The free Receipt Hog app pays you for taking pictures of your receipts.

Consistent Receipt Hog users can earn around $25 a year pretty easily. But is it worth it?

We based this Receipt Hog review on:

Our personal experience with the app
Feedback from our independent app testers and public App Store reviews
Comparing with other similar receipt-scanning apps

Ready? Let’s dive in.

How Does Receipt Hog Work?

You take pictures of your receipts from stores that sell groceries, health items, beauty products, and more.

The points you earn are based on the total amount of each receipt:

Less than $10 = 5 coins
$10-$49.99 = 10 coins
$50 – $99.99 = 15 coins
$100+ = 20 coins

How Much Are Receipt Hog Coins Worth?

It takes 1000 coins to earn $5, so every coin is worth $0.005 (half a cent). It might be easier to think about it like this:

10 coins = $0.05
100 coins = $0.50
1000 coins = $5.00

Let’s say your average receipt is worth 10 coins. At $0.05 each, Receipt Hog actually pays better than most other receipt scanning apps.

You can upload receipts 14 days from the date and time of purchase. 

You’ll also earn a spin at the “Hog Slots” for each receipt from other retailers like clothing and home improvement stores. A sweepstake entry is also earned with each receipt. Coins can also be won with sweepstakes entries.

Is Receipt Hog Legit?

Yes, Receipt Hog is legit. The app has been around since 2011 and has over 5 million downloads on Android.

At press time, the app was very well-rated on both major smartphone platforms:

4.5-stars on Google Play with over 220,000 reviews
4.7-stars on the Apple App Store with over 170,000 reviews

How Does Receipt Hog Make Money?

You might be thinking, “Well, what’s the catch?”

The catch is Receipt Hog selling your data.

From their website:

“We are part of a market research company that works with the leading consumer goods brands and retailers. Your receipt data along with the answers to any survey questions you answer may be used in market research reports for the brands that purchase this data.”

How Much Can You Make with Receipt Hog?

Our independent app tester shared, “I’ve been using the app for almost 10 years. I only enter paper receipts and haven’t been the best about saving receipts from all stores. I’ve cashed out $250 over the last 10 years.”

But you should do some estimation based on your own shopping habits. Let’s say your family is similar to ours and you have:

6 grocery shopping trips of $100 or more every month (120 coins in total)
12 other random shopping trips of less than $100 (let’s say 60 coins in total)
reservations about sharing your email and Amazon account information (0 coins)
some luck with Hog Slots — see below — and win another 200 coins a month

In that case, you’d earn enough for a $5 cash out every 2.5 months, or close to the $25 a year our tester reported. 

There are 5 main ways to make money with Receipt Hog:

Upload receipts
Hog Slots
Surveys
Bonus rewards and sweepstakes
Refer friends

1. Receipt Scanning

This is the bread and butter of the app, and you can earn up to $0.10 for every grocery and beauty receipt you upload.

The process is super simple: just tap the Receipts section from the bottom menu, and then tap the camera icon. 

There’s a limit of 100 coins per week from paper receipts, which seems like a reasonable amount of shopping.

2. Hog Slots

Hog Slots are additional opportunities to earn coins, cash, and other prizes.

The Hog Slots prizes in range from 2-1000 coins (up to $5), and there’s even a chance to win $100 cash and a “daily trip prize.”

This is pretty cool: every day, one Receipt Hog user wins enough coins to “erase” the cost of their last shopping trip. 

You earn Hog spins (to use on the Hog Slot Machine) when you upload non-grocery receipts from big name stores like:

Best Buy
Home Depot
Staples
Old Navy
GameStop
Dick’s Sporting Goods

Here’s how it might look in the app:

You can also earn spins by completing the weekly bonuses.

3. Surveys

Receipt Hog also has Surveys section of the app. In our testing, there were no surveys available. 

For more survey-focused apps, check out some of Side Hustle Nation’s top picks:

4. Bonus Rewards and Sweepstakes

Receipt Hog does a good job of gamifying their app. They have monthly prize drawings and you can earn more sweepstakes entries the more receipts you scan. 

5. Refer Your Friends

If you’re a fan of Receipt Hog or an influencer, you can earn 250 coins for every friend who signs up with your referral link and scans a receipt. That’s the equivalent of $1.25 per sign-up, which is decent for an in-app referral program.

Your friend will get free Hog Slot spins after they scan their first receipt.

You can find your referral link by clicking the pig (or is it a hog?) icon in the top left, and then scrolling down to “Invite Friends”.

How to Maximize Your Receipt Hog Earnings

Here are some tips to maximize your Receipt Hog cash back.

Make it a Habit

The best way to get the most out of Receipt Hog is to simply build a habit of scanning your receipts after every shopping trip. That way, you’ll get as close to the 100-coin weekly limit as possible. 

Link Your Email and Online Accounts

Receipt Hog will pay for your online receipts, too.

The easiest way to get those into the app is connecting your Amazon and email accounts. At press time, Receipt Hog was offering a:

36 coin bonus ($0.18) for giving them access to your email to scan for e-commerce receipts
75 coin bonus ($0.38) for linking your Amazon account

Given those low bonuses, that was a hard pass for both me and our app testers.

You can also link up your UberEats, Walmart, Target, and Instacart accounts so you never miss a receipt.

Stack with Credit Card Rewards

At most stores, the price you pay is the same whether you’re paying with cash, a debit card, or a credit card. So you might as well get some credit card rewards while you’re shopping. 

Here are some of the best current cash back card offers. 

Stack with Other Cash Back Apps

Receipt Hog is one of several cash back apps, and there’s nothing to stop you from scanning receipts into multiple apps. 

It still won’t make you rich, but can turn pennies into more pennies.

Among my favorites are:

Fetch Rewards – Scan receipts with this app to earn rewards and cash in for free Amazon gift cards (or other stores).
Ibotta – Check your grocery receipts for special cash back offers. I’ve gotten as much as $5 back on single items so it pays to check!
Pogo – Pogo pays you for sharing your location data and linking your credit card statement. You can cash out via Venmo or PayPal. Check out our full Pogo review for more.
CoinOut – Featured on Shark Tank, CoinOut has similar functionality to Receipt Hog. Check out our full CoinOut review for more.

Save Up Your Coins?

You might be tempted to save your Receipt Hog coins because rewards are slightly discounted the more coins you cash in.

For example:

1000 coins = $5
2900 coins = $15
4300 coins = $25
6500 coins = $40

But even at 6500 coins for $40, the coins are worth $0.006 cents instead of $0.005. It’s not worth it save them up.

Plus, these valuations are subject to change so I would recommend cashing out as soon as you can.

What are the Payout Options?

You can cash out your Receipt Hog coins for:

an Amazon gift card
Visa gift card
PayPal

You must verify your phone number in order to cash out your coins.

Payouts may take up to 7 days to be received. If you order a gift card, that gift card code will be sent to you via email. If you selected PayPal, the amount should be in your PayPal account within 7 days.

Is There a Minimum Required to Cash Out?

The minimum payout is $5, which is the equivalent of 1000 coins.

Depending on your shopping habits, it will take most users 2-4 months to reach that level.

What We Like About Receipt Hog

Receipt Hog is really easy to use. Once you download the app, there are just a few questions to answer and you can start earning the same day. 

The Hog Slots are always fun too–hoping to win big someday!

What We Dislike About Receipt Hog

The biggest frustration is you have to remember to use it consistently, or else you won’t earn anything.

It’s also mildly annoying taking the time to upload a receipt, only being credited a Hog Slots spin for it, and then having that spin be worth nothing. But I suppose that’s just luck of the draw.

Receipt Hog Alternatives

As mentioned above, there are other apps that pay you real money for sharing your data, taking surveys, or even playing games.

Here are a few that might be worth a look.

Fetch Rewards

Just snap a photo of your grocery receipt with the Fetch Rewards app and earn points for every item you purchase from the 250+ popular brands in the app.

I’ve been cashing in my points for free Amazon gift cards, but lots of other options are available as well.

Ibotta

Download the free Ibotta grocery savings app and start earning cash back on the shopping you’re already doing. Use the app to find offers and claim them by snapping a picture of your receipt.

Inside my actual account:

You can cash out your savings to PayPal, your bank account, or a gift card once you hit the $20 minimum.

Ibotta Savers who use the app every month earn over $130 a year! I’ll take it.

CoinOut

CoinOut won’t replace your day job, but could pay you up to $36 a year for uploading your shopping receipts.

It’s easy to use and you can cash out for an Amazon gift card as soon as you earn your first $3 worth of coins.

Check out our full CoinOut review to learn more.

The Bottom Line

Receipt Hog is an easy way to make some pocket money with low effort. While you are exchanging your shopping data for small amounts of cash or prizes–those retailers are likely analyzing your data already, so why not make a little money for yourself?

The Hog Spins are a fun bonus that just add to the gamification aspect.

You’re not going to be making hundreds of dollars a month uploading your receipts, but you can earn a little free money for coffee runs or other luxuries.

And obviously, it’s not a fit if you have any qualms about sharing or selling your family’s shopping history.

Serious About Making Extra Money?

Start Your Free $500 Challenge. My free 5-day email course shows you how to add $500 to your bottom line.
Join the free Side Hustle Nation Community. The free Facebook group is the best place to connect with other side hustlers and get your questions answered.
Download The Side Hustle Show. My free podcast shares how to make extra money with actionable weekly episodes.

Liz Wilcox found herself at a crossroads.

With a growing email list of beginners wanting to learn about email marketing, she knew she wanted to find a way to step away from client work within a couple of years.

She had just signed a huge copywriting contract worth $20,000… her biggest one yet. But instead of excitement, all she felt was dread about the massive project she now had to take on.

And as a single mom, she knew the importance of creating a business that would support her lifestyle and allow her to be present for her family.

This is where the idea of “low cost = low responsibility” appealed to her, as it would allow her to serve her audience at LizWilcox.com while maintaining a manageable workload.

So Liz had the idea to create her flagship offer The Email Marketing Membership — a set of done-for-you email newsletter templates that members could access for just $9 per month.

Tune in to Episode 600 of the Side Hustle Show to learn:

How to come up with ideas for your own recurring revenue membership
How Liz built her own email list and audience
How to improve retention and continue delivering value to members

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Selling Her “Sawdust”

That $20,000 contract made her realize a key truth: trading time for money wasn’t going to lead to the freedom she wanted.

It doesn’t matter how big her projects got or how high she raised her rates because her future remains constrained by working for others and producing results for them.

And then an idea hit her: by selling her “sawdust”—those newsletter templates she made—she could solve a recurring problem for her audience in a recurring way. All while minimizing her time investment.

As she reflected, a few things stood out:

Beginners often find it difficult to send regular emails
No one was offering ready-made newsletter templates at an affordable price
She had tons of email templates for clients that she could adapt and re-purpose

She got the idea from helping clients one-on-one and seeing the problems they usually have with email marketing.

Growth and Traction Out the Gate

To get started, Liz asked her email subscribers for their thoughts on the membership idea.

Since she already had an email list of 800 people, she had a ready-made audience to promote her membership to.

So she sent them an email with the subject line, “Can I have $9?” and shared her goal of reaching 100 members in 30 days. 

“I’m gonna send you a newsletter template every single week. It’s $9. If you’ve been on my email list for a while, you know my stuff is awesome. So why not join?”

This strategy of public accountability created a sense of urgency and excitement around the launch, and within 28 days, Liz hit her first 100 members!

The hype around reaching that benchmark also created natural word-of-mouth publicity on social media.

As the community started to take shape, she decided to create an affiliate program to incentivize sharing. Offering 50% recurring commissions on every $9 membership was lucrative enough to drive strong promotion.

After only 3 months, she grew to 700 members with the help of these affiliate partnerships.

Pricing Strategy: Annual Plan

When Liz’s membership hit the 9-month mark, things were going incredibly well. Almost too well.

She started to wonder — what would happen when all the initial excitement died off? How could she lock in results and guarantee growth?

Drawing on inspiration from SaaS companies with annual subscription plans, she decided to test prepaid annual access on Black Friday.

This limited-time offer included:

One year of the newsletter template membership
Instant access to ALL her other digital products
Free lifetime access to any new products she created

To build scarcity and demand, she capped it at 100 spots for the first 2-hour launch window, and they sold out immediately.

She reopened it shortly after to supply more demand, ultimately bringing in 225 annual members and $37K in just a few weeks.

This gave her the security and support she needed to step away from client work for good and focus exclusively on her membership.

Inside the Membership: Delivering Value to Members

At the core of Liz’s membership are the weekly newsletter templates.

She actually started giving these templates via a simple Google Doc link. As her membership grew, Liz added more value by opening up a community for her members once she reached 1,000 subscribers.

Three key aspects to keep her members engaged and satisfied:

Invested Support:  She regularly talks to her members and helps them use the tools and tips in the membership.
Personal Connection: She shares her own stories to connect with her members, making them feel like they belong and want to stick around.
Consistent Value: She provides helpful content like workshops and short courses, along with weekly newsletters.

Liz has created a strong community that supports each other because she always provides valuable content and builds good relationships with them.

Driving Traffic and Sales: Affiliate Marketing and Podcast Guesting

To keep growing her membership, Liz relies on two main methods:

Affiliate Marketing: She gives affiliates a big 50% commission to promote her membership. She started with SamCart for managing affiliates but switched to ThriveCart for its lower cost and similar features.
Podcast Guesting: She keeps going on podcasts to get new leads and send them to her membership site.

These two methods work together to bring in a steady flow of new members for Liz’s membership.

Serving a Diverse Audience

As her platform expanded, she ended up attracting members from all sorts of backgrounds beyond just bloggers and online course creators. They now include:

Bloggers
Content creators
SaaS companies
Real estate professionals
Even nuns!

Why does it appeal to such a wide spectrum? Because EVERYONE needs to master communicating with their customers and nurturing leads.

This diversity also makes the membership community more interesting and lively. Members can share their experiences and views, which leads to useful sharing of ideas and strategies between them.

Tackling Churn: Providing Undeniable Value

One of the problems Liz deals with is member churn, which is currently around 8-10%.

Although this rate is higher than she wants, Liz believes that her membership becomes an obvious choice for those who use it well because of the great value it provides.

The return on investment for members who use the strategies and templates she offers far exceeds the $9 monthly fee.

To tackle churn, Liz is always working on making the member experience better and offering more value.

This includes:

regularly updating the content library
hosting live Q&A sessions
giving personalized support and feedback

A Day in Her Life

As a single parent, Liz has organized her workday to maintain a good balance between work and family life. 

“I tend to only work about five hours a day,” She shares. This includes taking her daughter to school and handling all parenting responsibilities solo.

By prioritizing her work and delegating when she can, she makes the most of her work hours and enjoys quality time with her family.

Liz’s story is inspiring for other entrepreneurs who are juggling family responsibilities and building a business.

What’s Next?

Currently Liz’s membership sits at around 4,500 active members.

As the community grew exponentially, it became harder to provide the same level of care and personalization.

Many newcomers joined just because they knew Liz’s name, but without understanding what the community was really about.

To combat this, Liz is restructuring the membership experience to deliver more value and relevance:

Upgraded courses and materials
New interface to easily find relevant templates
Live workshops for the most critical email topics
Focusing on high-level masterminds and annual members

Liz’s stretch goal is to hit 10,000 members by the end of 2024. That would make the Email Marketing Membership a $1M business, all on its own.

But more importantly, Liz wants to regain that feeling of real relationships and impact that sparked her passion for this business in the first place.

It’s all about keeping things fresh and focused on serving Liz’s true ideal members. That emotional connection and transformation is ultimately what business success is all about!

Episode Links

LizWilcox.com
The Email Marketing Membership
SamCart
ThriveCart

Serious About Making Extra Money?

Start Your Free $500 Challenge. My free 5-day email course shows you how to add $500 to your bottom line.
Join the free Side Hustle Nation Community. The free Facebook group is the best place to connect with other side hustlers and get your questions answered.
Download The Side Hustle Show. My free podcast shares how to make extra money with actionable weekly episodes.