How I Got a $100 Gas Card for $76

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I was able to get a $100 gas card for $76 by stacking four discounts. This post will provide an illustration of how I got this deal. Although you probably won’t be able to do the same exact deal described in this post following the process outlined in this example will allow you to buy other gift cards at a significant discount.

The first thing I did was buy a discounted Ebay gift card at Office Max. Since I get 5% cash back at office supply stores using my Chase Ink card I consider this a $5 discount off $100. If you would like to apply for a Chase Ink card please consider using my Chase Ink Referral Link.  I’ll get points for referring you and you will get 60,000 Chase Ink points (worth $725 towards travel or $600 cash) after spending $5000 in three months after opening the card.If you don’t want to get the credit card it is also possible to buy Ebay gift cards for 5% off at Target when you use your Redcard. You will want to be careful if you choose that option since some people report getting their Redcard shut down for buying too many gift cards. A safer option is to buy an Ebay gift card directly from Ebay when they have them on sale. They seem to offer their cards at a discount every month or two

The next thing I did was visit eBay through a cash back shopping portal such as Splender or iConsumer. At the time I bought my gift card iConsumer was offering 3% cash back.  It is usually around 1% cash back. That isn’t much, but if you’re going to make the purchase anyway you might as well save a little money.

The third thing I did to save money was to buy the discounted Ebay gift card to buy a discounted gift card on eBay. At the time eBay was offering $100 gas cards for $92.

The fourth discount I received was from eBay Bucks. If you’re enrolled in eBay Bucks you get 2% back in eBay Bucks on most of the purchase you make on eBay. They occasionally have promotions offering an even greater percentage back. At the time I bought my gas card they had a promotion offering 10% back in eBay Bucks. That is as good as I’ve seen them offer for general purchases, although they sometimes offer even higher percentages back on specific categories.

Here is how the math works out. The $100 gas gift card  was on sale for $92 for a savings of $8. I used an Ebay gift card that I bought with my Chase Ink which I consider to be a 5% discount. Five percent off $92 is $4.60. The cash back shopping portal paid me 3% cash back which is $2.76. Ebay gave me 10% back in eBay Bucks.  Ten percent off $92 is $9.20.  So $92-$4.60-$2.76-$9.20= $75.44.  I went ahead and rounded up to $76 since some of the discounts or rewards earned from the purchase are not in the form of actual cash. Either way that is a pretty good discount on gas. Of course, I use a gas rewards card when I fill up to save even more money.

The deals aren’t always that great, but stacking the discounts and cash back it is possible to save a nice amount on lots of gift cards. In fact, I have bought gift cards off of eBay and turned around and Sell gift cards for cash at Raise.com  or Sell Your Gift Cards For Cash at Cardpool.com! I wouldn’t recommend that as a way to make money,  but it is a good way to help meet minimum spend to earn a credit card bonus.

Let me know if you have any questions about any of the discounts or cash back.

April 2016 Net Worth Update

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penniesIn order to keep track of my financial progress or lack of progress I have decided to calculate my net worth each month.

My net worth as of today (4/4/2016) is as follows.

Assets
Cash – $3145.39
IRA – $22,447.78
Roth IRA – $9832.84
Loan – $0
Car/Stuff – $5000

Liabilities
Credit Card – $0
Student Loan – $127,374.30

Net Worth = $-86,948.29

My net worth improved a little over $1000 in March.  The improvement was all due to an increase in assets. My liabilities stayed pretty much the same.  Although I paid off the remaining $522 of my credit card balance transfer the monthly interest on my student loan was almost $600 resulting in very little progress in reducing my overall debt total.

This month is also the final month I’ll be receiving payment for the personal loan I made last year. That will be a reduction of $450 a month in cash flow which will make it slightly more difficult to continue to improve my net worth.

Since I will hopefully be hiking the next couple of months I will have a serious reduction in income so I don’t expect to make any progress on paying down my student loan and improving my net worth during that time. Once I’m back from the hike I plan to focus on increasing my income and putting all of my extra money towards my student loan debt.

Last month I wondered whether I should invest in my IRA or use that money to pay down my student loan. I think I’ll likely max out my IRA again. I have until April 15th next year to contribute the money so I don’t have to make up my mind yet.

March Income – $2303.63

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Here is a breakdown of my income for March.

Mystery Shop $30
Interest $0.80
Job $1189.05
Amazon FBA $480.64
Cash Back $403.14
Bank Bonus $200
Total $2303.63

March was a decent income month. The job income was a big help since it did make up half of my total income. My monthly income would have been a little less than my monthly expenses without the job income. It doesn’t look like there will be any job income this month. My project finished about halfway through the month and the next project I got assigned to was delayed. Since I have my medical procedures next week and I plan to leave on my hike the week after that it won’t be possible to work at the document review job this month.

My FBA income took a big hit in March. There were a lot of returns and a lot of items that sold for very little profit or for a loss. Since I’ll be gone most of this month my FBA income will suffer. I hope I can make at least as much as last month though.

Cash back income continues to be strong due to all the shopping I do for FBA. The $200 bank bonus was a nice boost to my income as well.

Since I’ll be hiking most of the month my income this month will go down.  My goal for the month is to make at least as much as I spend.

March Expenses – $1426.72

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Here is a breakdown of my expenses for March.

Household $413.03
Entertainment $18.30
Transportation $396.15
Food $165.59
Student Loan $37.71
Travel $130.97
Phone $36.79
Health $228.18
Total $1426.72

 

My March expenses were a little higher than I would prefer.  The expenses are reasonable considering they included a trip to the Appalachian Trail in Virginia and back that included three hotel stays and over 2,000 miles of driving. I also paid $225 for six months of car insurance. Taking out those expenses my monthly expenses would be pretty close to my $1000 target.

My health expense was a little high since I had to pay for a doctor visit, labs, and medicine. Unfortunately, my health expense is going to be even higher this month. I getting an EGD and colonoscopy which will cost me over $700 out-of-pocket. That expense should get me close to hitting the deductible on my health insurance.  Once I hit the deductible my only health expense for the rest of the year should be my health insurance.

My food expense was once again too high.  I’d be okay with this level of expense if I was eating healthy. Since I’m eating fast food and junk food this level of expense is too high. Part of the reason for spending lots of money on fast food was due to my trip to the AT and back. I still should have spent a lot less than I did though. This month I am not going to have fast food at all unless I’m with someone else or if I’m hiking the AT.

The travel expense was in part for one night at a hotel. The other two nights were free from credit card rewards. The rest of the travel expense was for booking a flight from KC to Newark to get to the AT. The flight was free with Southwest travel credit, but I had to pay the taxes and fees. Also, I paid a $40 annual fee on a credit card which should get me another free hotel night. It won’t really be free since I had to pay the $40 bucks but I’m sure I’ll get more than $40 value out of the hotel stay.

Other than the $700 for the medical procedures March should be a low expense month. It is hard to predict what my expenses will be when hiking the  AT.  My guess is that they will be low.  I’ll be aiming for $1700 in expenses for the month.

Going for a Hike

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CAM00151I will be heading out for a hike starting tomorrow. I’ll be hiking in Shenandoah National Park to make up some of the section of the Appalachian Trail that I missed when hiking in Shenandoah. It is a 13.5 hour drive to Virginia from here. A few years ago I could make that drive straight through. Nowadays, I don’t think it would be safe for me to drive that long in one day. I’ll be driving 7.5 hours tomorrow and doing the remaining six hours the next day.  I’m able to get a room for free with my Starwood points so there is no hotel expense to worry about.

Once I arrive at the trail I plan to hike out and back on the trail returning to my car at the end of the day.  Then I will sleep in my car or perhaps hike in to a shelter if there is one close to where I’m parked.  My daily hiking miles will be determined by the distance between parking areas and how far I feel I can comfortably hike. I’m out of shape right now so the daily hiking miles will be low to start out. Having the car will allow me to go to town if I need more food or just need a night off the trail. I think hiking with the car will allow me to ease back into hiking.  Once I’ve returned from the hike I’ll share how it went. I think it will be a fun and frugal trip.