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.

Time Saving Tip: Possibly Never Go to the Post Office Again (UPS/FedEx Stores too)

It's that season again where seemingly everybody in the U.S. ships packages and letters en masse. Given this surge in demand at the Post Office, UPS Stores, and many others, your average wait time will go up as well. If you don't mind waiting in line this can be a great time to catch up with your favorite mail clerks, but I'd guess that most people can't stand the idea of waiting in line for more than a minute unless you're under 25 waiting for a hip club or show.

However, for free beyond the cost of postage*, you can easily print postage labels from your home or office and avoid all of these trips. Beyond a computer and your package/envelope(s), all you'll need to have is access to a working printer, scissors, packing tape and optionally a scale.

How To Do It
1. Register an account at Paypal.com.
2. Add a debit card, credit card, or bank account from which you will pay for shipment.
3. Go to this link paypal.com/us/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_ship-now
4. Select either US Postal Service (USPS) or UPS as you prefer.
5. On the next page Fill out the information for your address (which will be stored for future use and save you time), your addressee's information, the package information, and any additional services you require, and click continue.

5. Proceed again if the information looks correct and Paypal will withdraw the postage amount from your chosen method of payment.
6. Choose Print Label and select your printer if you have one. If you don't have a working printer but know a person, office, library, or business where you can print, choose to print to PDF (it's an option if using the Google Chrome browser) and then save your PDF in an email or cloud storage location and then print a hard copy of that PDF next you can use a printer.
7. Use scissors to cut out the shipping label and put it on your package or bubble mailer with clear tape. Be sure the label -especially barcodes and addresses - is visible and any previous shipping labels or addresses on your package are covered up to allow for a smooth delivery.
8. Request a pickup online: Go here for USPS and here for UPS (may require a UPS account which is free to register for).
9. Place your package where you said you would in the pickup request (say front door, mailbox, porch, etc.) before your mail carrier comes on the pickup date requested.

Why You Should Do It?
You'll potentially save a bunch of time by not having to drive to and from the Post Office, nor wait in line, and may even save some money on USPS postage and added features (Delivery Confirmation/Insurance) when purchasing it online instead of in store.

Overall, it usually takes me about 5 minutes to get a label printed and taped, pickup requested, and package left at the front door or in the mailbox. To each their own, but I suspect this method could save many folks time and headache during this already busy time. If you have any questions, run into any problems, or have any suggestions please leave a comment, email me, or contact me via social media.

Additional Tips, Tricks, Advice, and Notes

• What if you're only shipping letters and only need stamps or if you need flat rate boxes or envelopes? Order them online and have them delivered for $1 for any size order of stamps or for free for flat rate packaging from USPS.
• I recommend bookmarking the Paypal Shipping Link, paypal.com/us/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_ship-now, for future use or you can always Google "Paypal Ship Now".
• If you're shopping based on lowest price then USPS is generally cheaper than UPS for most packages under 4 lbs in my experience and vice versa above, though there are certainly exceptions. Check the USPS calculator and UPS one too.
• If you need to change between using USPS or UPS after selecting one in Paypal, you can do so by clicking Choose a different carrier on Create Your Shipping Label page.
• You can reprint a label once if you have any problems printing it or the label is damaged once printed.
• If you need to void the label due to not being able to successfully use it you have 48 hrs from the time you printed it and the label can't have been used and can do this online.
• If you don't have a scale to weigh your items, frequently you can find the weight of items online or compare it to other things say in your kitchen that you know the weight of.
• If you'd like to ship via FedEx, they aren't integrated into Paypal but you can print postage for free and pay a nominal fee for pickup if you register for a free account at FedEx.com. In my experience their costs are similar and sometimes below UPS's.
• Other online postage printing services like Stamps.com, Pitney Bowes, and Endicia certainly have their merits but they usually have a monthly fee, so unless you're shipping for a business I imagine this Paypal option would suffice.

*UPS will charge you ~$3 for a pickup fee so that's really the only additional expense. The Post Office picks up any number of items for free and even offers discounts on postage and additional services like tracking purchased online instead of at the post office.

Update: My friend, Jonathan Dyer, notes in the comments that USPS.com is a good resource to use as well for printing USPS Postage, though I believe you can only print Priority and Priority Express (Overnight) postage from their site and lower-cost options including first-class mail and Media Mail are unavailable. See this walk through explaining more about USPS.com's Click-N-Ship program.

Deal: Extremely Low Price on Motorola Moto X Phone

There's currently a huge sale or price mistake on the new Motorola Moto X Phone for AT&T over at Dell. It's available on Dell's Site for about $400 off it's normal price-It's Usually $199 with 2 year contract or $599 off contract but is currently available for $205.99 ($221 Shipped) with No Contract in both Black and White. Available here. Simply check out after adding it to your cart as you don't need to provide any carrier information nor lock yourself into a contract.

For an additional 5% off sign up for and use Mr. Rebates for Dell. Click through for the Dell rebate here after signing up.

If Dell honors this price and you use Mr. Rebates the effective final price should be ~$199 and you won't be tied to a contract nor owe any large Early Termination Fees. These model phones currently sell for >$350 Used or >$400 on Ebay and Amazon (White and Black) on average and are much more at most retailers.

Here are 2 reviews of this phone for your reference:

• The Verge Review: Short review with video review also available
• Anandtech Review: In depth review

In short the phone has good if not great performance, a 4.7 inch screen, and a few unique software features that Google (who owns Motorola) implemented into the phone including always on voice recognition for search and many other functions.

H/T Slickdeals

Free 39 Week Wall Street Journal Subscription

Free 39-week subscription to the Wall Street Journal. Simply fill out the form, hit "Click here" on the next page and expect delivery in 4-8 weeks. Not a trial or a scam and available for new subscribers only.

I've received several free subscriptions through Rewards Gold and have simply received the requested magazine/paper and maybe a follow up email that's easy to unsubscribe from.

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.

What Credit Card Earns the Most Rewards? Part 3: Most Rewards for Different Shopping Categories

Some cards earn different amounts depending on what type of item or service you purchase with it. Note that your ability to earn these bonus rewards relies on the card company coding the transaction under the appropriate category, so be sure to read fine print (for example some cards say only some Department stores apply for the bonus reward amount) and check your rewards statement to see that the purchases are going under the category you expect them to. Check the below table for a collection of some of the best of these cards.

Today's Best Gas, Groceries, Drug Stores, Department Stores Reward Cards (Last Edited 8/7/2013)

Card	Card Type	Grocery	Gas	Drugstore	Department Store	Books	Other Purchases	Rewards Type	Annual Fee	Other Info
AMEX Blue Cash Preferred	American Express	6%	3%	1%	3%	1%	1%	Cash Back	$75	6% on groceries only on $6,000 of groceries/year. List of eligible stores. $150 Sign up Bonus. Can redeem reward dollars for statement credit, merchandise and gift cards anytime over $25 in rewards.
Sallie Mae Rewards	MasterCard	5%	5%	1%	1%	5%	1%	Points	$0	5% on Groceries and Gas up to $250/month, 5% on books up to $750/month. 1% on everything over the limit and all other purchases. Can redeem 2,500 points for $25 statement credit and so on. Amazon and BarnesandNoble.com don’t consistently code as book purchases.. Look at Citi Forward Card for 5 points/dollar on those purchases. $25 Cash Back with first use.
PenFed Platinum Rewards	Visa	3%	5%	1%	1%	1%	1%	Points	$0	Redeemable for Visa Prepaid Cards starting at $50 rewards and above.
Bank of America Cash Rewards	Visa	2%	3%	1%	1%	1%	1%	Cash Back	$0	2% and 3% only earned on up to $1,500/quarter. Redeemable above $25. 10% Cash Back bonus if deposited to Bank of America account ($25 cash back=$27.50). $100 Bonus if you spend $500 in first 90 days.
AMEX Blue Cash Everyday	American Express	3%	2%	1%	2%	1%	1%	Cash Back	$0	3% on groceries only on $6,000 of groceries/year. List of eligible stores. $100 Bonus if you spend $1000 in first 90 days. Rewards redeemed with cash back of $25 or more.

What Credit Card Earns the Most Rewards? Part 2: Best All-Around Spending Card

How much work do you want to do? Some people will spend an entire afternoon cutting coupons in newspapers and researching websites to maximize their discounts, while some don't think it's worth the time. Similarly with credit card rewards, there are many cards that specialize in offering higher rewards in certain categories if you're willing to dig, while a few just offer a higher rewards rate on everything. Below are the currently available cards that earn more than the 1% you'd earn with your average credit card.

Today's Best All-Around Spending Cards (Last Edited 2/8/2014)

Card	Card Type	Rewards	Rewards Type	Annual Fee	Other Info	Link
Fidelity Investment Rewards	American Express	2%	Cash Back	$0	Cash back must be redeemed to Fidelity Account (Checking, Brokerage, 529 or Retirement) and only after earning $50 in rewards. Checking and Brokerage Accounts are free to open and have no maintenance fees.	Click
Discover Escape	Discover	2%	Points (Redeemable for Travel or Amazon.com Credit)	$60.	Earn additional 100 points($10)/month in rewards for the first 25 months as long as you make a purchase -similar to $250 sign up bonus.	Click
BankAmericard Travel Rewards	Visa	1.6%	Points (Redeemable for Statement Credit)	$0	Only 1.5% if you don’t have a BOA checking, savings, investment, or retirement account.	Click
Capital One Quicksilver Cash Rewards	Visa	1.5%	Cash Back	$0	One-time $100 bonus if you spend $500 in first 3 months. No foreign transaction fees. Requires great credit.	Click
Northrop Grumman CU Cash Rebates	Mastercard	1.5%	Cash Back	$0	Cash back deposited annually(March) not monthly. Check Eligibility. If not Join  Southern California Historical Aviation Foundation via $50 donation. No foreign transaction fees.	Click
Dollar Bank Valued Customer	Visa	1.25%	Cash Back	$0	Max cash back of $500/year as opposed to no limit on above cards. Cash back deposited 2 times per year (Jan and July) and not monthly. Business version of the card has no rebates and is redeemable anytime.	Click

I'll do my best to keep this list current as good rewards credit cards sometimes come and go. In my next post I  review other cards that offer up to 6% on certain categories of spending for those looking to tote multiple cards.

(H/T to Fatwallet)

What Credit Card Earns the Most Rewards? Part 1: Introduction

The standard credit card usually offers 1% cash back or 1 point per dollar spent. Some credit cards can earn even more. Given that the average family spends over $48,000 each year and let's estimate that 2/3 of those expenditures are paid with credit cards, then earning 1% more on purchases can add up to an additional $320 each year. Below I'll discuss what cards are out there for those that want to maximize the card rewards you earn.

Beware! Hunting for additional credit card rewards only makes sense if you're paying your credit card bill on time and in full as the average APR for credit card debt is about 15% and frequently can be more than double that, while credit card rewards don't get much higher than 2%.

What cards do I use? I use to keep 4 credit cards on me to fully maximize my rewards as much as possible. I've since decided to go with 2 as the hassle of carrying more items in my wallet, paying more credit card bills each month, and managing additional card rewards redemptions wasn't worth the slight increase in payout.

I use the Fidelity Investment Rewards American Express card and Chase Freedom Visa card.

The Fidelity AMEX is my daily spending card as I earn 2% cash back rewards on all purchases with it. As long as the merchant accepts American Express I don't have to think about how many rewards I'll earn on my purchase. Each month in which my rewards total is over $50, the rewards simply deposit into my Fidelity Checking Account. That's potentially the only extra step for this card, is that to earn the rewards you need a Fidelity Account to deposit it in, but you can choose between a Checking Account (Fidelity calls it a Cash Management Account), Brokerage Account, 529 account, or a Retirement account - the first 2 of which I know are free to open up and maintain. There's no annual fee either for this card.

The Chase Freedom Visa is my backup card for all merchants that don't accept American Express or if I make a purchase in a spending category that's part of Chase's 5% rewards for that season. Each season Chase will rotate what categories earn 5%. Currently, those categories are Gas Stations, Theme Parks, and Kohl's. You can see what future categories are here. Note that before each new category period you do have to activate these 5% rewards by clicking an activate button online, though you can sign up for an email or text reminder so you don't miss out. Additionally this is a Visa Signature Card which offers other benefits such as additional warranties on purchases, travel benefits or even buy one get one movie tickets in the summer. This card also has no annual fee.

In my next post I'll delve deeper into high rewards cards that are currently available.

Mint.com: Keep Track of Your Savings, Spending, Budget, and Goals

Saving money is a fine goal by itself, but to have a good sense of how much you're saving it's best to track your money. Luckily, modern technology has made doing this extremely easy. I used to track my spending each month by logging into each of my bank accounts and recording each transaction in an Excel sheet and then compared it to another sheet with my budget. Later on I used the site Yodlee, to track all my bank accounts, but found their site to often have technical problems, so I switched over to Mint.com and have been happy with it ever since.

Mint.com has been around for over 5 years now and I imagine many of you are familiar with it. For those who aren't though I'll go over why you should consider using it and how to setup your account with them. If you already use Mint, I'll go over what I use it for so that you may learn something new.

What is Mint.com?
Mint.com is a free web-based financial management service. It allows you to add your bank, credit card, investment, and other financial accounts. Once added you can easily view a snapshot of the state of your finances, every transaction from each account, how your spending and savings matches up with budgets and goals you can create. You can also further sift through your data to analyze trends or check offers that Mint provides on ways to possibly save money.

To add an account you do provide your username and password for each financial account you'd like to track, but over the 5 years I've used it I've had no problems my secure banking details becoming insecure. Mint.com uses similar security that banks use to keep the login and banking transaction data secure. It's also owned by Intuit, the make of TurboTax, Quicken, and Quickbooks which each provide similar ways to login to your financial accounts securely. Given this, I trust that my information is not being exposed to third parties.

Given that it's free, secure, and in my experience easy to use, I think it's a no-brainer addition to your financial life.

How I use Mint.com

• View Current state of My Accounts

Every week I login to Mint and make sure that my accounts are updated (reasons they aren't: I've changed my bank password or technical issues on the bank's end) and then I glance at the Overview page to see the balances in each of my account. This quickly gives me a sense of how much cash I have in my bank account, the size of any credit card balances, and the amount in my investment accounts. This saves me alot of time as I don't have to log in to multiple account each week. It also allows me to quickly view if deposits or payments have gone through and if I have enough cash or credit to cover future purchases.

• Ensure Accurate Transactions

The second thing I do is click Transactions at the Top. Starting with where I left off re-categorizing last time, I look at each transaction and make sure it's a valid entry and then I make sure Mint has categorized it correctly. Ensuring your transactions are categorized correctly is important in my view as otherwise it undermines the accuracy of your budgets and likely your faith in using Mint.

If something needs to be re-categorized I either click the individual entry that needs changing and then click Edit Details below it or I check the box next to all the entries that I want to change to the same category and click Edit Multiple at the top of the page. As you make these edits you can set rules; the option to create a rule shows up each time you change a category as you can see below.

• Track Budget and Goal Progress

Next I track if I'm on track to meet my budgets and goals. Simply clicking the Budget tab shows me the budget I've previously created. I can edit it if I want or simply use the green/blue bars to see if I'm on track to meet my budget this month.

Similarly for the Budgets tab I can track how I'm doing saving towards my emergency fund, house, retirement or any other goal you create for yourself.

So after setting up all my accounts on Mint, I find that I only need 5-10 minutes a week to track all my spending and savings, which makes it extremely easy, realistic that I'll do it, and even satisfying to do. If you have any questions, problems, or suggestions of how you get the most out of Mint.com or other services please comment below or contact me directly.