8 Ways to Score Freebies

Freebies?  Where?  Who doesn’t love free stuff?  What more if you get free stuff doing nothing?  Well.. here are 8 ways to score freebies.  Not all of them are free doing nothing.  Some needs a little bit effort which doesn’t require a significant amount of your time.

Attending a Grand Opening or a Convention:  I remember when I was still working in Beijing.  A retail store opened in our office building and as a way to show our support, we went there on the first day and spent about an hour of our time to listen to what the store is all about.  At the end of the talk, they gave each person RMB 50.  Some grand opening offer discounts or will give swag items.  My sister got a canvas bag from Uniqlo when they opened in Chicago.  When I joined my sister on a dental convention in Anaheim, I got a lot of dental stuff to bring home.

Enroll in loyalty programs:  My mother-in-law asked me to purchase some items at Bath & Body Works as Christmas presents, I’m planning to claim my 3 free products this weekend.  At Walgreens, my online purchases for my friends earned me Walgreens cash, which my husband happily spend in-store.  Head to the store you normally frequent, check if they have loyalty programs and join.

Scanning receipts for gift cards:  Since you go grocery shopping or buy stuff online or even eat out at restaurants.  All of those receipts can be converted to points.  Earn enough points and you can exchange them for gift cards.  Two apps that I’m using regularly are Fetch Rewards and ReceiptHog.

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5 Benefits of Drinking Water

There are a lot of literature about drinking water. Some say you have to drink 64 oz or 8 glasses of water daily. It can either be plain water or in the form of other fluid or foods. Some will suggest drink 2 glasses of water when you wake up in the morning or warm lemon water to stave off cancer. In any case, drinking water is beneficial to our health but do we drink that much of water daily?

Here are 5 reasons to make sure you’re drinking enough water or other fluids daily:

Help prevent and treat headaches: When I had my 6 month post-surgery checkup with my neurosurgeon, I raised my concern on how to prevent or reduce headaches. Drinking enough water daily was one of his suggestion among others.

Help relieve constipation: On the different articles I’ve read, this one is something I’m a bit dubious. I have a problem with constipation at times. I’ve constantly been drinking at least 6 to 8 glasses of plain water daily but I still have issues with constipation. Maybe I should add more fiber to my diet on top of the water I’m drinking.

10 Ways To Save Money Grocery Shopping

Have you heard the news about the Colonial Pipeline hack or that major brands are planning to increase prices? Maybe you’ve seen your grocery bills getting higher or the number of items in your cart getting fewer with the same amount of money you’ve been paying. Well.. if you’ve been noticing them, you’re not alone. With prices on not just you’re daily essentials as well as gas prices on the rise, here are some ways you can save money while grocery shopping.

Plan Meals on a Weekly or Bi-Monthly Basis: One less grocery run will save you a great deal of money (grocery items and gas). Planning meals will help you on what you need to buy, what’s in the pantry and lower your calories. As my ESMM instructor said, cooking meals at home will save you money and you know what goes on it to lower your calories.

Don’t Go Shopping Hungry: if you bring your kids grocery shopping, try to schedule your shopping after lunch or after dinner. If you or the kids are hungry, you will be tempted to buy something not on your list to eat on the way home.

Savings Tip: Cause Box Fall Welcome Box

If you want a cheap option for Christmas gifts, you can get a Cause Box Subscription ($54.95 per quarter).  For my sister, she wanted to buy a PMD Clean (retails at $99).   She initially purchased one at Amazon but returned it when she saw that the Cause Box Fall Welcome Box included this item. 

The Cause Box Welcome Box retails at $54.95.  For Fall 2019, her box included a PMD Clean ($99) , Swell 17oz Insulated Bottle ($35), Pixie Mood All Tote ($65), Core Bamboo Serve Set ($35) , Volim Love Scrub ($56), Way of Will Brightening Face Serum ($37.50).   Unless you purchased an annual membership, you can’t choose some of the items. 

Open Enrollment, Guardian and Medical Bills

It’s that time of the year again when my husband has to choose what kind of medical insurance and other benefits we would avail as a family with their company.  HR gave them until October 30 to decide.  The company decided to change medical/dental insurance provider from United Healthcare to Cigna.  The other stuff remains the same. 

In any case, it was also timely as we wouldn’t have realized that he has this additional critical illness benefit that will help us pay off our medical bills.  For UMR, our annual out of pocket maximum payment is $4,500 for individual and $9,000 for family.  The ER visit, surgery and inpatient hospital stay already maxed out my annual out of pocket maximum.  That’s $4,500 we need to come up to pay for our share of the bill.  The hospital allowed us to pay in installment and gave us a grace period of 120 days.