Irregular paychecks mean that I am incredibly aware of all of my income and expenses. I am careful with my budgeting and try to follow a frugal living lifestyle. I love finding little ways of saving money here and there, so I use Rakuten for easy cash back on most purchases.
Rakuten is great, because it offers cash back on purchases that you would make anyways. If you install the browser extension, it’ll remind you to activate your “Shopping Trip” when you visit a website and how much cash back you’ll receive. I use Rakuten for all my online shopping, including pet supplies, rental cars, hotel reservations, and toiletries.
Additionally, if you link your credit card to your account, you can get in-store cash back for some places as well.
Rakuten is super easy to use, and automatically pays you to PayPal every 3 months. No need to remember to redeem!
If, for whatever reason, you didn’t get the expected cash back added to your account, you just fill in a quick form online with your order details and Rakuten takes care of it almost immediately. It’s easy and seamless, which is a huge up-side.
If you use my Rakuten link, both you and I receive $30 for signing up and making a qualifying $30 purchase within 90 days. This is super easy if you were already going to order something online.
Another app and browser extension that I have installed is Ibotta. I like this one less, but it’s great to have this in conjunction with Rakuten so that I know I’m pretty much always getting cash back with any purchase. If Rakuten doesn’t offer cash back somewhere, then Ibotta might. Sign up Ibotta using my referral code “cvrqdah” for an extra $10!
Check out my other posts on money, frugal living, and saving for retirement as a nomad with an erratic paycheck!