Sunday, July 26, 2009

Well, that's a pretty tasty deal.

One of the hardest parts of trying to cut back and save money is losing out on entertainment and dining. My boyfriend and I have been talking about staying in for the weekends as we're saving every dime we have right now for a trip to Napa through my timeshare. It's the first week long vacation I have had in 8 years. I'm due and I want to make sure I can enjoy myself. More on that in a later post.

When I went to pay my Discover card I was struck by an idea. Discover has certain places where you can earn up to 5% cash back in certain months. Thank God for timing as I should get 5% cash back on nearly everything for the trip to Napa (gas, restaurants, etc.) I love the cash back program and have found it a pretty good way to save.

I had heard that there were other websites through which you can get rebates for shopping online so I set out today to check them out. TOUCHDOWN!

The first one I went to was Ebates.com. First, I got a $5 bonus just for signing up. Sweet. Then I surfed the site for their coupons. I found the Restaurant.com is having a smokin' deal: 80% off if you use the coupon code AND 15% cash back. So I got a $25 gift card to a great locally owned restaurant ($35 min. purchase) for $2 after the 80% discount! After the cash back, I only spent $1.70.

The second one was Cashbaq.com. Another $5 bonus! Worked the exact same way. Lather, rinse, repeat. I got a second gift card at another restaurant for $2, as well. Perfect. The great thing is that it's not chain places. These are locally owned and really good deals!

So now I have more than doubled my $5 a day goal and have some major deals printed out and ready to use within the next year. I plan to use both sites whenever I shop at the cash back is between 4% and 15%. I am a total freak over a smokin' deal.

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