Budget Archives - Making Sense Of Cents

My Favorite Black Friday Weekend Deals

Last Updated: November 28, 2022 BY Michelle Schroeder-Gardner - 1 Comment

Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links, meaning I get a commission if you decide to make a purchase through my links, at no cost to you. Please read my disclosure for more info.

Hey,

The deals are now over.

I recently published How To Save Money During The Holidays (20+ Ways To Save & Make Money!) if you are looking for ways to save money this holiday season.

Even though the sales have ended, I have other content you may be interested in:

Tip for shopping this holiday season:

There are a few other ways to save this holiday season by using easy cell phone apps! Don’t forget to:

Scan your grocery receipts with Fetch Rewards. Fetch Rewards is a cash back and gift card cell phone app that rewards you for purchases that you’ve already made. With Fetch Rewards, you can earn points by submitting your receipts to the Fetch Rewards app from any grocery store. Yes, ANY! You can sign up for Fetch Rewards here.
Shop with Rakuten and get cash back at online retailers. All you do is click on a store that you want to shop through (they have tons of stores such as Kohls, REI, Toys “R” Us, etc.) and shop just like how you normally would shop online and get cash back. Plus, when you sign up through my link and make a qualifying purchase, you receive a free $40 cash sign-up bonus.
Get cash back at gas stations with Upside. I recently downloaded this and it is very easy to use. GetUpside is a mobile app that helps you find gas stations, groceries, and restaurants where you can earn cash back. You simply sign up for a free account, and then look at the GetUpside app to find places near you. You can earn up to $0.25/gallon cash back at gas stations, up to 30% back on grocery purchases, and up to 45% back at restaurants. You can check out GetUpside here to learn more.

I use all three of these apps and highly recommend them if you are looking for easy ways to save money right now.

Enjoy!

How To Get A Free $40 When Shopping Online For The Holidays + $100 Giveaway

Last Updated: November 23, 2022 BY Michelle Schroeder-Gardner - Leave a Comment

Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links, meaning I get a commission if you decide to make a purchase through my links, at no cost to you. Please read my disclosure for more info.

Hello! I have partnered with Rakuten in today’s holiday shopping tips blog post. Don’t forget to enter the easy $100 giveaway at the end as well.

Did you know that there’s an easy way to get $40 cash back this holiday shopping season?

Yes, there is! And, it could not be any easier.

If you have holiday shopping to do, you can save a quick $40 today.

Here are some of the purchases that you may be making in the near future:

Gifts
Travel, such as flights to see your friends and family
Postage for any gifts or holiday cards
Holiday cards
Decorations for your home
Food for holiday get togethers

And more.

The average household spends over $1,000 over the holiday season. This can be a significant amount of money to spend.

Luckily, there is one easy way to save some money this month and all throughout the year.

You can actually get cash back on your purchases, and it is super easy to do! [Read more…]

Bask Bank Review: Earn Airline Miles For Saving Money

Last Updated: November 21, 2022 BY Michelle Schroeder-Gardner - Leave a Comment

Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links, meaning I get a commission if you decide to make a purchase through my links, at no cost to you. Please read my disclosure for more info.

This Bask Bank Review is in partnership with Bask Bank.

Are you looking for a savings account that will allow you to travel more and help you diversify your savings?

Bask Bank offers a new and unique way to save money. With a Bask Bank Savings Account, you can actually earn airline miles instead of interest just by saving your money in a savings account.

Yes, Bask Bank will pay you to save!

Bask Bank is helping people reach their savings goals by offering three ways to save – a Mileage Savings Account rewards account holders with 1.5 American Airline AAdvantage® miles for every $1 saved annually, an Interest Savings Account that earns 15 times the national average APY* (as of November 16, 2022, you can earn 3.60% APY with the Bask Bank Interest Savings Account) and a Certificate of Deposit Savings Account.

That is a very competitive interest rate and one of the highest that I have ever seen.

Sounds great, right?

If you have questions, such as the below, then this Bask Bank Review is for you:

What is Bask Bank?
Is Bask Bank safe?
Can Bask Bank help me travel more?
What is the Bask Bank Mileage Savings Account?
How many American Airlines AAdvantage® miles do I earn with a Bask Mileage Savings Account?
Is Bask Bank FDIC insured?

You can learn more about Bask Bank by heading to their website here. [Read more…]

How We Bought A House And Only Pay A $116 Monthly Payment

Last Updated: November 18, 2022 BY Michelle Schroeder-Gardner - 2 Comments

Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links, meaning I get a commission if you decide to make a purchase through my links, at no cost to you. Please read my disclosure for more info.

Hey everyone! I have an update to share from a reader named Nichole. She first shared her story in August of 2021 about how she went from -$20,000 to a six-figure savings by 26 years old. Today, she is sharing her story on how she bought a house and has a low monthly payment.

The following will outline the steps my husband and I, both 27 at the time of purchase, took to buy a house during a high market.

We did a previous post titled How We Saved Over $100,000 By Age 26. Although we did not reach our original goal of paying all cash for our home, we did get our monthly payment down to $116!

Yes, you read that correctly, one hundred and sixteen dollars.

I encourage you to read our story above before reading this one, as this is an update to the previous post. My husband and I have lived in a room the past 3 years with our 3 cats, and yes, it is as bad as it sounds. We are happy to announce we are living in our own home and our cats are very happy to run around and even have their own catio (cat patio)!

First, let’s start with the house details! Below is a short description of the purchase of our home. We bought early 2022 during a hot market in Southern California. [Read more…]

How We Retired At 29, Travel, And Keep Our Expenses Low

Last Updated: November 7, 2022 BY Michelle Schroeder-Gardner - 8 Comments

Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links, meaning I get a commission if you decide to make a purchase through my links, at no cost to you. Please read my disclosure for more info.

Are you interested in early retirement and financial independence? Today, I have a great interview with Lauren and Steven, a couple who managed to save enough money to retire from their full-time jobs at the age of 29.

They have done some really fun things since freeing themselves from full-time work, such as spending six months in Hawaii, visiting every U. S. National Park, and more.

In this interview, you’ll learn:

What they do for health insurance now that they don’t have full-time jobs
What Lean FIRE is
When they began saving for early retirement
How they’re able to keep their expenses low
How much they spend traveling in early retirement
The jobs they had before they quit
Whether or not they still work

And more!

This interview is packed full of valuable information on reaching early retirement. [Read more…]

How To Save Money During The Holidays (20+ Ways To Save & Make Money!)

Last Updated: November 1, 2022 BY Michelle Schroeder-Gardner - 1 Comment

Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links, meaning I get a commission if you decide to make a purchase through my links, at no cost to you. Please read my disclosure for more info.

Want to learn how to save money during the holidays?

It’s the holiday season, so you know what that means! It’s time to think about holiday gifts, holiday parties, and holiday food galore!

It’s also time to get serious about gift shopping and party planning. Maybe you even have some holiday travel planned to see your loved ones.

While there’s a lot of excitement during the holiday season, spending money on extra treats, decorations, and entertaining can add up fast.

The average person spends around $1,000 on gifts during the holiday season. Plus, you still have other costs such as travel, events, decorations, and more.

Because the holidays can be so expensive, today I want to teach you how to save money during the holidays! I’m going to share ideas for keeping your holiday spending to a minimum without scrimping on the holiday cheer. I will also be talking about different ways to make extra money during the holidays – there are so many ways to do it!

I’m covering both holiday spending tips and making money because that’s the best approach if you want to learn how to save money during the holidays.

After all, the holiday season is the most wonderful time of the year (at least it should be). But it can add a lot of stress if you aren’t financially prepared to spend extra money on gifts, traveling, and entertaining.

Fortunately, there are ways to save money during the holidays that will bring you peace of mind and holiday cheer. [Read more…]

How I Went From A 480 Credit Score To Over 750

Last Updated: October 14, 2022 BY Michelle Schroeder-Gardner - Leave a Comment

Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links, meaning I get a commission if you decide to make a purchase through my links, at no cost to you. Please read my disclosure for more info.

Hello! Today, I have a great guest post from Paul Martinez on how he cleaned up his credit and removed 104 negative items from his credit profile. He also went from a credit score of 480 to over 750!

In 2008 my world came crashing down. I went from being a multi-millionaire on paper to being $1,000,000 in collectible debt within a few short months.

At the time, I was running a $5,000,000 a year mortgage brokerage, and due to this credit market crash, 80% of our revenue evaporated in 2 months, yet our expenses stayed the same.

In addition, I had dozens of real estate assets, and I could not meet the payment obligations.

To be expected, my credit score dropped to around 480. For those who aren’t sure, that is a horrific credit score that can prevent you from simple things like getting a checking account.

It was not a super fun time. It was during this time that I was forced to figure out how I would go about repairing my credit.

I quickly realized it was going to be a combination of credit repair AND credit building that, over time, would bring my scores back over 750+. And that is exactly what happened.

A little backstory…

I always figured I was the golden child out of college, as everything I touched seemed to work out well. Youth has a way of inflating your ego and masking how good you really are. I will explain. [Read more…]