2 Things You Must Do to Save Money Shopping Online

How many of ya’ll have a love for shopping like I do? It is a constant struggle for me to delete all of those promotional e-mails that flood my inbox every day (I really should unsubscribe!) without opening them all to check out the deals! It is especially hard for me to resist around the holidays (Black Friday and Cyber Monday, I’m looking at you!). Now that I’m a mom, getting to the stores isn’t always an easy option, so online shopping is my biggest temptation. Luckily, I have discovered two things to do every time that help save money shopping online!

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The 2 Things You Have to Do to Save Money Shopping Online

My process for saving money shopping online is so simple and it saves us so much money over the course of the year. The hardest part about doing these things is remembering to actually do them when you are in a rush to score that latest deal! If you are in a hurry and don’t want to read all the details, just skip down to the bottom where I have a step by step list. I got ya covered!

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Step by Step Instructions to Getting the Best Deal Online

When I need clothes for the family, Old Navy is one of my go-tos! I love that they have men’s, women’s, and children’s clothes. Hello one-stop shopping! 🙂 So, if I’m shopping online at Old Navy. The first place I will go is not OldNavy.com…the first place I go is Raise! Raise is a website where you can buy discounted gift cards for all of your favorite brands. (Bonus tip for extra savings – if you use Swagbucks, head there first, click shop in the sidebar on the left, and search for Raise. You can earn swagbucks by shopping at Raise through Swagbucks!)

How to Use Raise to Save Money Shopping Online

When you first go to Raise, you can either a create an account first (if you sign up here you will get $5 in your account to spend!) or you can go straight to “Buy Gift Cards” at the top of the page.

 

Once you click on Buy Gift Cards, you will come to a screen that looks like the one below. If you have a particular store in mind you can search for it. However, if you see the one you are looking for, in my case, Old Navy, you just click on the image of the gift card for that store. In the lighter print below each gift card you can see the current savings they have available for each store. You can currently save up to 14% on Old Navy gift cards, score!

 

 

When you click on the store of your choice, you will see a screen similar to the one below with all the different gift cards that are available. E-gift cards are delivered to your e-mail almost immediately, which I love! In the screenshot below you can see that we can buy a $100 Old Navy gift card for $86.05. Right of the bat, we are saving almost $14 and we haven’t even gotten to the 2nd part of my process yet!

Moving on to the next step, Ebates!

How to Stack Your Online Shopping Savings with Ebates

So after you have purchased your discounted gift card through Raise, you need to head right on over to Ebates. If you are not familiar with Ebates, it is a rebate site that gives you a small percentage back after you make a purchase through the store link on their site.

You usually can earn anywhere from 1%-10% back, which isn’t a lot of money, but it definitely adds up! Also, if you sign up here, you will get $10 back after your first purchase. Hello free money! I love making big ticket purchases through Ebates. Whenever I buy a piece of furniture or an appliance, I’m definitely heading to Ebates first!

When you go to Ebates, you will see a screen like the one above. Simply search for the store you are shopping at and then when the search results appear, just click on the store to be sent directly to the store’s website.

Since I’m shopping at Old Navy, I searched for Old Navy and clicked on the store in the search results. When you click on the store you will see a screen like the one below prior to automatically being sent to the store’s website.

Once you are on the store’s website it will look exactly the same as it always does when you shop there. Just add items to your cart, check out, and Ebates will add your cash back to your account. Easy as pie! 🙂

Once you have earned $5 cash back, Ebates will send you a check or you can have the money deposited in your PayPal  account. You will have that cash back in your hands in no time, especially if you sign up here to get $10 back after your first purchase!

The No-Fail 2 Step Process for Maximizing Your Online Shopping Savings

Here’s a quick summary for you, if you were just skimming through!

1. Sign up with Raise to buy discounted gift cards for your favorite stores. Get $5 free to use by signing up here . (Bonus Tip: if your favorite store doesn’t have any gift cards on Raise currently, you can sign up to be alerted as soon as one becomes available!)
2. After you bought your discounted gift card through Raise, go to Ebates. (sign up here to get $10 cash back after making your first purchase through Ebates!) 
3. On Ebates, search for the store you want to shop at and click Shop Now to go to the store’s website.
4. Shop as you normally do. Make sure to add any available discount codes to your order! Learn how to  find coupon codes for your favorite stores first!
5. Choose gift card as your payment option when checking out, and use your gift card number that you purchased from Raise to pay for your items.

That’s it ya’ll! Now you have no excuses for not saving the most money possible when you shop online! If you enjoyed this post, here are some more tips for saving money that are so helpful!