u/MorganAtSuper

This is the most common question I see, and the answer is simpler than people expect! That hold is the Super+ membership's pre-authorization on your first monthly charge. It isn't a fee, and it isn't a charge for Super.com Cash. It's the card being checked before anything is taken.

So, you sign up and a 24 hour pre-authorization starts. No money moves during those 24 hours. That's the part worth knowing, because a hold on your statement looks identical to a charge and isn't one.

If you don't cancel the Super+ Membership inside those 24 hours, the charge goes through after they're up.

If you do cancel inside those 24 hours, the pre-authorization is voided and nothing is taken. The hold can sit on your statement for roughly another day of business hours after that, which is the void working its way through rather than money leaving.

And if you take Super.com Cash inside that first 24 hours, the charge goes through right away, because you've used the membership. There's an info bubble on the card details screen at signup that spells all of this out, so if you want to read it again, that's where it lives.

Anything else about the signup flow that may have you confused? Ask and I'll tell!

I've started and abandoned more budgeting systems than I want to admit. Spreadsheets, envelopes, four different apps, the one where you're supposed to write down every coffee. None of them lasted past a week to be honest. The issue is I forget, and when I remember, I just don’t want to deal with it.

The only thing that stuck for me was moving money to a fully separate account where all my bills come out of. If I have the money in my normal checking account, I assume it’s just money I can spend. So having the separate place fully for bills has been a stress reliever, since I know I am at least fully covered on that end.

What’s stuck for you when it comes to trying to save money, and what did you give up on? Would love to implement at least one more thing to help me with my spending habits!

A look inside the Experiences tab

Everyone knows about the hotel discounts. Nobody talks about the activities.

If you have a Super+ membership, there's a whole attractions and activities section sitting right alongside hotels and flights in your benefits. Disney tickets come in around 25% off. Tours and activities through Viator run about 15% off.

Most people sign up during a hotel booking, save money on that hotel, and never look at anything else. Which is fair. The membership gets sold to you at checkout while you're thinking about one thing. But this is your sign to check out the other items on the app, it’s definitely worth a look before any trip with a theme park or a tour in it!

Has anyone used this for a park trip? Would love to see what the savings looked like next to buying direct. I've wanted to do Universal as an adult for years, so I may have to go find out myself!

I absolutely LOVE fall, it's my favorite time of the year. And living in the midwest, I adore when the leaves start changing color and taking in the beautiful colors.

The color is moving south right now, so if you've been thinking about a drive, now is the time! Northern New England is changing at the high elevations first with the valleys a week or two behind. The Mid-Atlantic comes in mid to late October, and the southern Appalachians hang on all the way into November. You can chase the color down the mountain if you time it right, which is a fun way to stretch a weekend into something bigger.

The Kancamagus in New Hampshire has real red up top right now, though the eastern end and the lower stretches are still green. Same story at Smugglers' Notch in Vermont, color on the higher slopes and not much underneath it yet. And for my fellow midwesterners, Hocking Hills usually lands mid to late October and costs a tank of gas instead of a plane ticket. The rule I keep seeing from people who track this stuff is chase the terrain, not the map!

And when it comes to road trips and trying to save on gas, the super.com app has a Gas tab that runs through Upside. It's 5 to 30 cents off a gallon, which sounds like nothing until your fourth fill-up of the weekend (which happens sooner than you think sometimes lol).

A few other things stack up on a drive like this! Location Rewards drops 4 to 10 cents when you walk into partner stores, and a road trip is one long chain of store stops. Snack runs and anything else with a paper receipt can go into Purchases for scanning. And if you're staying somewhere overnight, Super+ membership earns 10% back in credits on the hotel!

So where's everyone driving this year? Thinking of going to check out Boston soon so would love more recommendations!

My friends wanted to do happy hour, and normally I'd just go and deal with the damage later. But I've done a bunch of traveling lately and need to lay low when it comes to going out and spending money. So instead of making up an excuse, I just said it, "I can't do happy hour right now, I've been traveling too much." And nothing bad happened lol.

We did a night in instead. Hung out at my place and played games, and honestly had more fun than we would've dropping a bunch of money on overpriced drinks (even if they are yummy). Someone brought Flip 7, which I'd never heard of, and it was so fun and actually easy to learn, which I appreciated because sometimes I just don't have the brain power to take in a whole new game.

Even now I still have a hard time being honest with people (even my own friends) about not affording something, instead of quietly going into debt to keep up. But it felt good to say out loud, and it made me realize how often I've spent money I didn't really want to just so I wouldn't be the one saying no.

Can you actually tell your friends when you can't afford something, or is it still weirdly hard to say?

I travel for shows a good amount (saw her Cowboy Carter tour, and I know once Act III finally drops I'm going to want to go), and concert prices lately are unhinged. The average big-tour ticket is up like 50% from a few years ago, and that's before the fees at checkout somehow tack on another 30%. Nothing you can really do about that part, it's the same everywhere you buy.

So I've made peace with the ticket being the one expensive thing I can't control, and I save hard on everything else around the show. The biggest one is the hotel. Booking near a venue on a concert night is always marked way up, so I book mine through Super.com since it usually comes in cheaper than the other sites, and that alone takes a real chunk off the trip. Then I do the boring stuff too, drive instead of fly when I can, pack snacks so I'm not buying everything inside the venue, split a room with whoever I'm going with.

It doesn't make the ticket hurt less, but the rest of the trip isn't a disaster, just the one line item I can't avoid. Which is good, because I need to be ready the second Act III tour dates get announced.

For the people who travel for shows, how are you handling the cost right now? Any tricks for the trip part, or are we all just quietly going broke for our favorite artists?

My favorite part about traveling is getting to try the food in a new area. But sometimes I go a little overboard, especially if the food is too good not to try everything. So to make up for the meals like that, I've started adding in some food swaps, and it's really balanced things out (and my bank account).

When it comes to airports, I used to get so anxious about bringing in anything food or drink related, because I didn't want to get in trouble for something I didn't know about. But after finally trying these out, I feel a lot more confident to keep doing it. The easiest one is bringing an empty water bottle through security if you're flying. It goes right through empty, you fill it up at a fountain on the other side, and you're not spending $10 on water at the gate.

I also pack my own snacks since I somehow end up hungry every single time I fly lol. I try to be considerate about what I bring though, nothing smelly (nobody wants to sit next to your egg salad) and I skip peanut butter since you're crammed in next to strangers and peanut allergies are no joke. Sunflower butter, jerky, cheese, a protein bar, all easy and nobody minds.

For breakfast, whether I'm flying, in a hotel, or on the road, I love bringing stuff to make overnight oats, especially since I'm gluten-free. Finding a decent gluten-free breakfast while traveling is such a pain, and hotel breakfast isn't always free or worth it. So I throw together oats with some protein powder the night before in a little lunchbox, keep it in the mini fridge, and it's ready when I wake up. No line, no searching, barely costs anything.

None of these are life changing on their own, but they add up quick, especially on a longer trip.

What do you do to keep travel food from wrecking your budget?

For me it's the color-sorting ones, where you pour the liquids between glasses until each one is a single color. It's a very brain-off, waiting-in-line, half-watching-TV activity, and I just love it.

And while I was poking around on the Super.com app, I found you can get credits for playing a game like the one I'm already enjoying. I'd love to find another one on there that people like, so any games on the earnings menu you're really into?

I'm sure everyone's heard of a no-buy month by now, but just in case: it's where you cut out all the non-essential spending for a set stretch. No impulse buys, no random Amazon cart, no treat-yourself purchases, just the stuff you actually need like groceries and bills.

I keep thinking about trying one after the summer I've had (way too many trips, way too much eating out), but keep putting it off. Has anyone here done it? If so, what was your experience?

What's the thing you wish you knew going in? And the part I'm most curious about, did it actually change how you spend, or did you just save for a month and go right back to it after?

I went to the Minnesota Renaissance Festival last year and had such a good time, and it opens again this Saturday. It's the biggest one in the country and that normally would make me want to run away. I'm not a fan of big crowds at all, but for the rein fest it's worth it, and honestly it wasn't as bad as I built it up to be in my head. Opening weekend is the "Once Upon a Time" theme, which is the fairytale kickoff where the King and Queen make their grand arrival and the whole village comes out to greet them, nobles, musicians, Vikings, all of it. It’s very fun to be apart of.

First thing that got me was just how big it is. We kind of wandered with no plan and kept stumbling into stuff, there are 16 stages going all day with magicians and musicians and fire performers, so you never really run out of something to watch. The jousting was the highlight though. Actual armored knights, and they run it throughout the day so you don't have to stress about timing it.

The artisan shops were probably my favorite part. I ended up buying my boyfriend a simple wooden sword because he said it reminded him of one he got at a fest when he was little, so I obviously had to. And the jewelry they have is incredible, I could honestly spend most of the day (and most of our budget lol) just going shop to shop.

Food-wise, hot take, I don't get the turkey leg hype. Mine was kind of under-seasoned and it's a lot of work for what you get. What I'd actually grab is a pickle (always, non-negotiable) and the mead is worth trying at least once. The raspberry apple is my personal favorite.

This year I'm not making it to Minnesota, I'm hitting the one in my own city instead, and I fully sewed my own outfit for it so I'm way too invested at this point lol. When I did travel for the MN one, I stayed overnight instead of doing an exhausting day trip. I booked TownSquare Place in Chaska through Super.com, and with my Super+ membership it was $121 a night that my boyfriend and I split, so like $60 each.

If you've been to the renaissance festival before, which themed weekend is your favorite? And if you've ever sewn your own costume, please tell me it gets easier the second time

Everyone is talking about moneymaxxing like it means eating rice at home forever and never doing anything fun. And sure, going hardcore works for some people, but that's not me. I still want to travel, get dinner with friends, order in on a lazy Sunday. My version is more about being smart with money so I can keep doing the stuff I love, not cutting it out.

Travel is where most of my money goes, so that's the thing I've gotten strategic about. I book my hotels through the Super.com app to keep that cost down, and since I'm a Super+ member I get a little cashback on the booking too. So the part of the trip I care about least (where I sleep) costs me less.

The earnings side is the part I didn't expect to use as much as I do. You get credits for playing games and doing surveys, stuff I'd be doing to kill time regardless, and it all goes back toward travel.

I'm still going out, still traveling, still saying yes to the dinners! How do you save but still enjoy some treats every now and then?

Hot take, but the classic souvenirs are such a waste to me. The "I ♥ wherever" shirt, the keychains that are never inclusive enough with the name options, and the hat with some badly generated graphic and the city name in an italicized font you can barely read. It's also triple the cost, just for it to end up in a junk drawer or stuffed in the back of your closet. (The only time I'll allow it is if the design is so silly it's actually funny.)

What I'd rather do is take a ton of film photos, since they always look sweet and I love looking back on them. Or I'll dig through a local thrift or antique store for a real piece of clothing or some weird little knick knack. That way I'm actually using it, it's unique, and no one else has it!

And this might sound bananas, but my favorite thing to bring home is a cool rock or two for our shelves. Free, weirdly sentimental, and every time I see them I remember exactly where we were (think the top of a giant hill we just hiked, or something that caught my eye on a walk through the park).

So what do you actually bring home from a trip that isn't the "typical" souvenir?

I don't carry cash often, and when I do it's a rare occasion (the yearly birthday card from grandma, a friend paying you back for the snacks you grabbed at the movies, that kind of thing). And when I have actual cash on me, it just doesn't feel like real money to me? Like it's not connected to my bank account at all, it's just some paper I happen to have. So I'll spend $40 cash on something no problem, but paying that same $40 with my card, I wouldn't do it.

Makes zero sense because it's literally the same money. If anything I'm physically watching the cash leave my hand so it should feel worse. But nope.

Is this just me?