Pushpins 2.0 offers more than just digital coupons

The grocery mobile app by Pushpins has relaunched, offering most of your grocery planning needs

There are lots of things on the T.V. that I find both enthralling and disturbing -- the show Extreme Couponing is one other those programs.

With tough economic times and people in search of the best deals, mobile devices have been marketed to help save time clipping and use that time for clicking.

While the world of grocery-related apps has grown extremely popular, one company relaunched on Friday, offering more than just coupon discounts.

Pushpins, now known as Pushpins 2.0, is a mobile app that previously focused on the scanning of product barcodes to redeem saving and now allows users to create shopping lists, gain nutritional information and look at past purchasing history.

The free application, by Menlo Park's Pushpins Inc., is in the same space as other applications such as Grocery IQ, ZipList, Grocery Pal, Grocery eCoupons, AisleMapper, and Cozi.

Back in 2009 alone, consumers redeemed more than $3.5 bllion in coupons, up 30% versus the year before.

The smart lists tout more than 200,000 products cataloged by brand, name or barcode and it can even store your loyalty number for big grocery chains such as Shop n' Save, Vons and Safeway. This feature allows you to digitally clip the coupons you want to use and store them in your loyalty card for an easy checkout.

One problem that I always run into with grocery shopping is that my lists are sorted by the flow of my consciousness and not by how markets are organized. Pushpin allows you to create a list and then order the list by aisles so that you aren't zigging and zagging through the store to get everything on the list.

This app also has a correlation feature for its suggestions so that when you are buying something like Skippy peanut butter, the app will search and see if there is a sale on bread or jam as well -- and even search for available coupons.

I would not suggest this application for those that go to neighborhood markets or stores that do not accept coupons (such as Trader Joes) since the service is so deeply connected to big chains and brand tie-ins that it would be frustrating to organzine appropriately. This is clearly a great application for families and fans of big box stores and hunting for great deals.

Now if only they could get them to expand the app to cook my meals too.