Top Cashback Christmas #Review
I've long been aware of cashback sites, the idea of getting money back after having paid out for something I was intending to buy anyway appeals to me, but I've never really utilised them, like Daddy does. Daddy is the master of using Cashback sites, in our family. He's had cash back on insurance, a mobile phone contract, breakdown insurance and probably much more that I've forgotten. I'm the occasional user, sometimes I think about using the sites and more often than not I forget.
When Top Cashback asked if I'd like to see what I could save, by using their website to do my Christmas Shopping and as an added bonus they'd give me some money to get me started I thought I'd be best to give it a whirl!
So I signed up, put in all my information and got ready to start shopping.
After having signed up the very first thing I did was clear the cookies on my computer. I know that the cashback sites work by using the cookies to track where I'm going, so by clearing my cookies I was hoping that it would make sure that I'd get all my cash back, as the website would be able to attribute the visit to them instead of deciding that I'd visited a comparison shop or something else. With the Cookies cleared I typed the first name of the first shop I wanted to visit in.
I ended up visiting about twenty different shops, and not buying anything before realising that this year I've actually made a bit of a mistake with my Christmas shopping, other than a couple of things that the children have mentioned they'd rather like I've not got a list of what I want to buy! So I went offline and started thinking. I created a spreadsheet with my budget, all the people I'd like to buy for and thought out all the things I'd quite like. Once that was sorted I went back to the shopping.
First of all I visited WH Smiths, where I purchased a small number of books. £44.18 lighter but with cashback of 5.25% (£2.31) coming back to me when it had been processed I still had £38.13 left to spend of the money Top Cashback had given me.
I visited JD Sports and brought myself a new handbag for a grand total of £6 as it was in the sale and had cashback of 2.1% added to my list of items that were to be purchased (12p).
I then went to Amazon to buy new headphones for the children for £20.98, I'm not sure if I was eligible for cashback on these, so I'll be watching my account with interest!
As part of a deal with my sister, I purchased some presents from ELC for her, a total of £116 with cashback of 4.2% (£4.87) she doesn't know about the cashback, so if we don't tell her we'll claim it's my "finders fee" right?
I decided to get some sweets from Chewbz Retro Sweets for a friend with a very sweet tooth for £9.95 with cashback of 15.75% and a 10% (£1.41) discount on top of that.
The last gift that I had planned to buy was for one of my Nieces and when I saw some cute little building blocks with the alphabet on, I thought she'd love them. They were £7.50 at The Entertainer and with cashback of 8.92% (66p) It means that from my original £80 including the sneaky cashback I've got from my Sisters purchase I've got just over £10 in cashback and I'm not even finished shopping properly yet.
And then because I was congratulating myself on a job well done, I went to Domino's via the Top Cashback site and ordered dinner for cashback of 1.05%. Sure it might only be about 24p that I get back but it'll make my pizza all the more delicious!
So what do I think?
Well, to be honest anyone who doesn't use a cashback site when shopping online is a bit of a fool, as it's an easy way to get some "bonus" money from your budget and with Top Cashback paying out the cashback in a variety of ways (vouchers for various stores, paypal, BACS) you could easily find a payout method that suits you oh and if you do want to sign up, would you mind using my link PippaDawn as that way I might earn a bit more for Christmas!
Using the site is really easy, you just search for the store you're hoping to buy from in the search bar, or you can search through by category (and find shops you didn't know existed!). Just whatever you do, make sure you stick to your own budget and remember that the cashback is an added bonus not a given!
We were asked to review the site and given some money to spend too.
When Top Cashback asked if I'd like to see what I could save, by using their website to do my Christmas Shopping and as an added bonus they'd give me some money to get me started I thought I'd be best to give it a whirl!
So I signed up, put in all my information and got ready to start shopping.
After having signed up the very first thing I did was clear the cookies on my computer. I know that the cashback sites work by using the cookies to track where I'm going, so by clearing my cookies I was hoping that it would make sure that I'd get all my cash back, as the website would be able to attribute the visit to them instead of deciding that I'd visited a comparison shop or something else. With the Cookies cleared I typed the first name of the first shop I wanted to visit in.
I ended up visiting about twenty different shops, and not buying anything before realising that this year I've actually made a bit of a mistake with my Christmas shopping, other than a couple of things that the children have mentioned they'd rather like I've not got a list of what I want to buy! So I went offline and started thinking. I created a spreadsheet with my budget, all the people I'd like to buy for and thought out all the things I'd quite like. Once that was sorted I went back to the shopping.
First of all I visited WH Smiths, where I purchased a small number of books. £44.18 lighter but with cashback of 5.25% (£2.31) coming back to me when it had been processed I still had £38.13 left to spend of the money Top Cashback had given me.
I visited JD Sports and brought myself a new handbag for a grand total of £6 as it was in the sale and had cashback of 2.1% added to my list of items that were to be purchased (12p).
I then went to Amazon to buy new headphones for the children for £20.98, I'm not sure if I was eligible for cashback on these, so I'll be watching my account with interest!
As part of a deal with my sister, I purchased some presents from ELC for her, a total of £116 with cashback of 4.2% (£4.87) she doesn't know about the cashback, so if we don't tell her we'll claim it's my "finders fee" right?
I decided to get some sweets from Chewbz Retro Sweets for a friend with a very sweet tooth for £9.95 with cashback of 15.75% and a 10% (£1.41) discount on top of that.
The last gift that I had planned to buy was for one of my Nieces and when I saw some cute little building blocks with the alphabet on, I thought she'd love them. They were £7.50 at The Entertainer and with cashback of 8.92% (66p) It means that from my original £80 including the sneaky cashback I've got from my Sisters purchase I've got just over £10 in cashback and I'm not even finished shopping properly yet.
And then because I was congratulating myself on a job well done, I went to Domino's via the Top Cashback site and ordered dinner for cashback of 1.05%. Sure it might only be about 24p that I get back but it'll make my pizza all the more delicious!
So what do I think?
Well, to be honest anyone who doesn't use a cashback site when shopping online is a bit of a fool, as it's an easy way to get some "bonus" money from your budget and with Top Cashback paying out the cashback in a variety of ways (vouchers for various stores, paypal, BACS) you could easily find a payout method that suits you oh and if you do want to sign up, would you mind using my link PippaDawn as that way I might earn a bit more for Christmas!
Using the site is really easy, you just search for the store you're hoping to buy from in the search bar, or you can search through by category (and find shops you didn't know existed!). Just whatever you do, make sure you stick to your own budget and remember that the cashback is an added bonus not a given!
We were asked to review the site and given some money to spend too.