Rebating and Side Monies for 2011 Totals

Well to sum up my rebating efforts in 2011 were, to use a kind term, Half Assed!lol

In 2011 I received $433.22 in rebates.  This is way down from my previous year's total of $1160+. HERE is my post from last year on my 2010 Rebating Totals.

Keep in mind that I do NOT live in a NBPR state(that's No Beer Purchase Required)so I don't do those awesome alcoholic rebates that net you free or close-to-free food.  If I tried to do the NBPR rebates, I would be required to spend money on booze and appear to be an alcoholic.  The former would make me go insane and the latter would make me not care about being frugal, now would it?lolol

Even $433.22 is pathetic in Rebating circles.
In my defense, the rebating opportunities outside of NBPRs tightened up even more in 2011 from 2010.  Add in that Rite-Aid didn't have nearly as many good SCR opportunities last year.

And the primary reason I sucked at rebating last year?....I just didn't make much of an effort.

My side income did much better however.
* I netted $48 in Pinecone payments.  I didn't do all the surveys offered however.  Yes I was a slacker there too.

* After a rather slow start, I cashed in for $60 in checks with Toluna and I am halfway to another $20 check.  I need to give a thank you! shout out to SonyaAnn for turning me on(oh, don't go there!lol)to them.  While my demographic gets dumped out of most of the surveys, I kept persevering and actually got some cash monies....ka-ching! ;-)  I do find that on occasion surveys would freeze up and not be recorded as complete, thus I would go through all that effort for NOTHING(and I have let them know just How I Feel on that score.lol) and then other surveys are so damned looooong and booooring and if I think it's boring, well, it's a doozy! 8-)

* The big winner for me in 2011 income was Focus Forward, where I earned $880.  I did some surveys with them but their main thing is focus group work.  Some of it is short term and some can take weeks but you pick and choose what you want to do, once you qualify, that is.
If anyone wants to join their team please use my referral link HERE.  Thanks if you do!

* As for making money advertising on my blog.....I made nothing in 2011.  That's not quite right....I made something but not enough for anyone to cut me a check.  I should be seeing a check within the next 3 months or so unless everyone stops coming by here to say "Hey!" tomorrow.

All side income came to $988.  Too bad that's all reportable income and the $433.22 in rebates isn't.  The other way around works better for me.lol


* Gift cards came to $76.  That includes gift card rebates, gift cards sent to me for reviews/promotions/marketing purposes and gift cards I won in other people's giveaways.
In 2010 I received over $500 in free gift cards.  2011 wasn't a very good year for me but something is better than nothing, right?lol

* I received 45 Free Items, mostly in the form of Free Item Coupons that I redeemed, rather than actual free products mailed to me.  The previous year I received many more Free Items, mostly from companies jumping onto the Facebook promotion bandwagon.  Not as many or as lucrative Facebook offers in 2011.  I see 2012 being even more of a Freebie desert on Facebook(with the exception of a company launching a new product).

So did you do any rebating or survey/focus group work in 2011?
What are your totals looking like for the year?
How do you feel about continuing to rebate and/or do internet side work in 2012?

Leave a comment and let us know!

Sluggy

REBATING as an Income Stream......2010 Totals

Did anyone around here do any rebating in 2010?
Are you a casual rebater?  By that I mean, you do a rebate every now and again....you don't seek out rebates, but if you happen upon one and it makes sense to buy the product and if it's not TOO MUCH trouble(the rebate process the company makes you go through)you take the time to complete it.

Do you keep track of the rebates you send for and keep a copy of the materials you send off?  Even casual rebaters should always make a copy of the info.(receipts, forms, UPCs or other qualifiers, etc.)before they send it.  It's also a good idea to jot down on your copies what date you mailed off your rebate.

I posted last year about rebating.  You can read it HERE.  I am a low tech rebater who uses a notebook to keep track of my submissions.  For those of you who love technology, you can keep track of your stuff via spreadsheets and graphs on your computer.  It's probably less work that way, once you get the software all set up....just enter your data and it automatically calculates, etc.  I just love the feel of a pencil in my hand instead......lol

I just went through my 2010 Rebate Information.
My cash refunds amounted to $1,161.46.
   $60 of this was from doing Surveys.
   $75 of this was for Focus Group work.
   $102.35 was Ad Revenue from the blog.

This $237.35...the income from surveys/focus work/ad revenue...is taxable income.
Rebates in general are NOT taxable income.  Rebates are considered a discount on the goods you buy, it reduces your cost for the product.

My gift card refunds amounted to $563.99.
   $75 of these gift cards were won in giveaways.

So my total cash and gift cards/certificates in 2010 is $1,725.45.
This isn't counting any free items, free item coupons or $ off coupons I received.

This was my first full year of rebating.
Though looking at my paperwork I did take 4 months off from actual mail-in rebating during the spring/summer months.  I did do some online rebating but mostly it was Rite-Aid SCRebates, Blog Giveaway wins, Surveys and Facebook type freebies.
My full year of Rebating total was $1.19 LESS than my Rebating total for 2009.

My costs to rebate added up to.....
$17.60 for 40 stamps
$1.00 for a box of envelopes
The copy paper was free as I still have a ton of that Staples reams of paper deal from 2009.
As for the ink cartridge costs.....not sure how to figure that.  Estimate how many pages I copied I suppose.  I'll call that 1 cartridge(I only use black ink), so $30.

Estimated total for rebate supplies.....
$48.60.

Not a bad return on investment, huh? ;-)

There is something about rebating I don't care for.  The fact that some people can be ineligible for certain rebates because they happen to live in a certain state.
If you live in a state where you can do alcoholic beverage/other foodstuffs rebates and that state doesn't require you to purchase the alcohol, you REALLY should do these types of rebates!
Usually you can find these rebates on the alcoholic beverages('wine tags' are what the forms are called).
You will need to purchase something like $20 of meat or $10 of cookout items, etc. and the rebate will be for the whole $20 or $10 cost of the non-alcoholic items you bought.  So basically, if you don't have to purchase the alcohol, you are getting $XX worth of food or other items for FREE!
How awesome is that?
Unfortunately for me, the state of PA does NOT allow it's residents to send off for these kind of rebates.....sniff, sniff......

As for 2011.....
Since the types of food items I purchase seems to be evolving, I don't see myself sending off for as many rebates as I did the past 2 years.  That's not to say I won't continue to rebate however.
I also don't shop and buy "stuff"(non-food items except toiletries)at the rate of most of Americans, so I don't do many clothing, or other "hardlines" type of rebates.  I may qualify for a paint or other hardware store type rebate here or there as an exception to this since we have home related purchases.

When I go looking, I don't see nearly the number of rebates so far this year being offered by the usual suspects(companies)as the last 2 years.  That may change as we get further into the year but for now it's looking sparse out there in the rebating field.

I'll continue to rebate in 2011 and I'll be interested to see how this year goes and how my numbers stack up when all is said and done.

If anyone has any rebating questions, feel free to leave a comment.

Sluggy

Rebating 101.....Finding Extra Money for Your Budget

One way to make some extra cash is to send away for Rebates or Refunds.
Manufacturers will offer incentives to get you to try or use their products or refund your money if you are not satisfied with their products.
There are various forms these incentives can take.

The best rebates IMHO are for cash.  The company will offer you money back for buying their products.
Many times when there is a new product on the market, the company will offer anywhere from a Full Price Refund to a set amount back for trying their merchandise.

Then there are gift card or gift certificate/check rebates.  By buying a certain product, you can get a gift card in some amount either in the form of a card, certificate or check for a specific store or one that is usable at any store(like a prepaid Visa card).

Then there are the coupon rebates.  By buying certain product(s), you can get coupons in some denomination for either more of that product or for other products that the manufacturer also sells.  Usually these coupons are of higher value than the usual ones you find in the coupon inserts or online as printables.

While most rebates on food or toiletries are for a few dollars or less, over the course of a year, they can add up to a nice little pile of $$ and free or inexpensive merchandise.

I only began rebating last year in earnest and didn't even really get rolling with it until April and I ended 2009 receiving back $1,726.64 in cash & $571.87 in gift cards/check/certificates.  That's a total of $2,298.51 in cash and gift cards.  And that doesn't even count the free products or money-off coupons I received!

There are some expenses associated with Rebating though.

Basically, stamps, envelopes and for me, ink and paper, folders and a blank journal.  The stamps and envelopes cost me just under $38 for the year.  The paper and ink approx. $50(strictly for rebating purposes, not the cost for printing coupons online) and the folders and journal another $2.  With an expense total of under $100 I figure without including my free item and other coupons received, I still 'made' almost $2,200 on rebating last year in my spare/free time.

The "KEY" to successful Rebating is the stay organized!  Anyone who rebates has their own system that works for them.  From computerized logs to spreadsheets to a checklist on the back of a paperbag, you just need to find a system that works for you and to stick to it.

My system is pretty low-tech but it keeps me organized.

I keep a rebating book and 2 rebating folders--one marked "Forms", one marked "Sent".
Other supplies needed are envelopes, pens and stamps, printer paper and ink.

There are 3 main places to find Rebate Forms--
1.in the newspaper/magazines or Sunday coupon inserts
2.on tearpads in stores
3. online

Alot of the forms found both in the print media and on tearpads can also be found online, so I spend a bit of time each week, searching online for rebate forms to print off.  And when I happen upon a blog that mentions an online rebate I check it out and print it out if I think I want to apply for that rebate.

When you find a rebate you want to apply for.....
Get any form and instructions.
Put this into your Rebating folder marked "FORMS".

As I buy items that have a rebate on them, I'll throw the receipt for that item into my "FORMS" folder too.
If the rebate requires you to send a UPC or some other 'qualifier' from the packaging I'll cut that out right away and tuck it into the FORMS folder too.

When I am ready to send away for the rebate(when I have all the items the rebate provider wants you to send to them), I take the rebate form out and read what they require you to send other than the form.  Most will want the receipt for the purchase or a copy of the receipt...that will already be in my folder with the rebate form.
Some will want the UPC from the package or the UPC number off the package.  Go copy down or cut these off the product(s).

Now take a business size envelope and after you gather all the items the company wants you to send along with the rebate form, put them all into the envelope.
Address & stamp the envelope.

Before you seal the envelope make a COPY off all materials you are sending!
This is for your records.  In case there is a problem with your submission, you have proof of what you sent.
Put this Photocopy into your other Rebating Folder marked "SENT".

Besides this folder of copies of submissions, I keep a Rebate Book.
It's just a blank journal I found at a garage sale.

Since the one from 2009 is full, I had to drag out a new one.....like it?

The first page of each month gets a Header of "X MONTH REBATES".

When I am ready to send out a rebate envelope I mark down the date, the Rebate Name and address it goes to.  Below that I put what the rebate amount is and the form(check/certificate/coupons/etc.) and since I have multiple people I rebate for, on the end of that line I put initials telling me whom the rebate was sent from.
Then I wait for the Rebate incentive to arrive.

When something does come in I put a check mark next to the submission information in the book, so I can see at a glance what rebates I am still waiting on. 

There is one more thing to do in the Rebate Book.....
What I do is take my book and find the page that's 2/3 of the way through the pages.  If the book has 100 pages, I open it to the 67th page.  I bend that page down in a triangular fold.  This makes it easier to find this section in my book.  You could also but a bookmark or attach a tab of some sort instead.
This section is to list the Rebates as they come in so I know what is received and when it is received.
Here is the page for MARCH....

When a rebate comes in, I put the date it arrived, who it is from, what it was for and if it was sent to a different address than mine, the initials of whom it was sent to.
For example....

 3/6   Olay-2 Cleansers   $15 ck(=check)   *no initials here means it was sent to me*


Once a rebate check/coupon comes in and the information is marked off in the Rebate Book, I can go into my SENT Folder where the copy of the submission information is and throw away the copy, as I no longer need it.

At the end of each month I add up all the cash rebates,  all the free item rebates(these usually come in the form of coupons) and all the not-free-items coupon rebates for the month so I can post the totals for the month.

The one piece of advise once you get a system worked out for yourself is this....
**Check your Rebate Form Folder every week!**

If you don't make yourself check weekly, you may miss a deadline for submitting a rebate.  There is nothing worse than having a system and going to all the trouble of buying something, saving the receipt/the UPC/etc. and then letting the deadline pass by and not submitting your information in time to get your money back!
It has happened to me enough that I make myself take 10 minutes a week to check the folder and get the forms filled out and mailed.

So do you rebate?
Do you have a system that works for you?
Leave a comment and let us know about it!
Do you want to start rebating?
Do you have any questions about it that I haven't covered?
Leave a comment and between me and any other readers, we can try to help you out.

Sluggy