The holiday season is upon us, and Black Friday shopping is just a few days away. Before you go and spend all of the money you have budgeted for holiday gifts this year, take a few seconds to learn how to make money holiday shopping. That’s right, you can actually MAKE money holiday shopping. Obviously, you aren’t going to get rich off of these tips, but you can make enough money to buy yourself that Black Friday deal you just can’t bear to pass up. And that, my friends, is well worth the few extra minutes these tips will take.

(Not surprisingly, this post does contain affiliate links. When you sign up for any of these programs through my links, I earn a very small commission. I use all three of these in my personal shopping and have earned more than $20 with each one… and would earn more if I used them more consistently.)

How to Make Money Holiday Shopping with Ebates

Ebates is my favorite way to make money while shopping. Just start at Ebates.com when doing your holiday shopping, and you will earn a percentage of your purchase back (I’ve seen as high as 15% during the holiday season). Because this is a rebate, it’s in addition to any coupon and promo codes you use (and Ebates will actually make recommendations to save you money). To really maximize your earnings, install the Ebates extension for your browser so you will be reminded to earn money with each purchase. I’m always forgetting to take advantage of Ebates, so when I learned about the extension, I jumped on it. I just ended up earning an unexpected 6% back on a Groupon purchase the other day. Groupon is already ridiculously cheap and I used a coupon code so I didn’t even think about Ebates. Turns out that my computer is more of a frugal living ninja than I am…

How to Make Money Holiday Shopping with Ibotta

If you are doing your holiday shopping in-store rather than online, Ibotta should be your rebate app of choice. I’ve talked about Ibotta before, but they are good for a lot more than saving money on groceries. There are numerous spend and earn rebates. For example, right now, you can earn $10 when you spend $50 at Sephora. All you have to do is upload a picture of your receipt. The money can be redeemed to your Paypal account. Easy as that. In addition to spend and earn rebates, there are individual rebates for countless items at hundreds of retailers. Plus, there are bonuses you can earn for purchasing multiple items of the same brand or meeting other challenges.

How to Make Money Holiday Shopping with Shopkick

Shopkick is a unique app that combines a scavenger hunt with free gift cards. You earn kicks (points) for walking into your favorite stores and scanning items. You don’t have to purchase anything to get kicks. On an average day, most stores will only have 50-500 kicks available, so you aren’t going to quit your day job off of the earnings. BUT on Black Friday, Shopkick has been known to pull out all the stops. Two years ago, my husband and I both earned enough kicks for $20 in giftcards in less than an hour at Target. We didn’t spend a penny, and walked out with $40 to put towards our DSLR camera (my fancy camera of choice – when I’m not lazily using my iPhone).

Don’t forget to download my free Gift-Planning printable to help organize your holiday shopping.

Do you have any other tips and tricks to make money holiday shopping? Comment below.