Along with saving money, I always keep my eye out for ways that I can earn a little extra money also.  Over the next couple of weeks, I plan on introducing you to some of my favorite methods.

Using Cash-Back Sites

Before I do anything online that involves a purchase, whether it’s buying something or booking a hotel or flight, I check my favorite cash-back sites to see which one offers the highest percentage cash-back.

What are Cash-back Sites?

Basically, they are sites where you can “earn” a percentage back on any purchase that you make through their purchase links.  I like to think of them as an extra discount off the purchase price of the item I’m buying.

Favorite Cash-back Sites:

• Ebates – Get a $5 sign up bonus if you open a new account
• ShopatHome
• RewardsRunner
• Mr. Rebates – Get a $5.00 sign up bonus
• UPromise – click here for more information about UPromise.
• Big Crumbs

How Do Cash-back Sites Work?

I shop between my favorite cash-back sites above, and choose the one that has the highest percentage cash-back. but if you don’t shop online much, you may want to pick a favorite or two to ensure that you hit the payout minimum.

Once you’ve decided which cashback site to use search for the name of the store and click through the store link to shop. It’s very important that you click through from the cash-back site, since that’s how credit is determined for your order.

Please note: Each cash-back site lists various online coupon codes that you can use when you shop. If you have a coupon code that you use that’s not listed on the cash-back site, you may not get any money back.  Basically, the cash-back site will only be able to pay you if they are paid from the company where you made the purchase.  If you use an unauthorized affiliate coupon code, they may not get paid…and then you won’t get paid.

So How Do you Get your Cash?

• Ebates – “Big Fat Checks” are sent via check or Paypal every 3 months when your account balance is at least $5.01.
• ShopatHome – Checks are mailed monthly when your account balance reaches $20.
• RewardsRunner – Get paid via check or Paypal when your available account balance reaches $25.
• Mr. Rebates – Need $10 in “Available Rebates” to cash out. Payments are made by check or Paypal around the beginning of each month.
• UPromise – The order will show up in your Upromise account a couple of days after placing your order. It will show up as pending until Upromise is paid. Once it is paid, the money can be transferred to your 529 plan during your quarterly transfer.
• Big Crumbs – You will be paid monthly by Paypal around the 15th of the month. There is no minimum needed to cash out.

Do you use a cash-back site?  If so, which one is your favorite?

Additional “Cents”able Earnings Methods:

• Upromise
• MyPoints
• Paid E-mails – InboxDollars and SendEarnings

I love to shop online. With two little boys, it’s so much easier to shop online than to bring them with me to the store. Plus, on many items, you can get a better price online than at a traditional bricks-and-mortar store.

To save additional money on each purchase, I check out my favorite cash-back sites to see if they offer cash-back on the purchase I’m about to make. One of the sites that I use is Mr. Rebates. Mr. Rebates is a cash-back shopping website that offers over 1,500 stores
plus money-saving online coupons that you can stack with the every day
cash-back savings. Some of the top name brand stores include Macy’s, Sears, Travelocity and more.

Currently, Mr. Rebates is offering a $5.00 registration bonus, just for signing up. They will send out a payment by check or Paypal around the beginning of the month when you have at least $10.00 in “available rebates”. Usually, a rebate will become “available” after 90 days to take any returns into account.

In order to qualify for cash-back, you just need to start your shopping through their site. Find the store you’re interested in, and click through to the store. Mr. Rebates lists any available coupons for the store that you can use, too.
Mr. Rebates has generously offered a $100 Amazon gift card to giveaway to one lucky reader!

How to Enter: please enter your e-mail address in the comment form (if you can’t see the form, click here)

1. Visit Mr. Rebates and leave a comment letting me know which store you’d be interested in getting cash-back from.

Bonus entries:

1. Subscribe to my blog through a reader or by e-mail newsletter and leave a comment that you subscribed (or you’re a subscriber).
2. Join Mr. Rebates through my link and leave a comment that you joined (or are already a member). There’s no need to fill in the referral e-mail address…it’s already in the link.
3. Let others know about this giveaway – either tweet the giveaway (include @centsablemomma), blog about it (leave your link), e-mail your friends (cc centsablemomma AT att DOT net) or stumble it and leave a comment letting me know you did one of these.

The contest will end on 6/4 at noon, when I will randomly choose a winner using Random.org.

Also, please note: Mr. Rebates does not offer cash-back for Amazon (since Amazon has its own affiliate program), but you can get coupon codes for Amazon.

This contest is closed – you can find information about the winner here.

Do you get cash-back when you shop online? If you don’t, you’re missing out on one of the many good reasons to make purchases online.

How Does it Work?

Every time I’m about to make a purchase online, I shop through a cash-back site and get a % of cash back on my purchase. For example, say I want to purchase a book at Borders.com. I’ll check the cash-back % amount at some of my favorite sites such as:

• Big Crumbs – I would get 4.8% of my purchase back in cash
• Ebates – 4% back plus a $5 sign up bonus if you open a new account and make a purchase within 30 days
• ShopatHome -  4% back, plus a $5 bonus if you open a new account
• Cashbaq – 4% back plus a $5 sign up bonus, if you open a new account
• Mr. Rebates – 4% back
• UPromise – 3% added to my UPromise college savings account – click here for more information about UPromise.

Once you’ve decided which cashback site to use (based on which offers the highest cash-back), search for the name of the store and click through the store link to shop. It’s very important that you click through the cash-back site, since that’s how credit is determined for your order.

I used to shop through UPromise for every purchase, until I found out about some of the other sites. So, now I usually shop through the site where I get the largest return. So, for my Borders example, I would probably shop through Big Crumbs.

Please note: Each cash-back site lists various online coupon codes that you can use when you shop. If you have a coupon code that you use that’s not listed on the cash-back site, you may not get any money back. For example, when I used the free shipping coupon at Snapfish back in December, I did not receive cash back on my order, even though I shopped through Ebates, since it was a code they didn’t list (and because of that, Ebates didn’t get paid by Snapfish).

So How Do you Get your Cash?

• Big Crumbs – You will be paid monthly by Paypal around the 15th of the month. There is a $5 minimum required for payout.
• Cashbaq – Need at least $10 payable in your account (includes the bonus amount). You will be paid by check or Paypal around the 20th of each month.
• Mr. Rebates – Need $10 in “Available Rebates” to cash out. Payments are made by check or Paypal around the beginning of each month.
• Ebates – “Big Fat Checks” are sent via check or Paypal every 3 months when your account balance is at least $5.01, excluding bonus rewards.
• ShopAtHome – Checks are sent out monthly once you reach the $25 payout minimum.
• UPromise – The order will show up in your Upromise account a couple of days after placing your order. It will show up as pending until Upromise is paid. Once it is paid, the money can be transferred to your 529 plan during your quarterly transfer.
• Frugali - Payout via ACH, check, Paypal, or Google checkout when you reach the $25 minimum.  Get a $5 bonus for joining.

Using a cash-back site is how I save even more money while shopping online.

Ebates has increased some of the cash back amounts for various companies for holiday shopping. Some of the highlights include:

• Overstock.com – from 4% to 6% cash back
• Disney.com – from 3% to 6%
• Home Depot – from 3% to 6%
• Barnes & Noble – from 4% to 8%
• Victoria’s Secret – from 2% to 4%
• Dell – from 2% to 4%
• Walmart – from 1% to 2% – last year I shopped online at Walmart for Black Friday items, so I wouldn’t have to wait outside in the cold.
• North Face – from 4% to 8%
• Gap – from 3% to 6%

If you don’t already have an Ebates account, you can earn $5 after your first purchase through Ebates if you sign up through me. Click here to sign up.

How Ebates Works

• Sign in to Ebates
• Search by item or by store to find what you’re looking for
• Ebates will show the stores where you can find the product as well as any coupon codes that can used for the transaction
• Click through the link to shop
• Ebates will credit your account with the % of purchase applicable to the store (for example, earn 6% back at Overstock.com)