Here are a few of my favorites.
* Ebates. I have blogged before about my love of ebates. There are no catches or gimmicks. It literally just gives you cash back when you shop online. I made $100 back in the last quarter. All you do is sign into ebates and then go from their website to the store you want to buy something from. That's it. Just proceed to shop online like you normally do. They will send you your cash back credit (usually from 1% to 10% depending on the day and the store) by check every quarter. If you use my referral link to sign up you will get $10 cash back when you use it for the first time and I will get a small referral fee. Try it. Trust me.
* Ibotta. My friend at Almost Gypsy Soul told me about this and in the last month, I've earned $15. You just get the app and check out their various rebates at a bunch of stores. Looks to me like it has the most for grocery stores and places like Wal-Mart/Target. When you buy something with a rebate, you scan the bar code on that item with your phone, take a picture of the receipt, and your account is credited. You get $10 for signing up and entering your first purchase. Here is my referral link This one takes a little more effort and the return isn't as high, but every little bit helps!
* Target Red Card and Cartwheel. If you shop at Target, get the Red Card. I don't like store credit cards so I resisted forever. So stupid. It automatically gives you 5% off every purchase in store or online and free shipping online. Don't like credit cards? No problem. You can select a debit card option and it works just like your regular debit card. This year alone, I have saved over $150.
Also, Target has Cartwheel, an app on your phone where you can get additional money off certain items. It's a pain to have to search every item you put into your shopping cart while in the store, but I love saving my pennies, so I do it.
* Watch for freebies. I know that the spam emails you get advertising deals from various stores are annoying, but if you keep an eye out, you can find some good stuff! I bet you 3/4 of my underwear came from the free pair coupons that Victoria's Secret sends out. And Shutterfly offers a free gift about once a month. I have ordered a ton of addreee labels, large photo prints, and photo books all for free. At my grocery store, they periodically do a buy one get one free on fruit like blueberries or strawberries. I always just freeze the free pack to use later. Keep an eye out for freebies when they pop up!
* Pay attention to sales. There are some stores at which you should never pay full price. Hobby Lobby is a great example. Every two or three weeks, basically any item you want will go on 50% off. always has a 40% off coupon online. If you go in and something is full price, give it a week or two and it will be half off. Or, if you need it right away and can't wait, there is always a 40% off coupon available online. Bed Bath and Beyond always sends out emails or hard copy $5 or 20% off coupons each week. Carter's will always have a 25% off coupon and quite frequently they have a sale where the entire store is 50%. Get to know what your favorite stores offer and when to take advantage.
* Southwest credit card. Two caveats here right off the bat. First, we pay our credit card off every month, without exception. This means we do not ever pay the insane 20% interest fee charged. If you are not a person who can watch the balance and pay it off each month, don't get the card. Second, there is a yearly $99 fee. In general, we don't have any cards with fees. But because of how much we gain in rewards, it's way worth the fee for us. You may want to do the math on this for yourself. Also, I know other cards offer various cash back options, but I only have the Southwest card so that's all I know.
You get 1 point for every $1 you spend on the card (some things like Southwest tickets get more) and 1 point per mile you fly. You can redeem these points for free flights (my favorite!) or you can get gift cards from basically any store you can think of.
Before LL was born, I cashed in points and got like $200 in gift cards to buy diapers with, just from my points.
What tricks do you guys have up your sleeves?
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