Bulls Battle Bears » Stretching your dollar

Valentines Day Tips:

Aman@BullsBattleBears — Sat, 07 Feb 2009 14:52:25 +0000

Its one week until Valentines day. Many people that I know usually wait until the morning of to drive to the nearest gas station to get some wrinkled flowers at inflated prices to show their love towards their spouse, GF, etc.

Well with a few days to spare, I have compiled a list of deals and options that are available that can save you money, save you time, and prevent any hassle this time around. Show somebody how much you love and appreciate them without going broke! Here are some suggestions:

Flowers:

Just like I mentioned in previous savings posts, many credit card companies offer discounts if you use their credit card. Here are the major ~~three~~ four:

MasterCard: Link
1800flowers.com – Save 20% off
Teleflora.com – Save 20% off

Visa: Link
1800flowers.com – Save 20% on flowers of gifts
FTD.com – Save $15 on any order
ProFlowers.com – Save 15% and get a FREE vase

American Express: Link
ProFlowers.com – Save 20% off
Teleflora.com – Save 15% off
FTD.com – Save 20% off
1800Flowers.com – Save 20% off
1800Flowers.com – Save $10 off your purchase of $34.99 or more
FromYourFlowers.com – Save 20% off
FromYourFlowers.com – $10 off any order over $34.99

*Edit*
Discover Card: Link
If you have a discover card, you will get cash back from 20-30% depending on which products you purchase. This can even be combined with the link I have for $50 cash back for signing up for Discover Card. Get $50 Cash Back Bonus with the Discover® More Card!

Chocolates:

Godiva Chocolates: Link
Free Shipping over $50 Code: LOVE
10% off: visa_f08
*both codes can be combined!

Fannie May Candies: Link
30% off coupon: 10360 (enter in the promo code box)
Receive a FREE one pound Assorted Chocolates Code: 93003
(when you order $39 or more in merchandise. Exp Feb 14th, 2009)

There you go guys, flowers and chocolates. What every lady in your life will appreciate and ofcourse, you know what GOOD chocolates do to the brain. They release endorphin which in turn enhances the release of sex hormones. In plain English, you can set the mood right if you plan ahead and be greatly rewarded!

Don’t rush last minute only to waste money. Check out the above links for some ways to save some money and time by planning ahead and using these coupons I found.

Oh and for the single people out there looking for love, give online dating a try, you might even find a date to spend Valentine’s with…its always worth a shot and Lavalife has a free sign-up policy to browse listings:Join Lavalife FREE!

Enjoy these discounts and share them with anyone else you may know!

Aman, MBA

How to make some free money in your free time

Aman@BullsBattleBears — Sat, 31 Jan 2009 07:32:35 +0000

Well sometimes making money from work, stock market is great, but a few extra dollar each week would be even better? Don’t you agree?

So that got me thinking a week ago with a banner that started popping up on my site. On the top of my page I get banners rotating with sponsors that with your support keep the server costs down and offset writing. Its not much and personally don’t want to force anyone to click anything they don’t need. However, one day I was bored and a sponsor contacted me to run ads on some survey taking.

Initially I was thinking this would be a waste, but reluctantly said yes and the ads starting coming. As they popped up, I decided to click on them and see what money I can make.

So far, I am certainly amazed. Now if you still reading, your going to want to follow instructions on how to divert these emails into a new account.

First step before doing anything is to open a new junk email account. I went with Gmail, but Yahoo is fine also. Use this email address ONLY for the surveys and other offers you sign up for as a trial.

Once you have this email address, then proceed to the next steps and check out my review and results.

1. Ipsos is the first company that I tried, they have a pretty decent system. You do surveys of different time length and based on that, you earn points. As the points add up, you can redeem them for various rewards.

Now the rewards for gift cards vary greatly, there are ones for trips, auto related goods, department stores, drug stores, clothing stores, jewelers, etc. Its a really large selection of rewards and the longer you let your points add up, the bigger the reward. I have not used my points yet as I will just see how much I can earn my Christmas and then get my self something nice. Here is a link: Ipsos

2. The second place I signed up to was Opinion Square. This company has a similar concept as Ipsos. You register and are given surveys of different length. Some will be for money, some for sweepstakes, but most will be for points that you can later redeem for prizes from their own catalog. The more surveys you do, the more you can make. Its another good site and again, I will see how many points I can get before getting something during Christmas. Link: Take Online Surveys for Free!

3. This last one was a little different from the first two. Survery4Profit does not directly offer cash, what happens is that you will sign up with their site and every couple of days will get links to other companies to do surveys. Some might find this annoying that do surveys on a regular basis, but for a beginner like myself, I got to sift through the offers as I pleased and only clicked on offers that interested me. This saved me time from logging into a site only to find out I cannot qualify for a survey because of my age, location, income, etc. Again, open up a junk email account so you save the hassle of getting unwanted emails into your regular account. If you want to try the survey site, link here: Paid Surveys

Well there you have three opportunities to find a way to try and make some pocket money. For a person with some free time, you can perhaps earn yourself a gift card or two maybe which might not seem like much now, but could help when Christmas rolls around. Personally, I am trying all these to see where they can take me. If I don’t like the surveys after some time, I can know that with the junk email account, I have no fear of getting spam and can ignore the account fully. Remember, open up a separate email address for any survey and offers you sign up for.

Hope this helps.

Happy Investing!

Aman, MBA

Post Christmas Update – How I raised and spent money for a good cause

Aman@BullsBattleBears — Sat, 27 Dec 2008 17:30:32 +0000

Since I started this blog two months ago, my readership has grown slowly without advertising or SPAM or anything.

Well a couple of weeks back, I began to raise some money for the Daily Bread Food Bank via PayPal donations and other methods that I employed. I am going to quickly break down the funds for you and show that its very easy to raise money by doing very little, and also with a little help, you can maximize this money further.

-PayPal
- I was able to raise approximately $19.00 through donations that varied from $0.50 – $1.09. With these micro-payments, the sum quickly did add up!

-eBay
- I sold a few basic things that were around my house which I had no use for. Believe it or not, those items were coupons! Yes, I sold coupons for dog food, free shampoo, free razors, money off other grocery items that for one reason or another would not use. As crazy as this sounds, selling these coupons raised $9 after eBay fees. In total, this took me only a few minutes to setup and mail to address(es).

-Craigslist
- This was another method I used to get rid of things lying around. I managed to get rid of a few books that were probably going to go in the trash but instead found a good home. I was giving them away for free but the buyer did throw me $10 for dropping them off.

In total, I raised $38 for the Food Bank which I then went over to the local grocery store with. And look at this list.

With almost $40, I managed to purchase:

11 bags of pasta which was normally $2.99/bag but on sale for $1.49. From that, I had coupons for a further $0.50 off which means each bag cost $0.99!

11 cans of tomato sauce – half price on sale for $0.69
5 Cans of baby formula – free with coupon from Simlac that I ordered in advance (normally 4.99 each)
12 bottles of Gerber Baby Food – had coupons for buy one, get one free. (each jar came to $0.25)
4 bags of Quacker Oats family size Oatmeal – $1.99 each
5 cans of baked beans – had coupon for $0.25 off each can – cost $0.99/can
5 cans of chili – $0.99/can
2 family size bottles of Heinz Ketchup – minus $0.75 coupon – each bottle came to $2.24

The total VALUE of the groceries before coupons: $102.85 before tax!!

Total COST of actual groceries: $43.82 before tax!

SAVED: $59.03

This is PROOF that a small effort can save money. I managed to raise a small amount which to some may be nothing, but maximized every dollar to the best ability to purchase groceries that were name brand, nutritious and in sizes that a typical family would use.

This was done to raise the most food possible for those in need, but take this for your own daily purchases. I know I emphasize many times the great value of coupons and hope this makes it even more real. Coupons can save you money.

For more info on coupons here is my last article on how to get the same coupons I used: Coupons..my fetish?

Personally this is not a lot of groceries, but I am glad that I could do something for the local community thanks to the help of your contributions and to those coupons provided by manufacturers! Next year the goal will be bigger and better.

Happy Investing!

Aman, MBA