Two useful things

22 July 2013

Popping in to share two useful things today:

Number One: EBates

You may recall that one of my March goals was to “investigage Ebates and possibly sign up.” I’ve known about Ebates for a few years, and though I can’t remember what prompted me to finally take action, I’m very thankful something did!

Ebates is one of those things that sounds too good to be true — I simply begin my purchase from their site, and they’ll give me a percentage in cash back? Up to 14% at some stores?? And it’s free? And I get a $10 gift card to Target just for signing up?? Yes, yes, yes, and yes. In fact, I had to laugh when my gift card arrived in the mail — they’re clearly used to dealing with skeptical people, because the card said “Yes, it’s real!”

ebates-cash-back-online-shopping

For me, the only trick is to remember to start from the Ebates site — you can’t go back and “sign up” your purchase after the fact. They pay cash four times a year, and since March we’ve gotten almost $100 back in cash, which is a pretty amazing amount of “free” money. I particularly recommend it if you’re going to be making a large purchase online — we bought our refrigerator online at Lowes, and got 6% cash back just for going through Ebates. It’s like an instant discount!

You can sign up with my referral link here (in the interest of full disclosure, I get $10 for anyone who signs up, but it goes without saying that I wouldn’t recommend it if it wasn’t a service we used and loved!). And if you’re already an Ebates member, let’s talk about how much you love it! :)

Number Two: Doodle

I’m not sure what the technical definition of a “life hack” is, but I think Doodle would definitely qualify. I was introduced to it by my friend MacKenzie, and ever since, I haven’t planned a get together with more than one couple without it. It’s a major timesaver for my group of friends, who have some of the oddest and busiest schedules around.

doodle-easy-online-scheduling

Basically, instead of lots of emails or texts back and forth to try and find a mutually agreeable day for an event, you send out a Doodle poll and everyone votes for the options that work for them. From there, it’s easy to see which date is the best!

For example, I sent out this poll earlier this summer:

Doodle

Yep, the Rays were only available one date out of seven. See why this is helpful for my peeps? :)

Doodle is free and incredibly easy to use, and I can’t recommend it highly enough!

I hope these two tips come in handy for y’all. Do you have a favorite useful thing to recommend? I’d love to hear!!

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Jesse R
July 22, 2013 9:27 am

Doodle is a life-changer! Another favorite is Dropbox – great way to share large files and access your stuff on the go.

Shelby
July 22, 2013 2:41 pm

Thanks for the reminder to sign up for eBates! Now, let’s see if I actually remember to shop through it. J. Crew at 6%!! Yippee!

Victoria B
July 22, 2013 3:12 pm

I love eBates and Doodle sounds pretty awesome. I think you should check out PoachIt. You just track a product from a website and then they will email you when it goes on sale or reaches a certain price point. I only use it when I know I want to buy something, but I don’t want to pay full-price. For example, I picked out a couple accent chairs from Target that I wanted, and I tracked them on PoachIt about a month ago. Last week, accent chairs went on sale and I got an email about it and I ended up saving 25% (which equated to $80) and the shipping was free! It was awesome since we wanted to buy them anyway! It’s good for clothes too of course or even items that are out of stock.

July 22, 2013 3:57 pm

OOH! Can’t wait to try these too! I definitely agree with Jesser who mentioned Dropbox…definitely a favorite! Can’t think of many others at the moment though I’m looking at using a ride arrangement app (UBER is on the table) and also a password keeper app for the first time soon. Any suggestions?

July 30, 2013 9:04 am

Ha! Oh our crazy schedules. Love Doodle, and we’ll definitely be checking out ebates! Miss you friend! Hope to catch up soon :)

July 30, 2013 1:25 pm

You just got $10 from me, girlfriend! Thanks for the recommendation!