Do More, Spend Less

by Brad Wilson

Achieve stellar savings with the techniques used on bradsdeals.com

"Do More, Spend Less" provides tips, advice, real-world examples, and strategies consumers need to know to compete in the consumer world. Author Brad Wilson, founder of BradsDeals.com, explains the techniques and buying strategies that are used on his site, which have saved 19 million consumers more than $200 million on BradsDeals.com in the past year alone. The majority of deals on his site provide free, or nearly free, products and services. This book provides tips, advice, real-world examples, and strategies consumers need to know to compete in the consumer world.Shares why you should never buy an Apple product from the Apple storeDetails how to spend three weeks in a suite at the Park Hyatt Paris for $20Shares the unknown way to clean up your credit report and add at least 20 points to your score

The entire basis for thinking about how best to shop, spend, travel, bank-essentially all aspects of being a consumer-has fundamentally changed. The power is now in your hands, and "Do More, Spend Less" shows you how to master your savings.

Genres: Nonfiction, Money, Finance, Audiobook, Self Help, Travel, Personal Finance

222 pages, ebook

First published January 14, 2013

Reviews

[John · Rating 2 out of 5]

In the spirit of the content titles ("How I spent weeks at one of the nicest hotels in the world for $20 (Or how to turn award points into $54,000)"), the surely-inevitable second edition should contain the following extra chapter: "How I repackaged the free BradsDeals.com blog content into a book and paid for a heavily discounted diesel BMW SUV with the proceeds."

Unfortunately, most of the book is highly anecdotal, much of it telling of deals that no longer exist, as if we are supposed to read the book simply to be impressed that he used a loophole offered by the Treasury Department to earn reward points on a credit card by purchasing dollar coins and then re-depositing them. "Oh, and they stopped doing this some time ago. But it was great." Uh huh.

In place of this book, I recommend Andrew Tobias's "The Only Investment Guide You'll Ever Need", ironically the exact sort of book that Brad derides by the second page of the introduction. Then - and only then - go to BradsDeals.com, subscribe to the free daily email (if you want) and read the blog - updated with the bulk of the up-to-date form of this content anyway, such as the best reward credit card deals available.

[Tony · Rating 2 out of 5]

I paused to appreciate the moment. We were flying in international first class to a five-star hotel, enjoying a no-expense-spared two-and-a-half week European vacation with the finest services and amenities. The trip, had we paid cash, would have cost more than $50,000. Our cost? Zero.
What a life! I just knew I had to tell everyone else how they could live this way.

Of course, the trip wasn't only free if you ignore the costs involved in collecting enough airline miles, the taxes and fees that are charged even when you use those for "free" flights, the cost of booking (and not even staying in) other hotels every night for a month to earn the free nights at the five-star hotel, and the substantial time investment in learning the ins-and-outs of all these schemes well enough to be able to take advantage of the various lacunae lurking deep within them.

This is a classic case of over-promising and under-delivering. The author has chosen a very specific lifestyle that works well for him, but is largely impossible for most people — yet he acts like everyone should be able to do all the same things. But this is where most of the other reviews of the book are back-to-front. This was never going to be a book on how everyone can have a five-star lifestyle for no cost, because that's simply not feasible.

Rather that cutting all the stories of how he took maximum advantage of opportunities that no longer exist, to focus on the practical "Here's what you can do", aspects (as most reviewers seem to wish he'd done), the book should instead have gone entirely the other direction, dropping all the tediously dull instructional bits (most of which only work in the US, and will go out of date very quickly anyway), and simply telling more of the stories of times when he found out creative ways to play the system — like when he used the collapse of the Icelandic kroner to buy IcelandAir frequent flyer miles super-cheaply, and then redeemed them on Alaskan Airlines flights to Hawaii. These are the stories that make the book interesting and fun. The fact that the specific circumstances or loopholes behind these stories no longer exist, and can't be directly copied, isn't really relevant. They show the sorts of opportunities that appear from time to time, and the benefits you can get from grabbing them quickly, if you're willing to spend the time looking for them, and are in a position to use them. And, if you're not, well, at least the book would simply let you live vicariously a little.

[Elizabeth · Rating 2 out of 5]

An interesting book, but there's too many examples of how the author did some extreme maneuvering to get free airline miles. I prefer books to have some personal examples but more practical advice. In fact, the main maneuver described to get free airline miles (ordering coins from the mint and then depositing them in the bank on a credit card)isn't available because the mint got bad publicity from people doing exactly what the author did.

[Julianne · Rating 3 out of 5]

If you are familiar with the site BradsDeals.com then you know about this book. He really goes into a lot of detail on how he makes programs and points work for him. Many of the ideas are still viable and it's a great resource if you are have an expensive trip to plan or are fairly inexperienced in the online shopping world.
A library copy was fine for me but there were several great tips that would have easily justified the purchase.

[Carsten Hansen · Rating 4 out of 5]

There are a lot of really good tips in this book, tips that help you spend less money, get more value for money that you do spend. However, a lot of the tips have expired, are no longer useful, although it may help to inspire you to work something out on your own as it has for me.
In terms of the advise on credit cards and personal finance, the book taught me a lot, knowledge that is easy to expand upon and update through a variety of websites on the subject.

[Gina Lincicum · Rating 2 out of 5]

Very frustrated by this book. It was published this year but references old deals and offers that there's no way to replicate now. The landscape has changed too much. The only thing I took away from it was to compare credit card offers (cash vs. miles vs. points) when you're planning to travel in order to cash in for free airline tickets.

[Amberwench · Rating 1 out of 5]

An entire book of Brad bragging about getting dozens of credit cards for the miles, then using those miles to take vacations. If you want to see pictures of Brad's vacation, this book's for you! On page 195 Brad points out that many of the things he did for all these free vacations are no longer available.

[Elizabeth · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book is good if you already have a good cash flow. Not if you are broke and are looking at ways to save money.

[Grace · Rating 2 out of 5]

Are you already loaded with money? Do you have more credit cards and loyalty cards than you know what to do with? Do you have a lot of time on your hands looking for bargains using loyalty points?

Then, this book tells you what to do with those. If you can bother to listen to how he got his deals that are no longer functional as he got them in the early 2000s or so.

Instead, just cut to the chase, look at what bribes cards give you to sign up, then make the most of those bribes. That's ALL this book says in a few different ways.

[Jared Bryson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book. The author has clearly mastered the art of living well on a shoe-string budget.

He reviews all sorts of ways one can earn free airline miles and hotel points. He details all of the deals he leveraged to send he and his wife to Europe and Australia for almost nothing.

His key - simply leveraging all of the deals available on the web to your advantage.

A great read - very enjoyable.

[Brian · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fascinating stuff, some of which I think I will find very useful. However, it seems like a lot of the programs he mentions are quickly reforming themselves to make it harder to do things like he describes, especially the hotel rewards programs. Even some of his car buying hacks, though they still work, are more expensive than when he wrote about them. So, a useful book, but I'm not sure how long it will be useful for.

[Kim Browers · Rating 1 out of 5]

For a book that I felt was geared toward thrifty living, this was written from one of the most priviledged perspectives I could possibly think of. The scheme for getting frequent flyer miles that started with putting $800,000 on a credit card? Yeah...this is totally for the common household. Sure it is. Hard pass.

[Gaby · Rating 4 out of 5]

Although a lot of the deals are outdated, this book gave me lots of ways of thinking differently about how I spend. Give it a listen (audiobook) or a read. You'll enjoy his savings stories and maybe embark on a savings journey of your own.

[Melissa McCraw-Hummer · Rating 2 out of 5]

Really disappointed. Hoping for a minimalist approach to money that would allow for more experiences. Half the book was about credit card points, miles, balance transfers, and borderline scammy practices.

[Richard · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm holding back from reading the other reviews. But my general overview of the book is that if you really want to tdo more with less, you need to maximize perks that are given to you. The author focuses on credit cards, but has bank accounts, and some other interesting ways to look like you are someone who spends substantially more than what is actually being spent.

That being said, in order to employ (most of) the tips in this book you do need some capital to use, pay for credit card fees, and other such things. So really this book seems more focused on people that have got a running start at there life somehow, and have a few thousand dollars to spare to go from okay trips, vehicles, and consumer good, to higher grade / elite versions. If you really are trying to get by one less, this book is (mostly) not for you. There are some general thoughts that will help, such as, examine why you purchase the way you do, and is there a better way to do it (if you are following the herd, most likely there is).

Also the book seems to spend most of it's pages on travel, and you will get tired of the authors blog / deal website that is flogged all through the book.

All that being said, if it aligns with your interest, there are some great tips to look like you are living like a king / queen.

[Mei · Rating 5 out of 5]

I actually really enjoyed this book! I always try to finish the book, then look to see what the ratings are. I was surprised that this book was lower, because I thought it was such a fun and clever read! It put me in the mindset of wanting to go over my finances, credit cards, and make sure everything is on point and looking for ways to maximize. I don’t necessarily want to emulate his exact methods, but it inspired me to be on top of my game.

Prior to this book, I had read a good yet heavy book, so this was a welcome way of writing, easy read, and fun and inspiring for me. I thought that the author was a clever guy- looking at things through a different type of looking glass than most people might. Smart guy!

[Cameron Toney · Rating 1 out of 5]

When I pulled this off the library shelf I expected a book about how to make the most of your money. What I got instead was this book which seemed like someone printed out a blog and bound it as a book. In it the guy congratulates himself at being very clever and using "hacks" to get what he thinks of as fabulous deals. And very little practical advise at all.
Sufficet to say, I skimmed, and returned this to the library without regrets.

[Valarie · Rating 1 out of 5]

No, just no. I’m not sure what I’m supposed to take away from reading this book. It feels more like hanging out with this new guy at a bar who wants to impress a bunch of people with how savvy he is (granted it was impressive to hear bits of this), but a whole book devoted to that is a bit much. Meh.

[Paula · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting

This is an interesting read. I find it funny that Brad shades the extreme coupon people but plays the same methods with his travel miles. I did appreciate his online shopping recommendations.

[Summer · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was fascinating just because of all the things he is/was able to accomplish but too much for audiobook. I would have to see it and read it to get more out of it and see if it's worth the time to do all he does for our family.

[Robert Segura · Rating 1 out of 5]

Allow me to paraphrase some words front the author: "i have opened over 100 credit cards in my lifetime." Jeez. This here is a great book if you want to spend the rest of your life managing credit card accounts. Not sure the opportunity costs of such an endeavor is worth the benefits.

[April Smith · Rating 1 out of 5]

This was terrible. I'm a Dave Ramsey follower, this guys answer is to get CC for everything. No way Brad.

[Michael Lent · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not long on specifics.

[Sam · Rating 4 out of 5]

A little dry but overall good helpful information to save money!

[Markus Pichler · Rating 3 out of 5]

Alot of data which is good but can get confusing

[Jay French · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was a lot more memoir and less how-to than I expected from the title and from the author. His focus was on the exploits of the various company reward systems available for personal gain. Think of this as the next generation of the "pudding guy" - the guy who figured out the frequent flyer miles being offered on pudding boxes was worth more than the pudding. Wilson obviously loves this, using dozens of credit cards to rack up hundreds of thousands of dollars in purchases of.....dollar coins, for the many benefits offered by the credit card companies. It does work. Or at least it did. The coin trick and quite a few others no longer work. In fact, although he says it isn't, it obviously is a lot of work to find and keep track of these schemes and keep them on track. A lot of the work involved is in spending more, not less as the title says. And he gives suggestions of using codes for company employees to get discounts. Is that ethical? You also get a pitch for his travel newsletter, which he says costs money but doesn't say how much. A sales pitch in the middle of a book rubs me the wrong way. So in my mind there are quite a few things wrong with this book.

What did I like? I really liked the stories of how he was able to acquire large benefits and to use them. I was also playing that game, no where near the level of Wilson, and I knew most of these deals existed but didn't partake. Part of the issue was the concept of arbitrage. Wilson loves the idea of earning money risk free. But most of what he describes as arbitrage in his deals really does have a risk, often a high risk, of failure. Anyone who has gotten returns or deadbeat purchasers on eBay knows there is a risk in selling items. Wilson did well to avoid these, but he appeared to just ignore the possibilities here and in other places. Another plus is that he did describe some non-reward benefits for things like banking and buying a car. There were a handful of quite specific suggestions that may not stand the test of time, but there was also some general suggestions that probably should. Interesting discussion of credit scores ended the book. I think this would have come across better as either a "look at what I did" book or a "this is how you do it" book, but the combination wasn't good.

[Sheryl · Rating 1 out of 5]

Way too much bragging -- I'm good with egotistical authors (I like John T. Molloy!), but in this case the author is bragging about stuff the reader can't do, in a book that's supposed to be tips on how to live well cheaply. Bah.

I found only one bit of useful info in this book, although I admittedly didn't read it cover to cover or with a lot of attention. I also did not like that a lot of the info that isn't out of date is ways to cheat the system -- getting access to coupon codes that don't apply to me (employee codes places I don't work), for instance. There's a difference between being cheap and being dishonest.

[John · Rating 2 out of 5]

The first half of the book is focused on travel and written primarily to businessmen and women who travel quite a bit. A lot of this was funded by schemes that were out of date (buying dollar coins with a credit card and them depositing them back into your account, for one). Because of that I almost gave up on the book.

The second half of the book was more helpful, in particular Wilson's recommendations regarding purchases (everything from cars to diamond rings), but again many of his methods were out of date (balance transfer arbitrage, for instance).

All in all, probably not worth the time, although I'll come back to it if and when I buy a new car.

[Jeff Smith · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a good book based of the author, Brad Wilson, website www.bradsdeals.com. Just many ways of saving money but enjoying great deals online.

One of the key points from the book was shopping online has many deals. Credit Union membership is great for many reasons and joining multiple Credit Unions is possible.

Most of all, the book talked of many ways of enjoying vacations without spending a lot of money at all.

[Anne · Rating 1 out of 5]

Not helpful for someone like me with little or no money. It's more for those who can afford to travel frequently or able to buy technology,homes,cars, etc. The only half dozen or so pages worth it are about how credit unions are better than banks, but I knew that already and only have accounts at credit unions.