Last year I stumbled on this great site called Ebates while reading one of my go-to couponing blogs. You can scrape back some decent cash that can be used for whatever you want really. I started last year and have gotten back about $47.81 which out of that $11.75 is still pending (they pay you "Big Fat Payments" at set dates through out the year... more on that later).
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| Screen Shot from My Account Page |
While I realize you just went " wow... sigh" because it doesn't really seem like a lot, it is so easy to do that if you aren't you might as well be pissing your money away. Also I don't feel like we do a crazy amount of online shopping either.
So lets get into it! Kiley how can I get some of my money back? Well that is pretty simple, you go to Ebates and sign up. There should be something like the picture below where you can sign up via email and password, Facebook, or Google+.
Then it should bring you to a page which looks pretty similar to the one below.
Now you can open shopping trips from there or make life really easy on yourself and have Ebates do the work for you. To do this you install the Ebates Cash Back Button. If you click on "Help" at the top of the page. It will bring you to the links to set up the Cash Back Button. The help page also has a slew of other good information should you have any questions about how it works. I currently have the Cash Back Button installed on my Safari Browser.
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| See the Button with the "E" on it? This is the Ebates button on Safari. |
Once you have installed the Ebates button when ever you go on a shopping site that has an Ebates offer going on a window will drop down that will say "Active whatever % Cash Back". You click on this and it will take you to this like waiting page while they open up your shopping trip and bring you right back to the online shop's main page. Admittedly the fact that they bring you to the shop's home page is kind of annoying it would be an improvement if they opened up the shopping trip on the page you were at before you activated the offer, but if you had stuff placed in your shopping cart rest assured as most sites will still have those items in the cart for you.
You can always check to see if you have activated an Ebates offer on the site by checking your Cash Back Button, if it had a check mark next to the "E" as in the picture above then you can be sure your shopping trip has been opened and after you have activated the offer you can shop or checkout if you happened to be shopping before realizing the offer was there. Just always activate the offer before checking out and placing your order. And that is pretty much all there is to it.
Now that you have checked out while having an Ebates offer activated they will usually send you an email to let you know that you earned the cash back. It will look something like this.
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| We started some of our holiday shopping the other day... last year when it was closer to the holidays some of the rebate percentages shot up quite a bit, pair a rebate with an already seriously reduced price and make a coupon or two depending on the store and you are really making your money work for you all the way around. And yes sometimes the good deal stars do align and allow you to catch a sale price, rebate, and coupon on one item. |
Then you basically just wait for the big fat payment period to roll around and they will either send you a check via snail mail or you can link up your paypal account and they can give you the money that way. I am due to get my payment on the 15th, sweet!
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| See more of this on help tab at Ebates. |
So there you go, sign up for Ebates, install the Cash Back Button on your browser, and whenever you're shopping online be sure to check to see if there is an Ebates offer. If there is cash in on it and get small/ or big (depending on how you shop) payments sent to you every few months. Sounds like a sweet deal to me and I love those. If you have any questions about this feel free to hit me up.
*Note: In this post I have used referral links from my account. It is not necessary for you to sign up for Ebates using those links, but if you do I do receive some compensation which is awesome because I just a mom trying to make a little money while doing something I love. It is a great deal and I wouldn't have shared this if it wasn't something I truly thought was awesome and that could benefit you all too. *
