I Love To Save Money Online

Good morning! :)

I hope everyone's weekend is going well so far. I think I've been spending too much time studying sea creatures with my darling kindergartners and BBMing Amber about her wedding because last night I had a dream that I went to a tropical location to plan my wedding (isn't that over?!) and saw manta rays, whales and dolphins there... lotta wedding planning I'm going to get done while I'm snorkeling with the manta rays. We all know how zen that makes me and I'll tell you, a zen Kelly is not going to plan another wedding!

Yesterday I spent the entire day organizing. I was going to take before and after pictures, but there isn't a drastic enough difference to show since I mostly organized the inside of closets and drawers. However, I did donate 3 full trash bags of clothing (anyone have any idea how to estimate how much that is worth for tax purposes?), and do 4 loads of laundry. Even though I can be a cluttered person, I actually hate clutter and it makes me very happy to get rid of that many clothes :)

Another thing that makes me happy? Saving money! I've started reading some really good money blogs lately including The Simple Dollar and Money Under 30. I wanted to share some of the cool ways to save money I've heard lately. I'm sure you know some of them but hopefully you'll learn something new...

Tina told us about Ebates the other day on her blog. Basically, you get cash back (without doing anything) just for doing shopping as you would already do at tons of different retailers online. This morning I bought myself a new pair of running shoes for $99. Just for that, I get $10 back! Amazing. All you have to do is sign up, and then go to the ebates website first, search for the product or store you want and then start saving. Also, what Tina did not mention but I think is awesome is that Groupon is an affiliate of Ebates so if you buy a Groupon through them, you can save on the Groupon itself as always AND you can get more cash back on your ebates account, sweet.

I also recently joined Swagbucks. I also read about this on a blog first, but I can't remember which one, I'm sorry! Swagbucks are great because you don't even have to buy anything (read: spend more money) to earn them and you can use them to buy amazon or target giftcards (and so much more). All you have to do is install the swagbucks toolbar and use it to search the internet like you would use google. You get 1 point every day just for having it and every time you search you are eligible to win. I usually win at least once a day and I don't even use it to search every single time. Also, if you are a fan of the group buying sites like Groupon, Tippr, Livingsocial, BuyWithMe, etc you can also get swagbucks for buying through these sites. All you have to do is go to the "Earn" part of the toolbar and click on "Daily Deals." If you buy today's LivingSocial deal you'll earn 450 swag bucks which is equal to a $5 amazon gift card. Not bad, especially if you were going to buy it anyways. Other fun ways to earn swagbucks including printing and then using coupons at the grocery store, taking surveys and watching videos on SwagTV.

I have to admit that I am not the BEST at using coupons, but I love these online deals because I don't have to cut something out, bring it with me, remember to use it, make sure it's on the exact correct combination of products etc. I just shop like I normally one or search like I normally would. Of course, none of these fantastic sites will save you any money if you buy something you wouldn't normally buy, so be careful :)

*In the interest of full disclosure, I get referral points if you click on my links above, but I really like and support all the companies I recommended.

Do you have any full ways to save money online? Share them with me please, I clearly have a bit of an obsession!

I'm off to the South Boston St. Patrick's Day parade. Time to put on my green outfit!