Do Your Holiday Shopping in Your Pajamas and Save!

I almost never go out and fight the crowds on Black Friday...or the rest of the holiday season. I don't have the patience to push people out of the way to save a few bucks. This year, why not stay in the cozy comfort of your own home and do your holiday shopping or travel booking? How can you do that? With the online sales and using Ebates. I never buy or book anything without first checking Ebates. What is it? It's a fantastic - and free! - site that offers you cash back for purchasing from online merchants. If you plan to make a purchase anyway, you might as well get something for being a loyal customer (or even a new customer). This Friday over 500 stores will be giving double cash back, which means you can keep even more money in your pocket, or buy more on the same budget!

Here's how it works: Sign up is quick and easy, then you're ready to shop! When you have a hankering to buy something, say, at Sephora, go to Ebates, sign in, click on Sephora and it takes you straight to the main website. You must go through Ebates, so they can track your purchase. At checkout, make sure you use the same email address you used to sign up on Ebates and within a few days, your purchase will show up in your account. You can track your cash back total to see how much you saved and then every quarter, Ebates sends you a Big Fat Check (if you choose that method) or a Big Fat Payment via Paypal. You even get $5 just for signing up! Who else does that? If there are coupon codes available or special sales, Ebates will show them to you, helping you save even MORE! Actually, after your first purchase of $25 or more, instead of a $5 bonus, you get a $10 gift card! 

 

 

I like to use my cash back as a travel savings supplement. Each time I make a purchase, I rack up cash and then it gets deposited right to my Paypal account. I use that money to purchase travel stuffs, like Groupons, clothing, tours and more! If I can get more cash back with it, even better! Of course, you can use it for whatever you want. This time of year, it's perfect for booking your holiday travel and buying gifts.

 

Stores you can shop at: Ebates has, literally, hundreds of online merchants you can choose from, including a long list of travel merchants. Just a sampling of those include: TravelSmith, Holiday Inn, Avis, Alaska Airlines, Camping World, Orbitz, Air France, Delta Airlines, HomeAway and even SkyMall! Keep your eyes out for the Daily Double. Each day one awesome merchant offers double cash back on your purchases for the day.

Why get elbowed in the eye trying to buy a gift this Friday when you can roll out of bed and hit the sales on your computer? No looking for parking, bundling up or hiding gifts in the trunk of your car with Ebates. Sign up now for free!

Are you taking advantage of Ebates' great deals this Friday or will you be braving the crowds at the mall?

Review Times Two! Skyroll Spinner

Have you been looking for the most versatile carry-on out there for your travels (or maybe for the person who travels a ton on your gift list)? I reviewed the Skyroll Spinner before, but I wanted to do a quick follow-up now that I had a chance to use it on my vacation where I dragged it all over, put in both the baggage hold and the overhead, and packed it full of shoes, toiletries, our laptop and other necessary items for my trip. How did it hold up? 

One of my biggest pet peeves with luggage is that it only tends to roll okay on flat surfaces. I am not super strong, and I don't like having to wrench the case over sidewalk cracks or practically pull my arm out of socket when encountering uneven surfaces, like asphalt or cobblestone. The Skyroll was not an issue at all. It rolled perfectly through the airport, down the airplane aisle (really!), along the sidewalk and over the worst cobblestone I've ever had the misfortune of walking on (even in flats).

Look at everything that fits in there!

Eric propped our travel tote on top of it (that didn't have a handle attachment) and had almost no issues with it falling off, even over cracky sidewalks and transitions from wooden floors to escalators. The three handles made it particularly easy to maneuver it, whether we were going up and down steps in the Tube station, hauling the bag up our spiral staircase (sounds awesome, but not great for taking luggage upstairs) or getting the bag into the overhead of the airplane.

On the Metro, Eric keeps his Skyroll friend close!

Another plus of the spinner is that it is compact. Even wrapped up in its garment bag, it fits nearly everywhere and doesn't ever get in the way. That garment bag comes in really handy, too. Nobody is going to be able to steal stuff out of the top portion of the bag, because it covers up the zipper, but not so much that YOU can't get anything out. It also holds extra clothing you might acquire, without adding much bulk. We left with it holding Eric's dress shirt and suit jacket and came back with a cape I purchased at a vintage clothing store. I never had to loosen the straps either, so it didn't come back any fuller than we started, even though we had more in the bag in the end.

There it is in the closet!

As I said in another post, we are definitely thinking about buying another one of these bags, because it's so handy and easy to get around. If you want to read my previous post, do so here, or you can go straight to Skyroll and buy one now!

Review Times Two! GoLite Travel Tote

I have been using my GoLite Tote for my many trips to the farmers' market. In fact, I love it for packing with fruits and veggies and even baked goods. So much stuff fits in the tote, you can't even believe it. Plus, it's got a very strong set of handles that fit comfortably on your shoulder no matter how much you carry in it. Of course, you can see my full-length review here. On my trip, I planned to take it as a bag for my grocery shopping and market finds, but also needed some extra room in a carry-on for a container of snacks, games and electronics, so instead of using another carry-on bag, I decided to use it for that purpose as well. 

This carry-on needed to hold my purse, jacket, travel docs and anything else that was a necessity for 12 hours of flying, since our full-size carry-on bags would be stowed in the overhead. I found the GoLite to be a great travel companion. It also had room to fit anything I purchased at the airport and needed to stash away too.

I promise this is not as awkward as it seems. I just happen to be dragging
my carry-on and also hanging on to my passport and customs paperwork :)

Once we made it to our final destination (London!), I folded the tote into my day bag and took it with me to Portobello Market. Though we didn't buy a ton, it was nice to not have to carry around several plastic bags. We purchased some breakfast goods, a shirt and some coffee. Since we were hopping the train to get to the Harry Potter Studios in Leavesden, we also added our coats to the bag and then dropped it off at the "coat check" when we arrived. Upon leaving, we picked up the tote and then used it to also carry back our gift shop purchases. 

You can't believe how big these pastries were...and delicious.

If you know anyone who travels a lot (or likes to hang out at the farmers' market or bring their own bag to the grocery store), then this bag is definitely a great find. It comes in pretty colors and is affordable, too. If you want to know more about why I recommend it, check out my previous review or go straight to GoLite and purchase one now!