Staying Fashionable Through Ebates

I have had an obsession with Ebates for a long time and lemme tell you that I am doing the happy dance every single time I get my check from them. Each person I refer, I get a $5 referral fee and, in turn, the person who signs up also gets a $5 credit into their account. I won't go on and on about it (you can read my experience here if you are interested or just sign up for one of your own accounts- [email protected] for the referral id), but I have been really happy with the program. This is one of the rare times where I really appreciate the referral programs because it is truly rewarding for me.

A few days ago, I got an email letting me know that another big fat check was on its way. This is my fun money that I get to spend on stuff I want, but don't necessarily need (To date, I have received almost $250 with the company!) . As soon as that check hit the mailbox, it was deposited and spent within two days. Yup, that is how I roll!

What does a girl like me spend her fun money on? SHOES! Oh yeah! And a new SPRING COAT! Neither were necessarily needed, but they really make me happy.


I found this coat at Forever 21. I am not impressed with the quality of the clothes usually, but I inspected this coat throughly before purchasing it. You can usually tell if a company backs the work that they do up with a good return policy. They don't take returns- they will only exchange the merchandise with the tags still on it and they will never ever refund your money. Just to make sure I didn't miss this, the girl circled the return policy on the receipt. This is a red flag to me about companies, so just a warning...check your loot before you leave that store, otherwise you are stuck with it. I will be discussing this option more next week when I share tips for being fashionable in our Baby Steps series.


This coat covers my less-than-desirable assets, as it hits about mid-thigh. It has an empire waist, but doesn't balloon like a maternity top. The arms are the cutest part about it as it they flare out a bit. I also love the cute lining (not that anyone sees the lining), but I adore details like that.

A company that gets an A++ for great quality is Payless Shoes and their styles out for spring are super cute. If it has been awhile since you have been in there, it is worth the trip. They carry a line of American Eagle shoes that are so cute, I can hardly stand it. Try and go when they have their buy-one-get one sales and you can come out with some amazing deals.
I needed to replace my black flats from last year and I loved this style with a little side buckle. They are almost identical to my flats last year, but I couldn't resist another pair. They go good with everything and they are super comfy too.

These shoes are the cutest shoes ever. Red flats, cute ribbon, suede toe...what's not to love? They make me so happy and are my one pair of fun shoes for spring....oh, and they match my coat too! Gotta love that!

These are my "Sporty Spice" shoes. My husband says they look like the first pair, but CLEARLY these are entirely different, and only resemble the first pair because they are the same color. These are my momma-had-a-hard-day-and-is-running-children-everywhere shoes. They have a rubber heel on the bottom and offer great momma-had-a-hard-day support.

All these were free thanks to Ebates and my big fat check. I thank them for keeping me fashionable and keeping me on budget.

Saving More on Your Christmas Shopping

This entry is really more of a, "Play It Again, Momma!" type entry, but I did want to add a couple of things to entice you to sign up for an Ebates account. I also wanted to remind people about this program, since many of us have begun our holiday shopping.

I absolutely love Ebates and it has greatly simplified my holiday shopping. I can go to their website and click under their Special Offers link. The offers are listed alphabetically so I can see quickly at a glance if Children's Place is running a sale this week or not. Scroll down or click through under the letter of the place you are looking for. You can also sort these offers by type. Say that you don't want to pay shipping or you are looking for money off coupons, and the offers will be sorted this way. Categories are available too!

I frequently search just under a keyword search. If I am looking for a new coffee machine, I can search under that. I then sort this by price lowest to highest (you are shopping with me, remember?) and then I can see quickly who has the best deals and how much I would get back with the cash back rewards. It even calculates the exact amount you would get back, down to the penny, so you can see quickly how much you could potentially put into your check.

Recently, in an Ebates blog entry, they highlighted the top three cash savings tricks for Ebates. The suggestions that they came up with were:

1. Deal Layering: The deal with Ebates is that you usually get cash back on your purchases. For example, if you bought a shirt from the Gap (clearanced out, of course!), you would get 5% back through a cash back reward. When searching for the Gap under the Special Offers Link, you can look for a coupon to go along with your cash back reward and you can credit the savings towards your purchase and also receive cash back on your purchase. That equals more money in your wallet!

2. Each Tuesday Ebates has a deal with one company where they promise to double your cash back. A few weeks ago it was Fossil and this company doubled their normal eight percent to sixteen percent. That is a huge cash back return! You can check each Tuesday to see who the offer is with. Choose to shop with that company, when doing your holiday shopping, and you will receive more money back in your cash back checks.

3. Finally, be sure to sign up with their Ebates Reminder Tool. Don't you hate it when you order something, pay for it, and then realize later that you could have gotten a reward for purchasing it? Thanks to their little Moe Money Maker program, a little pop-up will come up when you are shopping with an Ebates merchant. It basically redirects the page to shop through the Ebates site. Now I will admit, that I started to get a little annoyed with this feature when I just wanted to go to BabyCenter because my kid was sick and I was trying to look up what to give him and it kept redirecting me to shop. We have two browsers installed though (Firefox & IE- because our family is techy like that!) and so I only use one browser to shop with. This software is optional, but it is certainly handy when you forget to cash in on your rewards.

I received my first Ebates check, this past week, just so you know that the offer is legitimate. Many rebates programs never actually pay out, but I can tell you that this one does.

If you want to read more about Ebates, please check my past blog entry. I also share how smoothly my first purchase went with Ebates when I purchased my little French Press insulated coffee mug. (I am still using this every single day and I have only been to Starbucks twice in the past two months!)

If you would like to sign up with Ebates, you can use this provided link. I do get a $5 check if you sign up (just didn't want to be sneaky about that!), but you will get a five dollar credit in your account if you sign up too. Basically, this is a win-win situation. The five dollars is credited to your account upon your first Ebates purchase.

Happy holiday shopping!

Saturday Sales

Lots of great sales are happening as time is approaching for the kiddos to return to school. I know, I know. I can just hear you guys groaning. But we want our kids to stay home! Why, God? Why must my children return to school (*shaking fist at the sky*). I am sorry to say that summer is coming to a close, moms. Be sure to read my Back to School article, which should offer some helpful tips on how to get your family back into the groove and find new ways to utilize all of your free time (yeah, right!)

Last week’s sales are still applicable. Visit them by clicking on this link.

This week’s sales:

Each week, Ebates will double the cash back on Tuesdays for one merchant. Check their site on July 25th to find out who was chosen for the week.

Getting the kids a new pair of jeans? American Eagle is running a great coupon code. Take 15% off of your order at AE.com. Use code 68911546.
*Ebates members receive additional two percent cash back on purchases*

Take ten percent off at BabyAge.com , using coupon code JULY10. They have some great things under the clearance section, in particular a really nice train table for $99, which would make a great Christmas gift from Santa. You can use their coupon code on clearance items, so this is one worth checking.
*Ebates members receive additional four percent cash back on purchases.*

Barnes & Noble is having a GREAT sale. All books under ten bucks. Check it out! Again, for the Christmas Queen Bees (like myself), these would make lovely Christmas gifts for the bookworm in your life! I noticed many board & felt books for the kiddos. These could be put away for all of those birthday gifts.
*Ebates members receive additional three percent cash back on purchases.*

Dell is running several coupon codes. If you are still hunting for a computer for a recent high school graduate, they are running several specials.

Save $200 on select Inspiron™ notebook B120 (E-Value code 6vaff- ib120s1) with free external wireless card at Dell Home. Use coupon code 51V2R10JHTZSL8.

Save 30% on select Inspiron™ notebooks $1499 or more at Dell Home, not including XPS systems. Use coupon code 34?058XPTKZ4CP.

Save $350 on select Dimensions™ $999 or more, not including XPS systems at Dell Home. Use coupon code N6LJQJRFXLC2LZ.

Save $750 off select Inspiron™ notebooks $1999 or more at Dell Home, not including XPS systems. Use coupon code 9BCP1T8V?340DL.

Save $350 on select Dimensions systems over $1049. Use coupon code $1K$46W?HNNQ9Q. Not valid with other offers.
*Ebates members receive additional two percent back.*

Take up to $20 off at DisneyShopping.com. Use coupon code SCHOOLSAVE. Exp 07/23/2006. Visit the Outlet (you will see the outlet on the homepage) for great deals on beach towels, pajamas (cute princess pajamas for girls & great boy prints for only $4.99), and back to school items.
*Ebates members receive additional two percent cash back.*

If you are interested in learning more about the Ebates program, please follow this link for more information. An additional $5 is applied to your account, upon making your first purchase.

Saturday Sales

The sales are flying since we are quickly approaching the end of summer. Take advantage of all those summer clearance racks before the items are gone!

Here are some hot places to show this week...

Bluefly (should directly link you to their clearance section). You can use Coupon Code AFF15 to receive $15 off of a $100 purchase. This coupon code is valid only for new customers.
*Ebates members receive an additional four percent cashback bonus*

Ebags buy two items, receive a 20% discount. Good for gearing up for the back-to-school season. Lots of great backpacks to choose from. Sort your prices from low to high and there should be some great choices (in an affordable range).
*Ebates members receive an additional six percent cashback bonus*

Snapfish offers free shipping on your first thirty prints. Use coupon code HPFREESHIP (expires 07/31). You can also get thirty free prints & save twenty percent on photo gifts using coupon code AFFMEM2006 (exp 10/01)
*Ebates members receive an additional ten percent cashback bonus*

Etoys has a great Christmas in July sale, currently running. If you sort by price, you will see a ton of stuff under five dollars. These would make great gifts to keep stashed for all of those children's birthday parties. I also noticed a great Bunco Party Game set (for the mommies in your life!) for only $4.49!
*Ebates members receive an additional three percent cashback bonus*

123InkJets offers free shipping & 5% off with the coupon code SAVES. These are SO much cheaper than in the store- you really can't compare their prices to any of your local retailers.
*Ebates members receive an additional sixteen percent cashback bonus*

Netflix offers a free trial for one month on their movie subscription plan. If you are a movie buff, this is worth the money. When we had time to watch movies, we used this service. They offer plans now (starting at) $5.99 per month.
*Ebates members receive an $18 cashback bonus*

The Children's Place is currently running their Back to School specials. Use coupon code FA76, now through September 4th, for an additional fifteen percent off of their already low prices.

If you are interested in learning more about the Ebates program, please follow this link for more information. An additonal $5 is applied to your account, upon making your first purchase.

For current Ebate members, they have recently added a blog to their site, where you can catch up on the latest & greatest in good deals!

My First Purchase (Using Ebates)

In May, I blogged about using the Ebates Rewards program to get cash back on your purchases. When you join the program, you automatically get five dollars (upon making your first purchase). I had the opportunity to finally activate my membership (and get my five bucks) because my mother's birthday is coming up (Note: Mom if for some reason you are reading my blog, please stop here or you will find out what your gift is).

In past entries I have discussed my single cup coffee maker. I have had some mixed feelings about the coffee maker. My husband got me it as a gift (because I make REALLY bad coffee!) and it is really great, but the pods are so dang expensive. As soon as I got it, I looked up how to make my own pods, but the process was a little too extensive (even for this frugal diva!) I then decided to purchase a MyPod, which is a great idea, but was somehow horribly flawed. It resulted in an overflowing cup of coffee that was one part coffee to ten parts water. I then tried to remedy this by only putting enough water in to just make one cup, but then this resulted in sputtering and explosives coming from the coffee maker. Then my coffee maker was just plain not working, then I called Senseo to complain (customer service, in short, said that it would be weeks or months before I would actually get a new unit). Then the dang thing started working again....but the pods are too expensive.

Any-who, I decided to look into some less expensive options that would work for the coffee-impaired. I read that the French Press is the way to go if you want a good cup of coffee, with minimal effort (or hopefully brains!) I figured I could use one of these ,and still use my single cup coffee maker, to save on the cost of the pods.

My mother is a big tea drinker and she works during the day so I ran across this travel French Press that you could use while you are on the road. Isn't it so *cute*? I decided to get her one and one for myself (read above paragraph about why I truly deserve this or some of my past entries on some rough times with the kids, in case you thought the coffee incident wasn't enough, which it was!). Because I downloaded that little Moe Money dude (I think he is a former rapper?), that told me that there was a fifteen percent discount for first time customers of HSN (use coupon code: C56574 exp 08/31/2006), that there was an Ebates two percent cash back discount, and I also pocketed my five dollars (from initially setting up the account). How cool is that? The cost worked out to be $19.03 (per mug), which included the shipping and handling for each of them! Not too shabby!

This will be my official Christmas gift, if it turns out to be a hit, for all of the coffee drinkers in my life!

My Ebates account has already been credited and I am looking forward to my Big Fat Check! Whoohooo!

Friday Freebie: Free Money

Last week I shared a simple way you can earn free Starbucks Coffee through MyPoints. This week I want to share another great way you can earn a little extra while doing your regular online shopping.

Just last week I ran across Ebates. I have absolutely no idea how I have not run across this site before. This has got to be one of the best deals out there for reward shopping that I have seen yet.

With Ebates they will pay you cash back whenever you shop online (up to 25%). They have tons of stores that I already shop at, including Barnes & Noble, the Gap, and Target. They actually have over 800 places you can shop, so there should be something for everyone in this rewards program.

They also list tons of great coupons, free shipping deals, and sales from these stores so you can stay on top of ways to save even more. You can check them out on Ebates.com or sign up for their weekly newsletter to have them alert you to any new deals.

The best part is they have a sign-up bonus that'll pay you $5 for joining (this is pending after you make one online purchase). After you sign up and buy something, they'll put the $5 in your account and include it in your next "Big Fat Check".

They send out their "Big Fat Check," every three months as long as you have earned over $5.01. You can receive this money in the form of a check or it can be moved right into your PayPal account. They also offer an opportunity for you to donate your "Big Fat Check" to charity where you can give back to deserving organizations.

The main thing that I really appreciate about this site is that they also have a download that can help alert you when you are shopping. They call him the Moe Money Maker and it just basically has a pop-up that lets you know if you are on a site that could reward you. It will pop up at the bottom of the screen and it gives you the opportunity to link through Ebates to help make sure you get every reward opportunity you can.

I love MyPoints, but the thing that always bums me out with them is that half the time I am shopping and just completely forget to even check there. They also add new stores and deals and I don't take advantage of them because I am not aware of them.

Take advantage of the free money and the great savings when doing your online shopping. This is not an excuse to shop..I repeat, this is NOT an excuse to shop...But if you need to shop for something- it is there!

Please stop by our poll and share your favorite summertime activity with the kids!