How to Save Money with Netflix

Do you or someone in your extended family have a Netflix account?  Then you may have considered the idea of sharing accounts to reduce the cost of the monthly subscription fees.

Well, guess what? It's okay!! Netflix has publicly said that they don't care if their customers share accounts. They prefer that you create separate IDs for each user to see preferences of different viewers.

In case you don't know, one email and password will lead you to an account screen where you then have to choose the user. You can have up to five.

A few years back, Netflix had a huge marketing faux pas where they split their mailing service...you know where they mail you the DVD, from their streaming service. The two services where both included with the monthly fee. Then they separated the two services and you had to decide whether you wanted one or the other.

Finally it split off the mailing service to another company and changed the name of that service to Qwickster. They also raised the monthly fee of streaming.

With all these changes, people have yelled and screamed but the initial split of the two services really hurt the company's stock price. There is also a lot of competition out there for watching movies, especially streaming.

Perhaps in an effort to stand out from the competition and to quiet complaints for all the other changes and price increases it allows for the account sharing.

Whatever the reason, if you can take advantage of it, why not? Let your kids away at college use it in their dorm.  Create an ID for your mom who is on social security. Make an agreement with your sister to split the cost and have one account. Netflix is ok with it.

Here are a few other ways that you can save money with Netflix:

Pause your account when going on vacation.

If you are going away for a few weeks or months and you won't be using your account, you can temporarily suspend service or pause your account to avoid the fee for that month.

Buy a discounted Netflix gift card

Target and other stores often sell gift cards for Netflix memberships at around 5% off. This is a great deal especially if you start stacking your coupons and offers like I always do. For instance, buy the gift card with a credit card that gives you cash back. Or look for a Groupon special that includes coupons off of your entire purchase. The gift cards usually show up around Christmas time so that you can give a one year membership as a gift. But who says that you can't give that gift to yourself?

Skip the premium service

If you aren't going to share your account or if you don't care about having HD quality then you can get a basic service for $8 per month. Netflix has three tiers of service; Basic, Standard and Premium. The current price for these tiers are as follows:

Basic - $8

Standard - $10

Premium - $12

When I first married my husband, I had everything in my house set to standard because I didn't want to pay extra for HD quality even though I had an HD television. He, of course, was having none of that, and immediately upgraded all our services to HD. LOL.  The things you do for love. So I decided that I would have to find other ways to save and started couponing.

How to Save Money with NetFlix

How to get FREE groceries at grocery stores

There is a secret way to get free groceries at some grocery stores that many people forget about. Does your grocery store have a pharmacy in it? Mine does and I would venture to say that most of the major chains do.

Pharmaceuticals are big business and stores will offer lots of incentives to get your business. Some will offer coupons that only pharmacy customers get. Wegmans does this. And they are good coupons too. They are general coupons that apply to sections of the store instead of specific items or brands. Those are the best coupons because they can be stacked against other coupons.

Shoprite, however, goes one better. They have a prescription rewards program. For every 10 prescriptions filled at their pharmacy you get $10 off your next shopping order. Not too shabby! They only caveat is that your checkout total has to be at least $10 to redeem the coupon. In other words, you won't be given cash back in your order isn't as much as the coupon after all other coupons, discounts and taxes are applied. Not too shabby.  I have already gotten hundreds of dollars of free groceries with this program.

Remember to check with your store to see what kind of promos they offer. It may benefit you to switch pharmacies. Of course, not all Shoprite stores offer this program and not all Wegmans may offer the coupons.

Some stores offer incentives to new customers but not so much for existing. It may be beneficial to get one or two prescriptions at a particular store with a good pharmacy promo for new customers and then switch to another one after you have redeemed the coupon. Nobody says that you have to stay at one pharmacy forever, no matter how friendly the pharmacist is.

How to Get Free Groceries at Grocery Stores

Hobby Town in Parkville Maryland is Going Out of Business

Hobby Town in the Perring Parkway Plaza in Parkville Maryland is going out of business.

They are doing a going out of business sale right now. Most discounts are marked but if there isn't a marked discount, the default is 30% off.

I hate when stores close, but it does offer the opportunity for some great savings.

I got a birdhouse that you paint and then stick to the outside of your window.  It has a clear back so you can see the birds in the birdhouse. Very cool!

Hobby Town in Parkville Closing

Free eggs at Shoprite

Shoprite is offering 1 dozen large Shoperite brand eggs for free. You will need a catalina coupon.  Catalinas are the coupons that are printed out at the register when you buy something else.

I'm not sure what triggers the coupon to be printed out but you can ask at the customer service counter.  I will update this post when I get more information.

To cash the coupon, you need to buy an additional $10 worth of groceries, which in my opinion is not very much. I'm in Maryland so be aware that the deal may not be available in all areas.

I will be on the lookout for other spring and Easter related deals.

Free eggs at Shoprite Grocery Store

Coca Cola Ending MyCokeRewards Program for Coke

Coca Cola has announced that they are ending the My Coke Rewards program. "After March 22nd you will no longer have to collect points." according to the video on the My Coke Rewards website.  This sounds like a nice way of saying that you can no longer enter points already collected.  The 78 points allowed per week is still in effect, so you have only enough time to enter in a few hundred points at best.

You have a few more weeks to spend the points already entered. You have until June 30, 2017.

However, her is the Gotcha! There isn't much available to spend the points on any more.  The Amazon gift cards and other gift cards are all "Sold Out."

The tshirts and other merchandise are no longer on the site.

You can still spend points on Sweepstakes entries.  Isn't that special.

As a LOL "thoughtful" solution from Coca Cola, all unused points at the end of the program will automatically go to charity. What charity is not stated, nor is it stated who would qualify for the tax write-off for the gift.

The mycokerewards.com website will be taken down July 1, 2017 and if you try to access the site, you will be redirected to Coke.com website.  They kind-of hint that there will be something else will replace the program that offers "rewards" but they do not specify.  Rewards can mean anything. Something as lame as selling you merchandise instead of comping it to you based on loyal purchases.

The video talks about how "excited" they are for "what's in store."

Lame.  Truly Lame.

Coca Cola Ending Coke Rewards Program