Free MFA admission with your Bank of America Card!

Hey and good morning,

Real quick, I had heard of this on TV and meant to look into it, and then the suddenly frugal blog reminded me.

On the first full weekend of every month you can get free admission just by showing your Bank of America card. Oh, and it works in a bunch of other places, too. Check it out here.

We just switched our accounts to Sovereign, but I still have my BoA card, too. Wait, hold on.

In December, we were going to Mike's John Hancock party, and I was all in a crazy fluster because it was the first time I was ever leaving the baby with the sitter and I had so much to do and I was basically just going crazy (talk about short story long, right?). I went to the ATM to get cash to tip the manicurist in the pouring rain (because it definitely makes sense to tell someone you take credit cards but then not let them know you can't tip on one) and I left my card in the machine.

Realizing my mistake, I tried to run back into the ATM, OH BUT WAIT, you need a card to get in that damn door. So, this nice guy runs back, opens the door for me, but it was far too late. The card was gone forever. Now, I easily could've gotten a new one. But I didn't. Because I'm an idiot. That was on December 11th.

With this new program, I will order another bank card.

Get $100 from Sovereign Bank

Hey all! Sorry for the short notice on this one, but until the 28th, if you open a new interest checking account you will get $100 from Sovereign Bank. There's really no catches except to avoid a $5.00 monthly fee you must have direct deposit (they'll help you with that at the bank), and you have to make 6 purchases within 60 days. Not too bad.

Read about it here. We opened one yesterday.

If you are going to do this, email me @ tsaggio@gmail.com and i'll give you a code so you can let them know I sent you!

Great Grocery Success!

We've started a new system of tracking our expenses in this household. When we purchase something, we place the receipt in a big folder. Then, at the end of the month, I calculate the expenses and categorize them. We then see, at a glance, how much we've spent. There are websites to help with this, such as mint.com, but they have flaws. I don't like to use them because they don't provide an accurate picture of your finances. Here's why:

• expenditures are not always categorized correctly
• debit purchases do not appear immediately
• purchases at whole foods are not necessarily food and etc...

Anyways, I just like doing the calculations by hand. This month, I really strapped down and wanted to see how little I could spend grocery shopping. As of today, I've spent $150.00! I don't think I'll have to spend more than $20 this month...that would be $170.00 for the entire month! Half of that (at least) was organic. It just goes to show you, that a little planning (and a lot of eating leftovers) goes a long way! This was including my special Valentine antipasto platter and all of our Valentine treats.

I think I will write a post on grocery strategies to keep the bill on the down LOW, but I wanted to come on really quickly and share how everyone in Boston can have the same grocery success that I've had this past month! I fed 2 people 3 meals a day and entertained for dinner at least twice. That's an average of $42.50/week. Nice job, Taylor!