The Sites & Apps That Can Help You Save & Make Money

As a personal finance blogger, I come across many great websites and apps. I always try to stay updated on the latest and greatest apps, money-saving companies, and more, as I believe they can help a person improve their financial situation. Whether they make managing your money easier, allow you to make or save more…

Michelle Schroeder-Gardner

Last Updated: June 6, 2024

Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links, meaning if you decide to make a purchase via my links, I may earn a commission at no additional cost to you. See my disclosure for more info.

The Sites & Apps That Can Help You Save & Make MoneyAs a personal finance blogger, I come across many great websites and apps. I always try to stay updated on the latest and greatest apps, money-saving companies, and more, as I believe they can help a person improve their financial situation.

Whether they make managing your money easier, allow you to make or save more money, simplify financial tasks, or something else, there are many benefits to all of the companies that I have listed below.

Every little bit counts and taking part in many of the websites or apps below may be things that you may not have tried yet. You never know how much money they may allow you to save or make, which may completely change how you think about your finances.

There are affiliate links in this blog post, but these are all products and services that I recommend. I wouldn’t put anything in a blog post that I haven’t verified and/or personally used.

Recommended reading: 15 Best Coupon Sites To Save Money

Enjoy!

Have Digit trick you into saving more money.

I recommend looking into Digit if you want to trick yourself into saving more money. I have an account and it’s already helped me save a little more as well.

Digit is a free service that looks at your spending and transfers money to a savings account for you. Digit makes everything easy so that you can start saving money with very little effort.

Read Digit Review – A New Way To Save Money.

Use Bluehost to start a blog.

There are many ways a blog may be able to help you make and save money.

I know many people who have started a blog and are making thousands of dollars a month. Plus, it’s a lot of fun!

I now earn around $50,000 a month from my blog, and I expect that to double in 2016. I also travel full-time and am happier than ever!

If you are interested in starting a blog of your own, I created a tutorial that will help you start a blog of your own for cheap, starting at only $3.49 per month (this low price is only through my link and for a limited time) for blog hosting. In addition to the low pricing, you will receive a free blog domain (a $15 value) through my Bluehost link if you purchase at least 12 months of blog hosting.

Switch to Republic Wireless and save money on your cell phone.

If you have a cell phone, I recommend checking out Republic Wireless for a more affordable plan.

Republic Wireless is a service I’ve been using for over one year now and I’m still very pleased with the service. They have monthly cell phone plans as low as $10 per month. Yes, TEN DOLLARS!

Read Save Over $2,000 A Year With Republic Wireless Review.

Shop with Ebates and get cash back.

I had to include Ebates today in this blog post since the holidays are quickly approaching. Ebates is a great site to be using when you are shopping for the holidays.

Ebates allows you to earn free cash money for spending like how you normally would online. All you do is click on a store that you want to shop through (they have tons of stores such as Kohls, REI, Toys R Us, etc.), and shop just like how you normally would. Ebates makes a commission for referring you to the store you just shopped at, and they give you some of that money back as a thank you.

Plus, when you sign up through my link, you receive a free $10 gift card to Macys, Walmart, Target, or Kohls!

Read my Ebates review Use Ebates For Free Cash Back.

Plan your meals with $5 Meal Plan.

I joined $5 Meal Plan earlier this year in order to help me eat at home more and cut my food spending. It’s only $5 a month (the first four weeks are free too) and you get meal plans sent straight to you along with the exact shopping list you need in order to create the meals. The meals are easy to make, affordable, and delicious!

You can sign up for $5 Meal Plan here.

Take surveys for extra money.

Survey sites are great because they allow you to have the ability to make extra money while doing it all from the comfort of your home.

Some survey sites I recommend include:

It’s best to sign up for as many as you can as that way you can receive the most surveys and make the most money. These are all legitimate survey sites and occasionally you may receive free items to test out too.

Related: 12 Paid Survey Sites To Make $50+ Per Month

Get rewarded for being online.

These three sites are fairly similar so I’m grouping them all together.

Swagbucks is an easy way to earn Amazon gift cards with very little work. Swagbucks is just like using Google to do your online searches, except you get rewarded points called SB for the things you do through their website. You can also receive points for taking surveys, watching videos, and more. Then, when you have enough points, you can redeem them for cash, gift cards, and more. You’ll receive a free $5 bonus just for signing up through my link!

Another one you may be interested in related to this one is Nielsen Digital Voice. Digital Voice is a part of Nielsen, which I’m sure you’ve heard of. All you have to do is surf the web and you may be able to start earning money.

InboxDollars is the last of the online rewards websites that I recommend. You can earn cash by taking surveys, playing games, shopping online, searching the web, redeeming grocery coupons, and more. By signing up through my link, you will receive $5 for free just for signing up!

Related: 30 Best Money Making Apps

Improve your credit score with Credit Sesame.

With Credit Sesame, you can get your credit score for free, with no catch. Your credit score can impact whether or not you are approved for a loan, whether you are hired at certain jobs, your interest rate, and more. It’s relatively easy to raise your credit score, so you should start doing so today.

Read How Your Credit Score Affects Your Life + Credit Sesame Review.

Use Personal Capital to manage your finances better.

Personal Capital provides free financial software somewhat similar to Mint. Personal Capital is much more detailed, though, and due to that between the two I would definitely choose Personal Capital.

You can track your net worth, your cash flow, your portfolio, your investments, and more. Personal Capital pretty much picks up in the main area that Mint is not the greatest in, which is investment planning.

Read Personal Capital Review – An Easier Way To Manage Your Finances.

Save money by shopping with Flipp.

Flipp is a new app that I recently heard about. In case you’re not familiar with the app, Flipp is a free shopping app that brings the weekly shopping circular to your mobile device. With Flipp, shoppers can have seamless access to their favorite circulars and all the savings without lugging around paper or missing a good deal!

The app is also extremely easy to use. With Flipp’s shopping list feature, you can quickly find the best deals for your weekly essentials. Once you’re in the store, you can easily check off items from your list, which is built right into the app. This way you can pick up everything you need and also stick to your list.

You can download Flipp for Apple or Android.

Cancel cable and get a digital antenna.

We got rid of cable earlier this year and we even got rid of Netflix last month. Now, we just have a digital antenna and it’s all we need.

Digital antennas are very affordable and there is no recurring cost with them. You just buy the antenna once and you can get great quality TV and many channels for free.

You can buy a digital antenna here. That is the same exact one I have.

Read more at Cut Cable, Use A Digital Antenna, and Save Thousands.

Related: 20 Best Money Saving Apps

What other sites do you recommend so that a person can save or make more money?


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Michelle Schroeder-Gardner

Author: Michelle Schroeder-Gardner

Hey! I’m Michelle Schroeder-Gardner and I am the founder of Making Sense of Cents. I’m passionate about all things personal finance, side hustles, making extra money, and online businesses. I have been featured in major publications such as Forbes, CNBC, Time, and Business Insider. Learn more here.

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  1. Ellie Di

    I don’t have a favourite app, but I do check your blog and frugallivingmom.com very often. I’m a newbie in savings and I have a lot to learn!

    1. Michelle Schroeder-Gardner

      Aww thanks 🙂

  2. Dee @ Color Me Frugal

    I’ve never heard of $5 meal plan, but that sounds like a great idea! I started putting a calendar on the wall in the kitchen and using that for my meal planner about a year ago, and it has been super helpful for organizing my grocery shopping.

    1. Michelle Schroeder-Gardner

      I highly recommend $5 meal plan!

  3. Sarah Noelle @ The Yachtless

    Cool, thanks for these ideas! I would also recommend Acorns, which rounds up each of your credit card purchases to the next dollar, and invests the spare change automatically.

    1. Michelle Schroeder-Gardner

      Oh yes, Acorns is something I keep forgetting to look into!

  4. Callie

    I love your emails and also groceryiq because it helps me to not over spend at the store!

    1. Michelle Schroeder-Gardner

      Thanks Callie!

  5. ana

    I love Mint. It works great

    1. Michelle Schroeder-Gardner

      Awesome!

  6. Holly@ClubThrifty

    These are all good ones. I am an avid Personal Capital user!

    1. Michelle Schroeder-Gardner

      Personal Capital is awesome!

  7. Kristi @ Femme Frugality

    Ohh! I hadn’t heard of either Flipp or Digit. I’ll have to give those a try. I love new finance apps!

    1. Michelle Schroeder-Gardner

      Same here! 🙂

  8. Elena

    My favorite is Mint.

    1. Michelle Schroeder-Gardner

      Awesome!

  9. Elizabeth | Something Saturdays

    I just recently bought a digital antenna! I have no idea why these things aren’t more popular or more well known!

    1. Michelle Schroeder-Gardner

      I agree!

  10. Shannon @ Financially Blonde

    I am a big fan of Motif investing. Some investment sites make it difficult to access investments because of size restrictions and I think Motif’s minimum account opening size is $250. We opened an account for my son with some of his extra savings and we’ve been happy using them.

    1. Michelle Schroeder-Gardner

      Great idea! Motif is awesome.

  11. Anne Burner

    Not so much new apps, but I use MyPoints and e-rewards to earn towards gift cards. Mypoints allows you to earn points much in the same way as Swaybacks, but you can get physical gift cards – something I like to get for holiday travel to use in the airports, if not to give as gifts. The E-rewards site is mostly surveys, and while some of their selections are limited, I can put some of my points towards airline miles.

    1. Michelle Schroeder-Gardner

      Yes, Mypoints is great as well. I’ll have to do a post on them.

  12. Hannah

    THIS is my favorite financial site. lol I’m always checking back here to find some new tips & tricks to my finances, plus ways to make money on the side.
    Already I’m starting to take paid surveys. 🙂

    1. Michelle Schroeder-Gardner

      Aww thanks! 🙂

  13. Michelle Schroeder-Gardner

    Both great sites!

  14. Michelle Schroeder-Gardner

    Hopefully you will get better 🙂

  15. Jen

    I love coupon sites like Groupon and LivingSocial! My sister says anything you want to do, check Groupon or Livingsocial first. I purchased several discount coupons when I was planning my wedding too where I saved couple of hundred dollars on vendors like the photobooth and photography.

    1. Michelle Schroeder-Gardner

      Nice!