The Deal
The Living Social Deal includes:
- 1-year Gold Star membership ($55 normally)
- $20 Costco Cash card
- $29.47 in food voucher and coupons (free Kirkland Signature™ 48-pack of AA batteries, a free rotisserie chicken, a free Kirkland Signature™ case of water, $4 off Kirkland Signature™ coffee, and $4 off Kirkland Signature albacore tuna.)
It's only valid for new members and not to renew an existing membership.
How Can you Save More on this Deal?
You can save an additional $5.50 by using code USA10 when checking out at Living Social. That's a pretty good deal if you were going to get a Costco Membership anyway. If you'd like to save a bit more and learn how to save a percentage off many of your future online purchases read further.
You can save an additional 6% on this and any other Living Social deal by using Ebates (sign-up here). With Ebates, you simply sign up and then search for the site(Living Social in this case) you're about to purchase something on, click that store's Ebates link, and you'll receive a percentage back on that deal. This amount can be disbursed via check or Paypal after 90 days.
So for the above deal, assuming you use the promo code and Ebates, you'll get your Costco membership, a $20 Costco Card, the voucher and coupons for $49.50 up front and you'll earn ~$3 in cash from Ebates that you can redeem in a few months, or effectively $46.50.
Tools for Saving on Future Online Shopping: Evreward and Retailmenot
A good tool for anybody shopping online and willing to use an online rebate program like Ebates is the site evreward.com. Simply visit it before purchasing something online, search evreward for the shopping site you're using (e.g. Target.com) and it'll let you know the best online rebate offerings for that site. You then click the program you'd like to use (it was Ebates for Living Social but the highest % back often varies among Ebates, Mr. Rebates, Big Crumbs, FatWallet, or another program), click a rebate program's link for your store, and make your purchase. While signing up may take you 5 minutes, clicking the link before you make a purchase should take 10 seconds every time you make a purchase and likely save you a few bucks each time.
Another helpful site when shopping online is RetailMeNot.com. I found the Living Social promo code on Ebates's Living Social store page, but I usually check RetailMeNot for coupons when shopping online. I've also found coupons for in store purchases and even for amusement park tickets via RetailMeNot. (As an aside RetailMeNot is a big business and worth nearly $2 billion as a company).
Finally, you can also save a bit more by maximizing your credit card cash back. See my past posts on credit cards to see how when used responsibly, credit cards can earn you up to 2% off all your purchases and potentially more on certain categories.
If you have any questions or suggestions, please comment below or contact me!
