Remember that time I started this blog then didn’t post anything? I thought I’d give myself a theme to get started: 5 things. My fiancée and I have a joint Substack, Our Info Dump, where we mostly focus on finances, so I figure that’s a good place to start as any. I’m not an expert on money by any means…
…but here’s a few things I know, including ways to earn free money!
- Use credit cards, but not to spend money you don’t have. I use credit cards to pay for everything when I can. The trick is to use credit cards that give you rewards and to treat your credit card like a debit card, never spending more then you have in cash, checking, or savings. Pay off the balance every month so you don’t rack up interest! Also, heads up that signing up for a credit card will hit your credit score if they do a hard pull. Here’s some of my favorite cards I use regularly:
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- Chase Freedom Unlimited — Get a $250 bonus for spending $500 within the first 3 months with my referral link: https://www.referyourchasecard.com/18N/NP5D6I3QR6. There’s no annual fee, and you usually get at least 1.5% back all purchases. Sure, that’s only $7.50 if you only spend $500 to get the bonus, but that’s free money you wouldn’t be getting otherwise! You can also earn more cash back if you use the card towards their featured categories, like restaurants.
- Capital One Quicksilver — Get a $200 bonus for spending $500 within the first 3 months with my referral link: https://i.capitalone.com/GQVtl4fQu. Perks are super similar to Chase Freedom Unlimited, like no annual fee and 1.5% cash back all purchases. I use both since Chase and Capital One will offer special perks unique from each other.
- Chase Freedom Unlimited — Get a $250 bonus for spending $500 within the first 3 months with my referral link: https://www.referyourchasecard.com/18N/NP5D6I3QR6. There’s no annual fee, and you usually get at least 1.5% back all purchases. Sure, that’s only $7.50 if you only spend $500 to get the bonus, but that’s free money you wouldn’t be getting otherwise! You can also earn more cash back if you use the card towards their featured categories, like restaurants.
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- You deserve treats, so budget for them! I hate finance bros whose schtick is to make you feel bad for spending money. If you’re in debt, that doesn’t mean you don’t deserve little treats. The trick is to budget for them. I have a budget category called “🎉 Fun Stuff” in which I allocate a bit every month. What I don’t use, I carry over to the next month, so the size of the fun can vary. Video games, books, and concert tickets are examples of what can fall under that category.
If you want to take a big trip or buy a new shiny object? Make a separate budget for it, make a calculator do the math, and see how much you need to contribute to it monthly to make it happen.
- Find a budgeting system that works for you. I’m not going to tell you the method I use is perfect, but I am going to tell you that you need to find one or else you will continue to spend all willy-nilly. I used to do the latter, and I kick myself for it because I missed out on so many chances to use my money better, like accidentally letting subscriptions renew and not paying attention to price hikes.
I basically use the cash envelope system, setting up budget categories (envelopes) and putting money into them. I fund the important stuff first (mortgage and bills) then make my way down until I get to my “🎉 Fun Stuff” envelope. Of course, I don’t do this using actual cash and envelopes like a cavewoman. I use You Need a Budget AKA YNAB. That’s a separate post for another day because there is a learning curve, but if you want to jump into it, there’s a 34-day free trial on their website. If you are a college student, you get a free year here!
- I mentioned credit card signup bonuses, but there’s also checking account signup bonuses! I don’t have any referral codes, but just search for “checking bonuses” and hit up Bankrate or NerdWallet’s monthly articles with available bonuses from different banks. What’s great about these is that there’s no credit check when opening up a checking account, so you can open these without it affecting your credit score. The catch is that most of the bonuses require you to set up direct deposit which I know can be annoying to change through some employers. Thankfully, I can easily change my direct deposit, so I let enough go through to enable the bonus, then once I earn the bonus, I bounce to a different bank to earn their bonus. Note: I do have three checking accounts I hang onto for logistics.
- Don’t pay to file your taxes. It’s garbage that we (in the USA) have to file taxes even though the IRS should know how much we owe or are owed and even more garbage that big companies, like Intuit, lobby so that we think we have to depend on TurboTax and the like. Other countries don’t do that! We are weird!
The IRS even has a list of trusted partners that will help you do your taxes for free, so take your pick! I use FreeTaxUSA and even went through the steps on TurboTax without filing to double-check that I’d be getting the same return. It would be! And that saves me at least $50 which I can spend towards my “🎉 Fun Stuff” category and not giving it to some giant company to do what I can do for free.
Hopefully this helps some of you save up so you can spend money on things that matter to you and improve your quality of life. Got a tip? Let me know in the comments!
