When I first stumbled across cashback sites, I loved the idea of being able to earn “cash back” on things that I was going to buy anyway. Along with the best online paid survey sites, I saw them as a good opportunity to make a bit more extra cash on the side in my free time.

Things had been going great with these sites until the proverbial "bubble" burst with these sites. Some of the cashback sites that I’d been using started to experience payment issues and some went under altogether. At that point, I decided I needed to reevaluate whether it was worth the time and effort that these sites required.

How It Works

If you’re not familiar with cashback sites, here’s a brief guide to how they work. When you want to earn cash back on online purchases, first go to the cashback site, and then click through to the retailer at which you want to shop. Then, you just go about your shopping as usual. Sounds too simple, right? The reason you get cash back is because these cashback sites are given a percentage of your spending by the retailer. To entice you to shop through them, these cashback sites in turn give you a portion of what they gained on your purchases.

You don’t get your cash back straight away though. Generally speaking, you can expect to wait several months before your cash back status moves from “pending” to “validated” or “awarded” and is then eligible for redemption. Most cash back sites use PayPal or bank transfers as payment methods, but there may also be an option to redeem your payments in the form of Amazon vouchers. Keep in mind that not all popular retailers are on cash back sites though. For example, you’ll rarely find Amazon there.

Who to Trust?

If you’re thinking about signing up for cashback websites to get a little extra back while you’re shopping online, you’re probably also wondering which are the best options. My favorite site is eBates. They pay by check or Paypal (and other payment methods in some cases) every three months as long as you've earned over $5.01. They have a great reputation and I'd much rather use them than most other cashback websites for this reason.

Another one that I like is Treasure Trooper. Treasure Trooper will often have retailers not offered on eBates. And while Treasure Troopers offers PayPal and check as payment options, it has a higher $20 threshold. Their turnaround time on payments is pretty dependable.

Is It Worth The Time and Effort?

If you’re using cashback sites purely for getting a bit of money back on your online purchases, it’s simple enough. Going to the cashback site and clicking through to your chosen retailer doesn’t take long, and assuming that you were going to make this purchase anyway, you’re not losing anything if the cash back doesn’t track or the retailer doesn’t pay up. There’s no guarantee that the cash back will materialize, so don’t dramatically change your shopping habits just to get a some cash back. The best way to use cashback sites is to just shop as you normally would and treat the cash back as a nice added bonus. That would be my best piece of advice.

One other quick thing about another feature of cashback sites. Some of these sites offer “daily clicks” which pay you a small amount (often just a couple of cents per click) for click-throughs to retailers on comparison websites. This seems to be more popular in the UK than the US, but you can sometimes find “Cash Clicks” on sites like Treasure Trooper. This isn’t something that I’ve used too much, but friends who have tried this strategy frequently complain that retailers don’t pay up on time (or at all) in comparison to the more traditional cash back route on purchases discussed in the rest of this post. Based on that, the "click strategy" is something that I’d be more wary of doing because of the lack of dependability and the extremely small payouts.

Do you use cashback websites? Which ones do you recommend or advise against?

(photo credit: GenBug)

When I talk about my savings, I’m rarely referring to just the one account. Currently, I have three: my on-going emergency fund (which may also act as an additional retirement fund in the future); an “overflow” account that contains enough money to pay for my regular outgoings if I have a bad month on the self-employment front, and an account to cover what I call “semi-regular expenses” that come around once or twice a year. Having asked around to various people that I’m acquainted with, it seems that I’m not alone with my split savings approach. It can be confusing sometimes to keep track of multiple savings accounts, but I’ve developed five great techniques to keep my savings accounts as simple and straightforward as possible:

1. Deciding How to Split Your Money

It can be tricky to know how much you should be allocating to each individual "pot" without feeling that one pot is being favored over the others. Some of the ideas that you can use to help you with your decision include:

• Prioritize your accounts. If there is an account that is especially important to you, it makes sense to give this account the priority. In my case, it's the emergency fund. The "overflow" and "semi-regular expenses" savings accounts are nice to have for extra piece of mind, but they're not as essential to my survival as the emergency fund. If you're saving for material purchases in one fund and financial security in the other, it should be pretty clear which fund is higher priority.

• Allocate goals. Another option is to use savings goals to prioritize an account. You should already have some targets for each of your funds, and it might be a good idea to feed the "pot" that is furthest away from the goal. Alternatively, you can choose to boost an account that is close to the goal for the satisfaction of being able to tick that one off the list. Whatever you choose, you need to stick with your goals until you've obtained the mark you set.

• Still stuck? If you're still unsure how to split your money, choosing the account with the highest interest rate is a good way to go because you know you'll get the best return in comparison to the other accounts.

2. Keeping Track of Your Money

However you decide to allocate your savings between savings “pots,” you need to keep track of things. Not too long ago, I had all three of my savings “pots” with the same financial institution as my checking account, and I loved the luxury of being able to log into my online banking and easily check all of my balances or move money around. However, at the moment, my savings “pots” are in various financial institutions in an effort to maximize interest. I have to admit that I’m finding it quite challenging to keep track of my savings as a result.

With that in mind, there are some tactics that can help you out:

3. Spreadsheets

Whenever I make a transfer into one of my savings accounts, I enter the details into a spreadsheet so that I can quickly see how much progress I’m making. This has been very handy for my accounts where online banking doesn't exist or when the online banking site is down. My spreadsheets aren’t very complicated and generally list the account in question, how much I transferred, the date of the transaction, and if applicable, how much more I need to save to meet my savings goal. It's nothing ground-breaking but it helps me to get a good overview of where I’m at financially, especially since my savings accounts are not in the same place anymore.

4. Mint.com

If you’re not already familiar with Mint.com, you’re missing out on a great way to juggle multiple savings accounts. The best feature is that you can see everything in one place. You can also set a target for each savings goal and Mint will track your progress to let you know how far along you are. As long as your accounts have online banking attached to them, you should be able to link them to your Mint account without much effort at all.

5. iPhone Apps

While I don’t have an iPhone, there are various iPhone apps that are intended to make your life a whole lot easier when you’re juggling multiple savings account. If you’ve got a Mint.com account, you can download an iPhone app that gives a convenient overview of your linked accounts so you don’t even need to be near a computer. SplashMoney and PocketMoney serve similar purposes for those who don’t have a Mint account. Seeing as I don’t have first-hand experience with using these apps, it’d be great to get some reader thoughts on the best ones out there.

What are your tips for handling multiple savings accounts?

Auction sites like eBay can be a great way to make some extra income by selling your unwanted belongings. You can go down the road of just slapping up a basic listing and hoping for the best, but personal experience has taught me that being proactive can pay dividends when it comes to improving your success rate.

When to Sell

Before you even start putting together a listing, think about whether it’s the right time to put your items up for sale. Sometimes, the best time to sell items will be a no-brainer -- after all, who will be looking for patio sets in November? Even if an item isn’t tied to a specific time of year, there can still be benefits to not just slapping up a listing as soon as you decide to sell (more on this in the next section).

When To Start and End an Auction

Timing can make all the difference for clinching an eBay sale. For example, there’s no point planning to end an auction in the middle of the night when hardly anyone will be around to place bids. In my early days on eBay, my enthusiasm to get the auction started as soon as possible cost me sales when I found myself in direct competition with auctions that were going to end at much more civilized times of the day (whereas mine were scheduled to end in the middle of the night). My items were often in the same condition and similarly priced but weren't selling as well, so I knew it was timing that was to blame. A friend who is a long-time eBay seller advised that things can get hectic in the last hour of an auction, which is to your advantage, but not if everyone is asleep!

If I come across similar listings that have some big advantage of mine (for example, they’re going for a ridiculously low price or they’re brand new), I’ll often plan my listing to start when the their auctions have finished so that we’re not in competition at all.  That way, anyone searching for that item is more likely to bid on mine and there is the added possibility of drawing in bidders who didn’t come out on top during the previous auction.

Setting a Price

Contrary to what you might expect, I’ve had some good success when starting with a low price. The advantage to a lower price is that it attracts more bidders at the beginning who, if the auction is timed right, will bid against each other in the last hours and you'll leave with a legitimate price.

If you want to have control over the price, a fixed price auction is your best bet. If you’re open to negotiation but don’t want to give the buyer too much say, a Best Offer auction can work well too. For a regular auction that still gives you some control over the price, you can set a reserve price to make sure that you don’t sell to anyone who doesn’t meet this.

You can forgo the auction aspect of eBay altogether with the Buy It Now option. Buyers taking advantage of this option can buy your item straight away without having to wait for the auction to end. It’s worth setting a Buy It Now price if you’ve got a definite price in mind or you’re happy to sell at a lower price (perhaps lower than competitors) if it means that you can sell the item quickly. However, it’s probably not the best option if you’re hoping for a bidding war to pump up the price. You can choose between having the Buy It Now price alongside a normal auction or just having the Buy It Now price with no option for bids. Personally, I’ve never had anyone buy through the Buy It Now option in either scenario.

Getting Your Listings to the Top of eBay

Getting your listing higher up in the Best Match results increases the chances that it will be seen by the right people. There’s no foolproof way to do this but you can help your cause by having a good track record as a seller, pricing your items competitively, creating accurate and descriptive titles, and listings with good photos.

Uploading Photographs

It’s not impossible to sell items without uploading photographs but you can increase your chances to sell by doing so. It’s not surprising that prospective buyers will want to see what they’re getting before they put in a bid given that they can’t handle an item like they could in a shop. While it’s no definitive gauge on condition and appearance, you can at least partially put their minds at rest that it’s not a sub-standard offering. I try to take photos from as many angles as possible, especially if I’m hoping to fetch a decent price for it.

What are your tips for becoming a successful eBay seller? Do you have any other tips that you'd like to share with us?

Earlier in the year, I happened to look over my budget for last year and was shocked to see how much I’d spent on presents for birthdays and Christmas. Having made a big effort to tighten my belt in 2010, I knew that I just couldn’t justify spending the same amount again, but at the same time, I don’t want to look like a miser when I’m handing over the presents. My compromise has been to look into making my own gifts in the hope that the extra effort will save me some cash and still look like a great present. Here are some of the ideas that I'm putting into action in my quest to save a little bit more money:

Personalized Gift Sets

Gift sets of toiletries are often given to females based on the assumption that you can’t go wrong with bath stuff. I’ve been guilty of doing this myself on many occasions with no real thought for whether the recipient will actually use the contents. After an enlightening conversation with one particular friend, it dawned on me that I was effectively wasting my money by buying her gift sets when she was only ever going to use the shower gel (she’s not one for baths). With these gift sets not being particularly cheap unless you can get them when they’re on sale, I wanted to find a way to buy something that would be better received without breaking my meager gifts budget.

My solution has been to put together personalized gift sets of toiletries that I know the recipient will definitely use. Over the last six months or so, I’ve been taking advantage of in-store and online offers on toiletries like shower gels, bath foams, and body lotions, and putting them aside for gifts. The idea is that I’ll only buy items that I know will be used, and because I’ve spread the cost throughout the year, it’s a much more financially manageable way of doing things. Once I’ve got everything I want to include in the gift sets, I place the items in a large sheet of cellophane wrapping and scrunch the top together to create a gift package (sometimes with a pretty ribbon or bow to finish the look).

I recently got the chance to put this to the test with a friend’s birthday gift and she was thrilled that I’d taken the time to put together half a dozen items that she genuinely enjoys using. I was initially worried that she’d think that it looked cheap or tacky but this wasn’t the case at all.

Baking Yummy Treats

If you’re looking for a present for someone who’s got a sweet tooth, you could do worse than turn your hand to baking. Even if you’re not the best at this, you can still bake a batch of muffins or cookies and present them in a basket. Here are two great recipes:

Blueberry Muffins Recipe

This is the recipe that I followed for my trial attempt and it worked well, even for a less-than-expert cook!

You’ll need: 1 1/2 cups of all-purpose flour, 3/4 cup of white sugar, 1/2 teaspoon of salt, 2 teaspoons of baking powder, 1/3 cup of vegetable oil, 1 egg, 1/3 cup of milk, 1 cup of fresh blueberries, 1/2 cup of white sugar, 1/3 cup of all-purpose flour, 1/3 cup of butter (cubed) and 1 1/2 teaspoons of ground cinnamon.

1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F/ 200 degrees C, and grease the required number of muffin cups (or use muffin liners).
2. Add 1 1/2 cups of flour, 3/4 cup of white sugar, salt and baking powder, and mix together.
3. Place vegetable oil in a measuring cup and add egg and milk. Add this to the above mixture and fold in the blueberries.
4. Fill the muffin cups to the brim.
5. Mix together 1/2 cup of white sugar, 1/3 cup of flour, 1/4 cup of butter ,and 1 1/2 teaspoons of cinnamon to make a crumb topping and sprinkle over muffins before you put them in the oven.
6. Bake for around 20-25 minutes.

Extreme Chocolate Chip Cookies Recipe

This is the recipe that I followed:

You’ll need: 1 1/2 cups of all-purpose flour, 1 1/2 teaspoons of baking powder, 1/4 teaspoon of salt, 2 cups of semi-sweet chocolate chips, 6 tablespoons of butter (softened), 1 cup of white sugar, 1 1/2 teaspoons of vanilla extract, 2 eggs and 1/2 cup of confectioners’ sugar.

1. Mix together flour, baking powder, and salt.
2. Melt 1 cup of the chocolate chips over a low heat.
3. Cream the butter and sugar.
4. Add the melted chocolate chips and vanilla.
5. Beat in eggs
6. Add flour mixture and the remaining cup of chocolate chips.
7. Wrap in plastic and freeze for around 20 minutes until the mixture becomes firm.
8. Create small balls of around 1 inch and roll in the confectioners’ sugar.
9. Place on an ungreased cookie sheet and bake for 10-12 minutes at 350 degrees F/ 175 degrees C.
10. Leave to cool.

These are a few of my ideas that really help to save money when buying presents, but there are lots more ideas that you can use if you’re good at crafts. What are your tips for saving money with homemade gifts? Have you ever tried any of the ideas discussed here?

(photo credit: Sarz.K)

Before I get started, let me say this: buying and caring for a dog is a big responsibility. Although there are ways to save money when purchasing a dog, I don’t want anybody to believe that they should be “bargain shopping.” It is fine to search for the best deal on vet care, food, and toys. But when it comes to buying an actual dog, you want to do your research to ensure that you get the right pet for your family at a price you are comfortable with. Also, this post is not to advise against adopting a dog from shelters; it is specifically written for those who have decided that they want to buy their pet.

Here are several tips to follow if you are thinking about buying a dog and are interested in saving as much money as possible on the purchase:

1. Negotiate. Who would negotiate on the price of a dog, you may ask? While this may sound silly on the surface, it is something that you should be doing no matter if you purchase at a pet store or a breeder. No matter the seller, they are going to have a price in mind. It is your job to “talk them down” if you are interested in saving money.

Unfortunately, there is no “going rate” for dogs. It is often times difficult to look at the market and make an accurate determination on what you should be paying. For this reason, all you can do is feel out the seller and work together to decide on a price that is mutually acceptable.

2. Shop around. This can be the most difficult way to save money because you are dealing with a pet, not an inanimate object. It is easy to become attached to one dog in particular, and you may therefore not want to visit another breeder or pet store for price comparison purposes. This is why you should attempt to gather as much information as you can before visiting any location. For instance, you could call several breeders on the phone for an idea of how much they are selling their puppies for. This way, you can first visit the breeders that are offering the best price. This doesn’t mean that you have to buy, but if price is on your mind it is a good starting point.

3. Breeders are almost always cheaper than pet stores. Early in the year, I spent several days with a friend who was searching for a Labrador Retriever puppy. In our part of the country, these dogs are very common. Not only are they sold in pet stores, but there are breeders from one side of the city to the next.

Soon enough, I realized a huge discrepancy in price when comparing breeders to pet stores. Most breeders were asking between $500 and $1k based on the lineage of the puppy. For example, those with championship bloodlines had a higher price. Pet stores, on the other hand, were asking anywhere from $1,800 and up. As you can imagine, he ended up purchasing through a reputable, local breeder. Not only did the breeder have more puppies to choose from, but the price was three times less than the closest pet store. This is party because pet stores have much higher overhead costs to account for than breeders.

Don’t buy a dog just because it is cheap. Instead, do your homework to determine which breed is right for you as well as your options for breeders and pet stores in your area. From there, you can use the advice above to save money.

Do you have any tips on saving money when buying a pet? Does the very idea of trying to save money bother you?

(photo credit: delta16v)

A couple of weeks ago, I caught up with some friends over pizza. Although we each had drinks and a decent-sized pizza, our total bill only came to $6. Short of throwing a few coins on the table and hot-footing it out of the door before security gave chase, you’re probably wondering how we got away with paying so little. The answer is very simple: we used vouchers to cover the bulk of the costs and only had to pay the difference. We do this every time we eat out now and very rarely pay full price on any meal.

Before I go any further, I should clarify that this post will be predominantly about informal restaurants (fast food type places, if you like) as these are the most likely to offer voucher deals. So, how do we get our hands on these cost-cutting vouchers? Finding the vouchers usually comes down to me, because I’m the one who tends to organize our get-togethers. The options that we tend to use the most are:

Check voucher/deal websites. My first port of call is usually specific "voucher" websites that collect together deals and present them in one place. These are some of my usual haunts:

• Retail Me Not - http://www.retailmenot.com
• Coupon Codes 4 U - http://www.couponcodes4u.com/
• Pizza.com - http://pizza.com/pizza-coupons

If I don’t see anything using this strategy, I’ll move on to some other options.

Look for newsletters. You may be able to sign up for newsletters or emails that contain links to vouchers that can be downloaded, printed, and taken to the venue. These are pretty commonly offered. All you need to do is sign up for the restaurant's email list and they'll send you random discount vouchers as well as free birthday meals.

Trawl the net. Sometimes, it can just be a case of doing a Google search for the restaurant that we want to go to. Because we’re so keen to use vouchers to cut costs, we’ll make plans around the deals that are on offer. That said, there are a handful of places that we know are likely to be offering vouchers at some point in the near future, so I do periodic Google searches every couple of weeks to see what’s being offered and when the vouchers will expire. A simple search phrase like “[Restaurant name] voucher deals” or "[Restaurant name] discount" will often bring up something relevant and timely.

Survey rewards. One of my friends is a member of an invite-only survey panel and receives reward vouchers a few times a year as a thank you for her ongoing participation. Sometimes she can choose to redeem them for specific restaurants (usually big names with branches all over the country) or sometimes they can be used at a range of places (not just restaurants).

How I Do Things

We plan where to go according to what vouchers we can get. Because of this, we’re unlikely to go to the same place two months in a row unless they’re offering continuous deals to draw customers in over a longer period of time. More likely, it’ll be a different venue each month depending on which vouchers are available at the time. As well as eating in, some of the vouchers that I come across are for deliveries. If the voucher gives us a good deal, we’ll often go with that option and go to someone’s place rather than go to a restaurant as it makes more sense and it's a nice changeup from going out.

If you’re someone who likes to eat out a lot, you’ll probably struggle to cover all of your costs with vouchers. Those that come via email promotions are likely to be a one-time only download relating to the email address that you signed up with. That said, there's nothing to stop your friends from also downloading a voucher so you can all make use of the same deal as long as you use them on separate occasions (most vouchers specify that you can only use one per order).

Do you take advantage of vouchers and coupons when you eat out? Do you have any additional tips for saving money when going out for food? Your feedback is always welcome!

I've always been very careful to live within my means and not take on any significant amount of debt but around six months back, I learned the hard way that this isn’t always enough to keep you in the black. My beloved cat suddenly got very sick and I instinctively knew that I’d do whatever it took to help her. Everything seemed to happen all too quickly and she passed away a couple of weeks later, at which point I’d charged my emergency-only credit card for $1,500 on tests, treatment and medication for her various ailments.

For most people, the prospect of paying this off wouldn’t be a huge problem - you’d just work out how much you could take from your monthly paychecks and throw that at the debt, right? Unfortunately for me, I’m self-employed and don’t have a set income. Sure, I have a few clients who pay me regularly but generally speaking, I can’t say with any certainty how much I’ll earn month to month. Even worse, being self-employed means that it’s not always in your hands even if you’ve got a great idea of how much you’re going to be invoicing for. If a particular client is late paying up or doesn’t want to pay at all, it’s even more difficult to find available money to pay off debt. In that kind of situation, even paying your rent/mortgage bills and putting food on the table can be challenging enough.

Still, it’s by no means impossible to get out of debt when your income is all over the place. My debt isn’t yet fully paid off but I’ve cleared all but $150 of the original total by utilizing the following methods:

Budgeting. Once my regular expenses were accounted for, I intended to throw literally every ‘spare’ cent towards the credit card debt. In the short term, that would obviously mean no scope for luxuries and treats that aren’t strictly essential, but it’d be worth it to know that interest payments are reduced. Of the five months that I’ve been repaying the debt, the joys of being self-employed means that only two of these months have left me with surplus cash to actually follow through on this plan.

I have a separate account that I treat as being somewhere between checking and savings and which I use to take care of regular expenses if my income for that particular month doesn’t stretch far enough. For three of the five months, I’ve borrowed money from that account to use towards debt repayments. Obviously this isn’t an ideal situation but I prefer to do that than let interest build up and prolong the debt even further.

Second income.  In the early days of repaying the debt, I searched high and low for a part-time job that I could fit around my freelance work to secure a bit more money to throw at the debt. I found some work as a bartender and this worked well for a couple of months, until the onset of a recurrent family illness forced me back to working solely from home again. Even though it didn’t amount to all that much in comparison to my freelance work, the fact that it was regular and fixed was a huge help towards the debt repayment.

Other options

Using savings. If you can take money out of a savings account without incurring penalties, you can use this for debt repayment and pay yourself back once the debt is cleared. This would have been my top choice if I hadn’t tied up the bulk of my savings. Needless to say, I’m on the hunt for a savings account that offers easier access now that I’ve been burned with unexpected debt and know how easy it would be for a similar medical expense to crop up in the family.

What are your tips for paying down debt on an erratic income, particularly long-term debt?