Buy Gifts Online and Donate to Charity at the Same Time!

So I'm betting most of you do a lot of shopping online. For the last several years, I've done about half of my Christmas shopping online. I think the second year I Christmas shopped online, I did about 80% of my shopping online, a la eBay. That was fun! As the years go by, I've found myself shopping online for that special something more and more and hitting the brick and mortar stores less and less. Three big reasons for this - price, convenience, and the ability to give back to charities I support.

Over the years, I've picked up a few things. First off...

Sign up at iGive if you're doing ANY shopping online because they run a fantastic program that donates anywhere from 0.5-26% of your purchase amount to the charity of your choice - for over 600 online stores. You have to visit their site and click through the link to the store of your choice, but it only takes a few seconds and those donations add up fast! AND, you're not spending any extra money nor do you get spammed to death If you don't have any strong charity loves, you're more than welcome to donate to the Barron County Humane Society or Greyhound Pets of America - Minnesota (and yes, there are thousands of other charities available, those are just the two places my accounts are set to donate to).

Okay, so you were looking for something that maybe saves you a little money then? Well, if you're buying books, your first stop should be AddAll You can search for books by title, author, ISBN, whatever and it will search 30+ online stores that sell books (including the popular amazon.com, Barnes & Noble, etc. etc) and give you a list of where you can find that book the cheapest. If you put in your zip code, it even figures in shipping for the comparison. Every single textbook I've purchased and 90% of all the "reading for pleasure / gift" books I've purchased in the last several years have been searched through this site and I've literally saved hundreds of dollars. Amazon.com is definitely NOT always the cheapest place!

My third shopping secret is Got Apex. GotApex is a GREAT site for technology deals ESPECIALLY if you're in the market for a computer. They basically scour the internet looking for excellent sales and have access to coupon codes that are hard to come by. Other than computers, they often post great deals (they just point you to the sales and deals from legitimate companies - such as Dell; they don't actually sell the stuff themselves) on digital cameras (often cameras that retail for around $300 are featured on the site for for like $175 after coupons), bedding, and many other things. Not only have I purchased (or helped others purchase) many computer through this site, I've also gotten a $99 cordless keyboard/mouse set for around $35, software for cheap, and several other items. AND, if you do end up buying through them, remember you can still click through iGive to make those donations!

If your present recipients aren't into computers or books, how about a good magazine subscription?? Best Deal Magazines is God's gift to magazine readers. Most all subscription on their site range from $4.50 to $10. In the last few years, I've subscribed or given gift subscriptions for Rolling Stone, Self, Women's Day, Redbook, Cats & Kittens, Glamour, Good Housekeeping, PC Gamer, and many many other magazines any never paid more than $6 for a year subscription. You could subscribe to a magazine that normally costs $14-$18 a year for a mere $4. How cool is that?! And like I said, they DO do gift subscriptions. This IS something you'd want to plan for well in advance because like with any sort of new subscription, it takes a while for the receipient to start getting magazines, but it's nothing abnormally long. Best Deal Magazines is one of those things that definitely seems to be "too good to be true" but I've been doing business with them for four years now and I've never been disappointed! See the article I wrote about Best Deal Magazines here

Lastly, eBay has always been a great place for gifts. A lot of people hear eBay and assumed it's like buying presents at a garage sale - "Who gives used crap as a gift?" What many people don't know is that a HUGE percentage of stuff sold on eBay is brand new, new in the box, new with tags, never used, never sold, never so much as touched other than to manipulate in front of the camera. The thing I love about buying gifts on eBay is that the selection is never ending. I've purchased everything from impossible to find CDs to Dough Boy keychains on eBay. It definitely opens up the door to give your loved ones a truly UNIQUE gift that totally fits their personality and you'll have them begging to know where you got it since it's not something they've ever seen at the local Wal=mart. But don't worry, your secret is safe with me!

So if you're looking to buy any sort of geeky gifts for yourself or for loved ones, keep these tips in mind. If you're not a reader/techno geek, iGive is still a very good option for you to donate to charity while spending nothing extra!! And they will give to the charity of your choice for your eBay purchases. So save some money and feel warm and squishy for giving money to charity, all at once! What could be better than that?

Happy Gifting!