These days, it’s not enough to shop the sale racks. To stay on budget, moms have to find creative ways to stack offers and save even more. I have written before about the new JcPenney Best Price policy that gives you mens jeans for $12, among many other bargains. Here’s a creative example of how you can get even more for your money.
- Start with a cash back debit card like Perkstreet, or open an ING Checking to earn a $50 bonus. Perkstreet gives you 1-2% (sometimes up to 5%) cash back on your purchases. ING pays you interest on your checking balance and gives you a bonus for signing up. You’re spending money anyway, might as well snag some bonuses here and there. For this scenario, we will assume you have a $150 ING checking balance plus the $50 bonus, for a total of $200.
- Take advantage of the American Express Prepaid debit card offer. Load $200 from your ING checking onto your card and you’ll get a bonus $25 through 6/30. So now you have $150 of your own money plus the $50 ING bonus, plus the $25 American Express bonus. Total: $225.
- Use your AmEx debit and visit Cardpool.com to get a JcPenney gift card for a 30% discount. You can pick up a $321 gift card for $224.70. Your original $150 is now worth $321.
- Before shopping at JcPenney, stop by Ebates where you’ll earn 8% cash back on your JcPenney purchase. That puts another $25.68 into your pocket.
- In the end, you’ll have spent $124.32 (after rebate) and you’ll have $321 in merchandise. Using JcPenney’s Best Price items or clearance items will stretch your dollars even more!!!
This is a hypothetical scenario to show you the power of stacking your savings. To see this savings every day:
- Be sure you have a rewards debit or a checking account that pays interest. Get the ING $50 bonus offer HERE.
- Take advantage of prepaid debit bonus deals. The AmEx deal is available through 6/30 only.
- Whenever possible, start by buying discounted gift cards. I love Cardpool and Plastic Jungle and have purchased from them both many times (but for this scenario, Cardpool is the only one that takes American Express).
- Most stores allow you to use a gift card along with a coupon, so be sure to subscribe to MomsbyHeart to find the latest in-store and online coupons to sweeten your savings.
- When shopping online, take advantage of cash back rewards sites. Ebates is my favorite, and I have tried them all. They’re reliable and honest. Plus new members get a bonus $10 just for signing up. So if you’re an Ebates newbie, this scenario would only cost you $114.32.
Just today I used a $50 JcPenney gift card purchased on Cardpool for $35 to score 4 pair of Arizona jeans for my husband. I’ll get $4 back from Ebates for a total out of pocket of $31. That’s $7.75 per pair, y’all!
You can see that by implementing these strategies you can end up paying thrift store prices on items for your whole family! If you have any frugal tips for shopping online, please share them in the comments.
Happy saving!
Posted in: frugal living tips
{ 1 comment… read it below or add one }
Hi Lori and other Moms out there:
I use Ebates too, and can vouch for them. But, I have found that if you check with BigCrumbs, they give better discounts and payment is once a month to you rather than every three months as in Ebates. They don’t always have the same retailers so you have to check both but it’s worth it.
Use this URL: http://home.bigcrumbs.com/Profwife and you will get your rewards on the 15th of every month in your Paypal account.
For instance I buy my vitamins at Puritanspride.com. I find a discount code on the internet, then go to BigCrumbs and make my order when Puritan’s Pride is having a 3 for 1 sale. Most orders have free shipping and no tax.