Jen
When it Pays to Shop

If you are already an Ebates member, feel free to skip this post. If you're not, I would keep reading. Since I joined Ebates in September 2012, I have made $478.67! "Wow, she must shop a lot," you must be thinking. While this is true to some degree (hehe), I have used it in several practical situations - when booking vacations, when purchasing items for our home renovations, when ordering prints of pictures, Sam's Brooks Brothers' hauls to refresh his dress shirt collection - see it's not all me!
What prompted me to write this post was a conversation I had with my Mom recently. Since I know some of her friends read my blog (Hi!) I figured I would share the story. Maclan's 1st birthday is coming up at the end of October. When my Mom asked me what she could buy him, with hesitation, I suggested a Patagonia jacket. Sam, Maddie and I all love our Patagonia gear, but a winter jacket for 12month old at a price tag of $99 felt kind of crazy. That being said, I knew if we sized up, he could get two seasons out of it and it would be something he would wear almost every cold day of the fall/winter season. It's also a coat I would feel comfortable leaving him in while he is in the carseat because it is relatively thin. Despite these justifications, I was still motivated to find the best deal. I found the jacket on the backcountry.com website, where you get 15% off your first order. I did a little more searching and realized that if my Mom used Ebates, she could receive another 8% cash back on her purchase. All she had to do was navigate to the backcountry website via the Ebates website, and proceed to make her purchase. With very little effort, the $99 jacket was purchased at a net price of $77.
The only thing I love more than shopping, is a really good deal. And hey, if I didn't join Ebates 6 years ago, I would have almost $500 less in my pocket. Here is how to get started:
Join Ebates here now.
Search for a store you are going to make an online purchase at.
If the store participates, it will pop up.
Click on the "Shop Now" button for that store
You will be redirected to your chosen site; complete your purchase as you normally would.