Internet shopping

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There are lots of ways I've found to spend less on items I buy, or to use my regular shopping as fundraising for charity.

Also see Buying on eBay.

Subscription discounts

Amazon offers a discount when purchasers subscribe to purchase some items regularly. For example, we have an excellent electric toothbrush which has replaceable heads. Every few months we need new heads; we used to buy them at Target, who charges about $25 for a pack of three. Amazon offers them for about $20, but also for $17 if you agree to purchase them every 1-6 months. I chose 6 months, immediately got the discount, and can cancel any time. Amazon reserves the right to increase the cost, but you still get a 15% discount on whatever the future cost is. I don't know yet whether they'll notify me in 6 months about the new shipment, or whether the cost increases. But I can cancel any time.

Information about Amazon's Subscribe and Save: http://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html/ref=hp_left_sib?ie=UTF8&nodeId=200121950

Charity fundraising

There are a few online services that allow purchasers to click through their site to an online retailer so that the retailer gives a portion of their profits on the sale to a charity of the purchaser's choice. I usually use GoodShop. It tells me what percentage to expect to be donated, and sends me to the store's web site. I make purchases for the same price as normal, and the store uses information provided from GoodShop to send them the percentage, which GoodShop gives to my chosen charity at the end of each fiscal year. Anyone can use it without registering, or can register to track donations.

I think many people don't use GoodShop because they don't fully understand that they can buy things and give to charity with the same dollar, so they continue to pay charities separately from purchasing items. It's also quite possible that people don't want the inconvenience of having to remember to click through GoodShop before the retailer's site. GoodShop recognizes this issue and has offered users a browser-toolbar that automatically recognizes participating retailers and gives the site the necessary information to make the donation. I've installed the toolbar in Firefox, so whenever I make purchases in Firefox I know, if there is an agreement between GoodShop and the retailer, that the retailer will make the donation without me having to do anything. Sometimes I zip onto Safari and forget to click through, I make a purchase, and then kick myself for forgetting.

EnergyTeachers.org has made a couple hundred dollars just from a few of us using GoodShop to fundraise for it. All you have to do to join us is to click on this link once: http://goodshop.com/?charityid=842402 Anytime you want, you can change to whatever charity you like.

GoodShop explained

Without
GoodShop
With
GoodShop
You pay $50 $50
Retailer gets $50 $48
Charity gets $0 $2

Amazon Smile

Amazon gives about 0.5% of your transactions to a charity of your choice if you use their smile link. There is no extra cost to you—It comes out of Amazon's take. Here's the link to donate to EnergyTeachers.org: https://smile.amazon.com/ch/30-0285917