Wrinkly Dollar

Small Discounts Make a Big Difference in Savings

Everyone likes to save money. And these days, the Internet makes it quite easy to find coupons, discounts, and cash back programs for many purchases people make. I recently wrote a post about the Rewards Network, which gives you 10-40% cash back when dining out. There are some credit card offers just a click away that have great cash rewards programs attached to them. The Chase Visa Freedom card, American Express Blue card, and Discover card are among the best. And there are websites like FatWallet and MyPoints that offer varying percentages of money back for online purchases.

At first glance, some of the rewards can seem paltry. For instance, the Chase Freedom card offers 3% cash back on purchases that fall into one of 15 categories and 1% cash back on everything else. Many offers on FatWallet provide low single digit savings. Not exactly mind-blowing amounts. So is it worth it?

Is it worth signing up for and keeping track of these accounts for what amounts to a few percentage points off of your expenses?

I’m going to argue that the answer is a resounding yes for most people. And it all has to do with the low amount of their income that most people save.

These days, according to the US Department of Commerce, Americans on average save about 4% of their after-tax income. The other 96% goes out the door toward goods and services – rent, food, clothing, that new gadget you were just dying to have. The low savings rate means that even small discounts on your expenses can make a big difference in the amount you can save. Take a look at the table below.

On the left, you can see a typical month’s worth of savings for someone who socks away 4% of their after-tax income. $3,000 comes in, $2,880 goes toward expenses, and the rest is saved – $120.

On the other hand, imagine using discounts, coupons, or rewards programs that save you 4% every month on all your expenses. Those discounts nearly double the amount you can save, bringing it up to $235! The 4% in discounts is effectively added to your savings rate, making it nearly 8% instead of 4%!

Rewards or discount amounts should not be looked at on their own. They seem small by themselves. Rather, they should be compared to the percentage of your income that you are able to save.

The less you are saving, the more willing you should be to use discounts or rewards programs. For someone who saves a lot of their income, the 4% in rewards won’t make nearly as much of a difference. But for someone who saves little to no percentage of their income, getting a small percentage of expenses back via coupons, discounts, or rewards can make the difference between saving little to nothing and saving multiples more.

The key is to think about your discounts in relation to the percentage of income you can put away.