Friday, November 21, 2014

DEAL ALERT: Ebates (aka: How a Broke Student Didn't Break the Bank for Holiday Shopping)

Hello, my lovelies! With Black Friday coming around, I figured now would be a great time to talk about Ebates.



Before you roll your eyes, hear me out. That is MY actual check up there. I didn't do anything other than shop like I normally do online. I didn't give them any money or anything else outside of my name and address to mail the check to me.

This actually helped me out a lot the past year of law school, a time when I only had a meager work study check coming in every few weeks, but plenty of gifts to buy for the holidays and as many friends started getting engaged and married. And it kept helping all year round, especially when it came to buying textbooks.

I discovered Ebates last year as a second-year law student with a very limited budget for the holidays. Ebates is a website that gives you cash back for your online shopping purchases year-round. It's free to sign up and once you do and make your first purchase through the site, you get a $10 gift card PLUS the cash back you're already entitled to.

You don't have to visit the website every time you plan on shopping, which is nice because I would always forget. You can actually just download a button that alerts you every time a place you're shopping online qualifies for cash back through Ebates. You click the button and it syncs with your Ebates account! I mean, how convenient is THAT?!?




 Every site offers a different cash back percentage, but here's a key few:

Sephora and Ulta - 8%, Groupon and LivingSocial - 6%, Nordstroms, Kohls and Macy's - 6%, Ebay - 5%, Amazon.com - 3%, Walmart - 2%, and Best Buy - 1%.

(I know that Best Buy doesn't SEEM like a lot, but wait until you need a new washer and dryer or a TV!) Last December alone, I received over $185 in cash back. Yeah. That's my check up there.

Just think about it this way... every time you spend $100 at Sephora.com, Ebates gives you $8. Really, they do.

And how do you get that cash back? Ebates mails you a CHECK. This isn't a Visa gift card or some online gift card. It's real CASH.

To sign up, simply click HERE and you can start using Ebates right away. It's THAT easy.

(Full disclosure: The above link is a referral link that I get credit for and I would greatly appreciate it if you used PrincessPolishBlog@gmail.com for the referral address. However, if you are uncomfortable clicking through the link, you can visit Ebates.com and I will understand.)

Happy shopping, everyone! :)