Your Guide to Smart Spending in March

HelloFresh meal deals, free hair care, a great credit card offer, and why health insurance costs will keep climbing.

March 13, 2025

Congratulations — we've officially survived another German winter! In this first spring issue of Smart Living, we’ve got a HelloFresh offer that can get you meals for as little as €3.25 per portion, some great money-back promos, the best free credit card offer in Germany right now, plus economic news (spoiler: health insurance costs are going up again). Let’s dive in!

💡 Tip of the Month: It’s Not Just Payback

If you've been in Germany for a while, you’ve probably figured Payback out by now and no longer panic when the cashier asks for your Payback Karte. Now it's time to level up! While Payback works well for in-store purchases at places like dm and Edeka, it can fall short when it comes to online shopping — that's where Shoop and iGraal come in. They both offer better cashback rates than Payback at most online stores and make the process much simpler because there are no multiplier coupons to deal with — you immediately see how much you’ll get back when activating cashback in the browser extension or in the app.

Cashback programs can save you a lot of money over time by giving you cashback on things you’re already buying. Plus, there are welcome bonuses: Shoop is currently giving new users a €10 bonus, while iGraal offers €5. I tend to use Shoop the most (you can check out my full guide on it here), but the best strategy is to have both installed and go with whichever one offers the highest rate for your purchase that day. Sign up for Shoop here and for iGraal here, and if you have any other favorite cashback services, hit reply and let me know.

🔥 Top Deals in March

🍽️ HelloFresh from €3.25 per meal

HelloFresh has always been generous with discounts for new customers — most people I know have used their promos at least once (my first time was seven years ago!). But here’s something you might not know: if you canceled your subscription more than a year ago, you qualify for the discount too. The deal is too good to miss — the first box (three meals for two people) is just €19.49, which works out to €3.25 per meal! After that, the price goes up gradually — my second box was €32, and the third was €37 — which is still solid value considering the quality of the meals. Of course, you can always cancel after the first box too. I’m now three weeks in and have been enjoying the meals, and skipping grocery shopping means more time for other things (like writing Smart Living!). If you never tried HelloFresh or haven’t ordered a box for at least a year, use this link to claim the discount.

At €19.49 for 6 meals, ordering at least one HelloFresh box is a no-brainer.

💳 Credit Card Spotlight: Consors Finanz

The best free credit card offer in Germany right now? That would be the Consors Finanz Mastercard. It has no annual fee and comes with a €75 welcome bonus if you apply by March 16, use it at least five times and spend €300 by April 30 — pretty easy conditions for a solid reward. On top of that, it has no foreign transaction fees and lets you withdraw cash worldwide for free, which is rare for a free credit card and makes it a great option for traveling. I got this card for myself too, and I know a few of you signed up after I mentioned it in the last issue! If you’d like a free credit card, this one is hard to beat. Apply here. 

✈️ Airalo eSIM

Up until a few years ago, whenever I traveled outside Europe, my first few hours in a new country were spent hunting for a SIM card — figuring out which provider would even sell one to tourists and whether they spoke enough English to explain the setup. It was about as fun as it sounds. Now, eSIMs have completely changed the game, and Airalo is the one I keep coming back to. I used it again when travelling last month, and it was all very smooth — setup takes minutes, the prices are very reasonable, and their support is actually really helpful if you're struggling to find correct settings on your phone. If you’re traveling outside the EU, where your regular data plan won’t work, this is by far the easiest way to stay connected. New customers get 15% off their first purchase here, and if you’ve used Airalo before, you can still get 10% off with this link. Save this for your next trip!

🎁 Freebies

🧴 Free Head & Shoulders Shampoo

Purchase any Head & Shoulders shampoo (up to 625 ml) before March 31 and upload a photo of the receipt and the bar code here to get money back. You can buy it online (e.g. on Amazon) or in stores (I’m gonna pick one up on my next dm trip). The promotion is limited to 1,000 redemptions per day, with the counter resetting daily at 10 a.m. — so it's best to submit your receipt early in the day.

💇 Free Syoss Haircare and Hair Styling Products

Syoss is running a try-for-free promo on hair care, hair styling and root retoucher products. Purchase a participating Syoss product (up to €6.99 value) and upload your receipt to their promotion page until April 30 to get money back.

🫧 Free Meister Proper Bathroom Cleaner

Meister Proper (Mr. Clean) is running a cashback promotion for their "Sprühen-Wischen-Fertig" (spray-wipe-ready) bathroom cleaner. Buy the product by April 30 and upload a photo of the receipt and the bar code here to claim your cashback.

🦷 Free Oral-B toothpaste

I haven’t paid for toothpaste in months, and you shouldn't either! Oral-B is offering a cashback promo on their Professional and Pro-Expert toothpaste lines. Buy a qualifying product and upload a photo of your receipt and the bar code here until March 31.

I really like money-back promos and find them to be one of the most underrated ways to save money on shopping in Germany. Quite a few offers from the February issue are still running too — check them out before they expire! If you want to test food products for free, take a look at the Rewe product tests as well.

📉 German Economic News Digest

If you're still not over the trauma of checking your January payslip and seeing how much more you pay for health insurance now, you're not alone. And well, there’s more where that came from. Public health insurers have already announced that contribution rates will increase again in 2026, with an average hike of 0.8 percentage points next year. Despite recent increases, public health insurers are still running a deficit. BKK Firmus, currently the cheapest provider, has already raised its additional contribution from 0.8 percent in 2024 to 1.84 percent in 2025, with another increase to 2.1 percent expected in July. Some predict that by 2050, contributions could take up 25 to 32 percent of your salary, up from the current average of 17.1% (ouch). Meanwhile, the economy is stagnating and unemployment remains high, with 2.99 million people (6.2% of the labor force) still out of work and no real sign of improvement.

At least our work-life balance is on point: Germany officially works the least annual hours of all OECD countries. According to OECD data, the average worker in Germany puts in 1,343 hours per year: for comparison, workers in the U.S. clock in at 1,799 hours, while in Mexico, it’s a staggering 2,207 hours. Speaking of not working, if you live in Berlin, you’re getting an extra public holiday in 2025. May 8, marking the 80th anniversary of Liberation Day, has been declared a one-off holiday. Since it falls on a Thursday, taking May 9 off turns it into a four-day weekend. If you plan ahead and combine it with Labor Day on May 1, you could stretch it into an 11-day break.

Image credit: @visualcap

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