Lovely To Save Money

I love saving money. I love saving money and the concept of saving money so much, sometimes when I was living in the city and would go shopping I would pay this game. The game went like this: add up the cost of everything I'm trying on at the store (and I am famous for trying on tons and tons of clothes) and then as I went through and tried things on I'd subtract whatever looked bad or didn't fit. When I left the store I'd pat myself on the back for the money not spent (often all of it, I'm also very picky when it comes to filling my closet).  Then I'd go and buy myself an overpriced latte.

Recently I've become obsessed with rewards cards.  In one hour, on one day, in one weekend I signed up for three. Three. My theory on them is they are free, they often offer them places where you must shop (grocery store, pharmacy, chocolatier) and they save you money.

• CVS's "ExtraCare Card" earns you 2% back on every purchase in store or online, plus extra savings and rewards on special items. Sign up online and they will send you a card and two keychain sized cards in the mail.
• Duane Reade has recently trashed their old dollar rewards program for the new Flex Rewards Program, every dollar you spend earns you 2 points, once you hit 500 points you get a $5 coupon (when I lived in the city I was hyper vigilant about keeping and spending my $5 coupons from my Duane Reade Reward Card, half the battle is remembering you have it!) The new program has electronic rewards, meaning you don't need to worry about loosing your $5 coupon-receipt, and the new flex rewards don't expire-- which was the worst with the old program!
• Olivia and I were both thrilled to find out about KMart's "Shop Your Way Rewards Card," which allows you to earn 1% back on all purchases made at Sears, KMart, Land's End, in store or online, and mygofer.com.  The rewards are stored on your card so you can spend them when and where you'd like. Love that!
• Stop and Shop's Rewards Card is my current obsession. Signing up in a breeze, but I've found many, most, cashiers will scan you with a card even if you don't have one (I have an account but no physical card, I wish they would issue me one because I love to see my savings. Yes, I'm a nerd). The card opens you up to certain deals reserved for card members, but as I said you don't need to have a card for the rewards. An example of how awesome the card savings are: today I racked up $94 dollars in groceries, I saved $23 in rewards, spending only $71. It's like someone gave me a 25% off coupon for necessities. How can you not love that?
• Finally, the most necessary necessity of all--chocolate.  Godiva has a rewards program that has some cool perks, none of which are as important as the free piece of chocolate you can claim at the store every month.  To join is free, and a piece of chocolate at Godiva is around $2, that's $24 a year that's all yours--in the form of truffles, that is! I don't eat chocolate very often, and avoid sugar-- but for a free Godiva truffle? I marched myself into Godiva on Saturday and bought a dark chocolate truffle, good and good for me...right?