November Sunflower Expert Power Shopper – No matter what your tax bracket, I'll help you get the best value for your money!

If you didn’t see it, here’s the link to the CBS News segment I taped for the local New York News Program: CBS News Holiday Shopping with Rewards It wasn’t the most accurate of news stories, but it brought you here to really learn how I shop, earn rewards and save money!

I was also on CBS News in Chicago, where they updated and did the story a little more accurately! HOWEVER, they did not spell my last name correctly, nor did they include a way to link to my blog. Upsetting, but hopefully they’ll fix these issues……of course, my contact is out of the office until January. If you missed it, check it out here –> CBS News Chicago

I’m so excited to welcome all of you from CBS News New York and CBS News Chicago! I had such a fun time welcoming CBS into my home to show them  just a little bit of how I spent just $30 out of my own pocket for Holiday Gifts this year. (You can also read about it on Inexpensively.)

First let me say, we started saving a huge amount of money by only buying for the kids, our parents and my Nana. The adults (meaning my siblings) do not purchase for each other. Saved us all a bundle! And then one day, I just decided to find a way to cut our budget even further and BOOM, redeeming points came to me!

I ask that you check out my Disclosure. I want everyone who reads my blog to know how I do things. Click here –> How I do things here on November Sunflower.

If you’re interested in paying less for your holiday gifts, let me take you through some of my tricks. Not just earning points, or digital dollars, but earning cash for doing simple things every day!

Let’s start with earning points and digital dollars to redeem for gift cards. My favorite sites to do this are:

• Swagbucks – (this is the one I spoke about the most on the show today) Earn digital dollars, a.k.a. Swag Bucks by searching the web, watching videos, taking trusted surveys, shopping, voting in the Daily Polls, Sending in Prize Photos and Videos, Inviting friends to join, completely special offers, finding Swag Codes, printing and redeeming grocery coupons and trading in cell phones and video games. Then redeem for products, or gift cards. (Did most of my Holiday shopping with the gift cards I was able to redeem my points for). 
  
• RewardPort - A place to earn points for shopping, so you can redeem them for FREE rewards like gift cards. You also get special discounts and saving offers from merchants, you can earn points for referring friends to the site through email, by taking surveys and signing up for various offers. I signed up for emails and I get them every day and earn a point for clicking on the email. (Gift Cards from here helped with my Holiday shopping this year).
• My Points – Earn points for shopping, reading emails, playing games, searching the web, taking surveys and referring friends. For each friend you earn 25 points for the first 20 who join and then 10% of their points. I joined this through BzzAgent. When you’re a BzzAgent and submit reports for various campaigns (free items that are sent to you), it rewards you with MyPoints.
• iRazoo – You can search the internet and win points, (or refer friends for points) then redeem them for gift cards, video game systems, MP3 Players, etc. (I switch around and do some searches with Swagbucks, some with iRazoo. I have to admit, I don’t use this one as much as Swagbucks). You can also make recommendations and comments and earn points, but just two recommendations/comments per day (but that’s 50 points each day) and then they also have treasure hunts! Follow them on Facebook to find those.

I’ve got plenty more rewards points programs listed in my sidebar, just scroll down and take a look at all the goodies I keep on those sidebars! I’ve got things just for my Long Islanders out there, but I’ve got lots of links for EVERYONE out there interested in saving money, earning rewards, saving money, earning cash back, saving money, getting free food…..did I mention saving money? Oh yes, yes I did!

Want to just earn some extra bucks while you’re on the internet? I’ve got ways to do that, too. Every little bit helps, right? RIGHT!

Every time I start my computer, my homepage takes me right to Be Ruby. This is where I find all the websites I frequent on a daily basis, such as Facebook and Twitter. Each day I earn money for clicking through my favorite websites (it only earns you money for ONE CLICK per website per day), plus if you want to, you can shop through this site and earn even more money in your account. It’s not a lot of money, but EVERY LITTLE BIT helps! Click here –> Earn Money

Want more ways to earn money? Check out the following:

• Inbox Dollars – sends emails you click on to confirm reading to earn some pennies for each confirmed email, plus you can also shop through them to earn cash.
• SendEarnings – sends emails you click on to confirm reading to earn some pennies for each confirmed email, plus you can shop through the website to earn cash.
• Snap Dollars – same concept as Inbox Dollars and Send Earnings.
• Hits4Pay – sends emails of ads you view to earn cash, which I play while I’m doing other things on the computer.
• DealsnCash – sends emails of ads you view to earn cash, which I play while I’m doing other things on the computer.
• MyLikes – IF you have a Twitter account, or a Facebook account you can earn money sharing things you “like” with your friends and followers. Easy and I’ve found a lot of coupons this way!

**HINT: Open up one email address just for these types of emails, so you’re not getting them sent to your personal email. Just make a “junk” email you can have them all sent to, go in once a day or whenever you have time and click through some of them. You’d be surprised how many you get sent and how fast it starts to add up!

Now, some of my FAVORITE sites to visit when I start my shopping experiences (all are FREE to join):

• RetailMeNot – Coupon codes, printable coupons and grocery coupons can all be found here for shoppers to use.
• Mr. Rebates - Shop through your favorite online stores by clicking through Mr. Rebates and earn cash back for your purchases. Refer friends and earn money for the referral.
• Ebates – Shop through your favorite online stores by clicking through Ebates and earn cash back for your purchases. Refer friends and earn money for the referral.
• Big Crumbs – Shop through your favorite stores by clicking through Big Crumbs and earn cash back for your purchases, refer friends and earn from them just clicking on your referral link and making a purchase. I love how you can make customizable referral links that go to designated pages on the website, like the deals page, or your profile, or the homepage.
• Extrabux – Shop through your favorite stores by clicking through Extrabux and earn cash back for your purchases, refer friends and earn money towards purchases at one of five stores: The NOrth Face, Sierra Trading Post, ebay, hp or Macy’s.
• Shopscotch – Shop through your favorite stores, receive cash back and earn badges when you shop online. More badges, higher status, more bonuses. Then redeem for cash. You can also earn cash for referrals by inviting friends to join.
• Sunshine Rewards – Earn for shopping, surveys, daily tasks, etc. You can redeem for Gift Cards, make a donation or ask that you bed paid through PayPal.

My ABSOLUTE favorite place to start my shopping, beyond a shadow of a doubt, is always ShopAtHome.com where there’s Over 100,000 Grocery and Restaurant Coupons, Printable Coupons, Coupon Codes, Cash Back and Hot Deals. This cash back site has a free shipping portal, where you can find TONS of free shipping coupons. It’s got coupons, it’s got some of the best stores to shop at and I’ve always found them to have the HIGHEST cash back percentages. And they must think the same thing, because they’ve started a brand new program called 110% Guaranteed! They truly want to be the place for the BEST cash back on the web. If you find a percentage that’s higher on another cash rebate site, shop through ShopAtHome, click on the 110% Guarantee badge and fill out the form and they will not just MATCH the percentage, they’ll give another 10%! They’ve got Daily Deals, which offers a higher cash back percentage at a specific store for the day; Wild Deals which feature ONE product each day for one short period of time at one incredible discount; and of course, you can also refer friends and earn for your referral! Checks get sent out once a month if you have a certain amount accrued. If not, just rolls into the following month.

I even started a little shopping tutorial series called Cash Rebate Shopping Series (which will resume in 2011).

I’ve got a page dedicated to the things that I like, aptly named “What I Like”.

Plus, you can find me all over the web. I’m everywhere, my friends!

• I’m on Facebook –> Deal Sharing on Facebook.
• Catch my tweets –> Save through Twitter
• Hop over to BlogFrog –> Blog Frog
• Bookmark me –> StumbleUpon
• Flick me –> Flickr
• Google Friend Connect –> Join November Sunflower
• Networked Blogs –> Hang with me on Networked Blogs

Not into any of that, just want to get my posts without having to remember visiting, you can subscribe to my emails, click here –> Get Your Deal On.

If you prefer, you can subscribe to my RSS Feed, click here –> Free Feed

If you like what you see, share me!!! Thanks again for stopping by. It makes me happy to share my great finds, deals, discounts and shopping tricks with all of you.

*My links are referral, or affiliate, links.