Upromise, Ebates, SwagBucks, Mr. Rebates, FatWallet...there are so many online shopping "portals" where you can earn rebates from your online shopping! You hear about a deal and someone (maybe even me) tells you to remember to do the deal through one of these companies to make sure you get a little bit more back.
Next thing you know, you have 20 accounts with $.49 each in them!
Not the brightest idea, wouldn't you agree?
One of my goals this year is to reduce clutter even more. I am a huge fan of Flylady and her "lessons" have helped me control my house. It's not perfect (and to my readers who have been in my house: there is no need to chime in with how imperfect my house is!), but it's getting better every day.
Now I am looking to reduce clutter outside of the normal ways...and one of them is my online shopping portals. I was shocked to go through my inbox and realize how many accounts I had. I spent some time today going through them and closing out a few accounts (yes - I gave up a few dollars here and there...it was worth it in my mind) and am now down to only 3!
Ebates: easily the most well-known of the online portals. Very easy, love it. Will use it for most of my online shopping.
SwagBucks: I kinda forgot that I had it until a few days ago. I love The Google, but The Google doesn't pay me to search, does it? As much searching as I do online, it seems stupid to NOT use it! Some of the downfalls? The online shopping benefits aren't as great. For instance, if I want to buy just 1 $25 Gift Certificate for $3 from Restaurant.com, I wouldn't get credit through Swagbucks, as their deal is 1 Swagbucks for every $5 you spend (seems to be basically the same deal with the other online shopping through them). Most other sites give you a straight percentage. It may only be a difference of a few pennies per transaction but as we all know - pennies add up!
UPromise.com: lets me accumulate money towards college and while my Hunt's tomatoes aren't going to pay for Harvard, it is the only place (that I know of) where I can get money back in my "offline life". The new eCoupons are great. There are new ones each month and I'm just going to get in the habit of loading them on to my card on the 1st of each month. If I use them, great. if not - oh well!
Have you fallen in to the trap of too many online shopping portals? If so, I highly recommend that you spend some time, look at the accounts that you have and start streamlining as well!
Is there another site out there that you like or that we should know of? Leave them in the comments!
Darla
From one flylady fan to another - preach it sistah!
I just got rid of my "my points" acct - cashed in my gift certificates.
I am just down to ebates. It's about all the more I want to tackle at the moment.
Mindi
I forgot that I had a MyPoints account....
Gotta go close another one!