What is Green Friday?

Everyone else is talking about Black Friday deals, but I want to flip it.
Let’s call today Green Friday — a day to do things that actually grow your money instead of draining it.

Here are four moves that take less than 20 minutes each and put real cash back in your pocket:

#1 Open a HYSA

If you haven’t opened one yet, SoFi is giving a $300 bonus just for setting up direct deposit.

If you were to just set up a $50 deposit every paycheck, by Christmas next year….

$50 x Twice Per month x 12 = $1,200 + $300 bonus

That’s how you win: small, boring habits that quietly stack up.

Sign Up With SoFi

#2 Start Budgeting With Origin

Most people overspend because they don’t have a simple way to see where their money is leaking.

Origin is offering its full budgeting tools for a dollar, which makes it one of the easiest wins you can take advantage of today.

Normally, it would cost you $99 for the year so you’re immediately saving $98.

Not to mention the app has a built-in AI Financial Advisor, which can build a bulletproof budget for you based on your current spending, debt, and income.

Which means if you follow its recommendations, you could easily save yourself a couple hof undred bucks per month.

Sign Up With Origin

#3 Shop Around For Car/Home Insurance

This one surprises people.

People who shop around for car insurance on average save $398/year, according to Value Penguin.

A ValuePenguin–cited survey also showed that people who shopped for homeowners insurance saved around $474/year on average.

That’s $872/ year.

Companies raise rates slowly over time, banking on you not checking.

And at the end of the year, many carriers have quotas they need to hit so this is the best time to shop around.

My advice:

• Start with an online audit using something like PolicyGenius

• Use a larger carrier’s online instant quote tool - these two steps give you a baseline

• Take those quotes to a local insurance agent

• Ask the agent to shop your current policy across their network

• Double-check coverage

• Lock in before the end of the year

#4 Get Job Certifications

Black Friday deals on these platforms are actually worth it because they raise your income potential.

Whether it’s project management, data analysis, Excel, design, or tech basics.

These skills can put you in a higher-earning position within months. It’s one of the rare “deals” that actually gives you a return.

Coursera I like because you can commit to the year and get access to everything.

You could get a degree through Coursera if you put in the time. They make it super easy to pick a career you want to go for and actually get every certification.

Udemy lets you buy individual courses, which is great if you already know what skill you want to master.

The heavily discounted AI, data, and marketing courses can cost almost nothing during Black Friday. ig bang for your buck.

You pay once for the course and own it forever (or until Udemy changes terms), so long-term value is strong for evergreen skills.

That’s it for this week.

Keep showing up, keep cheering each other on — and as always, run happy! 🏃‍♂️💛

The Stride Neighbors Team

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