Ridiculous sales are upon us! You need to remember to use your cash back or rewards sites: Mr. Rebates, Ebates, Extrabux, TopCashBack and Swagbucks.
Why do I call this making money? Because you were going to buy these items anyway. You’ve probably even already budgeted for them. So you’re making money when you get the cash back.
With Swagbucks, you can cash out via PayPal. (See? Money!) Or do what we do to actually save money with rewards programs: Cash out for gift cards, and when you use those GCs, bank the money you would’ve spent.
Oh, and if you have the Chase Freedom credit card, you can get 10% back at Amazon, Diapers.com, Zappos and Audible! You may be able to stack that with cash back sites. (As long as you don’t have to click through a specific link on the Chase page. I haven’t checked this out yet.)
So why not make some moolah?
A few quick notes about some of these sites:
Swagbucks is offering triple cash back on select stores from November 26th through December 1st. It’ll also have some bonus features on its mobile app on Black Friday.
There will obviously be great deals on there, but you could also win $100 or $500. Every 25 SBs you get through the mobile app will get you an entry into a contest: 20 people will win $100 and one really lucky person will win $500.
Bloggers or people with lots of friends who shop online should make sure they’ve signed up with Mr. Rebates. You get an amount equal to 20% of any referrals’ rebate. You don’t even need to make any purchases of your own, and you can still cash out once you have $10 in your Available Rebates section.
Ebates is also a good idea for bloggers/popular people. Refer two friends and get $50, and three will net you $100. It just goes up from there.
TopCashBack is a newer one on me. I’ve used it a couple times successfully, but I’m a tad suspicious. It claims to give you 100% of its commissions, but that’s how cash back sites make money. Well, there’s a little advertising revenue but… Yeah. So it may just be doing this to attract a buyer or a lot of customers. Once that works, it’ll have to start having a real profit margin, and rates will drop.
That said, it has some stores the others don’t. For example, SeeYa (discounted GCs) which I used two days ago. And more cash back is more cash back. So it’s worth at least checking out.
And no matter which site you use, make sure you save your savings from any coupons you use!
Great tips and resources! I’m not shopping on Black Friday, but I do go through these sites if I am shopping. Why not earn more money back?!
Melanie @ Dear Debt recently posted…Stuck in the Middle with You
Exactly! And there’s always Swagbucks, which doesn’t necessarily require shopping. We’ve gotten thousands of dollars of stuff from that program.
You are the absolute Queen of deal finding! Thanks for all your work and research to find these offers and making them available to us who may be less than inventive bargain shoppers.
Happy Thanksgiving to you and Tim!
Bryan@ Just One More Year recently posted…Thanksgiving and what it means to be Thankful
No problem! It helps my readers, and it also helps the blog. So it’s win-win. Happy online shopping!
Today, I found something I really want but cannot justify the purchase. I will be looking at all these sites.
Practical Parsimony recently posted…Unusual Thanksgiving Day
I hope you find a good deal. I went ahead and got a 3-piece luggage set at Sears. The one I use for FinCon every year (Marc & Nadine’s) has a broken outside pocket. The big one. It flaps around looking terrible, but it’s also a waste of potential storage. So I was able to justify a $40 purchase (surprise points and a few rewards points brought it down to $37.47 after tax) for that. Especially since it has a rolling duffel bag. Now Tim won’t have to potentially hurt his hands/shoulder/back by carrying his suitcase around.
My shopping is pretty well done, but I’ve resolved to start using those rewards sites in 2016. Thank you, Abby! They’ll come in very handy. We have 9 birthdays and 2 anniversaries in our combined family between December 5th and January 5th… plus Christmas (of course). In the past handful of years we’ve scaled back a lot, and this year is the first year we’re doing gift cards in place of boxes o’ gifts for anything needing to be mailed. The rebate sites should help cover that in 2016. For decades I’ve shopped throughout the year snagging serious bargains & keeping a gift stash. Once I was able to get my mom a pair of corduroy slacks in her favorite brand for 79 cents (JCP online in July, deep clearance + extra 25% off), a sweater for $4 and two blouses for $2 each. Great deals, right? But then boxing, wrapping and almost $20 shipping kind of rained on my parade. Essentially getting paid to shop those online bargains would take the sting out.
Yeah, shipping always kills my sense of a deal. Especially nowadays if I need to ship something to my mom up in Alaska. Don’t forget there are discounted gift card sites on some of the cash back/rewards sites too. So you can boost the savings a little further! Or just do Swagbucks and get the GCs for $0.
My shopping is all but complete thanks to the rewards programs noted above. I’m writing a check to my dad’s church (he doesn’t want any more Stuff) and “buying” one more small item using some of our credits at a local used bookstore. Otherwise, that’s it. Whew.
Would add one more program to your list: My Coke Rewards, which recently added $10 Amazon gift cards to its rewards roster. I’ve cashed in for several to help complete my shopping for a certain daughter and son-in-law.
Other things to watch out for, besides those AMC movie theater packages and magazine subscriptions, are My Coke Rewards’ short-term/while supplies last specials. About two months ago I grabbed a $5 McDonald’s gift card to go in a Christmas stocking and a $25 Visa gift card to give as another holiday gift. This Monday (Nov. 30) a bunch of Christmas specials will be put up on MCR– and I’ll be poised, searching for stocking stuffers and inexpensive soft drinks (last year I got free 12-packs of Coca Cola products for 30 MCR points).
Like all rewards programs, MCR works if you work it. Not everyone has the time/inclination. Me, I like affordable holidays and birthdays. And other stuff: I’ve used Amazon cards I get from Swagbucks to pay for stuff like quinoa (which is more than $10 per bag up here!) and flaxseed for free.
Donna Freedman recently posted…What’s your biggest money fear?
Right, I forgot about My Coke Rewards! We’ve seen many a movie thanks to your diligent efforts.
Trying to do a no shop day today (black Friday) but these are some useful resources thanks for sharing.
The Roamer recently posted…Guest post on the Plutus Finalist blog, Even Steven Money
Good for you. Maybe if more of us did that, things wouldn’t be so crazy. That said, I found a darn good deal on some luggage, so I picked that up. Plus an item for my MIL since it was 50% off. Hopefully, you’ll find the resources useful when you shop the rest of the year.
Glad to see there are “deals” somewhere as there were very few at the “brick and mortar stores”. As is the tradition DW and I hit the Outlets not quite as early when we had DD’s in tow. But fairly early and the “deals” were a joke and the quality of merchandise is just awful. Can Old Navy and Gap make the material any thinner? I swear it’s see thru,,,, We noticed traffic was “off” despite a beautiful, clear day in the 60’s. I’m gonna predict a poor retail shopping season but the Retailers only have themselves to blame….
Yeah, unless you’re looking for something big like a TV, I find the deals just aren’t that impressive any more. But as I said in one post, it’s because during the recession they flooded us with deals early. Then Christmas in June. In the end, they spend most of the year with big discounts, and they just can’t offer much better on Black Friday itself.
When I saw the deal with Chase Freedom, I went ahead and grabbed everything I needed from Amazon. That’s most of the gifts we’re giving, plus stocking up for the rest of the year (there are some things that are much cheaper on Amazon). The rest of the gift shopping went on the Citi Double Cash card, which is 2% cash back. All of that shopping was at sites that aren’t on any rebate websites (a guy who makes custom cabinets, for example).
I had stocked up at Costco in the week leading up to Thanksgiving, taking advantage of the extended hours for Executive members (I have an insurance policy through them, and this gives me 2% cash back- which is nice, since they don’t accept credit cards). I spent a little bit of time portioning everything and vacuum sealing it, and we’re set until January.
Between all of that, the CSAs we belong to (who deliver), and using a family owned market for the rest of our groceries, we actually end up saving a lot through the holiday season.my dislike of the shopping crowds translates to not being exposed to anything I may impulse buy. Since our gifts are planned ahead of time, I’m able to find the best price on that specific item, instead of trying to cast around for something in a price range. Lastly, it means we have a detailed budget in place. The other thing I do to save money? I paid off all of the things I put on the credit card this morning (I wait 24 hours to make sure all of the charges are in). Since I have the money in our household and holiday accounts, I like to maintain the 0 balance. Plus, that’s where I earn the second 1% on the Double Cash card.
Wow, that’s a very comprehensive and smart plan. Way to go. I’ll mainly going to use Amazon GCs for presents, so no cash back here.