Shopping with Ebates for Back To School

This is a sponsored post. As always, all opinions are my own.

For the past several years, I’ve enjoyed attending Momtrends‘ Back to School Style Event. This year, I was lucky enough to have a special assignment before the event — I was selected to shop at Ebates and then model my clothes at the event. Now, this completely made my day (okay, year), because I’ve been an Ebates member since 2006.

If you’re not familiar with Ebates, it’s a website where you can get cash back for making purchases. Since my husband and I are pretty frugal, we ALWAYS check Ebates before we buy anything. We’ve scored some really good deals and gotten a nice amount of cash back over the years (we bought our cameras, flat screen tv — major and minor purchases). And yes, I would have bought my new minivan through Ebates if that had been an option! After I make my purchase, it takes around 60 days and then Ebates deposits money right into my paypal account (but you can also have them send you checks instead).

My Assignment

My assignment was to find something fabulous to wear to Momtrends’ Back to School Style Event. I had some freedom. I could buy an outfit, accessories, a back to school outfit for my child… whatever I wanted. For the last few years, I’ve put myself last, so I wanted to buy a couple of dresses for myself. I also planned to buy my little girl a dress for back to school.

I’m plus sized, so I often can’t find things I like (plus I’m not as fashion savvy as I’d like). I was introduced to Sonsi at last September’s Fashion Forward Conference so I chose to shop Sonsi again. They offer beautiful dresses with brands that are figure flattering like SWAK Designs, Kiyonna, IGIGI and more.

I fell in love with two SWAK Designs dresses from Sonsi.com. The Dafni in magenta ($59) and the Essential Tank Dress in black ($59).

However, after I purchased the dresses (through Ebates I got 2.5 % cash back AND $7.95 shipping), I saw that shipping was going to take 4-8 business days and there was no option for quicker shipping. It was already Thursday and the Momtrends’ event was on the next Tuesday. My heart sank.

So, I went to Ebates’ main page again and chose OldNavy.com (which had 2 % cash back and free everyday shipping on $50+), plus I got 25% off when I got onto Old Navy’s main page. I found a dress that I liked — Women’s Plus Cross-Front Jersey Dress. I liked the black (on sale for $25) and the berry (on sale for $27). I decided to buy both. They were simple, but cute.

After I chose the two dresses, I had enough money left over to pick a dress for my 5 1/2 year old daughter. I called her over and she requested a pink dress. Cool Fact: You are able to search girls’ dresses at OldNavy.com by color. Genius!

We chose the Girls Embellished Tiered Sundress (now reduced to $18, I paid $19 last week for it). Since my little gal gets cold, I also chose a 3/4 sleeve black cardigan for her ($11).

Fast forward to the day before the event. The Old Navy dresses showed up. The berry colored dress looked okay– it didn’t really do anything for me. I tried on the same dress in black and it looked amazing (go figure).

The Event:

I had a blast at Momtrends’ Back to School Style Event. I had such a great time that I didn’t actually get a good picture of myself! This picture is courtesy of Momtrends and shows Gina of Mommy Posh, Nicole Feliciano of Momtrends, Linda Grant of NYC Single Mom, Jenna Crandall of Lunch Pails and Lipsticks, and I. We were at Freshmade NYC and the room was somewhat hot.