Money Saving Mom®

We’re excited to have SmarterBucks® as one of our monthly sponsors in August.

I had the opportunity to interview them and get to know their company a little more recently:

1. Tell us about the history of your company.

SmarterBucks® was launched in 2012 by the same team behind SimpleTuition. Since 2006, SimpleTuition has helped over 20 million students and families better afford their college education.

Now, with SmarterBucks®, we are empowering them, and the one in five households in America living with student debt, with the tools and information needed to be smarter about their student debt management. Our rewards program is built around the power of interest: for every dollar you earn in SmarterBucks® that gets contributed toward your student loan debt, you save that dollar plus interest over the life of your loan. It’s that exponential effect that makes the SmarterBucks® rewards program so powerful, and enables us to help our users crush their student debt faster and for less.

2. What product or service does your company offer?

SmarterBucks® is a rewards program that helps its users pay down their student loans. To earn rewards, members currently have four options:

1. Shopping in our online rewards marketplace featuring hundreds of leading retailers like Target, Walmart, Groupon, J.Crew, and more
2. Inviting family and friends to make contributions or earn rewards on their behalf
3. Using their SmarterBank® Visa® Debit card (optional) on everyday purchases
4. Completing brand-sponsored online surveys

Signing up is completely free, and once a user has earned $15 in SmarterBucks®, those rewards are automatically contributed as an extra payment to the student loan that the user has set up in the SmarterBucks® system. Our thought process: you are online shopping/in-store shopping/taking surveys/getting gifts (etc) already, so might as well put those everyday activities to work in getting you out of student debt. We try to make it as simple, powerful, hassle-free, and automated as possible, and there are never any caps on rewards earnings.

3. The main focus on Money Saving Mom® is saving money and making our dollars stretch. How does your product help us to do that?

We call it the power of accumulated interest. Because SmarterBucks® rewards are contributed as extra payments, which are meant to be in addition to a user’s regular monthly payments, our users not only get out of debt faster, but they also save interest on the overall cost of their loan. That means that for every $1 earned and contributed in SmarterBucks®, a typical user is really saving up to $2-$3 over the life of their loan. A little math to drive home the point:

4. Does your company have any new products or promotions coming up?

Just for joining, SmarterBucks® members are always entered into our monthly student loan payment giveaways, worth anywhere between $1,000-$2,500 in SmarterBucks®.

In addition, until September 15th, we are running a special promotion to help people reach their first extra student loan payment: any new SmarterBucks® member who earns $5 in rewards (and sets up a valid student loan) will receive their next $10 in rewards on us. Click here for more information.

5. Does your company do any charity work that you’d like us to know about?

Though SmarterBucks® is a for-profit organization, we do consider ourselves social entrepreneurs in the business of smarter student debt management.

6. What would you most like your customers or future customers to know about your company?

Here at SmarterBucks®, we live, breathe, eat, and sleep our mission to help you get student debt-free faster and for less. We’re constantly brainstorming new ways for you to earn rewards, seeking out new inspiring #crushstudentdebt stories to share, and creating or curating new content to help you take control of your financial future. We don’t whine, brood, or vent about the struggle of paying off student loans. We’re action-oriented, and our products and content help you get debt-free faster.

Perhaps most importantly, however, is that we listen to our members. Our SmarterBucks® Ambassador community, a community open to all members who wish to share their feedback and opinions with us, has played, and will continue to play, a critical role in shaping the future of our program.

7. How can your customers get the most out of your product or service?

Make SmarterBucks® a part of your daily routine, and sign up for the SmarterBank® Visa® Debit card. When we look at our members who have gotten the most out of our program, they are the people who are taking a survey a day, doing all of their online shopping in the SmarterBucks Marketplace, asking friends and family for SmarterBucks contributions in lieu of birthday and holiday gifts, and using the SmarterBank® Visa® Debit card for all of their purchases, both in-store and online. It can be a bit of a behavior adjustment at first, but the rewards are worth it.

8. Is there anything else that you would like for Money Saving Mom® readers to know about your company?

SmarterBucks® is part of a unique suite of products, all brought to you from the same parent company, SimpleTuition, dedicated to leading the path to an affordable education. We’re serious about this mission and hope you will join us in our quest.

Interested in becoming a monthly sponsor or advertising with us? Find more details here.

The following shopping trip was submitted by Anna who blogs at Frugal For You:

We moved to Virginia almost two years ago. All of the grocery stores were new to me and I had no idea what to expect. Money Saving Mom® has a database for regional store deals. I was able to find coupon match-ups for grocery stores in my area and start saving money. I even used this to search for grocery deals when we vacationed in California!

With the help of the store deals page, not only did I find match-ups, but I also found a local frugal blogger in our area. I even met her in person at a coupon swap she hosted at the library!

Now, about my shopping trip. I was able to buy $137 worth of items for only $24. Martin’s is often more expensive, but they sometimes have great sales. Also, Martin’s still doubles coupons, unlike our area Kroger stores.

This is what I bought in two transactions:

• Evol Fire Grilled Steak – $4.99 – Used FREE coupon from contacting company!
• Pepsi Next – $1.79 – Used FREE coupon from mailer!
• 5 Nature Valley Oatmeal Squares and Bars ($2.50 each) – $4.75 – Used various coupons (these doubled up to $1.00)
• 2 Quaker Chewy Bars – $2.00 each – Used $1/2 coupon from 8/4 RedPlum insert
• 6 Twizzlers – 3 for $5.00 – Used two $1/3 coupons from 7/28 SmartSource insert
• 1 Nabisco Premium Rounds – $1.99 – Used $1 off coupon from 8/11 SmartSource insert
• 3 Belvita Breakfast Cookies – $2.50 each – Used three $1 off coupons from coupon booklets
• 4 Teddy Grahams – $2.50 each – Used three $1 off coupons from coupon booklets
• 6 Classico Sauces – $2.50 each – Used two $1 off coupons
• Silk Almond Milk – $2.60 – Used $1 off coupon from register
• Kikkoman Soy Sauce – $1.66 – Used $1 off coupon
• Kikkoman Panko – $1.66 – Used $1 off coupon
• 5 Batman Treats – $0.27 each – 75% off markdown
• 12 Angry Birds Gummy Snacks – $0.27 each – 75% off markdown
• Grapes ($0.88 per lb) – $1.94
• Bananas ($0.39 per lb) – $1.02
• Cantaloupe – $2.00
• Craisins – $1.00

Three store promos, two Catalina deals, store coupons, and a “return” helped to lower my out-of-pocket costs:

• Buy $20, get $10 off instantly for Nature Valley, Quaker, other breakfast products
• Buy 7 snack items, get $5 off instantly (for Nabisco and Twizzlers)
• Get $2 Catalina back for 3 Classico sauces (did this twice)
• Get $3 Catalina back for 5+ Nature Valley items
• $5 off $40 purchase from the local newspaper
• Customer service gave me $11.34 refund, honoring their 200% money-back freshness guarantee. I asked for a refund at customer service for meat that went bad before the sell-by date (my first time asking them for a refund!).

Total out-of-pocket: $24, plus I got a $2 Catalina for next time and I will get $5 from Saving Star for buying $15 in Classico Sauces

Some money-saving tips I used in this shopping trip:

• Sign-up for Saving Star to get extra savings on top of coupons.
• Check the Sunday paper for extra coupons. The $5 off $40 Martin’s coupon was in the front page section of the paper, not in the coupon inserts.
• Check out stand-alone product displays since they usually have tearpads or coupon booklets.
• Some libraries allow certain coupon printing (another source for extra coupons).
• Know the store’s satisfaction guarantee. Martin’s gives 200% refund with receipt and the product doesn’t have to be returned.

Anna Thomas blogs at Frugal For You. In 2009, she Googled “frugal mommy blogs” and came across Money Saving Mom®. She learned better couponing skills that allowed her to be a stay-at-home mom and homeschool her kids. Anne is still in awe of the gifts that a frugal lifestyle has given her family.

Have you gotten a great deal thanks to a tip you’ve found here on MoneySavingMom.com? Take a picture of your deal/purchase and write a short post on the deal details and submit it here. If your submission is chosen to be posted, I’ll send you a $25 Amazon gift card! Note: the more creative, unique, and well-written your post, the more chance it will have of being posted.