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.
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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
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
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
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+)
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
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
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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My Hands-On Experience with Manta Sleep White Noise Machine
If you’re a frequent traveler, you’ve probably seen ads on Instagram of YouTube videos for Manta’s sleep masks. These high-end and creative sleep masks certainly look appealing — but it was another one of their products that, ironically, caught my eye: their white noise machine. As I’ve written about before, I’ve come to love my Bose…
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My Experience Applying for Bilt 2.0 (And Did I Choose Correctly?)
Just like many other places online these days, Reddit is simultaneously an incredibly useful tool and an absolute cesspool. Earlier this week, when Bilt revealed its official 2.0 card details (which I won’t detail in writing right now, but you can watch my video below), that dichotomy was on full display as the r/BiltRewards subreddit…
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Another Rant About Vegas Table Games – Avoid the Nasty Middle
I’ve spent the last few days going up and down the Las Vegas Strip during CES 2026. Not only have I come to this show for several years now but have also been visiting Vegas for far longer. In that time, I’ve seen a ton of changes — some good, but mostly bad. Most recently,…
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JustBid.com Review: Is It Legit?
A few weeks ago, my wife was telling me a story about how her boss got a good deal on an under-desk elliptical by using a site called JustBid. When I first heard the name, what came to mind was the likes of DealDash, which boast big savings but charge you a per-bid fee. That’s…
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Use Your Amex Platinum Credits Even If You’re Not Traveling Yet
With Christmas now past, we are dangerously close to the end of 2025. That also means that your days are numbered if you want to use up your American Express Platinum card’s credits — including the monthly, quarterly, semi-annual, and annual ones. And while claiming your Lululemon, Resy, and Digital Entertainment credits may be straightforward…
