Monday, December 2, 2013

Childfreedom's Favorite Money-Saving Sites

UPDATE:  Double cash back today at Ebates for Cyber Monday!

Click here



Let's be honest.  One of the great things about being childfree is having more time and disposible income to do fun things like dining out and shopping.  While our childed friends are draining their bank accounts to pay for diapers, day care and soccer lessons,  we CF folk get to enjoy dining out with our friends, going on adventures, travelling and enjoying some retail therapy.

However, just because I am childfree doesn't mean I am swimming in money!  I do have a mortgage and plenty of other bills to pay.  So I try to make my disposible income go as far as possible (so I can do as many fun things as possible).  I confess.  I am a little obsessive about getting discounts.

These are 3 of my favorite tried-and-true money-saving sites. I've been a member of each for a long time and I cannot even imagine how much money these sites have saved me over the years. I NEVER shop on-line without first going to Ebates and I look forward to receiving those quarterly checks in the mail.  If I am planning to dine out, I ALWAYS check restaurant.com to find a good restaurant.  And I am constantly checking Groupon to see what cool offers they have going on.





Ebates is a web site portal that links you to all the popular online shopping web sites....all the biggies are on there - Apple, JC Penney, Sephora, Best Buy, Half.com, Overstock.com, Ebay, Walmart, Staples, Target, most of the major airlines, etc. etc. etc. The list goes on for miles. When you access any of these companies' web sites via Ebates' web site and make an on-line purchase, a percentage of your purchase is refunded back to you in the form of a cash rebate. It's really silly to shop on-line without using Ebates. If you are going to make an on-line purchase, you might as well get a rebate for it (at least, that's my philosophy). There are no costs or fees to join and no paperwork to complete. The only thing you have to do is make sure (when you shop online) to access the store you are interested in via Ebates' web site first so that you will get the rebate.

(The participating companies give Ebates a commission for bringing them customers and part of that commission gets passed on to you in the form of the rebate.)

For example, right now Target's rebate is 3%, so if you visit Target's web site (via the Ebates site) and make a purchase, 3% of your purchase will be refunded back to you in the form of a rebate.

Rebates are accummulated in your Ebates account and rebate checks are issued quarterly by Ebates. I've been using Ebates for years and those quarterly checks come like clockwork in February, May, August and November - I am always happy to get those checks because the money goes straight into my travel savings account.

If you sign up using this link you will get a bonus - a $10 gift card to a store of your choice when you make you make your first qualifying purchase (and I will get a bonus too). If you ever shop-on line, this may be a service that will really benefit you.




By now, most have heard about Groupon. Groupon emails fantastic offers out to its members via email - or you can obtain the offers by visiting Groupon's web site. Most are half-off offers. For example, an offer may be something like, “$20 worth of pastries at LeCreme Bakery for $10” or “$50 fine dining at XYZ Restaurant for $25”. If you want to participate in an offer, you sign up for it and input your payment information. If enough people sign up for the offer, it is “on” and you get the coupon for the offer. If not enough people sign up, the offer is “off” and you will not be charged.

Groupon has offers in cities across the US as well as in Canada and other countries.

To sign up for Groupon, please use this referral link and they will reward me for referring you!  (and depending on the current promotion, they may reward you too!)




I am a huge customer of restaurant.com. Restaurant.com sells restaurant gift certificates at a great savings.   In most cases restaurant.com will sell you a $25 gift certificate for $10, but I will give you a GREAT tip. Sign up with them and get on their email list because they regularly have special promotions where they discount their gift certificates 50% - 70%. So instead of paying $10 for a $25 gift certificate, if you catch one of their promotions, you can get a $25 gift certificate for $3 - $5! What a deal.

I'll tell you what I do.  When they have a 50% or 70% off promotion, I buy a bunch of certificates at once and stockpile them.  They never expire.

Use this referral link and restaurant.com will give me credit for referring you.

6 comments:

Phoena said...

I haven't tried those, but I'll take a look.

I come from a long line of cheapskates who believe if you can get something for $10 off then it was $10 overpriced to begin with! So I love saving money and brag how cheaply I got something the say some other people love to brag about how expensive something was!

I hate that many blogs about savings and coupons, etc. have "mom" in the name. It's so bigoted! Why do they assume if you want a good deal that you must be a) female and b) have given birth? It's just so rude and offensive. Unless the blog is specifically about diaper and formula deals, then it is NOT a "Mom" page. (One I know of is "Mommysavers" another is "Military Mom" and I've seen some others).

Sharonkay said...

Hi from Sharon:

I read your blog from time to time and find it very interesting. I am also childfree and will turn 50 years young in August this year. Like you, I have nieces and nephews that I adore, but I never wanted to be a parent. Thanks for the link to Ebates. I just signed up with them today. I am always looking for ways to save money. Your blog is not as negative as some of the other child free sites. Keep up the good work.

Childfreeeee said...

Phoena - the over-marketing to moms gets on my nerves too - like every product and service is automatically assumed to be most relevant to moms. Hello - there are PLENTY of people who are not moms - not only women, but men.

Sharon - hi and thanks for commenting. Glad you like the blog and hope you get a lot out of Ebates.

GeorgiaHikerGirl said...

Another site to check it out is www.fatwallet.com. It's similar to ebates.

Pamela said...

I sent you a friend request on Facebook. I get on there more than blogspot. Would love to be your friend. Most of my friends are pro-child & they can't understand why I don't want any....

& thanks for posting this. I'm going to use ebates

Temujin said...

As a man, I kinda like the fact that so many ads are targeted to moms. That means less of the advertising garbage out there is trying to talk to me. Advertisers can go bug those other people and leave me alone.

Frankly, the stuff I see aimed at men in general and fathers in particular is so totally condescending that it makes me mad, so I'll take all the silence I can get.

Sometimes there's a real benefit to being ignored by our hyper-saturated media.