Jonesing On A Budget Part I: Don’t Downgrade Your Lifestyle, Live It For Free

July 9, 2014 By Bridget 9 Comments

Hands down the hardest part of paying down my $20,000+ student loan debt was adjusting my spendy lifestyle to one of thrift and austerity. Effective? Hell yes. Fun? Not so much. But deprivation can be the birthplace of innovation when it comes to getting smart about your money. You might think you have to give everything up, but I don’t think that’s true. Actually, you might not have to give anything up at all.

Can you keep up with the Joneses at a discount — even free?

No, before you get excited, there is no shortcut to discipline. You have to manage your money wisely and if you want to manage your money in a way that maximizes the amount of free stuff it gets you, you have to be even more careful.

Damnable Downside: the more you spend, the more rewards you’ll get.

This isn’t fair, and IMO just the “rich getting richer” via serious credit card perks, but even a small or moderate spender can reap serious rewards if their efforts are concentrated in the right place. However, DON’T buy things you don’t want/need/like just to get points or because it’s on sale. Stores will ALWAYS be trying to trick you into doing this so you have to be vigilant.
Now the good news is when I started this post, it was so long I actually had to split it into two parts.
Amazon - There is a 95% chance something you want to buy is cheaper on Amazon, particularly if you live in the US. As a Canadian, our Amazon catalogue is limited and maybe that’s why I find most people don’t take advantage. If you think Amazon is just for books, change your thinking: I’ve bought everything from vacuum cleaners to microwaves to yoga towels on the site. Amazon is a great place to get everything you want at a great price without having to hunt around multiple stores.
Jonesing on budget: Subscribe to Amazon Prime so your get FREE 2-day shipping on all your orders. You might hesitate at the price, but it’s been my experience that the discount on items from Amazo,n coupled with never paying shipping charges, are savings that far exceed the cost of a prime membership.
Swagbucks - Swagbucks might be my ultimate secret to affording the things I want on a student budget. I constantly redeem Swagbucks for Amazon giftcards, and then I go shop on Amazon and get 1 to 2 Swagbucks for every dollar spent, building up my account all over again. Occasionally, I let them build up significantly for a “big” purchase (like how I recently cashed in a handful to get a FitBit for $60 instead of it’s regular price of $100 — that’s 40% off!) but often I will just use one or two $5 gift cards to supplement a purchase.

If you’re not using Swagbucks yet, click here to sign up.

Jonseing on a budget: install the Swagbucks search bar into whatever browser you use and turn regular searches into buck-earning binges. Redeem Swagbucks for amazon gift cards (see above) or Starbucks gift cards (see below) or even PayPal cash.
Open Table - Now that I’m employed full-time again, I’m blessed once more with one of my favorite things in the whole wide world: business lunches. Not only are these free in themselves (thanks, work!), when I book them through OpenTable I get points towards free dinners. Result? Free business lunches which turn into free personal dinners.
Jonseing on a budget: If you’re in charge of booking working lunches, look for restaurants offering 1,000 points instead of the standard 100 points. Since you only need 2,000 points to get a $26 restaurant gift card (in Canada), you get there fast with these bonus reservations.
Starbucks Rewards –  What I really like about Starbucks is gift cards are everyone’s go-to gift from a quick thank-you to birthday gifts when you don’t know what to get someone. I know I receive about $100 in Starbucks gift cards per year and by loading them onto my card and spending wisely, I get tons of free rewards. More often than not I’ll always have one or two free drinks on hand.
Jonesing on a budget: Buy drip coffee until you get to 12 coffees and redeem your free reward for a treat like a latte or food. When buying coffee for other people, or buying coffee + food, note that you will ONLY get 1 star for your whole purchase, despite buying multiple things. Solution? Make the cashier ring them in one at a time. If you feel dumb, pay for yours, walk away, and then come back and say, “my colleague just texted me for a coffee” and place your second order. BAM! 2 stars! (yes, I really do this because I really want those stars)
American Express Points – I’ve been a fan of American Express as my travel card since back in the day when I had the Platinum card and got to charge all my work travel to it (my work spending was so high, I once charged more than I earned in a year — I miss those days of majorly reimbursed spending!)  but I have since downgraded to the Gold card. Points are SO EASY to redeem for travel or are transferable 1-for-1 to Aeroplan. You can also cash them in for gift cards and other rewards. Another perk is the card doubles the manufacturers warranty on purchases you charge to the card. So that FitBit I bought with Swagbucks on Amazon was paid for with my American Express, which means I have a two year warranty on it instead of one. This means if it randomly breaks 1.5 years from now, I call Amex to get a new one. Not too shabby!
Jonesing on a budget: Charge all travel related spending to your American Express card, namely hotel stays, car rentals, and flights. You can instantly credit your own charges with your points. Additionally, the gold and platinum cards offer car rental insurance. Since this typically runs $25/day and I rent cars as much as 30 days per year, being able to skip this cost on my car rentals is HUGE savings.