Saving money while shopping online

May is an expensive month for my family. In addition to Mother's Day, we have my birthday, Little Brother's birthday, the birthdays of both my nephews, and my sister's anniversary. June is slightly less expensive with Father's Day, DH's birthday, and my MIL's birthday. With two sick kids for the past month, I've not been able to get out much, and I've ended up using the internet for my gift shopping. With Ebates, I've been able to get some really good deals.

Here's a non-gift example (don't want to give away any suprises!) DH's tennis shoes have fallen apart. He's picky about his shoes, and he knows exactly what he wants (brand, size, style, color) but now that we've moved away from our usual store, he didn't know where to get a new pair. Amazon had something similar for $90, but that was too much to pay for something that would "hopefully" work. Off to Ebates. I entered the shoe brand name, and it returned 7 stores. One of which, Famous Footwear, gets me 9% cash back when I use Ebates. To the right of the store names, some had a button stating, "See Coupons." By clicking that, I see that I can get 20% off my order when I use the coupon code listed. So, I click on the Famous Footwear link. I find his shoes (originally $85) on sale for $65. I use the coupon code from Ebates to bring the price to $52 +shipping. That's it. No forms or paper work to deal with. I just sit back and wait for my "big fat check" to arrive. Yes, a $4.68 rebate doesn't seem like much, but every bit helps. Plus, during those seasons where you end up spending more (Christmas, back-to-school, May/June madness) it can really add up!

To give you an idea of the variety of stores, here are just a few that currently offer rebates through Ebates:
Adagio Teas - 6% (there you go, dad!)
Apple iTunes - 3%
Barnes & Noble - 4%
The Container Store - 4%
DSW - 4%
ebay - 3%
Holiday Inn - 5%
Hotwire.com - 2%
JCPenny - 4%
Office Max - 4%
Overstock.com - 4%
PETCO - 6%
REI - 3%
Sephora - 8%
Shutterfly - 10%
Starbucks Store - 8%
Target - 4%
Walgreens - 4%
1-800-Petmeds - 8%

Best of all, it's a FREE service! Go to Ebates and sign up to save.