What if you could save $500 on your next vacation? Or pay $2 or less for each book you want to read? All you have to do is open your inbox to the possibilities.
Email newsletters offer money-saving tips that might help you increase your student loan payments.
For the big and small purchases we all make — from airplane flights to new books — there are ways to save without having to hunt down deals and discounts.
Here are four email newsletters that could save you time and money.
4 newsletters with money-saving tips for common expenses
Keep in mind before you subscribe to any of these: Email newsletters can only save you money if they lead to purchases you would have made anyway. Make sure to purge your inbox — unsubscribe from newsletters that waste your time or encourage you to impulse-buy. Doing so will set you up for success with these four email newsletters.
Image credit: Scott’s Cheap Flights
1. Scott’s Cheap Flights
I signed up for Scott’s Cheap Flights after a coworker said he scored “super cheap tickets to India, Spain, and Mexico this past year alone.”
What I’ve found is a tidy, daily email addressed from Scott as if he’s a friend, telling me about extremely low airfares for specific destinations. Most importantly, Scott puts the price in context, telling you what fares usually cost and how long the discounted rates are likely to last. He offers money-saving tips so you can find cheap flights. (It’s best to fly January through mid-May, for example.)
There’s also a degree of customization. You can pick one of five departure regions and also narrow down your destination by choosing regions within Europe, Asia, Australia and New Zealand, and Latin America and the Caribbean.
Secret Flying Club and The Flight Deal are other options for frugal passengers. Their newsletters deliver many of the same deals but via articles and posts that take additional clicks and more of a time investment.
Travelzoo and Sherman’s Travel might be more inspired choices for vacation packages, hotels, and cruises. You can also check out these websites for cheap plane tickets.
Image credit: BookBub
2. BookBub
If you’re an avid reader but not married to holding a hard copy, check out BookBub. It sends a personalized daily email alerting you to discounted and free e-books. You can narrow your results by your preferred genre, even getting as specific as your favorite authors.
To clarify, BookBub doesn’t sell books; it connects you with lower-priced titles you might be interested in from the following online retailers and readers:
- Amazon’s Kindle
- Barnes & Noble’s Nook
- Apple’s iBooks
- Google Play
- Kobo
Although BookBub might be short on money-saving tips, its simplicity makes it perfect for readers who like good, cheap reads and don’t want to spend a lot of time combing through an email.
Image credit: Groupon
3. Groupon
Groupon is still the top dog when it comes to finding activities on sale. Since absorbing competitor LivingSocial, Groupon claims 25 million active customers are shopping from 200,000-plus businesses and saving up to 70 percent per transaction.
Like Amazon and other e-commerce giants, Groupon shows you the original and discounted price of its offers, making them more tantalizing. Unlike other sites, it functions just like an email newsletter.
Sign up, set your preferences, and add one or more cities where you’re interested in experiences. The latter feature comes in handy for buying gift certificates for friends who live in other cities.
You can also select the type of categories interest you. For our purposes, “Occasions,” “Getaways,” and “Live” are most fitting.
Before making any purchases, consult each merchant’s fine print, fees, and reviews. You might find, for example, that an $8 bike rental in New York City’s Central Park only entitles you to two hours of riding — and doesn’t come with a helmet.
For free or discounted activity options that are more hyperlocal, subscribe to your town or city government website’s RSS feed. That’s the most creative way to save money.
Image credit: Student Loan Hero
4. Student Loan Hero
One of the most helpful email newsletters that every student loan borrower should read, the Student Loan Hero Weekly Digest hits inboxes every Thursday.
Although all of our blog posts, one way or another, are designed to help you take action on your student loan debt, this email collects our best posts for your perusal. We use it as a way to encourage you to return to the blog, but also make it convenient to skim headlines right from your email account.
If you’re interested in a week’s worth of information on student loan refinancing, you can also sign up to receive our five-part cheat sheet via email. It covers money-saving tips specific to refinancing:
- What is the difference between Consolidation and Refinancing?
- The 6 Main Benefits of Refinancing Student Loans.
- Which Student Loans Should You Refinance?
- How to Qualify For Student Loan Refinancing.
- How to Find the Best Refinancing Options By Comparing Lenders.
Getting the most out of email newsletters
The email newsletter is a funny medium. It might spur you on to do something you wouldn’t otherwise have thought to do. It could prompt you to buy a flight to Barcelona or purchase tickets to an upcoming concert because prices are low.
Understand that new — even discounted — spending still comes at a loss. So the best way to employ email newsletters is to buy the things you’d buy anyway. If, for example, you’re planning to vacation next summer and don’t have a destination in mind then, by all means, head to Spain if it’s in your budget.
That’s how you can discover actual savings, not the illusion of it.
With this in mind, sign up for deals-and-discounts newsletters at your own risk. AllYou.com, Brad’s Deals, Hip2Save, Money Saving Mom, The Krazy Coupon Lady and DealNews are some of our staff favorites.
Whether you decide to seek out savings — or have them delivered to your digital doorstep — it’s important to avoid new spending. Five minutes skimming your inbox for money-saving tips could save you hundreds on your student loan debt. And if you don’t see anything worthwhile, you can always hit delete.
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