Last year, we offered our first ever Shop Smart Scholarship to five deserving students who demonstrated extraordinary frugality, thriftiness and entrepreneurial spirit in their quest to make their college education affordable.

Photo by CollegeDegrees360 via Flickr. Some rights reserved.

We were very impressed with the entries we received, and narrowing the field down to just five worthy recipients was no easy task. The experience also was extremely rewarding, and we’re excited to offer the Shop Smart Scholarship again this year!

Once again, we’ll be awarding $10,000 in scholarships to students who are going to extraordinary lengths to make their college experience affordable.  Each of our five finalists will receive a $2,000 scholarship to help with education and living expenses for the 2013-2014 school year.

The application deadline is Sunday June 16, 2013. You can find complete details, including the scholarship application, eligibility requirements and information about previous scholarship winners, at the 2013 Shop Smart Scholarship page.

Go to the Shop Smart Scholarship Application

P.S. College students on a limited budget should also check out Stores with Student Discounts to save money at the places you shop every day.

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Everyone wants Valentines Day to be special, but we can bet nobody wants to spend hundreds of dollars to do so. We’re proud to say we’ve posted a ton of great, inexpensive gift ideas on our site for the February 14 festivities. So many, in fact, that we’ve started collecting them on our Pinterest Page!

What is your ultimate Valentines Day? Whether you’re married or single, we want you to pin deals from our site to your Ultimate BradsDeals Valentines Day Board. Create our favorite BradsDeals Valentines Day themed board and you could win a $100 Ultra Diamonds Gift Card to buy yourself or someone special a great Valentines Day gift!

How to Enter:

1. Log in to your Pinterest Account and follow BradsDeals
2. Create a themed board titled “Ultimate BradsDeals Valentines Day”
3. Pin items from BradsDeals.com that illustrate your dream V-Day (Example pins here)
4. Be sure your board has the hashtag #bradsdeals in the pin description so we can find your boards!
5. You must have at least 9 pins on your board to qualify and the winner will be chosen based on creativity, originality and content

This contest ends on 2/14 at 11:59PM CST. For full contest rules, click here.

If you need more pin-spiration, check out 10 Sites to Feed Your Pinterest Addiction.

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Many rewards credit cards offer extra incentives for reaching certain spending limits after you sign up. We’re always raving about the Chase British Airways Visa, which gets you 50,000 bonus miles after spending $20,000 in the first year, or the popular Chase Sapphire Preferred, which gives a 40,000 point bonus for spending $3,000 within 3 months. While these bonuses are lucrative, it can be difficult to hit these spending thresholds in short periods of time.

This is where Amazon Payments can help. By creating an Amazon Payments account, you’re able to regularly “charge” your credit card to get closer to your spending threshold, without having to actually spend thousands of dollars on purchases.

Here’s how it works:

Create an Amazon Payments account:  This is an account that allows you to send payments to other users, with no extra fees or charges. You’ll want to sign up for your own account, and also sign up a separate account under a spouse’s or partner’s name.

Send a Payment: Your account has a “send money” section, where you’ll enter the name of the recipient (your spouse), whether the payment is for “goods/services” or a “cash advance” (select the “good/services” option to avoid pesky cash advance fees), the amount of payment (ie. $100), and the credit card that you’re using to “pay” the recipient.  Basically, you’re “paying” your spouse $100, which is being charged to your credit card.

Confirm Your Funds: Once you submit the payment, your credit card will be charged the $100, just like any other purchase, and the $100 payment will be deposited in your spouse’s Amazon Payments (“AP”) account. After a few days, your spouse’s AP account will show a balance of $100.

Withdraw The Money: Your spouse can then withdraw the $100 from their AP account back into your normal bank account. They’ll have to enter the bank account information, and once Amazon Payments verifies it, that same $100 you charged to your credit card will be deposited right back in your checking account. You’re now $100 closer to reaching your spending threshold, without actually having to spend any money!

Important Tips and Tricks:

Use everything in your own name: Amazon Payments allows a sender to use their credit card to pay a recipient. That means you, as the sender, should be using a credit card under your own name. Likewise, you’re sending the money to a recipient, who is accepting the money into a bank account under their own name. If it looks like the sender and recipient are the same individual, Amazon Payments won’t let the transaction go through.

Example: A Smith uses her credit card to pay her husband, B Smith. Then, B tries to withdraw the money to their bank account under the name “A and B Smith“. Amazon Payments might not let this go through, since A Smith’s name appears on the “sender” side, as well as the “recipient” side. If B enters his bank account information using only his name, he won’t have a problem.

Send small denominations: Senders are allowed to send a total of $1,000 per month. However, it’s better to break your payments up into a smaller $100-$200 denominations. If you try to send a $1,000 lump sum to your spouse every month, there’s a chance Amazon Payments will delay the transaction, or may even cancel it, because it looks like you’re repeatedly “maxing out” your account.

Be Patient: It takes time for Amazon Payments to verify the AP accounts, credit card and bank account information, etc. So don’t be surprised if there’s a lag in the funds showing up in your spouse’s account. You’ll see that your credit card has been charged $100, but it’ll still be a few days until that $100 lands in your spouse’s Amazon Payments account. After your spouse withdraws it, it’ll be another few days for the same $100 to finally show back up in your bank account.

Important Note: Amazon Payments has traditionally not charged any fees for these transactions, but currently, they’ve implemented a fee scheduled that varies by the amount of money you’re transferring, and how frequently you use their service. Make sure you know the fees being charged to determine if it’s worth it!

Want more money-saving tips like these? Sign up for Brad’s Daily Alerts  for more helpful tips, along with the best daily online deals, contest alerts and more!

I knew my impulse Destiny’s Child CD purchases would come in handy someday. Not only are they reuniting (my life is once again complete), but now I can listen to all of the music from my CDs on my phone, tablet or any other device, for free! The little gem that makes all of this possible is called AutoRip, and it gives you a free MP3 version of any CD you purchase, or have purchased from Amazon since 1998. No need to repurchase all of your music!

“What would you say if you bought music CDs from a company 15 years ago, and then 15 years later that company licensed the rights from the record companies to give you the MP3 versions of those CDs … and then to top it off, did that for you automatically and for free? Well, starting today, it’s available to all of our customers – past, present, and future – at no cost,” said Jeff Bezos, Amazon.com CEO and founder.

Here’s how AutoRip works…

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Last updated 10am 5/12/13.

Here is a current list of what we think the top 5 credit card signup bonus offers are. Consider any of these “highly recommended.” If you’re new, we realize that it can be scary to apply for any credit card, much less many at the same time. Dip your toe in the water. It is worth it. These will be updated regularly as offers come and go. Please comment at bottom with news, questions or issues.

Chase Ink Bold Visa

1. 50,000 Chase Ultimate Rewards points with $5k in spending via this link for the Chase Ink Bold Visa. You earn 5 points per $1 on office supply stores and phone, internet and TV services or 2x for gas and hotels.

Value: $1,375 or 2.5¢ each. You actually get a total of 55k points: 50k from the bonus and at least 5k from spending. Points can transfer to United, Southwest, Amtrak, British Airways, Korean Airlines, Hyatt, Marriott, Ritz-Carlton and others.

2. 150,000 American miles (“The AA Trifecta”), $100 in statement credits for AA purchases and two admiral’s club passes if you get all three of these different American credit cards and spend $10,500.Two caveats:

Citi AAdvantage Visa

1) yes, the offer is not mentioned on the landing page; Citi does this all the time; it is OK, the offers will still post.

2) As always, you can and should apply for the business card by using your name as the business name. Check off that you are a sole proprietorship.

• Visa Business – 50k miles after $2,500 in purchases within the first 4 months.
• Visa Personal – 50K miles after $2500 spend in 4 mo
• Amex Personal – 50k miles (40k for $2k within 4 months of opening + 10k after $5k within 12 months of opening), $100 credit, two admirals club passes

American Express Platinum Mercedes Benz Card

3. 50,000 American Express Membership Rewards points with $1,000 in spending on an American Express Platinum Mercedes-Benz; there is a $475 annual fee but you get standard Amex Platinum benefits including $200 towards airline fees (or gift cards in some cases) plus a bunch of Mercedes discounts

Value: $1,275 or 2.5¢ each. Points can transfer 1:1 into Air Canada, Singapore Airlines, British Airways, Delta, Air France, Hawaiian, Jet Blue, Virgin Atlantic and Virgin America.

Hilton HHonors Reserve

4. 2 Free Weekend Nights at any Hilton, including their Waldorf-Astoria and Conrad Hotels brands, with $2,500 in spending over 4 months via this offer. You also get free HHonors Gold status, which is normally earned with 16 stays or 36 nights. This means free internet, room upgrades and free breakfast, or bonus points. It is the best “gold status” of any hotel brand. Plus, each year you spend $10k, you get one more free weekend night.

Value: $1,250 or $1,00 from the two free nights when somewhat well used (it is certainly possible to get $700 to $1,000 in value per night) and $300 from the Hhonors Gold status. 

Chase Sapphire Card

5. 40,000 Chase Ultimate Rewards points with $3k spend via this link for the Chase Sapphire Visa. You can also earn 2 points per $1 on travel and dining, and best of all, a 7% annual bonus on earned points.

Value: $1,075 or 2.5¢ each. You’ll actually get 43k points: 40k from the bonus and at least 3k from spending. Points can transfer to United, Southwest, Amtrak, British Airways, Korean Airlines, Hyatt, Marriott, Ritz-Carlton and others.

Whenever British Airways offers 50,000 Avios for signing up for their Chase Visa, we get pretty excited about it.

Airplane leaving BCN

It is hands down one of the best credit card incentives around, especially if you love to travel. However,  we see a lot of questions, and sometimes frustration, from fans trying to book flights. Now that I’ve gone through the process myself to book a flight from Chicago to Barcelona, here are a few of my tips for getting it done quickly and smoothly. It’s definitely a tedious process, but a little persistence and patience goes a long way.

Book as far in advance as you can.

I booked Barcelona 4 months in advance and the flights I chose only had 1 and 2 reward seats available. The good stuff, including domestic flights on One World partner American Airlines, is snapped up quickly. I recommend committing to your trip as early as you can.

Brad says that if you can’t book early, booking late can work out sometimes. “I’ve almost gone to Hong Kong a few times in the past year because I see first class Cathay Pacific award seats on the O’Hare non-stop pop up in the last week,” he told me. While this is a risky option for those planning a specific vacation at a certain time (like me), it could be fantastic for travelers with the flexibility to take off at a moment’s notice.

If you’re looking to book somewhere between early and late, check out tools like Expert Flyer for award seat email alerts and be prepared to act quickly when a seat opens up.

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Ahh, New Year’s resolutions – made with the best of intentions in January, mostly forgotten by February. How can you avoid breaking your resolutions this year, and turn your good intentions into a long term, life changing win for you and your family? A few of the tips we’ve found include starting small, telling your friends and family and mapping out a realistic plan. We rather like this list of tips by Hazel Lodevico-To’o.

When you sit down to create your plan for successful resolution keeping, where should you start? We’ve taken a look back through the last year of our blog and pulled out a few that are great resources for resolution makers. Let’s take a look at a handful of the most common New Year’s resolutions and how you can tackle them without straining your finances.

1. Lose weight and/or get in shape.

Photo by Ernst Vikne, Flickr. Some rights reserved.

Looking to shed a few pounds without also shedding a lot of cash? You don’t need fancy equipment, expensive gym memberships or diet plans with a monthly fee. Find motivation with articles that focus on getting healthy on a budget:

• Frugal Fitness: Get Into Your Skinny Jeans by Christmas
• How Showrooming Saved Me Over $150 on a Treadmill
• 5 Ways You Can Eat Healthy For Less
• Get Ready For The 5 Coolest 5Ks This Summer

How many times have you spotted a great deal online only to be disappointed or surprised by what you got? It’s pretty common to open a package only to discover that the beautiful deep red color you thought you ordered is actually tomato orange, or the construction is flimsier than advertised, or the size is much larger or smaller than anticipated. Ugh!

Disappointed with your online purchase? Avoid heartache with showrooming.

I’ve been in the market for a treadmill for several months. I’ve read reviews on dozens of models in my price range, figured out that the top six treadmill brands are actually only made by two companies, and finally zeroed in on an affordable model with good reviews that met all of my criteria. The only thing left to do was to take the plunge and buy it. But even on the low end, a new treadmill is not so cheap and that’s a lot of money to throw at something that’s almost guaranteed to disappoint you.

Unless you showroom it first.

What is showrooming?

Showrooming is a relatively newish online shopping phenomenon in which shoppers go to a brick and mortar store to check out an item they want to buy, then go home and buy it online instead – presumably at a discount. Retailers hate it, and salespeople who work on commission really hate it, but when you’re buying an item with a high degree of risk – like my treadmill – it can save you a world of heartache and a boatload of money all at the same time.

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Congratulations to Tom M. of Clinton, PA who won this Kindle Fire HD Giveaway!

This Kindle Fire HD giveaway may be over, but you can still win super sweet swag from BradsDeals! Check out our most recent contests and giveaways, or sign up to receive our email alerts to be notified when new contests are posted.

We love knowing that we’ve helped some of our readers save money while checking off their holiday shopping list. But if you’re still struggling with checking a few off, we’ve got some news that just might help. We are giving away a Kindle Fire HD to one of our lucky readers! Better yet, we will have this shipped out and delivered to you before Christmas, so you can have it wrapped and under the tree with time to spare. Already checked everyone off your list? There are absolutely no rules against a little self-gifting this holiday season!

The Details:

1. To enter you must register at our contest page
2. You can register once per day throughout the duration of the contest
3. Contest ends on 12/19/2012 at 11:59PM CST
4. The winner will be notified via email once the giveaway has ended

When you register, you will also be signed up for the Brad’s Deals Newsletter, which gives you the latest handpicked deals everyday.

Kindle Fire Features:

• Full Color 7″ 1280×800 HD Display
• Exclusive Dolby audio and dual-driver stereo speakers
• Front-facing HD camera
• Over 22 million movies, TV shows, songs, magazines, books, audiobooks, and popular apps and games

Contest ends December 19 at 11:59 CST.

For official contest rules please click <http://www.bradsdeals.com/blog/bradsdeals-contest-rules”>here.

Nothing makes for a merry Christmas quite like a shiny, new iPhone or iPad. If you have any Apple products on your shopping list this year, you’ll want to take note of these holiday shipping deadlines to ensure your orders arrive in time for Christmas.

If you want to get fancy and engrave your iPad or iPod, these, and other customizable products, won’t be available for next-day shipping, so order soon. While you may have missed the December 5th shipping deadline for an engraved iPad mini, you have until December 12th (tomorrow!) to get your hands on a non-engraved iPad mini, guaranteed for delivery by Christmas. If you’re looking to purchase a new iMac or send your order to a store for pick up, you’ll have to check your cart for specific delivery dates.

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