April is certainly living up to its name with all these April Showers we have been having this week! Time to get the wellies out! I splashed out (pun definitely intended) on a pair of Hunters last Christmas. They have a fabulous selection at Nordstroms if you fancy a pair yourself.
But for many April is a time to get our finances in order…thanks mainly to the looming tax filing deadline (April 15th), but I also see it as a spring cleaning of sorts. This week I wanted to share a few of my frugal tips with you, as even though I have been here over 17 years, I am still discovering new things all the time. I recently came across a brilliant money monitoring app called Mint. If you don’t have a smart phone you can also use it on your computer by visiting mint.com. It categorizes everything for you and has helped tremendously with keeping an eye on my spending patterns. It really has motivated me to budget more wisely, as I was able to see where I was wasting my hard-earned cash.
Air miles are the next money-saving tip I have for you – make sure you collect them at every opportunity. It is surprising how many people I speak to who don’t bother. I recently went to a wedding in Portland and was able to fund the entire trip this way. I actually don’t fly that often so I collect air miles by other means. American Airlines has a dining program; if you register your cards with them you earn miles every time you eat out or even just go for drinks! I also have loyalty credit cards for United and Southwest – so if I eat at a participating restaurant and use one of those cards not only do I earn air miles with them but also with AA!
For those of you who collect Virgin Air miles I cannot recommend their Shops Away program enough! I recently had a home improvement project to complete and spent hundreds of dollars at Home Depot, who are a participating provider. Instead of spending hours wandering aimlessly around the aisles looking for products I had seen on the website, I ordered everything on HomeDepot.com through the Virgin Atlantic program, then selected ‘pick up in store’, hopped in the car and everything was boxed up and waiting for me at the Customer Service desk. Not only did this save time (time = money!) but I earned hundreds of air miles in the process!
Target, The Apple Store, Sephora, Nordstrom (my Wellies earned me six miles per $1 spent!) and Office Depot are among the many others that participate – so it really is easy to shop this way. Make sure to pay off any credit cards in full each month as otherwise it is not beneficial at all.
I can’t finish this without adding the Brits in LA Key Member program to my money-saving list – 50% off Cecconi’s Breakfast or Monday Nights, 25% off at The Pikey, 10% off at Palihouse and 15% off Brooks Brothers are all discounts not to be sniffed at! Visit our website Britsin.LA for further details or email us at info@britsin.la
So many new members have joined our Facebook this week. Thank you so much if that includes you! If you find you are waiting a long time to have your request accepted, feel free to drop us a line introducing yourself and we will get you set up in no time. Or come along to one of our weekly events – we have Breakfast, Bingo and Quiz night 4 times a month!
Craig’s play The Vortex opens at The Malibu Playhouse on April 11th – check out the official flyer for full details. I know he would be over the moon if you came along – make sure to introduce yourself if you do!
We would love to hear some of your money saving tips – send them over to us at info@britsin.la or tweet them to us @BritsinLA
Cheers!
Eileen
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