Quick Tips

Every Friday I post a new Quick Tip covering a wide range of topics, including ways to save money, travel tips, personal products/services I find interesting, and more.

  • I Tried Three Tax Prep Options This Year and Liked This One Best

    I Tried Three Tax Prep Options This Year and Liked This One Best

    Well, I survived another tax year. While this year wasn’t as bad as last time, it still came with some unwelcome surprises and complications. Plus, along the way, I ended up spending time using three different DIY tax prep services. In doing so, I learned that there’s one I enjoyed using more than the others.…

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  • It’s Last Call for This Stellar Capital One Venture Welcome Bonus

    It’s Last Call for This Stellar Capital One Venture Welcome Bonus

    Capital One is about to remove an outstanding offer for its versatile Venture Card — but there’s still time to claim it. Right now, new Venture Rewards cardholders can not only earn 75,000 bonus miles after spending $4,000 on the card within their first three months but can also score a $250 credit to be…

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  • YouTube Just Made Its Premium Lite Product an Even Better Deal

    YouTube Just Made Its Premium Lite Product an Even Better Deal

    UPDATE (4/10/26): Welp. YouTube just revealed that it’s raising the price of Premium Lite to $8.99 (up $1). Still a good deal but really hurts my whole argument here, huh? Anyway, here’s my original post: Just over one year ago, YouTube brought a new tier of its Premium offering to the U.S.: Premium Lite. Priced…

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  • PlayStation Prices Are Going Up — So What’s Next?

    PlayStation Prices Are Going Up — So What’s Next?

    Even as inflation pushes up prices on a number of household items, when you zoom out, we usually see electronics get more affordable. For example, can you believe that you can now get an HD, flat-screen 60″ television for a few hundred dollars? Similarly, when it comes to video gaming consoles, after a few years,…

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  • Earning Bonus Uber Cash Just for Photographing Your Food Order

    Earning Bonus Uber Cash Just for Photographing Your Food Order

    Thanks to our Amex Platinum card’s Uber Cash credits, once a month, my wife and I enjoy getting ourselves some Uber Eats. These days, that often means picking up some delicious Cold Stone Creamery (Cake Batter Ice Cream, brownies, caramel, Golden Oreos, and cinnamon. Thank me later), but we do order real food from time…

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  • Buy Your Way to Starbucks Gold Status with Marriott Bonvoy Points

    Buy Your Way to Starbucks Gold Status with Marriott Bonvoy Points

    The day has some. This week, Starbucks rolled out the previously announced updates to its Rewards program. When I updated my app on Tuesday, I was disappointed to see that Starbucks had placed me in the Green status tier. While I wasn’t sure I’d qualify for Gold, I thought I’d at least be close. Instead,…

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  • Dry January Meets March Madness with a New Offer from Athletic

    Dry January Meets March Madness with a New Offer from Athletic

    It’s now been a few years since I got really into non-alcoholic beer. As someone who doesn’t drink, having the experience of trying different styles of beer, discovering various breweries, and getting to do both of these alongside my wife has been a lot of fun. And while I’ve now sampled several NA brews from…

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  • It’s Happening: Amex is Merging Tock into Resy This Summer

    It’s Happening: Amex is Merging Tock into Resy This Summer

    Back in 2024, American Express announced that it was purchasing the restaurant reservation service Tock from Squarespace. However, while that deal closed in October of that year, the Tock platform has remained on its own. Well, that’s about the change as Amex has revealed plans for Tock to merge into Resy (which Amex bought in…

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  • Robinhood is Living Up To Its Name As It Adds Free Tax Filing

    Robinhood is Living Up To Its Name As It Adds Free Tax Filing

    Throughout this tax season, I’ve observed a major trend. First, I saw that PayPal was partnering with a service called April to deliver a free tax filing option to users. Mere days later, OnePay announced a similar initiative with the same provider. And now, Robinhood is jumping on the bandwagon, launching its own offer with…

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  • My Initial Experience with Pawp Tele-Vet (Included with Walmart+)

    My Initial Experience with Pawp Tele-Vet (Included with Walmart+)

    This morning, while I was hanging out with my dog Rigby, she started acting a bit… weird. First, she seemed a bit dazed, and then, when she tried to stand, she couldn’t. Thankfully, after a couple of minutes, she was completely back to normal — but I was obviously worried about what had just happened.…

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  • Solis is Launching Yet Another New Global WiFi Hotspot Model

    Solis is Launching Yet Another New Global WiFi Hotspot Model

    Back in 2019, I purchased my first Solis (then known as Skyroam Solis) international hotspot device. Since then, though, the company has rolled out a number of new models — and that pace has really hastened over the past couple of years. That continued this month as preorders for their new Solis Tag device opened.…

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  • Starbucks is About to De-Simplify Its Rewards Program

    Starbucks is About to De-Simplify Its Rewards Program

    Back in my day, Starbucks had a program where, after a certain number of purchases, you’d earn Starbucks Gold status and get a fancy card to flaunt. When I worked at a movie theatre that had a Starbucks across the parking lot, I was among the first of our team to collect my Gold Card…

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