You’re Not Saving As Much as You Could…. (3 Black Friday/Cyber Monday Saving Tricks!)
This was the first year I’ve ever skipped Black Friday shopping…
In the past I’ve done quite well by getting most of my Christmas shopping done and picking up a few items along the way to resell at a profit. But, I decided to skip it all this year.
First, I’m not a huge fan of the stores opening on Thanksgiving night. I’m in a turkey coma at 8:00 p.m. and not about to fight my way through the rowdy crowd at Wal-mart.
But more importantly, I figured out that I wasn’t saving as much as I could. In fact, I’ve figured out a way to save WAY more money than I ever did on Black Friday and I’m about to share how I’ve done it.
If you combine the three tips below with some of the awesome online deals that are going on this week, you’ll save a buttload!
In fact, over the last 6 months I’ve used these tips to not only save money on my own purchases, but to buy items to resell on Ebay/Amazon – all the while netting me a pretty profit and more than 300,000 frequent flyer miles! 🙂
Here’s how I do it…
1. Buy a Used Gift Card
Before you do any Christmas shopping online, you definitely want to buy a discounted gift card on a site like Raise.com. It can save you 20% or more off your purchase before you apply any other discounts. Plus if you use the promo code “RAISE60AF”, you can get an additional $5 off any gift card worth $60 or more.
Check out some of the discounted cards they have for sale right now…
Toys “R” US – Up to 4% off
Home Depot – Up to 7% off
Macy’s – Up to 11% off
Bloomingdales – Up to 17% off
They also have gift cards to Walmart, Target, Lowe’s, Autozone, Applebee’s and 100’s of other stores. Just to give you an idea of how cool this is, let’s say you wanted to buy a $100 gift card to Petco. They are discounted at 21% right now. If you combine that with the $5 promo code, you’ll get the $100 gift card for only $74. Pretty awesome, huh?
You can signup for Raise.com here.
2. Get Cashback When Shopping Online
The next step is to use an online rebate site like Ebates.com when making your purchase. These sites are easy to use and you can use them with virtually any online store including Amazon, Wal-Mart, Apple, Toys R Us, Target, and even Marriott Hotels!
Just signup for Ebates here, and then click on the store you want to make a purchase at. Ebates then works with the retailer to confirm your purchase and deposit a rebate into your account. The rebates go as high as 25% depending on the store. Right now they are offering up to 8% back on Amazon purchases, 10% at Sears, 10% and Jcrew. You can view their full list of stores here.
Plus, Ebates.com will give you a free $10 gift card to either Target, Walmart, Macy’s, or Kohl’s when you sign up. (You just need to make a $25 purchase at any of the stores on their shopping list in order to qualify for the free gift card)
3. Use a Rewards Credit Card
And lastly, you always want to use a cashback credit card when shopping online. Just make sure you pay the card off before the end of your next billing cycle so you can avoid any interest charges.
If you combine all three of these tips, you can save 40% or more off your online purchases. And that’s saving off of anything, not just the advertised deals the stores are offering. Enjoy!
Good luck Penny Hoarders!
