We are in the middle of a really strange holiday shopping season and according to my Instagram poll, many of you still have some shopping left to do. My goal for you ladies is to make this season as stress free as I possibly can. That means dishing out all my tips and tricks along with easy to shop and practical gift guides. There are a bunch of great gift guides that prioritize affordable prices and quality products so today I wanted to touch on how I save money while I shop online.
There are about three main ways I’d say you can save money while shopping online: standard sales, coupon codes, and browser extensions.
Sales are very straight forward. However if there is a retailer or gift that you are particularly interested in, I’d recommend signing up for their email list so you know about any special promotions they might be doing. Plus email subscribers often get special promo codes to use for additional discounts. Which brings me to the next item on our list.
Coupon codes are also pretty straight forward for the online shopper. There is a sale where you need to type in a special code to receive the discounts. This generally happens when you go to check out, you type in the promo code and voila, instant savings!
Now browser extensions, this might be new to some of you. This is generally a button you add to your internet browser that will look for deals for you when you’re shopping. My favorite of these is Rakuten. I’ve talked about Rakuten on here before because it has seriously saved me hundreds of dollars while shopping online. I’m not exaggerating.
How it works is pretty simple. You sign up for their service (which is free), then you can either A) on Rakuten.com, look up the store you’re going to be shopping, click ‘Shop Now’ and you’ll get a certain percentage cashback once you’re done shopping. Option B) is to add the Rakuten browser extension to your internet browser. Then you to just click a button and save while shopping. No need to go to their site once you install it.
How does it work? Basically, it looks for deals and cashback opportunities for you while you shop. Before you checkout, click the button and it will enable the savings for you. From one online shopper to another, it’s really sweet! Rakuten has saved me over $200.
If you are new to Rakuten, you can sign up through this link, spend $20, and you’ll get $20 back.
Another browser extension that is newer than Rakuten but growing in popularity is Honey. Honey is a little different from Ebates in that you don’t get cash back. Honey looks for coupon codes or promo codes for you and applies them before you checkout online resulting in instant savings. It can also track prices for you, letting you know if an item is likely to go on sale or if now is a good time to buy. I’m not as familiar with Honey simply because it’s newer to the market but I’ve had a couple good experiences with it so far.
So now you know my secret to saving money while shopping online. They aren’t paying me to gush about it, I’m just a fan!
