Beating Broke

Personal Finance from the Broke Perspective

Earning Swagbucks and Saving with Coupons

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Coke Zero © by DefeatEd2k4

Have you all seen those commercials for Coke Zero where the person is put into some crazy situation and then they drink a little Coke Zero and notice the and in the description, then start saying “and” and getting all these crazy things?  That stuff doesn’t happen in real life.  Right? That’s just some commercial mind’s crazy idea of what the melding of “Real Coca~Cola taste AND zero calories” can do for you.  While I can’t vouch for the power of and in your soda drinking, I certainly can show you a way that and works in real life.

What I’m talking about is saving money with coupons AND earning Swagbucks.  I’ve talked about Swagbucks a few times before, but, if you’re unfamiliar with them here’s a rundown.  Swagbucks is a “paid-to-search” site, where you use their custom search engine, and occasionally win Swagbucks for doing so.  They’ve got a bunch of other ways to earn Swagbucks, including taking a daily poll, watching SwagbucksTV, Tasks, and even games.  One other way, that I’ve been taking advantage of, is their coupons feature.  Using their coupons page, you print out coupons.  They’re running the same system as Coupons.com, so if you usually use that, you’ll be getting the same coupons.  The big difference here (the “and”, if you will) is that for each coupon that you print through the Swagbucks system, and then redeem, you earn 10 Swagbucks.  Pretty cool, no?

Once a week or so, I’ll go through the list of coupons and print as many as we’ll use, then give them to my wife who cuts them out and sorts them for use.  She’s in charge of that, because she’s got the coupon organizer, and is far better at actually remembering to use the coupons than I am.  🙂

My favorite use of my Swagbucks is to trade my Swagbucks in on Amazon.com giftcards.  450 Swagbucks gets you a $5 Amazon card.  On average, I get a new card every other month.  While it certainly isn’t going to make me rich, it feeds my Amazon habit, and helps me reduce my spending on books and such.

Give Swagbucks a try. (Join Swagbucks here.) After all, who wouldn’t like to make some extra cash and save with coupons?

If you sign up before April 2nd, 2012, and use the code MARCHSWAG during the sign up, you’ll get an added 70 Swagbuck bonus on top of the current 30 Swagbucks you get when you sign up, for a total of 100 Swagbucks to start off with.

Avoid Temptation on Black Friday

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November 16, 2006: I See Crazy PeopleIf you’re like almost every other American, after you’ve gorged yourself on all the Thanksgiving day feasts, you’ll be headed out to do a little gorging of a consumer variety.  Black Friday is well known as one of the largest shopping days of the year.  Most every retail store has some huge deals for the turkey-drunk shoppers that wander to their doors.  And, like most every other American, you’ll likely spend way more than you had planned on spending.

 

 

 

 

 

As your favorite personal finance blogger, I urge you to not do that.  I’m all about buying what we need at a price that is below the normal retail price.  Sales, coupons, and rebates are the way to go when buying things that we need.  But, chances are, the things that will be on sale on Black Friday will not be things that you need.  In fact, they’re likely to be things like big-screen televisions, computers, and the hot toy of the day.  You’re going to be tempted to buy them all, because the marketing department makes it look like such a incredible deal!  Here’s some tips for avoiding that temptation, and coming away from your Black Friday shopping with a happy account balance.

  1. Have a budget.  This should be the only tip you need.  But, you’ll get in the store and be tempted.  But, having a defined budget for how much you are planning to spend is still a good thing!  Even if you go over that budget, you’re much more likely to at least stay close to it if you have a budget, than you are if you don’t have one at all.
  2. Make a list.  You’re likely shopping for gifts for everyone, hoping to make them all happy while saving some money on what you buy them.  Make a list of the people you’re planning on buying for, compare it to the flyers that will be inundating your vision over the next week, and then make a master list of people, with the things you plan on buying for them, and where you’ll be buying them.  Now, stick to your list!
  3. Be aware of prices.  Just because the marketing department put the price in big yellow letters over a big red starburst does not mean that it’s really a good deal.  The stores will be full of items that they are marketing as a big savings, when they really are not.  Be aware of the prices of competitors, sure, but also be aware of what the price for that item was last week and be wary of artificial sale prices that aren’t really sale prices.
  4. Don’t fall for the swap.  Many of the places will have a very limited amount of the big sale items on hand.  When they run out, they’ll “swap” the sale item for a similar item that’s more expensive.  You’re there for the big sale item, and you can’t leave without it, so you pay the little bit extra to get the similar item.  Usually, that “swap” item is regular priced, and not on sale at all.
  5. Free can be bad.  More than any other day in the year, the stores will be pushing free items.  “Buy a tickle-me-broke, and get a free tin can!”  The free item is usually a low cost item (loss leader) that they can afford to give away, while the item you have to buy is usually not on sale for as much as they’d like you to believe, and is a much higher profit item.

The biggest thing to remember while you’re doing your shopping next friday is to be aware.  Be aware that the store isn’t out to save you money.  They want to make money, so they will do what they can to bring you in the doors with a huge sale and then sell you all the high-profit items that aren’t on that huge sale list. We’ve all seen the videos each year of the people trampling each other trying to get one of the ten of those super cool kitchen gadgets, or video game systems.  Don’t be that person.  Be conscious of what you want to buy, how much it sold for before, and what the price should be the day you’re buying it.  Have a set amount you want to spend and stay close to that amount.  You’ll be happier that you did.

What are your plans for Black Friday?  Gonna be in the crowds at midnight?  Or wait until it cools off later in the day?  Or, are you a Cyber Monday shopper?

photo credit: Matt McGee

Couponing Doesn’t Need to be Extreme

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Every day, I hear people say that they don’t use coupons because they don’t have the time to go through the papers and mailers and clip the coupons. “It just takes too much time” they say. Those same people, will spend hours budgeting and finding ways to save themselves money, but they don’t see couponing as a viable use of their time and efforts. While coupons may not be as important to your financial health as a budget, they can be just as good as many of the other saving methods that you will employ.

With the popularity of extreme couponing, it’s no wonder that people feel that they need to spend hours each week pouring over newspaper inserts, clipping coupons, then sorting them all into categories and then making plans for where they’ll shop and what they’ll buy. In their mind, they see piles and piles of inserts, and closets full of extra supplies that they’ll need years to use up.

Box o' couponsCouponing doesn’t need to be extreme, though. If skipping your daily latte can be a good strategy for saving a few dollars a day, so can clipping a few coupons. Taking a few minutes each week to flip through the inserts in your paper and clipping the few coupons that you find for the things that you buy regularly can easily save you a few dollars a week. Signing up for manufacturer email newsletters can often result in an electronic coupon to print out once or twice a month. A few extra emails a month is a small price to pay to save a dollar or two.

Now, the thing to remember here is that you aren’t going to retire off of the money you’ll save. And, you certainly won’t be sending your kids to college with it either. But, saving money is saving money. A few dollars here, and a few dollars there all adds up in the grand scheme of things. Heck, maybe you clip coupons so that you can treat yourself once a week to that latte that you’re currently skipping.

Anything that can be done, has been done to an extreme. But, just because the extreme version of something is popular, doesn’t mean that it has to be the only way. Just like there are people who run extreme marathons of 100 miles or more, doesn’t mean that you can’t be a runner. Just because there are hyper-milers who squeeze every extra bit of MPG out of their cars, doesn’t mean that you can’t employ a few of the same methods to save a bit on gas. And, just because there are people who spend hours each week clipping, sorting, and analyzing coupons, doesn’t mean that you can’t spend a few minutes each Sunday to save a few bucks.

photo credit: sdc2027