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Amazon Prime and Prime Day
We love Amazon Prime. Prime day is just another reason to love it.
I admit I was wondering why Amazon was hyping up Prime Day, which is today, July 12th 2016.
We’ve had our Amazon Prime subscription for years (at least back to 2008!) We’ve come to love the all-you-can-eat two-day shipping that’s the cornerstone of the Prime membership. Amazon didn’t need to sell us on it anymore.
Then I saw the notification in my email wishing me a Happy Prime Day.
All right, I’ll check it out.
Well, right now there are nearly 10,000 Prime Day deals that are either active, or are going to be active today, across the breadth of categories of products that Amazon offers.
It’s basically like Black Friday in July.
Rebate site with a twist: Lemoney
This rebate site has a component I haven’t seen in this context …
I love that there are a number of rebate sites. Competition is good, because it means better deals for everyone.
Each rebate site has its own methods for getting its members to use it. It could be high rebates, deals, coupons, or other bonuses.
A new rebate site, Lemoney, puts a twist on the concept with an old concept.
Trying to make a buck, way back when
For a time I spent a lot of time using traffic exchanges to get people to view my affiliate landing pages for some program or other. (In exchange for viewing other people’s links, I’d get views of mine.) This exposed me to a lot of multilevel marketing programs, and I saw how they worked.
Two money saving websites I’ve used for (practically) forever
Ebates and MyPoints were two of the first money saving websites I used …
I’ve used the web for about half my life. The first time I sent an email was in 1994, after graduating from college. So, yeah, I’ve been around awhile.
As I was doing some poking around for another post I logged into some sites I check regularly: Ebates and MyPoints.
Both of these sites have kept track of how long I’ve been members. I joined Ebates in January of 2002, and MyPoints in August of 2003. That’s a long time ago in web terms.
Ebates: First used to save money on my honeymoon
The first time I used Ebates was to save some money booking my flight for my honeymoon. (We visited Sonoma wine country in California for a few days.) This was my first foray into using money saving websites.
Independence Day: Eight frugal activities
Independence Day is upon us. No need to spend a ton of money enjoying it …
This past weekend I got a belated Father’s Day gift and saw Independence Day: Resurgence, so I got into a Fourth of July mood a bit early.
Independence Day: Halfway there
In addition to its significance in American history, Independence Day, at day 184 or 185, is really, really close to the center of the year. (July 2nd is the middle day of the year.) Half the year has gone by, and it’s a good time to take stock of how it’s gone. If things aren’t quite on track, then there’s the second half of the year to work on it afresh!
In the meantime, though, it can be a time to recharge and enjoy the company of friends and family.
Weather any day of the year can be great or not-so-great. Here’s a combination of activities for either case.
Bucket list: The size of yours matters
Bucket list items are things you want to do during your lifetime. How big is yours?
The bucket list is a term that likely originated in 2004 in a book by Patrick M. Carlisle:
“So, anyway, a Great Man, in his querulous twilight years, who doesn’t want to go gently into that blacky black night. He wants to cut loose, dance on the razor’s edge, pry the lid off his bucket list!” ~from Patrick M. Carlisle’s Unfair & Unbalanced: The Lunatic Magniloquence of Henry E. Panky,
The idea: Your bucket list is the list of things you want to do before you kick the bucket.
Three letters that will millionaire you
And this millionaire strategy is not to W-I-N the lottery …
I recently was tipped off to a personal finance blog that focuses on achieving wealth through three simple steps. These steps are so fundamental to achieving wealth, the initial letters are baked into the name of the blog.
ESIMoney.com focuses heavily on how important it is to earn, save, and invest.
Bring it in: Earn
Money doesn’t grow on trees. (Unless you have an orchard, then it’s pretty darn close!)
Ten benefits of eating at home
(This post was originally posted on June 21, 2016, and has been updated.)
Eating at home instead of eating out is beneficial in a number of ways …
Our rural-ish county is slowly catching up to the 21st century. It was only a few years ago that we got a Walmart, and this year we got a Starbucks.
The choice of restaurants has been a bit sparse compared with surrounding cities that have a more built-up commercial area. We've had a few sit-down restaurants but the only chain places to speak of have been fast-food places.
Eating at home is a good option
One of the better ones was an Indian restaurant. It's the only restaurant I've been in that the owner has flat-out refused to give someone more than moderately-spicy food on their first visit. Even after I've gotten food that was fairly spicy, he still refused to give me dishes that native Indians eat.
It's been one of our favorite places to eat in the county.
Credit card rewards the right way
Credit card rewards are a bonus for responsible use. Don’t forget that …
Credit card rewards are a regular part of our monthly financial activities. With very few exceptions, we get at least 1% off of each purchase we make with our primary credit cards.
In addition to this, there can be bonuses on sign-ups for new cards.
Earn credit card rewards without shooting yourself in the foot
From the bank’s perspective, the reason for offering rewards on purchases is simple: to get you to use the card. Doing this is happy for them in a few ways:
Vera Bradley yard sale craziness
Vera Bradley purses and accessories have a long, strong following. My wife didn’t believe the deal I got these purses for …
My ladies really love themselves some Vera Bradley. A number of her friends really love themselves some Vera Bradley.
So … let’s just say that I scored some serious brownie points with the deal I got on someone’s personal collection of Vera Bradley purses, totes, and accessories.
Vera Bradley: Good for yard sales?
Some things sell great at yard sales; others don’t. If there are people selling things at anything but fire-sale prices at a community yard sale, it’s going to go back home with them. (There was a Thirty-One consultant at this yard sale. Everything she was selling was full retail. No thanks!)
Nine yard sale tricks you probably already know (but what the hey)
Yard sale shoppers don’t leave home without their bag of tricks. Add these (or remember that you had them in the first place!) …
After a wet May, Memorial Day weekend dried up enough that people rolled things out on their driveway for yard sales. Two of them were in our subdivision, so it would have been silly to miss those.
Each sale is unique, just like each family running the yard sale is unique. Each sale has its own flavor and its own deals (or lack thereof), so each presents its own challenges and fun.
Yard sale tricks you’ve probably heard of but why not
Here are a few tricks we used at this past weekend’s yard sales to help us get some great deals:
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