Money saving ideas...can be complicated but it doesn't have to bed...

So, I have been asked several times this week how I find such good deals and/or how I save money when shopping online. I thought I would share a couple of my secrets. ;)

First, before I buy anything (and oftentimes I am not even buying anything but want to see what sort of deals are posted for the day, I visit [url=slickdeals.net]THIS[/url] site. The site takes a little getting used to. The front page are the headlined "super hot" deals for the day (and the past few days). The moderators decide what go on this page. If there is something in particular you are looking for a good deal on, just go to the search engine at the top right side of the page and type what you are looking for in the search box. The listings pop up in order of most recent posting. This is my go-to site for everything before buying. Not only can I find info on sales but there are also places on the site to search for freebies, coupons, etc. There is even a place to just chat or to start a thread asking for someone to help you find a good deal on something. I don't usually use a lot of the features of the site but if you just look around, you can find some pretty interesting stuff.

Daily I do a search for children, childrens, baby, and stroller. ;) Some days nothing pops up and some days great deals like the P&T and Baby Jogger pop up. YAY!!

Another site I use is [url=www.bigcrumbs.com]Bigcrumbs.com[/url]. This is a cash back site that is attached to your Paypal account. I have been using this for about a year (or more) now and I love it. The cash back isn't always a ton depending on the company. You can even get cash back on eBay. It is a percentage of the seller's fees. :) To me, pennies add up.

There is a whole other side to Big Crumbs that might appeal to some and may not appeal to others. It is actually a reputable site (backed by the Better Business Bureau -- or else I would have never tried it) to make money, not just save money. It is like one of those pyramid deals where when I make money, you make money...except that it is really legitimate. I started using this while I was running my eBay business to generate a little extra income. I would give people the website and my referral name and when they bought something later, whether it was from eBay or any other website, I got cash back for their purchases too. WOO HOO!

So, if you decide to use Big Crumbs, when you first sign up for your account you have to decide if you want to be a “crumb earner” or a “crumb saver”. Once you decide, you can’t change it. If you are a crumb earner, you get a high cash back percentage from other peoples’ purchases and less cash back from your own purchases. If you are a crumb saver, it is the other way around. The crumb saver status is designed for people who do more shopping for themselves, the crumb earner status is more for people who are going to try to spread the word and make money from other peoples’ purchases. This is what I did and sometimes (especially now that I am not running the eBay deal anymore) I kick myself for it.

Big Crumbs has 100’s of stores to get cash back from…including the normal ones: Target, Walmart, etc…

Anyway…if you have any questions about Big Crumbs, let me know and I will try to help.

If you do sign up, please add me as your “referrer” at the bottom of the sign up page: mrsmarycandice . This way, every time you buy something, I make a few cents too. ;) Don’t worry, it doesn’t show me what you are buying, just that I made a few cents. Woo Hoo!!

All of this to say -- when I start shopping for something, I always start at these two sites.

P.S. One of the best deals I have gotten on Big Crumbs is through Letstalk.com (linking through Big Crumbs). If can get as much as $67.50 back!! YEAH!!!

There is one more website and it, too, is tied to your Paypal account. Basically, Microsoft paired up with a search engine company, Live.com, and started paying people if they went to live.com to search (instead of say, Yahoo) and then purchased something from a site like eBay. At one point, the live.com cash back amount for eBay Buy-It-Now purchases was around 35-40%!! Right now it is only 8% but I think it will probably go up again. In order to take advantage of the 8% cash back through live.com (now called Bing.com -- they just sold out to Bing), just go to Bing.com and in the upper right corner of the page, click “extras, your cash back account”. On the next page, click “sign up”. IF YOU ALREADY HAVE A HOTMAIL ACCT, YOU DON’T HAVE TO SIGN UP, ONLY SIGN IN. You will have to create a live.com/hotmail account. (It is soo worth it). Once you jump through all of the hoops of setting up an acct (or not), it should direct you to attach this to your Paypal account.

After doing this, go back to Bing.com and click “extras, your cash back acct” again. Now that you already have an acct, just sign in. This page shows all of your pending cash back purchases (sometimes it takes 60 days for the cash back to clear and others it takes 24 hours). On the left side of the page click “shopping”. Scroll down about ½ way and click “see all stores”. This will give you a list of stores and how much cash back you get for shopping at that particular store.

On Bing, eBay does not show up under the listed “stores”. You have to access it in sort of a strange way (and, yes, I have done this -- haha). For cash back on eBay purchases through Bing.com (This is almost always better than Big Crumbs), go to Bing.com and in the search box, type in “Wii”. (Don’t ask). The first thing that pops up will be a link to eBay. It will have a little gold coin beside it saying you can get 8% cashback with paypal if eligible. If you link your Bing.com acct to your Paypal acct (see above) you are eligible. Click this link. This will take you to eBay with search results for the Nintendo Wii showing. From here, just do your search the normal way and when you click the button to make your purchase (IT HAS TO BE A BUY-IT-NOW ITEM), you will see a spot on the next page (confirmation) that shows the amount of cash back you will receive. Again, right now eBay is 8% but it does go up…


I will usually compare Big Crumbs and Bing.com to see who has the better cash back. It fluctuates with both (more so with bing.com).


I KNOW THIS SEEMS LIKE A LOT TO TAKE IT BUT IT REALLY ISN’T THAT BAD. J Let me know if you guys don’t understand or just don’t care…It will not bother me at all. Hashanah

Good luck shopping.