25 Ways to Save on Summer Travel

Summer might be the perfect time for a vacation, but peak-season travel doesn’t come cheap. The warm weather, coupled with the fact that kids are out of school, can bring filled-up flights, less availability at hotels and resorts, and surging costs that put summer travel out of reach for some people.

Still, there are plenty of ways to save on summer travel if you’re willing to be flexible and think outside of the box. As the warm weather heads our way and you prepare to book your summer travel plans, here are some tips to consider.

1. Visit destinations within driving distance.

According to CheapAir.com, the average cost for domestic round-trip airfare is currently around $377 per person. That’s almost $1,200 for a family of four, and it doesn’t even include costs like baggage fees, airport food, or a taxi ride to your resort after you leave the airport.

These surging costs — not to mention the lowest gasoline prices in a decade — are partly why it almost always makes sense to drive to your destination if you can. Not only will you save on airfare, but you’ll avoid having to rent a car or pay for taxis or public transportation during your trip.

You will need a reliable and safe car that gets good gas mileage for this strategy to make sense, but the savings can be well worth it if you already own a vehicle that fits the bill. And even if you don’t, renting an economy car at $30-$50 a day can be a cost-saver versus flying.

2. Share a rental with friends or family.

If you want to save a bundle while you travel, it can pay to rent a vacation condo with family or friends. Not only can you enjoy the extra eyes on your kids and a few minutes of free babysitting while you shower, but you can glean huge savings by renting a larger place and splitting up the cost.

Websites like VRBO, HomeAway, FlipKey, and Airbnb feature vacation homes and rental condos that sleep a lot more people than a hotel room, and at a much lower price point per person. You’ll also save money every time you make a meal in your vacation rental’s kitchen instead of eating out at a restaurant. By sharing your accommodations and perhaps compromising with your loved ones just a bit, you can save big!

3. Stay with family or friends.

If you have friends or family that live near a major tourist area, you could always build a vacation around an existing trip to visit your loved ones. By staying with well-located friends or family members, you can save on lodging while staying fairly close to the attractions you want to see.

Of course, this strategy depends on your loved ones actually wanting house guests in the first place!

4. Redeem airline miles or hotel points.

If you have excellent credit and live a debt-free lifestyle, you can always decide to give credit card rewards a whirl. Depending on which travel credit card you sign up for, you can earn points for free airfare, free hotel stays, train tickets, and more.

Once you decide what type of travel rewards you really want, you can find the right card for your needs and be on your way to scoring free or discounted travel in no time. Just make sure you explore all of your options before you sign up.

• Related: Best Travel Credit Cards for 2016

5. Find a deal on Groupon Getaways.

Sites like Groupon and Living Social offer more than coupons on everyday items; they also offer travel deals and bundles that can be a whole lot cheaper than buying the same trip elsewhere. While some of these packages include airfare, others just include lodging at an all-inclusive resort, vacation condo complex, or hotel.

To find the best deals, look for last-minute options, bundled packages, and weekly or daily specials. Meanwhile, you should always price out the individual components of each trip to make sure you really are getting a stellar deal. Some packaged “deals” can actually be more expensive when you book through one of these sites, so do your homework before you click “buy.”

6. Plan your trip around a deal.

A lot of people save money on travel by planning their trip backwards; instead of choosing a destination and finding the cheapest way to get there, they find a good price on any type of trip and plan their entire vacation around that.

This is a good strategy with deals you find on Expedia, Travelocity, or TravelZoo. Since some destinations are bound to be cheaper from year to year, it can pay to be flexible on which destination you visit and what type of hotel or property you end up in.

7. Go for an all-inclusive resort.

If you’re able to get a good deal at an all-inclusive resort, you could save more money than you might realize. True to their name, most all-inclusive resorts include almost everything for one pretty low price – that generally includes your hotel stay, food and drink (including alcohol), and even entertainment and activities.

If you’re a family on a budget, all-inclusive resorts can also make your trip a lot easier to budget for.

8. Try a cruise.

In a recent post, we compared the cost of cruising to the expense of spending a week at an all-inclusive resort. All things considered, the costs were similar since both types of vacation include the majority of your expenses – food, beverages, and entertainment, plus lodging.

If you can drive to a cruise port instead of flying, however, you could save even more. At the end of the day, which type of trip is best for your family depends on your vacation goals. Do you want to relax at a single resort all week, or cruise the ocean and visit a few different destinations? The choice is up to you.

• Related: Cheap Vacation Showdown: All-Inclusive Resorts vs. Cruises

9. Purchase a vacation bundle.

Sites like Expedia and Travelocity are known for offering discounts if you “bundle” several components of your tip and buy them together. This could mean purchasing airfare at the same time as your hotel stay, or bundling your hotel, airfare, and rental car into one single package. According to Expedia, people save an average of $570 by booking their flight and hotel at the same time.

10. Explore the great outdoors.

If spending your vacation at a mega-resort or on board a cruise ship makes you queasy, you could always immerse yourself in nature instead. For your family, that could mean camping out at a state or national park, hitting the road with a camper for an extended family getaway, or popping a tent somewhere in the woods. Go fishing, hike a canyon or mountain summit, or just sit back and enjoy the quiet wonder of the outdoors.

Or, you can try a camping trip that’s a little more upscale but still cheaper than many resorts. “Glamping,” for example, is a cheeky term coined to describe a more glamorous form of camping: in a cabin with electricity, running water, and temperature control.

• Related: A Basic Guide to an Inexpensive and Incredibly Fun Family Camping Vacation

11. Fly on Tuesdays.

The cheapest day to fly last summer was Tuesday, according to an analysis by CheapAir.com, though Wednesday came in at a close second place. Since weekday flights are often less expensive, it pays to shop around and be as flexible as possible with your specific travel dates. Most importantly, you can usually save the most by avoiding Saturday to Saturday or Sunday to Sunday itineraries.

12. Get a credit card with no foreign transaction fees.

If you’re planning a trip overseas, you can save 1% to 3% on your credit card purchases by using a credit card that doesn’t charge foreign transaction fees. Best of all, many such cards don’t levy an annual fee, either.

• Related: Best Credit Cards with No Foreign Transaction Fees

13. Go where kids stay free.

At certain resorts, like Holiday Inn properties, kids stay and eat free. At their all-inclusive resorts, this means up to two kids under 12 can stay in the room and eat for free for the duration of your trip. Rules vary for their non-all-inclusive resorts, but most Holiday Inn properties offer free kid’s meals with the purchase of an adult lunch or dinner entrée.

14. Consider a last-minute trip.

Where planning ahead is a great way to save, so is taking a last-minute trip! Resorts, hotels, and even flights can go on sale at the last minute, but you need to be ready to book when you find a deal.

Sites like Groupon Getaways and Living Social Escapes are good resources to find last-minute vacation packages, while the app Hotel Tonight offers discounts on last-minute hotel bookings.

15. Book a rental with a full kitchen.

Staying in a hotel without a refrigerator and microwave means you’ll be on your own to find affordable meals every few hours. Booking a vacation condo, on the other hand, means you can buy fresh food and snacks to keep on hand. And if you feel like cooking on vacation, you can even cook the bulk of your meals and save a load of money by avoiding pricey restaurants nearby.

16. Take a mini-vacation.

If you can’t afford a week-long affair, try a mini-vacation a few hours from home. A long weekend (or early week trip) can still help you unwind and do wonders for your mental health, and you’ll save money by paying for just a few nights away from home. Of course, a mini-vacation will always be cheaper if you can drive instead of flying!

17. Pick a destination with free entertainment.

Vacations will almost always be cheaper if the destination you choose has some entertainment value on its own. With a typical beach vacation, for example, kids can usually stay fairly busy playing in the sand and surf. If you choose to vacation in the mountains, you can keep the family busy by hiking and exploring the outdoors. And in vibrant cultural cities like New York or New Orleans, you’ll often encounter music in the streets and many museums or historic sites that are free of charge.

Some vacation packages also include entertainment as part of the deal. Cruises and all-inclusive resorts are a good example; once you pay your fare or room rate, most activities and entertainment options are included.

A beach provides plenty of free fun for kids – and grownups, too. Photo: Rob Briscoe

18. Hit up the visitor’s center.

Most destinations have a visitor’s center, which can be a great source of deals that can make your vacation cheaper. Beyond the brochures that will introduce you to the area’s attractions, you can also find buy-one-get-one-free coupons for dinner or free appetizers, and discounts on local attractions.

19. Be flexible with your plans.

Remember how flying on weekdays can save you money? That kind of flexibility can help you save on other components of your trip as well. If you’re able to take one of those unsavory flights before sunrise or late at night, stay in less-than-perfect accommodations for a portion of your trip, or visit a destination you hadn’t considered before, you can piece together a much cheaper getaway.

20. Subscribe to cheap travel alerts.

Websites like The Flight Deal, Airfare Watchdog, and Secret Flying use complex algorithms to find mistake fares and low-cost flights to destinations all over the globe. By subscribing to these sites, you can hear about these deals and price drops first – and get them before they’re gone.

21. Avoid summer holidays.

Summer travel is expensive as it is, but prices surge around summer holidays like Memorial Day, the Fourth of July, and Labor Day. To save as much as you can, avoid these holidays – and the weekends before or after – like the plague.

22. Rethink your ground transportation plans.

Instead of blindly renting a full-size car at your destination airport, consider what your transportation needs will really be. In a big city, for example, when you factor in both the cost of a rental car and the price of parking, it can pay off to become acquainted with the bus or subway system and simply take a taxi to and from the airport.

In a touristy beach area, on the other hand, you might be much better off with a low-cost rental car that you book for an entire week. And in destinations where you’ll mostly be walking around on-site, renting bikes or using a ride-sharing app like Uber for the occasional lift will provide the cheapest and easiest way to get around. It all depends on where you’re going and what you plan to do there, so do your research ahead of time.

23. Avoid touristy restaurants.

You can usually save quite a bit of money on dining by avoiding the restaurants on the main drag in any tourist area. Most of the time, you’ll want to “eat where the locals do” since prices are generally better and the food can be more authentic.

To find out where the locals dine, check online forums and review sites such as Yelp or Foursquare (and note the hometown of each reviewer) or ask some locals — such as your taxi driver or hotel’s concierge — and see where they like to go.

24. Stay off the beaten path.

Just like eating off the beaten path can save you money, choosing lodging options just off the main drag can help you save as well. Right off the Las Vegas strip, for example, you can find three- or four-star properties that are a fraction of the price of, say, the Mirage. And in beach locales, you can usually save 30% or more by staying just a few steps from the water instead of right on the beach.

25. Consider alternate airports.

If you live within reach of a couple of different airports, it can pay to explore your flight options from all of them before you book a trip. If you live in Indianapolis but can drive to Chicago, for example, exploring fares at both airports will open up a lot more options at different price points.

Most importantly, big international airports like Chicago O’Hare, LAX, Newark, and JFK usually have the best availability when it comes to nonstop flights. And sometimes, that extra availability translates into lower costs. Either way, it always makes sense to explore all of your options.

The Bottom Line

It won’t be long until the summer travel season is here. Fortunately, there are plenty of ways to save money if you’re willing to consider some alternative options for your plans, scour the Internet for deals, and stay flexible with dates and times. With some planning, and an open mind, you could wind up paying a whole lot less for your summer vacation this year.

What is your favorite way to save on summer travel? What summer travel plans do you already have booked for this year?

Related Articles

• Eight Items to Pack for a Frugal Vacation
• Why I’ll Never Feel Bad About My Vacation Spending
• Five Cheap Vacations to Take This Summer

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Costco, Sam’s Club or BJ’s: Which Wholesale Club is Cheapest?

I probably don’t have to tell you buying certain grocery and household items in bulk could save you a ton of money.

But warehouse club memberships are expensive.

And how do you know which one gives you the most bang for your buck? You can’t usually take a stroll through one before you sign up!

The Best Warehouse Club Store

We put Costco, Sam’s Club and BJ’s head-to-head, comparing prices of some common bulk-buy items to see which store offers members the most savings.

It’s important to remember prices might differ from location to location, so your mileage may vary.

But since I live in a pretty mid-price-range area (near Tampa, Florida), this should be a good indication of the average prices at each store, and should help you make an informed decision about which club might be best for you.

Membership Fees

The first factor is the annual membership fee you’ll pay before you can shop, and what it gets you.

For the purposes of this post, we’ll compare the rates of the base (aka, the cheapest) memberships, which basically just get you in the door.

The clubs each offer higher tiered memberships with perks like cash-back rewards, but they’re all at least $100, and 2% cash back on select purchases probably isn’t going to pay for that!

• BJ’s costs $50 for a personal membership, and you get a free second card for someone in your household.

• Costco’s the priciest at $55, but you do get a second member card for free. While the chain is well-known for its dealbreaking cash-or-AmEx-only policy, it will (finally!) begin accepting Visa credit cards and Visa or Mastercard debit cards on April 1, 2016.

• Finally, you can get a Savings Membership at Sam’s Club for just $45, the most affordable option of the bunch.

Now, let’s dig into the items to fill your cart once you get through the door.

Grocery Staples

First, we’ll look at the food items you and your family probably eat every day.

These are great to buy in bulk since you always need them, and a lot of them are non- or only semi-perishable.

Rice

BJ’s 25-pound bag of rice is $9.89.

Costco’s 25-pound bag of rice is $9.49.

Sam’s Club offers a 20-pound bag for $7.23.

Winner: Pound for pound, Sam’s Club’s rice comes in cheapest at 36 cents per pound — even though it’s in a smaller bag!

Beans

BJ’s has 10 pounds of dry pintos for $6.42.

If you’re looking for canned, prepared beans, BJ’s has a pretty decent deal on an eight-pack of 16.5 ounce Bush’s — they’re $9.59 at my club.

Costco has a 10-pound package of black beans for $13.69 — it may have been out of pintos the day I went!

Its Bush’s eight-pack of 16.5-ounce cans is just $8.99, however.

Sam’s Club’s 10-pounder of pintos is $5.79. It carries the same package of Bush’s for $8.98.

Winner: Looks like Sam’s Club takes the lead again.

Quinoa

Do I look like a health-food nut if I include quinoa under staples? Sorry, not sorry.

BJ’s carries a 2-pound bag for $9.99.

Costco’s got 4 pounds for $11.99. Score!

Finally, Sam’s Club boasts a 2-pound bag for $8.98.

Winner: Costco.

Peanut Butter

BJ’s stocks a two-pack of 48-ounce Jif extra creamy for $9.99.

Costco’s got a two-pack of its proprietary Kirkland organic peanut butter for $9.99 — but they’re 28-ounce cans, not 48. It also carries the Jif package I found at the other two stores for $10.29.

Finally, Sam’s two-pack of Jif was just $9.28… but each can is 40 ounces, as opposed to BJ’s 48. It’s about half a cent more expensive per ounce.

Winner: BJ’s has the best bang for your peanut-buttery buck.

Bread

BJ’s carries a two-pack of white Wellsley Farms for $2.49. Since bread freezes well, that’s a pretty awesome deal!

Costco carries a two-pack of white Nature’s Own for $4.29 — and had a lot of fancy, fresh breads in the $7 range.

Sam’s Club lowest-priced bread offering is a two-pack of 20 ounce soft white loaves for $3.48.

Winner: BJ’s has your sandwich covered.

Frozen Goods

I love to keep chicken breasts in the freezer for whenever I need them — they’re quick, easy and healthy.

And frozen vegetables are the next best thing to fresh.

BJ’s stocks a 6.5-pound bag of Tyson chicken breast for $16.99. It also had a 5.5 pound bag of mixed veggies for $6.49.

Costco also carried a $16.99 bag of chicken — and each breast was individually wrapped, which is convenient.

As far as veggies, the closest thing I could find to compare was a four-pack of 12-ounce packages of steamable broccoli, which it sold for $6.99.

At Sam’s Club, I can get 6 pounds of Tyson boneless chicken breast for just $13.96. It had 4 pounds of frozen broccoli — all in one bag — for $5.98.

Winner: Sam’s Club was cheapest for both chicken and veggies.

Chips

BJ’s has a 30-pack of Frito Lay chips for $12.69.

Costco’s 30-pack is a few cents cheaper — $12.39.

Sam’s Club, though, carries a 30-pack of Frito Lay (the “Flamin’ Hot” varieties!) for just $9.94. Yum.

Winner: Sam’s Club.

Household Goods

You’ve gotta keep those pantry shelves stocked with more than just food items.

Here are some common household goods, and where to get the best prices on them.

Ibuprofen

Everyone needs a supply of this ubiquitous painkiller — it’s the same as Advil. You’ll save a ton by buying the generic version these warehouse stores offer.

BJ’s brand is called Berkley Jensen (get it? BJ’s?) — and you can get 1,000 200mg tablets for just $9.99. I’ve definitely paid that amount for a pretty dinky bottle of Advil Liqui-Gels before. This comes in at just under a cent a pill.

You can get 750 200mg tablets from Costco for $10.49 — not quite as great of a deal, at 1.3 cents a pill.

Sam’s Club offers a two-pack of bottles of 600 200mg pills for $10.88. So that’s 1,200 pills total — and a few fractions of a cent better than BJ’s offering.

(After all this math, this English major is going to need some ibuprofen, stat!)

Winner: Sam’s Club again!

Toilet Paper

BJ’s has a 48-count of Charmin Basic Giant rolls for $24.99.

It looks like Costco only carries the slightly-nicer Charmin Ultra Soft — you can get a 30-pack of Jumbo Rolls for $32.99.

Sam’s Club has a 24-pack of Charmin Ultra Soft for $22.48.

Winner: You’ll get the most rolls for the lowest price from BJ’s… but Sam’s has the best deal on softer toilet tissue if you don’t like to skimp (we don’t blame you!)

Paper Towels

I compared the prices offered on my personal favorite brand of paper towels — Bounty.

It offers fun prints and different sizes, but for the purposes of this experiment I kept it simple: 12 rolls of plain old white paper towels.

BJ’s package of 12 super-sized rolls goes for $18.79.

Shockingly, the same product is more than $10 more expensive at Costco.

Sam’s Club only offers the 12-pack in Select-a-Size half-sheets, which drive me nuts. But, some folks (hi, mom!) swear by them for extra savings. You can grab it for $19.98.

Winner: This one goes to BJ’s!

Trash Bags

At BJ’s, you can get 200 13-gallon bags for $13.99, or 50 55-gallon bags for $15.99.

Costco sells 500 16-gallon bags for $42.99, or 100 55-gallon bags for $42.99 — significantly steeper, but perhaps sturdier?

Sam’s Club has 200 13-gallon bags for $12.96, and their 80-count pack of 55-gallon bags is $19.92 (but when I checked, they were on sale for $19.17).

Winner: On pure price per bag, Sam’s Club is in the lead — but we don’t know which brand holds up best!

Vitamins

You can’t forget your multivitamin in the morning!

BJ’s has a 500-count adult multivitamin for $13.99.

Costco sells a similar product for $14.49.

Finally, Sam’s Club’s multivitamin is only a 400 count — but also only costs $11.48.

Winner: On price per pill, BJ’s is in the lead by a few fractions of a cent.

Diapers

BJ’s brand 140-count diaper package is $22.99, and it sells a Luv’s 264-count for $34.99.

Costco’s Kirkland Supreme 174-pack is $38.99 and it sells a 192-count packs of Huggies for $37.49.

Sam’s Club’s 200-count proprietary is $38.94.

Winner: BJ’s is the clear winner, here — its diapers are just 13 cents each, while Costco’s come in dead last at almost 20 cents each.

Baby Wipes

BJ’s offers proprietary brand, 800-count Green Tea and Cucumber baby wipes for $12.49.

Costco’s Kirkland Signature brand makes 900-count packages of baby wipes for $19.99.

Finally, Sam’s Club’s Member’s Mark brand sells 1,000 baby wipes for $17.86.

Winner: BJ’s is in the lead — its wipes are a fraction of a cent cheaper than Sam’s Club’s, while Costco again comes in last.

One-Time Purchases

If you already have a membership, consider using it next time you need to replace an appliance, major or minor.

Here’s which warehouse club stores have the best deals on select kitchen appliances.

Refrigerator

BJ’s has this Frigidaire model for just $799.99 including home delivery online — but I didn’t see any fridges in person.

Costco had fridges on display… but none of them cost less than $3,000.

And I didn’t see any full-sized refrigerators at Sam’s Club.

The lowest-priced fridge at Brandsmart right now is still more expensive than the BJ’s deal I found… so it’s not a bad option!

Winner: BJ’s.

Coffee Maker

This most important kitchen item can cost you a little or a lot, depending on the kind of machine you get.

I’m a coffee snob and a Penny Hoarder, so I sprung for a Chemex pourover carafe and will never look back again.

But for our purposes here, I’ve compared each store’s cheapest drip coffee machine.

BJ’s carried a 12-cup Mr. Coffee for $24.99.

Costco had the same thing for $29.99.

Sam’s Club didn’t have any on display… but you can get this 14-cup drip brewer for $49.98.

Winner: BJ’s keeps you perked up!

The Final Verdict

While it’s hard to call out one winner since prices vary by store and are sometimes unavailable online, one thing seems pretty obvious: Costco is the priciest warehouse store, from membership fees to its goods.

BJ’s technically won in this head-to-head competition, but Sam’s Club had the better deal in several instances.

Sam’s Club also had the cheapest membership fee of the bunch.

Our advice? Pick between BJ’s and Sam’s, depending on which one you live closest to — and what specific products you need to buy.

Not sold yet?

Check out our tips for taking advantage of warehouse club store prices without becoming a member.

And if you do already have a membership (or are now planning on getting one), make sure you’re making the most of it!

Your Turn: What’s your favorite warehouse club store? Will you get a membership if you don’t have one?

Jamie Cattanach is a junior writer at The Penny Hoarder. She also writes other stuff, like wine reviews and poems — you can read along at http://ift.tt/1RiB7sH.

The post Costco, Sam’s Club or BJ’s: Which Wholesale Club is Cheapest? appeared first on The Penny Hoarder.

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Local farm receives select national pasture-based grant

Farmers Brian and Lisa Bruno of Apple Ridge Farm of Saylorsburg recently received a National Fund-a-Farmer grant that aims to advance the pasture-based farming systems in the United States.Facilitated by the Food Animal Concerns Trust, the national nonprofit awarded $41,000 in grants to 17 selected family farmers across the country to help them transition and/or improve access to pasture-based systems. Animals raised on pasture, when managed properly, benefit the environment and [...]

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A shocking loss and a legacy long remembered

Philly Viscardo was a crowd pleaser.Whether it was another business owner like herself as co-cowner of Farmer’s Insurance Agency in Dingmans Ferry or a group of business owners she was speaking of in her three terms as president of the Pike County Chamber of Commerce or members of the Dingmans Ferry United Methodist Church where she was an active member in many ways, Philly Viscardo was as distinctive as her name in the way she lived her life.And now the Milford [...]

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Deeds Done

Hamilton TownshipPatricia Martz to Ramon and Karidy Diaz, Lot 602 "Major Subdivision of the Lands of Russell L. and Mary K. Bittenbender, Stroudsburg," Tax Map No. 07/92466, $327,500Jackson TownshipCarlos and Tanya Ramirez to Daniel J. and Alyson D. Gonzalez, Lot 6, Section 3, Fawn Ridge, $242,000Luis Santos to Waclaw Stybel and Lucyna Dolega, Lot 311, Fox Chase, $428,000Gregory R. and Pemra H. Levinson to Pia Jeoing Yoon, [...]

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Wayne Bank acquisition extends reach into two New York state counties

Norwood Financial Corp., the holding company for Wayne Bank headquartered in Honesdale, and Delaware Bancshares Inc., the holding company for NBDC Bank of Walton, New York, jointly signed a definitive merger agreement allowing Norwood Financial Corp. to acquire Delaware Bancshares, Inc. in a stock and cash transaction. The transaction will extend Norwood Financial Corp.’s footprint into neighboring Sullivan and Delaware counties, New York. The combined company will exceed [...]

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Newly opened facility reuses shingles, repurposes concrete

Crushcrete, a Bethlehem company that recycles concrete and asphalt roofing shingles, recently opened a facility in Marshalls Creek to accept shingles. Yard space is being leased from Siberini Excavating, at 1080 Sand Hill Drive, off Route 209. “We provide a cost-effective alternative to dispose and recycle shingles,” said Lisa Snyder, Crushcrete’s business development and education coordinator. Customers, which include contractors and do-it- [...]

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Inn at Buck Hill Falls stark reminder of better times after another failed auction

The Inn at Buck Hill Falls will remain a ghost town, at least that’s what it seems after a third auction on the sprawling old property may have failed yet again to produce a buyer.The long-abandoned haunt — MTV once did a program that claimed the place was haunted — was once envisioned as a Barrett Township treasure. It attracted guests from around the country, in part, because of the lush greens of its championship-style golf course and the cozy [...]

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19 Ridiculous Ways to Make $10,000 You Definitely Haven’t Thought of Yet

The entire cost of tuition at these colleges.

A healthy starting point for investing in your future.

Depending on your location, it could even be a downpayment on a new home for your family to live in or rent out for profit (see #6).

No matter how you slice it, having $10,000 to spend would be nice. But it’s a lot of money to save!

So we’ve gathered X weird ways you could earn that extra cash… and how much effort you’d need to put into each to do so.

How to Make $10,000

1. Cricket Farming

Not afraid of things that hop, crawl and scuttle?

You could try cricket farming. No, follow me here for a second.

It’s pretty easy to get started, and there’s actually more demand for them than you might think.

You basically just need a fish tank, some egg cartons, and dirt to get your habitat set up, and once you start breeding them, they can sell for up to $12 for 250. By the way, the females lay 5-10 eggs… per day.

Check out our full-blown guide to cricket farming to get started. Reptile owners have to feed their pets, and hey, if the business falls through, you’ve got a home-grown source of protein for yourself!

You said you were brave, right?

How many crickets you’d have to sell: 208,333 ⅓ crickets. Wonder which third of the last one you’ll get…

2. Watch Youtube-Like Videos

The folks over at Swagbucks will actually pay you to watch videos!

Now, most of them aren’t as entertaining as the Grumpy Cat series, but you’re getting paid — so who cares?

This works because the videos are sponsored by brands who need to get it in front of as many eyeballs as possible. Every time you watch one of their ads, they’ll credit your account with cash.

Here’s a link to signup. They give you $5 just for signing up.

How many Swagbucks videos you’d have to watch: Most videos are worth between 1 and 3 SB to watch, and each SB amounts to about a cent. After your $5 signup bonus, you’d need to watch 499,750 videos to reach $10,000!

3. Share Stories About Your Kids on Scary Mommy

If you’ve got kids, you’ve got automatic story generators.

From pregnancy fashion choices to dealing with finding your tween daughter’s dating profile, there’s lots to say about parenthood. And on Scary Mommy, it’s “real talk” only — no sanitized, TV-commercial family frolicking in a white-picket-fenced yard.

As long as you have a way with words, you can generate some cash off those face-palm parenting snafus. Here are eight parenting magazines and blogs that pay contributors, averaging about $100 per submission.

How many stories you’d have to share: 1,000. Good thing your kid’s full of antics — and young…

4. Tell Companies How You Really Feel About Their Products

If you don’t mind filling out surveys while you’re vegging out on the couch, you could reap rewards for your efforts.

Plus, you get a chance to make your voice heard. It’s like writing a Yelp review… that might win you a free vacation!

Check out the NPD Group’s VIP Voice. The company will reward you for sharing your opinion to help marketers figure out how to make their products better.

Surveys range in how — and how much — is rewarded, and you’ll have to be part of an eligible demographic.

But if you’re just hanging out in front of Netflix… why not?

How many opinions you’d have to share: If you only made $1 per survey — a lowball estimate — you’d have to tell 10,000 companies how you feel about their goods!

5. Drive for Uber

If you find solace on the road and enjoy finding the best route across town, this is a great way to make money doing it!

As an Uber contractor, you’re responsible for setting your schedule and motivating yourself to work — no one is keeping tabs on you. You keep 80% of everything you earn as a driver (Uber keeps 20%).

If you want to give it a try, there’s a few things to keep in mind.

You must be at least 21 years old and have three years of driving experience, an in-state driver’s license, clean driving record, and be able to pass a criminal background check.

Finally, your car must have four-doors, seat at least four passengers (excluding the driver), be registered in-state and covered by in-state insurance.

Here’s a link to apply with Uber.

How many uber rides you’d have to give: This Uber driver says a 30-minute ride nets him about $11.14. Although this number will vary based on surge pricing and geography, at this rate you’d need to give 898 half-hour rides and spend a total of 1,796 hours driving!

To put that into perspective, there are about 2,000 working hours in a calendar year if you account for two weeks of time off.

6. Search the Web

I love this one, because you just set it and forget it.

Did you know Bing will pay you every time you make a search on your computer or phone? You just have to sign up for Bing Rewards, which is free and takes 30 seconds.

How many searches you’d have to do: Each Bing credit translates to about 1 cent. If you get one credit per search, that’s 10,000,000 searches! Better get curious…

7. Test Websites Drunk

Like surfing the Internet? Like drinking?

You could take a page out of Richard Littauer’s book and charge website owners to browse their sites… while tipsy.

Why, you may ask?

Well, by testing how navigable a website is while you’re drunk, you can give the creator valuable information about how to make the interface foolproof and the experience so user-friendly.

The idea is a site should be so easy to navigate, someone should be able to use it while drunk. And flask-proof.

Littauer’s a user experience professional and an engineer — what you might call a professional web-surfer. So your mileage in this business may vary… but man, what a sweet gig if you can land it.

How many beers you’d have to drink: To make $10,000, you’d have to test 200 websites at Littauer’s original price of $50. If it takes you three beers to work up a sufficient buzz, that’s 600 beers!

8. Open Credit Cards

If you’ve been following The Penny Hoarder for a while, you know we love making our credit cards work for us.

Not only do we take advantage of their awesome rewards, we also go in for sweet signup bonuses.

Heck, this guy’s accumulated 1,500 credit cards over the years. He started collecting them after making a bet with a friend… but if he picked the right cards, that could be a lot of extra cash in his pocket!

As long as you’re responsible, cash-back credit cards are an easy way to make some extra money without ever having to think about it.

For example, right now you can get a $200 cash-back bonus just by opening a Cash Card from TD Bank.

To earn this bonus, you’ll need to spend $1,500 within the first 90 days of signing up for the card. You’ll earn 1% cash back on all your purchases with the card, plus 2% on eligible dining purchases.

Our advice is to set your Cash Card to automatically pay your monthly bills: You’ll earn rewards and keep everything paid on time, without giving either a second thought.

How many credit cards you’d have to open: 50 TD Bank Cash Cards. That’s less than 4% of the number of credit cards Walter Cavanaugh has. Totally achievable! (But start with one.)

9. Cook Dinner in Your Own Kitchen

Can’t get enough of shows like Chopped or Cutthroat Kitchen? Itching to recreate some of the inventive meals you see chefs whip up?

Well, don’t just sit there.

Get in the kitchen, grab a knife, and start cooking! You could make those meals into money with foodshare programs like EatWith.

How many meals you’d have to prepare: If you charged $10 per meal, you’d have to make 1,000 meals to earn $10,000.

10. Sell Pine Cones

Yes, seriously.

Or K-Cups. Or instruction manuals. Or the cartons your eggs come in. People buy so much random stuff on eBay.

How many pine cones you’d have to sell: 16,667.

11. Scare Your Friends and Family

Obsessed with Halloween?

If you regularly pull out all the stops on your costume and decorations, you might be a good candidate to start your very own haunted house.

This team of brothers made not just $10,000, but $200,000 — in one month.

Granted, if you had the $200,000 startup cost handy, you might not be reading this post. But if you do, it’s a scary smart way to double your money.

How many people you’d have to scare: 400. Totally doable. You might even have more Facebook friends than that!

12. Shovel Your Driveway

Hurry, before winter’s out!

Although you may not have quite as much supply as Kyle Waring did in the famous Boston snowstorm of 2015, it turns out people in sunny locales will actually buy boxes of snow.

Because it’s exotic or they’re masochists or something.

How many boxes of snow you’d have to sell: 112 ⅓  six-pound boxes — or 500 ½ 16.9-ouncers!

13. Pour Drinks

If you can open a bottle and your spill rate is less than, say, 15%, you can land a sweet gig as a brand ambassador (read: the smiling girl pouring the samples of Malibu coconut rum at the liquor store).

One of our writers earned between $20-$30 per hour for this kind of work (and wrote us a sweet article about it, along with 20 other ways to make money at the bar). Not bad!

How many shots you’d have to pour: Say you do one a minute. To get to $10,000, you’d have to pour 24,000 shots and make $25 an hour!

14. Sell Your Poop

No, that’s not a typo.

In fact, some people earn up to $13,000 a year for their… deposits.

There is one catch: You have to live in the vicinity of Medford, Mass., where OpenBiome uses the poop to help physicians around the country treat infections of a nasty bacterial infection.

And you also have to be OK with the fact you’re selling your poop.

How many “samples” you’d have to provide: 250. Hope you’re regular!

15. Keep Your Receipts

I used to give my mother a baffled look when she consistently responded in the affirmative to the cashier’s paper-trail question.

Why do you need a receipt for a carton of eggs?

I’ve long since changed my tune, thanks to a rebate app called Ibotta.

It’s super-easy and super-cool: I scroll through available rebates for whatever store I’m in, and if I see something I bought, I just check it off, snap a quick picture of my receipt, and boom — I’ve earned a rebate.

They range anywhere from a quarter to up to $5!

If you really want to up your game, check Ibotta ahead of time and plan meals around which items have the steepest rebates.

How many receipts you’d have to snap: If you can manage to get a $0.75 rebate each time you shop (not hard), you’d need to submit 13,334 receipts!

16. Find a Red Paperclip

I mean, it worked for Montreal’s Kyle MacDonald.

Although he was never handed $10,000 in cash, he was able to barter his way up from a humble red paper clip until he owned a house.

Significant stops along the way included a snowmobile, a recording-studio contract and an afternoon hanging out with Alice Cooper.

But he traded all of these items until he was offered a home in Kipling, Saskatchewan. His home is almost definitely worth more than $10,000.

How’s that for a weird way to make money?

How many red paperclips you’d need: if you’re as lucky as MacDonald, just one!

17. Give Fluffy a Massage

Your faithful companion needs spa days, too.

If you adore animals and have strong hands, consider becoming a pet massage therapist. You could earn up to $120 an hour

How many pets you’d need to massage: 286 half-hour pet massages at $35 each.

18. Play Video Games

Yep, it’s actually possible.

But you have to really like video games. I’m not talking about your Candy Crush “obsession.”

Team Liquid is a group of five LA men who play League of Legends for a living. They each make more than $60,000 a year.

How many hours you’d need to play: A lot.

To keep on top of their game — literally — the men play up to 14 hours per day… and they had to invest the time to get that good in the first place.

19. Get in Shape

Picture this: You step on the scale and finally see your goal weight.

Congratulations! But it gets even better.

You’re about to receive a generous check to spend on a celebratory dress in your new size, stock up on household necessities, or to wisely stick into savings — all just for losing weight!

It’s not a fantasy. If you wager on your own commitment with HealthyWage, this could very well happen for you… if you stick to your guns and lose the weight.

It’s simple. Sign up for HealthyWage, and then define a goal weight and the amount of time you’ll give yourself to achieve it. Place a monetary bet on yourself ranging from $20 to $500 a month.

Depending on how much you have to lose, how long you give yourself to do it and how much money you put on the table, you could win up to $10,000!

How many pounds you’d need to lose: This will vary based on your wager. Check out their calculator to find out!

Your Turn: Which of these weird ways would YOU try to make $10,000?

Disclosure: This post includes affiliate links. We’re letting you know because it’s what Honest Abe would do. After all, he is on our favorite coin.

The post 19 Ridiculous Ways to Make $10,000 You Definitely Haven’t Thought of Yet appeared first on The Penny Hoarder.

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Inspiration from Carl Sandburg, Cory Booker, Jean-Luc Picard and More

Once a month (or so), I share a dozen things that have inspired me to greater personal, professional, and financial success in my life. I hope they bring similar success to your life.

1. Carl Sandburg on the true currency of your life

“Time is the coin of your life. It is the only coin you have and only you can determine how it will be spent. Be careful lest you let other people spend it for you.” – Carl Sandburg

As I write this, my children are about to wake up, as they do like clockwork around seven in the morning on the weekends. Today is going to be a very laid back day after a very busy week for all of us. There will be games played, meals eaten together as a family, soccer lightly practiced in the back yard, books read, and a family movie night at the end of it.

More and more, I’ve come to view time like this as the currency of my life. Time that I spend on something meaningful to me that’s completely of my choosing, without any sort of income motive in mind, is truly the most valuable commodity in my life.

I want to spend that time as well as I can. Right now, while my children are young, spending that time with them is a pretty valuable way to spend it. At the same time, I also need to spend at least a little of it on solitary activities or activities with other adults in order to recharge.

I don’t want to spend that coin on something that isn’t meaningful to me. To me, that is the greatest misuse of my life – to use my time on something that isn’t bringing me genuine joy or pleasure or isn’t helping me to build something I deeply care about, like a lasting relationship with someone.

We only have so much time in the world, and we have to spend some of that time on sleep and on earning income and on maintaining our living environment and other basic life chores. That leaves us a surprisingly little amount of time to spend in ways that we choose. I want to make those choices as meaningful as possible.

2. Reshma Saujani on teaching girls bravery, not perfection

From the description:

We’re raising our girls to be perfect, and we’re raising our boys to be brave, says Reshma Saujani, the founder of Girls Who Code. Saujani has taken up the charge to socialize young girls to take risks and learn to program — two skills they need to move society forward. To truly innovate, we cannot leave behind half of our population, she says. “I need each of you to tell every young woman you know to be comfortable with imperfection.”

Before we had children, I was fairly apprehensive about having a daughter. I grew up in a family where all of the children were boys and the idea of having a little girl to take care of made me feel pretty uncertain.

Now that I’ve had that experience for eight years, I actually don’t do anything that different than I do with my sons. All of my children react differently in different situations and I know how to handle that, but that’s not a gender difference.

In terms of values, I try really hard to instill the same values in all of my children. Focus. Put in your best effort. Be kind to others, and that’s especially important with those who are different than us. Don’t run away from challenges.

I don’t want or expect perfection from any of my children. I’d far rather cultivate their bravery and willingness to take on challenges of all stripes.

3. Jean-Luc Picard on losing without error

“It is possible to commit no mistakes and still lose. That is not a weakness; that is life.” – Jean Luc Picard

When I was in the ninth grade, my father contracted spinal meningitis and had to spend more than a month in the hospital recovering. My mother stayed with him at the hospital, which meant that I was sent to live with a relative. I stayed with my uncle and grandmother.

My uncle worked late at night. He would come home not too long before I woke up, sleep about half of the day, and the be around during the afternoon and evening hours. My grandmother also worked, but she worked during the daytime hours. I was on summer break, so I mostly just hung out around the place taking care of a few chores like mowing the grass and so on.

Due to their schedules, I actually spent more time with my uncle than with my grandmother. He and I didn’t know each other really well before I went to stay there, so there was some “getting used to each other” for the first few days, but before long we settled into a very familiar routine, a routine centered around Star Trek: The Next Generation. The show was on at two different times during the day, showing two different episodes. It was a show that we both agreed on, so it gradually became the centerpiece of our days – one episode in the early afternoon and another one just before he left for work.

The really great part about this routine was the discussions that the show spawned between the two of us, something that ended up playing a huge role in the development of my values as a person.

To this day, I have an incredibly soft spot in my heart for Star Trek: The Next Generation. It reminds me of my uncle, who has long since passed, and the great conversations we had. I miss him, but I know he’d be glad to understand how much impact those things had on me.

4. Trampled by Turtles – Wait So Long

I love a wide variety of music (as you’ll see a bit later in this article), but bluegrass music has always had a special place in my heart. Part of it comes from my paternal grandfather, who was an incredibly skilled banjo player who could play almost anything by ear. It was an amazing skill, but it was one that I simply didn’t inherit.

Bluegrass music makes me think of the wide open spaces in the world, with beautiful trees and green grass. At the same time, it reminds me that it doesn’t matter where you are, you take the joys and the sorrows of life with you, on the inside.

This is a splendid example of modern bluegrass music, mixed with a bit of other musical types as well. Trampled by Turtles fits in perfectly with many of my other favorite musical acts, such as Old Crow Medicine Show and The Avett Brothers.

5. L.R. Knost on parenting and cruelty

“It’s not our job to toughen up our children to face a cruel, and heartless world. It’s our job to teach children how to make the world a little less cruel and heartless.” – L.R. Knost

I feel as though this quote goes hand in hand with that earlier video on the value of teaching children – particularly girls – the importance of being brave more than the importance of being perfect.

In the end, perfection is a false front. No one is perfect. However, trying to maintain perfection can often end in cruelty. If you surround yourself with a facade of perfection, what happens to the imperfect things, the imperfect people? They’re discarded for no real reason.

The world can be a cruel place. It takes a brave person – not a perfect person – to make that world a little less cruel for others and to know how to handle the cruelty yourself. That’s the kind of person I want my children to be, and that’s a big part of the goal of my parenting.

6. Deep Work by Cal Newport

I’ve deeply enjoyed reading this book in the past week, and I think at some point it deserves a longer review here on The Simple Dollar. However, it’s been incredibly inspiring and I wanted to mention it while it was all incredibly fresh in my mind.

The idea behind Deep Work is simple: the truly valuable creative and intellectual work in this world is deep and focused, not shallow and multi-tasked. It requires people to bear down and dig deep into the task at hand, without distraction, so that the piece can be understood in a way that’s impossible to reach if you’re constantly pulling your mind away from that task.

It’s a wonderful read, full of smart ideas and suggestions for doing deep work even in a crazy and distracted professional environment. It’s one of the best books on doing quality work that I’ve read in a very long time.

7. AlphaGo versus Lee Sedol

Lee Sedol is without a doubt one of the best go players in the world.

Wait, let’s back up a second. Go is a classic abstract strategy game for two players that originated in China thousands of years ago. The game itself is simple – players simply alternate placing stones on a 19 by 19 grid, and pieces are captured by surrounding your opponent’s pieces with your own. Playing it well is incredibly difficult, however.

Up until now, computers haven’t done very well at playing go. Unlike chess, go isn’t a game that can really be played by simply looking at a huge database of older games. Virtually every go game played winds up with unique board positions that have never existed in a game before, once you get past the first dozen or two moves or so. That means that the records from classic games won’t necessarily provide you with the best move in a given situation. Plus, there’s the issue that there are thousands of moves you can make on a given turn, and your opponent then has thousands of responses to that, and so on, so it’s really hard to plot more than a few turns down the road. Computers haven’t been able to handle that.

Until now.

In the last few weeks, Lee Sedol played a five game match against AlphaGo, a program developed by Google DeepMind, which specializes in artificial intelligence. Not only did AlphaGo win 4-1, it made some brilliant moves that were outside of the expectations of Lee and every observer of the game. In other words, the program was actually coming up with moves that humans would have never considered – it was essentially thinking on its own about an incredibly hard problem and coming up with novel solutions.

That’s simultaneously amazing and a bit scary. The ideas behind AlphaGo are applicable to lots and lots of different real world problems, and as computer hardware gets better and better, they’ll be able to tackle more and more sophisticated problems. It’s a matter of time before computers are fully designing cars, houses, and countless other things. The pieces are already there for it – it’s just a matter of time before it happens.

It’s truly an amazing world we live in.

8. Friedrich Nietzsche on corruption

“The surest way to corrupt a youth is to instruct him to hold in higher esteem those who think alike than those who think differently.” – Friedrich Nietzsche

Again, this harkens back to the earlier thoughts about perfection, parenting, and cruelty. Striving for perfection means ironing out the surfaces that aren’t smooth, and that often means discarding those who think differently in favor of those who think just like you.

That’s a mistake for children, and it’s a mistake for us as adults, too. The modern world makes it easy for us to wrap ourselves in a cocoon of people who think like us, and often those people treat those who don’t think in the same way with disdain, often to the point of hatred and cruelty. Hasn’t this current political season shown us many, many examples of this?

Step back. Don’t just shut out those who think differently. Listen to them. Often, their ideas and statements come from the same place as yours do – they just follow a different path to their conclusion. The more we can recognize that we’re all humans and we’re all stumbling through life, the better off we all are.

9. Anthony Hamilton – NPR Tiny Desk Concert

From the description:

Anthony Hamilton’s soul sound was refined in the churches of Charlotte, N.C. Watching the Grammy winner perform, you get the hunch that it’s harder for him to keep the soul inside than it is to actually unleash it. What he and his backup singers, The Hamiltones, do would be better classified as a musical purge, with a stage show that can double as couples therapy and church service. Their warm harmonies have the ability to shrink theaters and stadiums, so we knew this intimate setting was perfect for them.

Following a spot at the final In Performance show of the Obama presidency, the singer, The Hamiltones and his band made their way over to our offices to give us a dose of what’s to come, as well as a heavy helping of what fans have grown to love about him. He opens the set with “Amen” — the debut single from his introspective new album, What I’m Feelin’ — and followed it with three songs that have defined his career.

This is just gorgeous soul music from beginning to end. The phrase “a stage show that can double as couples therapy and church service” is a beautiful description of what’s on offer here.

Anthony Hamilton has one of the most soulful voices I’ve ever heard and he’s surrounded it with wonderful vocal and instrumental accompaniment. This music deserves to be heard.

10. Cory Booker on the true showing of religion

“Before you speak to me about your religion, show it to me in how you treat other people. Before you tell me how much you love your God, show me in how much you love all His children.” – Cory Booker

I very rarely talk about my own religious and spiritual views on The Simple Dollar because, like many things in life, it’s just talk. When I talk about financial or career advice, it’s tangible – I can point to specific things I’ve done and the outcomes they’ve produced in my life that can be demonstrated with the dollars in my bank account or the free time I have. When it comes down to things like spirituality and faith, it’s not so cut and dried.

To me, the words of someone telling me about their faith mean very little unless I have seen the actions of that person acting out that faith first. I’m far more likely to listen to the spiritual views of the woman in my town who spends countless hours each week keeping the lights on and the shelves stocked at the food pantry, or the guy who greets everyone kindly almost everywhere he goes without any self-promotion, simply out of kindness.

Those people have earned the privilege of my attention when it comes to their thoughts on God, because they’ve earned it with how they live their lives.

If you want my attention on matters of the spirit, show me your love for others.

11. Audrey Choi on making a profit while making a difference

From the description:

Can global capital markets become catalysts for social change? According to investment expert Audrey Choi, individuals own almost half of all global capital, giving them (us!) the power to make a difference by investing in companies that champion social values and sustainability. “We have more opportunity today than ever before to make choices,” she says. “So change your perspective. Invest in the change you want to see in the world.”

This is a very interesting look at what “profit” really is.

Let’s say you’re an investor and you have a million dollars to invest. You could earn 10% by investing in a company doing something that’s great for the world or earn 20% investing in a company that’s doing something that’s destructive to the world. Which one do you invest in?

Of course, most investment choices aren’t that stark, but simply investing purely for profit means that you’re openly supporting the worst that humanity is doing to our planet and to our people.

It’s definitely something worth thinking about.

12. Ali ibn abi Talib on detachment

“Detachment is not that you should own nothing, but that nothing should own you.” — Ali ibn abi Talib

Modern life gives us constant opportunities to put ourselves in servitude of the things that we own. We take out a car loan and suddenly we’re finding ourselves having to pay out hundreds per month for years. We take out a mortgage and suddenly we’re paying thousands per month for many years. Even the little things, like buying expensive foods, ends up draining our pocketbooks.

Those types of choices, from the big to the small, restrict our choices in other aspects of life. We have to work certain jobs. We have to work lots of hours. We have to put up with certain types of mistreatment. We often end up feeling miserable about ourselves and our situation.

My entire goal in life is to reach a point where nothing owns me, where I can make my life choices without worry or constraint. That means downsizing, and it also means saving for the future. It means working for freedom.

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Best Credit Card Points to Redeem for Gift Cards

While it’s easy to assume credit card rewards are only lucrative if you like to travel, that’s not really true. In reality, a large number of rewards credit cards actually work better when you’re redeeming points for cash back or gift cards. And some even provide more value when you redeem your points for high-dollar gift cards instead of cash back. Go figure.

If you’re into earning free stuff but don’t necessarily want to go on a far flung getaway, earning points for gift cards or a statement credit might be your best bet. With an actual gift card in your wallet, you might actually treat yourself instead of paying household bills or groceries. And if you don’t want to go the gift card route, having a statement credit on your card might make it easier to do something special for yourself.

But, which card should you choose? The following rewards credit cards offer some of the best options when it comes to redeeming your points for gift cards and/or statement credits:

Discover it®

The Discover it® card offers the perfect opportunity for people who mostly want to earn points for statement credits and gift cards. With this card, you’ll earn 5x points on your first $1,500 spent in categories that rotate every quarter, plus one point per dollar on all other purchases. Best of all, Discover promises to double the cash back you earn during your entire first year. If you plan to use your card often, this can be a huge boon – and of course, it can definitely help you earn more gift cards.

Not only can you redeem your points for a statement credit, but the Discover it® makes it easy to turn in your points for gift cards as well. Even better, you can often score a $25 or $30 gift card for only 20,000 points, which is much better than the basic penny per point value you can expect elsewhere. Here are some more details on the card:

Discover it®

Highlights:

Chase Freedom®

Like the Discover it® card, the Chase Freedom® card lets you earn 5x points on your first $1,500 spent in categories that rotate every quarter and one point per dollar on all other purchases. The biggest difference is, this card actually offers a signup bonus after you spend just $500 on the card within 90 days.

The fact that it comes with no annual fee and offers 0% APR on purchases and balance transfers for the first 15 months makes it a card that could fit a wide range of consumer’s needs. And if its gift cards or statement credits you’re after, this card makes both options easy. Simply redeem your points for either at a rate of one cent per point.

Chase Freedom®

Highlights:

Blue Cash Preferred® Card from American Express

While can only redeem your points for statement credits with this card, the Blue Cash Preferred® Card from American Express simply cannot be ignored in this space. With this card, you’ll earn an astounding 6% back on your first $6,000 in grocery spending each year, which will lead to $360 in rewards if you maximize this category. Plus you’ll get 3x points at gas stations and select department stores, and one point per dollar on all other purchases.

While this card does charge a $75 annual fee, the signup bonus alone more than covers it. And if you spend a lot of money at grocery stores, you’ll recoup that investment several times over. Here are a few more details to consider:

Blue Cash Preferred® Card from American Express

Highlights:

How to Maximize Your Statement Credits and Cash Back

Whether you’re after statement credits or gift cards, the strategy for earning as many points as you can is the same. The first thing you’ll want to do is make the most out of your card’s bonus categories – which will obviously depend on which card you sign up for. If you have the Chase Freedom® card, for example, you’ll want to go after your rotating 5x point categories with fervor when they align with your regular spending. Having the Blue Cash Preferred® Card from American Express, on the other hand, means you’ll want to use that card exclusively each time you visit your local grocery store. Here are some additional tips that can help:

• Use your card for everyday expenses and bills. Since the number of points you earn is tied directly to how much you spend, putting as much on your card each month as you can get away with is the smartest way to beef up your point balances quickly. Aside from groceries and gas, see if you can pay other bills like your cell phone or Internet, utilities, kid’s activities, and even insurance payments with credit.
• Always pay your bill in full right away – treat your card like cash. Credit cards are best used as a complement to your budget. In other words, you should only spend the money if you have the cash in the bank to back it up and pay your card off right away. That second part – paying your bill off right away – is especially crucial as you build good credit habits. It can even be smart to pay your bill off a few times each month if that helps you stay on track.
• Don’t use credit as an excuse to overspend. Using a credit card makes it easier to overspend, forget how much you have spent already, or knock your budget entirely off track. To avoid that trap, get in the habit of tracking your credit purchases as the month ticks on. If you keep a running total, you’ll be in good shape to keep yourself out of trouble as you pursue rewards.

The Bottom Line

If you don’t necessarily like to travel but want to earn rewards, statement credits and gift cards might be your new best friends. Just remember to read the fine print on any offer you’re considering and use credit wisely and judiciously, and only when you have the money in the bank to back it up.

Earning statement credits and gift cards may be an exciting proposition, but spiraling into debt is no fun at all.

Which do you prefer? Statement credits or gift cards? What is your favorite card to earn these type of rewards?

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This Guy Thanked 42 Companies, Hoping to Get Freebies. Here’s What Happened

We all claim to hate nasty reviews and high-maintenance customers.

Yet, complaining seems to be the most effective way to get what you want out of a business. It’s especially true of large corporations.

Why do companies give free stuff to the meanest people? It seems like they’re just being rewarded for whining.

No one is rewarding you for being nice and just enjoying your products.

Sure, the squeaky wheel gets freebies, or however the saying goes. But does the wheel have to be such a jerk about it?

You could, perhaps, try being squeaky and nice.

Do you think that would work?

The Flattery Project

Jim Wang at Wallet Hacks put this question to the test: Could flattery get you anywhere?

Instead of contacting companies with complaints, Wang started complimenting every company he liked to see what it would get him.

He wrote to thank 42 companies for their products and included a soft request for freebies.

“I don’t know if you have any samples or coupons you could send my way but I’d be most appreciative to try more of your products,” Wang wrote.

He even included in the emails, “I know a lot of folks probably email to complain and it can be tough responding to those, so I thought I’d add a little sunshine.”

The response was mostly underwhelming:

• Eight companies did not respond

• 20 responded but declined to offer anything

• Eight sent coupons in the mail for discounted products

These five companies actually offered something totally free:

• Pepsi sent two coupons for a free six- or eight-pack

• PowerBar sent two coupons for free products

• Republic of Tea sent a thoughtful card and some samples

• Tom’s of Maine sent a sample beauty bar and men’s deodorant

• After a few follow-up requests, Nespresso sent a pair of cappuccino cups and saucers

What You Get for Complaining

On the flip side, Wang received grander gestures from companies when he had a complaint.

He once called Coca Cola’s customer complaint line about a funky can of Diet Coke and got a coupon for a free 12-pack.

Wang emailed a complaint to Southwest about failed in-flight Wi-Fi, asking for a refund of the (probably about $6) access fee. Instead, Southwest sent a voucher for $100 credit.

That’s almost a free one-way flight, just for enduring a poor Wi-Fi connection!

Just calling your utility companies to demand a better deal actually works. When it doesn’t, customers often get deals after threatening (bluffing) to cancel service.

You can save hundreds of dollars a year just pretending to be dissatisfied.

That seems a lot better than a couple of free coffee cups.

Why Do Complaints Get Rewarded?

A cynic would say companies don’t care about the happy customers: You’re already buying the product. Instead, they scramble to appease unhappy customers to avoid losing business.

But it’s probably not as dubious as that.

Consider Coca Cola’s “customer complaint line.” The number is apparently listed on every can. That’s common on a lot of products, usually accompanied with some promise of a “satisfaction guarantee” or “Not 100% satisfied?”

We’re invited to complain, not to compliment. And we’re only promised satisfaction — not free stuff.

It’s annoying to see rude customers appeased and happy customers seemingly taken for granted.

But the exchange of freebies for complaints is how companies rectify dissatisfaction and uphold their formal or informal guarantees.

If you’re calling with a compliment, they’ve already upheld their part of the bargain.

Your Turn: Have you ever received freebies from a company for saying “thank you”?

Dana Sitar (@danasitar) is a staff writer at The Penny Hoarder. She’s written for Huffington Post, Entrepreneur.com, Writer’s Digest and more, attempting humor wherever it’s allowed (and sometimes where it’s not).

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