Save on Purchases

When the stores are farther away from home, often it makes sense to buy things via the internet, rather than driving to the store. There are a few ways you can save money.

Buy unwanted gift cards online through sites like cardpool.com. They buy unwanted gift cards from individuals and then sell them to others at a discount. You can find cards for movies, groceries, gas, home improvement, flowers, etc.

Shop through referral sites like ebates.com. Ebates pays you cash through paypal or a check quarterly on the purchases you make on other websites when you go through them. You can get paid back on purchases through Amazon, Ebay, Lowes, Officemax, and TONS of other websites. They often have good discounts on  top of the money you get back.

Discount sites like Groupon.com offer you the chance to buy goods and services often for half of what you would normally pay. Many but not all Groupon offers are specific to geographic location. It's often a good idea to check other cities and states, even though they're not officially for your location, they're often web based or national offers anyway.

UPromise is a website that doesn't pay you directly exactly, but it allows you to get money back from each purchase made through their site for a 529 program for educational expenses. It's pretty neat. They just changed the way they do their credits,  so you'll want to look at them again if you signed up in the past and haven't checked back recently.

Many of these programs can be combined to save you even more. For example, you can shop through Upromise or Ebates and use a gift certificate from CardPool. I'm not sure if there's a way to combine a gift certificate and Groupon, but you can look into it if you find some that are for the same company.

Watch for ways to use these ideas in combination for stores where you can pick up your purchases locally if you're worried about shipping costs or timing. For example, Lowes and Sears will let you make your purchases online (so you can get more discounts than in the store) and then pick them up soon after making the purchase.
 


Disclosure: The links in this blog article are affiliate links. If you make purchases through them, I'll receive a kickback. The links are here because I believe them to be of benefit to you, not because of the affiliate status.