Got No Dough - Saving Money in Slim Times

Tricia over at Blogging Away Debt is hosting links for the ING Savings $25 bonus. All you have to do to get the extra $25 is open up a savings account using one of the links from her $25 ING Orange Savings Bonus page and make an initial deposit of $250.

She will be hosting three of my links shortly The links have been posted and used and if anyone needs another, I have plenty! Here is one to get you started:

Open an ING Account with $250 and get a $25 bonus   Used THANK YOU!

Open an ING Account with $250 and get a $25 bonus

I just wanted to do a quick update regarding my last post about MyPoints. It has been close to two months and I’m already half way to my next $25 gift card. In actuality, you can choose whatever you want, but I always spend my points on the $25 Walmart gift card because I find it most practical for my family.

And do you know what the best part of it is? I earned all of those points by merely clicking on the links in my emails saying that I read them. I haven’t bought anything, given my credit card number or signed up for ANYTHING! If you didn’t sign up last time, I encourage you to check it out - what do you have to lose?

As I was checking my bank account online this morning (yahoo, it’s payday!), I glanced down through my account information. It listed the rewards and benefits of our particular account and that’s when I realized what a great decision we made in choosing our bank. Being frugal doesn’t always mean finding ways to save money, it can also deal with ways to make money.

I believe the benefits vary by state, but I would seriously like to recommend Washington Mutual’s Free Checking Account. Some of the key benefits include:

• Free Checks for Life
• Free Wire Transfers
• Free ATMs
• Free Online Banking
• Free Check Safekeeping
• No Monthly Fees
• Free Identity Theft Services
• Free Account Alerts

Here in California (not sure which other states offer this), we also get:

• Free ATM Withdrawals Worldwide
• Free Gold Debit Mastercard with Rewards (I’ll come back to this later)
• One Free Overdraft or Bounced Check Refund Per Year
• Free Outgoing Wire Transfers

At first glance you may not see anything special, but there are three particular things about this account that stick out to me.

1. Free Checks For Life - Unless you can get a promotional offer, checks can be a little pricey. They cost about $20 a box and depending on how many checks you write, it can add up. Hypothetically, let’s say you write about 15 checks a month. At that rate you will use about a box a year. Savings: $20 a year
2. Free Gold Debit Mastercard with Rewards - Every time I use my debit card, I earn .03¢. I LOVE to earn money by doing things that I normally do anyhow. We opened our account in May and so far I have accrued $11.46. The rewards will be deposited on our account anniversary date, so we still have 6 months. Earnings: $23.00 a year
3. One Free Overdraft Charge Refund Per Year - I’ll confess - I don’t make it a habit of bouncing checks, but life happens. I’ve already used my free overdraft this year. Savings: $30.00 a year

If you do wire transfers or use ATMs you can save more money, but these were the three that apply to me most often. Based on that, when May 2008 rolls around, I will have $73 more in my pocket than if I had gone with another bank. Sounds like a pretty smart decision to me.

You’ve probably always heard that there’s no such thing as a free lunch. Or that you can’t get something for nothing. And the cliche list goes on and on. Well…I just wanted to share a little something with you that can almost prove those phrases wrong.

I’ve been a member of My Points for almost 10 years (and I cross my heart and hope to die that they are legit). They send emails to you at your preferred frequency and you click a button at the bottom of the email to say that you’ve read the email. From there, you receive 5 or 10 points just for reading the email and many times you’ll receive even more points for taking advantage of the offer in the email.

Very very simple and does not consume much time. After you’ve accumulated enough points, you can redeem them for gift cards to various merchants, restaurants, gas stations, etc. It used to take a couple of weeks before you would receive your card, but during my last redemption about a week ago, it only took 2 days to receive my $25 gift card for Walmart!

So, as you can see - I did indeed get something for nothing…ok, almost nothing.

Check it out here: Join MyPoints NOW!