Just call me the online coupon mom! Did anyone ever watch extreme couponing? Well, that’s not me.
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Loved the show, never had the time for such a work process!
But, then online shopping became a thing and tons of options for saving money doing it became a thing. I am into saving money since the CFO of our family really gets on me about our budgeting! I think the saving goes, you have to spend money to make money. Haha! My husband doesn’t ‘buy’ this one. 🙂
Here are my three easy parent hacks for saving money on things like baby clothing, shower gifts, kid gear, family travel and more:
Rakuten
Once upon a time Rakuten was known as “Ebates” had horrible commercials that seemed like a scam. Does everyone else remember this? In tech news no one else pays attention to, Rakuten bought Ebates in 2014 and has come around to rebranding the whole thing.
Anyways, I am here to break the news – this is not a scam! I have been using Rakuten/Ebates as a chrome extension on my browser now for like two years and I literally get a check in the mail every quarter with my money back. It’s like Gap’s cash back, but you don’t actually have to spend it at their store, you just GET THE CASH. To like… put in your pocket and go get a manicure with! For real, people. And this isn’t like .001 cent per purchase, you get legitimate dollars back on your purchases. I find that installing it as a chrome extension is the best way for my to use the platform as it reminds me when I am shopping to ‘turn on Ebates for cash back’ and even tell me how much I am going to get back (usually between 1-10% but some sites go up to like 15% or higher!).
Honey
The name of this one serves it well. Give me the money, honey! Honey is like a coupon lady’s gigantic binder of clipped out paper coupons, except you don’t have to do any of that leg work and haul around a binder. Instead, install honey as a chrome extension on your browser and when you get to check-out, you just click it and it runs ALL the promotional codes and coupon codes out there so you don’t have to do any of the leg work (like scan and copy from retailmenot). Honestly, this thing has save me huge bucks over the years. Not only does Honey apply promotional discount codes at check-out (again, make sure to install the chrome extension) but it also works like a rewards program and you can redeem gift cards based on your purchasing points. This is also legit, legit.
Amazon Family
Amazon Family offers up to 20% diapers, baby food and more. I mean, are you really doing anything online now that isn’t 90% based around your kid’s needs anywhere? Amazon makes it easy to save money and do things fast (er, maybe too fast… buy money!).