In Part 1 & 2 we covered shopping for sales and using coupons and coupon codes. These are the two easiest and effective ways to get a good deal. Now we turn to the wonder of the Internet.

There are many rewards programs out there where members receive points or dollars back as a reward for shopping through that site. For example, I want to purchase a tv from Target. Instead of going down to my local Target I decide to purchase the TV online and then pick it up at the local store. Instead of going to directly to the site I go through a reward program site. The reward program gives me a percentage back in the form of gift cards, travel points, cash, etc. and I still pay the same price for the television.

Now think about what would happen if we employed steps one and two to this example. Lets say the TV you want is $1,000 and on sale for 15% off (making it $850). On top of that you saw on one of my Wednesday deal posts that you could get 10% off with coupon code BJ6KQJLI. This will usually come off the sale price so now the TV is $765 (nothing to sneeze at). One of the rewards sites I use will give you 6% back (we will talk about those in a little bit) when you purchase from target through their site. Finally the TV ends up costing you $719.10. That is a total of 28.1% off the regular price and since you pick it up in the store there are no shipping charges.

So now where do we find these rewards programs. Here are my top four:

1. Baby Mint — This is my favorite of the rewards programs barely edging out my second place program. It has great payouts and you can have the money sent to you as a check, deposited into a 529 plan for college savings, or have them payed directly onto your student loans.

2. Ebates — Is a close second. The payouts are a little easier since it can be deposited to your paypal account and some of the rewards are better than on Baby Mint but not at the stores I shop at the most.

3. MyPoints — My points is great because you also receive bonus point emails. This means you can build up points for free. The rewards are not as high as the other two unless you are signing up for a service with recurring payments. I use This one mostly for the free point but it has a few merchants the other two do not.

4. Bond Rewards — I use to think this one would be a bread and butter rewards site but then I realized they pay you in the face value of the savings bonds. This means to get the actual payout you have to cut what they are giving you in half (since a $50 savings bond is only worth $25 when you cash it out immediately). They do have some merchants not on the other three but this one is my last resort.

I hope this helps you save some extra cash on your every day purchases as well as big ticket items. Tomorrow we will discuss the final phase of the Quadruple Dip Savings strategy.