It’s been nearly three months since my “Life On Less” post so we figured it was worth doing a quick update (and collecting more great ideas from you guys on how we can all save a buck here and there). You might remember that four months ago we learned I’d be bringing home four fewer benjamins each month, and we’re pleased to report – thanks to many of your suggestions – that we’ve been able to stick to all but one of the money saving tactics I outlined in the previous post: stop buying music on iTunes, cancel my gym membership, watch movies at home and cash in some credit card points. Here’s how it all went down:
1. iTunes out, Pandora in: Several of you mentioned Pandora.com in your comments and boy am I grateful. I love it! You just input some of your favorite artists or songs and it builds a custom radio station filled with similar tunes. You can even thumbs-up or thumb-down songs to help Pandora learn your musical tastes over time. It’s completely free, though – if you’re like me – you might hit your 40 hour monthly limit pretty quickly. But the good news is that it’s only $0.99 to get unlimited access (which is a heckova lot cheaper than my old iTunes habit). I’m totally addicted, and I have you guys to blame/thank.
2. Sayonara Netflix, Konnichiwa Redbox: Again, at your recommendation we realized there was a less expensive option than our $15 per month Netflix bill. With Redbox, you can rent movies for a $1/night meaning even two movies per weekend only costs you $8 per month. And we’re not even usually that movie crazy. I think we’ve probably spent $6 total on movie rentals all summer thanks to Redbox. Sure, the movie selection is a bit narrower (note: do NOT rent “Knowing” with Nicholas Cage) but it still gets new releases and keeps us plenty entertained. Plus, we saved so much moolah with Red Box that we splurged on one trip to the theatre. I let Sherry drag me to The Proposal. Does that mean good husband bonus points for life?
3. Credit Card Points = Cash… and Magazines!: When we cashed in our stored up credit card points back in May for an awesome chunk of change, we suddenly found Bank of America offering us some free magazine subscriptions too. Usually we brush those off, but when the list showed several that Sherry and I routinely peruse at Barnes & Noble we said “sign me up.” So while this isn’t saving us any money directly, it has meant fewer trips to chill at B&N, which means avoiding the temptation to buy books… and cookies from the cafe. Plus we drop off all of our magazines at a local book store when we’re done with them (they offer them for free to their customers) so it’s a great way for us to read them without feeling wasteful.
4. Tapping the Brakes on My Gym Membership: Ok, so this is the one I didn’t follow through on. After a few weeks off I realized how much a midday workout did for stress release so I caved and kept my membership to the YMCA going. Though my workload has kept lunchtime trips to the gym at a minimum, unfortunately, I guess I’m not strong enough to let this one go. So instead…
5. Restaurant.com Is Our New BFF: Since we’re still amateurs in the kitchen, it’s tough for us to give up eating out entirely. But befriending Restaurant.com has certainly made dining out every once in a while much easier on our wallets. They sell a bunch of $25 gift cards for only $10 which means (with a usual minimum purchase of $35) we can save $15 on a meal out. Not bad, but we happened to snag a handful of coupons during a 80% off sale they were having, meaning those precious coupons were only $2! That equals a $23 savings each time we use one! And I recently learned they’re doing that promotion again through Aug 13th. Just enter “PORTION” upon checkout to score a $25 restaurant gift card for just two bucks! And there’s no waiting for the gift certificates to ship or worrying about them getting lost in the mail- just pay and print them right from your computer. Genius.
So that’s our update. What about you all? Did you uncover any new money saving tricks that you can teach the rest of us? Have you been able to stick to your money saving schemes or are you still being a tiny bit “flexible” like me with my gym membership? Our wallets thank you in advance for all the great ideas!
Pssst: To learn more about how we pinch pennies here at Casa Petersik (ex: Sherry gives me haircuts, we brown bag our lunches, we share one car, etc) check out our Save It series (read Part 1 here, Part 2 here, and Part 3 here).
Jessica says
http://www.swaptree.com/
From Swaptree:
Simply list the books, CDs, DVDs, and video games you have. Choose the items you want to receive. Then just swap your items through the mail. Swaptree’s trading engine instantly
shows you the many thousands of items you can receive in return for the items you are trading. Swaptree makes mailing your item easy by allowing you to print a perfect postage label right from your computer. There’s no worrying about stamps, weights, or visits to the post office. On Swaptree you can get the media you want for free, learn about new artists and authors, share your media collection with friends and meet people with similar tastes, all in a safe and green community. Free, fun, safe and green, what’s not to love?
Eileen says
Redbox is great! You can save even more money (like, all of it) by using the codes they dole out frequently. You can sign up on their website to receive notifications of codes that get you 1 movie for 24 hours for free!
You can also go to http://www.insideredbox.com/ , where they list different movie codes that are tried and true (and some that aren’t so much). I don’t even buy movies anymore – I just rent them for free from Redbox!
You guys are great!
Eileen
PS: About “Knowing”: I agree. I was pestered for months to watch it, and, when I was finally coerced into watching it, I regretted it. Just thinking about it now makes me miss those 2 hours of my life.
Sara says
Red Box: as an FYI – you can “reserve” online and pretty much get any movie you want… how’s that for fabulous cheap rentals?
Casey says
ok so i know this is an older post but i figured you would love the tid bit anyways, becoming friends/fans of your favorite restraunts on facebook has its perks, they send coupons to their fans every now and again. The other day we had a coupon for a free blooming onion at outback :) And if your like me any food thats free is good food :) so sign up and eat free!
erin w says
this is an older post. i don’t know if you check back here, but i was browsing through the categories on your newest post, and here i am. anyway,
i don’t know if this helps you or not, but there are quite a few deals sites, like moneysavingmom.com, hip2save.com and commonsensewithmoney.com. when i lost my job late last year, this helped my husband and i save money without giving up things. actually, we have more, and are able to help out a few others in our area. so anyway, hope that helps and you can find something you use. if you already use a site like those, then please disregard, i just thought i’d leave you my favorites. hope that was useful : )
YoungHouseLove says
Thanks for the suggestions! We’ll definitely check them out.
xo,
s
Barb says
Hey guys, I thought I would give you a money saving tip for when you welcome your new baby home… it is a trick I learned from my sister in law. First of all cloth diapers can be really great since you can buy a few dozen and then rinse them in the toilet (with a special hose hookup) and do an extra load of laundy once or twice a week. Also my sister in law either cut up some old fabric or bought some cheap soft cotton fabric and put them in a tuberware container lightly soaked in water in place of baby wipes. Those two things have saved them tons of money on expensive wipes and diapers.
Hope this helps if you guys didn’t already think of this!
YoungHouseLove says
Thanks so much for the advice! We just ordered our cloth diapers and picked up a diaper sprayer yesterday and we can’t wait to use them! We also love your cheap wipes suggestion!
xo,
s
michelle says
as frugal youngsters ourselves (me 27, husband Adam 28) we were pretty pumped to read about the depth of your penny pinching and saving ways (well done on the paid off car!)!
just wanted to pass along a primo website for scoring amazing sales and coupon codes that my oh-so-frugal mother-in-law has turned us on to: http://slickdeals.net
this site is AMAZING and we owe nearly all of our reallygood finds to these wonderful couponers. hope it helps you!
-michelle and adam
YoungHouseLove says
Thanks for the link! We’ve actually heard about that site more than once so we’ll definitely have to check it out!
xo,
s
Amanda says
Don’t know if someone has already mentioned it or not, but http://www.grooveshark.com is in some ways better than Pandora. It will let you build your own playlists kinda of like Itunes does, (specific songs/artists) No limited listening time, You can forward through songs without a limit per hour, etc. Check it out…you know, with all of your free time! =)
Anu says
Hi ,
have been hooked to your blog since the last 2 weeks when I found this (inside DIY magazine). Thanks for all the great tips etc.
what is this credit card points ? cashing them in ? meaning one actually gets money for using the credit card… I am sure after collecting some points for using the card.
Please explain how you use this in your life ? never done it myself so looking for tips. Thanks !
YoungHouseLove says
Yup, just call your credit card company and ask if you earn points for your purchases. Then ask how to cash them in. Hope it helps!
xo,
s
Lacy says
You should trye Grooveshark —- you can put in songs that you want, and create your own playlist. It won’t spit out new songs for you to try —but if you know what you want to hear —it is great!
Allie says
Hey Sherry!
I recently found this website that streams videos for free, and it has a LOT of different things to watch. You don’t have to sign up for anything, you just search titles, click the links and go! The URL’s letmewatchthis.com. Personally, I only go for the links that are hosted at Putlocker (you can see where all the links are hosted to their right). I’ve watched a bunch of movies on here- just finished all the Star Wars saga, and I’m working my way through Dawson’s Creek. :]
Hope this helps you in your savings!
Allie
YoungHouseLove says
Never heard of that- thanks for the tip! We’ll have to check it out…
xo,
s
Lori says
I like to utilize Bing Rewards when searching the web. Once you collect a certain amount of reward points, you can trade them in for gift cards. I like to get Amazon gift cards because they are the quickest to get, and also because I am a book-a-holic so every little bit saved helps. This is not a fast way to earn money, nor will it make you rich but it’s a slow way of earning free money for something I do anyway. Here’s a link: http://go.microsoft.com/?linkid=9778718&rrid=_3bbd8ba4-831f-2eb0-50c8-d860c830a5ce
I also utilize my local library system for free movies and use Redbox when they send out codes.
Groupon can be nice for great saving on special treats like massages, mani/pedi’s etc.
YoungHouseLove says
Great tip!
xo
s