7 Best Supermarket Cashback Apps To Save Money On Your Food Shop (UK 2024)
Supermarket cashback apps are one of my favourite ways to cut down my weekly supermarket shop bill and save money at the supermarket.
You can get major discounts and freebies on these apps, which can cut your food bill in half. If you time it right and combine the offers on these apps with coupons, we’re talking serious savings.
I’ve been using these apps for a couple of years now and I must have saved hundreds on my food shop and I want to show you that you can do the same.
How does cashback work in supermarkets?
Cashback works slightly different in supermarkets than if you were shopping online using a cashback site.
With supermarket cashback apps, you download the app, buy the product as normal and upload a photo of your receipt to the app. You’ll also need to scan your product to prove your purchase on certain apps.
Then, your cashback will be paid back into your bank or PayPal account within a few days.
You can also use certain cashback apps in supermarkets, which offer instant cashback when you buy gift cards to use in stores like Tesco, Sainsbury’s, and Morrisons.
Which supermarkets can I get cashback at?
You can get cashback in most UK supermarkets using the apps on this list. Plus, some offer cashback at Express stores and corner shops. Here are some places you can get supermarket cashback:
- Tesco
- Sainsbury’s
- Morrisons
- Asda
- Waitrose
- Booths
- Iceland
- Aldi
- Co-Op
- One Stop
- Lidl
What are the best supermarket cashback apps for groceries in the UK?
Here are the supermarket cashback apps I recommend to save money at the supermarket:
1. Shopmium
Shopmium is, without doubt, my go-to app for saving money on your supermarket shop. It’s really user-friendly and the products on there are available at a range of supermarkets. So like ASDA, Sainsbury’s, Tesco, Morrisons, Waitrose and more.
There are no withdrawal fees and the cashback goes immediately back into your bank or PayPal account, often within 48 hours.
If you go to ‘Stores’ then you can click on stores on the map and see all the current offers available at each store near you. You can then add items to your basket so you don’t forget to pick them up in-store.
Plus, you can also check the eligibility of the product to make sure you have the right item before you purchase it. Simply scan the barcode via the app and it will let you know if it’s eligible for cashback or not.
Shopmium also have a pretty generous referral scheme! Send your unique code or link to your friends and family and get £3. Use my code: KHKCYCEN to get a free tub of Pringles when you download the app!
They recently introduced a feature where you can also withdraw any referral money you make. (You previously had to use it as credit towards something else on the app.)
Check out my full Shopmium review: Shopmium app – How to get freebies & save money at the supermarket
2. CheckoutSmart
CheckoutSmart is another great app for supermarket freebies and discounts. There are deals available at a range of supermarkets including ASDA, Sainsbury’s, Tesco, Morrisons, and many more. It also sometimes has offers at local One-Stop and Iceland stores, too.
Similar to Shopmium, they have a filtering option, so you can see all the offers available at ASDA for example. It also features a similar shopping basket system to Shopmium, where you can add items to your basket within the app.
You can transfer your cashback as soon as you reach the £5 minimum threshold, but there is a transaction fee if you transfer anything below £20. It sounds like a lot but with all the freebies and discounted products on offer, you’ll definitely hit £20 in no time.
Check out my full CheckoutSmart review: CheckoutSmart app – How to earn cashback at the supermarket
3. GreenJinn
GreenJinn is the best supermarket cashback app for healthier options like fruit and vegetables or healthy snacks. It’s a great place to find new products to try at a discount price. They also have regular freebies featured on the app.
You can personalise your coupons based on the things you like. So if you’re vegetarian or love healthy eating, then you can check these off and build your shopping lists around these preferences.
Simply snap a pic of your receipt on the app like the others, and you’ll receive cashback in your GreenJinn account.
Cash out after just £1.50 and get the money straight back into your bank account. Check out my full GreenJinn review.
4. Airtime Rewards
Airtime Rewards is a cashback app that rewards you with cashback every time you shop in-store with your favourite supermarkets like Morrisons, Sainsbury’s, and Waitrose.
It works slightly differently to traditional supermarket cashback apps, as it automatically rewards you cashback when you shop at a partner supermarket. This means you get cashback regardless of what you bought, rather than only being able to redeem cashback when you buy certain products.
Another twist is You can then redeem this cashback against your next monthly phone bill. The app works with most major networks, including EE, O2, and Vodafone and it’s really easy to download and set up.
Use my referral code PPBMT7HU if you want to get a 50p welcome bonus (PLUS £1 bonus if you spend with a partner retailer in the first 7 days). That’s already £1.50 off your phone bill for less than a minute’s work!
Check out my Airtime Rewards honest review to find out more!
5. Cheddar
Cheddar is a really easy app that rewards you in cashback for buying gift cards and shopping with specific retailers. Simply download the app and link your card to can start earning cashback instantly at supermarkets like ASDA and Tesco.
You can earn automatic cashback or get cashback when you buy gift cards for supermarkets, meaning you’ll get a discount on your weekly shop just for buying yourself a gift card. It literally takes minutes to do! They also have a referral scheme, where you get £2.50 per friend you refer.
Get your first £2.50 by using my referral code: CSAOUJV and purchasing your first gift card on the app within 15 days of downloading the app.
6. TopCashback
TopCashback used to have a Snap & Save section on their app, where you could get in-store deals on various products. It was really good for seasonal freebies too, like free Christmas wrapping paper, Easter eggs, pumpkins, that kind of thing. However, looking at the app now it seems to have disappeared??
Anyway, I’m still including them on this list because they offer pretty decent cashback deals when you order your groceries online from places like ASDA, Iceland, Tesco, and Sainsbury’s.
Instead of picking up freebies in-store, you simply click on the retailer link on TopCashback’s website and check out as normal. Cashback will be added to your account once the retailer has confirmed your purchase.
Check out my complete guide if you’d like to find out more about how TopCashback works.
7. Quidco
Quidco is the final cashback app I recommend for using for supermarket cashback. Similar to TopCashback, they used to have a separate app called Quidco ClickSnap, which they sadly shut down in December 2023.
However, you can also still get competitive grocery cashback deals using their website too. This works the same way as TopCashback. Find out more about how to use Quidco or how cashback sites work.
Why I love supermarket cashback apps so much:
- You get to try exciting new products for free or at a heavily discounted rate – I would say around 70% of the products I’ve picked up are freebies
- The cashback is much quicker to redeem than the time it takes to get money back on cashback sites
- You can still collect supermarket loyalty card points – we’re talking Tesco Clubcard, Nectar points, Boots Advantage Card points, to name a few
- The ability to stack deals and sometimes even make a profit on the cashback you receive
- They often run the same freebie and discount products over and over. I’ve had so many free packs of Hippeas puffs, so yummy!
Another great thing about these apps is they also feature products for people specific dietary needs. Gluten and dairy-free products can be quite pricey so it’s great to know you can discounts.
Top tips to get the most out of supermarket apps
As you can see, each supermarket cashback app has a different offering, but there are ways to get the most out of all of them.
Check the apps regularly to see new offers
These apps are constantly updating every day and if you miss something, it’s good to pop into each app and just refresh to keep on top of new deals.
Allow notifications on your phone
Sometimes freebies only last a day on the app, so allowing notifications on your phone keeps you in the loop. You can nip to the store and pick up the freebie or new offer before it expires.
Make a list before your next shopping trip
It’s good to check the apps while you’re doing your shopping. However, if you’re like me, you might get a bit flustered trying to find all the products on top of your shopping list once you’re in the store.
To make sure you don’t forget anything, list the items in the order of the store so you can pick up any offers as you go around. This saves you zig-zagging around looking for freebies. Sometimes, they’ll be in completely random places to where you originally thought! But at least this way, you’ll be somewhat more organised.
Check when the offers expire
Offers sometimes last for a day or are ongoing for months, so it’s definitely worth checking before you pick yours up. A couple of times I have missed out on claiming cashback, as my receipt has been out of date or I picked up the item too late.
Make sure this doesn’t happen to you by double checking when deals expire! You can do this by clicking on the offer and scrolling down and clicking ‘read more’ to get all the details of the offer.
Double check you’ve got the right retailer & product
This has caught me out a couple of times where I’ve been denied cashback because I’ve picked up the wrong flavour, size or entirely different product.
Sometimes I’ve picked up items in the wrong store. E.g. I’ve picked up a product to claim cashback in ASDA when it was only available at Sainsbury’s.
This is where Shopmium’s ‘check eligibility’ feature is very useful, but always triple check before you pay. Snap your receipts as soon as you get home & keep them until your cashback is confirmed.
Keep hold of your receipts until your cashback has been confirmed
It’s best to upload a photo of your receipt and submit your claim before they end up in the recycling bin, as mine often do!
Then, stash your receipts in a safe place until your cashback has been confirmed.
The cashback app might ask for more information or your pic might have been blurry so it’s always best to have it handy, just in case.
Stack deals to get freebies
If you’ve read some of my other posts, you’ll know I’m a little bit of a geek when it comes to sniffing out a good deal stacking opportunity.
It’s basically when you find a deal and combine it with another offer to make it super cheap or even free. So you can use a deal on one of the apps and a voucher or offer in-store to maximise your savings!
That’s how I managed to get loads of Easter eggs and chocolate treats for free. Tesco had a ‘buy 2 get 2 free’ promotion running and TopCashback’s Snap n Save section had an offer where you could buy any Easter egg and earn £3 back.
My two Tesco Easter eggs were £1.50 each so I earned £3 back from the app AND got 2 free because of Tesco’s promotion. It’s not just seasonal offers, either. You can double up on promotions with a bit of careful planning by checking prices before you visit the store.
In some cases, you can even make a profit!
When a ‘try me free’ campaign is also running alongside a product available on a cashback app, you have the opportunity to go one step further than a freebie and earn money from it!
So say you pick up an item like I picked up a carton of Ocean Spray Cranberry Juice recently.
It had a special ‘try me free’ tag on, so I went go home and uploaded a photo of my receipt, claiming 100% cashback.
CheckoutSmart were also offering £1 cashback on their app. As I already claimed the entire amount back on the ‘try me free’ campaign, the £1 I’ve earned from Shopmium is 100% profit. Sure, it won’t make you a millionaire, but it’s basically free cash and a free product!
Sometimes the items won’t be in stock
I can’t tell you how many times I’ve wandered around my local Tesco, asking multiple members of staff where an item is. Sometimes it’s just not stocked in your store, especially if it’s a new product, flavour or range. This is why it’s best not to go out of your way to make the trip just for freebies.
Can I use cashback apps with an online supermarket shop?
Yes! You can claim cashback offers from some of these apps on your weekly online shop too. It’s worth checking in the T&Cs before you add these to your basket, though.
I hope these supermarket cashback apps help you save as much money on your supermarket shop as I have…
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Collette is a self-confessed cashback geek, who knows everything there is to know about cashback. She’s saved thousands of pounds through using cashback sites and apps, and is passionate about helping others do the same.