My Coke Rewards

A tower of coke tops ready to be put into my My Coke Rewards account. This has got to be one of the EASIEST ways to earn prizes. Well, easy if you drink Coke products!

I started collecting bottle caps at the end of January and I already have enough points for a free photobook from Shutterfly! Wahooo!!! Now the question is, do I trade my points in now or save them for something else? Hmmmm!

One way to save a buck...

Turn it into an elephant! Thanks to the magazine on Southwest's airplanes, I'll probably never spend this dollar! :) Now that is one way to save a buck!

Frugal Tip: Car Maintenance

I pretend to be 'handy' around the house but when it comes to cars, I can't even fake it. So I leave all major car maintenance concerns to the professionals at my friendly local Honda dealership. Because it is important to me to keep my car running in tip top shape, I consider this money well spent.

So how do you save money on car maintenance when you know NOTHING about cars? Easy - do the things you know you can do.

I can't change my oil, rotate my tires, or do any of the standard vehicle maintenance things that are necessary to keep my car running. But, I can top off the fluids, change the windshield wipers, and keep the car clean and vacuumed. All of these are very simple and require very little skill. And by doing these myself I save $$!

Two important lessons

I had 2 really important lessons reinforced for me this weekend as I cleaned out my car for the first time in a ::ahem:: really long time.

You'll never believe what I found in my trunk - treasure!! Seriously! I found 2 tins full of coins. I vaguely remember packing these up at some point but obviously I had completely forgotten about them.


Finding these coins gave me some motivation to head to my nearest CoinStar machine to see how much this treasure was worth.

Ready for it? $80. I had $80 in coins sitting in my car and I had no idea. WOW!



This really reinforced to me how easily little things can make a difference. The majority of those coins were pennies. Do you know how many pennies it takes to make $80? A LOT! Individually they aren't worth much but together you can end up with a lot more than you expected.

This is a great reminder to keep on top of the cleaning and to limit the clutter. When things are cluttered, important things (like $80!) get lost.

My Coke Rewards

I have to thank Jack's mom for introducing me to MyCoke Rewards. It is possible that I have a slight Diet Coke addiction. Possibly.

Ok it is more than possible. I definitely have a Diet Coke addiction. The good news is that while I am enjoying my cool and refreshing beverage, I can also be earning points towards prizes. I like points. I definitely like points that lead to prizes. It is win win!

I am kicking myself for not investigating this possibility sooner. I mean, think of all the points I just threw away!!!

What is great about these points is that is reinforces an important lesson - every little bit matters. Each bottle cap is only 3 points. That doesn't seem like much in the grand scheme of things but when you start adding them up, well things start to matter.

The same goes for lots of other things. A coupon for $0.50 off of dish soap doesn't seem like a big deal, and at that moment it probably isn't. However, over the long run all those quarters start adding up. Before you know if you have dollars saved and then even hundreds of dollars saved. It is amazing what a few coins can turn into over the course of a year!

Quick Frugal Tip

Since I live by myself I tend to generate only a small amount of garbage each week. At most, I might fill up 1 regular sized kitchen bag.

This presents a problem when it comes to perishable garbage like chicken trimmings and produce items. If I throw it in a partially full garbage bag, I will probably take the garbage out before the bag is full. This is wasteful and results in my using more garbage bags than I need to.

So what do I do?

I freeze my perishable garbage. Yep, yep I do.

I keep a plastic bag on the bottom shelf of my freezer and fill it up with 'smelly garbage.' When my garbage bag is ready to be taken out, I take the bag out of the freezer and toss it. No mess and no smell!