It’s festive singalong season at Savinly! Join in with us — you already know the tune:
On the first day of Christmas, my true love sent to meee… a meth-od to get out of debt!
That not the version you learned as a child? You were expecting a partridge in a pear tree, perhaps? Really — what useful purpose would a partridge have lounging in a pear tree?
This isn’t your mama’s old “Twelve Days of Christmas.”
This is the “Twelve Days of Fixmas.” These holiday money tips are intended to (hopefully) patch up your bank account.
Think of it as a seasonal gift to yourself. Commit to doing one small task each day for 12 days during the holidays. Maybe set a reminder on your phone. Do that one thing. Then return to your celebrations.
When you’ve sung through the whole song, you should be in a healthier financial position — fingers crossed.
Ready? Let’s run through the entire list at once. Come on — hum along, you know the melody.
On the twelfth day of Christmas, my true love sent to me …
Twelve items let go,
Eleven dollars saved up,
Ten-minute surveys,
Nine emailed receipts,
Eight scratch-off tickets,
Seven online shoppers,
Six retirement accounts,
Fiiiiiive looooost pounds!
Four Ubers driving,
Three French breads,
Two cable bills,
And tips from Credit Sesame!
Hooray — we made it! OK, let’s pause for a moment.
Now let’s unpack each of those, one day at a time.
Twelve Items Let Go
Out with clutter, in with space. You’ll want room for the gifts you’ll be receiving this season. It’s time to purge things you no longer need — and earn a bit of cash doing it.
Move on old DVDs, Blu-rays, CDs, video games, consoles and old phones using the Decluttr app. Scan the barcode with your phone and Decluttr will give you an offer. Use FREE5 at checkout and you’ll score an additional $5 on your trades.
You can also sell almost anything on the Letgo app. Snap a picture and create a listing in about 30 seconds.
Eleven Dollars Saved Up
Give yourself a gift that lasts. Open a micro-investing account with Acorns.
After you link it to your debit or credit card, Acorns rounds your purchases up to the nearest dollar and deposits the spare change into an investment account.
Because the transfers are in amounts under $1, you’re less likely to notice the impact on your checking account. You can also choose to exclude certain purchases from rounding.
When you sign up, you receive $10 free to start investing.
Ten-Minute Surveys
On the tenth day of Fixmas, earn a quick $25 by completing surveys for JOANY, a healthcare concierge company.
To better serve its customers, JOANY needs responses to a survey. It takes less than 10 minutes and under 50 questions. In exchange, you’ll receive $25.
To participate, you must meet these criteria:
- You obtained health insurance for 2017 through your state exchange, Healthcare.gov, a broker or a plan such as Oscar or Aetna.
- You do not get health coverage through an employer or school.
- You are not enrolled in Medicaid, Medicare or VA health insurance.
Nine Emailed Receipts
The holidays mean shopping time. Isn’t that part of the season? Besides the whole peace-and-goodwill business, of course.
With an app called Earny, you can recover money on online purchases. It scans your inbox for receipts and monitors prices for drops. Then it leverages retailer and credit-card price-protection rules to claim money back on your behalf.
Earny works with many online merchants, including Amazon, Gap, Jet, Kohl’s, Nordstrom, Old Navy, Overstock, Target, Walmart and Zappos.
Eight Scratch-Off Tickets
On the eighth day of Fixmas, try a free app named Lucktastic.
Daily the app puts out a batch of digital scratch-off tickets. Instant prizes can range from $1 to $10,000. You can also earn tokens, enter sweepstakes and play mini-games.
The app is free to download and free to play.
Seven Online Shoppers
More shopping — but this time it pays you back and boosts holiday cheer!
Dosh is a cash-back app that pays for purchases at over 100,000 hotels, online stores and restaurants — including Starwood properties, Marriott, Cost Plus World Market, Nike, Target, Chuck E. Cheese’s and many others.
Install the app and register. Securely link a debit or credit card. Then watch cash-back accrue automatically.
Plus, you receive a $5 welcome bonus when you connect a card to Dosh.
Six Retirement Accounts
Again, give yourself a long-term present. Many Americans aren’t saving enough for retirement.
Curious whether you’re on track? Try this retirement calculator. It will estimate how much you should be saving to reach a comfortable retirement.
Unsure about your allocation between stocks and bonds? Consider a robo-advisor like Blooom, an app that can optimize and monitor your 401(k) for you.
Fiiiiiive Looooost Pounds!
This line is always a crowd-pleaser, isn’t it?
Fun fact: Although “The Twelve Days of Christmas” traces back to the 1700s, the elongation of “Five golden rings” into “fiiiiiivve gol-den riiiinnggs” is a later addition from the early 1900s.
We don’t offer five golden rings here, but getting paid to lose five pounds would be pretty neat, right? Here’s how you can make that happen.
Place a wager with HealthyWage, which pays people to meet weight-loss targets. Enter how many pounds you want to lose (10 to 150 pounds), your timeframe (six to 18 months) and how much you’ll bet (minimum $200 per month).
Each month, you contribute the agreed amount to the program. HealthyWage supplies guidance and weight-tracking tools. If you reach your goal within the allotted time, HealthyWage pays you.
Four Ubers Driving
Holiday shopping can be pricey, cash back aside. Earn extra money this season by driving for Uber, the ride-hailing platform.
As an Uber driver partner,you’re an independent contractor. You set your own hours and drive as much or as little as you want. Earnings are calculated from a base fare plus time and distance after pickup, with Uber taking a service fee.
If you’re considering it, keep in mind the requirements: you must be at least 21, have at least one year of licensed driving experience in the U.S. (or three years if you’re under 23), possess a valid U.S. driver’s license and pass a background check.
Your vehicle must also be a four-door with seating for at least four passengers (not counting the driver), be registered in-state and have in-state insurance coverage.
Here’s a link to sign up to use the Uber app.
Three French Breads
Seriously though, holidays aren’t only about buying stuff. They’re about eating, too — lots of delicious food.
Give Ibotta a look, a free cash-back app that pays at grocery stores, restaurants and bars. It’s an easy way to reclaim money by just snapping a photo of your receipt. Here’s how it operates:
- Sign up. You only need a name and email to begin.
- Browse cash-back offers available in your area before you shop. (Offers rotate weekly.) Choose the deals you want and then upload your receipt.
- Once you’ve accumulated at least $20 in earnings, request a payout via PayPal or Venmo.
At the moment, Ibotta is awarding new users a $5 sign-up bonus just for redeeming their first receipt.
Two Cable Bills
With some time off this season, you might be watching more TV than usual.
Install Trim, a Facebook Messenger bot that will haggle your cable and internet bills down for you. It works with providers like Comcast, Time Warner, Charter and other big names.
Sign in with Facebook, upload a PDF of your latest bill, and Trim’s AI-driven system begins negotiating. If it doesn’t succeed initially, it will keep negotiating until it nets savings. (When it saves you money, it keeps 25% of the amount saved.)
And Tips From Credit Sesame!
Finally, here’s your partridge in a pear tree — one last lasting gift to yourself.
Register with Credit Sesame. This free tool displays your credit score and explains what it means. It shows outstanding balances on cards and loans and gives tailored tips to help you reduce debt and boost your credit score.
A stronger credit score will be useful next Christmas — or whenever you’re buying a home, a car, or applying for credit.
And with that, our “Twelve Days of Fixmas” wraps up. Feeling a bit more financially fit yet?
If you’re curious about the original lyrics to the song, no need to look them up. Here they are:
On the twelfth day of Christmas, my true love sent to me …
Twelve drummers drumming,
Eleven pipers piping,
Ten lords a-leaping,
Nine ladies dancing,
Eight maids a-milking,
Seven swans a-swimming,
Six geese a-laying,
Fiiiiiive gol-den rings!
Four calling birds,
Three French hens,
Two turtle doves,
And a partridge in a pear tree!
Jordan Keane ([email protected]) is a senior writer at Savinly.
