Christmas Shopping for Almost Free Using Credit Card Points

One of my children may want a HOT video game this year for Christmas from Santa.
This may or may not be an image of said game....... ;-)

So Santa went in search of this game.  And Santa wanted to find it for a deal without having to actually set foot into a store.

Santa first went to her accumulated credit card points website.  They offered the game in question for 7,500 pts.
Before I hit that buy button Santa then went to see if Amazon had anyone on there selling this game.
And I found it from a Seller, being fulfilled by Amazon so it would be shipped free since it was a $60 game.  Plus the seller in question was selling this new sealed game for $5 less than the suggested retail.

With that information in hand, I went back to my Credit Card's Points website to see how many points I had to pay for an Amazon $50 gift card.
That was only 5,000 points but the actual game from them was 7,500 points.

So you know what I did next, don't you?
I bought an Amazon electronic gift card code, which they emailed me right away.  Physical gift cards take a couple of weeks to be snail mailed to you but digital codes come immediately.  So I spent 5,000 of my credit card points.
I then went onto Amazon and purchased the game using my free gift card code and $5 cash.
I used my credit card for the $5 so I'll get more points for that spending. ;-)

In the end, the game cost Santa $5 cash and Santa saved 2,500 credit card points to use on something else.

Santa is one smart dude dudette!

What kind of deals has Your Santa found lately?

Sluggy

Cran-Pistachio Oat Cookies Recipe...A Good Holiday Cookie

I got this recipe out of the local grocery store health magazine found free in the store.
After getting a request for the recipe, here is a link to the company's website...

CRAN-PISTACHIO OAT COOKIES

You can go there and cut and paste it into a document and print it out.

And here is the YouTube Video if you like a visual....(You can also watch this from the Weis website as it's embedded there too)....

They taste very good even though they are "healthy". ;-)
And they are nice and festive for the Holidays.

And if you believe margarine ("I Can't Believe It's Not Butter")is NOT healthy, feel free to use the stuff found in nature--butter--like I did instead.
You have my permission.  ;-)

Sluggy

The P&G Celebrate The Season REBATE

I talked about the new P&G Rebate in this post HERE.
It's a spend $50 in select P&G products and get a $15 Rebate in the form of a Visa gift card.
The form is online HERE.

Among the product lines are Herbal Essence, Pantene and Cover Girl.
Last week I spent $31.34 on Cover Girl items.
And earlier in late October I spend $12 in Herbal Essence items.
Combined that put me at $43.34 spent toward the $50.

I forgot that I also spent $7 on 2 bottles of Pantene on my last transaction at Rite-Aid last week and this puts me at $50.34, so I've earned that $15 gift card.
8-)
My out of pocket spending at Rite-Aid in November was $1.25 but between my $2 SavingStar cash rebate and my P&G gift card rebate of $15 I did much better than FREE at the drugstore!

Sluggy

Couldn't Stay Away from Rite-Aid & Monthly Totals

Since next week looks abysmal at Rite-Aid, I did some spending 'O The +Ups this week.

I am going into these transactions with $63.99 in +Up Rewards.

There was a "Spend $12, Get $3 Back" Food Deal so I got some things we needed three days ago on my card....

4 x Hungry Jack Pancake Mix on sale $2.23=$8.92 *Sale price was $2.50 but 20% discount made them less.
3 x Olives on sale $1.00=$3.00
1 x Minced Garlic on sale=$1.00
8 x Progresso Soups on sale $1.50=$12.00
SubTotal.....$24.92

Coupons Used
4 x .55¢ Hungry Jack IPQ =$2.20
1 x .55¢ Hungry Jack Load2Card Q=$.55
1 x $1/4 Progresso Soups ManuQ=$1.00
1 x $1.25/4 Progresso Soups IPQ=$1.25
Coupons Total...$5.00

$24.92-$5.00=$19.92
I used $19 in +Up Rewards and put the .92¢ on my gift card.
I received back $6 in +Up Rewards(2 x $3 Spend $12, Get $2 food Deal).
And I'll be getting back a $2.00 Rebate from Saving Star for buying the 8 cans of Progresso soup, which means I "paid" $11 total for all these items.

And I now have $91.25 tracking toward the Holiday Promo.  Only $13.75 left to "spend" before I get my bonus $10 +Ups. 8-)

This trip--
OOP....$0.00
Value of items....$43.14
+Ups coming into this transaction....$63.99
+Ups used....$19.00
+Ups earned.....$6.00
+Ups at the end.....$50.99

I also bought this on the BIL's card....

2 x Dove Men's Body Wash(raincheck)2/$5=$5.00  *
1 x Colgate Max Fresh Toothbrush on sale=$2.99
SubTotal....$7.99

Coupons Used
2 x $2/1 Dove Men's product IPQ(coupons dotcom)=$4.00
1 x .50¢/1 Colgate Toothbrush IPQ(coupons dotcom)=$.50
1 x $2/1 Dove Men's product Load2Card Q=$2.00
Coupon Total....$6.50

$7.99-$6.50=$1.49 + .15¢tax=$1.64
I used a $1 +Ups to pay and put the .64¢ on my gift card.
I received back $4 in +Ups($2 WYB2 Dove, $2 Colgate).

So I grew my +Up Rewards by $3 for this transaction.

*The Dove Body Wash Deal this week is 2 for $7 and gives a $2 +Ups.  I had a raincheck for the 2 for $7 price Deal from October.  Since it included getting a $2 +Ups also, it was written as 2 for $5 on the raincheck.  By waiting and using this raincheck now, I got the lower price AND I got the $2 in +Ups for this week's deal. 8-)  The BIL card also still had a $2/1 Load2card Dove Men's Body Wash Q on it, so I was paid $1 to buy 2 bottles of the body wash AND I got a $2 +Ups as well.

This trip--
OOP....$0.00
Value of items....$16.57
+Ups coming into this transaction....$50.99
+Ups used....$1.00
+Ups earned.....$4.00
+Ups at the end.....$53.99

I had to wait a day to do another transaction(waiting on the new +Ups to go "live" and having the right denominations).  I couldn't resist doing the P&G Deal on the BIL's card too on Friday.  While it didn't grow my +Ups(and spent down quite a few), it was a good deal for Tide.  Have you seen how expensive that shit is lately?!?!  A reason I don't usually buy it.....

4 x Tide detergent on sale $5.94=$23.76
2 x Pantene Shampoo on sale=$7.00
1 x Samy Hair Color on sale=$7.99 Wellness discount was lower than sale price
1 x St. Joseph Aspirin on sale=$4.99
SubTotal....$43.74

Coupons Used
1 x $1/2 Tide ManuQ=$1.00
1 x .20¢/1 Tide ManuQ=$.20 Seriously a 20 cents coupon?  What. A. Joke.
1 x $1/2 Pantene ManuQ=$1.00
1 x $5/1 Samy Hair Color IPQ=$5.00
Coupon Total....$7.20

$43.74-$7.20=$36.54
I used $35.99 in +Ups and put .55¢ on my gift card.
I received back $29 in +Ups($5 Samy, $4 St. Joseph, $15 WYB $30 P&G, $5 Holiday Promo spend $50, Get $5).

Paid $35.99, got back $29 means this lot of items "cost" me $7.53(including what I put on the gift card).

This trip--
OOP....$0.00
Value of items....$66.42
+Ups coming into this transaction....$53.99
+Ups used....$35.99
+Ups earned.....$29.00
+Ups at the end.....$47.00

I've got 2 weeks to find ways to roll $47 +Up Rewards.  Here's hoping the ad following this upcoming one is better at Rite-Aid.


*And here are my MONTHLY TOTALS*
 
GRAND TOTALS FOR NOVEMBER.......

Out Of Pocket....$1.25  cash
Value of items bought.....$492.63
Savings Rate of  99.74%
Single Check Rebate due....$0.00
Other Rebates due......$2.00(SavingStar)
After SCR applied, Out of Pocket.... $0.00
Savings Rate....great than 100 %

+Ups at beginning of month...$10.00+
+Ups used....$198.49
+Ups received...$235.49+
+Ups currently...$47.00+ 

I love Rite-Aid.  They give me stuff for free. 8-)

Sluggy

Last Chance To Enter the Giveaway!

Oh, to have that color hair back again and NOT have it come out of a box.....


Just a quick reminder that tomorrow is the last day to enter my current BORING BLOG BOX GIVEAWAY!
Check out the link on my right Side Bar, right over there ----->

The Giveaway ends at 11:59 pm Sunday December 2nd so get those last entries in now!

The Sealed Pot "Guess How Much I Have Saved" ends tonight, Saturday December 1st at midnight so get your guess in now before it's too late.  Limit 1 guess per person.  The link is also over on the Side bar. -->

Off to work on the eBay stuff, cleaning and then to tally up my November figures.
Oh goody!  I get to do numbers.....rubs hands together with GLEEEEEEEEE!

Sluggy