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Yay for making it through the week to another Friday! And if you’ve read this blog before, you know that Friday means 5 Ways We’ve Saved Money This Week time! Click here to read any posts you’ve missed from the series.
This is a tough time of year to save money. There are sales and temptations to spend everywhere! I’ve made a sincere effort to stick with my plan and not buy extra gifts for people just because it’s on sale. Here are some other ways we’ve saved this week.
Cashed in rewards.
I had enough rewards points through both Bing Rewards and Swagbucks to get a $5 Amazon gift card from each of them. That’s a free to me $10 gift for someone right there! These programs are both pretty easy to earn points through. I explain them better in this post if you’d like to learn more.
Got a credit card.
What?? This is totally counterintuitive to saving money! Yes, it is. Especially if you lack the self-control to not use the card. Personally, I’m sick to death of bills, so I am not inclined to actually use this card. But when I saw that Amazon was going to knock $80 from my bill just for being approved for this card, I couldn’t resist. The best part is that I didn’t have to use the credit card in order to use my free $80, so I put the rest of the balance on my debit card. Talk about getting some shopping done!
Target Savings.
I finally signed up for the Red Card at Target. This is nice because you can link it directly to your checking account…it’s essentially another debit card, but one that gets you 5% off all of your purchases at Target. I avoided this for a long time because I wrongly assumed it was a credit card. When I found out it was debit, I avoided it because I didn’t have time to sign up with antsy kids at the checkout. I finally just did it online.
I also downloaded the Target Cartwheel app, which is cool because you can scan items you are interested in to see if they have any additional savings or coupons. I especially like saving money on items I was already going to buy.
Declutter and sell.
I’m constantly singing the praises of decluttering. It saves my sanity and saves me money, because once I’ve cleaned up I’m less inclined to buy more junk to fill those lovely empty spaces! This week I found some toys that weren’t loved by my kids, but in great shape. I was able to sell them to my local Once Upon a Child for a little bit of cash.
Free gift tags and wrapping.
There are tons of great free printable gift tags online! No need to buy any. Check out these or this roundup. I also like to use the big brown pieces of paper that Amazon tends to throw into some of their boxes as cushion. It makes a pretty package if you top it with a colorful bow. (Brown paper packages tied up with string!)
Follow me on Pinterest for more great Christmas ideas!
Follow Medium Sized Family’s board Holidays on Pinterest.
Merry Christmas! You get a bonus way we saved this week! It’s such a great way to save for almost no effort…
Rebates. Whenever I shop online, I make sure I start at Ebates first. They have links to almost any store you’d want to shop through, and they give you a percentage of every dollar you spend back. I have made over $100 through them just by making a couple of extra clicks on the computer.
Bonus frugal gift idea. If you missed it, be sure to check out yesterday’s post. It’s a great frugal gift idea for the tea lover in your life!
Don’t forget to let us know how you saved this week! Leave a link if you blogged about it. Let’s all learn something from each other.
I'm Jamie, and I want to help you afford a beautiful life with your family. 
I use the Amazon card all of the time for the points (and cash them in at Christmas), but I use it like a debit card: If the money isn’t in the bank and the budget to back it, I don’t use it. The card is paid off in full each month, so no interest accrues.
There are some real advantages to using a credit card instead of a debit card if you use it responsibly, including the fact that you have a longer window to challenge questionable charges and a lower liability/higher purchase protections..
So glad to read a reminder about swagbucks! I’d been keeping up with it before we went on vacation this summer & I’ve since forgotten all about it!
I love saving money!! 🙂 Thanks for sharing these tips – especially during this time of year! 🙂
I got gift tags online for free – and they are awesome! Blogging is amazing, because people make such things to share, and then you can find them and print them out and feel awesome about having GREAT tags!
I’ve only used the Cartwheel app a few times, and it was cool, but was kind of a hassle to use while shopping for things. Then again, I’m not at Target enough for it really to be something to fuss with.
I have a credit card, and I’m quite fond of it. Only because it gives me free food, ha. It’s through our local grocery store (but is actually through the bank that I use anyway), you get the normal store rewards program on it, but as well as double grocery points and then points for every purchase made outside of the store (so I pay my phone bill with the credit card, pay the credit card, get 76 points on my rewards account, etc). Payouts are every three months, and it’s usually about 20$ or so, which is almost a bag of dog food (it can be pretty darn close if there is a sale or I have a coupon). I’m not doing any extra spending with it (though I used to, when I had the expendable funds to be doing so) and am getting more benefits from it than if I were to be just using a debit card or the basic rewards system through the store. 🙂
That sounds like an awesome card to have! I love getting free food. 🙂
Now is the best time to stay frugal, what with all the parties due to the holidays.
Always good to stay money-wise. 🙂
I had no idea the Target card could be linked to my debit card either. I may go ahead and get one now that I know that I love an automatic discount even if it’s only 5%. I love this weekly posts they are so motivational. Thanks Jamie!
Yeah, I don’t mind it coming out as a debit. And they are giving Red Card members a free drink in December, so I’m assuming there are other little perks here and there with it.
I have GOT to sign up for Ebates! I keep reading about it everywhere, but I haven’t yet taken the plunge! Thanks for linking up at Frugal Friday! 🙂
Definitely check it out. It’s so easy to use, and sometimes they also give you coupon codes on top of the percentage of cash back so you get extra savings!
Fantastic advice this week! I have GOT to get back into swagbucks… and the $80 at Amazon for the credit card is a pretty sweet deal too! I did some decluttering and ebaying last month, and have a few more things to “usher out” this month too…
Thank you for sharing at Friday Frivolity!! 🙂
Thanks so much. I find that unless I set myself a weekly/daily goal for Swagbucks I tend to forget to do it at all. Love using it for birthday gifts, though!