Using Serve to make your life easier (and a Giveaway!)
Do you guys carry cash on you? I’m one of those people who literally spend cash like there’s a hole burning in my pocket. One day I have a couple twenties on me, the next I have no idea where all my money went… So I basically just stopped carrying cash with me. It’s just better that way.
But there’s always those nights where everyone is out and I’m the only one with a card and no cash. Usually I end up paying the bill and people give me cash, or we all throw in our cards and have the bill split. I am sure our server always appreciates that! American Express has come up with a solution for that very situation. It’s aptly called Serve. Instead of boring you with the details of what they’re all about or how it works, I’m going to show you how I used Serve on a girls night out the other day.
First I sent an email to a couple of my girlfriends to see if anyone wanted to get together for drinks and dinner. Shockingly, we were able to set a date fairly easily. Once that hurtle was overcome, we had to decide where to go. We all agreed we wanted to try something new. After quite a few emails back and forth, we decided on The Biltmore Grill in Newton. A key factor in that decision was the fact that they have Chicken and Waffles on the menu. We all agreed that there were so many things we wanted to try, that we’d order a little of everything and split it.
This isn’t a restaurant review, but I have to tell you the food there was comfort food to the max. The chicken and waffles were definitely the star of the evening and I really appreciated that they do beer flights. I enjoyed a variety of seasonal beers. I feel like there aren’t enough places to get a flight of beer nearby…
Ok so here’s where I tell you about how Serve made my life easier that night. First, I had already signed up for a Serve account online (you get a FREE $10 just for signing up). Second, I had installed the Serve app on my Android phone. And lastly, my Serve credit card had already come in the mail!
One thing to note about the credit card. It doesn’t have your name on it. I found that somewhat odd, but since it works like a pre-paid credit card, there’s no harm in someone using the card if you lost it. You could simply remove all funds from the card by going online or into your app.
So when the bill came that night, I got out my Serve credit card and paid for the entire bill myself. While the server was running the card, I logged in to my account on my phone.
I used the “Split the Bill” option within the app and put in the amount of the bill, the tip that I wanted to leave, and the number of people at dinner.
On the next screen, I put in everyone’s names (the app uses your address book to identify everyone via phone number or email address). Notice those bars under everyone’s name? You can use those to allocated different amounts for each person. It defaults to splitting the bill evenly, but it’s nice to have the option to have different people pay different amounts.
Since I was using the app to request money from others, they don’t have to have a Serve account at this point. To actually use Serve to send money, they would have to sign up for a Serve account.
The next screen prompted me for a message to include in the request. Once I hit submit, each of the girls was notified with an email in their Inbox requesting the amount due for their portion of the bill.
And I got transaction numbers so I could track the transactions on my app or online at Serve.com.
Once the payments have been made through Serve, the transactions will move from pending to completed.
While I was playing around with the app, I found some other useful things I wanted to share. First, check out all the options available when I logged into the app.
The Pizza Party option caught my eye. Check it out, you can divide the pizza bill by number of slices!
Another option that seems useful would be to link subaccounts. I could imagine using subaccounts to provide your children’s allowance or setting aside a certain amount of money for holiday shopping for example.
Overall, Serve was very easy to use and I can’t wait to explore the other options available. And now on to the good stuff, the giveaway!! American Express is offering one lucky reading a $100 Serve credit! (the winner will have to sign up for a Serve account to claim the prize)
Only one entry per person. To enter, leave a comment by midnight on 12/27 answering this question: What are your plans for the holidays?
To answer my own question, Hubby and I are working until Thursday, then we’re off the rest of the year. We’ll be heading down to his mom’s for Christmas with the family. There will be lots of food, family, and good times.
As part of the Foodbuzz Tastemaker Program, I received a $250 stipend to try Serve from American Express. Sign up for Serve and receive $10 credit towards your first use. Comment below within the next 7 days for your chance to win an extra $100 credit to your account! Official sweepstakes rules and regulations may be found here: http://www.foodbuzz.com/blogs/4622317-win-serve-dollars-giveaway-official-rules
I am Jen the Beantown Baker. Engineer by day and baking maven by night. Hubby serves as my #1 fan and official taste tester. We got hitched back in 2006. Barefoot. In the sand. With the waves crashing behind us. It was one of the best decisions we’ve ever made. 
PB&J for sure!
I loved bread and butter with a glass of cold chocolate milk
Definitely peanut butter cookies and milk!
My son loves chocolate chip cookies and milk!
My mom always had a piece of cake waiting for us after the first day of school. She was usually a real health nut about our snacks…so cake in the middle of the day…and it wasn’t anyone’s birthday? AWESOME, mom, thanks!
chocolate chip cookies
Chocolate chip cookies!!
I grew up snacking on (multiple) Little Debbies after school…loved them, but I never learned to appreciate healthful food. My daughter loves “stringy” mozzarella cheese, yogurt or fruit…and of course cookies as a “sometimes” food. 😉
I loved the Little Debbie Oatmeal Cream Pies!
Mini grilled cheese sandwiches (using cocktail bread) were a favorite at my house growing up.
I give Cameron the same thing. Delicious!
My favorite snack was a bowl of Cocoa Krispies…nothing better than sitting in front of the TV watching Saved by the Bell and having cereal 🙂
My Mom would let us have 2 chocolate chip cookies after school sometimes. My kids aren’t as lucky as I usuually give them pretzel sticks or goldfish crackers.
My favorite was m&m’s and mini pretzels. I’m not sure how I discovered this combo, but to this day when I eat the 2 together, I still put my m&m’s in the pretzel holes.
I always liked having those handi-snacks after school. Either the ones with the crackers and cheese of those little breadsticks with cheese. I remember liking the breadsticks one better though. 🙂
my fave was kit kat bars!
Double stuffed Oreos! My eight-year old self thought they were the greatest thing ever
Mmm… Little Debbie Swiss cake rolls. Yum!
I loved the lil debbir zebra cakes – YUM!!!
Celery and peanut butter, its still a favorite and I give it to my kids now!
Handisnacks! Well the cheese anyway.
Chocolate chip cookies, of course!
For me as a kid it was cookies of any kind.
My kids love to get a baked treat–brownies, cookies, cupcakes, muffin…yum!
Karen
karen0801@aol.com
One time my mom had warm apple fritters dusted with powdered sugar waiting for us after school. It was a one-off but my favorite snack ever!
My favorite after school snack was graham crackers with peanut butter and banana. It still is one of my favorites!
For some reason, I loved to make my own snack. My favorite was a “Big Cheese,” essentially a cheese quesadilla.
I had Little Debbie Snacks. Don’t really buy them any more!
Anything from Little Debbie. Especially Fudge Rounds
We liked graham crackers with chocolate frosting. But now that you posted chocolate chips, I can’t get chocolate chip cookies out of my head!
Bread with peanut butter or cookies and milk!
ohhh, I liked chips ahoy cookies… warmed up in the microwave!
seriously, it was nestle toll house cookies.
sliced apples with peanut butter.
Pizza bagels were the most fun afterschool snack, because I would make them with my sisters before our mom got home!
A smear of peanut butter on a tortilla, sometimes with a few chocolate chips 😉
I loved having my moms home ade frosted sugar cookies when I got home from school
Favorite after school snack was definitely celery w/ peanut butter!
Little Debbie Oatmeal Cream Pies. I know there’s pretty much not one real ingredient in them, but they’re so good.
my daughter loves chocolate chip cookies!
Kraft Mac and Cheese! 🙂
This is weird, but…. saltine crackers and sliced apples. My mom had me convinced it tasted *just* like apple pie so I happily ate it after school every day for many years. Haha.
Cute kit! My favorite afterschool snack was homemade chocolate chip cookies and milk.
I think that my favorite after school snack was when my mom would make a m&m sugar cookies. I absolutely loved chocolate and sugar cookies combined!! yum!! 🙂
My mom would make hot dogs in a crescent roll. We’d dip them in ketchup and they were soo good! I make them for my kiddos now and they love ’em too!
cookies of course!
It wasn’t an every day thing, but sometimes my neighbor’s Mom that watched me after school would make home made caramel apples and I LOVED them! The second I walked in the house, the smell overwhelmed me with excitement 🙂
We always had granola bars as an afterschool snack. Now for my son I always try to fix something different. No cookies tho, those are for dessert 😀 But his current favorite that he is always asking for are fresh bhajis, and Indian veggie fritter.
my favorite after school snack was a bowl of boo berry cereal. I loved it when the milk turned blue, my favorite part of the snack! 🙂
I loved a bowl of cereal when I got home from school.
I loved a chocolate chip cookie with milk!
Kraft mac and cheese
My favorite after school snack was a tortilla with butter. Or pieces of bologna. Weird, I know.
My favorite after school snack was peanut butter on crackers!
i had 2 favorite snacks. 1) Nature Valley granola bars with peanut butter 2)snyders pretzels dipped in ketchup
Bananas covered in peanut butter and marshmallows pushed into the peanut butter 🙂 yum
My mom made me “apple smiles”! Apple slices with peanut butter spread on them and mini marshmallow “teeth”!
Little Debbie snack cakes…those were awesome!!
A bowl of cereal, Labne(lebanese strained yogurt chees) w/ pita, or fruit.
I give my son pretty much the same things, he really likes string cheese and real fruit snack size popsicles too.
milk and homemade cookies
My mom used to make us the best banana chocolate chip bread with milk for the first day of school every year. I still make it, its so delicious!
We didn’t necessarily have a real snack after school, but my mom used to let us have ice pops or other frozen treats!
Chef Boyardee, cold, straight out of the can. It was weird, but delicious!
I always ate a toasted Pb & J with a tall glass of milk! Mmm… I think I might go get one right now.
After school, I remember coming home to my regular bench at the kitchen counter and my mom inviting me to relax, drink some juice and have something small like a yogurt, or crackers. What I ate doesn’t stand out, but what I will remember is how she always wanted me to be comfortable.
Cookies and milk, for sure. 🙂
Spaghettios and popcorn. Weird combination, but they went together as far as I was concerned.
Granny smith apples & pop corn. Sweet & Tart. That is what I had as a kid- and now that is what I pass on to my kid.
Cookies and milk!
Junk food all the way! Doritoes…or any other kind of chip.
I am not making this up, my favorite snack was chocolate chip cookies. My mom was a baker. (that’s where I learned it!) She was always whipping up some cookies or pies for us. On the other hand, I try to have at least one veggie snack on hand for my kids, like sliced peppers or carrots. They get plenty of sweets too, though!
I’m kind of embarrassed to say, that my parents would get me us hot dogs from the street vendor everyday after school. I wouldn’t eat it now…but we ate it all the time.
Occaisonally, my mom made home-made granola bars…as soon as I read your question, that was the first thing I thought of!
No bake cookies were my favorite because I could make them myself. I have such fond memories of whipping these puppies up with my brothers!
We liked homemade popsicles!!
A bowl of cereal.
If I ever had a snack after school it was always fruit.
definitely pb&j. yummo!!!
I know it’s strange, but I used to eat a bowl of black-eyed peas every single day when I got home from school. I was a strange kid haha. I just wish I still craved healthy foods over sweets!
peanut butter on vanilla wafers!! Still like them today
(jrklturner@yahoo.com)
apples and peanut butter!!!
Cookies and milk.
Peanut butter and jelly, but the peanut butter had to be extra crunchy!
Chocolate Chip cookies and milk!
mmm definitely oreos dipped in milk!
We enjoy making our own snack mix or baking something yummy- muffins or cookies.
This is embarrassing but I looooved Swiss Cake Rolls dipped in milk…oh they were SO good!
I always used to eat fruit-grapes, apples or whatever was in season.
Home made choc chip cookies! The best.
Cheese and Crackers! 🙂
Some kind of ice cream treat or Cracker & Cheddar Combos.
the.k.krew(at)gmail(dot)com
PB&J with the crusts cut off!
Graham crackers with vanilla frosting!
Chocolate Chip Cookies!! =)
PB & J!
As a kid and now with my kids…Chocolate Chip Cookies.
I grew up, for the first 11 years of my life, just over one mile from the Original Toll House in Whitman, MA. I always blame my love for them because “it was in the air”.
I am known for my Chocolate Chip Cookies, because I have literally made thousands of batches:)
Little Debbie brownies, or peanut butter and honey celery. 🙂
I loved celery with cream cheese or peanut butter. I also really loved triscuts with cheese.
What a generous giveaway! My favorite back to school snack as a kid was bologna and peanut butter… I would not touch it now, and it’s so funny to me that I liked that at one point but it was my favorite snack at the time! 🙂
Would love to win this giveaway. Nestle Toll House cookies are my favorite. My fiance and I are on a budget saving for our wedding and our first home so we aren’t able to splurge on things like this at the store. Winning would be so fun!
Seasidesmitten@aol.com
Well I do not have kids but I’m a nanny for a very lovely 9 year old little girl 🙂 My favorite sweet snack after school was graham crackers with frosting…delicious! The little one I watch is a huge fan of cookies. No matter the type she eats them all 🙂
I always loved coming home to peanut butter on crackers!
I don’t remember a favorite snack. But my mom had an at-home daycare and I remember loving to drink Kool-Aid.
Hi!
My favorite thing was to ride the bus home with a friend to their house, because they always had the BETTER snacks! My mom didn’t buy anything that was considered “unhealthy,” so when I did go to a friend’s house, I would savor a pop-tart or a rice crispy treat.
Thanks to my mom’s good – albeit disappointing when I was 6 – example, I pretty much eat healthy now (I’m 30 now), but I will probably always love those! 🙂
My brothers and I would always snack on ice cream sandwiches after school – I miss those days! : )
I think it must have been pb&j. Or cookies with milk! Nestle was always my favorite growing up. I know my little sister would absolutely love this kit! I’d have to keep it at my house and she could come make cookies on the weekends! I love it 🙂
I’m not just saying this…it was definately chocolate chip cookies!!!
My favorite to give my kids is cookies because it is so rare, so to see their faves light up when they see the warm, chewy cookies…so fun for me!
I loved fruit snacks as a kid, and I still do!
My favorite school snack was home-made rice crispie treats!
I think it was probably just a homemade quesadilla. Just a plain flour tortilla with cheddar cheese sliced melted in the microwave!
This is really gross. I would eat raw hotdogs. I would never do that now.
I used to eat Little Debbie Swiss Cake Rolls for a snack. Surprisingly I was super skinny too.
Green apple slices with peanut butter. Yum!
Mini pizzas made from english muffin slices, prego sauce, and mozzarella cheese. Mmm.