Making Money with Apps

 Times are hard and getting harder. That is a fact! Unless you are in the 1%, you are struggling somewhere. Your bills might be getting paid, your needs met (more or less) but you might be a paycheck or two away from disaster. If these past couple of years have taught us anything is that life is fragile and fleeting.

We are all stuck in the crazy carrousel and looking for a way off. If you are one of the lucky few, you are employed doing what you like and you are making enough money to cover your needs, you might be less inclined to look for ways to earn a little extra cash. But many of us are always looking for that little extra something that will allow us to reach a better plateau. 

I have tried many things myself: Uber, Lift, and Uber Eats. I have clipped coupons, and I have tried the rebate apps. Rakuten and even Capital One offer rebates or discounts on your online purchases. I have had mild success with all of these, but sometimes the time spent on the search is not worth the savings. 

The latest craze I have tried is the receipt scan apps. You make your purchases and scan your receipt and you get points or money back. I have converted my points into gift cards, mostly to Barnes and Noble, but there are several to choose from. 

There are so many apps out there that promise to give you cash or points for your purchases that it is hard to know which are the best or even if they are effective. 

Add to that the number of scams floating about on the internet and it’s enough to take away your sleep. I tried one website that claimed to give you money for taking surveys, clicking on emails to view them is supposed to give you anywhere from a few cents to a few dollars. I was dealing with this app for almost two years. 

They inundated my inbox with dozens of emails, daily. I meticulously clicked on every one of them. This app allows you to withdraw the cash, the only catch is that you must have a minimum of $50 to do so. I have clicked on over $500 worth of emails and offerings, but when the total got to $45, the app stopped working. I don’t mean it would still be there and I was still receiving a ton of daily emails, they were just not adding up anymore. Only the $45 appear as “approved,” the rest is pending, and it has been so for almost two years now. When I add the amounts approved, I come up with well over the $50 needed, but it has been stuck on the $45 forever. I have emailed support a dozen times and have never received a response. The emails kept coming, until I unsubscribed, but no response to my requests for answers.

Then, you have the gas apps. I signed up for the Shell membership. It gives you three cents ($0.03) discount on every gallon. It can go up to 5 cents sometimes and if you link it to some grocery chains, it could turn into more. I did good for a while. I always filled up at least 3 cents cheaper at the Shell. But now, I moved to the Pacific Northwest where every Shell, and other name-brand stations, sell the gas at 40 to 60 cents more a gallon than bargain brands, making my 3 cents obsolete. 

I am tired of chasing after every little cent I can scrape from these offerings. I remembered the saying: “a penny saved is a penny earned” but then I remembered my grandfather saying: “no man has ever become reach by going after pennies.”

So, my question is this: Have you tried any of these apps? If so, which ones? Have you had any success? I would like to know your opinion, as always.