Queen of the Discount

 As I (and probably everyone) lives more of my life digitally-email, social media, photos, documents-I've come to realize that 15 years with the same/only email account isn't sustainable when it comes to the *free* storage limits set by the service provider-think Gmail, Hotmail, etc...and have noticed that these free storage limits are also decreasing over time, which compounds the issue.  These two things combined mean that just *one* free email account (for my *entire* life) isn't going to work for the duration of my life-never mind with (hopefully!) 30-40 years still to go.   But, being the ever-frugal person that I am, I finally realized a few months ago that there's an easy way out of the death spiral of save email/documents, receive warning that you're over the limit, delete documents/email you want to keep to get your storage limit back below the free threshold, and lather/rinse/repeat ad infinitum.   What is the easy way out?  Have multiple ema...

 Gamification:  Definition:  "adding game mechanics into non-game environments, like a website, online community, learning management system or business' intranet to increase participation." ...or in my case, "adding game mechanics into not-game environments like saving money....to increase participation." Yesterday, while reading the monthly email that my thermostat brand sends me to tell me that I am thiiiis close being considered (amongst their customers in the area I live) the 'most efficient user' of energy, I started to think about what I could do to 'win' by moving the proverbial needle further along the spectrum to 'most efficient user.'  Needles to say, I bumped the thermostat down another degree (from 61 at night to 60) to see if that does the trick.   In the 12 hours since that email, I've further realized over the course of just a half-dozen-ish blog posts that I regularly use the words 'play' or 'game' whe...

I generally don't advocate for anything 'dirty' when it comes to trying to using hacks for the Discount game.  In fact, that's a general POV on life for me:  be a decent person and do decent things. With that said, there is an email hack that is simple, effective-and incredibly common.  So common, that when I was working in eCommerce, if I had a dollar for every time I saw this happen, I would be rich!  And, while it was a bit annoying (mainly from a customer data management perspective), I never once thought-even as a professional-that this hack was dirty.  If anything, I thought:  fair play on you for figuring it out. So, here you go! We've all been on the websites where, if you sign up with your email -as a new customer-you will get some $ or % off your first order.  This functionality is eCommerce 101, and is easy peasy for any customer to do, right?  Well, here's the hack.  To my knowledge, this only works with Gmail (so, if you're still...

As much as I enjoy 'playing the game' of finding discounts and saving money, there are times when it's just grinding away at the shopping basics:  Buy when something is on sale.  And, if it's a good sale...stock up.  Easy enough, right?  Yes.BUT...how do you know when something is on sale-and how do you know that a particular sales price is a *good* sales price?!?  Well, if you're (a little...) OCD like me, you track prices! Now, I recognize this won't work for everyone or everything:  Sometimes, you can't plan to buy something, and goodness knows that the 3,437 varieties of the same item (ish) on Amazon can make it impossible to compare...but, there are still a few tricks for knowing when to pull the trigger on something-and especially when to stock up.  I'll talk about this concept often on a variety of areas over the upcoming years, but today, I want to focus on one specific area:  Groceries.  Food shopping.   This trick will wor...

 ..or so sayeth   Samuel Taylor Coleridge's 1798 poem *The Rime of the Ancient Mariner . And so live-eth many of us in the Southwest area of the US-particularly if you're along the Colorado River Compac t catchment area.  This is already probably more than anyone needs to know (unless you live in this area of the US), and is really just an intro to one of my favorite topics:  Water Usage.   We are rapidly approaching the time of year where the snowfall in Colorado melts and starts it's annual flow to the South and West along the Colorado River to Hoover Dam and parts further along.  The gotcha this year (like the many years before it) is that snowfall has thufar been at record lows this season, meaning that less water will flow, and everything you can do to save even a few drops of water can add up to a lot of water-and to to a lot of $$ savings.  Ah...now this is starting to make more sense! Even beyond life in the SW US, I've lived in place...

 With the Super Bowl two weeks away, it's time to turn to that next American tradition:  Tax Season! Kidding. If, like me Tax Season is not your favorite American tradition-especially if you end up owing taxes, I feel your pain. ...and I have a suggestion you may want to consider if that is where you find yourself in the run-up to April 15:  Pay the taxes you owe with your Credit Card.  Not Kidding. It's crazy, I know.  But, bear with me.  As 70%+ of Americans have a credit card that pays some time of reward (cash back, points, etc...), this knowledge drop is for most anyone reading this post. If you're going to keep reading, there are two things you MUST do to make this play pay-off:  1.  You have to read the fine print on the IRS website to understand what the fee will be for your taxes owed to be paid by credit card and 2.  You have to read the fine print of your Credit Card to *accurately* calculate what the rewards/cash back will be on t...