If you follow any other frugal blogs besides KOAB, I’m sure you’ve already read about the *hot* Groupon deal for Barnes & Noble. (Does these other bloggers not have homework and dinner time to contend with?!)
Right now, you can buy a $20 Barnes & Noble voucher for just $10 – giving you half-off clearance on anything you want to buy ($20 and under) at the store or online!
Today only, Groupon “affiliates” – of which KOAB is one – get to promote this deal. Then tomorrow, the deal will go live on the Groupon site, and stay there until Monday – or until the vouchers are sold out. I have a sinking suspicion that this won’t last until Monday – in fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if it sold out tonight!
Now what all this affiliate stuff means to you is that when you log into your Groupon account, you won’t be able to pull up this deal any other way than by using this link. So, all that said, here are two ways to get your voucher:
**Order Through KOAB**
- Sign up for a Groupon account if you don’t already have one – it’s free, of course
- Click here for the $20 B&N voucher and press the big green Buy Now button
- Once the deal goes live on the Groupon site tomorrow, you should be able to see the voucher in your account and print it out to use at the store or online
**Order Through Swagbucks**
If you have a Swagbucks account, you can get an even sweeter deal on this B&N Groupon (and yes, by doing it this way, I don’t get my “affiliate commission” – but hey, I’m all about saving you money, so I’m good with that!) Here’s how it works:
- Log into or sign up for a Swagbucks account (if you’re new to Swagbucks, you can read more about my favorite rewards search engine here)
- Look for the above ad on the Swagbucks homepage and click it! (The ad should be dead center on the Swagbucks home page and there are four rotating images, so if it doesn’t come up right away, just wait a couple of seconds.)
- The links will open another window, through which you can order your voucher.
- Pay your $10 and wait ’til tomorrow to see your Groupon in your account, just like above
- **BONUS** You Earn 315 Swagbucks just for doing it through Swagbucks! That’s about 2/3rds of the way toward the $5 Amazon gift card (which “costs” 450 Swagbucks), so think of it as a $3.50 discount on your B&N voucher
I know this is a bit convoluted, so please let me know if you have any questions!
Fine Print: Must be used by April 10, 2011, or the remaining face value will be reduced by $10.
I’m wondering if anyone else had the same experience I did: I saw the deal on Swagbucks, clicked on it, and got to Groupon to purchase the deal. Time after time, it denied my purchase saying my credit card was denied. I tried different cards and called my credit card companies to make sure nothing was amiss. And nothing was– but my cc kept on getting denied. Then I had my sister in NJ (I’m in DC) sign into my SB account and purchase the deal using her cc. And it worked just fine. How bizarre? So far I haven’t gotten any notice on email or ad adjustment to my SB (I know this takes some time). Groupon log-in isn’t working right now, so I can’t even check my Groupon account to see if it is being processed. Here’s hoping it worked!
Elanit – that sounds so annoying! I don’t have any idea why it wouldn’t work with your cc, but I have heard from a number of other places about the glitch with not being able to see your account. I don’t know if this has to do with it being exclusive to affiliates right now or with the site getting slammed – or some combination of the two.
I will say that I’ve been nothing but impressed with Groupon’s customer service, so if there is any kind of glitch (which I doubt, but still…), I have a lot of confidence that they would make it right.
Wah! The link for the B&N deal brought me to a different Groupon for a hair cut or something. Is is only in your local area? I need to buy some books for a gift and these particular books are actually NOT discounted at all on amazon.com! How bizarre. So I was going to buy them in a B&M store. Maybe I’ll pounce on the Groupon first thing tomorrow, if it’s offered in Philadelphia.
Which link did you use? Under “Order Through KOAB”, all but the “sign up for a Groupon account” should point to the B&N deal. My husband said that “Click here for the $20 voucher” link was acting wonky, so I reentered my link. Try it again and let me know if that works for you!
Thanks Mara. This will be great for buying gifts.