Category Archives: Deals and Bargains

Deals and Bargains

Bought A New Mattress

My wife and I have been sleeping poorly on our old lumpy mattress, and have been keeping an eye out for a good deal on a new mattress. My wife found a queen size Sealy Posturepedic mattress at Costco for only $699 + tax (delivered). A great price, but the mattress is only available in a pillow top version that my wife and I find sleeps too warm.

We visited our local Sleep Train Mattress Center and found the same mattress without the pillow top, but they were asking $1,599 + tax (delivered). While chatting with the salesman, my wife mentioned Costco’s great price and the gentleman said they can beat it by 5%.

So, with that one comment, my wife got us the mattress we wanted (non-pillow top Sealy Posturepedic) at a great price $665 + tax (delivered) – a 58% savings. Plus, God willing, we should be able to sell our old mattress for ~$100.
Deals and Bargains

Free Gas

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Another benefit that we received as a result of purchasing the new (old) car is $35 worth of FREE gas. The credit union we funded the loan thru gave us a $10 gas card since a friend referred us to them, we also received another $25 gas card since we opened an auto loan within 30 days of our new credit union membership. They’re not big perks, but they’re free.
Credit Cards, Deals and Bargains

Cash Back Credit Card

As I have mentioned before, my Wife and I use our Citi Dividend Platinum Select credit card most of our monthly expenses. We receive 1%-2% cash rewards for these purchases and have been averaging a $50 cash back check every two months. It’s free money for bills we have to pay anyways. Plus, charging the expenses to a credit card helps with our monthly cash flow.

Citi Bank recently sent us a special referral offer. If you would like to sign up for a Dividend Platinum Select credit card, I can request that they email you a special offer that allows you to get 5% cash back for the first six months. That’s a great deal and an easy way to keep a little more of your money. After six months, the cash back reward reverts to the standard 1%-2% cash back.

If you’re interested, let me know and I’ll request the offer be emailed to you.

Full disclosure: Citi Bank provides me a $25 reward for each approved account (up to 5 accounts). So, we’re both benefiting.

Credit Cards, Deals and Bargains

Cash Back Credit Cards

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My wife and I pay most of our monthly bills using our Citi Dividend Platinum Select MasterCard cash back credit card. We pay for our groceries, gas, cable/internet, gifts, etc. using the card. We have also arranged to have my Wife’s medical insurance bill, my cell phone bill, and our Blockbuster Total Access bill automatically charged to the card each month. There are only a few things that we can’t charge to the cash back card such as our mortgages, HOA dues, and auto loans.

We have been averaging a $50 cash back reward every two months since we started paying our bills with the card 4 months ago. It’s important to note that there is a $300/year maximum to the cash back rewards. If we reach the maximum, we will then begin using our HSBC Platinum MasterCard cash back credit card. I am currently using the HSBC cash back card for my business trips, to help keep work expenses separate from our monthly bills. I average $25-$50 cash back every three months, just for charging business trips to the card.

It’s not a ton of money, but since we’re paying the bills anyways, we might as well get a percent or two of our money back. Besides, charging the bills to our cash back card helps with our month-to-month cash flow. And, of course, we always pay the credit card bill in full each month so that no interest is accrued.

If you’re not taking advantage of cash back credit cards, you may want to consider it.

Business Travel, Credit Cards, Deals and Bargains

Gotta Love Easy Money

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I just received confirmation from HBSC that our $25 cash back redemption request has been received, and our check will arrive within 15 business days. Not a big sum of money, but the only thing I had to do to earn it was charge my business trip expenses to my HBSC rewards Mastercard (which my company immediately reimburses me for).

My wife and I also have a Citi Dividend Platinum Select MasterCard that we use for most of our household expenses. The card is paid off monthly and earns us up to 5% cash back. In fact, we should be able to request a $50 reward from the Citi MasterCard next month. Easy money.

Deals and Bargains, Emergency Fund

$25 For Opening An ING Direct Savings Account

One of the simplest ways to get your money working harder for you is to open a high yield online savings account. We use Emigrant Direct and ING Direct because I have read many good things about both banks in online forums, and have been very happy thus far. These banks are FDIC-insured and pay a much higher interest rate that your typical brick and mortar bank.

If you would like to receive $25 for opening a high yield ING Direct savings account, send me an email and I will forward a referral link to you.

Full disclosure:

  • You have to fund the account with an initial deposit of at least $250.

  • I will get a $10 thank you bonus for referring you.

  • To qualify for the $25, you must use the link in the email.

Business Travel, Deals and Bargains

Frequent Flyer Miles

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I have been traveling for business for 6 years. It took me 5 years to finally bother to sign up for frequent fly miles, even though I have had plenty of co-workers and friends recommend it. I felt like I didn’t want to have to arrange my schedule to fly with a certain airline. That was very, very dumb.

In the last 12 months, I have accumulated 31,368 miles on Delta SkyMiles and 11,316 on American Airlines Aadvantage. .. . for doing nothing more than enrolling and entering my account number when purchasing tickets. That is enough points for a free flight in the continental U.S., Alaska, Canada, Caribbean, and Mexico on Delta (see chart) and a free upgrade (see chart) on American Airlines. Best of all, since I signed up with Delta and American Airlines, I have not had to bend my schedule to fly on these airlines.

I’m kicking myself for all of those years that I flew and did not accumulate frequent flyer miles.

Business Travel, Deals and Bargains

Business Travel

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I am currently on a business trip and have been thinking about the money I save when I travel.

I travel 6-7 times per year, usually for 1-3 weeks per trip. While it’s hard work being on the road, there are perks. My company reimburses me for my travel costs (i.e. hotel, rental car, meals, etc.). I also use a 1-2% cash back credit card for all trip costs that helps put a few extra dollars directly into my pocket. In addition, my American Airlines Aadvantage and Delta SkyMiles frequent flyer accounts earn me free trips or upgrades.

When I first began traveling for work, I did a poor job of keeping receipts (for reimbursement), didn’t use cash back credit cards, and didn’t have frequent flyer accounts. I often spent more personal money while traveling trying to entertain myself. Now, I make sure my hotel is near nice restaurants and has high speed internet.

While on my business trips, I save money on food, gas, and entertainment. It’s also nice getting away from the office for a few days.

Deals and Bargains, Entertainment

Cable/Internet Savings

My wife cancelled our old Time Warner cable/internet plan and restarted our service to take advantage of a 2-year promotion they are running for digital cable. She was even able to coordinate it so that there was no interruption in service.

We just received our first bill, only $72 compared to the $94/month we were paying previously. This represents an annual savings of $264 for us. With digital cable we get many additional channels including music channels and On Demand. Plus, Time Warner provided us an HD box so that we can access High Definition channels. Let me tell you, the HD box alone was worth the effort. We purchased a 42” Panasonic plasma a year ago and the theater-like picture of HD is absolutely awesome. Tonight, we were getting a kick out of switching between watching American Idol on Fox and American Idol on Fox HD. What a difference.

Deals and Bargains, Entertainment

Affordable Movie Rentals

There is nothing like relaxing on the couch with your girl, a cocktail, and a great movie to watch. At $4.95/movie for new releases, movie rental costs add up. We’ve thought about signing up for Netflix, but never liked the idea of having to wait for the next movie to arrive in the mail. Blockbuster Total Access solved that problem by offering low cost online movie rentals, and the ability to pick-up rentals at your local Blockbuster.

We chose to go with the $14.99/month plan that allows us to have two online movies out at any time.

Here’s how it works:

1) Select movies online and add them to your queue
2) The movie is mailed within 1 business day
3) After watching the movie, mail it back in the supplied envelope or return it to your local Blockbuster
-Each movie returned to the Blockbuster store in the supplied envelope is good for one free in-store movie rental
4) Once the movie is scanned into the system, either at the store or when they receive the mailed return, the next movie in your queue is mailed

We plan to always return the online movies to our local Blockbuster so that we maximize the number of movies we get per month. You’re also given one free in-store movie rental each month. So, if you run out of online DVD’s to return for in-store rentals, no problem.

You could conceivable get 25 movies a month for the price of what it would regularly cost to rent 3 new release rentals. I doubt we would ever have that much free time or even the desire to watch that many movies. Nonetheless, I’m sure we’ll watch our fair share.