Sam's Club member

Nowadays, more people opt to stay off campus as it is much cheaper than staying in dorms. Aside on saving some green, I guess personal privacy are one of the main factors driving students across the street renting the nearby apartments. Once you move out, You have to bear the responsibility of buying household necessities like detergents, toilet papers, food products and so on. When you say necessities, those items are like a cup of addictive coke, you will refill it whenever they are finish. If you think long term, buying in bulk will definitely save you money and time.

I went to do some shopping survey in Sam's club few days ago. If you haven't know, all items sold in Sam's club are in bulk. Below are some of items that are cheaper when compared to Walmart:

• Toilet papers
  
• Chicken and pork
  
• Bread loaf
• Fruits
• The list go on..

The downside of Sam's Club is that they don't sell fresh vegetables, choices on frozen food is less and brands selection is limited (apply to those who are brand conscious). Most people thinks that the greatest disadvantage is the annual member fee of $40(that's the cheapest).












There is a good deal for college students by the way. You will only need to pay $25 for the $40 memberships fees and on top of that, you will get a $15 gift card. Total actual membership fee minus gift card, $10. You will also get two memberships cards , one for you, the other one for your housemate. Living in Iowa= no tax charges on memberships. Woohoo... isn't that great??

My advice would be that before applying for the memberships, move around the store before making the decision. Check whether the items that they offer is what you want.

Happy Saving!!!

U.S. bank Credit Card

Credit cards, you can definitely not live without them. Well, they can be your best friend and your worst enemy. Personally, I think having a credit card can be a great advantage if you know how to manage this "monster". I have a US bank college reward visa credit card with a limit of $300. I would try to make all my purchase through my credit card. WHY? it is easier to accumulate points through your credit card than your debit card. The U.S bank debit card are hard to accumulate point or cash rebate because you mostly need to shop online at certain approved merchants or store in order to receive points for your purchase. In my opinion, this is a U.S bank scam to lure customers to sign up for their debit card in hoping to earn some money on overdraft fees and so on. I would really like to know people that have redeem rewards from their debit card. I might be wrong but i am certain that there are more numbers of people redeeming rewards from their credit card than debit card.










Every purchase of $1 dollar is equivalent to one rewards points. If you accumulate enough point, you actually redeem some cool stuff like:







1,500 points for a $10 burger gift cards








1,500 points for a $10 Barnes & Noble gift card

For more information about the rewards, visit https://www.usbankrewards.com/BrowseRewards.aspx. Most people would probably say it is impossible to accumulate that much points, but i will assure you that you will get there in no time. Credit card is also a good way to build credit history as you are basically "history" without credit history. Most of all, you are protected from any unauthorized purchases made from your credit card.

I will only talk to you about the goody goody side of credit card for now. Let's us not spoil the moment. I will unleash the demon in it in the next blog.


Happy Saving.

Buffalo Wild Wings

I am recently addicted to chicken wings. Well, whenever the name chicken wings is mentioned, the first thing that comes to everybody's mind is the famous Buffalo Wild Wings. Woohoo.. The taste and smell of the traditional wings will keep anyone coming back for more.

Below is the price schedule for the traditional wings:

6 wings -$4.99 Per Unit price- $0.8316

12 wings -$8.49 Per Unit price- $0.7075
18 wings -$11.99 Per Unit price- $0.6661
24 wings -$15.99 Per Unit price- $0.6662
50 wings-$32.99 Per Unit price- $0.6598

There is a good news for everyone. Every Tuesday at Buffalo Wild Wings is Wings Tuesday. All traditional chicken wings are priced at $0.45 each. I repeat, it is only $0.45 each.

Five of my friends and I went to Buffalo Wild Wings on Tuesday and ate 70 traditional wings.

Other days Cost: $46.31
Tuesday Cost : $31.50
Total saving : $14.81

If you really want to save and dont really fancy Buffalo Wild Wings, you can always go to Walmart and purchase the premium selected chicken wings at $4.99lb. There are usually 18 wings in a pack and the per unit price is only $0.277.


Happy Saving!!!

T-Mobile $30 free prepaid refills

It is always a question of debate, prepaid or postpaid. I have subscribed to both prepaid and postpaid service before and prepaid phone service would definitely be cheaper for students or for those who wants to save. If you want to get a prepaid phone service or want to switch to one, now is the best time to do so. WHY??







With activation of a new prepaid line of service, T-mobile offers a $30 refills for free paid over two months. In other words, you get $10 right away and and $10 increments in the next two months.

My recommendation would be:
1) activate a new prepaid line of service
2) reload $100 into your prepaid account which would last a year before next refills is needed to enable account to be active. You will entitle to be a goal reward member and get additional 15% bonus on any next refills.Every call is 0.10 per minute with the 100 refills.
3)Get the $30 refills within the two months period.
4) T-mobile usually give 3-4 dollars worth of minutes FREE

This is much cheaper than AT&T prepaid service. There is a catch. You have to sign up before 9/8. AT&T charges $0.25 per minute with no free refills and only $5 for the first 100 refills.BOOOO

Get your calculator and start punching the numbers and you will know which saves you more money.


happy Saving!!

Start Saving and get free U.S. Bank Checks

There are always flaws in any systems that are out there. Every new students that goes to Drake University especially new international students will open an account in U.S. bank for convenience purposes.












If you are new, the bank representatives will definitely encourage you to open an a Five Star Gold Banking Package. I totally recommend it as it is one of the many ways to save aside some money in a saving account instead of having all the money deposited into a checking account. Besides that, it is Free with no monthly fees. All you have to do to waive the monthly $6 fees is to one of the following steps:

1. Auto-transfer to a U.S. Bank personal deposit account a minimum $25 monthly automatic transfer from Five Star Gold Checking to another U.S. Bank personal checking, savings, money market, IRA and HSA.
2. Direct deposit of payroll which is$100 or more to Five Star Gold Checking

One of the downsides of the Five Start Gold Banking Package is that it doesn't come with free Checks like what a Standard student checking account offers. It will cost you $5 dollars shipping fee to get your checks. Totally not worth it!!!

Checks are great as it is one of the most convenient way to pay your friends. Checks also makes it easy for you to track payments that are made out of your account. It is the easiest way to get a so called free drake merchandise as you could print Drake logo on your check book. so COOL...

My recommendation would be that you open a Standard student checking account and have your free checks sent to you. After that, switch your account to a Five Star Gold Checking account. It took me less than 10 minutes to have the account switch. No hassle. Total cost=$0.

Happy Saving!!