The Saving Money Dance

On a cool December evening about 15 years ago, a friend came to retrieve the washing machine he'd loaned us for our first ten months in the house. Rather than waiting for my dad to arrive with the furniture dolly, my friend and fiancee (now husband) took it upon themselves to carry it down the stairs. It didn't end well.

Bad Idea Pants. They wear them well. 

Fortunately, my friend was wearing work boots, because the washing machine hit his ankle. He still had to take a few weeks off from running. (Ugh!) Fun fact: a washing machine picks up speed tumbling down stairs. In other good news, we got a new washing machine and my husband learned something about refinishing a section of hardwood floor.

That evening, I went on with my plans of enjoying myself at an ornament and cookie exchange at a friend's house. I ended my evening with a trip to a new grocery store, where I got great deals on dry ingredients for gifts in jars I was making as Christmas presents. Loving a good bargain, I did a little jig when I got home and told my fiancee about the fantastic prices I'd found. My joyous jig was forever named the Saving Money Dance.

These days, I do the Saving Money Dance a lot when shopping online. I use eBates to get cash back on purchases at a variety of retailers. It's installed in my browser, so automatically checks for cash back when I'm shopping. I also have the app installed on my tablet and phone, and shop directly from there (it links to the retailers sites) to get cash back anytime. Give it a try:

eBates

Honey is another app that works in the background while you shop. It looks for coupons for online retailers and gives you a chance to apply them during checkout. Much like eBates, it can be used in a browser or app. Easy peasy!

Honey

Raise is a good site and app for buying discounted gift cards. You can choose to receive notifications when the price drops on your preferred stores and restaurants. The gift cards need to be printed or used electronically, so not the best for gift giving, unless you just forward the recipient the email. You can easily load your purchased gift cards into the store app (such as Starbucks, Gap, etc.) to earn the retailer's rewards from using the app. Best of all, eBates sometimes offers cash back on Raise purchases!

Raise

And there you have it. Possibly some new apps / sites to try as you finish your holiday shopping, possibly a wasted two minutes reading this blog. 

Tell me about your favorite ways to save money. I'm a coupon user and comparison shopper. How about you?

Anyone else have a saving money dance? It makes bargains extra fun in my house. :-)