Jen Russum

A little help with using Ebates…

February 1, 2017

Christmas season has come and gone, and now I'm just waiting for my $129 check to arrive from Ebates. Yes, you read that correctly. I am about to receive a $129 of cash back for online shopping I did during November, December, and January. To be fair, some of those dollars are bonuses for referring new customers, but most of them are simply from doing my Christmas shopping online (because who has time for malls during the holidays?). I started using Ebates about three years ago and have since earned over $400 simply by clicking one little button before I make any purchases online. The holidays are the best season to shop, because many stores offer insane amounts of cash back (10-20%) to lure customers to their websites during gift-giving season. But even throughout the year, when I'm not shopping as much and the cash back amounts from retailers are lower (often 3%-6%), I still usually make $10-20 every quarter from my regular shopping habits. And when I say that I make this money, I mean that Ebates mails a check to my house four times a year. I deposit it via my phone and the money goes back into my bank account. Without ever leaving my home or doing more labor than tapping a few buttons on my computer or phone screen, I make a couple hundred dollars per year. I love it. Although I wax poetic about the joys of Ebates every Christmas, I thought I would give more details here for those of you who are intrigued or confused. 1. If you sign up, USE the service. This might seem silly, but I can see the email addresses of those who have signed up under my referral code. And you know what? I see women who signed up over a year ago, but have never activated their account by making a purchase. What? Are you telling me you've bought NOTHING online in the past year? Unless you are currently time traveling back to 1990, I simply don't believe you. You signed up for this awesome resource, but you haven't been clicking one little button to take advantage of putting cash back into your wallet. 2. Use the Ebates cash back button. Ebates has made it SO easy for you to get cash back. They designed a button (kind of like your "Pin it" button for Pinterest) you can install into your browser (Chrome, Safari, Firebox, Internet Explorer, etc.). Once you install this little tool, a small box will pop up ANY time you are browsing a shop that offers cash back. All you have to do is click "activate" and anything you purchase will earn you cash back. So if you already have an Ebates account, but aren't using this tool, stop what you are doing right now, install the button, and watch your cash accumulate much faster. This is what the cash back button page looks like on Ebates. You can find it here. All you do is click the huge "Get the Button" icon. It already knows which browser you are using. I went to Old Navy as an example for you, because it's a store where a lot of people shop and they usually have decent cash back. For example, today (on a random Thursday in late January) Old Navy is offering 8% cash back (in addition to 25% off your total purchase, including clearance items!). You can see the button that pops up telling me to "Activate 8% cash back." ALL YOU DO IS CLICK THAT BUTTON. If you make a purchase, 8% of the amount will be applied to your Ebates account. Confession... I was actually sucked into Old Navy's 8% cash back with 25% off any purchase deal in the midst of writing this post. I just bought a jacket for Talitha, a package of socks for Zianne, and a knit pencil skirt for myself for $16 total, so I will get precisely $1.28 added to my Ebates account (in addition to scoring three items of clothing for an insanely low cost). Before I made my purchase, you know I clicked that "activate 8% cash back" button up in that right hand corner of the screen. 3. ALWAYS use Ebates when booking your travel arrangements. Companies such as Expedia and Orbitz almost always offer 10% cash back. Since flights, rental cars, and hotel rooms are such big purchases, this cash back adds up fast. This past May, my cash back check was over $50 because I used Ebates when booking all our summer travel. 4. This is just my opinion, but some of the best stores that offer decent cash back are: Nordstrom, Macy's, Kohl's, Groupon, J.Crew, and Old Navy. But don't neglect stores that offer tiny amounts of cash back either. In the past year, Etsy started offering cash back, but it's usually just 1%. Who cares? If you are buying your child's birthday invites on Etsy, click the button and add the cash back to your account. Even if it's just a 50 cents, it all adds up. And to show you how it all adds up, I am sharing with you my Ebates summary for the past three years. As you can see, my checks started out small, but now they have grown quite large. I usually make over $100 during the holidays, but it's not uncommon to receive checks between $15-50 throughout the year either. Two of my friends started using Ebates this Christmas season. One accumulated $30 or $40 in her first few weeks of using the service, and then linked her credit card to get cash back while shopping in stores too (Ebates is not just for online shopping anymore!). The other friend just shared a photo of her cash back amount with me. Her very first check will be $97.oo - and all that just for clicking an "activate" button and then simply purchasing her kids' Christmas gifts online. And here is an email that I received from Ebates just last week... Let me give you one more scenario to show how I use Ebates in my everyday (non-holiday shopping) life. I am currently mailing a bunch of letters for a personal project and therefore need a TON of postage. I read a tip online that said you can sometimes buy stamps on eBay at a discount. I scrolled eBay for a day or two and found a deal for 100 Forever stamps for $43.50 with free shipping. Since Forever stamps are currently 49 cents, a roll of 100 should cost $49.00. With my eBay discount, I am paying 43.5 cents per stamp (which was the cost of postage way back in 2009... inflation has nothing on me!). While I was on the eBay website, I noticed my little Ebates pop-up telling me I could also receive 5% cash back on my purchase. Yes, please. I clicked "activate" and will now see over $2.00 added to by Ebates account for my stamp purchase. Now I have the 100 stamps I need for mailing, I paid way below market value for them ($43 is even less than Costco's discounted postage), and I put a little money in my Ebates account as well. Ebates rocks during the holiday season, but it's a pretty great tool to use year-round. Install the button and make sure you never miss out on cash back again. May your shopping be fun and your Ebates checks be fat! *Let me know in the comments if you have any other questions. You can sign for Ebates here! ... Read more

Good Gifts

January 30, 2017

She ran ahead of me in her little black tutu. I hadn't had a chance to buy her shoes yet, so we crammed her feet into a used pair from the loaner basket. She glanced at herself in the mirror and looked pleased. She didn't seem to mind that her slippers were a bit too small or a little bit dirty. She didn't notice that her bun was messy instead of polished like the older girls hanging around the lobby. When it was time for class to start, she followed her teacher, Miss Jordan, into a back studio with a handful of other 3 and 4 year old girls. I sat in the waiting room and watched the class from the TV. I saw her stretch and plié. Leap and point her toes. I had tucked a book into my purse to keep me occupied during the class, but I found myself mesmerized by the screen the entire time. As the class was wrapping up 45 minutes later, I stood to leave the waiting room and meet Zianne outside her classroom. Before I could exit, I started talking with another mom and stood with my back to the door, distracted. Before I knew it, my three year-old was jumping into my arms exclaiming, "Mommy, I had SO much fun!" So much fun. She was all smiles and so articulate about how great her first ballet lesson had been. It was perhaps the most enthusiastic I had ever seen her (which is saying a lot, because she's naturally one of the most enthusiastic people I know). "It was SO much fun," she told me again. To be honest, I delved into these ballet lessons with caution. Although raising young children takes so much time and energy, the nice thing about babies and toddlers is they rarely have organized activities. When I was training for a half marathon last spring, I would run past the crowded soccer fields in our neighborhood, quietly thankful that we were still in the season where Saturdays were our own. No soccer games. No volleyball matches. No cheering competitions. No. No. Not yet. Saturday mornings were still for mommy and daddy to go running or surfing or meet up with a friend. Ballet lessons would usher us into a new season of extracurricular activities, but I knew Zianne would love them, so I asked my parents for "experience" gifts for the girls this Christmas - ballet lessons for Z and swim lessons for T. I figured we could surrender our Saturday mornings this winter and then pause classes when the baby arrives in the spring. So at 9:30am every Saturday, you will find me at the ballet studio for the next few months. My daughter will be skipping and leaping in the back classroom, while I watch her on a TV screen in the waiting room. She will be smiling, and I will be too, because nothing can compare to the moment she leapt into my arms after her very first lesson. In that instant, as I looked at her exuberant smile and flushed cheeks, I understood more fully the verse that says, "If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him!" (Matthew 7:11) Her delight was my delight. When I saw her excitement for this new class, the sacrifice was worth it to me. I could gladly make this Saturday morning commitment and added "buy ballet shoes" to my shopping list for the week. Even though I am naturally selfish and want Saturdays to myself, I suddenly found myself overjoyed to spend a precious weekend morning in a crowded dance studio. To give the gift of ballet lessons to my daughter filled my own heart with joy. And this how God looks at us. We are needy and naive, and yet we can ask him for anything, and he delights to give us good gifts. We can leap into the arms of a Father who loves us and wants to bestow blessing upon us. God is the perfect parent who gladly gave up for us, not his Saturday mornings, but his very own Son. And that son endured so much more than a crowded waiting room in a dance studio; his body was distorted on a cross to show his devotion to God's beloved children. The Father will give us any gift that's for our good and His glory. Ask him. Trust him when he says no, and leap into his embrace with delighted gratitude when he so often says YES. ... Read more

My sister’s wedding

January 23, 2017

Now that six months have passed, it's finally time to share the beautiful details from my sister's wedding back in July. Even though this post feels belated, it might be helpful to those who got engaged over the holidays and are now planning a summer wedding. Chris and Katie got married at a gorgeous new venue called Prospect House in Dripping Springs, Texas outside of Austin. Prospect House looks like an industrial building in the middle of the rolling meadows of Texas Hill Country. It's the perfect blend of modern in a rustic setting. Knowing her venue would be gorgeous on its own, Katie went for a simple color palette of cream and gold with lots of natural greenery. I guess she was ahead of the trend, since "greenery" is the Pantone color of 2017. Then Chris threw her for a loop when he insisted on having a bit of maroon in the color scheme to represent his beloved fighting Texas Aggies. Being the patient and sweet natured middle-child that she is, Katie acquiesced to his wish and added pops of maroon into her décor. I was skeptical as she was planning it out, but on the day of the wedding I was overwhelmed by how well the flowers and clothing turned out... maroon ties and socks for the groomsmen and a few crimson blooms sprinkled in the white and green floral arrangements. It was perfect, and represented a mature level of compromise I wasn't capable of so early in my marriage. The hardest thing about my sister's wedding was being so far away during the planning process. Although I was the maid of honor, I didn't get to help very much in the months leading up to the big day. However, when Katie was struggling to find a wedding dress she liked, I stepped in from afar. She went to a couple shops to look at dresses and left feeling disgruntled by the styles and the exorbitant prices and the pushy sales ladies that make you rank dresses that you don't ever intend on purchasing. One morning, I jumped online, determined to find a simple, affordable, flattering dress that my sister would love. I headed to J.Crew because they are known for having well-designed, no-frills dresses for good prices. Within a couple minutes, I sent my sister the link to the Gigi gown, just as example of a silhouette she might like (at a decent price). Within a few minutes, she texted me back, "I bought one." "Bought what?" I replied, thinking she might have already found a dress in the few days since we had last spoke. "The Gigi dress from J.Crew. I just ordered it in two different sizes. We'll see which one fits." She ended up loving the gown, and it fit her personality and her wedding perfectly. So although I failed to help with many MOH duties before the wedding, I did get to pick out her dress with a few clicks on my iPhone. I can't really tell the story of Katie's wedding without talking about the one inevitable mishap on the weekend of the event. The vision for the reception hall was long banquet tables with a runner made of fresh eucalyptus branches and candles of varying heights. Simple and elegant. Katie found an amazing deal for 200 stems of live eucalyptus at Sam's Club and had it shipped to her house the Friday before the wedding. Long story short, the retailer entered her address incorrectly when they processed her order and the package was not delivered to her house. We were told she could pick it up from a UPS distribution center on Saturday morning (the day before her wedding), but after we drove all the way across Austin to get there, we found that her package was locked in a huge trailer and would be delivered to her house on Tuesday, two days after her wedding. She handled it well (better than I would have), and I stepped into big sister problem-solving mode right away. I decided we would buy all the eucalyptus we could find in Austin city limits and the bridesmaids would re-create the look for the tables as best we could with limited supplies. We re-visited her kind florist, where we bought ALL the eucalyptus they had in stock, as well as any greenery that looked remotely like eucalyptus stems. We then visited Trader Joe's where a compassionate cashier heard our plight and gifted us extra bunches of eucalyptus for FREE. Basically, everyone was a doll to us except the lady who worked for UPS... but we made it work, Katie got a refund from Sam's Club, and the wedding was beautiful. During wedding planning, I pinned the most gorgeous wedding welcome sign, and Katie surprised me by asking me to hand-letter a duplicate for the big day. Although I love penmanship and lettering, this particular task (paint marker on glass surface) was WAY above my pay-grade (of volunteer calligrapher). I sucked it up, and while Katie and her friend put together ALL the bouquets the day before the wedding, I labored on the floor trying to paint a sign that looked semi-professional. It was so stressful, but I like the way it turned out. The glass was perched on a gold easel by the entrance to the venue and, due to wind, crashed to the (cement) ground not once but twice during the wedding. Miraculously, it never shattered. Of course, the most beautiful part of the wedding was celebrating on earth as it is in heaven.... two amazing people joining in a holy union that reflects the way Christ loves his church. Chris and Katie's dear pastor proclaimed the gospel during their 100 degree ceremony while sweat dripped off his face. He never stopped smiling and didn't pause to wipe his brow until the bride and groom were taking communion. There was feasting, dancing, laughing, kissing... all symbols of joy bringing glory to God. Photographer: Dustin Finkelstein Photography Venue: Prospect House (Dripping Springs, TX) Bridal Gown: J.Crew (similar one here) My bridesmaid dress: Eliza J Lace Dress (on sale!) See the photographer's blog post here. ... Read more