Life on the Road

Today’s topic:  Four great ways to get more value for every purchase you were going to make anyway - online or off!  (Consider this my belated “Frugal Friday” post…)

1.  Someone in the MomPack networking group just introduced me to a fabulous money-saver for online shopping:  My Power Mall.

It’s an online shopping “portal,” and by clicking through it you can access over 1,300 of the online stores you shop at every day…

If you signup for your personal Power Mall (free), then you get a cash rebate for every purchase you (or anyone else!) makes from clicking through your mall!

They have a “business” plan, too, but why would anyone NOT want to sign up for a personal mall and get rebates on the shopping they’re going to do anyway?  (You can even buy Gift Cards through your mall, then go shop in the “Brick and Mortar” stores!)

Visit My Power Mall.  You can check it out, and click the link at the top to sign up for your own free mall.  If you’re not interested in signing up for one (although I don’t know why you wouldn’t), please shop through mine… 

2.  eScrip

You may be familiar with buying “Scrip” from your child’s school for grocery stores and other shopping, to help them raise money.  Well now it’s online and automated.

Visit eScrip to register online, select the organization(s) you wish to support, and shop away!  Most grocery stores accrue the credit automatically from your frequent shopper card, other stores use your registered credit card information, and eScrip now features an online shopping portal to get credit from any of the stores you click through to access.

And it’s not just schools - many churches, PTAs, Scout Troops, and other organizations have joined eScrip!  (If you’re involved with a nonprofit group who’s not signed up, you can get them started!).

3. uPromise

This has a similar method of useage as eScrip - you register your cards, and the rebates are automatically accrued when you shop, whether in “brick and mortar” stores, or through their online shopping portal.

Except with uPromise, instead of going to a school or program, the rebates are credited to a college savings account for the student(s) of your choice!

Join Upromise and let your shopping automatically help a kid go to college.  (The link will take you to a signup page from us; if you have your own little ones to sign up, just click the uPromise logo in the top left corner to access their home page).

4.  MyPoints

I have joined a lot of “get paid to read emails” and “get paid to take surveys” kinds of sites over time, and I am no longer even willing to look at programs that sound remotely like that…  But I have been with MyPoints for a couple of years now, and I love it!

You sign up, and select your preferences for what kind of offers you’d like to receive.  You’ll get emails with sponsors ads in them.  You just click through the email to the sponsor’s site to confirm that you saw it, and you get points.  Sure, they’ll give you more points if you buy something (and sooner or later that offer for printer ink is bound to show up right when you need it…), but the program works even if you never buy anything!

There are also surveys (long and short), worth varying amounts of points.  And they also have an online shopping portal, where your online purchases will earn you points (even on eBay!).

Your accumulated points can be redeemed for a variety of rewards - useful things like Gift Cards to Starbucks, WalMart, Red Lobster, or dozens of others…

If you shop … and who doesn’t? … why not get more bang for your buck?