How to Save Big This Holiday Season: Part 1 - Ebates

Hi everyone!

With Black Friday 8 days away, and the holiday shopping season rapidly approaching, I thought it would be nice to do a series of posts for the next few days about how to save money.

Today, I'm featuring a site called e-bates. It's something I've mentioned before on the Facebook page and if you do online shopping a lot, you have no excuse for not partaking in this. No, seriously. You don't.

To enroll in their free program, you go to Ebates.com and sign up. From there, you can click through to most major online retailers and do your normal shopping. After you place an order, you are automatically awarded a certain percentage of cash back to your Ebates bank.

Each retailer has a different percentage they offer. For example: Apple offers 1% (that's $5 bucks right there on an iPad), Ulta and Sephora give 4%, and ProFlowers offers 12%. Even travel companies offer cash back and that's a really opportunity to make back some money. Have you looked at air travel lately? (Let's just say my family booked our flights to Florida Christmas week and I found $36 in my savings. You do the math!)

And BONUS: They not only let you use coupon codes, each retailer page on Ebates list ALL AVAILABLE COUPON CODES! How convenient is that?

I also HIGHLY recommend this for Black Friday shopping online. I know that I personally spend the most money on Black Friday, so it's my biggest chance to make money back. And if you have a cash back credit card, you're basically doubling that money. It's pretty cool.

Right now, Ebates is offering a promo that upon your first purchase of $25 or more (um, really? I drop that at Ulta alone in twenty minutes), you automatically get your choice of $10 gift cards. Easy, right?

Please note: You MUST click through Ebates to whatever online retailer you shop through in order to get the credit. It might help to set it as a homepage on your internet browser.

So really, if you shop online, there's no excuse to be lazy and not get cash back. What are you waiting for? Go get your $10 gift card and start collecting your cash back today! I know it doesn't seem like a lot now, but you'll be surprised after Christmas passes just how much you earned. Especially if you're an online shopping addict.

Tomorrow, I'll be sharing all of my Black Friday tips for you late night/early morning shoppers out there!

Do you think this will help you out this holiday season? Let me know!
Princess Polish

Disclosure: The links above are referral links. If you do not want to use my referral, you can go to Ebates.com and sign up on your own.

The Puppy is Coming + A Giveaway

I am happy to announce that after nearly a year of waiting, my first Seeing Eye puppy is on her way! For those of you who don't know me, I am a raiser for the Seeing Eye Inc. of Morristown, NJ, the oldest guide dog school in the United States. This year, TSE is celebrating their 70th year of puppy raising.

Puppies are assigned to families and individuals, whom they live with for anywhere from a year to 16 months. As a raiser, I will be training the puppy in obedience, house manners, and general desensitization to various locations and circumstances.

On Valentines Day, I know that I will be receiving a female Black Lab, who will be joining my five-year-old Chocolate Lab, Dakota, however, I do not know her name. The Seeing Eye names all of their puppies by assigning a letter to each litter in order of birth from A-Z. This makes it easy to recognize siblings and in fact, my puppy's sibling will belong to another member of my school club. What I do know is that she is from the "P" litter, meaning her name will start with a P.

And this is where you all come in! From now until 12:01 EST on February 14th, take a guess through the entry in the Rafflecopter widget below as to what "P" name you think she'll have!

There are three grand prizes up for grabs. The people who guess correctly will be entered to receive either the OPI Holland Mini Collection, the OPI Nicki Minaj Mini Collection, or a Valentines Day prize pack, which includes one full sized bottle of China Glaze Ring in the Red, and some other awesome surprises

However, I will pick seven random names, regardless of your guess, from the widget and each person will receive a mini CG Ruby Pumps and a mini Out the Door Top Coat. So even if you aren't correct, you still have a chance to win!

Good luck and get to guessing!

Princess Polish, Princess Puppy, and Little Miss "P"