I Was Going To Buy it Anyway

Let me tell you something about money.  I don't have a lot of it. I do alright, but I don't have a ton, so every penny that I save matters. I have to work hard to make things work for me.   All month, I've been paying close attention to my finances and working with Ashley from American Honey  This month I've done my best to be frugal, but every now and then, things come up and you have to take care of business.  Let's just say, my Level App is very mad at me.  In my defense, almost everything that I have spent has been 100% essential to life. I've made my car payment, paid some school stuff and bought things like Q-Tips and Emery boards.  When I think about it though, sometimes you're going to spend some money.  Sometimes everyone at work goes out to eat. What am I going to do? Just watch them eat and be hungry? No. I'm not  Instead I'm going to use awesome things like this: +This is a feature that my credit union offers called ABC deals.  You select the offers that you want and you save when you make purchases there with your credit union's debit or credit card. For example, it will have a McDonalds offer. If I select and activate it, if I use my debit card there, I'll get 10% off my entire purchase there.  Of course, if you're just spending the money because you have the offer available, you aren't saving any money at all, but if you were going to go there and spend money anyway, you may as well save a little right? +Typically, I'll check my online banking app and select any offers for places that I typically shop or eat at.  That way, I'm getting 10% cash back on anything I buy. Just one of those little life-hacks I suppose. 

+There are other ways that you can save when you're spending in places that you would anyway.  For me, I really like to drink a ch tea when I get to work.  To keep that from breaking the bank, the place I buy from has a rewards card. Every time I buy a drink I get points. When the points add up, I get a free drink. If a rewards card is free and you expect you'll be a frequent patron, sign up!
+Along with this, a lot of grocery stores have shopper cards.  If I use mine when I shop at Smith's (Kroger) I get fuel points and I can get almost full dollars off a gallon! So worth it!
+There's also apps like iBotta, Cartwheel (target), and all kinds of other that will help you save where you were planning to spend your money anyway. 

+If you're in the military, a student, a teacher, or law enforcement, you can get discounts in a lot of places (and on software!) 
Saving money is difficult because the situations that we're in can dictate where our money goes, but you can at least work to make the best of it. . How are your financial goals going?