Double up!

A while back, our food processor gave up the ghost. It had been with us for nearly 15 years and served our family well, but it was time for a replacement. I'd had a good experience with WallaShops when purchasing appliances, so after a little comparison shopping on Zap.co.il, and a few brick-and-mortar stores in my city, I headed over there to see if there were any decently priced food processors with the specs I required.

After finding the appliance of my choice, I then entered the site via the Israeli Cashback site I like, which gives you a rebate of 1.5% of your purchase price at WallaShops. Then I redeemed a NIS 50 "birthday gift" to be used at WallaShops from the credit card company (an Isracard LifeStyle). All in all, I saved over 12% off the purchase price of the item by combining these two discounts.
Another birthday deal (I believe it was a 30% discount for a single purchase during the month of your birthday) was used to purchase a gift for a friend. As there was also a 40% off sale going on in the store at the time,  I snagged an item that originally cost NIS 149 for about NIS 63, at a total discount of  58%.

Like many Israelis, I've never liked the small print that says "אין כפל מבצעים" (No double discounts) which are standard on many deal offers here. The good news is that Israeli store chains have started to take a leaf from the American rulebook, and are slowly relaxing what was once a hard-and-fast rule. Nowadays, unless specifically stated, there's a good chance a store will honor more than one discount on your purchases. If you check out the small print on ads and mail you receive from various shopping clubs you may belong to, you'll be sure to find such opportunities fairly often.

In fact, one of the easiest ways to achieve a double discount when shopping online is to purchase a Groupon (the original Groupon site only, but one can hope the others will follow suit) via the Israeli Cashback site. You not only get your item or service at the Groupon's discount, you also get a 4% rebate from Groupon to you cashback account.

While not every occasion lends itself to double discounts, be aware that they do happen, are becoming increasingly common, and be prepared to take advantage of them when they come your way.