Finding the Best Deals When Buying for Your Reno

When we started this whole reno deal, I knew there were certain things we couldn't save on like the cost of the countertop.  Unfortunately, the place we went through actually had a minimum we had to meet for them to even do our vanity counter and we had to fork over $50 for nothing just to meet said minimum.  (We ended up getting it back when they whacked a huge scratch in our chair rail so I at least feel a little better about that.)

What I knew we COULD save on were things we got online like lighting.  Many people will see a light they like and add to cart no questions asked.  Not moi.  For example, here is our new vanity light:

(Minka Lavery Brushed Nickel 4 Light Vanity Light)

I think I originally found it on Lighting Direct.com and everywhere it was $293.90.  I felt compelled to click on every place that carried it and when I did, I saw on my second to the last click, Build.com was having a 15% off sale at the time.  I didn't expect it to qualify but it did!  So I got it for $249 and free shipping.  Actually, before I bought through Build.com, I went to Ebates.com  (affiliate link) to see if Build.com was on there and they were.  They gave 2% cash back which was another $5 in my pocket bringing my total to $244 for an almost $300 vanity light.

I did the same thing for our kitchen light that we just got yesterday.  The Mr and I scrolled through thousands of lights.  I'm not exaggerating.  It was three full days before we settled on two and as he talked about how the one looked like the robot head from Lost In Space, that basically sealed it for the other one.

(via 1StopLighting.com)

We currently have a 120W boob light in the kitchen and it's like a friggin' cave in there.  While we were entertaining the idea of adding can lighting in there, I should thank the contractor for pissing me off and we never pursued it.  So I found that bad boy on Wayfair and Overstock for $344 and we just weren't ready to shell out over $300 for a single kitchen light.  (Even though we probably would've spent double that for can lights, go figure.)

So I put the name of the light into Google and had their shopping do some comparison pricing and I saw several other outlets sold it for the same price.  I went on Ebates  (affiliate link) and saw of the people listed who participated and who had the most cash back.  That was 1StopLighting.com with 7.5% back.  That would make it $318.  Still not thrilled it was over $300 but close enough.  When I opened my Ebates shopping trip, a big banner popped up that said: "Welcome Ebates customers, you get 20% off!"  Hot diggity damn!  That would make it $275 which was under our thresh hold and something we could get excited about!  When I clicked on our light and the finish, the coupon changed to a 25% off coupon!!  If you do the math, we're getting it for $258!!!

(*bubbling with confetti inside*)

Then an hour after I ordered, I got my Ebates email that told me we got $19.35 back from the 7.5% cash back which makes the light $238.65!!!!

We saved $105.35 by taking an extra few minutes, literally four minutes, to do a little research instead of just assuming we couldn't do any better.  I think $105.35 is WAY better in our pocket than someone else's!

What money saving tips do you have to pass along?  We all can use every cent!

(This post contains an affiliate link and I may make a small commission should you purchase if you sign up for Ebates.  Ebates is free and they do not sell your information as posted in their TOS and you get the opportunity for tons of cash back for shopping you would've done anyway.)

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