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The holidays are right around the corner!

Are you SO excited?!

I used to not be so crazy, but since I’ve had kids, I want the holidays to start as soon as possible. Maybe it’s the cute Christmas clothes, maybe it’s the cookie decorating sessions, maybe it’s the spiked eggnog… I don’t know.  I just need to maximize the holiday cheer!

Of course, this time of the year also means lots of shopping.

The problem with shopping for kids is that it’s nearly impossible to do this with kids in tow.  You can’t just take them to the mall and buy Christmas gifts.  They totally know what you are up to.  The solution, of course, is online shopping.  This is my favorite way to shop for almost everything.  Not only because you can find ANYTHING, but also because you can save a great deal of money doing it!

Here are my favorite ways to save money while online shopping:

TopCashBack – This program gives a varying percentage of your purchase back to you from a list of over 3500 merchants. TopCashBack has one of the highest payouts overall.  Check this site, Ebates, and Mr. Rebates for the best return.

Ebates  – Probably the most well-known cashback site for general shopping. There’s a merchant list of over 1800 stores, including both online and in-store shopping.  Ebates often runs promotions where they double the return percentage or offer special incentives if you shop through their app. They even offer a credit card that will give you an additional 3% back on your Ebates use. If you use my referral link, Ebates will give you $10 after your first purchase! 

Mr. Rebates – Similar to TopCashBack and Ebates, Mr. Rebates will pay you back a percentage of what you spend when you use their shopping link. Compare with Ebates and TopCashBack for the best return on your favorite stores.  Here’s $5 to start you off when you sign up with my referral link.

Honey – Have you ever manually searched for coupon codes while shopping?  Honey handles that extra work for you by finding all coupon codes and applying them to your purchase. It will find you the cheapest price for items you search for on Amazon. You can build a ‘drop list’ wish list that will send you an email every time an item on your list drops in price.  They also have a cash back concept that pays you a percentage of your purchases back in “honey gold rewards”.  These rewards points build up until you can redeem them for gift cards (Amazon, Target, Groupon, and several others).

iBotta – This is the best app for cash back on groceries (and alcohol).  You add stores you shop at, and items you want to buy on the app.  What’s so great about some of these rebates is that they are often non-brand specific, so you can buy whatever brand of apples, milk, or bread and still qualify. Then after you are done shopping, you submit a photo of the receipt for your iBotta rebate.  Fairly recently, it has started to add general online shopping rebates to its app.  Today you can get 20% back at stores like Ulta, Kohls, and Jet. Here’s $10 to start you off when you sign up with my referral link.

Holiday Bonus: Black Friday Ads at the BFAds website.  This resource is great if you plan to go shopping on Black Friday.  Lots of major retailers have their Black Friday ads listed on this website.  You can create an account and add specific stores or products to your favorites list. Cyber Monday deals are also listed on this website too, just in case you want to skip the crowds and do all of your holiday shopping online.

Happy Clicking!