The Extra Money Blog

How to Save Additional 15% on Buying a Groupon to Get a Double Discount

We are a big Groupon family in my household. In fact I asked my wife to tally up our Groupon purchases in the last year. The amount? $3,722.

And since Groupon typically provides at least a 50% off discount on purchases of goods and services, this means my wife and I purchased over $7,000 last year in “stuff” through Groupon.

Crazy when you sit down and compile these numbers!

If you’re not familiar with Groupon, it’s essentially a program through which you can purchase goods and services at deep discounts. How deep? 50% on average.

Groupon, as company, while has suffered badly in the stock market, has done wonders for small businesses from a marketing and exposure stand point.

For example, this is how I use Groupon as a small business owner.

But in this post I want to focus on how I use Groupon as a consumer, and how you can save even more when buying a Groupon next time.

Here is how we do it in our household. Both my wife and I are signed up for Groupon notifications.

We have created a profile and pre-selected the various products and services we are interested in within our desired travel radius. If you are a Groupon user I recommend you do this so you get relevant offers in your inbox.

Once an offer that fits our preferences becomes available we receive an email notification from Groupon. But when we get the email, we do not click the link inside it to purchase the Groupon.

Instead, we log on to www.discover.com and purchase the Groupon through Discover’s “Shop Discover” page online. By doing this we get an additional 15% off on our purchase.

You can access this page directly from www.discover.com

Groupon is listed as a 15% off partner.

For example, if I receive a Groupon email notification for a massage priced at $37 with an original market value of $75, and if I purchase it through Discover, I get an additional 15% off and my net cost is $31.45 ($37 less a 15% discount). Basically you get an even bigger discount than what Groupon is already offering. This discount appears as a credit on your Discover credit card statement.

This cost saving strategy is not limited to Groupon. Similar to how affiliate marketers online promote products in exchange for a commission from the vendor, Discover Credit Card has also partnered up with several businesses to offer their goods and services through their website at a discount. I am not sure how much Discover benefits from the relationship, but as a consumer we sure do.

We did not get a Discover credit card just because of Groupon, although if you are purchasing a significant amount the savings could add up and make it worth getting the credit card. In our case, spending $3,722 in Groupon purchases resulted in a savings of $558.30 (15% of the purchased amount).

We both have always had Discover and like it for several reasons. I find Discover’s customer service to be one of the best. The cards we have carry no annual fees, and we get anywhere between 1-5% cash back on all our other purchases. If don’t use Discover and are in the market for a credit card that pays cash back on purchases, I highly recommend looking into Discover (my affiliate link).

And if you are not a Groupon user, where have you been? But more importantly, you can check them out here (my affiliate link).

There are two components to expediting your wealth building process. The first is to save more and the other is to make more. Constantly learning and striving to do both add up to get you financially ahead over time.

While this article does not share a method to “make” money, it does share how you can save more of it when buying a Groupon and as a result keep more of it in your pocket.

What about you – are you addicted to Groupon like we are? Do you have any other tips on maximizing the effective use of Groupon? Will you purchase more Groupons now with a Discover credit card after realizing you can save an additional 15% on your purchases?

Please help me spread the word and share this article with others who can also benefit from double discounts on Groupon purchases by clicking on one of the social media buttons below.

Don’t Get So Busy That You Stop Using Your Income Efficiently

There are tons of money-making strategies that can bring in extra cash. Whatever method you find that works for you is great. On this site, we tend to favor passive income methods, income strategies where all the work is front-loaded. Those willing to work hard for a while, to create a product or service that sells itself for months to come, these people will have a lot of financial options available to them in the future.

But then comes to money management aspect of this whole equation. It doesn’t matter how much extra money you bring in if you don’t know how to manage it. So really, money-making is only one of the two skill sets necessary for changing your financial life. The other is money management. These personal finance steps are all pretty well known, but just like going to the gym or eating right, what is good for you is not always what is easy, especially in the long term.

The long term is challenging because circumstances change. Most of us can manage ourselves well in the short term, when the stars align, we get enough rest, not too much is on our plates, and everything else is in relative order. When things get more busy or complicated, it’s easy to let our cobbled-together life management strategies fall apart. For people who don’t come from money, who need to spend lots of time and energy making their financial lives work, it’s important not to let everything fall apart when time and energy are in short supply.

One of the best ways to prepare yourself for the inevitability of busyness and personal chaos is to know the ways that things typically fall apart at the seams. By identifying these seams ahead of time, you can notice problems before they happen, or catch them quickly when they emerge.

One of the most important places to pay attention is to your cash flow, incoming and outgoing. Cash flow problems kill businesses every day, and lots of individuals have difficulties from the same problems. Many people are not overly acquainted with their personal cash flow, so it’s important to spend a few minutes each week taking a look at what you are working with. This may reveal a number of problems.

Over the last decade, many homeowners in Europe who have taken on this behavior have discovered outgoing payments to insurance providers that they were not aware they were paying. “Have I Got PPI” is still a common Google search term in many parts of the world, as many people discover that these payments were automatically tied to loan agreements they made, even though they didn’t necessarily want the coverage.

There are many ways that our personal money management can fall apart when things get stressful. There are lots of ways to prepare for the future – to establish personal finance systems that will stand the test of time. But with automation comes the possibility of establishing patterns that will run themselves into the ground. Don’t let these processes go unchecked. Keep reworking them until your systems build wealth and stability for yourself.

Best Savings Account for Large Sums of Money – No FDIC Insurance Limit

I was researching the best savings account for large sums of money recently and came across a neat way to save a good amount of cash and still benefit from a Federal insurance program such as the FDIC insurance coverage.  This alternative appears to be the best savings account for high net worth individuals, one that does not have a cap on the FDIC insurance limit.

I don’t have personal experience with this method of saving yet, but I’d like to share what I have learned from researching this topic over the last couple weeks.

In the USA, Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) insurance coverage is the Government’s promise to insure your savings deposits in financial institutions.

Many countries have similar arrangements, such as that of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) over deposits in Indian banks.

During the global economic crisis of 2008, the Federal Government of the United States increased its FDIC coverage from $100,000 to up to $250,000 (which may change in the future).

While this limit is sufficient to cover the majority of savers, there are some savers who have a lot more money who are looking for a safe haven.  So where can these savers put their money while resting assured their monies are safe?

CDARS, the Certificate of Deposit Account Registry Service, is a program that “provides a convenient way for safety conscious investors to access FDIC insurance on multi-million dollar deposits”. Intriguing.

Not everyone has the appetite to invest in non risk free investments.  Not everyone wants all their money to be exposed to risk in the stock market. The CDARS initiative appears perfect for these types of individuals.

Whereas many financial planners will tell you to establish multiple accounts in multiple banks to spread risk and maximize FDIC coverage, this approach can be laborious and leave you with multiple accounts to maintain, relationships to manage, interest rates to contemplate and maturity dates to dance around.

CDARS doesn’t sound so bad if you want to avoid all those headaches.  CDARS is a program put together by ex top banking executives, and has over 3,000 participating banks and financial institutions.  When you keep your money with a CDARS participating bank, your monies are distributed across member banks so that no one bank has more than a certain percentage of your money.

This program was initially meant for Governments, Non Profits, Corporations and other entities interested in capital preservation.  In recent years, this option has opened up to individuals as well, so long as you have over $100,000 to deposit. On the surface at least, this appears to be the best savings account for large sums of money so far.

When you save your money as part of the CDARS program, you have one bank to deal with (the one where you open your account). In addition, you have one interest rate and one maturity date to manage.  I have not used the service myself yet, but from preliminary discussions with their corporate representatives, I have learned out that interest rates are higher than market rates, but certainly not as high as some risk free saving mechanisms overseas.

For someone looking to keep their monies state side however, I am starting to wonder whether a vehicle like CDARS is the best savings account alternative?

Have you heard of CDARS? Do you have any personal experience / exposure to how it works?  Would you ever consider something like CDARS?  How do you obtain maximum insurance protection over your deposits in banks?

I have no personal experience saving with CDARS. I recommend conducting your own due diligence prior to considering their services.