Rebating 101.....Finding Extra Money for Your Budget

One way to make some extra cash is to send away for Rebates or Refunds.
Manufacturers will offer incentives to get you to try or use their products or refund your money if you are not satisfied with their products.
There are various forms these incentives can take.

The best rebates IMHO are for cash.  The company will offer you money back for buying their products.
Many times when there is a new product on the market, the company will offer anywhere from a Full Price Refund to a set amount back for trying their merchandise.

Then there are gift card or gift certificate/check rebates.  By buying a certain product, you can get a gift card in some amount either in the form of a card, certificate or check for a specific store or one that is usable at any store(like a prepaid Visa card).

Then there are the coupon rebates.  By buying certain product(s), you can get coupons in some denomination for either more of that product or for other products that the manufacturer also sells.  Usually these coupons are of higher value than the usual ones you find in the coupon inserts or online as printables.

While most rebates on food or toiletries are for a few dollars or less, over the course of a year, they can add up to a nice little pile of $$ and free or inexpensive merchandise.

I only began rebating last year in earnest and didn't even really get rolling with it until April and I ended 2009 receiving back $1,726.64 in cash & $571.87 in gift cards/check/certificates.  That's a total of $2,298.51 in cash and gift cards.  And that doesn't even count the free products or money-off coupons I received!

There are some expenses associated with Rebating though.

Basically, stamps, envelopes and for me, ink and paper, folders and a blank journal.  The stamps and envelopes cost me just under $38 for the year.  The paper and ink approx. $50(strictly for rebating purposes, not the cost for printing coupons online) and the folders and journal another $2.  With an expense total of under $100 I figure without including my free item and other coupons received, I still 'made' almost $2,200 on rebating last year in my spare/free time.

The "KEY" to successful Rebating is the stay organized!  Anyone who rebates has their own system that works for them.  From computerized logs to spreadsheets to a checklist on the back of a paperbag, you just need to find a system that works for you and to stick to it.

My system is pretty low-tech but it keeps me organized.

I keep a rebating book and 2 rebating folders--one marked "Forms", one marked "Sent".
Other supplies needed are envelopes, pens and stamps, printer paper and ink.

There are 3 main places to find Rebate Forms--
1.in the newspaper/magazines or Sunday coupon inserts
2.on tearpads in stores
3. online

Alot of the forms found both in the print media and on tearpads can also be found online, so I spend a bit of time each week, searching online for rebate forms to print off.  And when I happen upon a blog that mentions an online rebate I check it out and print it out if I think I want to apply for that rebate.

When you find a rebate you want to apply for.....
Get any form and instructions.
Put this into your Rebating folder marked "FORMS".

As I buy items that have a rebate on them, I'll throw the receipt for that item into my "FORMS" folder too.
If the rebate requires you to send a UPC or some other 'qualifier' from the packaging I'll cut that out right away and tuck it into the FORMS folder too.

When I am ready to send away for the rebate(when I have all the items the rebate provider wants you to send to them), I take the rebate form out and read what they require you to send other than the form.  Most will want the receipt for the purchase or a copy of the receipt...that will already be in my folder with the rebate form.
Some will want the UPC from the package or the UPC number off the package.  Go copy down or cut these off the product(s).

Now take a business size envelope and after you gather all the items the company wants you to send along with the rebate form, put them all into the envelope.
Address & stamp the envelope.

Before you seal the envelope make a COPY off all materials you are sending!
This is for your records.  In case there is a problem with your submission, you have proof of what you sent.
Put this Photocopy into your other Rebating Folder marked "SENT".

Besides this folder of copies of submissions, I keep a Rebate Book.
It's just a blank journal I found at a garage sale.

Since the one from 2009 is full, I had to drag out a new one.....like it?

The first page of each month gets a Header of "X MONTH REBATES".

When I am ready to send out a rebate envelope I mark down the date, the Rebate Name and address it goes to.  Below that I put what the rebate amount is and the form(check/certificate/coupons/etc.) and since I have multiple people I rebate for, on the end of that line I put initials telling me whom the rebate was sent from.
Then I wait for the Rebate incentive to arrive.

When something does come in I put a check mark next to the submission information in the book, so I can see at a glance what rebates I am still waiting on. 

There is one more thing to do in the Rebate Book.....
What I do is take my book and find the page that's 2/3 of the way through the pages.  If the book has 100 pages, I open it to the 67th page.  I bend that page down in a triangular fold.  This makes it easier to find this section in my book.  You could also but a bookmark or attach a tab of some sort instead.
This section is to list the Rebates as they come in so I know what is received and when it is received.
Here is the page for MARCH....

When a rebate comes in, I put the date it arrived, who it is from, what it was for and if it was sent to a different address than mine, the initials of whom it was sent to.
For example....

 3/6   Olay-2 Cleansers   $15 ck(=check)   *no initials here means it was sent to me*


Once a rebate check/coupon comes in and the information is marked off in the Rebate Book, I can go into my SENT Folder where the copy of the submission information is and throw away the copy, as I no longer need it.

At the end of each month I add up all the cash rebates,  all the free item rebates(these usually come in the form of coupons) and all the not-free-items coupon rebates for the month so I can post the totals for the month.

The one piece of advise once you get a system worked out for yourself is this....
**Check your Rebate Form Folder every week!**

If you don't make yourself check weekly, you may miss a deadline for submitting a rebate.  There is nothing worse than having a system and going to all the trouble of buying something, saving the receipt/the UPC/etc. and then letting the deadline pass by and not submitting your information in time to get your money back!
It has happened to me enough that I make myself take 10 minutes a week to check the folder and get the forms filled out and mailed.

So do you rebate?
Do you have a system that works for you?
Leave a comment and let us know about it!
Do you want to start rebating?
Do you have any questions about it that I haven't covered?
Leave a comment and between me and any other readers, we can try to help you out.

Sluggy