How do you save more money without cutting back or making more than your peers? Perhaps we can gather resources here to find free entertainment, great credit card churning offers, rebates, and other fiscally savvy tips and tricks.
EntertainmentGofobo. Like good movies? Like going to the theater? Do you want to have access to sneak peeks of a good chunk of new movies? Then gofobo has got you covered. Make an account, specify your location and keep your phone nearby and keep your eyes peeled for weekly sneak peak offer of some of the hottest box office hits. Make sure you set an alert on your phone for when you receive an email from gofobo because they run out of tickets FAST. From my experience, you need to request a sneak peak pass within 10 minutes of receiving the email to ensure you get a pass. If you get a pass, you get a ticket for two to the film. Make sure you arrive 45 minutes early to ensure you get a seat as they do hand out more passes than there are seats so some people will be disappointed. So far, the wife and I have seen The Martian, The Last Witch hunter, Goosebumps, and the new Maze Runner movie within the past couple weeks and they were completely free (sneak in your snacks and drinks). We had plenty of options to see other movies too but we are a bit more selective over which movies to scope out. A link to gofobo is as follows:
https://www.gofobo.com/index.phpCiti Private Pass. It's just like Gofobo but it's not as easy to get screeners in my area through CPP. I hear they also limit you to one screener per 6 month period but I havent verified this. A CPP link is as follows:
http://advancescreenings.com/outlet/citi_private_passShoppingEbates. Perhaps the worst kept mustachian secret is Ebates. If you have been living under a rock, Ebates is an online cash back referral site. The way it works is that you go to Ebates and use their link to go to the site you want to buy from. A popup will come up saying you are on your way to getting X% cash back. Once you complete the purchase, your Ebates account will get credited with x% of the purchase within a couple days and Ebates will send you a paper check in the mail quarterly (I think you have to have at least $5.00 credit before they send the check but I may be mistaken. Before I buy ANYTHING online, I check to see if Ebates offers cash back. Most sites I use only offer 3-5% cash back but nearly every site I shop from is on Ebates and I do a lot of online shopping because I find better deals that way. Recently I even got 9% cash back from a big purchase I made at Jos A Banks.com, that was a very nice little bonus. As an added bonus, Ebates will give you a free $10.00 gift card after you make an account and make your first purchase by going to their site first. If you use my referral code, I will get a $5 credit as well:
http://www.ebates.com/rf.do?referrerid=YF6mujZls09aA683LlEkRg%3D%3D&eeid=28187
Retailmenot. This is another good site for online shopping. It’s a site that compiles a bunch of online promo codes and coupons for use at nearly every online retailer. I use it with conjunction of Ebates. I find what I want to buy, go to Retailmenot to check for coupon codes, then go to Ebates to use their cash back link. Retailmenot is great, but many of the coupon codes don’t work so you have to be prepared to try different coupon codes to maximize your savings. You can even use this site on Domino’s Pizza! A link to Retailmenot is:
http://www.retailmenot.com/
Groupon. This is a site that offers steep discounts on many restaurants and entertainment events. My wife uses this site often to get 50% at restaurants. They often have additional promotions where you can get either $5 off any Groupon purchase or 20% off any Groupon purchase. Just this week we were in Vegas for vacation and were going to head over to the National Atomic Testing Museum and stumbled upon a 50% Groupon deal and paired it with Ebates for an additional 6% cash back! We saved about $25 on that one purchase! My referral code to Groupon is as follows:
https://www.groupon.com/visitor_referral/h/864f0897-aa81-41d6-aef8-9ae9605eeb12Livingsocial. This site is just like Groupon but it doesn’t seem to have nearly as many deals. Perhaps it’s different in different regions. It’s still worth checking out. A link to the site is:
https://www.livingsocial.com/ebay. Great resource for getting premium brand name clothing for the cheap. I regularly get $200 pre-owned excellent condition ties for $7 bucks. I recommend doing a detailed search and saving it to your favorites.
www.ebay.comPricegrabber. This is a price comparison site that is good to use if you already know exactly what you want to buy and arent going to wait out the best deal possible. You search for the item you are looking for and this site searches many of the major sites and shows you who has the cheapest price.
http://www.pricegrabber.com/Credit CardsChase Sapphire Preferred. This card will give you 40,000 points good for $400.00 cash when you spend $4,000 in the first 4 months of opening the card and has a $0.00 introductory annual fee, but will go up to $95 if you don’t cancel within the first year. Be sure to use all your points before cancel the card because the points don’t transfer over to another card. I got this card when I went on my honeymoon last year because I knew I could meet the spending requirements (was 3k in 3 months when I got it) and I needed a card with $0.00 foreign transaction fees. Bonus is this card is sexy and made of metal. I cancelled my card before the annual fee came up and made a cool $600 off this card. A link to the card is:
https://creditcards.chase.com/a1/sapphire/apply?CELL=6RRW&kwdID=Njvq0Kw5_d{Device}&adgrpID={AdId}&jp_cmp=cc%2FSapphire+Preferred+-+Brand+-+Exact%2Fsea%2FNjvq0Kw5%2FSapphire+PreferredAmerican Express Premier Reward Gold. You can get $500.00 of free travel and $200.00 of free Amazon gift cards with this beauty of a deal. AMEX even waives the annual fee for the first year, but be sure to cancel it after you squeeze all the benefits out. You will need good credit to get approved for this card.
First, open the following link in "incognito" or "inprivate" mode:
https://www.americanexpress.com/us/cred ... ards-gold/ . Keep opening/closing it until you get the 50,000 points offer and then apply. If you get approved and they send you the card, you will get 50,000 points after you spend $1,000.00 in the first three months. I have a referral code for this but im not sharing it because you get a way better deal using the link i posted. After a couple months you will get the points which are worth about $500 in flight travel. It takes awhile but its worth it. Alternatively, if you arent into traveling you can sell your points to The Point Broker for about $600.00. I dont recommend it because its against the terms of AMEX and they will strip you of any AMEX card and all points if you get caught. Its hard to get caught but I really dont endorse it, too risky and I'm a globetrotter so i can always use the miles.
Second, one of the perks of this card is that it provides $100 each calendar year as airline credit. You select an airline upon receiving the card. You can make any purchase up to $100.00 from that airline and AMEX will reimburse you within a week or two if its approved. If you get the card now, you can do this in Dec. 2015 and again in Jan. 2016 as AMEX goes by the calendar yeaar. I picked United Airlines as my airline and downloaded the "MileagePlus X" app on my phone. This app is run by United Airlines and any purchase through this app with the AMEX card will be coded as "in flight purchase" or at least it currently does. Search for Amazon giftcards and purchase a $100.00 giftcard using the AMEX card as the form of payment. It worked for me but beware, this is a major loophole in the system and AMEX will certainly fix it sooner or later. Its technically not supposed to be reimbursed but because of the way United Airlines codes it, it slips under the radar. However, worst case scenario you pay $100.00 for a $100.00 giftcard to Amazon. This is the best credit card option available at the moment. I can confirm AMEX reimbursed a $100.00 Amazon giftcard purchase through the MileagePlus X app 2 weeks ago. Credit to kpd905 for introducing the MMM community to this great deal at this link:
http://forum.mrmoneymustache.com/reader-recommendations/amex-premier-rewards-gold-get-up-to-$825-after-spending-$1-000-in-3-months/?topicseenStudent Loan RefinancingSofi. If you are lucky, you don’t have to worry about these chains. If you’re a millennial (I hate that word) you’re probably living with Sallie Mae. I graduated Law School a little over a year ago with $50,000 in student loan debt at a 6.8% fixed interest rate. Relatively speaking that’s not too shabby, but being a Mustachian with FIRE ambitions really prompted me to research alternatives. I researched the pros and cons of student loan refinancing and determined it was right for me. I wound up refinancing to an adjustable rate of 3.8% and saw immediate results. My monthly payment went from $575.00 a month down to $500.00 which is a net savings of close to $10,000 over a ten year period.
Refinancing is certainly not for everyone. I would only recommend refinancing if (1) you will pay off your loans within the traditional 10 year period, (2) you are not planning on relying upon Public Service Loan Forgiveness, IBR, PAYE, or REPAYE, (3) you understand if something happens to you and you are no longer able to work the private servicer may go after your estate, (4) you don’t foresee the need for a deferral down the line, and (5) you would rather dump extra money into investments (riskier) than take the safe route and pay off student loans early. I went with Sofi and they are great. The application is simpler than their competitor’s and they were the only lender that approved me for refinancing. You can use my referral link for a bonus $100.00 if you elect to refinance with Sofi (I will get $100.00 as well), but I strongly encourage anyone to apply to all lenders they can for refinancing and go with whomever gives them the best rate. My referral code is:
https://www.sofi.com/refer/234/11233Other options to consider are:
DRB -
https://student.drbank.com/earnest -
https://www.meetearnest.com/CommonBond -
https://commonbond.co/TravelHilton Honors (Hotel Rewards). If you are like me, you travel a lot for work. The Hilton brand of hotels has a reward program, Hilton Honors, in which you can earn points for each dollar spent on a room you stay in. Simply hand the clerk your card when you check in and you are good to go. Hilton Hotels, Conrad, Double Tree, Embassy Suites, Hilton Garden Inn, Hampton Inn, and Homewood Suites are all apart of this program. Sign up for the reward's program here:
http://hhonors3.hilton.com/en/index.html?WT.srch=1Rental Car. Enterprise and National have the Emerald Club which allows you to earn points redeemable for free car rentals. This works similarly to the Hilton Honors Program previously mentioned inwhich you just slide your card to the clerk when checking out a rental. You can earn points even if you are not footing the bill for the rental as the points are given to the driver.
https://www.nationalcar.com/en_US/car-rental/loyalty/enrollment/welcome.html?sourceCode=2049&iataNumber=NC002447&affiliateRes=Y&cm_mmc=MSN-_-Brand-_-MS_SE_Emerald_B_NTL_E_US-_-emerald_clubBank AccountsPNC. Open a PNC online checking account and get up to $300.00 after you set up direct deposit and use their bill pay function once. There are three types of accounts; Virtual Wallet, Virtual Wallet with Performance Spend, and Virtual Wallet with Performance Select.
Virtual Wallet can net you a free $50.00 if you open the account and direct deposit a total of $500.00 into it. The $7.00 monthly service fees are waived on the Virtual Wallet if you keep the average balance over $500.00 or you direct deposit $500.00 monthly to the account.
Virtual Wallet with Performance Spend can net you a free $200.00 if you open the account and direct deposit a total of $2,000.00 into it. The $15.00 monthly service fees are waived on the Account if you keep the average balance over $2,000.00 or you direct deposit $2,000.00 monthly to the account.
Virtual Wallet with Performance Select can net you a free $300.00 if you open the account and direct deposit a total of $5,000.00 into it. The $25.00 monthly service fees are waived on the Account if you keep the average balance over $5,000.00 or you direct deposit $5,000.00 monthly to the account. Rewards money is deposited into the Virtual Wallet between 60-90 days from meeting the conditions for receiving the reward. You must apply online to take advantage of this offer.
https://www.pnc.com/en/personal-banking/banking/checking/campaigns/checking-vw-tiered-offer.html?WT.mc_id=VW15_M_Search_FLA_S_M_B_VW_Virtual+Wallet_E&WT.srch=1&k=pnc+checking&e=bing&m=pFound a FreebiePINCHme. PINCHme is a company that sends you monthly boxes of samples of your choosing after you register and complete your profile. I have a cat that I spoil and this site sends out a crap-ton of cat food samples (among everything else). I registered the other day and filled my box with the following samples 1) Beyond Grain-Free Cat Food, 2) Olay Body Wash, and 3) Fancy Feast wet food can. I haven't received the box yet but I have heard it's legit. We will see what happens.
https://www.pinchme.com/ Free 20oz Coke-Zero Bottle from either 7/11, Speedway, or Dominos:https://www.cokezero.com/formFrancois et Mimi. Subscribe to this company's promotion mailing list and get coupons for free items on Amazon. If you have Amazon Prime, you wont even pay shipping on most items! I registered a couple days ago and received a coupon code for an iPhone car charger, bluetooth earbuds, and wired earbuds. I haven't received anything yet but it would appear that this company has good quality merchandise.
http://www.francoisetmimi.com/contact-uscontactez-nous.htmlOther TipsPinecone Research. This site will pay you $3 for completing 10 minute surveys maybe once a week. They occasionally send you products to test for their research. New users may register for the site on a limited basis. They are currently accepting applicants if your profile fits their current needs. You may be able to register at the following site:
http://centerpointscreener.com/Bing. Use Bing to search the Internet to earn points. I was a googler before and it was difficult for me to actually make the switch but im legitimately happy I did. I like Bing more solely because of their inspiring daily background images. I find myself downloading their photos and changing my desktop wallpaper much more often. Check out to guide here and be sure to use the last person's referral code so that they get a bonus:
http://forum.mrmoneymustache.com/reader-recommendations/bing-get-~$5-a-month-to-browse-the-internet/Mango Savings Account. Insured by the FDIC, Mango offers possibly the best safe return on your money. You can get a 6% interest rate on your first $5,000.00 saved by simply depositing $500 monthly into your account. I dont know the details as I havent done this myself, but I believe you can withdraw the $500.00 monthly penalty free if you just want the account to stay at $5,000.00. If I were to open a Mango account I would use it in conjunction with my credit cards as my primary emergency fund (charge credit card when an emergency occurs and pay the card statement with the Mango funds) and invest the remainder of my income into index funds, in a taxable account, as a secondary emergency fund. If anyone knows any additional info on whether my plan would work hit me up. The link to Mango is:
https://www.mangomoney.com/what-is-mango/Mystery Shopping. I recently got into mystery shopping on the side just for the free food from restaurants. It is not just restaurants that do mystery shops, its also retail stores, movie theaters, and even professional sporting venues. There are hundreds of Mystery Shop Companies or MSC's so you have to register for quite a few to find consistent work. I personally do mystery shopping for the free food as I enjoy eating out but am too mustachian to do so without feeling like I wasted my money. Other people do it for the money. I tend to just get free food in exchange for filling out the reports. In every MSC's contractor agreement you agree not to disclose who their clients are. So you will not see me disclose which MSC shops a particular client. I can make recommendations for without giving specific names of each MSC's clients:
Market Force - fast casual; tax preparation; grocery; fast food:
http://www.marketforce.com/Sentry - restaurant:
https://admin.sentrymarketing.com/document.asp?alias=loginRBG - vallet, coffee/treats:
http://www.realitybasedreports.com/shoppers/ClassicJobBoard.php?mode=zipCodeNss - pizza:
http://www.nationalshoppingservice.com/Sinclair - pizza:
http://shoppers.ssanet.com/index.cfmiSecretShop - this is really an interface that other MSC's use to schedule shoppers. Goodwin Hospitality uses iSS and they have a lot of good restaurants:
https://www.isecretshop.com/agent/available/Amusement Advantage - Amusement Parks, Zoos, Aquariums:
https://www.amusementadvantage.com/LIST_SHOPPERS_JOBS1.asp?action=BYCOUNTRYCoyle - fine dining and luxury hotels (not for newbies):
https://coyle.shopmetrics.com/document.asp?alias=shopmetrics.standard.loginService Scouts - Sporting events:
https://servicescouts.report-central.com/login.php?Reason=&PostDataLogin=29Secret Shopper - fast casual:
https://www.secretshopper.com/Shoppers/AuditSchedule.aspThere are many many others.
Birthday Freebies. Many restaurants will give you something for free on your birthday if you join their loyalty program. Here are a few:
Cinnabon - Free Mocha Chillata on B-Day and Free Minibon for registering -
http://cinnabon.fbmta.com/members/UpdateProfile.aspx?Action=Subscribe&InputSource=WFirehouse Subs - Free Medium Celebratory Sub -
http://firehouse.relevantmobile.com/IHop - Free Rooty Tooty Fresh 'N Fruity breakfast - Just present ID.
Denny's - Free Original Grand Slam - Just present ID.
Krispy Kreme - Free Doughnut and small coffee or fountain drink -
http://www.krispykreme.com/About/Join-eClubRed Robin - Free burger* Some restrictions apply -
https://royalty.redrobin.com/
