My BFF has found a way to make money from Caffeine-Free Diet Pepsi. It involves absolutely no work and will earn her more than $1,000 within a year.
You guessed it: She stopped drinking the stuff.
Linda B. had already been inclined to cut down on soft drinks due to various reports of their horribleness. Recently she decided to go cold turkey, both at home and at restaurants – and to put $20 in an envelope every week. That’s how much she figured the habit was costing her.
Watching the savings grow is fun, and it couldn’t have come at a better time: She and her oldest friend (think: going on 70 years) are taking a European cruise next year. A thousand bucks will come in handy during shore leave.
It adds up. Some of the Saved Savings Challenge participants would agree.
Gaye Harwell wanted a couple of new plant pots. When she saw the price tags, she headed back home and cleaned up some existing containers. “I saved at least $28 plus tax,” she says.
Wendy A. got a similar case of sticker shock when she saw a patio table and two chairs for $350. Suddenly her current furniture looked “just fine.” Not that she put the $350 into her saved savings, mind you; she simply “felt good about not spending.”
And Marie found a way to redirect the shopping urge for a bookstore and a schmancy body products shop: She decided she didn’t need any more “expensive smells” or more books, so she went to the library instead. “Savings? At least 50 bucks.”
But wait! There’s more! Marie’s television croaked, and a friend gave her a “smaller, but still nice” appliance he didn’t need. “So I guess I saved a lot,” she says.
“I’m finding the older I get, the less I want stuff, stuff, stuff. So I am saving more. I wish I’d felt that way when I was younger!”
So do a lot of us, Marie. But as you note, it’s not too late to change our savings habits. To paraphrase an old saying about landscaping, “The best time to have begun saving was 25 years ago. The second-best time is today.”
How do your savings grow?
Here are a few highlights from my own past week:
Walgreens: I saved $22.99 on a few things, including soft drinks (sorry, not giving them up just yet), via sale prices, a downloaded coupon and $5 in store credit from the Balance Rewards program.
Safeway: Just 4 U specials amounted to $13.51.
Gift-giving: One of my rewards credit cards was offering 10 percent off the cost of certain gift cards, so I ordered one for my daughter’s birthday. And I’ve decided to count it both as $20 saved on a gift and also $2 in additional buying power for future presents.
In all, my second week’s savings amounted to $62. The running total, as of June 9, is $171.09.
I’ve got a trip of my own to save for: a jaunt to London with my daughter, who is a grand master at the saved savings game. For years she has been banking the savings from things like cutting cable TV, shopping through the Mr. Rebates cash-back site, buying essentials with gift cards she gets from the Swagbucks rewards program, using coupons and drugstore savings points, and setting aside the money from a cash-back credit card.
The trip is more likely to happen in spring 2021 than spring 2020, but that’s fine. It will just give me more time to save. When the bills for that trip arrive, I won’t blanch at the thought of taking probably a couple of thousand dollars out of savings.
To be clear: The money will come from savings. But it will be from the Ally Bank account called “Saved Savings.” I won’t have to touch my emergency fund or my liquid cash. And speaking of liquid: It probably wouldn’t hurt me to cut down on the soft drinks, either.
Readers: How was your week? Any particularly splendid savings to share?
I can report that I got $10.50 cash back this week on Ibotta from a few needed groceries (they’ve added Aldi to their grocery store list!!).
Also, some of my runner friends and I decided to opt out of a local July 4th race we normally do – and meet at a members home instead for a group run, followed by cooling off in their pool and snacks! (Pot luck, of course – we will all bring something to share) – so that will be a $25 savings. Race registrations are not cheap.
And how many T-shirts does one person need, anyway?
Good plan, and a lot of fun afterwards.
Interesting week. I lost my wallet but had it returned. Against all odds my cash was still in it. We paid a reward to the finder of $20. I will have saved savings of $39 for not having to purchase a new Driver license, plus having $39 overdraft fee waived for having to close my checking account with checks not cleared in time. So $58 saved savings minus the paid reward. I had coupon savings of $3, and another $3 for using a Mickey D gift card for 2 lunches. $64 saved savings is not too bad.
So far this week I have the following:
1. I decided this would be a good week to total my loose change from the jar. That totaled at $43.56
2. We had to buy mulch and yard materials. Since Lowe’s gives a military/veteran’s discount that saved us $2.59
3. Our oldest grand daughter passed her state boards and got her Cosmetology license. We asked her what she would like for a graduation gift and she requested a tool she needed for her new job. She said there would be a sale in 2 weeks and she could get the tool for about $65. So I searched the discounted gift card site and found a card for the Beauty Supply shop she uses in about a $65 amount. BUT it was discounted by 19% so I was able to get it for about $52
So $59.15 will go straight into my sub account dubbed vacation!
Still on last week’s allowance and didn’t get this week’s. Savings:$100. Electricity is down by $2.
1. $1 rebate from Savings Star,
$2. 70 cent Ibotta rebate,
3. 59 cents from Trunow gas savings app. Decide to swipe DH’s gas receipts-with prior earnings, I am now up to $2.06. Woo-hoo!
4. Bought hamburger rolls at our brand new Sprouts grocery. They gold moldy after 2 days so I went back and got a $2.99 refund. Also got a rain check for Alaskan halibut-they had it on sale for 14.99 a pound which is unheard of in our area. I love it but cannot buy at the usual $28 a pound. They ran out of it, so I got a rain check. Donna-I am curious about the price of halibut in Alaska.
5. Back in January, I had signed up for a trial of the Gobble meal prep service via Swagbucks. In addition to the first 2 orders being heavily discounted, I was supposed to get $50 worth of Swagbucks. They never were credited to me. I found Swagbucks customer service impossible to deal with-I sent them screenshots provided by Gobble proving that I had fulfilled the terms of the offer-but they would not give me the Swagbucks. After several calls to Gobble, I finally decided to ask them for a $50 credit to my account instead, which they agreed to provide. I will not be vanquished! While the meal delivery services can be pricey, I decided to keep my Gobble account active for those weeks when we return from a trip and can’t get to the grocery store immediately. You can skip deliveries for weeks at a time.
6. I got a $54 reimbursement check for work expenses (mostly mileage related). Into the bank it went!
7. Our local Safeway affiliate (Acme) ran a special where you got $15 off of a future purchase if you bought $100 worth of gift cards. I got a $50 Spafinder GC for DH for Father’s Day and also got a $50 Cheesecake Factory gift certificate for an upcoming vacation because we will have a Cheesecake Factory location 10 minutes where we are staying. Another grocer (Shoprite) had a similar promo this month, and I bought Bed Bath and Beyond gift certificates for a niece’s wedding gift. These purchases were not saved savings exactly-more like strategic spending. The purchases also helped me get points for a 5% credit card rebate for this quarter. Not sure how much I did in the way of overall grocery savings, but got DS free deodorant and shaving cream with coupons and got cereal for $1.25 per box using coupons.
8. Signed up for an app called Drop that gives rebates based on your spending at 5 stores that you select.
Hi Donna! happy to say, in 2018 I did the 52 week challenge, and will be buying my new apple laptop next week. Just in time, my 2002 is about to croak 😄
Good for you! How nice to be able to pay out of pocket vs. carrying a balance.
For those unfamiliar with the 52-week challenge, it goes like this: The first week of January, bank $52; the second week, set aside $51. Keep at it and at the end of the year you’ll have banked $1,378. (Or you can do it backwards, starting with $1 in the first week of January, $2 in the second week, etc.)
You can get more of these savings tips from the “Challenge Yourself to Save” chapter of my first book, which you can read for free at:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1WcyrT1_92_qh6cphpc_kKvwK5O8CLumZa_rPwiFg37c/edit
Didn’t spend any out of the ordinary but no great savings.
Kind of a win, though, right? You didn’t spend anything out of the ordinary.
Grand total for the month: $62! Pedicure I gave myself instead of going to a salon, coupons on needed items, Shopkick points turned gift card to Wal-mart, used plastic grocery sacks instead of purchased dog bag, returned bag of chips that weren’t sealed for an exchange instead of tossing them, and a few more.
Go you!