One of the easiest, low effort ways to save MONEY is to use your credit cards effectively.
Hopefully everyone that has a credit card has Cash Back Rewards. It is the easiest way to save money if you disciplined enough to have a credit card. To start most cards give you 1% back on all your purchases. And Capital One even gives you a 50% bonus on all the rewards you earn at the end of the year so basically 1.5% back!
Chase Freedom card is making a come back by offering quarterly rewards on Categories where you can earn 5% back. This first quarter of the year is Starbucks, Drugstores and Gas Stations. And thanks to a poster on Slick Deals, I found a genius no effort way to discounted gift cards.
At Drug Stores like Rite Aid, there a ton of No Fee gift cards like the Home Improvement Card, Macy's, and other retailers. Buy buying your gift card at Rite Aid you'll get 5% back!! So in a sense it's an easy 5% discount on Gift Cards. Near the end of the promo, I even plan on getting a Rite Aid gift card to help me save even further!
Discover Card does the quarterly rewards special as well. And it would be a great time to get gift cards to restaurant gift cards not at your local drug store. Hint: even McDonalds! The reason Discover remains my favorite is they offer discounted gift cards as part of their Rewards Redemption as well, so you really can stretch you savings with them. And not to mention if you Shop Discover some retailers like Groupon allow you to get 15% back!
Ultimately, my strategy this year is to charge all my non special things like utility bills on my Capital One Card for their effective 1.5% back on everything. And rotate my special purchases like Movies to the appropriate Cash Back Bonus program and to save ahead with Gift Cards!
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