Let me explain it to you all (even though you probably don’t care) like I explained it to Brent this weekend. He’s hooked now too, by the way!
Let’s pretend that I’m running low on diapers. I have two options: run to my local Target/Wal-Mart/Wherever and purchase them, saving $2 with the normal coupon that can be found either online or in the paper. Or I can order them online through Drugstore.com via ebates. When I look them up online, I see that drugstore.com sells them for the same price that I would pay in Target. And they also give you the automatic $2 coupon just like I would use in a normal store, without actually having to use the coupon that I clipped. There’s no shipping for orders over a certain amount (or when they’re running a special), so that’s a moot point of difference.
So what’s the difference you ask – besides having to wait 5-7 business days for the online order to arrive at my office? I’ll tell you. When I buy the diapers through Ebates, I get the $2 coupon…plus I don’t pay sales tax. That’s an 8.5% savings for me immediately for where we live (since sales tax rates vary this could be more or less for you) automatically. Then, Ebates pays me back 6% on my total purchase. PLUS, drugstore.com pays me back 5% on my purchase in their own store dollars for me to use during the next quarter (kinda like how CVS dollars work). So, if you think about it, I just saved almost 20%!!!
Wow. And when you look at the cost on a per diaper basis, I would pay $.27/diaper if bought in the store (when using a coupon)…but I will only pay $.19/diaper. $.08 might not seem like all that much to you, but factor it out a bit. The average family that uses disposable diapers will go through 60 diapers in a week or 3,120 diapers in a year. That $.08 adds up to a savings of $249.60 on a yearly basis! Holy cow!
Or here’s another example. I talked about my high chair situation before, I think. Well, I’m thinking about going ahead and ordering it this week or next week to give it plenty of time to get here and give us time to get it set up before Jax actually needs to use it. I looked online today and found it at diapers.com for $116.99 (jeez, high chairs are expensive!), which is a store that Ebates works with. Diapers.com offers free shipping on orders over $49 so there are no shipping charges, which makes it the same as picking it up in the store. Except that I also won’t pay sales tax by ordering it online – an immediate 8.5% savings to us. Also, right now through 11/15 diapers.com is running a promotion for first-time customers giving them an additional 10% off of your first order (on everything except diapers), so I’ll save that too. And I’ll earn 1%-5.5% cash back on my purchase by going through ebates to get it. So the total potential savings is anywhere from 19.5%-24%...and the price is $13 lower than the price that I would pay at Target anyway!
It just seems to keep adding up. And the more that I use the service, the more benefits that I see to using it. Sure, it takes a little planning to order diapers online…but if I missed something and got into a bind, it’s not a big deal to run to my local store and buy a small pack to hold me over until my order arrives. I haven’t had to do that yet, but I could if needed. And since I didn’t have to use my physical coupon when I ordered online, I would still not pay the normal price.
And ALL of those savings goes into our savings fund…the totals just add up week after week. We get SO excited to see it add up…just putting us that much closer to our vacation on normal purchases that we would make anyway! Love it!
Yes, we know that we’re big dorks for getting THIS excited over saving money…but it truly is addicting once you start paying attention. What do you do to save money in your household? I know with all that we do, there’s SO much more that we could/should be doing!
1 comment:
Awesome tips! I never knew about ebates either and I love saving money!! :) Thanks for stopping by my blog!
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