Get $50 for Shopping at Safeway

If you've read my post, Sign Up For Those Rewards Programs . . . It Can't Hurt!, you'll know that I like using Safeway's rewards program to shop.  You can add coupons digitally to your account, the coupons are organized by products you frequently by in an easy to use app, and money spent adds up to gas rewards to reduce your gas price at Safeway gas, plus a lot of general savings throughout the store.  Sometimes they have special promotions, like now: the 50 Yard Line.

With this current promotion, after you spend get 100 points on select items from now until 2/7/17, you can get a $50 gift card (or a combination totaling $50) from any of the gift cards they sell in store, which is a lot!  And from what I can read in the terms, this is every 100 spent in that time period, not just a one time thing.  The list of participating items is very large, you can see them all here, and includes large name brands such as Aquafina, 7up, Gatorade, Tostitos, Betty Crocker, Red Bull, Quaker, Oreo, Tide, Pepsi, Nabisco, Dannon, Freschetta, Dr Pepper, Progresso, and Red Baron to name a few.

So go do your shopping and start earning those gift cards!  You do need to be signed up for their rewards and add this reward to your account to qualify.  You can see all the details explained here.

Saving on World Travel

For those of you that read my blog, you know I love traveling, especially to different countries.  But traveling internationally is VERY expensive.  Here's a few ways to make it a little easier.

Choosing a Location
Obviously the closer you are to a destination, the cheaper it is to travel there.  So think about where you are in relation to where you want to go.  For instance, someone living on the west coast is going to be able to go to Hawaii much cheaper than someone on the East Coast.  Just like someone on the East Coast can get to Europe for less, and those in the Southern region can get to the Caribbean the cheapest.  That extra couple thousand miles to fly across the entire United States can add a couple extra hundred or even thousand dollars.

Searching for Deals
I search around a lot before making any major purchase.  While I have a few sites I often rely on, I still check other places before buying just to make sure I am getting the best deal.  Sometimes another site can be having a sale!  Here are some of my favorites:

General Travel Deals

  
Most of you have probably heard or even use Groupon to get great local deals, but you can also find deals on vacation packages.  They offer highly discounted complete packages, often with hotel and airfare and even activities!  If they don't have a package for the place you want to go, they also have discounted hotel rates at virtually every major city.










This is basically the same as Groupon Getaways.  Make sure to check both sites as they can have very different offers at the time!

*Make sure you read the fine print for all these offers, there can be specific dates that you can use it and often the deal is only for specific airports and you will have to pay extra to get to one of those airports.  But the savings can still be worth it!


Caribbean Packages and Cruises


This site has great deals for Caribbean resorts and cruises!


Europe


This is a fantastic site that I actually ended up using to create my honeymoon to Ireland.  I love that it is totally customizable: you get to chose what cities to go to, you can chose your mode of transportation, you can upgrade hotels, and you can even opt out of their hotels for one or two nights if there's a specific place you want to stay and they don't offer it.  Plus you can buy excursions here too (though do check to see if there are better deals).  And it's all in one place!


Cruises


This site must be run by the same people as Cheap Caribbean because it has a very similar layout.  Look for good deals on cruises!




Most of these options are for complete packages that include flights and hotels and more which is a great option to bundle to save money.  But if you do buy things separately, here's what I recommend:

Flights
Check out my previous post, Traveling Cheaply Part 1: Flights.

Where to Stay
Instead of hotels, I recommend hostels and vacation houses.  Check out my previous posts Traveling Cheaply Part 2: Hostels and Traveling Cheaply Part 3: Vacation Houses and also Top 10 Places to Stay on Airbnb for Under $140.



I hope this helps you plan out a fun trip!  Do you have any more helpful information?

Save Money On Your Online Shopping

If you don't use Google Chrome as your browser . . . . do it.  Not only will these tips not apply to you, but it is such an awesome browser!  It's completely customizable.  I love that I have two windows that automatically open, one with my personal Google profile and one with my work profile so I don't have to switch between the two.  There are so many other benefits to Chrome as well, one of them being all the cool extensions you can add to do various things, namely being saving you money.

I LOVE online shopping.  It's so great to purchase everyday items you forgot to buy at the store, presents that can be wrapped and delivered to far away family and friends, deals or unusual items you can't find in stores, or just saving you time.  And here are two awesome extensions you can get for Google Chrome that will help you save money on all this shopping!

Honey's primary purpose it to search the internet for all the coupon codes available and finds you the best savings deal!  A popup will appear at checkout and after clicking "Try Codes!" it will try all the available codes and then applies the one that will save you the most money.  I love it and it's saved me a lot already!

But that's not all.  Honey also detects savings opportunities on Amazon and shows you the best deal price of all the sellers.

And on top of it all, it offers cash back at select sites.  Another popup will appear at checkout with a bonus offer. Each bonus is a randomized amount, anywhere from 1-100% of the commission.  All you have to do is click "Activate Cash Bonus!" before you finish your purchase.

Click here to join. 

Wikibuy checks other retailers for the exact product you’re shopping for on Amazon and notifies you in less than ten seconds if it finds a better price. Rather than forcing you to check out on the other retailer’s site, customers can checkout on Wikibuy with a 100% money back guarantee and awesome customer support. It also automatically finds and applies coupons on hundreds of sites like Target, Expedia, and Macy’s.

I haven't tried it out yet, but it sounds awesome!

Click here to join.




I hope this helps you save money.  Now shop away!  Do you have any other tips or extensions to get to help save money in online shopping?