Five Frugal Things Week of October 22

Double Checking Savings

We decided we could save if we did some of the home improvements ourselves. Normally before a trip to Harbor Freight, I would dig through my coupons to see what matched what we were buying. SO found an app recently that lets you scan the barcode of your items and tells you if there are any coupons on them and gives you a digital one for the cashier to scan. There ended up being discounts on everything we planned on buying and were able to get one of them as a free item. 

Mystery Discounts

I had a light course load this week so I was able to schedule some mystery shops. On Tuesday I took my car for an oil change. They had a great lobby with coffee and I was able to bring home a couple clementines for SO who was home sick. Mystery shopping has made all my oil changes in the last few years free and this one actually paid me twenty bucks. I declined the car wash they offered because I had a shop the next day that paid me to do it. 

On Wednesday I continued a route of merchandising shops that would add over a hundred dollars to my savings. The car wash was right across the street. While I was in the tunnel, I did a quick lookup on Field Agent and found out there was a pizza store next door that would pay me to order two pizzas. This, along with some greenery I had leftover, lasted us until the weekend.

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On Friday, I had a shop for a local movie theater. It covered the movie, plus a pint of beer and a slice of pizza (you can never have enough pizza). Field Agent had a bar audit available, so I grabbed it and swung by a British Pub I enjoy. They have a loyalty program that uses a digital punch card. On your fifth visit you get a discount, so whenever that type of beer audit comes up, I head over to the pub. The audit paid for a drink and got me one punch closer to a discount I can use later.

Delicious Deals

We haven’t set up the kitchen at the new place yet, so I kept an eye on food deals. I grabbed a free drink I earned at my favorite coffee shop on the way down to the house for the weekend. I also swung by McDonald’s. There, I used their mobile app to get a $1 McDouble and redeemed a free medium fry I won in their Trick. Treat. Win! promotion. Our city’s Restaurant Week was still going so we checked out a new place for dinner Sunday. I had a delicious (and large!) salad and filling mac and cheese. It was nice to see the restaurant did not cut down portion sizes for the promotion.

 

Small Wins

One of the perks of now owning a house is that we can get a grill. I was thrilled when I received an email from Sierra Nevada Brewing telling me a one a set of BBQ tools. We’re big craft beer fans, so we’ll totally be cracking a cold one in celebration on a first grilling session. This week I also won a bottle of Gatorade in the Subway Golden Token instant win game. I’m sure I could use the relief working on house projects. You can still enter once daily until November 18th for your chance to win NBA, NHL, and Daytona 500 trips, as well as Subway gift cards and merch. Use code Goldentoken2018 for a free entry.

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Cashback Adds Up!

I head back to Walmart to pick up some more money maker Glade candles from Swagbucks (still available until November 5th and mine already has been approved!) and free Forto coffee shots from Ibotta. We also went back to our Sunday pub. With all the Ibotta bonuses, I made three dollars going to the bar, even after tip! There is also a bonus out right now if you purchase through their mobile shopping and get a $2 bonus. I purchased green tea I had an Amazon deal for 50 cents and got back two cents plus the bonus!

How about you? What frugal things were you able to do this week?

How to use Amazon Merch to Increase Your Customer Base

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Amazon’s new Merch program allows you to take the most basic of apparel, the T-shirt, and transform it into a powerful business tool. Some of the reasons Merch is an ideal complement to your current marketing approach include:

  • One of the most important aspects of growing your business is visibility. If people do not know you exist, there is no way they can become clients. Amazon provides the audience to make your business go viral.
  • It is an easy way to create passive income for your business.  Merchandise is also great for fundraising for schools, bands, clubs, houses of worship, and other groups looking to raise awareness.
  • Apparel is an incredibly effective form of marketing.  Shirts are an easy way to get your company in front of many people.
  • Amazon handles all sales, so you do not need to store any inventory.

Looking to get started? Merch is currently invite only – but if you contact us you can get started today!