5 Tricks for Getting Doorbuster Prices — No Matter When You Shop

When I think of deals, I think of coupons.

When I think of coupons, I think of those shows featuring frantic shoppers piling up multiple carts with multiple packs of toilet paper.

I think of the “beep, beep” at the checkout scanner. Oh. My. Gosh. Is this actually going to work?!

I avoid watching those shows because it can’t be good for my inevitable gray hairs.

Instead, I’ve learned about this nifty thing called deal-stacking. You still use coupons, but you stack them on top of other sales and promotions to drive a product’s price down. But it’s not nearly as laborious as it sounds.

Plus, most of it can be done online — for all those shopping orders I shouldn’t be making.

5 Ways to Save Money With Online Deal-Stacking Tools

So I’ll admit it: I’m still a newbie to this whole thing.

But I’ve found these easy-to-navigate apps and websites that have awesome deals for my online shopping binges.

(Hey, if I do shop online, at least I’m doing it the frugal way, right?)

1. Take a Picture of Your Receipt

This might sound weird, but you can actually earn cash just for snapping a photo! The Ibotta app has tons of rebate offers at over 340 stores, including Walmart, Target, Aldi and Trader Joe’s.

For example, this week they’ll give you 2% cash back on your Best Buy purchases, $0.25 cash back on any Target purchase, and $3 cash back when you buy an 18-pack of Bud Light.

In fact, we recently wrote about how a Penny Hoarder staffer earned $300 using the app!

Here’s how it works: Find rebates on your favorite products before going shopping. Go do your shopping. Then use the app to scan the items’ barcodes and submit a photo of your receipt.

If you join now, you’ll also get a $10 welcome bonus.

2. Share Your Receipts With This Website

With confirmation emails barreling into my inbox way too often, I’ve gotten used to pressing delete. No matter what I buy, I’m going to get emailed a receipt, so this tool is super clutch.

But stop. Don’t delete anything.

Instead, I signed up for Capital One Shopping Price Protection. It’s free and scans your email archives for receipts. It might sound scary, but it’s one of the apps we use here at The Penny Hoarder.

If it discovers you’ve purchased something from Target or one of the other 28 retailers listed on their website, it will track the item’s price and issue you a refund anytime there’s a price drop.

After you sign up, you don’t have to do anything! That’s my kind of deal-stackin’ money.

Capital One Shopping Price Protection compensates us when you sign up using the links we provide.

3. Upgrade Your Rewards Card

You all might have picked up from other posts I’ve written that credit cards always sorta, kinda intimidated me.

But I recently signed up for a rewards card and pay off my balance each month.

Here’s an option we like: It’s the Chase Freedom Unlimited card. Its claim to fame? You’ll earn an unlimited 1.5% cash back on all your purchases. Plus, if you spend $500 in your first three months of opening the card (hi, groceries), you’ll pocket a $150 bonus.

There’s no annual fee, and the cash-back rewards don’t expire. We checked Credible’s annual rewards calculator, and it estimates $417 in annual rewards based on our spending habits.* (You can enter your unique spending habits and see what you’d earn, too.)

Get signed up — and 0% intro APR for 15 months — here.

*Annual Rewards amounts will change based on the amounts you enter. The monthly spending category names and definitions may vary among issuers, and categories may not align one-to-one.

The information for the Chase Freedom Unlimited card has been collected independently by The Penny Hoarder. Opinions expressed here are the author’s alone, not those of the credit card issuer, and have not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by the credit card issuer. The Penny Hoarder is a partner of Credible.

4. Keep on Stacking…

Before you even start shopping, sign up for MyPoints, a cash-back site that rewards you for shopping online and printing coupons.

It’s a simple, instant way to save.

For example, you can get up to 2% cash back at Target, 5% at Home Depot, and 5% on purchases in some Amazon categories. Plus, you can get a free $10 Amazon gift card — just for signing up.

Here’s how:

• Sign up for MyPoints using your email address.

• Next time you buy something online, use the MyPoints portal. It’s connected to thousands of stores — so chances are the one you desire will be on there.

• If you spend $20 at one of these stores, MyPoints grants you 1,740 bonus points, which you can redeem for that $10 Amazon card.

Anything that pays me to sign up has my heart.

5. Shop with Gift Cards and Earn Double Cash Back

You may already know that Swagbucks can help you score cash back on your online purchases, but we’ve got a quick trick that’ll earn you double the Swagbucks (SBs). Those SBs can later be redeemed for Paypal or gift cards.

Stick with us. It’s pretty easy.

First, buy a gift card through Swagbucks from your favorite retailer. Search that retailer, then select the “My Gift Cards Plus” option. There, buy the gift card and Swagbucks will give you cash back on the purchase.

Then spend that gift card through the Swagbucks portal. You’ll get double the cash back!

Some of our favorites include 2% cash back from Sephora, 10% cash back from Hotels.com, 5% cash back from Omaha Steaks and 7.5% cash back from Zappos.

Here’s an example: I can get a $50 eGift Card to Sephora and score 200 SBs. I can then spend that gift card through Swagbucks and get an additional 2 SBs per dollar spent.

In total, I can score 300 SBs, which puts me only 200 SBs away from a free $5 Amazon gift card.

If I sign up now, I get a $2 bonus when I make my first purchase.

So, no: Deal-stacking doesn’t have to be hard if you have the right tools. And no: Online shopping doesn’t have to break your bank account.

You’ve just got to utilize your resources!

Carson Kohler (@CarsonKohler) is a junior writer at The Penny Hoarder.