July 5, 2025

🤑 My Top Finds, Latest Deals, and Best Recommendations (7/5/25)

🤑 My Top Finds, Latest Deals, and Best Recommendations (7/5/25)

This week, we'll cover my 10-step money allocation framework, how to earn 1 million points by flying to 6 continents, up to 50% off + free $50 credit at Target, free museum tix, fitness membership, ice cream, 20% off Flying Blue award flights, easy bonus miles & points: United, Marriott & Hyatt, $20 off Amazon with Discover cards, increased award ticket fees & taxes on Virgin Atlantic, how to learn to spend money, and more!

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💰 My Personal 10-Step Money Allocation Framework

Want to learn how I allocate my income? Here's the 10-step money allocation framework I've built to balance and prioritize savings, investments, and financial flexibility. I also cover advanced strategies for tax optimization, liquidity, and more.

📺 Watch or 🎧 Listen

📖 Read the Blog Post


🛫 Travel, Points & Miles

🤩 Easy Bonus Miles & Points: United, Marriott & Hyatt

Here are three relatively easy ways to earn some bonus miles/points.

  • 1,500 United Miles: Add an eligible credit card to your digital wallet and make 5+ purchases in July, August & September. ​Register here​ before 7/31.

  • 750 Marriott Points or 500 United Miles: ​Link your Marriott and United accounts​ to earn bonus United miles on eligible Marriott stays and vice versa.

  • 500 Hyatt Points: Per night, when you stay at new properties (or hotels new to the rewards program) during eligible dates.

  • 500 Hyatt Points: Per 20-min peloton workout at a Hyatt through 8/5 (max 500 pts/day and 5,000 pts/mo). ​Register here​

💺 20% Off Flying Blue Promo Award Flights

Air France-KLM's Flying Blue program's ​July 2025 Promo Rewards​ is offering a 25% discount on economy award flights between Europe and Atlanta, Dallas, Detroit, Toronto, Austin, Portland and other cities. There are also business-class options to Bogota and Panama City starting at 63,750 miles. Book before 7/31 for travel until 12/31.

🌍 Fly to 6 Continents and Earn 1 Million Points

Turkish Airlines' latest promo lets you ​earn up to 1 million points​ when you fly to destinations across 6 continents. It's a pretty decent challenge considering Turkish's extensive route network, but you have to book and complete all your travels between 6/27 and 10/27. If you're interested, ​this Frequent Miler episode​ covered the promo in depth.

✈️ Up to 5,000 AA Miles from AA Shopping Referrals

You can earn ​up to 5,000 bonus AA miles​ when you refer friends to the AA shopping portal. You'll get 500 miles for every friend who spends $75+ before 7/14, plus your friend gets 1,000 bonus miles on top of their normal earnings. Here's ​my referral link​ if you need one :)

💸 Points & Miles on Sale

Do you have a redemption in mind, or are you familiar with these programs? Check out these deals with expiration dates in parentheses.

➡️ One-Way Award Bookings on ANA Are Now Live

You can finally ​book one-way awards with ANA​, like a non-stop business class from Tokyo to Hong Kong for just 26,500 miles. This opens up a lot of opportunities since you can transfer your Amex Membership Rewards points to ANA (though it takes 2-4 business days) and you can convert points to miles only in units of 1,000.

🔁 Up to 50% Transfer Bonus to Marriott

There's a ​50% transfer bonus​ and a ​20% transfer bonus​ to Marriott Bonvoy (both ending on 8/15), but neither of them are interesting enough to overcome the fact that Marriott points are often worth ~0.7¢. That said, the right redemption could make sense for you.

Speaking of transfer bonuses, starting 9/16, Amex is reducing its ​transfer rate to Emirates Skywards from 1:1 to 5:4​. This is a massive devaluation if you’ve been eyeing an Emirates redemption.

📈 Virgin Atlantic Increases Fees on Award Tickets

Virgin has ​hiked award ticket taxes and fees​ by 50% or more, especially on long-haul redemptions. This is yet another negative development in the points and miles world (and a reason I don't love speculatively transferring points to a program without a redemption in mind.


🤑 Latest Deals

🎯 Target Circle Week: Up to 50% Off + Free $50 Credit

Target Circle Week (7/6-7/12) has ​savings of up to 50% off​ toys, books, movies and more, plus 10% off Target gift cards. Additionally, some Target Circle cardholders can get ​$50 off $50+​ when they subscribe to Target Circle 360 for $49.

💳 Easy $20 Off Amazon with a Discover Card

Add your Discover card as a payment method on Amazon and get ​$20 off your next $20.01+ purchase​ with the promo code PDDISCO25.

🤗 Free Museum Tix, Fitness Membership, Ice Cream

Freebies are a great way to stack savings, so here's a few to check out.

💳 Latest Card-Linked Offers

You can leverage card-linked offers to maximize your savings, so here are some I found this week. Expiration dates are in parentheses.

🛒 50% Off Annual Walmart+ Membership

You can now get ​a year of Walmart+ for only $49​ (regularly $98) until 7/15. This membership includes free delivery, fuel discounts, Paramount+, and some other perks. Even better, if you have an Amex Platinum or Business Gold, you get a free Walmart+ membership.

🎁 Save 10% on Uber, Instacart & TopGolf Gift Cards

BestBuy.com is currently offering ​10% off Uber, UberEATS, Instacart, and TopGolf​ digital gift cards. This is an easy way to save on things you're planning to spend money on anyway, and additionally, you can earn points or miles if you use a credit card to buy them.


🕵️ Top Finds

💸 How to Spend More Money

I enjoyed ​this article​ from Ben Carlson that explores the psychology behind spending decisions and offers practical advice on when and how to spend more money strategically to improve your quality of life.


Editor’s Note: The content on this page is accurate as of the posting date; however, some of our partner offers may have expired. Opinions expressed here are the author's alone, not those of any bank, credit card issuer, hotel, airline, or other entity. This content has not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by any of the entities included within the post.