MySurvey.com income

I received my first $10 check from mysurvey.com the other day. This will go into my savings account. I am scheduled to receive another $10 check in a couple of weeks. Nothing like a little easy money and ten bucks is ten bucks!

I also earned $40 in rebates on my Discover card. This quarter they have a promotion whereby you can earn 5% cash rebates on hotel charges (up to $800 in charges, I believe). I was able to charge a hotel that I stayed in for work on to my Discover card and earned $35 in rebates. Now that was really an easy $35. I also had some residual cash rebates in my account so I was able to apply $40 towards my balance. Discover will only let you apply or redeem rebates in multiples of $20.

Loyalty programs

I am a firm believer in loyalty programs and other programs that earn free rewards. I am a member of Delta Skymiles, Marriott rewards, Hilton Honors, e-rewards, Best Buy Reward Zone, Upromise, Wachovia Possibilities debit card. With points earned thru these various programs so far this year I have been able to get:
2 airplane tickets to Aruba
3 free nights in a Marriott Hotel in Aruba
1 free night in a Marriott Hotel NYC
1 airplane ticket to Nevada
1 airplane ticket to Florida (for a friend)
6 free Blockbuster movie rentals
$10 Blockbuster gift card
$25 off FTD Flowers
$15 in Best Buy credits
1 year subscription to Wine Spectator magazine
I figure the value of these freebies to be around $3,000. Not too bad. It can be cumbersome to keep track all of the programs but it is worth the time and effort.

Expensive weekend

I went to San Francisco last weekend to run a half marathon. It is a hobby that gets a little pricey. My main reason for wanting to go to SF is that the run crossed over the Golden Gate Bridge and I thought that would be a neat experience (which it was). Anyway, the tally for the weekend is as follows:
Airplane tickets for two $402
Hotel stay $425
Food $38
Pet boarding $96
I enjoyed the race but now I need to cut back on unneccessary travel to save my budget. I am going to France for Thanksgiving but that is already paid for except the food. On the bright side, I did receive my $15 rebate for buying $30 of wines. :) I am going to put the $15 into my savings.

Lunch coupon

A few weeks ago I signed up for a free Chik-fil-a sandwich coupon and it came in the mail yesterday. I just checked the coupon website and unfortunately the link is no longer active ( I was going to try to get another coupon). Anyway, I am going to eat lunch at Chik-fil-a today on the house :) I am very good about redeeming rebates and sending away for coupons like that. If it is something that I would normally buy then it only makes sense. Currently I am awaiting the receipt of a $15 rebate for buying 6 bottles of wine. The 6 bottles cost me about $35 so the rebate is a substantial savings. Many people feel that rebates and coupons are not worth the time but if you are diligent about them they can be a really $$$ saver. When I moved into my townhouse last year I painted some of the walls and the paint I used was about $20 per gallon. I bought my paint when there was a $5 rebate so I got about $25 in rebates back. Running a Quicken report for rebates shows that I have received $1,526 in rebates in the past 13 years. Not too bad.

Cold Stone Creamery Coupon

Today’s newspaper had a coupon for buy one Sundae get one for 99 cents. Being the cost conscious consumer that I try to be I marched into the shop and ordered what I thought was two Signature sundaes. Apparently what I ordered did not constitute a Sundae so I could not use the coupon. I could not even find the word Sundae on their menu board when I looked for it. UGH!!! That is the danger of shopping with a coupon…you may end up buying something you normally would not have. If it were not for the coupon I would not have made the trip for the ice cream to begin with. Lesson learned!

Grocery shopping and coupons

July 1, 2007
Do you use coupons? I do if I have one and it is something that I will normally buy. Otherwise I try to avoid being sucked in by them. I have heard both the pros and cons of coupons and my thoughts are that they can really save you money but you have to use them wisely. If it is for a larger size than you need or a product that you might not normally use then they can cost you money.
The Sunday paper is a great place to find good grocery coupons. Sometimes companies will even have downloadable coupons on their websites. I plan to do some research on coupons and places to find good ones. I will post what I find out