Some ways of saving money aren’t fun. Lowering your thermostat, not going out to dinner as often, ditching cable, etc.
But here are some of my favorite little ways to save money. Things that are actually fun. (And that might be because they enable you to shop at Target.)
– Use our Discover Cashback for Starbucks. Starbucks is one of those things that brings me so much joy for a relatively low price, but I couldn’t stomach paying $50 a month on random drinks. So we use our free credit card money (Cashback bonus for Discover) and get $50 gift cards every other month or so. A little luxury is now free!
– Go to a grocery outlet There is a store here that sells stuff for a third or half the price that it retails. The catch? Some of it is past expiration. I don’t mind checking labels and the result is a $15 AeroPress (54% less than on Amazon), $3.70 Dolce Gusto boxes (57% less than on Amazon), and $1.69 giant tubs of awesome hummus. I save money without having to clip coupons or look at sales ads, which is time I don’t want to spend on saving money. To find a grocery outlet in your city, just Google “Grocery outlet + your city” and you might be surprised! Bakeries often have thrift stores, as well. Cheap carbs. Mmm.
– CSA. Our CSA costs is $25 a week and cuts down our grocery spending during the summer and fall. We get eggs, cheese, pasta, beans, flour, and of course, fruits and veggies! I only need to go to a grocery store once or twice a month in the summer as a result. Pretty much all areas of our spending (rent, utilities, gas, medical, car repairs, shopping, etc) increased over the last year except for groceries. Because of the CSA! Pretty awesome. For CSAs near you – check out LocalHarvest or Google “CSA + your city.”
– Going all Chopped on my meals. Nothing is more satisfying than taking nothing and turning it into an awesome meal. We waste less food and can stretch our food budget a little further by getting creative. Pull up some Chopped on Hulu for inspiration. And to be grateful you don’t have to work chicken liver and chocolate into the same meal.
– The Cartwheel app. Um. This may not really save us money, but I LOVE IT. Like I said, I am not much of a coupon clipper (too time consuming), but this digital app where you can save 20% on diapers, 25% on toddler boys’ clothes, and so on is absolutely awesome. (The reason I say it might not really save us money is because I tend to buy more now. Which is exactly why I don’t do coupons normally! I’ve been had.)
– Speaking of Target, the RED Debit Card. Here’s a little math for you: I get 1-3% Cashback when I use my Discover card, but if I used the RED card, I always save 5% at Target. SIGN ME UP. Plus, it’s not a credit card, so I don’t need to worry about another bill to pay or making sure I don’t spend more than we bring in. You also get free shipping on Target.com and returns are way easier (they can look it up on your card – no receipt required and you get 30 extra days to return). My only regret is I didn’t sign up earlier! I am not one to have store credit cards, but this store I shop at enough to absolutely make it worth it.
– Have a kid and get a tax refund. (JUST KIDDING. Don’t do that. Kids are more expensive than what you get back in taxes.)
I’d love to hear how you save money – especially if it involves things that are less-than-terrible! :)
PS: None of this was sponsored and I get nothing if you click on the links and save!
Discover rewards used to be waaaaay better (you know, back in the day..) you could get double points at certain retailers. That is how I used to get crazy good holiday gifts, I would get people gift cards to a place that gave me 2x the money so a $25 gift card turned into a $50 gift card! Super nice gift!
We get cashback on our Chase Freedom card and we always put the money in our “eating out” budget.
I buy all of the kids clothing the prior season in the next size up.
I pass down as much clothing as possible to the next baby and always, always accept hand me downs.
I wax my own eyebrows.
I use my Loft card for just this reason – hey, free clothes for me! I’m not so much a starbucks gal. And I finally signed up for a red card – I live a mile from Target, I don’t know why it took me so long to do so.
Ooh, what are the loft perks? Loft is my favorite clothing store!
I really like Grocery Outlet too! I especially love their non-grocery items. I got a yoga mat for $7, and they have really inexpensive body/beauty stuff including organic and natural products.
I switched to a very low interest rate card from my credit union. I decided cash rewards just promoted more spending, even if it’s on stuff I need. What I really need is to be able to pay off my card each month. It works for me!
No cable. I use Netflix, DVDs, and a digital HD antenna, and I’m totally happy with that.
No fancy phone. I have a pay-as-you-go that costs me $25/mo for more minutes than I need and unlimited texts.
And I can’t stress how much cooking at home reduces spending. I have a couple hundred dollars leftover each month since I’ve committed to eating out less and using the veggies from the CSA or farmers markets each week.
I use the Ibotta (http://ibotta.com/r/NUWXBQ – affiliate link) app to get money back on groceries (especially for stuff we buy at Whole Foods). I also like Bing Rewards better than Swagbucks. You can earn 15 credits a day searching Bing, and put those credits toward things like Amazon gift cards. We are paying for Christmas presents with Bing Rewards gift cards! (http://go.microsoft.com/?linkid=9778718&rrid=_ec1e8aad-e6cf-8ba9-845e-b698eef297ec – affiliate link)
We LOVE Green BEAN Delivery for saving money on organic and locally grown produce.
I belong to Ibotta, but I haven’t wanted to buy anything I get money on! Womp womp. I’ll just have to keep checking it. :)
the Cartwhell app is my new favorite thing ever. seriously i’ve saved so much money on things i was already going to buy at Target, i love it.
i also save money by bringing my lunch to work almost every day and borrowing books from friends and the library instead of buying them. also, swagbucks, woo!
I go to Big Lots for anything I can.
We have a Kroger credit card which always receives odd looks in NE Ohio. I’m from NW Ohio and kept the card because we go home often enough to use the rewards. On average we receive about $200 to $300 in free groceries every year from the card. They send us gift certificates!
I went to college in Dayton and shopped at Kroger (and Meijer) all the time!
OK, you’ve convinced me to get a Target Red Card. I’ve been thinking about getting one for a while since I shop there so much. Guess I’ll just take the plunge!
Lately, we’ve been saving money by cooking at home a lot. Last month we got in the habit of eating out a ton and ended up spending way too much money! Not only does cooking at home save us money, it helps me with my culinary skills. :)
Yes! Once I found out you can just use it as a debit card, I was sold!
My job perks. I work in the pharmacy of Canada’s biggest food retailer/grocery chain, so I get a nice little 10% colleague discount card (add to that getting first dibs on a lot of the 50% off close to expiry stuff – we’re taking fresh soups, salads, sandwiches, etc. bliss!).
Credit Card rewards. We get those too, and my and my husband’s indulgence of choice is gift cards to our favourite steakhouse. It’s like winning 3-4 amazing & guilt-free dates each year.
Kijiji (like craigslist). When we moved to town in March, we got a front loading washer & dryer set, only used a couple of times, for half of what it cost someone in the store. The story? A married couple that had separated was getting back together and the husband was selling off his bachelor pad asap. We got an incredible deal, heard a heartwarming story, and made our first friends in town. We recently attended their kids’ ringette fundraiser. A win-win-win if you ask me. :)
Since moving, we’ve also scored huge deals on a living room couch set, end tables, dish set, & guest bed all thanks to kijiji.
Oh, that’s a fun story! A nice happy ending. :)
I finally signed up for the Target Redcard and I’m so glad I did. We shop there at least once a week so I don’t know what took me so long! I also use the library like it’s my job, for books and dvds and music as well as programming, ebooks, and even community space for our book club. I love the library!
Oh, yes!! The library. Free books are a wonderful thing.
Now that Discover offers 5% back on a limited number of purchases, I feel like it takes forever to earn a decent amount of cash back.
I started doing the math lately and I think the $0 annual fee credit cards, in many cases, offer worse deals than the ones that you pay to keep. Hear me out…
I have Southwest Visa card from Chase. The annual fee is $99, but every year on my anniversary they give me 6,000 Rapid Reward points (cash equivalent: $100.20). Plus I got a sign-up bonus of 50,000 points (cash equivalent: $835). Since the annual fee basically pays for itself, I got over $800 worth of free money, and accumulate even more points with every dollar spent, I’d say it was an extremely lucrative deal. Obviously this is a better deal if you do a lot of flying, but since I do, I count it as free money.
Discover is offering $150 cash back if you spend $1,000 per month for the next 5 months. I may take advantage of that if the numbers work out.
I learned about the Target Debit Card from somewhere else you mentioned it a while back. I just got it in September, and I LOVE IT! I also started using Cartwheel, and between the two, I get a decent chunk of money knocked off my bill. (Like you, I should have gotten the card sooner!)
Another fun way we save money, is by having my husband dye my hair and me cutting his. It costs me $3 instead of $80 and him $0 instead of $20. Plus we just have fun with it! Dunmyre Salon, open for business!