Okay so you found yourself a deal somewhere on the internet, want to maybe save even more?

We’ll start with the simple

1. Search your email if you’re already on their email list, maybe you already have a coupon code.

2. Look for coupon offers on RetailMeNot.com, Dealigg.com, or just by searching “____coupon code”

3. Go to evreward.com to find our which rewards program offers the highest percentage back for wherever you are shopping. They compare credit card rewards and cash back portals for you. Here’s an example from one of my favorite online deal places, The Limited.

4.  Make your purchase and get notification that you earned cash back just for a few extra clicks.

Ebates

You’ll see that there are 3 big names are the cash back portals, the most popular one by far is Ebates.

Ebates is great you just shop through their portal and get money back as a % of your purchase ; my Mom does a lot of online shopping for their business (TeamEK.com) and earned back $800 last year!!  Granted we all don’t spend that much online, an extra $20 in the form of a check each quarter isn’t a bad deal either.

Signing up for Ebates is really easy too! Just click here and you’ll be on your way to your first check! Be sure to watch out for ‘daily double’ deals where one ebates store doubles their cash back for the day!

Extreme Couponing without the Stockpile

Just like Grocery store couponing, finding deals is all about the stacking. Keep an eye out for a retailer that has a sale and coupon deal going on at the same time, add on some cash back and you’ve just might have a killer deal going on for you.

Sometimes it’s easier to read blogs rather than clogging your inbox with every email newsletter, here are my favorite bargain blogs!

Bargainist: Bargainist essentially subscribes to every major retailers email list and posts the ‘good stuff’ they find. A great way to see what’s going on without subscribing to everything.

TechBargains: If I’m hunting for a deal on anything technology or looking for a friend  I start at TechBargains, everything is very well organized, but beware tech deals are HOT and sell out fast!

SlickDeals.net : I subscribe to their “Frontpage Slickdeals”  which are community voted.

If you set up an account on SlickDeals you can also create a search that you can get notifications when a topic is posted, handy for long term looking.

Hello Kirsti’s Deal-cademy is a series of posts I’ve created.
Forever a deal hunter I’ve been known to sit and wait for the perfect ‘time to buy’. Recently I’ve helped a few friends do the same, and determined to it was time to share my ways. So introducing Hello Kirsti Deal-cademy a series of posts with tools to help you save on whatever it might be, a necessity or a ‘treat’ these tools can help you get it for less! View all Deal-cademy posts here.

The Tracktor , yes sorta like a Tractor…

The Tracktor is an awesome tool; it graphs the historical prices for items on Amazon and will email you when the price reaches below the number you enter.

You can view the graphs on their website, or make it easier by installing their browser extension, available for Safari, Chrome, and Firefox.

Anyone who’s shopped Amazon, especially the 3^rd party has experienced how often prices change, a little bit or a lot.

How I use it:

I set up alerts for tons of things, random stuff I’m interested in, crafting needs, cool tech toys I’m waiting for a deal on. I especially use it when I’m thinking about getting something but the graph tells me a couple weeks ago it was cheaper, since I can live without it until that happens again.

Example:  I nabbed the $40 at Michael’s Pink Scotch ATG gun I’d been eyeing for $12.56 one day using The Tracktor. Here’s a graphic showing all the parts of the browser extension and how to use them.

Also since I’m in Tennessee and have Amazon Prime I get everything in 2-3 days and save the 9.25% TN sales tax (hello instant 10% off essentially). I’m going to be heartbroken in 2014 when Amazon starts collecting sales Tax in TN though.

Up next for the Deal-cademy is getting the most cash back or points on your purchase!

Hello Kirsti’s Deal-cademy is a series of posts I’ve created.
Forever a deal hunter I’ve been known to sit and wait for the perfect ‘time to buy’. Recently I’ve helped a few friends do the same, and determined to it was time to share my ways. So introducing Hello Kirsti Deal-cademy a series of posts with tools to help you save on whatever it might be, a necessity or a ‘treat’ these tools can help you get it for less! View all Deal-cademy posts here.

 

Forever a deal hunter I’ve been known to sit and wait for the perfect ‘time to buy’. Recently I’ve helped a few friends do the same, and determined to it was time to share my ways. So introducing Hello Kirsti’s Deal-cademy a series of posts with tools to help you save on whatever it might be, a necessity ,or a ‘treat’ these tools can help you get it for less!

Look forward to these posts coming soon and spread the word!

So I nabbed the deal of the century $300 Cricut Cake for $50 free shipping, two cartridges no tax since they were in Utah!!! Yeah my inner bargain queen was jumping up and down!!

I’ve been eying Cricut and Silhouette cutter machines for ages, but as a recent graduate I couldn’t justify the $250-$300 purchase, especially not knowing how much I’d use it. (For those not in the know, think of it as a cutting printer…)

From this into that ==>

How to make a Cricut Cake an Expression:
Just add two parts

With the purchase of a Deep Cut Blade and Housing (Blade it comes with is for gum paste not paper) and some sticky mats I have me a Expression which retails for $150-180ish ATM.  Retail for these pieces $29 and $12.99 but they do go on sale for 20%-30% at Michaels and Joann’s, also if not on sale you can use a coupon at Joann’s (only on Cricut Accessories)

I did some quick paper cuts with my Pooh Font cartridge I picked up for $12. (Note I got the Cricut Imagine mats since that was all Joann’s had, they work too)

I also tried my main goal, cutting fabric. I starched and interfaced some simple cotton fabric and tried to cut it, it works BEAUTIFULLY. (That bottom little K is only messed up because it was too close to the P)

Look forward to lots of adorable Christmas presents from my new toy!!

P.S. I have no association with the company I purchase my Cricut from, nor are they offering me anything for providing this link but I am really happy with my purchase and feel that a Cricut is well worth a $50 investments something to play with so get yours from CricutMachine.com . Please note their order processing  gets backed up from their awesome sales, and they ship FEDEX ground from Utah, so it’s gonna take a bit for it to come, but your savings and patience is well worth it!

If you have any questions please leave a comment and I’d be happy to answer them!