Money Minute: 3 genius ways to save on holiday shopping online

Why deal with crazy holiday crowds when you can get almost all the same
deals at home? I’ll tell you how in this week’s Money Minute. 

The beauty of browser extensions

I’m obsessed with browser extensions. These are magical little buttons you can add to your web browser that help you find deals on the fly. A few of my favorites are Ebates, Honey and PriceBlink. 

Check them out and see for yourself: 

Ebates. When you’ve installed Ebates, it will notify you when the website you’re on offers cashback. All you have to do is click “Activate” and you’re good to go. Most cash-back rates are in the 2% to 5% range but some stores offer up to 10% cash back over the holidays. Getting paid is simple. Ebates cuts you a check every three months. (Find instructions on how to add the Ebates button to your web browser here: Chrome, Firefox, Safari.)

On Cyber Monday, I used Ebates to earn an extra 10% cash back at Gap.com. Coupled with the 40% discount Gap.com was already offering, I saved a total of 50%. Not shabby at all.

Honey. Honey is every shopper’s best friend. Once you’re ready to check out online, Honey will prompt you to search for any available coupon codes. And it will try them all for you. (Add the Honey web extension to your browser using these instructions.)

One of my favorite places to use a tool like Honey is for Sephora.com, which typically has a zillion different promos going all at the same time. Honey does all the hard work finding different promotion codes, and I get to kick back and watch as all my freebies and discounts are tallied. 

PriceBlink. PriceBlink is the triple threat of online shopping tools. It pings you with coupon codes, lets you read reviews from around the web AND here’s the best part: You can compare prices on items from other websites right on the page. No need to keep track of a zillion different tabs. (Add the Price-Blink extension to your web browser.) 

I've had my eye on a KitchenAid mixer for a while. It's for sale for $349.99 on BestBuy.com today. But PriceBlink found it for about $100 less on two other sites. 

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I wasn't kidding when I said these browser extensions are magical.

This article originally published on Yahoo Finance by Mandi Woodruff