Sandy Matke

Personal Bio

Sandy is a freelance writer for Savings.com, where she scours the web for discounts on popular brands and shares ways for users to maximize savings.

During her early years as a writer in high-rent LA, she learned to get by on a modest budget — tiny apartment, homemade lunches, and creative low-cost date nights. With evenings dedicated to personal writing projects, she spent her days climbing the editorial ranks in the tech industry, finally earning enough to pay off debt and even buy a house. But it’s her recent time at personal finance site NerdWallet that really brought home the lessons of smart budgeting. While editing articles on holiday shopping, gig work, and the costs of raising children, she picked up tons of savings tips that she’s excited to share with Savings.com users.

Sandy’s Favorite Savings Hack

My No. 1 money-saving tip is to tap into all the fun, free or low-cost activities available in your city. Here in LA, I subscribe to email lists and follow socials for my favorite book stores, museums, film houses, comedy troupes, radio stations, and more. This gives me a constant stream of ideas for fun things to do, at prices that can’t be beat.

In the last couple of months alone, I used this method to attend a book festival with live bands, food trucks, and thousands of attendees, a movie screening and Q&A with cast and crew, a DJ party at the Natural History Museum, a few intimate readings at local bookstores, and an underground comedy show at a Mexican restaurant. The highest price I paid for any single event was $15.00 — most of the events were free.

Sandy’s Favorite Brands

My go-to brand these days is Nordstrom Rack. They’ve got some of my favorite designer shoes at unbelievable discounts, as well as the cutest clothes for half what you’d pay in other department stores. I particularly like shopping at the Rack online because there’s a wider array of styles and sizes — and anything that doesn’t fit can easily be returned to a nearby Rack store. Some of my other fave brands brands include:

• Saks OFF 5TH
• MAC Cosmetics
• Urban Decay
• Bobbi Brown
• Ulta

Fun Fact about Sandy

I’ve performed my writing at theaters around Hollywood — personal essays, sketch comedy, storytelling events, and reading my high school journals on stage in a show called “Mortified."

For fun, I also knit, make jewelry, watch and perform narrative improv, and volunteer at an animal rescue.