Rakuten Review: How I use it Save on Travel

Hola! (I’ve been practicing my Spanish ever since I came back from Mexico).

I actually wrote this post while in Cozumel. Woot, woot!

I recently booked an ALL INCLUSIVE 5-night, vacay for only $551/pp!

It included….

• Flight (roundtrip)

• 5-star hotel (deluxe room, 5-nights): www.parkroyalcozumel.com

• Meals, snacks and room service 24 hours/day

• Drinks (with & without alcohol)

• Transfers to & from the airport & hotel (ferry & cabs)

• Up to $200 resort coupon per room

• Nightly entertainment

• Hotel taxes and gratuities

–

HERE’S HOW:

• The original cost per person: $979.00

• With Groupon: $699/pp

• I used the Rakuten (formerly known as Ebates) to earn 15% cash back. My Rakuten review here: http://thebudgetnistablog.com/2015/cash-back-ebates/

  • How Rakuten works: Once you sign-up for Rakuten here, add the Rakuten button from their site to your browser, that way every time you shop on a site that Rakuten is giving cash back, a box will pop-up with the cash back offer and an activate button. Once you activate the button, if you buy anything on that site, you’ll automatically earn cash back. Rakuten pays 4 times a year via Paypal or via check.

• I used the FREE Honey tool on my computer to find a $100 off coupon. Get it here: joinhoney.com/ref/aaqzgf.

  • How Honey works: Download it to your computer. It works best with the Google Chrome browser. Once it’s downloaded, it will add a button to the top of your browser and when you are about to checkout an item online, if there are coupon codes available online, Honey pops up and asks if you want them to try them. When you say yes, and one of the codes works, you get to save. Yay!

FINAL PRICE: $551.50/per person

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Want my EXACT steps? (the process to me about 45-minutes)

1) I logged into Groupon & clicked the Getaway button at the top of the screen.

2) I chose the destination I wanted to browse. The Choices are in the left-hand column in Groupon on the Getaway page. I picked Mexico, the Caribean & Latin America, but you can choose wherever you want.

3) I browsed the Getaways and identified the trips that had flights out of the airport I travel from, and I identified trips that coincided with the dates I wanted to travel.

4) I narrowed it down to 3 trips, then I began to compare them based upon price, location, and quality of the hotels.

5) I used www.tripadvisor.com, to help me compare hotels.

6) From the 3, I choose the one that best suited my needs: price, location, convenience, hotel

7) I went to Rakuten and typed in Groupon in the search box and this popped up! It meant that Rakuten had a 15% cash back offer on Groupon purchases. Woot Woot! (note: Rakuten cashback offers change regularly)

8) I clicked on the Shop Now button on Rakuten & it brought me back to Groupon. Once there, I found my trip and proceed to purchase it.

9) Then something awesome happened! My Google Chrome extension, Honey popped up! Honey automatically finds and applies coupon codes when you shop online. Honey said it had a number of coupon codes that it could try. I clicked ok & Honey found a $100 special discount coupon code! Wooooooah!

10) My trip went from costing $979.00/per person to $699 with Groupon, then $649 with Honey, then with the Rakuten 15% cash back I save another $97.35 for a grand total of $551.65/ per person!

Aaaaaaand, I brought my The Budgetnista COO, Sierra with me so we could have a workation. That made this trip a tax write off. * insert shoulder shimmy *

NO MORE EXCUSES! You can afford to travel, you just have to find a way. 🙂

[bctt tweet=”Wow! I just learned how to make travel cost waaaay less than you think!” username=”thebudgetnista”]

Live richer,
Tiffany “The Budgetnista”

FYI:

My Lisa Rule: I have 4 sisters and Lisa is the baby (well she’s not a baby anymore). Of all of my sisters I’m the most protective over her. Before I share any product or service with you, it must pass my Lisa Rule.

What’s the Lisa Rule? If I would not advise Lisa to use a product or service, I won’t advise you to. YOU are my Lisa. I feel protective over you and your financial journey.

The products/services mentioned in this post pass my Lisa Rule. Yes, I’m an affiliate, but I would not recommend a product or service that I didn’t believe was helpful and useful.