The Virtues of Thrift, Part 3

I've realized that perhaps I was unintentionally being a bit misleading by referring to these ideas as "thrift." I don't consider myself thrifty, even though my mother is (and her mother was) an enthusiastic practitioner of thrift. But I do consider myself a smart consumer, and one of the things I'm always trying to do here is help you spend your money more wisely.

Web savings. If you're going to shop online anyway, why not get a little something extra out of it? Several months back, a friend suggested I sign up for Ebates, a site that offers money back on your web purchases. When you sign up, they start you out by giving you (and the friend who referred you) $5. Then, when you want to shop on the web, you first go to the Ebates site and click on the link for the sites you want to visit, which is how the purchases get tagged to your Ebates account.

It takes a little while to get used to doing your online shopping this way, but it's worth it. I just received my rebate last week, which amounted to around $36. Normally the rebate covers a three-month period, but this one went back to when I had signed up during the summer. The rebate comes in the form of a PayPal payment, or you can choose to have them send you a check.

Many online retailers pay for referrals, which is where the rebate money comes from. Ebates claims that they are simply passing that money along to their members instead of keeping it. Works for me.