Hey, It's Free! » Budget Busters

Free Shipping with ShopRunner

Goob — Mon, 14 Nov 2011 19:59:03 +0000

We’re 40 days away from Christmas. Yep, you read that correctly. I’m going to highlight a few services and websites over the coming weeks that might make your life easier during the holidays (and beyond), but remember that there are tens of thousands of Hiffers out there. Every service isn’t going to be best for you, so I’m only focusing on ones that I use or ones that I think most people would find helpful.

You’ve probably heard of Amazon Prime. For $79, you can get free two-day shipping on pretty much every Amazon purchase. It’s awesome. The problem is when you go to buy something on another site, you’re back to paying $6 for shipping that takes a week if you’re lucky. Enter ShopRunner.

ShopRunner is a yearly $79 membership site in the mold of Prime. But instead of being available for just one store, it’s works on over 50 participating stores (with dozens more on the way) that have banded together to offer free two-day shipping. A membership gets you free shipping from NewEgg, Toys and Baby-R-Us, MLB and NFL.com, American Eagle, PetSmart and tons more. Even better, you get free shipping on any returns as well. Because, let’s be honest, we all occasionally make a regrettable 2am drunk purchase.

Aside from the free shipping for yourself, you can also designate up to four fellow household family members to share your account.

Is this for you? I don’t know. I have no idea what your online shopping habits are. However, if you and your family shop even a handful of times online at participating stores, you’ll make your money back through saved shipping costs rather quickly. In fact, ShopRunner is so confident you’ll love them, they’re giving people a free 30 day trial with no strings attached. If you like the service, you can keep it past the trial. If not, you are free to cancel it.

So if you do as much online shopping as myself, give ShopRunner a shot and see how awesome they are.

Host a House Party, Get Free Stuff

Goob — Fri, 04 Feb 2011 15:15:43 +0000

Speaking of Coffee-Mate, remember a few months back where you got a coupon and were entered into a chance to host a Coffee-Mate sponsored party? Yeah, me neither, but the post is sitting right there in the archives so it must have happened!

Hiffer Teresa recently posted on our Facebook page that she was accepted and got all the following for free:

Cranium board game
A Poker Set
17 coupons for Free Coffee-mate Creamer (Liquid or Nondairy, up to 3.99)
30 Nescafe single coffee packs
25 Coffee-Mate single pack Creamers
Cups and Napkins

You might be asking yourself why she got these freebies. It turns out that some companies offer boatloads of freebies in exchange for using them to host a house party. They get to place their products in front of you and your friends while you to have a sponsored party. It’s win-win!

Now unfortunately the Coffee-Mate offer is dead. But instead of getting bummed that you missed out, check out HouseParty.com where you can sign up for the following parties:

AARP Celebrate Life @ 50 House Party
DiGiorno Pizza & Hoops House Party
Huggies Pull-Ups House Party
Johnsonville Italian Inspiration House Party
Philadelphia Creme Cheese Dinnertime Dilemma House Party
Singer Sew Very Easy House Party
Tapena Wine and Tapas House Party (Only available in CO, DE, FL, GA, MD, MA, NJ, NY, OR and WA.)
Zatarain’s Brings Mardi Gras Home House Party

Remember, these companies are looking for people who 1) have friends and 2) are outgoing enough to invite them over for a party. In order to screen applicants, they do make you take a survey with around 20 questions. But as long as you’re not some hermit with no social skills you’ll have a chance at being selected.

So which Hiffers out there have hosted one of these house parties. How did it go and would you ever want to do it again?

Budget Busters #6 – Local Coupon Sites

Goob — Tue, 14 Dec 2010 19:59:48 +0000

By now you’ve probably already heard of Groupon. Any company that can turn down a $6 billion acquisition offer from Google is sure to get people’s attention. Well I’ve been using the site since Christmas last year and long story short, they’re freaking awesome.

The site name comes from a combination of Group and Coupon, which is a good way to describe how it actually works. In essence, once a day there is a super deal offer presented to your region. If enough people buy it, then the deal “is on” but if there aren’t enough people interested, then it dies and you aren’t charged anything. For instance, in my Groupon region recently, there was an 18-hole round of golf for two people plus cart for $39, which was around 70% cheaper than the normal cost. Now the only golf I play is putt-putt, so I passed, but you get the idea.

How about this for a better example: right now, Groupon is running a deal with Redbox. For $1, you can get 3 movie rentals! The offer is good through midnight tonight (Tuesday, Dec. 14) and the Redbox codes don’t expire until March of next year.

That’s pretty much it! Sign up, check the site each day, and snag whatever they’re selling cheaply if it tickles your fancy (I have no idea what that means). With birthdays always cropping up, I figure I’ll buy anything I see priced especially well and bask in the glow of my friend’s praise!

Of course, Groupon‘s enormous success has spawned thousands of copycat sites. Below you’ll find some of the more well known ones here in the states.

Site	Cities	Comment
Groupon	150+	The first and best. They have branches in almost every large city as well as tons of smaller ones (Akron, Louisville, Salem, etc.) I personally check their site once a day.
LivingSocial	108	I find LS to be one of Groupon's biggest competitors and check it daily as well. Right now they're doing a charity drive where a portion of all purchases will go to DonorsChoose.
SocialBuy	51	This site is a bit more like Swagbucks. Not only do they have daily deals per city, but you earn points for each deal that you purchase. Said points can then be exchanged for giftcards down the road.
Adility	45	It's kind of getting a bit repetitive at this point. They have a fairly large pool of cities to choose from and their deals have rocked in my area lately.
BuyWithMe	26	Obviously with only 26 cities, this site is only worth checking out if you live in or near a major metropolis.

So what Hiffers are already using any of these sites? Let us know in the comments what kind of great deals you’ve snagged!

Budget Busters #5: Redbox Rental Codes

Goob — Fri, 28 May 2010 18:00:38 +0000

Last year, Redbox gave away a free rental code every Monday. After it became a huge success, they changed the program to one free code per month. They then changed the program once again and instead of releasing one code for everybody, they asked people to sign up on their site and get a text message with a unique, free code.

So while I’d love to share with you the code that I get on the first Monday of each month, I can’t as it’s only valid for me. So if you have a Redbox nearby and want to make sure you get a free rental code each month, make sure you sign up!

Budget Busters #4 – All You Magazine

Goob — Fri, 21 May 2010 17:31:36 +0000

My obsession with All You magazine started last month when Hiffer Shaynon said HIF was mentioned in the April issue. I ended up getting a subscription and the June issue arrived today. After flipping through it, there’s only one thing I have to say: hello Couponville. According to All You’s own site, there are over $100 in coupons in this month’s edition ($102.61 to be exact).

So I’ve started to view All You similar to a newspaper subscription. Just like you pay to have coupons delivered to you every Sunday, it makes sense to find the lowest price for an All You subscription so that you can take advantage of their coupons.

Amazon currently sells it for $19.95 a year, which is still a good deal. But if you don’t mind a few extra steps, you can get a one year subscription for $14.37!

Sign up with Big Crumbs.
After logging in, search for magazines.com
Click on the orange “shop now” button and you’ll be taken to magazines.com
Now search for All You and you’ll see it listed as $19.97.
Make your purchase and then head back to Big Crumbs. Within two weeks, your account will be credited with 28% of your purchase, or about $5.60.
This means your final price is $14.37 for a one year subscription!

The $5.60 rebate from Big Crumbs will be sent to you via Paypal. From start to finish, it took about five weeks for me to receive my rebate and my first issue. You’ll only need to use a few coupons to recoup the cost and seeing as how you’ll get 12 issues each with $100 in savings, chances are you’ll come out ahead.

Budget Busters #3: Mint.com

Goob — Tue, 18 May 2010 16:47:37 +0000

The amount of time I spend online can only be classified as unhealthy. While the oncoming bout of scurvy is sure to put a cramp in my style, one of the upsides is coming across random sites and services that I think might be useful to fellow Hiffers. I’ve been using one such site for almost two years now and frankly, it rocks. Long story short, if you’re not using Mint.com, you’re missing out.

If you’re anything like me, you have tons of financial institution sites that you can log into. Banks, online savings accounts, credit cards, retirement services, student loans, investments. The only thing harder than logging into each of them every day is trying to figure out how to match my clothes in the morning. Navy blue and neon pink go together, right?

Enter Mint.com. It’s a site that allows you to access all of your financial information in one place. When I log in, it also logs into all of my accounts and updates my balances as well as recent activity. Worried about security? They use 128-bit SSL encryption, which in Nerd Language means the same stuff that banks use when you pay bills online or buy something from Amazon.

Seeing how much money you have in all your accounts only scratches the surface of what the site does. One feature is setting up budgets. Take me: I have a serious addiction to iTunes. Be it music, TV shows, iPhone apps – it doesn’t matter. Having them only clicks away is dangerous enough, but when everything is only $1 here and $2 there, it’s easy to lose track of how much I’m really spending each month. So what I do is tell Mint.com that I only want to spend $20 a month on iTunes and then it’ll not only start monitoring it for me, but send me an alert when I’m getting close to my limit.

I could delve into a million other little features they have (iPhone app, credit card & investment suggestions based on your spending habits, etc.) but by now I’d simply suggest checking out the site. Even if you’re still skittish, just have a look around. It’s a phenomenal service and most important, it’s free!

Budget Busters #2 – Customer Reward Programs

Goob — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 20:25:35 +0000

Everybody knows that their local grocery store offers a customer rewards program, but did you know that many other stores where you might make everyday purchases offer them as well? Below I’ve compiled a list of such programs and there were quite a few I didn’t even know about. (I can’t tell you how many movie ticket’s I’ve bought over the past few years – wish I’d known about Regal’s program earlier!)

Last Updated: 01/03/12

ACE Hardware (ACE Rewards) – Earn 10 points for every $1 you spend and once you get 2,500 points, you get a $5 reward. You also get 1,000 free bonus points on your first purchase so you basically have to spend $150 the first time around before getting a reward. If you are a DIY person, spending that much on home improvements isn’t hard.

AMC Theaters (AMC MovieWatcher) – You earn two points for every ticket you buy and can get up to four point per visit. Cash the points in for free popcorn (10 points) or movie tickets (30 points).

AutoZone (Rewards) – Spend $20 in-store and you earn one credit. If you then earn five credits within six months, you’ll receive $20 AutoZone store credit.

Best Buy (Reward Zone) – For every $250 you spend, you’ll get a $5 gift certificate as well as special offers during your birthday month.

CVS Pharmacy (ExtraCare) – Earn 2% back with every purchase in-store and online, plus earn 1 Extra Buck for every 2 prescriptions purchased.

Dick’s Sporting Goods (Score Card) – Earn one ScoreCard Rewards point for every $1 you spend in store or online. Once you accumulate 300 points, you’ll earn a $10 reward.

Dunkin’ Donuts (Dunkin’ Perks) – Use the promo code DDPERKSCoffee and receive a coupon in the mail for a free medium coffee.

Eddie Bauer (Friends) – Earn 10 points per every $1 spent and once you hit 1,750 points ($175 spent), you’ll get a free $10 gift card. Thanks to Barb for pointing this out!

Hallmark (Hallmark Gold Crown) – 1 point is earned for every $1 spent plus you get bonus points for every card you buy. Points can then be used to earn discounts and coupons.

JC Penny (JCP Rewards) – Register online with any credit or debit card and you’ll automatically earn points when you use them to make a purchase. Every dollar spent earns 1 point and you need 250 points to get a $10 gift card. But watch out, points don’t roll over month to month, which stinks if you ask me.

Office Depot (Worklife Reward) – They offer 10% back on ink, toner, paper & design, and printing / shipping services. Everything else earns 1% back.

PETCO (Petco PALS) – In-store purchases receive discounted prices similar to how grocery stores reward programs operate. In addition, if you purchase 10 bags of the same brand and size premium dry dog or cat food within a 12-month period, you get one free. They have a similar “buy 8, get 1 free” pet grooming policy.

Petsmart (PetPerks) – Sign up now and receive a Welcome Kit with more than $100 in store coupons. In addition, you get exclusive offers and coupons sent to you.

Regal Cinemas (Regal Crown Club) – Earn one credit per dollar spent on tickets plus you earn four credits for every concession transaction. Their reward program is similar to a ladder, where you earn prizes at 50 points earned, 100, 150, etc. And last, but not least, members become eligible for special deals on certain days ($1 Candy Monday, $1 Popcorn Tuesday, etc.)

SEARS (Craftsman Club) – Looks like they’ll just send you mailings and coupons, but there’s no points system.

Staples (Staples Rewards) – Like Office Depot, they offer 10% back on ink, toner, paper & design, and printing / shipping. However, they don’t offer the 1% back on everything else. Booo. To make up for this shortcoming, they give $2 in rewards for every used ink cartridge that you bring in. They also have a rebate program for teachers, which makes me wonder if stay-at-home parents who home school their children would qualify for.

TGI Fridays (Give Me More Stripes) – Earn an $8 certificate for every $100 spent (excluding alcohol-only purchases) plus get a coupon for a free appetizer when you sign up AND a one-time use jump-the-line-pass. That pass alone is worth it for me.

Toys incorrectly-displayed-R Us (Rewards R Us) – Earn $5 for every $150 spent during certain periods, which tend to be around three months. In addition, earn discounts on diapers and baby formula.

True Value (True Value Rewards) – Earn a $10 gift certificate for every $250 you spend.

Ulta Beauty (ULTA reward) – They have all sorts of levels that correspond to how much you spend with them. Suffice to say, if you shop there, you should sign up for the free rewards program

I’m sure I missed a few free rewards programs, so if you know of any, let me know!

Budget Busters #1 – Coupon Book

Goob — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 23:39:21 +0000

EDIT: So obviously the 2009 Entertainment Book is no longer available, however you can get the newest version here!

So Budget Busters is going to be a new series where I explain ways to save money while spending money: coupon, lowering your utility bills, trading items instead of buying them new, stuff like that. This first one covered the new Entertainment 2009 Coupon Book that basically has the following pros & cons:

Pros

Comes with $20,000+ in coupons.
You can look at the coupons in your area’s book before you get it! This is a huge bonus and that I think some people overlook. You essentially know exactly what you’re getting upfront.
Many of the coupons can only be found in this booklet and are worth more than most circular coupons. (free entree instead of only an appetizer, etc)
Each book is area specific (mine is for the D.C. region only), so around half of the coupons are for locally owned and small stores.
Coupons expire on Nov 1, 2009 at the earliest, so you have almost a year to use them.

Cons

Costs between $16-20, but comes with free shipping.
Some of the coupons for on-line retailers can be found by Googling.
Most restaurant coupons are BOGO, so it’s not that great for a single person.

I gave an example in the video of how I ate at my favorite Mexican hole in the wall recently for my birthday and used a BOGO coupon for a free $10 entree. That’s already half of the cost it took to purchase the coupon booklet and after I use the second BOGO coupon in a few months, I’ll have recouped the price of purchase. After that, every time I use one of the other hundreds of coupons, it’s like free money.

So at the very least, check out your region’s Entertainment 2009 Coupon Book and see if the coupons in your area interest you! If so, order a book while it’s still on sale for 30% off WITH free shipping!

I also announced the winner of the $50 Target gift card, which was Deem2. Thank you to everyone who participated and if you’re now following me on Twitter, send me a message and I’ll gladly reply!

There’s also one last hidden clue in the video about something else coming up, but I can’t say anything more about that