AARP Rewards Online Community Budget Contest 2025

Planted a vegetable garden, also watching my spending using a budget spreadsheet to save and pay for needed home repairs.

We have just recently retired so we used a spreadsheet to monitor our spending for a few years beforehand to get a clear picture of what we were spending, and where we could cut back. We use AARP rewards and discounts to help cut costs.

I saved money with AARP by taking advantage of their Rewards program, which let me redeem points for gift cards to places like Walmart and various restaurants. It’s been a great way to cut down on everyday expenses, especially when shopping for groceries or dining out. We also make a habit of reading all the AARP articles about saving money—they’re full of helpful tips and practical advice that have helped us make smarter financial choices. Between the rewards and the guidance, AARP has definitely made a positive impact on our budget.

Love getting the gift cards it really helps my budget. I save money on restaurants and shopping. It is a double savings when I win a gift card and use points to buy one at same place it is like eating out for free.

Being disabled is taught me about micromanaging my money budgeting and spending. Also if you log into a lot of restaurants grocery stores apps they have discounts and you get points that you can use also to purchase things for this groceries shoes clothes and also pay your bills on time in full. That's another budgeting technique that will help you save money and spend more money. And also stock up your cabinets your freezer and rotate things in and out as you go grocery shopping that'll save you tremendously amount of money on from eating out. And within three to six months you will see how much you saved and how better the system works if you stick to it, you might be struggling for a minute but trust me stick to the technique and it will pay off in the end. So even getting paid weekly monthly try to sit 20 50 bucks aside and keep doing that every pay period for 3 to 6 months then that would become your traveling money in summer expense money as well. Before you know it you have a budget that you created on your own and it works accordingly to you and your work you put in yes sometime the bank can help you but you got to look at where is the bank's going now with helping you as a customer and how much it's costing you and also as a tip if you're banking with a credit union or Bank set up paying all your bills out of your checking account instead of auto pay that right there is a big savings to help eliminate over fees for withdrawing your money out of your account by overdraft fees stop paying for things with your credit card or bank card at the gas pump because the gas pump puts a hold on your account for excessive amount plus the amount of gas you're trying to get in your vehicles. Trust me I went through this and it's a headache to get it resolved. You can control everything with your hard work and trusting yourself. And you can also try logging on to experian.com boost to help build your credit score up by logging in and create an account and putting all your bills that you pay in your name and that will help you get your credit score raised up. Or you can talk to your bank financial department to see what they offer to help you get your credit score up and also maintain paying off debt and balancing out your payments.

the most effective method that has rung true in my life is just to ask for a discount or a coupon when checking out or paying the bill. My husband and I both have experience in law enforcement and he is a fully disabled combat veteran. So, asking the checkout person if they offer military or law enforcement discounts is an easy ask for me, because the worst thing that can happen is for them to decline. And if that does occur, I’m in no less of a position that I was prior to making the ask! You’d be surprised how many businesses gladly offer discounts when asked, even when they aren’t publicizing their interest to do so! 

AARP rewards has a great variety of gift cards that save money thru the discounted purchase price.  Using the gift cards along with store specials and military discounts for things we need is a nice savings for our budget.   I enjoy earning rewards points by watching videos, taking quizzes, and playing games with Rewards.   It’s been fun to redeem those points for discounted restaurant cards.   We try to use the gift cards on lunch menus or daily specials when we can.  It’s been fun to use the gift cards from Instant Wins to purchase gifts for family.   The videos have shown many great ideas for saving money!  And it’s so much fun to play the games and earn points while having a good time!

The great thing about the egift cards is that they don't expire, so I try to accumulate the same cards over time and eventually I can stack them with other offers.  For example, I was able to score a completely free box of goodies from Harry and David with free shipping from them and paying with several egift cards either won or bought for points from AARP.   Stacking with offers from vendors has allowed me to get free meals or significant discounts on food and merchandise from my favorite stores.  Keep up the great work AARP!

    My wife and I enjoy the gift cards I purchase through AARP, like Home Depot, Barnes & Noble, & TJ Maxx, to name a few. They are in my email box fairly quick, so we can use them if we plan a little ahead of going to a specific place. We can always save a few dollars for the amount we plan on spending, which usually works out that way. It definitely helps knowing you already saved by buying the cards at a discount, before you get to spend it. We have also saved at some restaurants, just by asking about AARP or senior discounts, win,win.

I My wife and I SAVE  10% yearly on my auto insurance by leading an in person AARP Smart Driver Course!  The certification is good for 3 years!  My wife and I volunteer as a instructor and course administrator in our North GA county and surrounding area!  We enjoy helping others save money and stay safer driving on our roads!