The financial crisis has hit many people hard. The majority of us have shifted to cautious spending and wise savings. We cut back on the non-essentials and and save up a Rainy Day fund. We fix rather than buy. We tighten our belts and protect our nesteggs. We ride out the storm.

I've been a listener of Dave Ramsey for a long time now and I've been working on the Baby Steps. I'm always looking to find ways to improve my bottom line. I've noticed that we spend so much of our time in survival mode, that we miss opportunities to save and make money. I'm listing some things that some of you may not know of, or didn't think it mattered much.

Credit Card Points: If you have created your budget and have the discipline to follow it, using credit cards is not a bad thing. We put everything on a credit card. We even pay our bills with the credit card. For every dollar that is on there, you can earn points! Credit card companies will vary in how much points you can earn and it's up to you to find the right card that fits your lifestyle. There are many cards that offer no annual fees and still offer points of some fashion.

I have 2 young kids so I subscribe to Upromise and have a Upromise Mastercard. Whenever we make purchases, 1-15% of our purchase ends up as a rebate. Most purchases are between 1%-5%, but there are many retailers and etailers that offer more. When you shop online at these etailers, you get points in two ways. You get points for shopping with them, plus you get points for using your Upromise Mastercard. We get a rebate check that averages $40/mo. Yes, that's each month!

We also have a Upromise 529 college fund and all of the rebates goes into there. So far, we've accumulated over $3,500 in free money for our kids's college fund.

Upromise: Even if you don't use their credit card, Upromise allows you to create an account and log in your existing credit card numbers, as well as grocery card membership numbers, pharmacy cards, and gas card numbers. So, you shop like you normally do, the savings just add up and you get them each month. Just register your cards, and go!

If you have family and friends that don't have kids of their own, or they're already finished with school, they can sign up for a Upromise account and have all of their rebates can be automatically sent to your account. A Upromise account is FREE and I have not seen any increases in spam mail or junk mail since being with them. We've been a member since 1998.

They even have a web browser add-on (IE and Firefox) that helps you search out retailers that offer rebates! That's how I found my bumper!


Costco: We have a Costco American Express/Costco Executive Membership. We pay $100 annually for this, but the benefits are fantastic. We get 2% back on our purchases at Costco, 3% on fuel, and 5% on travel. Along with the savings of shopping at Costco, we also take advantage of buying our home/auto insurance through them. This actually saved us $375 a year! A standard Costco membership is $50/yr.

This membership is $100/yr. So, we're paying $50/yr more. At the end of the year, if our purchases do not net us a rebate check from Costco that equals $50 or more, then Costco reimburses us the difference. So, we're never at a loss! Our average rebate checks are around $80 and we have 6 in our household and 3 cars that fill up at Costo. Heck, just the savings on the insurance premiums validate that this program is worth my extra $50/yr.

Coupons/Promo Codes: Memberships to Sam's Club or Costco is great, if you have a large family. If not, An hour of coupon clipping can save you TONS at the grocery store... and beyond! My wife clips coupons. She has a binder that she organizes all of her coupons. She can walk into a store, buy $400 worth of food, and walk out paying $70. My sister is CRAZY when it comes to coupons. She can walk into a store and buy $800 worth of stuff, and pay ZERO. Twice, they grocery store ended up paying her 12cents because the coupon values were more than the grocery value!

Both of them don't just buy what they need this week. They buy things that they will use this YEAR, as long as it has a shelf-life. Our pantry is filled with a variety of body shampoos, deodorants, disposable razors, Kleenex, soaps, tooth brushes, and a variety of other essentials, that we pretty much got FREE or for just pennies, by using coupons.

I surf the web and find promo codes. I look for promo codes when I have ANY online purchases. Recently I purchased a Rancho rear bumper/swingout tire carrier. This retails for $500 and shipping is usually around $50. I found a retailer selling it for $407.00, which also offer free shipping. I also found a $25 off promo code if I spend $400 or more. On top of that, they participated in Upromise and that netted me a 4% rebate. Since I paid with my Upromise credit card, it netted me an additional 11% rebate. At the end the bumper costed me only $350. That's a $200 savings!

Email subscriptions: Yuck! Aren't most of those SPAM emails??? Well, not if YOU intentionally signed up for them! We have a separate email address just for putting on survey cards, sweepstakes, and retail email lists. If it's a retailer you shop frequently, it's a good idea to join their email list. Coupons, pre-sales notices, and discount codes come across in them! Today, my wife went to old Navy. She got a $10 off gift card from them via email. She purchased 4 shirts to give away as Christmas gifts. The shirts were in the email flyer and got them for 60% off. By using her $10 email gift card, she walked out of there spending $3.12 for all four shirts!

Networking: If you have facebook or other social media outlets, you can find "friends" that can score you some deals, too! I found a "virtual friend" that worked for Hilton, and was able to get me a Suite near LAX for $89/night. I found another "virtual buddy" that worked Legoland and was able to get me some freebies when I visited. A collegue hooked me up with a corporate code to get a discount on my air and rental car. Lastly, I found a cousin that lived not too far from Anaheim so that saved me 3 days of hotel costs. This cut my family vacation cost by 50%!

Barter/Trade: I'm sure most of us already do this. Trading your goods/services for someone elses goods/services has been around forever. It still exist today! Most just do it with friends and families but don't know the network of "barters" out there.

Phx.backpage.com, craigslist.com, and bartergroup.com are some online sources for barter and trade. This is a great way to save money and also avoid paying some taxes. :)

I approximate that by using just these several Money Savings items, we save over $3,000 annually. A penny saved is a penny earned. and $3,000 pennies is nothing to sneeze at!

good info! thx for sharing.

Thanks for the info!

Jonathan and I have the Costco/AmEx card, too. We pay $50 annually which is the Costco membership fee (or the AmEx annual fee.... same cost). We charge absolutely everything we can on there, and obviously pay it off in its entirety monthly. Every year we get a check for about $400 back! You can either use it toward your purchase at Costco, or cash it there and charge your purchase again on your card, which is what we do.

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