Bargain Bastards

So I know some of you like to drink. Well I know I do, though I should stop doing it, but I was looking through some information and found out that the Iphone has a kinda wicked sounding app! The apps name is bartab, and it is a text based “coupon” redeemer. Let me kind of explain it, though I have not used it, I will give you the gist and get back to you after I have attempted it.

Ok so I live in Chicago somewhere, and if anyone reading this knows, its pretty expensive sometimes to drink. What this app asks you to do in the beginning is connect to facebook, which sadly I do not have, so I will have to use my girlfriends (i hate facebook). Then what you will be given is a map that shows the bars around you that have this feature enabled. I guess the bar has to participate in this and download some sort of program so you can redeem. So what you do is you send a text to a friend’s fb wall at the bar that’s participating. The recipient will then have to open his or her facebook page, of course, and redeem their drink within five minutes of receiving this text. Of course there is a small tiny catch, and if your friend is too cheap to pay or you’re too cheap to pay then this is not for you. The sender has to pay 1$ for this of course and the recipient also has to pay 1$ to receive it. Now really if that’s a “pain” then pay the full $5.50 or $7.00 on the drink if you want.

Over all this seems like a cool app, that’s if your city is included. They said that they will be adding more cities as the app gets polished. But really for 2$ overall it doesn’t seem like it takes rocket science to try it out. So go ahead and try it out. I will definitely put it to the test and get back and edit this after the jump. So go get your drink on!!!

You can find this app for FREE in the iTunes app store.

If you’re like me and you watch a ton of movies I would hope you have a Netflix account. If you don’t, let me break it down for you. I used to go to Best Buy every Tuesday and buy new movies. It didn’t matter what the movie was, if it sounded decent I would buy it even if I’d never seen or heard of it. I would easily drop $100+ a month on DVDs and Blu-Rays only to watch the movies once or twice… it was a waste. Netflix has literally saved me hundreds of dollars and now with the boom in the streaming video market I can watch a ton of movies whenever I want, I don’t even have to wait for them to come in the mail. And for the $16.99 I pay a month I get 2 movies via mail at a time (including Blu-Rays) and unlimited streaming to any of the devices I have that allow streaming. They even just released an iPhone app so I can now stream movies over 3G where ever I am, for free!

I know what you’re thinking though, everyone has complained that the streaming movies on Netflix are all old catalog items so what’s the point…. Well that was true, but not really anymore. Sure you’re not going to be able to stream a movie instantly on the day it’s released yet, but with the new deals in place Netflix is starting to get more and more newer movies available for streaming. As of September 1st movies like Iron Man, GI Joe and others have started to pop up on the streaming queue. So do yourself a favor, if you find yourself spending more than $15/mo on movies (which is basically one movie), sign up for Netflix and start saving yourself some money. Don’t get me wrong I still buy certain movies that I know I’ll watch more than once, but for all those other movies I no longer have to waste money buying them to check them out. And basically if you own any recent video game console (Xbox 360, PS3 and Wii) you can stream all the movies and TV shows right to your TV, not to mention the tons of Blu-Ray players and TVs that have streaming capabilities as well (not to mention all computers).

So what are you waiting for! Start your FREE trial today! TV episodes & movies instantly streaming from Netflix right to your TV

Follow the link below to get your free 1-year subscription to Spin magazine. And yes this is legit all you have to do is enter your name and address and you’ll start receiving Spin in 8-12 weeks.

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If you don’t already have at least 1 credit card that is gaining you cash back rewards then go to the bank right now and sign up for one. You are literally throwing away free money if you’re not using your credit cards for every purchase you make, no matter how small it is.

There is a catch to this though, you still need to only spend what you can afford. This is the biggest mistake people make when they get their first credit card, they run up huge bills thinking they can just pay close to the minimum amount and they end up paying way more for their purchases than they would have had they paid cash. Now considering most credit card interest rates are between 9-15% on average (yours may differ), you are going to do yourself no favors by carrying a balance over from month to month and it will totally negate the benefit of getting cash back on that card.

Most credit cards offer somewhere between 1-3% (some may go as high as 5%) cash back on purchases made using said card, so why not take advantage of that. Go about your normal monthly spending routine whether it’s bills, gas, food or even your mortgage if you can, but pay for all of it using your credit card. Every dollar you spend will gain you free money and in the long run it can really add up. Hell, even a hundred bucks a year is still $100 more than you had last year and you did absolutely no work to get it, you were just smart with your money which you should be anyways if you’re reading this site.

One of the best ways I’ve found to rack up the cash back bonuses is if you go out to dinner with a group of friends and you don’t split the bill and everyone else has cash, even if you have enough cash to cover it, don’t. Take all of your friends’ cash and put the entire bill on your credit card so you get the cash back on the entire bill. The only problem with this is that you have to remember that the money you’re getting from your friends needs to be applied to that credit card statement so don’t go and blow it all. Before I started doing this I had a friend that did it at another friend’s birthday dinner. We went to a Brazilian steak house with probably 15 people so after drinks and food the bill was around $1000, he put the entire thing on his card and we all gave him cash. Even with spending $1000 it’s not a huge cash back at 1% (or even 3%), but his bill cost him a little less than everyone else just for the fact that he signed that piece of paper in the end.

So if you think about it, over the course of an entire year if you put all of your purchases on your credit card you should be able to make at least a couple hundred dollars back in rewards which is better than nothing. And like I said, if you’re smart with your money and don’t think of the credit card as an extra source of funds to your bank account, but merely an extension of it, then you should be able to pay off your balance every month and not incur interest which would totally negate any rewards you may have earned. So give this a shot for a few months and see if you can discipline yourself enough to make it work for you and not against you. If you find that you just spend too much money when using your credit cards each month, then this method isn’t for you and I would suggest going back to paying for everything with your actual money. Live within your means and don’t fall into debt that you can’t handle.