Fun story - We opened our JetBlue card when son went off to college in Boston. It was recommended by a friend that I met here on CC (and later met in person)…. we both received many points in the deal, I think enough to pay for a good chunk of a student flight home.
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Oh my gosh! You all are great! I’m going to need a spreadsheet to help me remember and investigate all the tips here.
My husband had that, and it was worth it for one free night a year. Three nights, great deal. The annual one night certificate is well worth the $95, when are you going to get a Marriott for that price?
I really like this site for finding deals of all sorts
https://slickdeals.net/
I have frequently discovered an Amazon or Target deal there that I otherwise would not have found.
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I don’t have anything to offer here. It’s hard for me to stay loyal to one airline because I will only book a flight that’s most convenient and the right price for me, and more often not it would be a direct flight. I look for services, protections on my purchases rather than on points because they are at most 1-5% of the cost. I out almost all of my our bases on my platinum Amex. I have unused airline and hotel credits that have expired because I’ve had no occasion to use those credits after I have cancelled my trips. I buy things when I need them rather than when they are on sale. I find that I save more money in buying when I need them.
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You folks are more persistent than I am. When I read about folks using multiple sites to get multiple discounts for one or two items, I just can’t picture myself doing that.
When I need whatever…I look for the best price usually and just buy it.
Or…I just buy what I need or want anyway. Today I shopped at our wonderful local grocery store. I’m sure I could have gotten some things for less money elsewhere…but I was at the store…so I bought what I needed while I was there.
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I’ve found that if I unsubscribe to emails alerting me of sales, deals…and avoid the Your Good Buy of the day thread. 
, I don’t spend as much.
WRT the comments about not using annual fee credit cards, just because I’m nerdy about stats, (and we are mindful spenders), I checked my $95/year Amex. For 2023, I have already received $184.02 in rewards. I use mainly for Groceries (6%) transit (3%) and streaming(YouTube) (6%). These are purchases that I cannot avoid, so why not get $ back? Sure, I’d love it to be free, but since I more than cover the cost of the card, it’s no brainer for me.
In 2022, H & I had $2,118 in annual fees for our cards…yes, a lot. But! we had $4,294 in cash back…plus 5 hotel nights and some bonus plane miles, priority pass meals (9x $28= $252) and lounge passes . This greatly assists our “Travel funds”…
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My Amex card is around 500 annual fee, but I get it back for trip insurance, clear membership, Uber $, hotel stays.
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Costco executive membership fee $120. We use that card for everything and are getting back multiples of that as cash, plus 2% of everything we buy at Costco which is where we spend the most of our groceries and household stuff budget. I don’t have the energy to do the card shuffle, but my hat is off to those who can! 
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I wanted to return to this thread to add to my comments about watching subscriptions and cancelling them when they aren’t being used enough to justify the ongoing expense. I was mocked by on another thread about not having a particular streaming service.
Our current subscriptions are cell phone service (Verizon unlimited for three and I always pay cash for unlocked phones when we upgrade), Disney+ (kids love it, even DS24), Netflix, Apple Music Family, Apple Arcade, 1T Apple Cloud storage, Paramount+ (for DH), Amazon Prime (for Whole Foods for DH only and I watch a couple of shows on there), car insurance, term life insurance for both of us, and that’s it. I make sure that I never subscribe to something that we aren’t actively using. We use the library often. We don’t have cable, satellite TV, or satellite radio, and we honestly almost never miss them.
I have saved at least 1k/year by policing our subscriptions with vigilance. If DH or I can’t remember it, it gets cancelled, and we all have to agree before signing up for a new one.
There are some great services like Rocket Money that can help you get started with this. Once you are in the habit, it’s easier to DIY.
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(Sorry you got “mocked” - that’s not ok)
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That’s sweet, but It’s okay. No one expects a former sorority girl to be good with money or not an avid TV viewer. Bucking stereotypes with pride is what I do.
If you want to save money, you have to stop caring what other people think of you. That’s better than any reward or discount program I could suggest.
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I saw that. I think people were just surprised that the way you worded your post it seemed like you didn’t know what HBO was. We dropped it recently too. There were some programs I liked on HBO, but it’s expensive. We have plenty of other channels and don’t really even watch TV that much!
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Here is the link for context.
You can save further by rotating through different streaming services, watching the shows you like on one streaming service, then when you are caught up switching to another subscription service. If you combine with lower cost promotions, costs streaming costs can be negligible. For example, I’ve never paid more than $5/month on streaming in my life and have always had at least 2 active subscription streaming services. I currently have Hulu for $2/month (Black Friday) and Paramount+ / Showtime for free. At different points earlier in the year I’ve had Netflix, HBO Max, and Apple TV.
Discounts are also possible on many other subscription services. For example, I spend $14/month on my Verizon network cell phone plan, which makes me eligible for a 60% discount on Internet.
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Here’s one I haven’t seen mentioned. I’m on traditional Medicare so I have to have a Part D plan for prescription drugs. I have the least expensive Part D plan I could find, $5.80/month. But I don’t use it, opting instead to buy my meds on Amazon at the no insurance price. It comes out less than if I were paying a higher premium and lower drugs prices.
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There are a couple of subs where I just have to grin and bear it for the sake of the marriage: DH wants a particular channel on SiriusXM that is only there (he loves the DJs - it’s not the music). And we pay for a whole cable sub just bc he can’t be without MSNBC incessantly blaring all day long. (I shelter in place in another room - I hate background noise but he gets twitchy without it.)
Grr. I guess I don’t grin so much.
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Speaking of health care, and this is totally dependent on your plan. With mine, it is beneficial to frontload any and all out of network care at the beginning of the year. While working towards the deductible, in and out of network claims are covered identically, both go towards the deductible. After the deductible is met, in network is covered at a much higher percentage. There is only so much that can be done, but we do re-arrange some appointments and make sure to get the out of network claims submitted ASAP.
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I clicked on the above link to check out Slickdeals just to see if I might be interested. I’m not really. Now I’ve already gotten two emails from the site (without doing anything more than clicking the above link, glancing and getting off.)
Just a warning note to others who may find the same.
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Wow, I have been going to their site for years and don’t remember ever getting an email from Slickdeals