

If you want to shop all season like Ivanka Trump, but maintain an account in the black, then there are seven exciting methods for getting paid to do what you enjoy. By shopping wisely, you can be paid for your time, compensated for your goods, and sometimes, given cash back.

This Christmas season, ignore the recession, and get yourself everything you want. With money saving tips, and tricks for getting paid to purchase, you can finish shopping with even more money than you initially had!

7. Become a Mystery Shopper

SAVINGS: 100%

Mystery shoppers have the unique opportunity to shop all day, and return home with precisely the same amount of money in their accounts. This is made possible by using the various credit cards, rebates, and free coupons, which are provided to mystery shoppers so that they can pretend to be a customer, and rate customer service.

Guess which one is the mystery shopper.

What could be more fun than shopping ‘til you drop, and still having enough funds to get a cappuccino afterwards? Being a mystery shopper is also a great way to improve customer service in your area, through constructive feedback and consistent monitoring.

6. Mail-In Rebates

SAVINGS: From 25% to 100%

Smart shoppers know that if an item isn’t on sale, it will be soon enough. If you need electronics, vehicles, or currently popular items, just wait; they go on sale so that the company can move them before they’re old news.

With rebates, not only do you benefit from sales, but you also get re-paid for having shopped. So, just a few weeks after acquiring an item, your cash finds its way home.

5. Market America’s MA Cash Back Program

SAVINGS: Up to 35% Cash Back

The Hogans are paid to love Market America, and they’ll pay you to love them, too.

Market America has made a splash on Ocean Drive for its lavish, celebrity-filled parties, which are known for paying off guests with great gifts. Although it is desperate, their willingness to pay-off guests will work to your advantage: for shopping and buying items on Market America, you will get your cash back!

Stormy Daniels; another Market America sellout.

Getting up to 35% cash back on every purchase is like getting a sale price on everything, but better. With a simple registration process, users will get paid to shop, which is a bit like getting swag.

4. Become a Personal Shopper

SAVINGS: 100%

A personal shopper on Friends, she now has three personal shoppers of her own.

For those who simply love to touch textiles, watch the newest fashions being folded into heavy tissue paper, and read voraciously about upcoming trends, becoming a personal shopper is one way to stay out of the red. While it would be difficult to buy succulent leather, thick silks, and diamonds too gaudy to wear before fifty, and then have to give them away, getting to shop would at least curb your appetite for new things and transactions.

Unlike in Pretty Woman, personal shoppers do not ask your profession.

Personal shoppers are well-paid for the time they spend searching, and buying goods for others, and, they sometimes get to keep items that don’t work out, as well as once-worn apparel. What could be better than getting the rush of the sale, without the end-of-month wakeup call from Capital One?

3. American Express Cash Back

SAVINGS: Up to 5%

If you are going to spend, then American Express is the highest-rated cash back credit card program currently available, according to multiple sources. With no annual fee, and up to 5% cash back on qualified purchases (and 1% across the board for any purchase), the Blue Cash deal is very popular.

Qualified purchases for the five percent cash back include gas, approved drug stores, and supermarkets. More qualified shopping centers are being added to the list daily, so you could unwittingly be accruing cash back, only to find a large and welcome check in your mailbox at the end of the month. If you’re going to spend money anyway, you might as well get paid back five percent of it!

2. Frequent Flyer Miles

SAVINGS: Varies

Though by now everyone has heard of frequent flyer miles, many people have not yet signed up for them. Why, a frugal person would have to wonder, would anyone shun the opportunity to be paid in free flights, just for making purchases that would be made, anyway?

Other than getting paid to fly, you could use frequent flyer miles to upgrade your seat. If you just can’t take one more flight with sticky-fingered, crying babies, too-small seats, and recycled air from the main cabin, then upgrading to first class would be a memorable experience. Fly in comfort and luxury for free, and you’ll have earned it for shopping wisely.

1. Toyotathon Shareathon

SAVINGS: $500

During the 2010 Toyotathon Shareathon new Toyota owners are able to click-to-enter at Twitter for a $500 prepaid debit gift card. The gift card is free, with no strings attached, other than the Tweet-submission. People on Twitter are excited about this event, and the opportunity to be paid to buy a great, sexy 2011 Toyota.

Toyotathon Shareathon ends December 15th, so those who have bought a car recently, or who intend to buy one before January sixth, should Tweet now to qualify for one of the 250 free gift cards that are given away daily. This is one way to get paid $500 just for shopping, and spending a few seconds clicking.

CONCLUSION

When the phrase “The best things in life are free,” became popular, they weren’t talking about the coffee at Jiffy Lube. Getting paid to shop is even better than getting something free, because you actually walk away with your product, and with a nice reward for having been a patron. Cash back incentives, rebates, and getting paid to shop for other people, are just a few of the methods you can use to get paid for buying Christmas gifts.