When it comes to my finances, I ask myself two crucial questions. One, “what do I need (housing, food, healthcare) and how do I pay less for that?” and two, “what do I want (travel, fun, books) and how do I pay less for that?”. That’s my frugality philosophy in a nutshell.
Even a frugalista needs a little fun in her budget! This FFT is about saving money on fun stuff. Without further ado…
I redeemed my Upside earnings for an $18 Starbucks gift card.
I don’t use any other money-making apps at the moment. I’ve found them to require too much time for too little reward. But Upside (referral link) is so easy. They offer cash back on gas purchases (and restaurants, but I never use those).
Before I fill up my gas tank, I open the app and it locates gas stations in my area that are offering cash back. I don’t have to upload receipts, I just click “claim” and pump my gas as usual. If you want to try Upside, go here. Use promo code CARRIE24633 to get an extra 0.15/gallon bonus.
I cashed out my Pinecone Research earnings and got another $18 Starbucks gift card.
I just said I don’t do any cash back coupon apps (besides Upside). Pinecone Research is a survey site that pays you to give your opinion about new products. The surveys take a few minutes each and are simple to do. I never log in to complete a survey unless I’m too tired to do anything else productive (and a survey for money is technically more productive than scrolling Instagram), or during an especially boring day at my part-time job (that I recently quit to focus on my writing again! Woooooot!).
I used Venmo to reload my Starbucks card and got $5 added to my account.
Is there an echo in here? Ha!
I do enjoy a Starbucks coffee from time to time, but don’t like paying for it! Here are some more ideas for how to save money at Starbucks if that’s your particular weakness. No judgment here!
I used a BOGO promo code to see Oppenheimer.
My oldest daughter and I were alone on Sunday. I took the opportunity to take her to see Oppenheimer. I rarely go to the movies, but couldn’t pass up a BOGO coupon from my internet service provider. Some movies are best on the big screen. (The movie was awesome btw, I’d like to see it again at home with captions. #captionsforlife)
I used a credit at a local consignment shop to buy clothes for my kids.
It’s back to school season, and the first place I head for clothes shopping is a consignment shop in my area. It’s still hot here so they didn’t need warm clothing yet, but they still picked up a few long-sleeved shirts, jeans and sweaters, and I had a nice credit in my account to apply to the purchase.
What frugal things have you been up to lately?
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