I’m one of those gals who avoids much of the hol­i­day chaos– namely Black Fri­day and the chaotic mall shop­pers.  Why should I feed the frenzy when I can max­i­mize my dol­lar with online sales, shop­ping and cash back, right?

Well, here’s the refresher course for y’all along with some new finds and for the new read­ers – wel­come, book­mark and enjoy.

First of all, here are the sites to sign up with – g’head, it should open in a new win­dow so I’ll wait for ya.

Cash Back:

• Mr. Rebates
• Ebates
• Cash­baq
• More Rebates
• Big Crumbs
• Fat Wal­let
• Bing!

Coupon Sites

• Retail Me Not
• Coupon Cabin
• Coupon Codes 4 U

Now that you are all signed up and book­marked, here’s how this works.  First thing you need to under­stand is that most cash back will be avail­able 60–90 days after the pur­chase – to allow for returns, etc.  So, let’s say you are doing your hol­i­day shop­ping – well, in March, you should be get­ting some extra green in your wal­let – just in time for St. Patty’s Day and every­one is a winner.

Start off with going to EVRe­ward to see who offers the MOST cash back – that’s vital.  If you know where you are going to shop, then why not get the best deal out there, right?

I often know the item I’m look­ing for – like, let’s say a great pair of Eliz­a­beth & James shoes from Shop­Bop.  I head to EVRe­ward to see who’s giv­ing the most cash back on Shop­Bop which is, in this case, Cash­baq with 7% cash back on my pur­chase.  So, let’s say I buy the boots I’ve been cov­et­ing – which are $276.  7% cash back of that will mean that come March, $19.32 will be my cash back reward.  To max­i­mize my cash back dol­lar, I will also make note of any coupon codes for Shop­Bop through RetailMeNot.com or any of the other coupon sites that have done great by me in the past. Works like a charm every. sin­gle. time.  Often you can find coupons for free ship­ping, etc. espe­cially with the retail­ers want­ing to make this hol­i­day sea­son their best one ever.

Here’s another thing – my bff, Meowmix, often shops online via eBay.   Did you know you can get cash back for any eBay shop­ping?   Big Crumbs offers up to 36% cash back.  Bing! offers 10% cash back while Ebates offers 2%.  You see where I’m going with this.

Now, for those of you buy­ing those big ticket items from, let’s say Best­Buy – here’s my sug­ges­tion – buy online through Bing! with 5% cash back, select the “Pick Up In Store” option and you don’t even have to worry about the ship­ping.  Most times, it’s ready in an hour or so and you don’t have to deal with all the crazi­ness.  This helps espe­cially when you are look­ing for that TV, Video Game Sys­tem or other high ticket item and you don’t want any ship­ping drama but still want the max­i­mum cash back.

Basi­cally – most of the stores you shop online are on the cash back wagon and why shouldn’t you be too?

Now, the dis­claimers – keep track of your pur­chases and receipt emails to make sure that you get credit for every­thing.  Most of the cash back com­pa­nies are great with track­ing, but some pur­chase can fall through the cracks.  Just send their cus­tomer ser­vice an email after a week or so and they’ll jump right on it.  Sec­ondly, yes there are refer­ral links which means that both you and I are get­ting a Win/Win as they put a lit­tle some­thing in your cash back stocking.

I am happy to say that after 3 years of liv­ing the cash back mantra, I can never go back to online shop­ping the old way.  I always make sure that I’ve max­i­mized every­thing through cash back and coupon codes and couldn’t be hap­pier.  Heck, I’ve even got­ten cash back for my cable instal­la­tion – who the heck knew you could do that.

So, while the hol­i­day brings out the crazy in shop­ping, know that you can enjoy Cyber­Mon­day behind the com­puter with your cof­fee in one hand and the mouse in the other as you click your way to cash back hap­pi­ness.  And, if you have any ques­tions, know that I’m only an email away.

Happy Shop­ping!