2011 Recap

Do you have a goal to save money in 2012? Here are some examples of what we've done in our household: 

 

Total amount of coupons used: $1875.  Most of our coupons came from the Sunday paper insert.  If you want to use internet coupons, check out this post HERE to find out where you can find coupons online.

 

Using a Perkstreet debit card got us 1% cash back on our purchases, totaling $325 in cash gift cards. We love our Perkstreet card.  It's linked with our home checking account and very simple to transfer the money online.  They have awesome customer service, and they are recommended by one of our favorite individuals: Mr. Dave Ramsey.  If you sign up today, you even get an extra $25 cash back just for signing up!  Find out more HERE.

 

Using the swagbucks rewards site earned us $210 in Amazon gift cards.  Even if you just download the toolbar and use it for your searches on the internet, you will find this site will get you some extra money.  You can find out more about swagbucks through my post HERE. 

 

Submitting for rebates gave us $225 cash. A useful site for finding rebates on products can be found HERE.  Just be sure to save those cash register receipts and UPC numbers!  Saving big purchases for Menards 11% cash back event was key for us this year. 

 

Using the Mypoints rewards site earned us $60 in Walgreens gift cards.  I've found that the easiest way to get points on this site is to sign up for the daily emails.  You can set up a separate email account and have your emails sent there so they don't clog up your inbox.  For each email you open and click the link on, you usually will get 5 points.  There is never any purchase required, and I usually click out of the screen while it is still loading and receive the points.  They will also send you survey opportunities.  These don't take very long, and you will get 10 points if you don't qualify and between 50 and up to 200 points if you do qualify.  There are also coupons available on mypoints.  You will earn 10 points for every coupon that you redeem.  You also receive a 25 point bonus if you redeem 10 or more coupons in one month.

 

Shopping online through Ebates earned us $50 cash, and through Mr. Rebates earned us $27 cash.  These are the sites that we have started using whenever we want to do any online shopping.  Not only will they give you any online coupon codes available for that store, they also give you a cashback bonus.  You can't use both of these at the same time, so I choose whichever one will give us more cash back.  Signing up through the links provided here will get you a $5 cashback bonus for each one.  To earn money through these sites, search for the store you want to shop at, click on the store through Ebates or Mr.rebates, and the site will tell you how much you will earn (up to 25% cash back at some stores).  Your money is issued right into your paypal account or you can choose to have them send you a check.  Ebates pays every 3 months, and you can request money from Mr. Rebates once you have earned $10 cash back. 

 

That's just under 3k for shopping smart for one year! And the beauty of this is, anyone can do this!  I've been playing with the idea of offering a sort of couponing/money saving class in our area for free, if there would be any interest.  Drop me a note if you would be interested in something like this.

 

Happy New Year, and here's to saving more money in 2012!