So, if you know me at all, you know I love using coupons and saving money. I was especially into it last summer and saved us hundreds of dollars on our grocery bill using the Savvy Shopper and Krazy Coupon Lady sites. I would highly recommend trying this out, especially if you are a stay-at-home mom and would love to do your part to help out with finances (or if you want a little extra shopping money ;o)).

My mom recently introduced me to two sites:

Cardpool

and

Raise

This has seriously been the best discovery for me and I'll tell you why: its taking my money saving to a whole new level. (Do I sound intense or what?)

OK so here's how it works. These two sites offer gift cards at a discounted rate. For instance, I bought a gift card to Michael's from Cardpool at 21% off for yarn for a baby blanket. I then got a 25% off total purchase coupon from Michaels (which includes sale items). So, assuming the yarn was already on sale, I have my 25% off coupon AND I bought a gift card for 21% off, that's 3x the savings!

Yesterday, Jer's Grandma Pendleton offered to buy us our travel system for little Scotty. What a sweetie! Well I had already picked out the one I wanted but I was bound and determined to get the best deal possible. With tax, this lovely lady retails for $257.00. So here's what I did:







1. I had a 15% total purchase coupon to Babies "R" Us so I knew I could get it for about $217 with that.

2. I found a $200 gift card on Raise at 5% off making it $190, I also had a coupon code for $5 off any gift card over $70 from Raise so I ended up paying $185 for a $200 gift card.

3. At checkout, I used the gift card and the coupon (I ended up paying tax on a different gift card) for a grand total of $51 savings!

That's a lot of leftover money for diapers we can now buy for little Scotty! 

I am always getting those coupons in my e-mail for 15-20% off lots of different stores, and Cardpool and Raise have gift cards to most of them! Even at a 5% discount, you are still paying less than what its worth, and when you stack that with a coupon or a sale-or both!- you are saving triple what you would have.

*They also have gift cards to restaurants, clothing stores, movie theaters, etc. Check it out!