The Frugal Siblings

Listen, I got some swag going on. My brother showed me this little site called SwagBucks.com . There are several things you can do on the site to earn “SB”. It took me a little while to get over the fact you are making, 2 SB or even 1 SB at a time. Seriously you think, I could probably walk on the street and find dropped change quicker than that, but I promise, if you look at the bigger picture then you can do some real damage. So I break it down in my head like this. The first $25 gift card of the month cost 2200 SB. Then $25 x 12 months, that’s $300. To me that’s a lot of stuff. I get gift cards to Amazon so I can basically get anything. The first thing you can do is surveys. These usually take 10-20 minutes. They are about anything and everything. I have done some of baby products and others on banks. The problem is it can take some time to find a survey you qualify for. This drives my husband crazy because he never seems to qualify for any. But with persistence I tend to always ...

I love to game the system (in a legal way). If I can get a discount I will put in the extra work to do so. Through the use of Ebates , Raise , and a good cash rewards credit card you can save a significant amount of money on gift cards to places you commonly shop. Step 1: Sign up for Ebates Savings: 1% Ebates.com is a website that makes money by referring you to websites. When they refer you they get a commision paid to them. They pay you a part of that commision. The price of the good or service does not change so it is a win-win. Step 2: Sign up for a cash back credit card Savings: 2% A simple cash back credit card is a nice thing to have. If you make a $100 purchase and the credit card pays 1% cash back you will get $1 back when you pay off your $100 credit card bill. I use the CITI double cash back credit card. You get 1% back when you make the purchase and 1% back when you pay your bill. There is no annual fee so as long as you pay the bill in full on time (a must) you...

“ Via negativa ” is the idea of improvement by subtraction. Using this approach to happiness would be to remove things that do not make you happy. I first heard this idea from Nassim Taleb . An analogy would be to take a block of marble and removing all the marble that is not the statue. By doing so you would be left with only the core beauty of the rock in the form of a statue. In my life there are many things that “bring me no joy”. I am sure we can all think of examples such as business meetings, dentist appointments, traffic, ect. It is very easy to try to focus on what makes us happy or what we think we need but it is just as important to think about what makes us unhappy. A prime example of this is traffic. How much joy do you get from sitting it traffic? Even with a good audio book or podcast it still sucks to be in traffic. If you move closer to work and cut a commute from 45 minutes each way to 15 minutes each way your life will be much better than if you were to ins...

Martin Seligman, a pioneer in the field of positive psychologist breaks happiness down to three areas, pleasure, engagement and meaning. Pleasure. What brings pleasure into your life? Searching for thing that bring you happiness is important. I find more pleasure in making a fort at home, popping some homemade popcorn and cuddling with a favorite blanket to watch a movie way more pleasurable than going to the theater. Convenience has gotten in the way of experiences. Taking a nice long bike ride in the spring sun brings us more happiness then another mindless TV show. Sometimes we have to force ourselves out of routine or convenience to find happiness. What gives you pleasure throughout the day? Engagement . I am a mother. Everyday I am engaged with my son, learning life through his eyes. Colors, shapes, sounds, they are all new and exciting. This brings me happiness. Being in the moment and engaged in his life are very important to me. This is one of the reasons it is impor...

We all wish we would have started saving when we were 16 years old, that you maxed out your 401K right away, or did not buy that new car. We are on this crazy journey called life and we all make choices, this is a fact we need to face. Sometimes when you are reflecting back you wish you made different choices or have regret. We can’t live in the past and try to fix our errors but what good will that do anyways? Yes, we should learn from our mistakes so we don’t make them again, but we also need to forgive ourselves and looks towards our future. In the book, You Are A Badass: How To Stop Doubting Your Greatness And Start Living An Awesome Life, by Jen Sincero the author goes over 9 steps to “winning yourself over again”, or self forgiveness. These steps can be applied to one's financial life as well. 1)Appreciated how special you are This is your journey, be proud of it. No one person has the same story as you. Whether you make minimum wage or a six figure salary you ...