Joining in with Essex Hebridean and her Frugal Friday series. 



I don’t know about you but I am finding that this Frugality lark is better approached when you add a bit of a fun factor to it. 

For me, fun is finding ways to save a few pennies to put to other things but making a game from it. Imagine my delight then when I learned all about cashback sites. 

There are several cashback sites. The two that I have used are Topcashback  

 

Source: topcashback.co.uk via cheri on Pinterest

and Quidco.

 

Source: quidco.com via cheri on Pinterest

Both sites offer money back when you shop on line at thousands of stores via their website. They also offer the opportunity to earn cashback when you use comparison websites for quotes. I have also earned money for reviewing holidays that I have been on. OK so the sums for using comparison sites and doing reviews are minimal but £1.05 for something that I would be doing anyway seems like a gift to me and you know that old saying. look after the pennies and the pounds will look after themselves? When buying an item I always check the comparison sites first to see if the company are registered and offer a percentage cashback on the items I want. I also check around the internet and in store to see what the prices are to make sure that, with the cashback, I am actually getting the item at the cheapest possible price. I pay, in full, for the item and then the comparison site will track the cashback payment and pay it into my account later. 

I tend to use topcashback more these days as I had a few problems with Quidco losing my tracked cashback payments. 

I have, in the past, opted to have the cashback paid into my bank account but more recently I have opted for payment via Amazon vouchers. This helps me to feed my addiction to books but also allows me to buy other things that I might need via amazon, including gifts, using the cashback that I have earned from Topcashback sites. Earlier this year I renewed my house insurance. Following the tips on Money Saving Expert I headed over to Topcashback to check which comparison sites would offer me cashback to look for insurance, clicking through to these via topcashback over a twelve month period and for each insurance quote I have looked for has netted me a total of £10.02 and that is simply for clicking through from the cashback site onto sites that I would have looked at anyway. 

My most recent purchase of home insurance earned me a grand total of £40.40 cashback with the post office which came out as the cheapest quote and with a further £40 coming back to me was a bargain to say the least. 

By converting the cashback to Amazon vouchers I received a top up to make the £40.40 worth £44.27 in Amazon vouchers. This added to the £60.18 that I received in May of this year means that I have had a very frugal birthday spending list this year. 

Even more excitingly, I recently discovered that I can shop on ebay via Topcashback and earn up to 30% cashback (of ebay revenue, not the final price paid) on purchases made there. Again, great way to look after the pennies. 

The fun comes from me using the cashback as a game to see how much I can “make” when shopping. Even more fun is the competition I have with Mr to see who can earn the most in any given year via the site. I am winning so far. 

Do you use cashback sites? What do you do to save a few pennies? What tips would you share.