If Ice Cream Makes You Happy...

 
 Everyone has their own happy place. For me, it's the beach. For my husband, it's anywhere as long as he has a bowl of ice cream in his hands! Is ice cream the world's greatest health food? Probably not, but it could be the world's greatest mental health food (or the co-greatest with chocolate 😉). In this new season of our life, we've cut out a lot of extras, but ice cream will not be one of them. Why? Because we prioritize mental health as well as financial health. Honestly, I'd get rid of haircuts before I'd get rid of my husband's ice cream! 

 That said, we need to be a little more diligent about bringing down costs where we can. My husband and I spent three hours yesterday at WinCo putting together a price comparison sheet so we could figure out what whether it was worth it to drive all the way out there (15 minutes away) to shop. It also showed us what items might be good to buy in bulk while we are there to minimize trips. Guess what one of the items that was much less expensive at WinCo was? You got it - ice cream! They were easily $2-3 cheaper than the Safeway closest to us where we've been shopping for years. But you know who else has cheap ice cream? Walmart!

 I have avoided shopping for groceries at Walmart for the most part for years. I'm not gonna lie, I'm just not a big fan of the Walmart vibe. Something about the store lulls you into this shopping coma and have you seen the crazy characters that show up there? But I can no longer afford to be so picky. You know what I can afford though? Walmart +! Thanks to a discount from our recently acquired Amex Green card*, Walmart + was only $49 for the whole year. If you have a higher-level Amex (platinum or business gold) it will cover your Walmart + completely. With Walmart +, you get Walmart prices on your groceries but with free delivery. I actually find that I save money by shopping online because I'm less inclined to throw impulse purchases into my cart! You do need to tip your driver (don't cheap out on this!), but I still find that my overall grocery purchases are much less expensive than they used to be. So, most of the time now I get my regular groceries at Walmart (delivered) or Costco (for those that are less expensive there), but once a month we'll trek out to WinCo.

 But we've gotten side tracked. We were talking about ice cream. FYI, Walmart's generic ice cream is the cheapest, at least in our area. At $2.97 for 1.5qts, it's hard to beat - unless you have a Chase Sapphire Preferred or Reserve** card! You see, Chase offers a cool bonus, a free Door Dash Pass through 12/31/27. In addition, with the Preferred card you get a $10 credit towards a non-restaurant purchase and with the Reserve you get two $10 credits for non-restaurant purchases each month as well as a $5 dining credit. You might say, "How will this help? Door Dash is really expensive!" And you're not wrong. But where there's a will there's a hack, especially when it comes to ice cream! Your dash pass will cover the delivery fee (if your order is over $12) but there is still a service fee as well as a driver tip. These add up and you want to avoid as many fees as possible when you're trying to get something cheap - you know, like ice cream! So, what do you do? You choose pickup instead of delivery! There aren't usually many options but just keep hunting. In our area, there are a few convenience stores (They show as shopping carts instead of cutlery on the map). You'll have to choose pickup at least twice, if not three times during the process, but persist! Here I have a screenshot of my cart with two tubs of ice cream (small ones) for FREE!

 Ok, that's a lot of hoops to jump through, but it's FREE ICE CREAM. I mean, come on... If ice cream is not your thing, you can get other snacks at the convenience stores or other local stores may offer pickup on things like flowers and such.

Here's the Thing: It's important to find those little things that make you happy and continue to have them be a part of your life, even when you have to cut back. And sometimes jumping through hoops adds to the challenge and makes the reward even sweeter!

* Here’s my Amex referral link. Use it and we could both earn rewards if you are approved and get a Card. Check out offers and Card benefits. https://americanexpress.com/en-us/referral/american-express-green-card?ref=MICHAERAbv&xl=cp19
** Earn 60,000 bonus points with either Chase Sapphire® card. I can be rewarded if you apply here and are approved for the card. https://www.referyourchasecard.com/19s/W2E8NV0Y8A



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