Privacy Policy

1. Who we are

Frugal For Less (the "Site," "we," "us," or "our"), at https://www.frugalforless.com, is operated by Element Insight Solutions LLC, the entity responsible for the personal information described here. You can reach us through our contact page.

2. Information we collect

2.1 Information you give us

• Newsletter: your email address, and your first name if you provide it, when you sign up (including through our pop-up or in-article boxes). Some sign-ups offer a free guide delivered by email.
• Contact form: your name, email, subject, and message.
• Scholarship application: your name, email, school/university, major, current GPA, and essay. This is education-related information you submit to be considered for our scholarship.

We do not run user accounts or on-site comments, so we don't collect the information those would involve.

2.2 Information collected automatically

• Analytics (Google Analytics 4): approximate location (from IP address), device/browser, pages viewed, and interactions.
• Advertising (Raptive): identifiers in cookies, IP address, and browsing signals used to select and measure ads (see Section 5). If you arrive via a link that contains your email address (for example from a marketing email), Raptive's identity feature may read that email — in plain or hashed form — to match advertising identity.
• Affiliate & outbound-link click logging: when you click an affiliate ("/go/") link or an external link, we log the destination URL, the page you clicked from, and your browser's user-agent to a Google Apps Script endpoint we operate, so we can attribute clicks. We do not attach your name to these logs.
• Ad-block detection: our advertising setup includes technology that detects ad blockers to help keep the Site funded.
• Server logs (Cloudflare): IP address, user-agent, and request details, as part of hosting and delivering the Site.

3. Newsletter, contact & scholarship forms

Newsletter. Sign-ups are handled by an email service we operate on Cloudflare. We use your email to send money-saving and money making updates and occasional promotional content. You can unsubscribe at any time using the link in any email. We set small cookies (hello_dismissed, hello_subscribed) so we don't keep showing the sign-up pop-up.

Contact & scholarship forms. Both forms are processed by FormSubmit, a third-party form-delivery service, which forwards your submission to our inbox. They include a spam check and a hidden "honeypot" field. Scholarship information is used only to administer the scholarship; we do not sell it or use it for advertising.

4. Cookies & tracking technologies

• Analytics cookies (Google Analytics, e.g. _ga) — aggregated traffic statistics.
• Advertising cookies (Raptive/AdThrive and its partners) — ad selection, frequency capping, and measurement; __adblocker for ad-block detection.
• Functional storage (hello_dismissed, hello_subscribed) — remembers your newsletter pop-up choice.

You can block or delete cookies in your browser, and use the ad choices in Section 5. Disabling cookies won't break the Site but ads may be less relevant.

5. Advertising (Raptive) & your ad choices

Our ads are managed by Raptive (formerly AdThrive). Raptive and its advertising partners use cookies and your device/browsing signals — and, where applicable, an email-based identity match — to select, cap, and measure ads. Ads may be personalized based on your interests or non-personalized based mainly on page content. Raptive's practices are described in the Raptive Advertising Privacy Statement.

Your ad choices:

• In the European Economic Area and UK, Raptive presents a consent tool that controls advertising cookies; you can change your choice there.
• We honor the Global Privacy Control signal as an opt-out of ad "sharing"/sale.
• Industry opt-outs: DAA, NAI, and EDAA (EU); and Google's My Ad Center.

6. How we use information

• Send our newsletter and any guide you requested;
• Respond to your messages and administer the scholarship;
• Measure traffic and show advertising that funds the Site;
• Attribute affiliate/outbound clicks;
• Keep the Site secure and comply with the law.

7. How we share information

We do not sell your personal information for money. We share information with: Raptive (advertising) and Google (Analytics, and the Apps Script that logs clicks) as described above; FormSubmit and Cloudflare as processors that deliver our forms, newsletter, and hosting; and affiliate networks when you click their links. We may also disclose information if required by law or in a business transfer. Using cookie-based advertising can meet the legal definition of "sharing"/"targeted advertising" under some U.S. state laws even though we receive no money for the data — see your choices in Sections 5 and 8.

8. Your privacy rights (US states, EEA/UK)

Depending on where you live, you may have rights to access, correct, delete, or obtain a copy of your personal information, and to opt out of targeted advertising / "sale" / "sharing." To opt out of ad "sharing," use the Raptive consent tool, browse with Global Privacy Control enabled (we honor it), or use the industry tools in Section 5. To make any other request, use our contact page; we'll verify you by the email address on file and respond within the time your law requires. We don't discriminate against you for exercising these rights.

If you're in the EEA, UK, or Switzerland, our legal bases are consent (newsletter, advertising/analytics cookies), legitimate interests (security, answering you, click attribution), and legal obligation. You can withdraw consent at any time and complain to your local authority (in the UK, the ICO).

9. Data retention

• Newsletter: until you unsubscribe.
• Contact messages: deleted when no longer needed to handle your inquiry.
• Scholarship applications: retained through the award cycle, then deleted, unless we need them longer for a legal reason.
• Analytics/advertising/click logs: per the retention settings of Google and Raptive.

10. Children & the scholarship

The Site is intended for adults and is not directed to children under 13; we do not knowingly collect information from them. Our scholarship is for students who are enrolled in or entering a U.S. college or university and who meet the stated eligibility. If an applicant is a minor under the law of their state, they should apply only with a parent's or guardian's permission. If you believe a child provided information, contact us and we will delete it.

11. Security

We serve the Site over encrypted HTTPS and keep the personal information we hold to a minimum. No website can guarantee perfect security, but we take reasonable measures and will notify you and any regulator as required if a breach affects your information.

12. International data transfers

We operate from the United States, and our providers (Raptive, Google, Cloudflare, FormSubmit) may process data in the U.S. and elsewhere. Where these providers move data out of the EEA/UK/Switzerland, they offer safeguards such as the European Commission's Standard Contractual Clauses in their standard terms, which we rely on.

13. Changes to this policy

If our practices change, we'll update this page and the "Last Updated" date. Significant changes will be made prominent.

14. Contact us

Questions or requests about your information: contact Element Insight Solutions LLC through our contact page.