November Sunflower: Frugal Blooms on Long Island
Being frugal does not mean being cheap. Those of us who are frugal just make the most of our money – we find ways to stretch our hard earned pennies as far as those little pennies can go. I like to think that I am able to offer some great advice in the area of shopping on line for most of what you need for your home, car, kids, pets……well, you get the idea!
All my shopping for clothing, pet medications and household needs I do on-line. Why? There are a few reasons: I can earn cash back at a variety of websites; doing it online keeps me focused so I don’t IMPULSE shop at the register, or while walking through stores to find what I am looking for; I always use my credit card when I shop online, so I earn cash back (I also pay off my credit card balance each month-I can do this because I never shop for things unless we have the cash to pay for it, but shopping with a credit card EARNS me free MONEY. Always be sure you have the cash to pay the credit card bill BEFORE you shop online with your credit card.)
I know you are asking yourself: How do you earn cash when shopping on line? Well, I’m going to tell you! Cash back rebate sites. Yes, you read it right! Cash back rebate sites are the only way to shop online. My all time favorite ones are Mr. Rebates, Ebates, ShopAtHome and if you have a Discover Card, Shop Discover. I know, many parents and grandparents out there are using Upromise to help earn kids in their life cash for college. We’re doing that also, but we mainly use the grocery shopping to earn cash there. All our grocery and drug store cards are signed up, got the credit card working for us and we use the eCoupons through the site to earn even more money for college for the kids. HOWEVER, for my online shopping, we need to stretch our dollars to be able to pay the bills we have now: electric, oil, insurance, gasoline for the cars. I won’t continue, I think most of us are in the same boat and the list will just depress all of us.
Now, back to my cash rebate sites and shopping online. Just to give you the “strategy” behind my madness, I am going to use one store that I LOVE and bring you through my “process”. Personally, I enjoy shopping for my kids at Old Navy, clothes last a long time, they have amazing sales all the time and their clearance is really inexpensive when you get some great discount codes (forget that stupid Old Navy Weekly finding coupons thing, you never get any good ones and you can only use them in the store-where you will be tempted to buy more than what you need. Please don’t deny it, you know we all do it).
How do I shop online at Old Navy? First, I check out my four favorite sites (Mr. Rebates, Ebates, Shop Discover and ShopAtHome) and see who has the best cash back percentage on that day, or if anyone is doing a double cash rebate earning (which you can find out about if you sign up for their emails). I check all the coupon codes on each of my favorite cash back rebates sites, along with Retailmenot and I also check out Freeshipping.org to find out about any free shipping codes I might have missed. My key ingredient: only shop the sale items or clearance items!
There are tons of stores on my favorite four cash rebate earning sites. Everything from 1800PetMeds to Babies-R-Us, from Target to WalMart, from Home Depot to Ace Hardware and my all time favorites, Shutterfly and Kodak Gallery. When you shop with a goal to only buy what you need, shop using great sites to earn cash back, look for coupons and free shipping and be sure to always have the cash funds to pay the credit card bill – you can actually make money shopping for things you need to buy. Kids cannot go to school without clothes, shoes and of course, the boring socks and underwear! Just apply my simple method to the cash back rebate sites you love (there are lots more out there, like Fat Wallet, Bing, Go Save!).
Staci is the author of November Sunflower: Frugal Blooms on Long Island and is also a Featured Author on Inexpensively.
I received $25 in the mail one week just by listening to the advice Staci gives on her blog, and putting it into practice! Thank you, November Sunflower!