Big News!

I have officially launched my travel website! At BudgetingTravel.com, you can get a sneak peak into my travel tricks and tips, and see how I am able to budget my money and travel the world. This is geared toward people looking for a budget vacation. Sorry, no five star hotels and world class restaurants.

To make your life loads easier, exactly how much it costs to visit per day. It includes a detailed account of accommodation, transportation, food, and excursion costs, as well as other relevant tips on making your stay easier!
you can look at specific cities across the world - Dublin, Bali, Chiang Mai, oh my! - and see

Warning - it is still a work in progress as I am slowly creating the price profiles for each city. But it has come a long way, so feel free to check it out!

Also as a result, I will likely cease my posts on this blog. However, my new website includes extremely similar content, and a more organized
layout!

Thrifty Thursday | Checkout 51

Checkout 51 is a super simple app that will help you save money on items that you buy normally. Every week, a list of about thirty grocery items are put on the app. There are items that, if you buy, you can save anywhere from $0.25 to $5.00 on. Once you purchase the item, you simply scan your receipt and submit it to the app. They process and approve your receipt, then award your account the specific cash back offer. Once you're in-app bank reaches $20, you can cash out using PayPal.

 

This is an app that I need to take more advantage of. I haven't used it lately, but need to because I'm almost at that $20 benchmark! It is also nice when the items listed on the app are also on sale in the store - it's like a double sale! One time, I had a coupon for a glade item, which was also on sale in the store, and there was a $3.00 cash back offer in Checkout 51. Once I applied all the discounts, I ended up getting paid like $0.50 to take my new smelly goodness out of the store!

Thrifty Thursday | Shopkick

One of the number one issues among college students, or anyone for that matter, is money. No matter how hard we work, there never seems to be enough of it. Between rent, tuition, student loans, textbooks, car payments, and more, college students' paychecks get drained pretty quickly. Luck for you all, I am slowly learning the tips and tricks to making your money go farther!

To kick off this Thrifty Thursday tradition, I will begin with the app that I use on a daily basis: Shopkick. A dear friend introduced me to this app back in April and I couldn't be more grateful, as it has helped me to earn $125 in gift cards since then!


Shopkick Homepage

The idea is that you get points, or "kicks", for walking into various stores. Additionally, there are certain items within the store you can scan to get additional kicks. For example, you can look in the app to see that you can get 50 kicks by walking into Macy's. Using GPS, it locates when you entered the store and awards you points. You can then see that you can scan an item's barcode for an additional 50 points. Bam! 100 points, just like that. Once you reach 6,250 points, which takes me about a month to a month and a half to do, you can choose from a variety of $25 gift cards. If you so choose, you can also redeem a smaller amount of points for a smaller gift card if you aren't as patient.

I have redeemed multiple gift cards for Macy's, Target, and Marshalls, and there are many others that you can choose from. And if you get three friends to join, that's a bonus 2,000! (So if you're interested and know me personally, let me know and I'll shoot you a text with the information, eh? Haha.).


My Shopkick Profile

Bonus tip: If you go to the home page and look at the recent mini product ads that read "new", those contain bonus kicks! I have earned hundreds of kicks just by looking through these product ads. 

College Comes at a Cost

Ever since I entered college, I can definitely say that I have been living comfortably. Going to a university that only costs $10k a year and receiving scholarships that covered those entire costs greatly contributed to this comfort. The income I received from my job went straight into my pocket. This provided me with many opportunities - purchasing camera equipment, going skydiving, traveling to New York, and splurging while living at Disney World. It was a fun two years, and I am grateful for what I have been able to do. But now it's time to put in the hard work and earn my education - and I am also grateful for this opportunity.

I have now transferred to the University of Kentucky as an out of state student. This means about $25k per year in school costs, not to mention my rent (which is a heck of a lot more expensive than it was in Utah). Though I am currently employed and doing an unpaid internship, I am now in search for another job to decrease the amount of loans I must take out. Not only this, but I have started learning the craft of couponing! I still have a ways to go until I'm a pro, but I've saved a dollar here and there by using coupons, and it really adds up. I am really excited to learn some great skills over the next couple years - budgeting, conserving, and sacrificing.

What I may be most worried about when it comes to budgeting my money is my upcoming trip to Hawaii. Everyone knows that this is not a cheap vacation spot. Luckily my dad and sister live there, so I don't have to worry about paying for an expensive hotel. But I'll be there for nine days - I'm going to have to spend money on something at some point or another. My plan is to budget, plan, and record. I'll seek out cheap or free excursions or souvenirs, and share it with you all! When the time comes closer, I will give myself a budget and stick to it, then share the how-to's of vacationing cheap in Hawaii with the world! Stay tuned!