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My Secret to Save~Making Money around the Holidays

dec-2015-iov-1

A REALLY EASY WAY TO MAKE MONEY

My secret weapon to making money around the holidays is a website you’ve probably heard of but never knew you could earn money on – it’s EBATES!

HOW YOU DO IT: REFER-A-FRIEND PROMOTIONS!

Ebates has this really cool program where they give you anywhere between $50 – $100 for referring a few friends to their website. It’s really easy to do because Ebates is actually a website that saves people money, so a lot of people (including myself) use it when they go shopping online.

HERE’S HOW EBATES WORKS:

  1. Before you shop anywhere online (Amazon, ebay, your favorite store, etc) start by logging into Ebates first.
  2. Search for that online store / website name in the Ebates search bar
  3. Click on the link that pops up to take you to the website.
  4. Doing this starts an active “Ebates shopping session” where you will earn cash back on your purchases.
  5. After you make a purchase, you will be credited cash back in your Ebates account to cash out later!

It’s so easy. I literally use it for everything. Just yesterday I ordered a Shutterfly photo book using this method. Last week I ordered something on Amazon using this trick. Both websites I was going to buy something from already….but by starting my shopping sessions on Ebates, I got cash back on my purchases!

HOW REFER-A-FRIEND WORKS:

Once you use Ebates for the first time, you will no doubt LOVE it.

Several times a year (and especially around the holidays), Ebates will put out a promotion that says you can get cash for referring your friends to Ebates.

All you have to do when this happens is share your Ebates referral link with friends. If they end up making a cash back purchase after signing up under you, you’ll get a bonus!

It’s so easy. I do it every time a promotion comes out and because Ebates is so easy to refer people to (I mean, everyone LOVES cash back!), it’s a win-win for everyone involved.

Click here to sign up for Ebates (it’s free to do so) and be ready when the next Refer-A-Friend promotion comes around!

Here’s proof that it works – this is my current signup bonus pending! It shows that I’ve already earned an easy $60 for this quarter! You cannot beat this opportunity to earn money without even hardly trying! They’ve been running these bonus specials for years, so I think it’s pretty safe to say you can count on this to continue for a long time

SPECIAL $10 SIGNUP BONUS

If you’re new to Ebates and sign up today, you’ll get something very special after you make your first online purchase using the method I described above. You’ll get a $10 bonus immediately credited to your account! This in in addition to the cash back you’ll get from the shopping session.

I love that they offer this deal! It gives you an incentive to earn cash back and a very good reason for all your friends to join, which will earn you referral commission! ????

You can easily signup up on mobile or desktop. When you click on the signup button, you’ll see a popup like this. You can sign up in seconds with Facebook or use an email address. I personally did it with Facebook to make things easy.

ebates-signup

Note: If you see this signup bonus has expired, please let me know in the comments below.

RECURRING REFER-A-FRIEND BONUSES

For the past few years, Ebates has been back to back refer-a-friend promotions. After the holiday promotion ends, they do a late winter promotion, then a spring promotion, a summer promotion, and then another one….they basically do one at least every quarter and really hit them hard around the holidays.

The best part about this is – the more promotions they run = lots of chances for you to earn referral cash!

Every time you login to the Tell-A-Friend dashboard, you will see the current bonus structure. They range from $50 to $100 each. This is an older one that occurred around the holidays (hint: they always offer more around the holidays!)

ebates Q4 2015 referral tiers

This will vary from promotion to promotion, but it’s usually the same idea. Get a small bonus for one friend, a way bigger bonus for the second and third friends referred. And just a heads up = the bonus structure is usually a tad better around the holidays!

HOW IT WORKS

After you sign up for Ebates (it’s free to do so), you will see a “TELL-A-FRIEND” tab. Click on that and you’ll see your referral link. You can copy and paste your referral link for sharing on Facebook, Twitter, even in a text to your best friends.

Ebates dashboard Tell-A-Friend example

When your friends click on your referral link and sign up for Ebates, that signup will be linked to your account. And when that friend eventually uses Ebates to make a cash back purchase, you’ll earn referral credit!

IMPORTANT: Referral bounties don’t kick in until your friends ACTUALLY USE Ebates to claim their first rebate. But what’s great about Ebates is that there’s no time limitation on the activation. Once your friend signs up, as long as they use the site to get a cash back rebate during one of these promotion periods (remember – they happen lots during the year now), you’ll get your credit! And you can see all of this in your dashboard.

Now, if you really want to maximize your referral credit, make sure to tell your friends to make their first purchases ONLY WHEN Ebates is running the referral promotion. That way you will be sure to get your full referral credit. When it’s not in place, I believe the referral credit may be $5 per referral, although I’m not 100% sure about that.

GET STARTED WITH YOUR FIRST $50 – $100

sign up now

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Ways to save Money on the power bill $$

Did you know their is cheap and easy ways to save on the power bill?
SAVE ON THE POWER BILL

* Disclaimer* this is NOT a sponsored post. All opinions are my own. Links may be affiliated links. This does NOT affect your price. Disclaimer

There are some basic you can do to save. Let’s start with the free things and work our way to the bigger things. A lot of my tips go back to the hot water heater or cooking. Anything that has to warm up uses a lot of power. So think about it the oven, dishwasher, washing machine, dryer, and space heaters. Anyways you can cut back on using it. Or help it run easier will be worthwhile.

  • set the thermostat to 68 in the winter and 78 in the summer
  • turn down the temperature on the hot water heater to 120 or less. This is a big one. Your hot water heater is running all the time. Making it run less makes a big difference.
  • wash clothes in cold water.
  • turn the heat dry setting off on the dishwasher.
  • Check for leaks on the A/C ducts. I found one A/C duct on my house had come loose. I had been wasting all the air from that vent going under the house. And I will tell you fixing that one vent made a big difference in the temperature of the whole house!
  • make sure refrigerator and freezer are set at the right temperature. If you don’t know. Look up the make and model online. That information should be inside the door.
  • keep the lint trap clean on the dryer. It will work easier that way. And run the dryer at night in the summer. This way it won’t heat up the house during the heat of the day. Making the A/C work harder.
  • Don’t use space heaters if you have other options. If you can use a fireplace or a wood stove to heat a room.
  • Like the dryer, try not to use the oven during the day. It takes a lot to get the oven up to temperature. So if you must use it put your food in early. Cut back on cooking time the best you can.

moving on to the suggestions that require some investment

  • Get a hot water heater blanket!! It can save up to 25% alone. I have got one for every house I’ve moved to. It’s not too expensive and very worth it.
  • Check around exterior doors. If you can see light through a closed door. Then you have a weatherstripping problem. Easy fix. There are different kinds. The main one pulls out of the door frame. Or you can get the peal and sick. I use this to add around the main weatherstripping or on interior doors if needed.
  • Replace any lights you can with solar lights.
  • Replace your 5 most used light bulbs with LED lights bulbs. BIG ONE!! This helped me out a lot.
  • Insulate windows. With a kit or even hang a blanket over the window in the winter.
  • add insulation in the attic. Anyplace you can increase insulation is a good idea.
  • check around in water lines coming into the foundation of the house. Any holes that air or bugs can get through fill with Great stuff. It’s just a spay that expands to fill the space. Real easy to use.
  • the last one, remember to change the filters on the A/C unit every 3 months. (check the size you need on the in-house part of the A/C unit)

        thank you for your time. I hope you find this as useful as I have.

 

If you like this please check out some other posts.

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My Top 5 Places for Free Stuff

My Top 5 Places for Free Stuff

I LOVE FREE SUFF!


I don’t know what it is about coming home and having free stuff in the mail that makes me so happy. I just love it. If it’s something I don’t need I give it away. So let’s talk about how you can have it all too!
1. www.pinchme.com they don’t just give you the little sample size stuff. I have gotten full size thing from them.
2. www.camel.com / www.copenhagen.com now I don’t support tobacco but I do enjoy the free stuff they give out. In my picture do you see the white water bottle? Made it up myself on camel’s website and they sent it to me for free. Copenhagen has sent me wooden coasters and in the picture is a box of pencils with my initials on them. FREE
3. www.getitfree.com they do all the work. All you do is pick what you want and put it in your basket. When you’re done work your way down the list in the basket. They take you straight to the site where you need to fill in all of your info. That’s it
4. www.sampleaday.com it is much the same as get it fee but the site is a little harder to deal with. Still worth it.
5. www.pepsipass.comdid you know they still have Pepsi points? Oh yeah and you get points for just login in everyday or watching a video. Easy

I wanted to give you a little more…
Try Target or Walmart site’s they have samples but they go fast
Sign up on email list for stores you like. I signed up on LLBean site they sent me a $5 credit toward purchase. So I checked out the clearance and found a nice thermos. I think I only paid part of the shipping so almost free 🙂

Have a great day!

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