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Black Friday and Cyber Monday Guide- Part 1

If there was one day I used to look forward to in college, it was Black Friday. I used to commute to Rutgers University in New Jersey and my parents were really strict on curfew so I could never stay out late. The only day they showed leniency was on Black Friday. It sounds so funny to hear myself say that, but that was just the way things were at home. On Black Friday, I would hang out with my friends in front of Best Buy or go out with my siblings to the mall and stand in lines for hours while sipping on hot chocolate and having great conversations. Fast forward a few years, I can’t even imagine standing in lines for hours anymore. Everything I want I can literally find at my fingertips online and have it delivered without even leaving the house. It has definitely contributed to my lazy shopping addiction so I had to find a way to offset the price of wanting to indulge in online shopping. That is where Ebates came in a few years ago. I thought I had joined it a year or two back but I logged into my account today and saw that I joined on 11/24/2011. The funny thing is that was the first year I could not go out for Black Friday shopping because I was pregnant and exhausted from Thanksgiving. Once I found the ability to do some serious damage from the comfort of wearing my pajamas and being in bed, I didn’t look back.

I did not imagine that 6 years later I would be writing about how awesome Ebates is and why everyone should join before I even go in depth on what is worth picking up this Black Friday/Cyber Monday. Probability is that you have heard someone on social media tell you how it is a way to earn cash back on your favorite things. The problem is that when we see extremely popular influencers or celebrities endorsing a product, at times we think that they are pushing it because they are paid to do so. However, this is not a sponsored post and Ebates has not reached out to me (but I would love to work with them because I really do use them daily). Basically when you sign up using a referral link, on your first purchase of $25 you receive $10 back and the person who referred you gets a “bonus” also. They offer rewards from over 2,000 stores online including some of my favorites such as: Sephora, Macy’s, Target and even Amazon. While I am writing this article, they are offering extra cash back and that is the great part of Ebates, when there are huge occasions like Black Friday, they do not shy away from giving cash back and instead offer double on some of their popular stores such as Dermstore giving a cashback of 8%. When you factor that with the deals already readily available, the savings just grow! The reason why I have been able to indulge in many of my coveted beauty finds is because of using Ebates for the day to day needs of my family and when I receive my cash back reward I convert it to a Sephora gift card! The last time I cashed out my rewards, they gave me a 10% bonus for the value of my gift card and I combined it with my Sephora Rouge discount during their recent sale to make for huge savings! My entire haul was covered by my cashback credit so it enables me to try new products to feature on my blog and Instagram feed.

If you have any questions about Ebates, please do leave them below. What are you planning on buying this Black Friday?

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