Posts Tagged ‘Christmas’
Christmas while broke part 2
Posted on: December 17, 2008
Cashback sites
Cashback sites like Quidco pay you to shop online. The hows and whys are explained here. The money usually takes a couple of months to get through, and for everyday things it’s not much. You get more for things like insurance and switching energy suppliers. If you are serious and focused (which I wasn’t this year), there are a number of daily clicks you can do to generate free money. I joined quidco years ago and have not had a problem with it, however lots of people have and have moved to Top Cashback, which doesn’t have a fee (Quidco takes the first £5 a year).
The important to remember when using cashback website to completely clear your cookies and history before clicking through to the site you want to go to.
If you had been on to Amazon a few days ago, you might not get paid as it may not register that you have come through via a cashback website.
Also, just because you’re getting the money back, it doesn’t always make things cheaper. My insurance for instance, I didn’t just type in insurance and use the one with the most money off on quidco. I done some price comparisons and then went to quidco and got money off my best quote.
Back to Christmas… I had bought a few things in the year via quidco. I had about £50 on my quidco account that I hadn’t touched, so I moved it into my bank account and with the vouchers and paypal money I got from surveys, I had Christmas shopping money.
Next I sat down and listed all the things that I wanted to give people. I bought mostly for the children this year and I like to buy a book of some kind and a game that has some sort of educational ring to it. I bought board games for the families I know would play them, and then I found a list of Black British authors who write childrens books. I think it’s important for young children to recognise themselves in books and so always make a point of buying books that have black children in. Link here
For ease I bought everything online this year and I found out that if you have a nectar card you can earn points from amazon, you have to click through to amazon via the nectar website. Again, remember to clear your history and cookies.
I have also made money from the presents I bought by going through quidco. I got money back for books and dvds I bought from play.com (well I haven’t got it yet, but it has been tracked and validated), money back for items I bought from the body shop and money back for ordering something I bought from foto.com. The best thing was a magazine subscription I bought and I will be getting the same amount of money back because I went through a cashback website!
The things I couldn’t get money back on I tried to make as cheap as possible. I got a personalised calender made (with stolen facebook pictures lol), and googled the name of the company and free delivery code. I clicked through about 3 websites and found not only a free delivery code but also 30% off!
So there you have it, the broke way to Christmas. I only really thought about this from about October, imagine how much better it would have been if I had started this in January?
I’ve decided that I’m going to keep all the survey money that I make next year and anything that goes into paypal will stay there and pay for next Christmas. I know a lot of people stock up in the January sales, but tastes and interests change and I would much prefer to buy something a bit closer to the time. I will definitely stock up on wrapping paper and cards. Any cashback will also be saved for Christmas and I’ll make the effort to click through the free pay ones everyday. Kelkoo for example pays you 2p for just clicking through, now it’s not a lot, but works out to £7.28 over the year. That is more than most of the presents I bought this year, and that is just one site on quidco, there are others and there are other cashback sites too.
I will also maximise my supermarket loyalty cards. Did you know you could earn points with your nectar card and clubcard at the places listed in the links?
I hoped this helped someone out there in someway. Any other tips would be appreciated. 🙂
Christmas while broke pt1
Posted on: December 13, 2008
I have been asked to write this blog by a few people who are amazed that they are getting presents this year when I haven’t been working and am moving out of my home because I can’t afford to stay there anymore.
I am not a crafty type person, so apart from making food, making presents would be a waste of time and money. I have not put myself into debt to get presents. It’s just taken some thought and a little forward planning.
I do surveys, yes those annoying things that pop up when you click on a site. Unlike those however, I get paid to do them. The sites I use are lightspeed, valued opinions, home of research and ipsos panel. I also managed to find the elusive pinecone research banner. These surveys don’t pay a lot, but they do come through quite frequently and you leave it and it adds up. Pinecone is the elite of these because it pays £3 for every survey, regardless of how short it is. They also pay straight into paypal which is absolutely fantastic. You can’t sign up on their website though, you have to search for it.
Funnily enough I was on my favourite hair and beauty forum and there it was. I had actually googled it to try and sign up and there is was bold as brass!
I had sold a couple of things on ebay too, Now since about August I haven’t cashed in anything. I’ve just let each site build up. So last week I had about £30 on my paypal account a 10 Argos voucher and a £20 Amazon evoucher. I haven’t even claimed the home of research ones yet as the site is being rebuilt and I haven’t bothered to email them yet. I might do it in time for the sales though and treat myself to something.
So see I have loads of money, and I haven’t explained the miracle of quidco yet!
Until part 2 xx
Slow and Steady 