Do you Ebates?

If you're like me, you are doing more and more of your shopping online where great deals are to be had. Last Thanksgiving I avoided the lines and craziness at the stores and chose instead to shop online - and what great deals there were to be had! One of the best deals I saw was a KitchenAid on sale for $180 (retails $270, often on sale for around $200). By the time you made sure to purchase through a cash-back site, added a 20% off coupon, and sent in for the $20 rebate, the price ended up being more like $115 plus tax and shipping . . . plus on top of that you got $45 Kohls Cash to spend (which could go toward buying some other Christmas gifts). That's the equivalent of getting $245 worth of merchandise for $115 (plus tax & s&h)!

Wondering what a cash-back site is? It's a site that offers an incentive to click through their links to the store you pick. Basically, they get a referral commission from the store and pass some of it on to you.

One of my favorite cash-back sites is Ebates. Whenever I decide to make a purchase online, I go to Ebates.com and make sure to check if they offer cash-back at that particular online store. If they do, I click through their link which takes me to the store site, and I make my purchase! It's really that easy. They often offer double cash-back, like they are currently doing at many online stores for Valentine's Day. Just for an example, if you had purchased the above KitchenAid deal, you would have gotten about $6 cash-back from Ebates - may not seem like much, but it all adds up!

Some of the stores I've gotten cash-back from in the past 4 months have been Target, Walmart, JC Penney, Kohls, Coastal.com, and others. I've gotten anywhere from 1%-6% cash-back, (some store are even 10%, or there is a $7 bonus for signing up for 3 months of Weight Watchers)! Sometimes that percentage doesn't seem like much, but it all adds up! You get "paid" quarterly by your choice of check or Paypal as long as your total is above $10 - if it's not, it just rolls into the next quarter!

If you haven't signed up at Ebates yet, you can do so by clicking here: they are offering a bonus gift card when you sign up (which you will get after your first $25 purchase!)

So what are some of your favorite cash-back sites?

(Note: Some of the links in this post are referral links. Read our disclosure policy here)

Free shipping this Friday

This Friday is "Free Shipping" day for many retailers! Now's the chance to get some last minute shopping done and save on shipping charges.

Baby Cheapskate has the scoop on it all!

Starbucks' deal of the day

I guess Starbucks has had a 12 days of Christmas deal going on these past 12 days. Sounds like most of the deals weren't that great. But today's deal is a great buy if you love their brewed coffee and can get to a Starbucks every day in January. If you purchase a specific 16oz tumbler, you can get it filled with brewed coffee every day in January for free! That's a $50 value if you purchase a coffee every day.

RRStar's Daily Deals - 21 of them!

Wow! Have you seen today's Daily Deals? There are 21 of them in honor of Cyber Monday and they are all at least 50% off or more. There are deals for restaurants (Bistro 108, Cimino's Pizza), spas (Allure Salon, Bedazzled Salon), boutiques (Perfectly Posh, Roxy Carmichael), edible gifts (Cookies by Design, Edible Arrangements), and so much more!

Some of these would make great Christmas gifts for that "hard-to-buy-for" person . . . and at 50% or more off the regular price, you can't beat it! I'm in desperate need of a cut and color, so I'm checking out all the salon deals - sounds like the Allure Salon and Spa has the best deal on that!

I've put a picture of all the deals below. Happy shopping!

ING Orange Account - Black Friday $107 bonus

I love our ING Orange Account! I opened it for a few reasons: I wanted a checking account that I could earn interest on, and I wanted the bonus for signing up! I really like seeing interest getting added every month to my account (granted, it's not a huge amount, but it's getting DEPOSITED not withdrawn!) And the $50 bonus? Well, it was a bonus! After using the debit card just 5 times, I got the $50 deposited into my account. Gotta love that!

It's super easy to pay bills from the account, transfer funds between this account and my local bank . . . and if I wanted to, I could write checks (but I use my local bank account for that instead). All like a regular bank account, except for the brick and mortar part of it.

Right now, for the next 3 days, ING is offering a sweet deal: get a $107 bonus for signing up with them in the next 3 days (by Sunday). Yay! That's better than the bonus I got this summer.

I receive no compensation or bonus for telling you about this. This is just my personal opinion about this product: and it's just such a great deal/bonus that I wanted to share it with you!

Today's Daily Deal from RRStar

If you like German food, you're going to want to jump on this deal! Today's RRStar Daily Deal is 50% off a $25 gift certificate to Rockford's very own Der Rathskeller! Enjoy!

Auto Zone $25 GC for $15

Quantities are limited, but SaveMore.com is offering a deal today where you can get a $25 GC to Auto Zone for only $15! If you've never signed up with SaveMore.com, you can get a $5 credit by using this link!

Today's Daily Deal from RRStar

Today's Daily Deal is for 60% off Perfectly Posh in Rockton, IL. I've gotten a few things from there before - they have some cute stuff! Go check it out!

Need checks?

Here is a great deal on checks! $4.05 for two boxes of single checks, or $5.05 for two boxes of duplicate checks - includes shipping!

MoneySavingMom tells you how to get this great deal. I followed the instructions exactly and got a great deal on checks. The only thing I did differently was that I shopped through my Ebates.com account (12.5% back) rather than the ShopAtHome (15% back)

HOT Hilander deals to be had!

I guess it was just announced in Rockford this morning that Hilander was bought out by Logli. This makes me sad because I have a feeling the prices and sales will not be as good as they used to be . . . but we'll see. Hilander will still be called Hilander, but they will now carry the store brand Shnucks instead of Kroger. Apparently they are planning on hiring back 95% of the current workers there, although each worker must "re-apply" for their job. Glad to hear that at least.

All that to come to this: Hilanders around the city are crazy busy. They are selling all their Kroger brand items for 50% off and anything else for 25% off (except for any alcohol, and vendor items such as brand name chips and pop). This sale will last until Sunday after which they will close down then re-open on Thursday.

Things are flying off the shelves, and at my store there was hardly any meat left. Carts were hard to find and the lines were long. BUT the deals to be had are great. Among other things, I was able to get Kroger brand wipes for 50% off, making them a penny a wipe! I also got some nice "fancy" rice (jasmine, basmati) for a great price.

So, if you haven't already, head to Hilander but expect to have a hard time finding a cart and expect long lines (I waited about 20 minutes in line - not awful, but longer than usual). I can't guarantee what will be left, but it might be worth a trip there!

Back to School price list!

Your Retail Helper has a weekly post on the best back to school prices and coupon match ups. . . check out this weeks post with sales through August 7th.

Tax Free School Shopping

FYI - check out Mummy Deals here for the dates on Tax FREE Back to School Shopping!

FREE Sam's Club Shopping this weekend!

According to WIFR news this am, starting Friday through Sunday Sam's Club in Rockford will be free entrance to anyone and no 10% markup fee if you are not a member! Sam's in Rockford has done a complete remodel and wants to show off their new store.

For further information watch WIFR starting at 5am tomorrow am!

$1/1 Shout Product

Print $1/1 Shout product coupon here. Then go to Target's travel section and get a 4 pk of Shout for FREE!!

Check out five below!

If you have been down East State Street lately, you may have noticed a few new signs for a store called five below. From the name of the store I had no idea what type of store it was. Well, everything in the store is $5 or below! Duh!

Check out their website here!

They have lots of great deals. One item I found was summer workbooks for kids to keep them busy and help them not to forget everything they learned all school year long - $4! Big thick workbooks!

Just remember - everything in the store may not be a good deal but lots of items are a great deal! It's just like the dollar stores - not everything is a good deal at a dollar but many items they carry are still great deals.

So, checkout five below and see what you think! Lots of toys, games, tshirts, flip flops, partyware etc.

Two great scenarios for the week - CVS & Walgreens

First check out this CVS scenario here that will save you 68%!

Then check out this Walgreens scenario that will save you 82%!

Both scenarios where put together by Commons Sense with Money.

Dollar Doublers from Wifr!

Check out the two Dollar Doublers being offered at Wifr.com!

$5 for a $10 gift certificate to Dandy Donuts - an adorable local shop on E. Riverside with delicious soups, bagels, coffee and special donuts! (138 remaining and a little over a day to purchase)

$80 for 4 areas cleaned from Amazing Carpet Cleaners - I have used them a couple times and recommend them. Usually with a coupon you can get three rooms for $89. My son loves them because the logo is a superhero with an A instead of an S. (29 remaining and a little over 2 days to purchase)

Mega Event Sale at Hilander!

There is a Mega Event Sale going on at Hilander starting today! Buy 10 items (mix and match) get $5 off instantly at checkout. There are lots of items that are at their stock up pricing!

Check out the deals here!

*Hot* Goldfish Coupons

Go here to print two (per computer) $.75 off 2 Pepperidge Farm Goldfish Crackers! There are on sale at Hilander right now for $1!

That is a great coupon and a great sale = stock up price!!

Print them before they are gone!

A few Hilander deals starting today!

Here are a few deals that start today at Hilander:

Pepperidge Farm Goldfish Crackers - $1

Kid's Crest or Regular Crest Toothpaste - $1
Use $1 off or $.50 off coupon from P&G insert
FREE

Kraft 2% Milk Cheese Singles - $1.79
Use $1 off printable here
$.79

Reach Toothbrushes - $1
Use MANY $1 off or .50 off coupons from recent inserts (about 6 of them)
FREE

Listerine Pocket Paks - $1
Use $.50 off coupons from recent insert (3 of them)
FREE

I will post a link later in the week when it is updated with deals for our area!