Back to school is always an exciting time. I love looking at all of the new notebooks, pens, folders and trapper keepers (yes they still have those) that are on store shelves during the months before school.
Problem is, back to school shopping can get EXPENSIVE! Especially when you need to shop for multiple kids who are growing like weeds.
I’ve put together a few easy deals and apps that you can use to help keep the costs down this year.
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Here are some super easy ways to save some money this back-to-school season.
Cash Back Programs
You can earn money by shopping with Swagbucks. Often there are great sales where you earn 8 or 9 Swagbucks for every dollar spent at a particular store. With a $25 Target card costing 2200 Swagbucks, snagging these are super easy. You can also earn Swagbucks is by letting the Swagbucks TV app run on your phone. Just turn it on in the morning and let it play. It normally shows movie trailers one after another and for every few videos that are “watched,” you earn a few swagbucks. It’s surprising how quickly they add up. Sign up for Swagbucks here, it’s free and super easy.
Ebates often has exclusive sales on their site in addition to the ebates money you earn back from shopping. Just today I had a notification that Kohl’s was offering 20% off your entire order AND you would earn 9% back through ebates. If you time it right, ebates can add up to some real savings. Sign up through my Ebates link (it’s free) and get $10 from Ebates free.
Rebate/Coupon Apps
Ibotta has several deals like $5 back on a $50 dollar purchase. These change monthly. I once earn 5 bucks for shopping at Sephora but I’ve seen other offers for Target, Bed, Bath and Beyond, and Best Buy I love this app because I constantly earn money by scanning my receipts from the grocery store. You can get payouts sent directly to your paypal account or you can get giftcards. That’s super nice for things you were buying anyway. Sign up here for a $10 bonus.
Shopkick offers both rebates and fun check-in points that you don’t even have to buy a thing in the store to receive. When you are near a store with “kicks” the Shopkick app will ding. You just walk into the store and the app will automatically give you “kicks” just for entering the store. At some stores you can earn extra kicks for scanning specific items. One time it had me scan a Hershey’s bar in Walgreens and I earned something like 50 kicks for the process. Some days Shopkick will offer as much as 200 points for doing this.
Shop Amazon Prime
We all know that time is money. Do you really want to drive around to 12 different stores to buy everything on the back to school list? When you shop Amazon Prime, everything is shipped to you withing two days for FREE. They sell everything so there’s no need to go searching around town for school uniforms or a certain color of notebook. Also, the prices on Amazon are usually lower than at physical retail stores. Saving time AND money is always a plus. Bonus* you can earn swagbucks by shopping on Amazon.
Discounted Gift Card App
- Raise (get $5 off your first discounted gift card when you use my referral link )
Raise offers discounted gift cards delivered to your phone within 24 hours (usually less). You can save anywhere from 2% to 25%. Bonus* you can earn swagbucks if you purchase Raise giftcards through the swagbucks app. It’s a win, win.
The trick is to use the discounted gift cards with sales or rebate apps to get the best bang for your buck.
We just received our school supply lists in the mail so it’s time to go shopping! What tricks will use to save some money on back-to-school shopping this year?