Holiday shopping can be so much fun and stressful at the same time. I know I always want to get something special for everyone on my list. But with 2 rowdy toddlers it is very hard to go out shopping. So I’ve been doing a whole lot of online shopping this year.
And since its the holiday’s most store have free shipping and/or % off items. So I am saving money and not spending it in driving an hour to the mall, eating out, getting ice cream and all buying those not planned items, to keep the boys happy. Yes I resort to buying my children something to keep them from screaming!!
I have mentioned this before here and here. But I love saving money and figured most people do also, so I thought it’s worth saying this again.
I have a couple of shopping tricks up my sleeve. First and foremost I always go through a affiliate site like Ebates for my online shopping. This way I earn money from each of my purchases. For instance with Ebates each store has a different cash back percentage rate. Like Magazines.com has 21% cash back (and they have some great $5 dollar magazine deals right now), some of my other favorites are 10% Old Navy, 12% Snapfish, 5% Target.
I purchased my holiday Christmas cards by going through ebates looking for the best prices and highest percentage back. Which happened to be at Snapfish with a 12% cash back. So if I spent $30 dollars I would get $3.60 dollars cash back. For something I was going to buy anyway. I like that.
And to top it off I just got a $ 15 dollar check from ebates and I only signed up a month ago. Awesome!
I highly recommend going through ebates for any of your online purchases.
I also have found some really great deals and Christmas ideas at Amazon.com.
I heard about this Elf on the Shelf family tradition and decided to get that as a family gift for us all to start next year. Basically what it i, is a book and a elf. In the book Santa sends the elf to watch the kids during the day and then the elf reports to Santa every night and comes back to a different spot in the house. I think it will be a nice tradition to help make the Christmas Season even more fun and special. I just know they will have a blast finding the elf each day.
I also got a little Christmas gift for myself. A whole year of Oprah Magazine for just $5.00!! Merry Christmas to me, this would also be a great gift for my mom!
And for DT he is a huge fan on the HBO series True Blood, so I purchase the original books the show is based off of, Sookie Stackhouse I think he will love reading these.
These are just a few of my Christmas shopping deals I have done. Just let me know if you have any questions.
What Christmas deals did you get this season?
This post is listed @ Life as Mom
I’m visiting through your link at Life as Mom and wanted to say thanks for the heads up on EBATES. I’ve heard of them before and thought about joining, but your comment about 1 month and $15 check caught my eye. I went and joined right after reading that ordered my final gift for hubby through the site. So…thanks! Merry Christmas!
After reading your last post where you mentioned Ebates, I’ve been going through them for all my online shopping! My MIL asked me to go online and buy the gifts for the kids since she had no clue what they wanted…I spent $280 so I’ll get 5% of that back. And I already have $5.00 in my account from previous purchases. I love it!!! Thank you so much sharing the info!!
@Carrie, Great Carrie, It’s so easy to do. Hope you enjoy your christmas shopping!
@Helene, I know I have been using them a lot also, it’s so easy.
I try to only do online shopping during the holidays. The stores are just way too crowded! And it’s so much easier to find what you want rather than having to go to five million stores to find a specific item.
Amazon.com is a definite favorite! Thanks for the tip about ebates.
I also went to Ebates after reading your black friday post. We bought a deep freezer from Sears online and picked it up at a local store. So we didn’t have to pay for shipping and got a check from Ebates for $48.50 in the mail last week!!! I told everyone at work about it! Thanks for the info it paid for the taxes on the freezer!