Frugality

During my recent hike I hitchhiked one time in order to avoid having to hike a section of trail twice. When I go hiking I often hitchhike into a town since that is usually the only way to get into town other than walking. I would guess not too many other personal finance bloggers hitchhike. It is frugal transportation since it doesn’t cost anything. People don’t usually ask or expect anything for giving you a ride. I did give one guy a little money on my own accord since it appeared that he was living in his car and probably needed the money. Most people don’t hitchhike or pick up hitchhikers since they are afraid of being raped and/or killed. That is a possibility, but I think it is unlikely. Serial is an interesting story of a killer driver picking up a killer hitchhiker that illustrates what many believe are the dangers of hitchhiking.

I’ve found that there are three types of people who will stop to pick me up. The first is older people. I think they give me a ride just because they are bored and lonely and want someone to talk to for a while. They often have pretty interesting stories and a little conversation in exchange for a ride is a pretty good trade. The second type is other hikers or relatives of hikers. People who hike understand that sometimes the only easy way to get to a town is to hitchhike and can recognize a hiker hitchhiker when they see one. I do give rides to hiker hitchhikers as a form of paying it forward for the rides I have received. The third type is poor people. I’m not sure why but the poorer a person is the more likely they are to give me a ride. These rides can be interesting since the drivers are sometimes under the influence, but I haven’t had a problem so far.

Even though hitchhiking is frugal transportation it is only something I do when I’m hiking. And I only pick up hitchhikers if they are at a trail head and I think they are hikers. I like to think that makes the process of hitchhiking safer, but I don’t really know. I think it would be interesting to hitchhike all the way across the country, but I probably won’t ever do that. Have you ever hitchhiked? Would you consider it?

Savvy online shoppers avoid paying full retail price, and cash back shopping websites are a great way to get the latest discount coupons – plus cash back for completed purchases. You can get the most out of cash back programs by focusing on a few good sites; here are some tips to help you find them:

• Make sure the cash back sites you select offer discounts from a wide selection of merchants. Look for sites with at least 2,000 retail partners, including well-known brands.

• Compare the cash back percentages offered by various sites to get an idea of the typical range and choose sites that offer percentages on the higher end of the scale.

• Look for a company with great customer service – check for testimonials, reviews and same-day communication guarantees or live chat capabilities.

• Make sure you deal with a solid company to avoid the possibility of unfulfilled cash back payments – look for sites that have been around for at least three years.

• Evaluate the Terms of Use Agreement and Privacy Policy to ensure that you won’t run into any issues with unauthorized use of your information.

• Do business only with cash back sites that offer up-to-date coupons, and make sure the navigation and site layout is easy to use.

• Look for sites that provide a control panel or dashboard where you can view your balance and history.

• Make sure the cash back sites allow you to file a claim if you don’t receive a payment, and look for sites that make payments at least once per quarter.

Cash back sites are a great way to save money, but like any other service, it pays to compare your options. By following these tips, you can stop paying full retail price for items you buy online – and start getting cash back for your purchases.

By Scott Fitterman, CouponCactus.com

Andy’s Notes: I would like to add a couple more things to consider when signing up for a cash back shopping site. Many of the sites have a signup bonus. For instance, Mr. Rebates offers a $5 signup bonus and Ebates offers a $5 signup bonus as well.

If you are going to be referring people to the cash back shopping site then you want to research how the cash back shopping site rewards you for referrals.  This is why I love Mr. Rebates – they offer some of the best cash back percentages and they also pay you 20% of your referrals’ rebates without affecting your referrals’ rebates in any way.  I make over $25 a month from these referrals and at Christmas time this went up to almost $100.  Since you make 20% referral rebates for as long as your referral remains a member these rebates have the possibility of adding up to serious residual income.

My monthly expenses should go down considerably while I’m hiking. My goal for my monthly budget while hiking will be $500 compared to my usual monthly goal of $1000 of expenses. Since I won’t have expenses such as rent, utilities, and gas while hiking the $500 goal is an achievable goal. It won’t be an easy goal but it is doable.

My budget while hiking will break down as follows. My monthly fixed expenses that continue while I’m hiking are $26.81 for my phone and $120.97 for my health insurance and fitness club membership. I’m going to round the fixed expenses up to $150 to keep the numbers simple. That leaves me with $350 to spend on everything else for the month. I plan to spend about $25 a week on food, $25 on hostels/lodging, and $25 on miscellaneous expenses such as laundry and replacement gear. Those expenses add up to $300 a month. That will leave me with another $50 for any other expenses that pop up or to use if I spend to much on food or lodging. This budget should work fine if I can keep my lodging expenses down. Staying too often in motels and/or in too expensive of lodging has caused my previous hikes to be more expensive than they needed to be. I’ll be making a conscious effort to avoid doing that on this hike. There are some $25 or less lodging options available in the first part of my hike which should help.

If I am able to keep my monthly expenses at $500 I should come close to being able to pay my hiking expenses with my online income and passive income sources like Mr. Rebates. I want to avoid dipping into money that has already been earmarked as savings. I’ll be starting with a few hundred dollars that I have set aside specifically for the hike. Since the hike will take between three weeks to three months I feel pretty confident that I shouldn’t have to dip into my savings. When the hike is finished I’ll let you know how I did.

A couple weeks ago I wrote about how to stretch your 5% cash back. Those strategies work well to stretch your cash back but there is still room for improvement. To maximize your cash back it would be great if you could get cash back on all of your bills. Unfortunately, bills such as your rent or mortgage cannot usually be paid by credit card. Or if they can be paid by credit card there is a surcharge that is larger than the cash back you would get for paying the bill.

There is a way to get cash back for paying your rent even if your leasing company doesn’t offer credit card payments as an option. I found out about this method from reading some frequent flyer blogs that share methods to increase your miles earned from credit cards. I tried using one of their methods myself and it worked without any problems.

In order to get cash back for paying rent the first thing you need to do for this particular method is to get a Bluebird(not an affiliate link) card from American Express. It is easy to sign up for the card but if you need some additional info on applying for the card you can read this post at Million Mile Secrets. Once you have the card you need to buy a Vanilla Reload card at CVS or elsewhere with your cash back credit card. There are several different prepaid cards with the word “Vanilla” on them so make sure you get the right one. There is a $3.95 fee on a $500 Vanilla Reload card. You can use the Vanilla Reload card to fund your Bluebird card and there should be no additional fee. Once the $500 from the reload card is added to your Bluebird account you can use that money to pay bills via the bill pay feature of the Bluebird card. Since you earned cash back for the purchase of the Vanilla Reload card your are effectively getting cash back for paying your bills.

I have tried this myself and didn’t have any problems. I bought the Vanilla Reload card at the CVS next to my apartment and then went home and added the card to my account. The whole process only took about 15 minutes, including the walk to the drugstore and back. The $500 was immediately credited to my account. I entered the information for my rent payment and used the bill pay to pay my rent. My travel credit card pays 2.2% in rewards so I made $11 from the purchase of the $500 gift card. Once you subtract the $3.95 for buying the card the net amount made is $7.05. That amount may not be worth the bother for many people but it is worth it to me. If your credit card pays a higher percentage of cash back then this method would be more worthwhile.

While this method worked fine for me, I have seen lots of people complain about problems with their Bluebird card. If you decide to use this method there is some risk. Also, you don’t want to abuse this method or American Express might shut you down. Some of you may see how this method could be used to basically create a perpetual cash back machine. I would advise you not to try that. There are limits on how much funds you can add to the card each month and limits on how much you can pay from the card each month to limit such use. Even if you stay under the limits you could have your account shut down if American Express feels you are abusing the card. In addition to using the bill pay feature I also use the card for regular purchases to keep me from being an unprofitable customer for the company.

Has anyone else tried a method similar to this to stretch their cash back? If so, I’d love to hear how you do it.

I’ve written about the Staples ink cartridge recycling rewards program a couple of times before.  I detailed both how I make money with the Staples ink cartridge recycling and how I get free stuff from Staples.  I still participate in the Staples ink cartridge recycling program but they have changed how the program works so I’m posting how the changes affect one’s ability to make money from Staples ink cartridge recycling and get free stuff from Staples using the ink cartridge recycling program.

Staples Ink Cartridge Recycling Program

The basics of the ink cartridge recycling program is that Staples will pay you $2 in Staples Rewards for each ink cartridge you recycle with a maximum of 10 cartridges recycled per month unless you are Staples Plus or Premier customer in which case you can recycle 20 cartridges a month.  This means you can get $20 in Staples Rewards a month if you are a basic Staples Rewards customer or $40 a month if you are a Plus or Premier member.  The rewards expire the month after they are issued for base Rewards members and Plus or Premier members ink recycling rewards are good for twice as long

You might be thinking that you don’t have 10 ink cartridges a month to recycle.  Used ink cartridges can be bought cheap on Ebay or Craigslist.  A good price is about 20 cents a cartridge.  That leaves you with a profit of $1.80 for each cartridge you recycle.

When Staples has good sales on toilet paper or paper towels or something else I actually need then I use my rewards to purchase these products.  If I just use the rewards to buy products from Staples then I am getting the products at about 90% off.  One can make even better use of their ink cartridge recycling rewards though.

What I consider the best use of recycling rewards is to use them to buy free after rebate items. When I use the recycling rewards to buy free after rebate items I actually make money.  Free products are nice but cash is even better and gives me more choice on how I want to spend my money.   Since I can and do receive more cash back then I pay for the ink cartridges I recycle, the products I buy with the recycling rewards are basically free.

Staples Ink Recycling Rewards Changes

I’ve been using this program for almost three years and it had been working fine.  Unfortunately, Staples has made some changes to their ink cartridge recycling program that has caused me some problems.  Starting on March 15, 2013 a rewards member can only receive ink recycling rewards if the member has spent at least $30 in ink and/or toner purchases at Staples over the previous 180 days.  The minimum purchase requirement is net of coupons, taxes, and shipping charges.

This requirement is a bit of a pain but the recycling program is still a good deal.  Since I can earn $120 in recycling rewards in 180 days if I have to spend $30 on ink I still come out $90 ahead.  If you actually need the ink you purchase then the entire $30 shouldn’t be deducted from the $120 in rewards.  A more accurate calculation would be to subtract the premium you pay for ink at Staples compared to what you would pay for the ink elsewhere.  In that case you are probably only losing $5 or $10 due to the ink purchase requirement.

If you do not need ink at all then there is another method to keep from losing the entire $30 ink purchase.  You simply buy a popular ink and resell it on Ebay or Craigslist.  Since the ink won’t sell for as much as you paid for it and you also have to pay fees you will lose more money using this method.  If you are lucky enough to sell the ink on Craigslist your loss could be just $10 or less.  If you are selling the ink on Ebay you will probably end up losing $15 or so.  If you don’t think reselling the ink is worth the trouble you can just be nice and buy ink for someone you know or possibly donate it to a local charity.

The other good change that Staples made was that Plus members get to recycle 20 cartridges a month. Before only Premier members could recycle 20 cartridges a month and other rewards members were limited to 10 cartridges a month.

These changes shouldn’t have caused much problems for me but so far they have been quite a pain.  I bought $30 of ink to satisfy the ink purchase requirement but didn’t realize that my recycling rewards counted as a coupon and thus reduced the amount of my purchase.  After I realized the rewards counted as a coupon I made an additional purchase to meet the ink purchase requirement.

I contacted Staples customer service and asked if they would award my April rewards as a courtesy since I didn’t realize the rewards counted as a coupon and the Staples employees assured me my ink purchase would meet the purchase requirement when I asked.  After some resistance, the customer service agent did issue my rewards and I figured everything would be fine for the next six months.

Unfortunately, when it came time for my May recycling rewards to be issued they were not issued.  I contacted a customer service agent through chat and she kept trying to insist that my April rewards were my May rewards.  After I repeatedly pointed out that this was not the case she eventually referred me to their customer service number.  The telephone customer service agent was much more helpful even though she initially stated that I had not met the ink purchase requirement.  After pointing out my two ink purchase transactions that were listed in my rewards account she agreed that I had met the purchase requirement and stated that she would issue my rewards.  She also promised to notify another department that I had met the ink purchase requirement so that I wouldn’t have any future problems.  We will see how that goes.

If I continue to have to contact customer service every month to receive my rewards then I’ll most likely give up on the rewards program when I run out of my current supply of ink cartridges.  If I get really aggravated I might just sell the rest of my ink cartridges.  I hate to give up the free money but with the time and aggravation needed to get the rewards I’ve earned issued the past couple of months the rewards are no longer “free” money.  Prior to the changes I would have recommended the ink cartridge recycling program as an easy way to get a little extra money but until they have all the issues with the change straightened out I can’t recommend the recycling program.

Do any of you use the Staples ink cartridge recycling rewards program? Have you had any problems since the change?