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Thursday, February 21, 2008

How I save money

I was asked by a friend of mine to contribute to their blog on saving money and I told her I'd try (it was for her work, but no I wasn't paid for it). As they are my words and it was public blog I thought I repost:

Ok, I’ll admit it, I tend to use the internet for a lot of things these days...originally it was a way to pass the time, but then, a few years ago I noticed that I was actually saving money! Nothing astronomical, but still it was there.



529s and Upromise

We wanted to put money back for the kids future education so we looked into how we could save the money, and we decided on a College Savings Plan for them. A predetermined amount is automatically withdrawn from our account every month and contributed to their plans so we don't forget or put off contributing. We also signed up for Upromise and asked some friends and relatives to do so as well. For those not familiar with Upromise, you basically sign up for a free membership, register your debit, credit, and grocery cards with them and for the most part use them as you normally would and you get between 1% and 25% for things you do already like grocery shopping and eating in restaurants. I say for the most part because when you grocery shop you should push the “credit button” and use your debit card as a credit card to guarantee that get your contributions to your account, but other than that you just shop as usual. We then linked the 529 accounts and the Upromise account together and now every quarter our earnings from Upromise get deposited into the 529s automatically.



Shopping online

I do shop online. I do this mostly out of sheer laziness and the convenience of having things delivered right to me, but I also do it to save a little money. I do shop through the Upromise website to get the college contributions, but that’s not the only way I’ve saved money online. I’ve used online stores like Drugstore.com where I can buy all sorts of items usually cheaper than in the store (even with shipping), and if I happen to have a big order then shipping is free.



Online Coupons

My online shopping has lead me to two other websites that have saved me money as well. One is Coupons.com and the other is Restaurant.com both are sites that are free to join. At Coupons.com you check the coupons you want to “clip” and then print them and take them to the store to use and use them like you would any other coupon. At Restaurant.com you buy a gift certificate from the participating restaurant at a discounted rate (for example: a $10 certificate to a certain restaurant can be purchased for $3), and then print out the certificate and then follow the guidelines for that certificate when you use it (for example: the $10 certificate at certain restaurants are only valid for lunch orders).



I’m saving a little money doing these things and maybe one of these can help you save money too.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Very useful information, I have so lacked at saving for college, it's such a huge debt for us and the kids. Whoever said money can't buy happiness must have been a rich person! Thanks for your comment on the sketch!

Anonymous said...

Its a sad fact that we don't pay to much attention to college funds and the debt can be incredible. Thanks for stopping by the Art Sketch Blog - and whoever said money can't buy happiness, had to be rich!

Deb Hernandez said...

Great tips, and as always a fantastic read. I wish my local businesses would accept coupons we download and print but more are simply not taking them.

Tim said...

The UPromise program is a great program. I have a Citi UPromise card right now thats earned over $600 in UPromise savings. I havent yet picked a 529 account to put it into, as I wasn't very fond of the choices they offer. The 529 plans you have to choose from that link with UPromise seem to have higher than average fees. What investment did you go with for your 529 account?

Also, thanks for posting the comment on our blog, http://themoneykings.com