Regular readers will know that I’m a big fan of using cashback sites, as by making a purchase via these sites, you earn money back on your items with almost no effort. It really is free money and it really is throwing money away if you don’t bother using them.
There’s a couple of really big and well known sites out there, but a newer site, My Money Pocket, is now available and rapidly challenging the way cashback is done. Not only can you earn cashback on your purchases, you can also use vouchers too. If you do these sums you will see that these additional savings add up really quickly and can mean even bigger savings for you.
Whether you need new shoes for the kids:
Or you just fancy a break away as a surprise treat:
There are some amazing, hand picked deals for you to browse and choose from, across a wide variety of stores and retailers, including high street stores such as Boots, supermarkets such as Tesco and online retailers like ASOS.
How does cashback work?
Cashback only works if you are buying something that you were going to be buying anyway, as you are highly unlikely to be earning enough cashback to cover the original price of the item(s) that you are buying. Personally, I would recommend shopping around as per normal, finding the best prices and deals available for the product you are going to buy. Once you have identified the product, and where it is on sale for the cheapest, pop on over to the cashback sites and compare the deals that they can offer you. You might find it is still cheapest to buy it from where you originally found it, and that cashback makes it even cheaper, or you might find that by buying through a different website works out cheaper as you can earn more cashback with this retailer.
Once you have worked out the best way to do it, I would recommend using an incognito or private browser (to ensure that there are no cookies on your device from your browsing) and log in to your cashback account. Follow the link through to the chosen retailer and make your purchase as per normal. By clicking through to the site via the link on the cashback site, you will earn your chosen cashback amount or rate.
It is important to note that it can take a little while for these cashback amounts and vouchers to be paid, especially as there is always the possibility that you claim the cashback and then take the item back, however patience is a virtue and if you have followed the instructions these payments will come through eventually. It might only be a small amount at a time, but just remember that those small amounts do quickly add up!
What to do with the cashback?
As you have already spent the money, the money in your cashback account is as mentioned before, free. There are several thing you can do with this money to help improve your finances going forward and I’m just going to highlight a few of my favourites.
- Leave the cashback in the account for a rainy day.
- Withdraw the cashback into a separate bank account (it might have to go into your current account first and then you transfer it to a savings account). This is a great way of building up some savings – especially if you don’t have any already.
- Buy yourself a treat you wouldn’t normally buy every now and again.
- Donate the money to charity.
You could of course always do a mixture of the above. Some people like to donate half to charity and move half to savings. Some people like to save it all up and put it towards something expensive and perhaps extravagant that they might not be able to afford otherwise. Some people like to just dip into it every now and again and treat themselves without feeling guilty.
Whatever you do with the money, enjoy it, it’s yours and you’ve earnt it!
Let me know your favourite cashback savings in the comments below.
