail with Jose Cuervo at any bar and get $2 in cash back. The options for saving at bars isn’t as abundant, but Ibotta is rapidly expanding. Keep checking back for deals that are updated on a weekly basis.
Click here to read our full Ibotta Guide
2. TopCashBack
TopCashBack is an online shopping portal that gives you cash back for making purchases online. Buy something after clicking one of their affiliate links, and you earn a percentage of your total purchase price in your TopCashBack account. The amount you earn depends on where you shop.
For example, let’s say you want to buy a few bottles of wine at Groupon. Type in “Groupon” in the TopCashBack search bar. You’ll see that for all purchases (with a few exceptions), you get 10% in cash back on your total purchase price.
Once you reach a minimum of $10 in earned cash back, you can withdraw it to your PayPal or for gift cards. It can take up to 30 days for cash back to appear in your account. Registration is completely free, and you get a $10 bonus signing-up as a new member. You can earn cash back via their website or smartphone app.
Click here for our full Shopping Portal Guide
3. Checkout 51
Checkout 51 works in almost the exact same way as Ibotta. Make a purchase, scan your receipt, and if it matches what’s on the app you get cash back. Offers are updated every Wednesday at midnight.
You won’t find the offers to be as abundant as Ibotta, but you can still make some huge strides in saving money. Earn $3 in cash back on a variety of 12-packs or $2 in cash back on 6-packs.
Sometimes Ibotta has limitations on where you buy the alcohol. Not with Checkout 51. Make your purchase from any grocery store, and as long as it’s on your receipt your account will get credited. Unfortunately, purchases at bars don’t count.
There are a lot of extra offers due to 4th of July coming up. When your account reaches a minimum of $20, you can request a check to be sent to your door. It usually takes 5-7 business days to arrive.
Click here to read our full Checkout 51 Guide
4. Happy Hour Finder
There’s no need to go searching around for good deals at bars in your neighborhood when you can get them instantly from your phone. The Happy Hour Finder App is a library of happy hours in your area. Allow the app to access your location, and a map will be populated with restaurants and bars with happy hour times.
You’ll be able to view the prices of drinks along with the duration of their happy hour. The best feature of this app is its sorting capability. You can sort by day of the week, cheapest price of drink, or time.
This app allows you to be more social without having to worry about your budget as much. You don’t have to be an alcohol drinker to enjoy this app. Some restaurants and bars also have discounts on juices and other beverages. This app is available from both the App Store and Google Play Store.
5. Groupon
Sometimes I forgot that Groupon has a smartphone app as well. This service provides deals from restaurants and bars in your area looking to promote their products. I often get restaurant deals at anywhere from 30% – 60% off the normal price.
We took a look at some of the better deals in Portland, OR to save on alcohol. Here’s what we found:
- 40% off Cider Tasting Package for 4
- 47% off wine, cheese and beer
- 15 Bottles of wine for $65 delivered to your door (any location)
If you purchase a Groupon that can be used at a restaurant or bar, just be sure to show them the Groupon first before placing your order. First-time users get $10 off their first Groupon purchase of $25 or more. Groupons can be purchased directly from their app or website.
6. Yaarlo
It doesn’t matter where you go shopping with the Yaarlo app (code JASON799 for $1 bonus), and it doesn’t even matter what you buy. As long as you save the receipt you’re going to get some money back. Yaarlo is a free mobile app that pays you to scan your receipt.
The only requirement is that you must take a picture of the entire receipt. Include the store name, total price, address and date of purchase in the picture. There’s no partnered retailers or specific products you need to buy. The amount of cash back you earn entirely depends on the total price shown.
You earn 1/4 of a 1% of your total purchase price (25 cents for every $100). While it doesn’t seem like much, the amount of effort you put into the app is very minimal. It usually only takes about 10 seconds to scan a receipt.
We don’t recommend scanning receipt that has a total price of $5 or less. The reason for this is because the total is so low that you might not even get any cash back for your receipt. You can cash out when your account has a minimum of $10. There are gift card options as well as direct payouts to PayPal.
7. Full Glass
This is a great app, and it’s quite unfortunate that it’s only available for bar hoppers in New York City. However, it’s quite understandable given the size of the city and the amount of alcohol consumed in it.
The app consists of a list of venues that have buy 1 get 1 free deals. Select the bar you want to drink at and show the image on the screen to your server. Whatever drink you buy, you get another one of the same for free. You can register for free with a Facebook or email account.
When you sign-up for the app you get a 7-day free subscription. If you want to use the app for a bit longer, you can upgrade your account for $10 a month. Each time you refer a friend you get a 1-month subscription added to your account for free. Staying away from alcohol? Try asking your server for buy 1 get 1 free juice.
Full Glass is currently partnered with over 50 bars and lounges in NYC and is growing rapidly. The app will let you know which places are the nearest to you. The best part? You can get as many buy 1 get 1 free specials as you want! There’s no limit to the amount of visits per bar, and no limits to the amount of free drinks.
8. Liquor Run Mobile
Everyone knows that drinking alcohol at home is much cheaper than buying tons of shots at a bar. The Liquor Run Mobile App helps promote buying alcohol at the store by telling you the closest locations to buy alcohol with closing times.
Not only that, but they also have tons of recipes with the ingredients that you need. Become your own bartender and save tons of money having a fun night with friends. You can also find out how many calories are in your drink and all other nutrition facts.
9. Walmart Savings Catcher
Walmart is a great place to shop at due to their incredible discounts. Even though they’re not considered to give you the greatest experience, our main focus is saving money.
The Walmart Savings Catcher App allows customers who have already purchased a product to be refunded the cost difference if they find a lower price at another store.
For example, let’s pretend you purchase a bottle of wine for $4 at Walmart. Use the app to type in the receipt number. Walmart will automatically scan stores in your area to see if there’s a price difference.
If there’s the same bottle of wine at Target for $3, you’ll get $1 back. What I love about this app is that it does everything for you, and it never hurts to try. Each time I get a receipt I always scan it to see if there are cheaper prices elsewhere. If it finds something, I get cash. If it doesn’t, I only wasted a couple of seconds.
Click here to read our full Walmart Savings Catcher Guide
10. Quit That!
What’s the best way to save money on alcohol? By not drinking any at all. Not only will you save a ton of money, but you’ll feel a lot healthier as well. Quit That! is a free mobile app that helps you reach your goals of quitting any bad habit.
Log what you want to quit, and Quit That! will continue to motivate you by telling you how many hours and how many days you’ve gone without your bad habit. Not only that, but it will also tell you how much you’ve saved.
This app may be a bit extreme for those who drink infrequently, but for serious drinkers looking to cut back, this can help motivate your cause. The app is 100% free.
Final Thoughts
We don’t necessarily promote drinking. However, we want to help those who wish to do so save some cash. Keep in mind that you can stack the receipt scanning apps. If you find the same bottle of wine on both Ibotta and Checkout 51, upload your receipt to both apps to get double the discount.
If you purchase alcohol online, just remember to show your ID when signing for the package. Is there an app that you know of that’s not on this list? Let us know down below. We’d love to hear about it! Thanks for reading and happy frugaling.
