Saving money has always been in my blood. I guess I'm lucky that I got that from my dad. Even when Gabe and I were barely scraping by every month, I still tried to save even more than was possible. At the time, I was saving for a house or a baby...and that actually hasn't changed in 10 years. Last year I was saving for a baby (who became my love Mr Darcy) and this year I'm back to saving for a house. We've owned two houses, but not in California because $$$$. Yikes. It seems doable for us sometime in the not too distant future so it makes saving a lot more fun. I've also recently started thinking about saving for Goldie for college (mostly because of the opportunities to do so through uPromise).
Of course, there's always less major savings projects I do as well. Right now, it's all about saving for the holidays so we don't go into any debt. There's just always so much more to spend money on during the holidays with entertaining, gifts, decorations, lots more baking, and a little family vacation for us since Gabe will be going away for awhile to train for a job in December.
I'm excited to work with Upromise and the Upromise MasterCard this holiday season because I'm earning up to 10% cash back on a ton of things I already buy anyway. I earn up to 5% when I shop and dine with Upromise partners and another 5% back when I pay with the Upromise Mastercard. Cash back on online shopping is kinda the greatest because I pretty much only shop online these days. It's made Christmas shopping so much more pleasant. I've always seen cards like this but never used them because I don't usually like to use credit cards. I decided to give it a try when I was approached by Upromise and let it jumpstart my holiday savings. So far it's pretty cool seeing it add up little by little and the whole trick is just don't buy more than normal just because you're using a credit card and pay the entire balance off at the end of every month. My biggest tip for not going in the red during the season is writing everything down and budgeting. If you plan exactly what you'll spend there won't be any surprises when you get your bill and you'll be able to pay it all off and get the cash back benefits as well. Win/win! I'm pretty passionate about saving money and I feel like I've never talked about it here on the blog. Upromise is helping me ace my savings by raising my spending awareness and of course, the cash back!
Goldie and I are already getting some of our holiday prep shopping done and I feel like the more you plan what you're buying as gifts, the easier it is to stay within your budget. It's hard to stick to a budget when you're scrambling to buy gifts at the last minute.
We're enjoying the fall weather and excited to see Christmas decorations going up soon at the stores! EEEEK! Darcy's first Christmas!
This post has been sponsored by uPromise and of course all opinions are my own.
XO Coury