The Upside App

If you have listen to the actual radio recently you have probably heard the ads for the Upside App. Always talking about how you can save on gas. Now, I work from home and don’t drive that much, but I am always down to save. After hearing about this app so much, I started asking everyone if they have downloaded and was using it or knew of any. No one around me had done so yet

I decided to bite the bullet and download the app and give it a try. Now I use it all the time. You not only save on gas, but you can save at some grocery stores and at some restaruants.

Now the first thing I will tell you about this app is that you do have to list and “connect” at least one credit and/or debit card. I understand that this isn’t something everyone likes to do and I completely understand.

Once you have a card connected, or two or more, connected, that is the card you will want to use when using the app.

How do you use the app and save money? I’m getting to that point. When I know I am going to need gas, I open the app and look at what stations around me participate with the app. Most of them them do, but sometimes I may have to drive past the closest gas station to the one a few more blocks down. You click on the station that you are going to get gas at. Once you click on it you have a certain amount of time to go get the gas and claim your discount. You don’t see money off at the pump. You build a cash value in the app that you can cash out at any time.

For example, I just recently needed to get gas, I maybe put gas in my vehicle 2 times a month, depending on how much driving I actually do. I check the app and while the closest gas station to my house doesn’t participate, the one just a little further down does. I click that I’m going there and I go put gas in my vehicle, using one of the credit cards I have connected to the app. When I’m done I then go back into the app and click I’m done. Sometimes it will have upload a copy of the receipt and sometimes it doesn’t. I haven’t figured out rhyme or reason to when it does need one or doesn’t. This time it didn’t need me to.

A day later, I have a message from the app that I earned $1.10 on the $30.00 in gas I put in my vehicle. That $1.10 in in my “wallet” in the app that I can cash out anytime I want. I like to let it build.

You can do the same with some grocery stores and restaurants. You simply click you are going there, you have a time limit of 3 or 4 hours and then you click you are done and it will ask for a receipt.

If the grocery store you are going to has pick up available, you can use it for that also, but not for third party pick up or shopping.

I have used the app about 4 or 5 times so far and have $20 in my wallet. As I said, I’m letting it build.

You can download the app from this link and yes I will earn a bonus from you signing up and you can also when you share the app link it gives you to share. https://upside.app.link/TONYA525339

Feel free to ask any question you may have over the app or anything else I have written about.

Let’s talk Gift Cards

This is a trick/tip that I will sometimes forget myself.

Most grocery stores, at least the ones in my area, usually offer some type of benefit if you buy gift cards from them.

In my area, we have Kroger and Giant Eagle. Each store gives you points for buying gift cards and those points can be redeemed either as an amount off gas or groceries. This does not work buying a gift card to the grocery store, but buying an Amazon or DoorDash type gift card.

If you know you are going to be shopping at Amazon, or ordering from DoorDash or any other place these grocery stores sell gift cards to, buy the gift card before you go shopping. If you are going to spend the money anyways, then earn the points to use towards gas and/or groceries.

If you are a member of Sam’s Club (other club memberships may do this also, but since I am not a member I do not know their benefits) you can buy some gift cards at a discount. As an example you can buy a $50.00 DoorDash gift card for $48.98. That is a savings of $1.02, which may not be huge, but those small savings start adding up.

I’m going to use a real life examples to show how you end up saving with buying a gift card ahead of time. The two examples I am going to use, I will also use later to show more discounts/savings/cash back tips.

First example is a time I was shopping for a new stove. After we did all the research we went to the store to look at the one we were interested in. We looked it over, “kicked the tires” and everything you do when buying a new stove. While we knew we wanted it, we didn’t purchase it then. Knowing what the cost was, I went to Giant Eagle and bought gift cards for store we were going to purchase the stove at. Giant Eagle allows you build up enough points to get free gas, up to 30 gallons. Purchasing the gift cards gave me enough points for free gas. While my vehicle doesn’t hold 30 gallons, I have gas cans just for this occasion. While I don’t remember the exact cost of gas at the time, we will say $3.00 per gallon. That gave me $90 in free gas. I filled up my tank and the gas cans. I didn’t need to pay for gas for the next 2 weeks, save $90 in gas and the only thing I did was buy the gift cards to buy the stove I was already going to purchase.

My second example is basically the same thing. I had been eyeing this trip that Groupon was selling. I used my Qapital account to save up for it. Once I had enough to purchase the trip, I didn’t purchase it right away. I went to Giant Eagle again and bought gift cards for Groupon. Once again, this gave me enough points for free gas. Using the $3.00 a gallon cost I previously used, I once again had a savings of $90.00 for something I had planned on purchasing anyways.

Every store is different is different on their points and fuel points so make sure you find out what your favorite store redemption policy is.

How to painlessly start saving for the big ticket item

I’m going to start this blog with an easy way to start saving for that big ticket item you are wanting, without feeling a big hit on your wallet. .

The app I am going to recommend is an an app that I started using when it was in it’s beta form. I have used this to save money for several trips and other items. The app and membership has changed a little since I started using it but I still love it. I sometimes forget about it till I go check my balance.

The app I use is called Qapital and the reason I say it can be painless is because you can do round ups with it.

Here is the link, (and yes I do earn on referrals, but you can to once you sign up and start loving it, you will wan to refer your friends as well) https://get.qapital.com/y19mirexvqb

To explain the round up is: anytime you spend on the linked account, it will automatically round up the total and withdraw it from your account. So if you went shopping at three different places, and spent $5.99, $29.90, and $55.55, the round up amount would be, $0.01. $0.10, and $0.45. You can also have it round up on whole dollar amounts if you want, I have this feature turned off.

You can also set rules that if you over spend on something then you have to put so much in “savings” in other rules of that nature. You can also do the number of week savings, week 1 save $1.00, Week 2, save $2.00. This is something else I do, but I started it in the middle of the year so that the larger amounts wasn’t coming out at a time I was holiday shopping and spending more anyways.

It also will stop withdrawing from your account anytime the linked account reaches a balance of $99.00 or less.

You are given a debit card and can transfer your “savings” into an account on the app and use your Qapital debit card to purchase items. I also use this for when when we travel internationally and I need local currency, I will use my Qapital account debit card to withdraw from an ATM instead of my regular bank account. In my mind, it’s safer than using my regular bank account because if something were to go wrong, if there is a card reader on the ATM or something, they aren’t getting my regular bank information and are only getting access to what money I have transferred to the spend account, which is usually only the amount I plan shopping with or withdrawing.

In the past couple years, Qapital has started a build wealth savings where you can slowly add money into the stock market.

I use both, the regular round up savings and the build wealth savings.

I am NO Expert, just someone that has started with nothing and had to teach myself how to save and spend.

Let me start by stating that I am no expert in the field of saving and/or spending. I am someone that grew up with nothing, never being able to buy what I wanted, always had to save for things but never knowing how to save.

As I became an adult, I struggled, failed, struggled, and succeeded. I have had to teach myself how to spend money and how to save money. I am not always successful at either, but I have learned a few tricks and tips along my way.

Most of the time if I’m not successful in saving or how I spend it’s because I didn’t take the time to research or bought on impulse. We all do it and it’s okay to have set backs, just don’t let them define you and try and learn from them.

My goal is to pass along some of my knowledge that I have learned and picked up along the way and maybe help that next person.

I will sometimes share links and sometimes with those links I do earn either a commission or a referral fee. There is no obligation to try these items. These are items that I use and have helped me. If you use something similar, then keep using it and maybe share it with me. I am always looking for new tips.