I will not even tell you how many times my little brother and my friends marvel and my online prowess. I’m not boasting, as there are people who do it way better than me, but I’m pretty good at saving, earning, and buying. It takes a bit of work and it has to become a bit of a routine before you get it right, but see if perhaps any of this can help ye wonderful people.
1. I joined my credit card rewards program. You know the benefits of this—rewards of one type or another each time you spend. Just join and leave it on autopilot.
2. I also joined Delta Skymiles program. I earn miles when I fly. Cool. I like Delta and one day decided to join their program just to see what would happen. And it spiraled out of control. These people have earning miles down on lock. First there is Skymiles shopping. It’s a Web page for Delta and a portal to other shopping sites. I go there and then click on the many featured Web sites to access and once I make a purchase that way, I get miles per dollar. They have many of the popular ones—Walmart, Avon, Borders, B&N, drugstore.com, JCPenny, Khols, Ebags, and hundreds more.
I MUST USE THE PORTAL to access the other site and do the purchase that way. It pays off well, for example, with Borders it’s four miles per dollar, Drugstore.com is six miles, and so on. Within a few days the miles are deposited to my Delta account. Another way is E-miles. Again a Delta site. I can earn at LEAST five miles per survey and up to 1000 for taking action (signing up for a DVD, donating to charity, buying coffee, something). As soon as I hit 500 miles I can deposit it into my account. I can also dine, reserve hotels and more via Delta’s Web site and in turn … get miles! I earned over 10,000 miles and I only flew one-way to New York since I signed up last October. To be sure, if I can get the flight cheaper on another airline, I will go ahead and do that. Also I can buy miles for cheap and people can gift them to me.
3. I have store discount cards NOT credit cards (hell I only have ONE credit card and it’s paid off). I shop at CVS, Hallmark, Borders, AE, so I have all their discount cards and I have my local grocery card, too. They help me take advantage of specials that sometimes are only available to cardholders. They also send special coupons via email or snail mail that I can redeem.
4. Newspaper coupons. Severely overlooked. You cannot imagine how many of my friends who are in financial stress will not cut coupons. Is it demeaning? I love them as they remind me of when my dad would bring home the Sunday papers and as a six-year-old I’d look through and could not understand why they were printing “money” in the papers. I’d cut them out and play with them. Later on I came to understand the deal. My dad is gone now, but the ritual keeps his memory close and saves me some dollars. I buy every other Sunday and the nice thing is that they now print the amount of savings available in the paper that Sunday. I sometimes get more coupons in say the big city paper than in the local paper. Paying the extra fifty cents is worth it. Combine those with store specials, your store card, and your credit card to pay and you have a sweet deal of saving and earning happening.
5. When I shop online, besides shopping through the aforementioned portal (if the site I want is available there), I ALWAYS check retailmenot.com. They have TONS of coupons that can be used at checkout on many popular sites. You can save 10 percent or more, or get free shipping, or free gifts. Try and see.
6. Sign up for emails from your favorite stores. Do not go and do this randomly. Choose some stores that you NEED to shop at regularly and sign up for their emails which usually have discount codes or printable coupons.
The trick is this, DO NOT buy something just because you have a coupon. A little restraint and willpower is necessary. I keep my coupons primarily for my food and toiletries. If I have enough and I don’t need it, I’m not buying it. And by the time I’m ready to, the same or a better offer will come along!
Happy shopping and saving.
