I received a free cup of coffee this morning (my usual soy latte, to be exact) and so it got me to thinking how much “free” stuff I get and how much money I save in general. I’m married, so I’m going to include my husband’s purchases also. Let’s add this up.
Going back only two weeks, starting with this morning. I arrived to my favorite coffee place to get my usual. The lady informed me that if I purchased a $25 gift card, I’d receive a free coffee. Well there’s a no-brainer. I stop there on my way to work every morning. I’ll just use the gift card to purchase my coffee every day. So for every $25 I spend in coffee, I get a free one.
On to lunch ... my favorite vegetarian sandwich shop has a frequent buyer program. For every ten sandwiches I buy, I get one free. Consider I eat there probably around four times a week (not including when my husband eats there), it won’t take me long to get a free sandwich. (Besides, with eight vegetarian sandwich options, you can see why it’s my favorite!) My after work “hobby” is SHOPPING! So, I got a part-time job at my favorite clothing store. The best part is that I can work as little as I want (try one day a month) and get the same discount the other employees get! So now I get a great deal without spending too much of my time at a second job. My husband recently got new summer clothes using my employee discount. His total bill was $106. He saved $35 on this purchase alone. I tend to shop a lot more than he does. My last purchase? About the same. I spent $165 on things that would have easily cost me well over $200, probably closer to $250. And it gets better. When we shop at this particular store or any of our other favorite stores, we use credit cards. Don’t start gasping yet! We pay off the balance in full each month so we pay NO interest. The best part? We get rewards! With each of our monthly statements we get gift cards/certificates worth money in the store. Last week, I got a free shirt by paying for it with my reward card.
And one more way that I saved a ton of money in the past two weeks: we waited to buy a new TV until the prices started going down, which is now. We shopped online and found a great deal. We paid $600 for a TV that would have cost us about $750 locally. Plus we didn’t pay tax on the purchase nor did we pay shipping. A flat $600 for a new TV! And it’s a Sony. There are many other ways that we save money but these are some that perhaps you may find helpful as well. Live frugal and enjoy life!
