Rebates: Was I Supposed to Mail That In?

Monday, July 27th, 2009

Rebates are great at luring us to buy products.  But getting around to mailing them in can be another story, particularly in the busy lives that we lead.  Here are my “rebate tricks” to getting the most for my money:

• Make a rebate tracker.  Yes, Excel is used for more important things like quarterly reporting and tracking all sorts of official data, but it works just as well for household items like rebates.  I built a spreadsheet to track my own rebates which includes: date of purchase, where purchased, amount of the rebate, date submitted, amount, and if I received it.  If you want a copy of it, drop me a comment or email and I will be happy to send it to you. 

  I built my “rebate tracker” so that I could have a reference point to make sure that all of my rebates were being paid out to me.  And if there is something that seems to be taking a bit too long, I contact them.  I have saved a couple of hundred dollars this way because there have been times that my rebate was “lost” and I had to help the company “find” it.

• Use online rebate submission whenever you can.  At least with an online submission you can have a tracking number attached to your rebate as a point of reference.  It tends to be a lot easier as well, particularly with companies like Staples and Rite-Aid helping the process along with their “Easy Rebates” programs.  They aren’t stupid; they know it goes a long way in building customer loyalty if the rebate process isn’t painful.
• Skip the small rebates.  If you have a rebate that you have to mail in and will give you only 50 cents or $1 back, why bother?  The stamp will cost you 44 cents + the cost of the envelope and your time.  Your time alone is worth more than a couple of cents!

Have a great week!

Copyright 2008-2009 Kristin Delfau, author of Turbo-Mom's Guide to Saving Money Without Wasting Time a womens' personal finance book, and Aji Publishing.

Tags: discounts, rebates, saving money, saving online
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Tired of Outlook? There is a better way

Monday, July 13th, 2009

So I was once again wrestling with Microsoft Outlook.  Tried to send the same email 5 TIMES and my system kept crashing!  The error message from Microsoft was essentially “You have an old version of Outlook, so your system is crashing.  How about going to our website to buy a new version?”

So I looked into buying a new version of Outlook.  I went to Amazon to get some honest opinions…and learned that many of the same problems I was having in Outlook 2002 had not been resolved for the 2007 version (the newest available).  So instead of plunking down $100 for a new version of the same problem, I thought, There has got to be a better way.

And there was.  Enter Mozilla Thunderbird.  Great functionality.  Easy to use.  Doesn’t crash.  And FREE, because it is Open Source software.  It was easy to import all of my folders and addresses into Mozilla from Outlook (when Outlook wasn’t busy crashing in the middle of the process). 

So if you are exasperated with Outlook, know that there is a better way.  You can download it here: http://download.cnet.com/Mozilla-Thunderbird/3000-2367_4-10213643.html?tag=mncol

Have a great week!

Copyright 2008-2009 Kristin Delfau, author of Turbo-Mom's Guide to Saving Money Without Wasting Time a womens' personal finance book, and Aji Publishing.

Tags: computers, open source, saving money, saving online, top 10
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Questions? Answers!

Monday, September 8th, 2008

Since I am constantly receiving questions about saving money–particularly in this economy–I have shifted the style of the blog.  If you have a particular question on saving money without wasting time, be sure to submit it through www.turbo-mom.com.  You’ll see your answer posted on this blog!

How can I save money with online coupons without wasting a lot of time?  You could spend hours looking for ones that work!

Use coupon code sites that are regularly refreshed and with limited advertisements.  If you can’t find a discount code or rebate on www.ebates.com (see my earlier posting all about E-Bates), you can always search for information on the web.  This can be tricky because a lot of coupon code websites have become advertising fronts for the companies they write about.  When you click on a link, you think you are going for a code but you end up in a sea of ads.  Ten minutes later, you are nowhere near a “true” coupon code!

Here are some of the better and consistent coupon code websites:

www.edealinfo.com
www.retailmenot.com
www.couponshare.com 

Try a quick Google search of the site you are shopping.  For example: Shoebuy + “coupon code”.  Usually, when all else fails, this will turn up some sort of a helpful discount code.  

Sometimes, there just isn’t a coupon code for your store.  If you come up with nothing after a maximum of 10 minutes, it’s time to let the coupon code hunt go.  You’ve gotten the best deal you can find—it’s time to make your purchase!

Copyright 2008-2009 Kristin Delfau, author of Turbo-Mom's Guide to Saving Money Without Wasting Time a womens' personal finance book, and Aji Publishing.

Tags: questions, saving online, top 10
Posted in Turbo-Mom's Guide to Saving Money Without Wasting Time | No Comments »