bingLogoUnless you’ve been living under a rock, you’ve probably heard about Bing.com.  Being familiar with it, however, isn’t enough, because if you’re not utilizling its cashback program, you’re wasting money!  Thus, today I’m going to give a little introduction to Bing, as well as a real life example of  one way I recently saved money using it.

Bing.com

Bing has been around since June 1st of this year.  Before that, it was Live.com, which was rebranded due to its lack of success.  It is a search engine like Google and Yahoo, but with the added benefit of earning cashback.  When you search for a certain items, an icon (see below) will appear next to participating merchants, including the percentage you can earn.

tinycoin

 

To earn cashback from Bing you must have a paypal account and sign up at their main page, both of which are quick and easy to do.  Before recently, you could use Bing 12 times/year on any given account, but they recently changed that to 20 times per email account.  Thus, if you want to use it more (like I will), you will have to register another email account every time you use your given 20. 

I realize my description of the program is a little vague, but I am just trying to break it down and make it simple for you to get started.  If you still have questions, post them below or read the “FAQ” section of your account.

Just this week, I used Bing to earn cashback on a purchase I made on eBay.  Given that I don’t advocate blowing your cash, you might be wondering why I would be so excited about a shopping tool.  However, as you will see in this example, I use it to save money at places I purchase everyday items.  Hopefully, you will be convinced to give it a try, because it has already saved me a few hundred dollars this year alone.

Bing in action

My most recent use of Bing was at eBay for a $500 Wal-Mart gift card.  Bing works on eBay only if you use the “Buy it now” option, so I had to do some searching for the right opportunity.  Thus, I started by going to Bing.com, signing in, and searching for “wii” which brought up a hit for Ebay with a 10% cashback icon.  Once the icon popped up, I clicked on it and went to eBay’s main page.

Unfortunately, it took me a few tries to find a gift card worthy purchasing.  Eventually though,  I found a powerseller who was selling a $500 Wal-Mart gift card for $510 with free shipping.  Before I clicked the button, however, I logged into my Mr. Rebates account to “double dip” for another 3% back.  After that was finished, I finalized the purchased through paypal and closed the window.  That’s all it took!

Like I said, I use Bing to save money on the things I already buy, and since I spend about $100-$200 at Wal-Mart/month, this discounted card will allow me to save a pretty penny over the next few months.  Below is breakdown of how I combined Bing with other cashback opportunites to get the most out of my purchase:

$510 (purchasing price) – $51.00 (10% Bing) – $15.30 (3% Mr. Rebates) – $5.10 (1% Chase Freedom) = $438.60

As you can see, I got a $500 Wal-Mart gift card for only $438.60!  That will equal over a weeks worth of free groceries by the time I spend it all!

Final thoughts

In the end, saving $61.40 won’t change my life; however, little things add up.  If I end up doing this a few more times by the end of the year, I will have potentially saved a couple hundred dollars!  That’s just one step for me in saving myself thousands of dollars on the stuff I already buy over the course of this year.

If you don’t end up using Bing (I don’t see any reason why you should not?), at least take home the lesson that you can alway find new ways to save money.  Thinking outside of the box and acting upon a savings strategyis what seperates us from America’s indebted.   Remember, your laziness and lack of initiative will cost you money, so register for Bing now, double/triple dip with other programs, and start saving money!