Free Chicken Fajita at Jack In The Box (Drink Purchase)

This is a pretty awesome coupon if I do say so myself. I might just print off a few and head over here for lunches or late night snacks since we still have a bit of time left before it expires. The deal is a free Chicken Fajita at J-Box with the purchase of a drink, not too bad.

And here's the link!

Free Amazon Prime For Students

Amazon Prime has been running a deal for awhile where all students who sign up through their special link will get a free one-year subscription. Amazon Prime is one of the best services I've ever gotten as a student, who can argue with free 2-day shipping on almost every item that Amazon sells? All you need (I believe) is an .edu email address, so teachers and anyone else in an academic institution can take advantage of this also.

Redbox Free Rental Codes

Most people already know about these but this is for those who don't. Everyone loves watching movies, so why not do it for free instead of paying? Use the following codes to get free movies from redbox for 1 night. Remember, you have to return them before they get to the second day or else you'll have to pay the 99 cent fee.

• DVDONME
• BREAKROOM
• DVDKROG (Only available at Kroger)

Good luck and don't forget to return your movie on time!

Papa John's 1/11/11 Deal

Tomorrow (1/11/11 or January 11th, 2011) Papa John's is having a huge deal on pizzas. Their promotion is 1 large one-topping pizza for $11 and a second large one-topping pizza for 11 cents. That's two large one-topping pizzas for $11.11. If you need a cheap dinner (like me and many of my college friends do) then this is the deal to use. I would take advantage of this if the closest Papa John's wasn't over 30 minutes away. I hope you enjoy your cheap dinner tomorrow (or today, depending on when you're reading this).

$4 AMC Movie Ticket

I just found this pretty awesome deal for an AMC Movie Ticket that I thought everyone should know about. It's $4 for a AMC Gold ticket and free shipping + no tax, so the cost is actually $4. It's rough trying to go to the movies in college since they're so expensive and don't taste as good as pizza. I usually just say no so I don't have to spend the $10 or so to get in but I'm just gonna keep this ticket on me so next movie my friends go to I'll be there.

Also, don't be turned off the name of this site (I was at first...) because this deal is awesome. I choose to not subscribe to any of their emails because my guess is they usually stock things I don't need. Anyways, I hope everyone has a good week of classes!

Here's the link

Arby's Free Sandwich Coupon

I know money is tight out there for all of us college students so I wanted to let everyone know about this deal. Until the 22nd of January you can get a free regular roast beef sandwich with any drink purchase. I know I'll take advantage of this for a lunch, and with free refills you might as well get the small drink and refill when you leave!

Here's the coupon, you might need to resize before printing!

Coffee Table Book on the Cheap (FREE)

I just took advantage of this offer and wanted readers to know about it too. This is for the classier college students (or ones who want their parents to think they have a taste for the arts) who want are missing something on their coffee table (or possibly need to level out their coffee table). National Geographic is giving away free copies of their photography book of Seoul. If you don't know where Seoul is (South Korea) then you should probably add a geography course to your load next quarter (or semester). Anyways, take advantage of this offer if you want.

National Geographic Seoul Photography book

Groupon - Website Review

Groupon is another daily deal website that I frequent. As they've expanded they now include more than one deal per day which can be nice. They also have the most variety of deals, even recently having a 50% off coupon for Nordstrom Rack. The founders must see something in the company because they recently turned down a 6 billion dollar offer from the one and only Google. These deal sites are great for everyone because honestly, who doesn't like saving money? It's also a great way to find new restaurants, as I've bought some for places I drive by but have never gone to (until now). Sign up for Groupon's daily email and start potentially saving some money!

TLDR: Grade A; Lots of deals per day and a good variety of deals make this site easily one of the best, if not the best.

Sign Up Here

Credit Cards in College

This is a topic that I'm going to be touching on numerous times because (to me) it's extremely important. I can not stress how important it is to get a credit card as soon as you can. When you graduate college you will have a harder time getting a car loan or mortgage (or your terms will be extremely unfavorable) if you don't have any credit history. If you have a hard time keeping your spending low then don't think of it as something that you use to buy things, think of it as something you can use once a month to buy lunch (or something else small) so that the card stays active and continues to help your credit score.

Most people I talk to say it's important to have between 4 and 5 credit cards (leads to a higher credit score). While this may seem excessive to some, and possibly dangerous, if you can properly manage them then your credit score will be amazing (both when you leave college and for years to come). The important thing is to not get carried away and remember to always spend within your means and always pay the card off on time (there's nothing worse than paying pointless interest fees). I talk about Mint a lot on this site (because it's amazing) and I use to to track my multiple credit card spending. They have both an iPhone and Android app that allow you to see your accounts at any time. Because of this it's easier now more than ever to keep spending in check.

Overall I would say anyone that tells you not to get a credit card simply has zero confidence in your ability to control your spending. Credit cards are the easiest way to use to help your credit score and show banks that you are trustworthy. In the coming days I'll be going over the best credit cards for college students (and everyone else).

TLDR: Credit cards are the easiest way to help your credit score. Make sure you have at least one (most people say 4 to 5 is preferable) and always pay it off on time. Be Smart.

Mint Financial Website - Website Review

For those who don't know, I have numerous checking accounts, saving accounts, and credit cards. Up until I found Mint is was semi-difficult to keep track of everything. With Mint, keeping track of multiple accounts is a breeze.

Mint is an Intuit company (makers of TurboTax and Quicken), so you know it will be safe (basically Mint isn't hosted by Aljabej Onhandra who lives in Nigeria and wants to help make you rich). After creating an account on Mint you can easily sync up your bank accounts and then every future transaction that you make will be recorded on this site. They have lots of tools that allow you to see where you're spending the most money which is extremely helpful, and also a little scary (who knew you could spend so much on beer?) Another service that they offer which is nice is that they'll suggest other bank accounts or credit cards that will offer your better interest or more cash back. One thing to note is that their suggestions are based off of these people paying them, so always before you apply for a bank account or credit card make sure to research it (both here and the rest of the web). Overall I've been extremely happy with Mint and have been using it for over 2 years, and still use it to this day.

TLDR: Grade A; Extremely helpful in getting your finances and spending organized. Offer lots of tools to cut down on needless spending.

QuiBids - Website Review

The only reason I'm doing a website review on QuiBids is because I see that their Ads are showing up on my website (I actually do use most of the Ads that appear on these pages). I want the readers to know that I DO NOT use QuiBids, but I know there are people out there who do. I aslo HIGHLY DON'T RECOMMEND THEM to college students, as you will most likely spend money and get nothing. I feel that people should be informed on what type a site QuiBids is.

First things first, QuiBids is a legitimate website. They actually do "sell" items for cheap prices in a bidding system. The tricky part is how you are able to bid on an item. Items generally start out at 1 cent and go up in increments of 1 cent, 5 cents, 10 cents, etc. as people bid on them. It costs money to place a bid, generally between 25 cents and a dollar depending on the bid package that you purchase. Each time a bid is placed the timer for the auction resets, so the only way to win is if everyone else stops bidding.

The key part of this is that it costs money to bid on the item, money that will need to be paid even if you lose. This leaves lots of people who have paid without an item and one lucky person with a fairly cheap item. Treat sites like this like the lottery, very few winners and lots of losers.

TLDR: F, I don't recommend these sites, treat them as if they were a lottery.

Living Social - Daily Deal Website Review

Living Social is a daily deal website much like the many other sites popping up around the internet. They offer one or more highly discounted deals a day in a city near you (hopefully, although their list is extensive). The deals are often food, entertainment, bar, or gym related which can make for a good mix. This is perfect for college students (and anyone else) because there are many offers that I've bought that I would not have been able to afford otherwise.

One of my favorite parts of the website is their "365 Things to do in..." section that touches on special part of your city that you might not have known about. Even if I don't buy the daily deal, the 365 section is enough to make me check their website daily.

Please note that if you signup for Living Social through our website then you will receive a $5 gift card AFTER your first purchase. Just click any of the Living Social links and they will set you up to save.

TLDR: B+

About the Author and the Blog

This probably should have been my first post, but it's too late now. I figure it would be helpful if readers knew a little bit about me.

One: I've always been a saver. I had my first savings account when I was 8 or so and loved watching the numbers go up.

Two: I love free and cheap things. I subscribe to lots of daily deal sites and scour the internet for coupons because I hate paying full price.

Three: I enjoy buying things. This might seem strange since my first item was that I enjoy saving, but trust me it's possible to do both.

From these three points you can probably guess what this blog will be about. If you can't then I guess I could just tell you. It will be about the best ways to save your spare money, the best free items on the internet, and finally the best deals online for things people ACTUALLY will find useful (almost no one will find a free coupon book for boats useful...)

This is a blog for people who want to save money but don't have the time to cut through all the nonsense on internet deal sites, because I do this for you.

Getting Cash Back from Purchases - Websites

One of the few things we can never avoid is spending money. Whether it be to eat, sleep, or just live your live there will always be expenses. One of the best ways that I've found to make these expenses a little easier are by using cash back websites. These websites are simple to use and you can end up earning a decent amount of money back.

All you need to do is create an account on one (or more) of these sites, then use them as a launch pad for when you purchase things. For example, if I wanted to buy something from eBay I would log into my ebates account and click the eBay link there. By doing this ebates will give me about 3% back on anything I buy on eBay.

www.fatwallet.com
www.ebates.com

I always check both websites first so see who is offering the largest cash back for a particular site so that I will be getting the most cash back. I hope this helps some of you out there save some money!

TLDR: A+, I use these websites all the time. They get a HUGE seal of approval from me.