Costco Membership Deal via LivingSocial and the Benefits of Online Rebates

Living Social is offering a Costco Wholesale Membership and a bunch of bonuses for normal price of just the membership ($55). In addition to those bonuses there's a couple other ways to save on this deal.

The Deal 
The Living Social Deal includes:

• 1-year Gold Star membership ($55 normally) 
• $20 Costco Cash card 
• $29.47 in food voucher and coupons (free Kirkland Signature™ 48-pack of AA batteries, a free rotisserie chicken, a free Kirkland Signature™ case of water, $4 off Kirkland Signature™ coffee, and $4 off Kirkland Signature albacore tuna.)

It's only valid for new members and not to renew an existing membership. 

How Can you Save More on this Deal? 

You can save an additional $5.50 by using code USA10 when checking out at Living Social. That's a pretty good deal if you were going to get a Costco Membership anyway. If you'd like to save a bit more and learn how to save a percentage off many of your future online purchases read further.

You can save an additional 6% on this and any other Living Social deal by using Ebates (sign-up here). With Ebates, you simply sign up and then search for the site(Living Social in this case) you're about to purchase something on, click that store's Ebates link, and you'll receive a percentage back on that deal. This amount can be disbursed via check or Paypal after 90 days. 

So for the above deal, assuming you use the promo code and Ebates, you'll get your Costco membership, a $20 Costco Card, the voucher and coupons for $49.50 up front and you'll earn ~$3 in cash from Ebates that you can redeem in a few months, or effectively $46.50.

Tools for Saving on Future Online Shopping: Evreward and Retailmenot 

A good tool for anybody shopping online and willing to use an online rebate program like Ebates is the site evreward.com. Simply visit it before purchasing something online, search evreward for the shopping site you're using (e.g. Target.com) and it'll let you know the best online rebate offerings for that site. You then click the program you'd like to use (it was Ebates for Living Social but the highest % back often varies among Ebates, Mr. Rebates, Big Crumbs, FatWallet, or another program), click a rebate program's link for your store, and make your purchase. While signing up may take you 5 minutes, clicking the link before you make a purchase should take 10 seconds every time you make a purchase and likely save you a few bucks each time.

Another helpful site when shopping online is RetailMeNot.com. I found the Living Social promo code on Ebates's Living Social store page, but I usually check RetailMeNot for coupons when shopping online. I've also found coupons for in store purchases and even for amusement park tickets via RetailMeNot. (As an aside RetailMeNot is a big business and worth nearly $2 billion as a company).

Finally, you can also save a bit more by maximizing your credit card cash back. See my past posts on credit cards to see how when used responsibly, credit cards can earn you up to 2% off all your purchases and potentially more on certain categories.

If you have any questions or suggestions, please comment below or contact me!

Cheaper Airplane Tickets when Shopping for Multiple Passengers

Reading my February 2014 (somehow I got it over a month ago) copy of Kiplinger's Personal Finance I came across a helpful tip from Rick Seaney, CEO of FareCompare and airfare shopping guru. He says that airline reservations systems charge everyone in your party the same higher price even if there are a few lower-priced seats available. Given this you'll save money if you shop for airline tickets one passenger at a time when booking multiple people. Mr. Seaney mentions saving more than $1,000 using this method booking airfare to London.

The only exception to this I can think of is when booking a complimentary or discounted companion fare that some credit cards and airline rewards programs offer.

Let me know if you have any good tips for more affordable flying below.

Finding a Good, Cheap Cellphone Service: Part 1 My Plan with Ptel for $5/Month

Several friends have asked my recommendation of the cheapest deal on a cellphone service and I often write a long email explaining the pros and cons of different plans, but sometimes the deciding factor for them is something beyond cost like the availability of a certain model phone, coverage in their area, or family plan compatibility. Below I'll describe my current cellphone service and its pros and cons. I have a hunch that many Americans spend a lot more on their cellphones and plans than they might if they had more information, so this is my first attempt to inform.


My Plan: 

I've paid $5/month for my cell phone service for the past 6 months and can honestly say it's a great, reliable service and I don't feel like I've given up anything in transitioning from my previous $40/month plan from Sprint/Virgin Mobile. In fact I have over $10 in surplus credit that I haven't used which equates to about 2 months of normal service costs for me.

The service provider I use is Ptel, which is an MVNO (essentially a small carrier renting a bigger carriers network) that uses T-Mobile's network and has equal service of T-Mobile users and a 12 year track record of good service itself. I use their Pay As You Go plan and pay $10 in credit every 2 months as that's the minimum required to keep an account active and from this credit Ptel deducts 5 cents/minute, 2 cents/text, and 10 cents/ MB for data I use.

I also supplement Ptel's service with Google Voice's free service where I make free texts and calls from my computer through Gmail and phone when connected to WiFi (to make said free calls through my Android phone I use the GrooveIP app but the call quality tends to be lesser than via my laptop).

Given I'm so often at home I typically take advantage of this, but I don't hesitate to use my phone's cellular service through Ptel when out of the house for calls, texts, and data for all kinds of things including GPS navigation. Initially I was hesitant to use my phone for GPS navigation as I imagined the data usage would need to be constant, but you only need to have data on initially to search for the location you want to go to if you're not on WiFi, after that just turn your data connection back off and your navigation app of choice and GPS will give you voice-directed navigation at no additional data cost.

I know that this plan won't work for everyone, but for anybody who's frequently around WiFi and doesn't have huge data needs I think it's a good way to have the major benefits of having a smartphone and spend much less than a typical cell phone plan. You can also buy larger amounts of service credit if you need or you can try Ptel's $40/month and $50/month unlimited plans as well. Additionally most modern features of cell phone like International calling, Call Forwarding, MMS, Online Call Records and Bill Payment, Free information services calls (611 - PTel customer care, 711 - TRS for the hearing and speech impaired, and 911 are included in all Ptel plans.

My Assessment of Ptel:

Pros: 

• Extremely Cheap - As low as $5/month and there's no tax or fees
• Flexibility - No contract required and more credit can be purchased as needed
• Works with any T-Mobile phone, Unlocked GSM (AT&T) phones, or Ptel's own phones
• 12 Year Track Record with Good Reputation
• 6 cents/minute International calling to many major countries(including Belgium, Brazil, Chile, China, Canada, Costa Rica, Denmark, France, Germany, Hong Kong, India, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Poland, Portugal, Peru, Russia (Metro Moscow), Singapore, Spain, Sweden, Turkey, and Venezuela) and varying rates to others

Cons

• No Family Plan
• No Free Minutes but I've found I've saved a lot by not paying for unlimited service
• Rollover Minutes Expire
• More Effort: If on Pay As You Go Plan you'll likely want to be conscious of keeping data off on your phone and possibly using Google Voice when around WiFi 
• (maybe)T-Mobile Service: Less coverage and less speedier data than other carriers, though some of this is likely overblown by AT&T/Verizon marketing as I've had no problems. That said you should check T-Mobile coverage in the areas you'll be using your phone to make sure it's a good option

The benefits far outweigh the drawbacks for me and I'm really enjoying my modern smartphone for $5/month. I did pay $250 for my phone but even including that expenditure over the course of my first year I'm going to save $150 from what I was spending, and will save over $400 the next year. If I were on an average plan from the 4 big carriers I'd likely be saving over $700/year with this plan.

Looking Ahead

In future posts I will walk through the steps I took to get my phone and plan running and make a chart of other low cost phone service options that use other networks, and possibly even a guide to to finding the best alternative for you beyond what the major carriers advertise as a normal plan or you're familiar with. If you have any questions or comments about my plan or about cellphones and their plans please leave a comment below.