Fastest way to $25, $50, $100

[#1]

Just curious how long have you been a member and how much have you saved?

I've been a member for years.. 2002/2003? and I have saved about 1100.00.  Note that I am not a big shopper/online shopper or CC user.   

Having family/friends link their upromise account accounts for 3/4 of my savings.  Try to build a small army of people that don't mind contributing.

I find that anything that helps knock down student loan debt is a good thing....

[#2]

Hi Chris, that's a great suggestion about building a small army of family and friends.  By the way, you say that you're not a big online shopper or credit card user.  But have you tried the Upromise dining program?

[#3]

Hey Chris, I've earned about $275 in just under a year (I didn't really start earning a decent chunk of money until almost the beginning of this year though).

For me, the biggest thing has been taking surveys with e-rewards (some of which are actually kind of fun!) and the UPromise credit card.  I do a good amount of shopping online too, so every little bit counts.   I've also found a few sites that I had never heard of before that save me even more money, whether or not I'm using UPromise, like drugstore.com and visiondirect.com.

I do need to try to get some friends to use UPromise to help me out, but most of them don't have money!

[#4]

Joined in August 2001 so far $2360+ all on my own.

[#5]

I have been a member since 11/01 and saved approx $3600.  Upromise CC has accounted for over 1/2 of the Savings and the restaurant reward program accounted for a large portion of the rest.  The rebates are not as large as they used to be for this program.  The biggest opportunities these days, other than the CC seem to be online shopping.

[#6]

I have been a member since 8/2004 and have saved almost $4000.00!  I try to buy everything online and plan ahead of time.  It's free money! 

[#7]

This thread is very encouraging! Keep the stories coming. I've been a member about 1 month and have saved $8.

[#8]

Erinspice, it's great to have you with us.  Ask away if you have any questions about the various ways to save.  But it looks like you're already off to a good start.

For me I'm big on online shopping, occasionally booking travel, signing up with Netflix, etc.

Again, welcome aboard.

-Jeff

[#9]

My husband signed up in 2003 during some kind of GM promotion but never really mentioned it until one of our grand-daughters was talking about colleges.  So since late 2004 or early 2005 we've earned over $4000 with the Upromise program.  We have both Upromise credit cards so earn for restaurants, groceries, gas & on-line shopping.  I have several monthly bills paid through one of those (cell phone, alarm system, internet server, etc.) so we get the 1% for something we have to pay regularly.

I do shop on-line but our some of our biggest earnings have been restaurants and groceries.  There's a Mobil gas station 1 mile from our house so that's a big plus for us also. When I shop on-line I try to wait for the increased % specials with free shipping.  We only have a few participating restaurants in our area that we like but we try to go to each one once a month ~ I always watch for those big promotions like they have going on right now to earn big dining rewards.

I've had good results with the e-coupons ~ they have really boosted our grocery earnings.  A lot of the items aren't things I can use but I found that many of them make a nice donation to our local food pantry (baby food, cereals, diapers, formula, snacks, muffins, etc.).  I use regular paper grocery coupons on the double days and try to couple those with items being on sale ~ that way I can buy the items pretty cheap, get Upromise earnings and do something for my community.

Sorry this got so long but I thought that some of these suggestions may help some of you.

[#10]

Member since June 2007, just learned to use UPromise in June 2009 end of this month I will have $600, it sucks since I was one of those people who thought it was all automatic just by registering.  Oh well, so far so good, three months in and we are picking up speed.  I have the gas and I think I'll convert my other BoA card in to the groceries one, dunno if that'll make a difference, but I'll try it out.  Some more large purchases on the way.  On record to do some decent earning, switching banks and I can use my card to fund it easy points, imagine you are switching banks and you can charge your initial deposits, wow!.  Also, going to build up my house, I plan to charge it all and expect a $3,000 bump by next summer.  Oh yeah, finding every angle I can, my next search is to find investment accounts that allow credit card funding as well, bump, bump, bump, my goal is to have UPromise earnings max out the two 529 plans, ambitious, maybe, can't wait until the friends and family start contributing.  Thank you all in the community for helping and posting all your great finds, ideas and solutions.