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Archive for August, 2013

Finally!

August 31st, 2013 at 09:41 pm

On 19 Aug, I ordered 2 $50 Wal-Mart gift cards from my Southwest reward card bonus. I finally received them today just in time to use toward my September grocery budget. I have reduced my grocery budget by $100 and will send it to the mortgage instead. I will count include that $100 in my September snowflake total as soon as I put it on the mortgage!

Signed Up for Another Card

August 30th, 2013 at 06:53 pm

I got an offer in the mail for the American Express Blue Cash Everyday card with 150 reward dollar offer. I only have to spend $500 within the next 3 months to get the reward so that will not be a problem. I will get the rewards issued as a statement credit since they charge you a fee to order the gift cards.

I'm still waiting on a few on my Rapid Rewards gift cards that I ordered on 19 Aug. I checked the system yesterday and it stated they were mailed on the 27th so hopefully soon. Since it takes so long to receive, I'm going to go ahead and order the remainder $400 in Walmart gift cards. I will use them mainly toward groceries and then adjust my grocery budget accordingly and send that to the mortgage. Myself and CCF are doing pretty much the same thing Smile

Rewards Rolling In

August 19th, 2013 at 09:40 pm

Last month I signed up for the BoA card where I get $200 and the Southwest card where I get $500 in rewards. Well today they both are available!! With the BoA card, if I redeem straight into my checking account with them I get an extra 10% so right now my reward balance is $229. I ran into a slight problem with the Southwest card because over the weekend it stated my reward points had been awarded. However, when I was playing around with it and trying to redeem for a Walmart gift card it wouldn't let me. This morning I had to call and explain the problem and they stated for whatever reason, my credit card had not been linked to the rapid rewards and that's why I was getting that error. They stated it should be corrected by the end of the day and I just checked again and it has indeed been fixed.

Another thing I noticed with redeeming for the gift card is that the highest denomination is $50 so I would have to order 10 in order to redeem all of my points. As a matter of fact I have 52,000 because of the other charges. I think for now I will just redeem one at a time and use it for groceries but I haven't made up my mind just yet. What do you guys think? The $229 is going towards the mortgage for sure and when I purchase a gift card for groceries, I will reduce the budget by that amount and put towards the mortgage as well.

$700 in snowflakes in one day is sweet!

The Deal Just Got Better

August 13th, 2013 at 10:36 pm

A couple days ago I posted about opening up an account with Navy Federal Credit Union to take advantage of earning 3% on a 1 year CD. Well, I was playing around on the site today and notice another special offer. Basically if you join in August, open a checking in August and set up direct deposit, they will deposit $100 into your account after direct deposit goes into effect. I had to call to make sure I was eligible because in the fine print it stated that the offer must be mentioned when the account was opened. The person stated I'm indeed eligible for the $100 after my direct deposit hits which should be 1 Sep.

Once again in order to join NFCU, you must be affiliated with the military some type of way. If you decide to join I would love the referral because not only would I get $50 so will you!

Earning a Little More Interest

August 13th, 2013 at 01:35 am

I've had savings account with ING for a while now but I decided to go back to banking with SmartyPig.com I know it's a funny name but they are paying 1% versus .75 at ING. I like them because it allows you to set-up goals and save towards them. Once you have reached your goal, you just transfer funds to an existing linked account or you can even put it on a gift card where you receive an additional % as a bonus. The accounts that I currently have at ING is for new car fund, travel and my emergency fund which I will now move over. I might add a goal for Christmas and other yearly expenses like property taxes, etc..

Earning .25% more may not seem like much but I'll take it!

Snowflake Opportunity

August 10th, 2013 at 09:50 pm

While searching for ways to earn higher interest on my money, I discovered that Navy Federal Credit Union is offering a 1 year Easy Start Certificate which earns 3%. As we all know, 3% is hard to find these days! The max you can contribute is $3,000 and you must have savings and checking with them. In order to be a member of NFCU, you must be affiliated with the military someway, active duty, reserve, guard, civilian employee, retiree or a family member of someone who is. You only need $5 to open the savings and you need direct deposit of at least $300 going to checking to qualify as well. I already opened up both accounts online and have set-up to have my direct deposit t be changed over which should take effect 1 Sep. I will also transfer the $3K from my savings to fund the certificate all at once. You do have the option of funding monthly with whatever amount you can afford.

I think I will keep my account with USAA and just transfer funds monthly to cover my automated payments. This way I don’t have to change anything else. If this is something that you are possibly interested in please use me as a referral because not only will I get $50, you get $50 as well as long as all requirements are met. If you decide to open an account let me know and I can provide you my info. Please read all information carefully at

Text is https://www.navyfederal.org/products-services/checking-savings/certificates-rates.php and Link is
https://www.navyfederal.org/products-services/checking-savin...