How To Make Money While You Shop For The Holidays

If you are like most Americans you will be spending a good amount of money doing your holiday shopping this year. The average family spends at least $1000 on holiday shopping each year and that doesn’t include food! Many estimates also state parents spend about $400 per child during the holiday shopping season. If you are going to spend that much money, why not make some of it back as you shop? You can make money all year long with these websites and apps, but during the holiday season is when you will see the most benefit from it. This is how to make money while you shop for the holidays.

How To Make While You Shop For the Holidays

Rakuten

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Rakuten gives you cash rebates back on money you spend at online stores. You can shop in store with Rakuten, but the easiest way is with online links. I’m on track to earn over $75 this year from this company. Rakuten transfers the money you earn in cash to your Paypal account several times a year. They have rebates for almost every retailer. If you use the Google Chrome browser there is an Rakuten you can add that will alert you when there are rebates for any websites you visit.

Ibotta

Ibotta is an app where you get small chunks of change for certain items when you scan your grocery receipt. Even if many of the items you buy are not listed, they often have one that is $.25 for any item on the receipt. They also have general any item, so the brand doesn’t matter. There are lots of good rebates if you buy alcohol. Often $2-3.00. So you can get to the $20 threshold to get cash back pretty quickly. As soon as you hit that threshold you can transfer the money to your Paypal account. I’m about to hit the $60 mark.

Shopkick

Shopkick is another shopping app, it takes more work, but I still use it. On Shopkick you earn gift cards instead of cash. I usually get a Target or Amazon gift card. I’ve earned $60 in gift cards with it. You earn kicks (points) when you visit certain stores or when you scan the UPC (universal product code) of specific items in the store with your smart phone. You can also get “walk in” kicks just by walking into stores. I can often get the “walk in kicks” if I leave the app open when I drive by the store even if I don’t go in. It takes me just a few extra minutes to walk around and scan items when I shop. I never get all the items, but most are easy to find. You get way more kicks if you actually buy one of the items. A common item they like you to scan is People magazine. That’s easy, because it’s right near the checkout. The same item often stays on the scan list for several weeks so by then you know where it is.

Retail Me Not

The final website I use to make money while I shop is Retail Me Not. Not only do they have coupon codes for just about every website imaginable, they also have cash rebates available for many stores. Some of the cash rebates can be quite large if you are buying big ticket items like cell phones. Retail Me Not also has a Chrome extension that will alert you to deals as you shop.

While the cash and gift card rebates you can earn through these companies may seem small, they will really add up over time. Wouldn’t you like to have an extra $200 or more in cash and gift cards to spend after the holidays and throughout the year? What could be better than making some money while you spend it?

Rakuten

Ibotta

Shopkick

Retail Me Not

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