Happy New Years

Don't forget to stop at your local pharmacy, grocery, or convenience store on the way home from work this afternoon to pick up your qualified medical products with the help of your pre-tax medical savings account.    When the crystal apple falls in Times Square at midnight, any unused funds in this account are lost and are reverted to the your state.  There is no recourse to get back these lost funds.  Check out the Amazon link in the last post for some items on this list.  

Here is a link to some included expenses.   

http://www.cigna.com/our_plans/medical/fsa/fsa_health.html

Last minute Printable Gifts

The Last Minute Gift.
Amazon makes it very easy with .....

No other deals to report.  Happy Holidays and Safe Travels.

GROUPON

OK....back to Science class for you all.
Lets start dissecting some deal sites & study to the King of the group buying today...

A friend told me about this site upon its Boston release...and I didn't immediately see the value.   But I definitely do now...especially as there are so many copycat sites capitalizing on the model. Groupon negotiates huge discounts—usually 50-90% off—with popular businesses. They send the deals to tons of subscribers in their free daily emails, and they send  businesses a ton of new customers. That's the Groupon magic.   If you use the link at the right to sign up for Groupon for the first time, you get an immediate  a $10 account credit.  Groupon has great relationships with large national chains as well as the independent local retailer.    I have purchased Groupons for The Gap as well as many many local restaurants, movie theaters, and museums.  Groupon is a true Pioneer in group buying and in every major U.S. Market including New York, Boston, Miami, Washington D.C., Atlanta, Chicago.....
If you are already a member of Groupon and you wish to check out today's deals, please click this link instead.  

SHHHHHHH......Now, here is a little secret that many people do not know.  
You can get 3% additional back in rebates on Groupon by going through Ebates on your purchases.
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Some of the other sites as noted in the first post have rebate opportunities with Groupon as well. Here they are:

  

Thank You Soldier

Send a free Thank-you note to our troops overseas

The mission of Let's Say Thanks is to provide a way for individuals across the country to recognize U.S. troops stationed overseas. By submitting a message through this site you have the opportunity to send a free personalized postcard greeting to deployed servicemen and women.
Xerox is committed to helping people across the nation express their gratitude to our troops overseas. The launch of this program is aimed at reminding them how much Americans appreciate their service.

Quick Savings: EVERSAVE

Here is a quick one.....But it is only a two day promotion.
Join Eversave for free today and get $5.00 in your account for signing up.
Eversave is a deal site...and a whole lot more. It has lots of printable coupons and more than just a daily deal.  It is far different than Groupon, BuyWithMe, LivingSocial and the other guys and is actually headquartered just north of Boston.

College Savings

IPromise,  Upromise,  We All Promise to pay for college
Do you have kids?  If so, this is important. 

I have been a Upromise user for years and have accrued $100s.    College costs are increasing at a rate at about twice the inflation rate and current increases have averaged around 5% to 8%.   Will you be ready when your kids are?   Scholarships, loans and grants may not cover it all, so you are on your own as am I.    Have you ever heard of Upromise where your everyday spending can pay you back with money for college.  Thousands of  Upromise Partners make it easy to earn money for college every day based on your storefront and online purchases.  Money can be placed directly in a 529 plan or withdrawn in cash.

• Get 1%-25% back from eligible purchases at 800+ online retailers
  
• Get 1-3% back on thousands of items when you scan a Upromise registered grocery or drug  store affinity card at over 22,000 retailer locations.
  
• Get up to 8% back from over 8,000 restaurants as a Preferred Diner when paying with a registered credit or debit card.
  
• You can even save over 2 times more when family & friends help! 

Some of the many prominent Upromise partners are:

Free Magazines

Year end is quickly approaching.    Do you know if you have frequent flier miles expiring in the very near horizon?   There is a website called Magazines for Miles that  invites frequent flyer members to redeem their unused, orphan, or expiring miles for popular magazines. This is due to a unique relationship between Time Inc., and most of the major airlines.


As we move toward the digital age, I think that Time is very interested in bolstering their subscription numbers in order to maintain their advertising revenue.  This coordination between the airlines and Time Inc., helps this process.  

Let's use this for our benefit as well.

Some of the great Free Magazines currently being offered are:
Barrons - 1,200 miles           Bloomberg Business - 1,600 miles           
Bon Appetit - 600 Miles        Money - 800 miles
Details - 500 mile                 Garden & Gun - 800 Miles
Health -  500 miles               Sports Illustrated - 1,500 miles    
GQ - 600 miles                     Glamour - 600 miles
Economist - 2,100 miles       The Atlantic - 400 miles                                   
There are many more on this list....


The current partner airlines are:  Alaska Airlines,  American Airlines Continental Airlines, Delta Air Lines (now includes Northwest Airlines), Frontier Airlines, Hawaiian Airlines, Midwest Airlines, US Airways, and United Airlines

If you are interested in purchasing magazines for great prices and constant promotions, 

check out the Amazon Magazine Store.  

They have just about every magazine under the sun that is not included in the above promotion.

 

*****OK..Here is an additional deal that was just bought to my attention.  There are tons and tons of free trade magazines out there for every industry.  Check out:  http://www.freetrademagazines.com

Cash for Gift Cards

Did "Big Ted" from the office give you that Fushigi Magic Gravity Ball or the Obama Chia at your Holiday swap?   Did you get another beautiful holiday sweater from Aunt Esther along with that usual wet kiss?  And how about those Retail and Restaurant gift cards that will grow cobwebs in your George Costanzaesque wallet?    I have an answer for those unwanted gift cards....even the ones you received last year.  

Plastic Jungle offers the simplest and safest way to turn unwanted gift cards into CA$H. All transactions are guaranteed, and they offer industry-leading features such as gift card replacement protection in case they are lost or damaged.   And you can get up to 92% of the face value in the form of Cash or even an Amazon Gift Card.   And if you feeling extremely generous this year, you can have funds donated to your favorite charity.

Online Rebates

If you shop online the below information is a must.  
Membership on these sites is free and easy and many even offer bonuses just for signing up. 
Find your favorite stores and shop.
Coupons and Cash Back are then applied automatically.
No forms or rebates to ever fill out.  It really couldn't be easier.

I love to shop online too.  In the past,  I would google "coupon codes" for the best deals and always wind up on the sames sites and find great codes that save me lots of money.    But I want more.   Don't you?  How about free access to sites that actually give the coupons and the rebates ranging from 1%-50%.

Here are some personal examples....

• I buy deals on Groupon and BuyWithMe and am happy with the deals.  How about an extra 3% off Groupon and 5.5% off at BuyWithMe   That makes me happier to get some local deals!!!!!
• I find awesome deals on Ebay....but how about that extra step for an extra 3-7% in Cash rebates on top of your Ebay Bucks?   What do you collect?  Coins?  Cards? Legos? Lint?  Doritos shaped like Obama?  

Check out the below sites for deals on hundreds of your favorite online shopping venues.    Most of my experience lies with Ebates.   Happy Shopping!!!!!
Some of the other sites as noted in the first post have rebate opportunities with Groupon as well. Here they are: