Let me start off by saying I don’t consider myself super financially savvy, so take what you will out of this post!! Thankfully JB is. Over the course of our marriage I’ve gone from cringing to hearing about budgets ( (and things like refinancing student loans or mortgages) to being excited about them. They used to feel daunting and now they feel a bit like a fun challenge. Thanks 100% to JB. I’m grateful for how much knowledge and forethought he has when it comes to money. Though none of the tips below are all that life changing, all of them I wish I had done a lot sooner!
sign up for a credit card with decent rewards. We were late to the credit card game- in our thirties before we ever got one. Then we never used it and why would we? The rewards on that one weren’t much at all. But then we started looking last year at what credit card to get that would be a good fit for us. It took us forever to decide, but we finally went with the Capital One Venture Card. Since I am not loyal to any airline, this lets you erase any travel purchases using points from any airline or hotel, etc. Now we put literally everything we can on it (except for target purchases- we use the target red card debit), and pay it off at the end of the month. We’d put our mortgage on it if was allowed (and I know some banks will let you). With our last credit card it took forever to accrue enough points for a flight, but with this one we bought tucks plane ticket to turks no problem pretty quickly.
download the starbucks app! Sometimes starbucks drive thru is a God send! And I cringe at how long I didn’t have a starbucks card or app. Having this on my phone made it easier for me to get to gold status, plus periodically there are days when you get more stars, or a special pops up . I also love that you can just reload right from your phone, no problem.
get a target red card. If we are anything alike at all, you are probably already shopping here. So why not get a red card? You can get one that’s hooked up to your debit card, so you don’t even have to go the credit card route (which is what we did). Five percent off every purchase at target really adds up, especially if you’re getting your groceries there. On top of that I use cartwheel. I never browse the offers, as I feel like that just makes me buy things I wouldn’t normally purchase(i.e. generally a big waste of money). But while I’m shopping I scan the items to see if they have any extra savings, and a lot of times they do or it’ll suggest a similar product that does have additional savings.
I’d love to hear what else I’m late to the game on!
*this post is in NOT sponsored in any way*
