Wednesday, September 16, 2015

Wifey Wednesday: How to Save a Quick Dollar

Hey everyone!

Since moving to NC, I have been trying to pinch every penny that exists in my wallet. Duke is expensive, and so is being a newlywed to a person who is full time in school, and so is moving. Therefore, we try to save as much as we can on basic things and we try not to pay full price if we decide to go outside of our normal realm and buy something not on the list. So here are a few ways that we have been doing that!

1) Target RedCard (debit), Target Cartwheel, Target RedPerks (new)
Basically Target is bomb. They give you SO many incentives to shop there. My advice? If there is a SuperTarget near you, do some browsing. Compare prices to your local Walmart, Publix, Kroger, wherever else you shop and think you save a pretty penny. In Tampa, we would shop at Publix and go to Target for whatever was on sale and on Carthwheel that week. Here in Durham, we've been sticking to Target for the most part, because a lot of other stores can be more expensive and the closest Walmart is a lot farther away. So what are these three things that I listed?
- RedCard is Target's card. It can be credit or debit (you choose when you sign up) but I went the debit route. It saves you 5% on every purchase in store and online, works just like a debit card hooked up to your main bank account. It also gives 1% of your purchases to the school of your choice (and BCS is on there fellow Panther parents and alum!). FREE to sign up and FREE to use. No fees or anything like a credit card has, because its a debit card.
- Target Cartwheel is a FREE app that you can download. Every week its updated with new deals. Typically 5% off this, 10% off that. But sometimes there is 30-40% off deals. And literally you do nothing but click on the app and search for whatever you're buying to see if its on sale. So awesome. I've saved like $50+ in the past year since downloading this thing. And its easy to use
- Target RedPerks is the newest in the line of apps and such for Target. I haven't even used mine yet, because I just heard about it this week. Again its a rewards system, and based of $ you spend you get points and points = discounts. Like Target really needed another reason for me to shop there even more, but I will take it ;).

2) ShopKick
So this is an app that I downloaded like two years ago when I heard about it on Good Morning America. I don't take the time and effort like I should to actually go about my day and use it the way you could to get lots of free stuff. You sign up and can earn "kicks" AKA points by looking at their little catalog type things, also by walking into stores (literally thats it) with your bluetooth and location services on, scanning items in a store, and purchasing items through the app (I haven't done this part yet). You don't have to buy anything to get kicks. You don't have to use it every so often to keep your kicks. And its been around for two years and still offers a lot of kick opportunities. I mean come on walking into a store? It doesn't get much easier than that. I have earned I think $60 total on this app (you pick which giftcards you want from their rewards system and they appear on your phone), but like I said I rarely use it as I could. Every time I walk into Target (1x/day), 30 kicks, Best Buy, 30 kicks, Kroger, 30 kicks. It's easy. And free :)

3) My Coke Rewards
Many people have heard of this but don't drink Coke products, etc. However I started using it because we buy Powerade and that is what I drink to get myself off of buying soda at home. You typically get 3 points per bottle, but MCR has AMAZING point deals sometimes. Once I got a free shutterfly 8x8 book for 5 kicks. Costs $29.99 on shutterfly and I got it for drinking two powerades I was already going to drink. I recently ordered wedding pictures off of Shutterfly, and with my MCR I saved $239 and spent only $100. Bomb. You can use multiple coupon codes from MCR on Shutterfly in one transaction, which is what is so convenient about it. But they also have typical giftcards like Nike, Barnes and Noble, etc.

4) Rewards for Food
It was so funny because in Tampa we kept saying "man I wish Moes had rewards". Well some do! Not in b-town unfortunately, but in Durham at the one within walking distance from us when you buy 10 meals you get one free. So legit. Look for restaurants with these types of systems/points and you could save a couple bucks per year. Subway also is starting to bring back their points, we found one while  traveling that is starting the point cards back up. Keep your ear out and don't be afraid to ask people if they have a rewards system!

So those are just a few quick and free ways to save money. Do you have any other sites, apps, etc that can save a pretty penny? Let me know, we are always looking for a way to save!

Thanks,
Olivia :)

No comments:

Post a Comment