Online Shopping Like a Boss!

Online Shopping like a Boss!

A few weeks ago a college friend, Kristina Slaney at All Mom Does introduced me to a new online savings opportunity through the company CardCash.com. She outlined the premise of the company in her post, and the gist is that CardCash.com purchases unused gift cards at a discounted rate, and then resells them, passing the savings along the the consumer. I combined CardCash.com with Ebates to maximize savings on a recent purchase - paying just 55% of the original price! Here’s how I did it:

Ebates

I love using Ebates and have used this to receive $225 in cash back since opening an account in 2014. The website allows the consumer to access thousands of companies and receive a check for a cash rebate for purchases made quarterly. The trick is you must start a shopping trip through their site. On this particular day, Ebates was offering 9% on any purchases from JC Penney. I clicked on the Ebates link that took me directly to JC Penney’s website starting my shopping trip that would lead to big savings. (If you’re new to ebates and follow this referral link you can get an additional $10 off your first purchase!)

Online Coupon

On the JCPenney website, I searched and found the pair of Oxfords that my husband wanted to buy. I proceeded through the checkout and used the online coupon for 15% that was plastered all over JC Penney’s homepage. When I got to the payment section and could see the final cost of the shoes after the online coupon discount, I stopped and opened a new window in my browser.

CardCash.com

I brought up cardcash.com and searched for JC Penney and found an online gift card that I could purchase that was $1.30 short of the final bill for the shoes. The gift card was sold to me at 10.5% of the face value and I received an additional $5 off of my first purchase by using a referral code (unfortunately that offer is not available at this time). It took about 5 minutes for the gift card code to hit my email, and then I could finish placing the order.

Finalize the Purchase

With the gift card code in my inbox, I bounced back to my open cart and completed the order with my card-cash purchase and my debit card for the remaining balance. These additional steps brought the shoes from their sale price of $54.99 to $31.08. I did end up paying a ridiculous amount for shipping ($8.95), and I realized after the purchase was completed that there is a store near my husband's work that he could have just picked the shoes up from.

JC Penney Price	Online Coupon	CardCash	Ebates	Total Price of Discounts	Price of Item	Shipping	Total Price
$54.99	$8.25	$10.71	$4.95	$23.91	$31.08	$8.95	$40.03

This is my first purchase with cardcash.com, but I know that I’ll be back!

Life Before Dave

I came across a box of old paperwork while filling working through our basement shelves for the 40 Days 40 Bags of Clutter campaign. The papers were jammed into a diaper box, so I knew they were old. As I started looking through old bills and scanning the dates, I realized this was a lens into our  pre-Dave Ramsey spending habits.

Prior to living on a budget, we used to use our credit card for every purchase we made and then pay it off when the bill arrived. When I say everything, I mean everything! By the dates listed on the statements, we ate out at least weekly, shopped at high-end grocery stores occasionally, and regularly purchased clothes and household goods in large quantities. Twelve years later, I have no recollection of what we purchased, but I can certainly appreciate what that time in my life felt like.

I felt entitled.

I had done well in college and worked hard during summers and school years to fund that education. I had a career I enjoyed, and I poured my time and energy into being well prepared each morning when my students arrived. I had married a wonderful man who was growing professionally each year at the start-up company he worked for. We deserved a house even though we had nothing to put down and couldn’t afford even the closing costs. We earned the right to eat wherever we wanted, whenever that might be. Looking nice was a part of the cost of  a professional career that we must either embrace or be left behind.

As D.I.N.Ks (Dual Income No Kids), we out-spent our current budget in many categories and ignored the ones we most value today. Today when I took out a calculator and added up the money we had spent as two twenty-year-olds in the categories of eating out, entertainment, clothing and Target, we more than doubled what we allocate today as a family of five. Categories such as savings and investing don’t show up on a credit card statement, but I know there was very little future planning going on beyond getting the match at work.

While these statements didn’t surprise me, looking at the numbers in black and white of a life that we  once lived that doesn’t align with our values today is a bit jarring. It makes me grateful we accepted the invitation back in 2006 to read The Total Money Makeover.  The invitation came just as the wheels started coming off our financial plan back then. I’m humbled and thankful that we have found a way to make this plan work in our lives in the decade since.