Sunday, November 26, 2017

How to save $20 on an Amazon Prime Membership

Save $20 on Amazon Prime with Ibotta

There aren't too many ways to save money on an Amazon Prime Membership, but one option is to sign up through Ibotta. Right now you can get a $20 Amazon Gift card if you initiate your membership in the app. If you are a student you can instead get a student membership for 50% off plus you get a 6-month free trial. It's definitely worth at least taking advantage of the 6-month free trial if you are a student with a .edu email address.
Get 50% off prime student and 6 months free


Amazon Prime has a lot of benefits including free movie and video streaming, free 2-day shipping on an enormous number of items and music streaming. There are also features like photo storage and a Kindle ebook lending program as well as early access to flash deals. If you would spend money on any of these things anyway the membership can pay for its self.

If you are not a member of Ibotta yet now is a great time to join you will get a $10 welcome bonus after you redeem your first offer sign up with promo code fooebay. You can also take advantage of cash back shopping as well as a large number of grocery rebates. Including some any brand rebates on things like milk, bread, and eggs.

Friday, November 24, 2017

Are you ready for Cyber Monday?

Check out cyber Monday deals
Are you ready for Cyber Monday? Personally, I don't expect too much better deals for Monday although it looks like there will be some good options. Especially, if you are looking for TVs both Walmart and Target are offering some pretty good discounts. They also have discounts on laptops and tablets.

Amazon will also be offering a lot of deals. Including there "Deals of the Day" and many limited time and quantity sales. I am sure they will also continue to offer great deals on Amazon Brand products. Right now you can get a Fire TV Stick for $24.99 or an Echo Dot for $29.99.

As always make good use of Google and Bing shopping to find the best deals and compare prices to ensures your getting a good price. Also don't miss out on cash back, currently Swagbucks and Ebates are offering much higher amounts for the holiday. Don't forget to pair that with Raise to get discount gift cards or use a credit card that gives cash back. Currently, Discover is giving 5% back at Amazon and Target.




Thursday, November 23, 2017

I Bought the iRobot Roomba 690

I decided I finally needed a robotic vacuum cleaner. As part of a Pre Black Friday sale, I purchased an iRobot Roomba 690 for $275 on Amazon. It's a pretty good price, and if you have a Discover It card, you can get 5% cash back this quarter. There is also the 650 version for about 25 dollars less if you don't care about wifi, they are pretty similar otherwise.

I finally decided to get one because I have a lot of pets and bad allergies and want a way to vacuum every day on schedule. I am hoping this works well for me and will keep my home consistently clean.

I still haven't received it yet, but will update you when it arrives and I have gotten to use it more. Until then this video shows a good overview of it as well as a comparison to an older version. Definitely, worth watching if you are interested in getting a robotic vacuum cleaner.

Sunday, November 19, 2017

Tips to stretch your Black Friday and Cyber Monday savings even further

How to save even more money on Black Friday

If your looking to save someone this weekend there are a few steps you can take to stretch your money a little further.

1. Make sure your actually getting a good deal. 
I use honey to track prices on Amazon and on other sites it can even find promo codes for you. This helps you see whether they raised the prices just before in order to make discounts look bigger. I also like to do a search on Google shopping to see which retailers are offering the best prices.

2. Make sure you're getting cash back
Check the current cash back at Ebates and Swagbucks to make sure your getting the most money back you can.

3. Buy discount gift cards when you can
I usually buy my discount gift cards from Raise but there are many options these days. Personally, I like Raise because they give you a 1 year guarantee on purchases. You can also find some good deals on My Gift Cards Plus through Swagbucks.

4. Use a cash back credit card
Finally, this isn't for everyone and requires you to pay it off in full to make any money, but it can be a great idea to double up on cash back from a credit card when shopping. I just recently got the Discover It card which is currently giving 5% cash back at Amazon and Target. A great deal if you shop at either of those places.


Sunday, November 12, 2017

Making your Swagbucks Daily Goals

Making your Swagbucks Daily Goals

It can be a real struggle to make your Swagbucks daily goals and so I thought I would talk a little bit about it. There are basically two reasons to make your daily goals gaining the bonus and maintaining the winning streak. If you maintain your winning streak you get a bonus of up to 300 SB at the beginning of next month. This requires that you hit the minimum daily goal every day that month or at least however many days it requires for the bonus you are attempting. Typically the daily goal gives you about 10% of that goal at the beginning of the next month, which can really add up to a nice bonus.

When you start off your 1st daily goal will be quite low and easy to maintain. Usually around 30 or 40 sb, but it will quickly increase to about double that. After that point pretty much everyone will have the same first daily goal. On the other hand, the second daily goal will continue to change depending on how much you earn. The goals can definitely amount a large sum of money.

Most people want to make the daily goals in order to maintain their winning streak. This way you can get an additional bonus at the beginning of next month. This can get stressful and even make you just try to do the minimum to maintain your streak. I've found a few techniques over the years and I will share a few of them.

For starters, mobile video apps are your friend. I will use these every day, especially when I am trying to maintain my streak. It's easy to get 10sb from the SBTV app and then I usually switch to the other apps SportyTV, EntertaiNow, and Lifestylz. You can reasonably get 40sb or more a day using these apps. Especially since they usually reset in the evening.

Next, I like to play games up to the limit of 10sb. This is pretty straightforward. My favorite game is Swagjump. I think ever since doodle jump I have enjoyed that style of game. Either way, it doesn't take long to make 10 sb and its pretty fun.

From here it gets a little bit trickier and less guaranteed.  I usually get something from search every day. I use both the mobile app and the desktop search many times throughout the day. I will also use the nCrave to get a few extra Swagbucks if I am close. Another tactic can be to scan the offers and find a free easy offer to fill the meter.  Sometimes it can be easier just to do a survey to finish it out.

Another option is it complete your daily to-do list. I find that on the days I complete that I am pretty much done with my first daily goal plus you get the bonus on the to-do list. This is a bit tricky because you do have to qualify for a Gold Survey, which can be quite difficult for some people. I know I usually have to attempt at least 4-5 surveys before qualifying.

Completing your Swagbucks To Do List

Once you start making all of this extra money from bonuses you have to decide what to do with it. For the first $25 gift card you get each month you can get it for 2200sb which is a great deal because your basically get $3 for free and I think pretty much anyone can find a gift card they use, I typically get Walmart cards. After that, if I have SBs leftover I either get PayPal cash or save them until next months for another discount card.

Join Swagbucks!

Sunday, November 5, 2017

What saving an extra $1 a day really means


Many people don't realize what it can mean to save a $1 a day. I have been talking a lot lately about what it takes to earn or save just that much. Now let's see what it's really worth. Much of how it will affect your life depends on what you choose to do with it. I will be running the numbers using the  www.investor.gov/ compound interest calculator. This is a great tool if you want to see what your investments will amount to. It even has an option that shows you how much to save if you have a particular goal in mind.

Lets first look at if you simply put it in a bank saving account what can it amount to. My banks saving account gives a whopping 0.1% currently. Although, over the years this does have the possibility of fluctuating. Either way, its got little chance of keeping up with inflation.

As you can see over 35 years you will have $12,996.01. At first, this doesn't sound terrible but if you assume a 3% rate of inflation it would have decreased in value by about $4,902.24 or $8,093.77. Not terrible for a $1 a day, but we are losing out on a lot of money. This may be good for short-term storage but is clearly a bad deal in the long run.

Let's look at if you take a little bit of risk. If you invest in an S&P 500 index fund based on historical performance the return is about 10%. Subtract, 3% for inflation and that amounts to a 7% return.

This is really incredible. Due to the power of compound interest, a 7% return can yield an incredible $50,462. It's really amazing what a $1 a day can do when combined with the power of compound interest.

If you want to learn how to get that extra $1 check out my post How to easily make an extra $1 a day

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