Kids Ain't Cheap

But They Sure Are Worth It

My Paribus Review: Is Paribus Receipt Fetcher the Next Money-Maker for Your Family?

| Leave a Comment

Paribus reviewAccording to a Pew Research Center survey, 79 percent of Americans made online purchases in 2016. Fifty-one percent purchased something on their cell phones. Parents make up a massive percentage of those shoppers, so that’s why I’ve put together this Paribus review. It’s here to help you find ways to earn cash back on those online purchases this year.

My Paribus Review: Is Paribus Right for Your Family?

If you’re handy with your smartphone, you probably already use money-saving apps like RetailMeNot, Swagbucks, or Walmart’s Savings Catcher, but there’s a new kid in town called Paribus, and it’s different than any other app you’ve tried.

What Is Paribus?

Paribus is an app available to all Apple devices and is free to download. Every time you shop online, Paribus automatically scans your digital receipt to see if there are purchases eligible for cash back over the subsequent weeks.

For example, let’s say you bought your son a $60 LEGO kit at Walmart.com for his birthday last week, but you’ve just noticed the price dropped to $40! Paribus automatically contacts Walmart to find out if you can get that $20 refunded. If they agree, then you get 100% of that refund!

Not bad for doing basically nothing, right?

What Are the Benefits and Drawbacks to Using Paribus?

It goes with the territory that every new product has its pros and cons. Your days are filled with tending to kids, running your household, and keeping your head on straight. My job is to help you make an informed decision about products that may or may not benefit your family as honestly as I can.

Therefore, here are the benefits and drawbacks I observed when using Paribus.

BENEFITS

It’s free. From the moment you download the app to your first cash back alert, there are no charges or hidden fees. Although, you do have to spend money shopping online, obviously! 

It could be great for the holidays. Last Christmas, I asked a group of moms to share their favorite way to go Christmas shopping and the majority answered, “Online.” If you rack up most of your holiday spending money with online retailers then you could be in for some cash back on some of those purchases.

DRAWBACKS

You have to share quite a bit of private information with Paribus. Like I said earlier, I want to be totally honest in this review, so I need to share one drawback that gave me considerate pause at first. Paribus will have authority to read, send, delete, and manage your email. They also request your Amazon login and password, as well as your credit card information.

I worked for years in fraud prevention at a financial institution, so those were automatic red flags to me. I dug in and researched user experiences since the app’s inception in 2014. Despite the scary amount of personal information, I did not read one report of fraudulent activity or compromised information from users.

IMG_0231 (2)

I’m just reviewing this product as a consumer and don’t have authority to ensure this software is secure, but you can hear directly from Paribus and learn more details about how they handle our information via this CNBC report.

Watch out for hiccups. I experienced a technical bug when I tried to sync my Amazon account with Paribus. Upon further research, I discovered several other complaints about technical hiccups like that. I’m sure they’re updating and ironing out bumps all the time, but just be aware that those may cause some delays.

Not every purchase or store is eligible. A number of users complained that Paribus only pays back on eligible stores and purchases, so their cash back wasn’t as much as they hoped. Considering your family’s needs over the course of this year, you may want to evaluate where you’ll be shopping for them and how often. Paribus updates the list of eligible retailers regularly.

Paribus Review – Final ThoughtsIMG_0235

The million dollar question is this: Did I actually get cash back using Paribus? 

Not yet. I believe the reason is because I shop infrequently online and have only just started using Paribus.

Paribus is a free app that requires minimal upkeep, so if your alright with the parameters discussed throughout this article and you already shop online regularly, then it’s likely this app will make you some money. If you don’t shop a lot until Christmas, then it may still be helpful. If you just don’t shop a lot, ever, then you may not hear much chatter from Paribus.

Are money-saving apps like Paribus a wise replacement for good financial habits? Not at all. We use terms like “personal finance” and “financial living” because you must live out certain principles in order to succeed. Laying a foundation with things like budgeting, saving, and spending less than you make are far and away more important than using the right gadget or app. Are apps still helpful? Yes. But don’t let them tempt you to spend more than you intended to and wreck your foundation.

The Sign-Up Process

The following four steps taken directly from Paribus’ sign-up page will help you get started:

Paribus I

In other words:

Where are some of your favorite online stores when you’re shopping for your family? Share one below!

This post was sponsored by Paribus. 

P.S. Are you a stay-at-home mom? Make sure you bookmark or pin some of these resources for later!

How Does Giving Assistant Work?

| Leave a Comment

giving assistantI think we can all agree that shopping online is the bees’ knees, right? Not only are online prices super competitive, the “work” of shopping can often be done faster from home. And bonus; the items you buy are delivered right to your front door. As an added benefit, companies like Giving Assistant are actually paying customers to shop online.

That’s right. They give you cash back on the things you buy.

How Giving Assistant Works

The first step is to create a free account with Giving Assistant.

giving assistant II

After you log in to your account, you can start shopping either by store or by category. Each store offers a certain percentage of cash back on purchases. Five percent is the average discount percentage. However, many stores offer discounts of up to 7% and even more, depending on the day.

When you make a purchase, the store pays that cash back to Giving Assistant. If you’re a member, the cash back goes right into your account.

If you’re a non-member, Giving Assistant keeps the cash back and donates a meal to Feeding America. In fact, Giving Assistant donates a meal to Feeding America for every single qualified purchase.

As a bonus, Giving Assistant informs buyers of any online coupons that can help bring their purchase price even lower. When you combine coupons with cash back bonuses you save even more money on the things you buy.

How to Receive Your Cash Back Bonuses

As you accumulate cash back rewards, the site allows you to transfer those rewards to a debit card through Paypal. You’ll have the option to transfer your money once you’ve earned at least $5.01 in bonus cash. No waiting for checks to come in the mail or trying to reach high minimum payout balances.

Giving Assistant pays out pretty quickly as well – often within one business day when using Paypal’s secure site.

Giving to Charity through Giving Assistant

When members earn cash back, they also have the option of donating some or all of their earnings to charity. Members can choose from hundreds of non-profit organizations to donate to, such as Feed the Children or the Red Cross.

Which Stores Participate?

According to their website, Giving Assistant has over 2700 stores participating in its cash back program. Some examples are:giving assistant I

  • Big box stores such as Walmart, Target, Kmart and Kohls
  • Online retailers such as Amazon and Coburn’s
  • Specialty sites such as Etsy, Redbubble, Café Press and Ebay
  • Specialty stores such as Macy’s, Nordstrom, Coach and Ann Taylor

 

With nearly 3,000 stores to choose from, everyone is bound to find a shopping venue that fits their needs.

In this day and age, people are becoming more mindful of how their purchases affect the world as a whole. With Giving Assistant, shoppers can become a part of a growing conscious capitalism movement.

By combining shopping with charity, you meet your needs and help the less fortunate get their needs met, too.  Shopping responsibly has arrived.

Are you a fan of shopping online? Would you ever try Giving Assistant? Share why or why not below!

ATTN Stay-At-Home Moms: Make sure you bookmark or pin some of these resources for later!

Online Coupons ~ Spend Less and Get More

| Leave a Comment

I have talked a lot about couponing lately but most of those posts have centered around using coupons in stores — and not really about getting great deals online. While I do try really hard to do the majority of my shopping locally, there are many times when buying online is just so much easier and in some cases, less expensive. Plus, there are many instances when buying online is the only way to find exactly what you are looking for.

One of the great things about shopping online is you can quickly compare prices between several stores. This can help you save a lot of money. Another great thing is that from time to time these online store offer coupon codes. COUPONS — yippee! These codes are usually good for free shipping, a percentage or certain dollar amount off an order and sometimes (if you are super lucky) you can find coupon codes that make items free — or almost free once you add shipping.

How to Find Coupon Codes

So how does one find these elusive coupon codes? It’s actually pretty simple. First of all, here at Kids Ain’t Cheap we have a Family Coupon Code Directory. There you will find many codes to help you save money on everything from baby furniture to audio downloads. Check it often because we get new codes all the time.

Search Engines

Another thing you can do is to do a search for: (your favorite store) coupons before placing an order.

Here’s an example, I was looking for a certain iPhone cover for a friend’s birthday. He wanted his alma mater’s logo and I had no idea where to find such a thing. I first searched for iPhone covers with his former university’s name. The company Coveroo.com came up and had exactly what I was looking for. The price seemed comparable to other covers I had seen — but I wanted to see if I might be able to save just a little bit more more money. On the home page of the site was 20% my order with xyz coupon code. SWEET! I still decided to look via my favorite search engine to see if it might turn up an even better coupon. Guess what — it did! So not only was I able to save 20% I also got free shipping. I was so please that when I was asked if I wanted to include personalization on the cover (my husband’s name) I said, “Heck yes I do!” So I got more that I had anticipated and still ended up spending less than I thought I would.

There are a lot of other ways to find coupon codes as well. If you love a certain brand, item, store, etc. sign up for their newsletters. It is a good idea to have a separate email account that you have these types of emails set to that way your personal email account does get overloaded.

Facebook

Also, if you “like” certain pages on Facebook you can sometimes get printable coupons or coupon codes periodically. I have been waiting for a Petco coupon for while and haven’t seen any come through. My dog’s food is kind of spendy (but she’s so worth it!), so I try to stock-up when I find coupons for the food, which are extremely hard to come by. However, in my news feed on Facebook the other day there it was a coupon code! If I hadn’t “liked” their page I wouldn’t have seen it. If you are on twitter you can also follow certain brands and stores and some of them will periodically post special offers and coupon codes as well.

Coupon blogs

I have also talked a lot about following coupon blogs. These folks will also post details about online deals as well. This can come is especially handy with the holidays just around the corner!!! Speaking of the holidays shopping online can save you a trip to the post office and many online retailers offer free shipping during this time of year to entice you to buy from them.

So what are some of your favorite ways to save online?