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Will There Be Fewer Costco Coupons?

March 20, 2019February 21, 2017 by Money Beagle

I wrote a post in December of last year about how Costco’s December coupons were awful. They were so bad that we didn’t even make a Costco trip that month. This is very unusual for the holidays. One of my readers (Loughneylaurie) made a comment that perked my attention, as it suggested that they are going to be offering less coupons in the future. I haven’t found any real evidence or discussion on the Internet as of yet. But, with looking at recent coupon book release dates, I wonder if there will be fewer Costco coupons moving forward.

Latest Trend Shows Possibility of Fewer Costco Coupons

Looking up the history of Costco coupon books is fairly easy. Many sites scan the books and post the images on line. So it was fairly easy to find the dates of the most recent coupon books from Costco.

Free Cash: Why We Use Cash Back Credit Cards

March 20, 2019February 15, 2017 by Money Beagle

We use cash back credit cards for just about every purchase that we possibly can. Why? The answer is simple, because we earn free cash and it adds up to a good amount. Below is how much cash we’ve earned in the last twelve months.

Costco Visa Card

This is our primary spending card. It has the most rewards that we use. We get 4% cash back on gas, 3% at restaurants, 2% at Costco, and 1% on everything else.

They issue a certificate once per year that you take into the store to cash. This year we’ll be getting $281.88.

Shopping Malls Dying While Shopping Centers Thriving

July 8, 2019February 13, 2017 by Money Beagle

The shopping mall has been in a steady decline for a while. As of 2014, no new enclosed malls had been built since 2006. That’s a far cry from when the shopping mall reigned king. Yet, while shopping malls have hit some hard times, new shopping centers are still being built at a brisk pace. So why are shopping malls dying while shopping centers are thriving? Here is my theory.

Online Shopping Has Changed The Retail Landscape

It’s no secret that online shopping has taken a big chunk out of traditional brick & mortar stores. It seems every year, online sales records are shattered. Cyber Monday 2016 was record breaking.

Avoid Walmart Site To Store Around The Holidays

March 21, 2019January 9, 2017 by Money Beagle

Amazon has pretty much set the bar for online shopping, especially if you’re a Prime member. Click, order, and a couple of days later, you have a box with your items. It works great. So great that other retailers have had no choice but to offer online ordering. Walmart Site to Store is one such offering, where you can order from the retail giant and pick up at a nearby store.

You’d think that a company the size of Walmart, one of the biggest in the world, would have this process down. However, as our recent experience shows, thinking this is kind of, well, wrong.

Christmas Gift: New Bikes For The Kids

Both of our kids learned to ride bikes without training wheels this last summer. Our youngest, age 5, actually caught on first, which then pushed our oldest, age 7, to get it down. Our daughter was riding a bike that we bought secondhand, and she loved it, but by the end of summer it was apparent that she was too small. This wasn’t a big deal as we only paid $15 for the bike (and we can probably turn around and sell it for that).

Terrible Costco Coupons Equals No Costco Trips This Month

March 21, 2019December 21, 2016 by Money Beagle

December, it seems, is the holy grail of food months. Buying food, groceries, etc. What better month to count on than December, right? So, if that’s the case, it’s really amazing that Costco is trying to shoot themselves in the foot with a terrible coupon insert. The Costco Coupons book that we eagerly look forward to was a total dud..

As a result, we haven’t gone to Costco. Those two things go hand in hand, as it turns out.

Our Costco Coupons Habits

We have been Costco members since before we got married. That means it’s been over ten years now. Wow, does time ever fly!

During that time, Costco has always sent out a monthly coupon book. For three weeks out of every month, members can enjoy savings on a handful of items. It’s always been a good mix of general merchandise, electronics, and food. Until this month. This month, Costco pretty much eliminated the food category.

We Leased A Brand New Pickup Truck – Here’s Why

March 21, 2019October 5, 2016 by Money Beagle

I’ve been doing this blog for years and I read a lot of other related personal finance blogs. I love it. One of the common themes that you’ll see among the personal finance blogging community is to buy a car, whether it new or used, and then keep it for a long time. This is great advice and advice we lived by for a long time. But not anymore. See, we leased a new pickup truck.

Have I gone off the rails? Nope, I’m still of sound mind. Am I going to be shunned by my fellow bloggers? Man, I hope not! So, why did we do it, then? Well, because the numbers made sense.

Here’s some of the factors that went into our decision to lease a new truck.

We’d been tossing around the idea of something different

We had a 2007 Buick Rainier that was our family car and the tow vehicle to our travel trailer. Although it had only 94,000 miles, the age and declining value and wanting something more reliable had given us thought to getting something more current.

Stockpiling Works For Us (At Least For Now)

March 22, 2019August 24, 2016 by Money Beagle

One of my long time favorite bloggers, Funny About Money, is contemplating something that you rarely hear about: Quitting Costco. She’s finding that, for her, not going to Costco is actually saving her money. Could bucking the stockpiling trend actually work?

I think that many people don’t even consider such a thing. They just assume that Costco saves them money by giving them lower pricing, with the tradeoff that you have to buy in larger quantities in order to realize the lower per-unit pricing. So, the kicker is that you have to use more in order to really realize the savings.

Why We Decided To Pay More For Our Cell Phone Plan

March 22, 2019July 28, 2016 by Money Beagle

I have been blogging about personal finance for quite a long time, and in doing that, I’ve gotten to read a lot of other great blogs. One of the common themes that many great personal finance bloggers write about is trying to cut costs, and one big area is to reduce their cell phone bill. Well, here I go going against the grain. See, we just recently decided to start paying MORE. We just signed up for Verizon mobile service.

Here’s the breakdown and our reasons. Let me know what you think.

Old Plan: The Sprint Unlimited Data Plan with four lines

We have been customers of Sprint for years. I think my wife and I figured out that she has been with them for almost fifteen years. It’s been a long time.

So The Item You Need Is Out Of Stock…Or Is It?

March 26, 2019June 2, 2016 by Money Beagle

I had an a-ha moment at Home Depot the other day, and it made me want to share the experience. I learned that an out of stock item might not be all that it seems.

Need: A Second Window Fan

We have a window fan in our bedroom that works pretty well, but it occurred to me that we need a second one. We have windows on two walls, and our room also heats up in the late afternoon and early evening as we get full sun. I figured that adding a second fan would give us some cross breeze, which would help cool things off faster in the evening.

How Many Ways Can One Repair Shop Break an iPad?

March 26, 2019May 12, 2016 by Money Beagle

Every once in a while, my sister-in-law stays over at our house. We live fairly close to her work, and if she has something else going around our part of town, she’ll sometimes crash in the guest bedroom. A few weeks ago, she was staying over and came out of her room, upset. She had dropped something on her screen and now had a cracked iPad.

It was still usable but definitely not something you want to live with long term.

Repairing A Cracked iPad

She looked around but was finding most screen replacements to cost in the neighborhood of $125-150. Money has been a bit tight so she was holding out for a better deal.