LizaJane over at SavingAdvice.com recently bought a laser printer from Staples. That's not that interesting, but how she used her money certainly was:
"I signed onto Staples via Ebates, which had a 2% cash back reward
instead of the usual 1%. My printer was $199, plus I bought a cord for
$25 and an extra black toner cartridge for $57 (and then got $30 off
because I combined it with the printer purchase), so the grand total
with tax was $263. My 2% back will be $5.26. Ebates also has a $10
bonus, which this should qualify for. So, I should get $15.26 total
back there.
The $100 Staples Easy Rebate will come in the form of a
Visa gift card. Then, because I have a Staples rewards card, there
should be some rewards money due to me at the end of the quarter. And,
on top of all that, I used a credit card that pays me cash back. It's a
small percent, but the small bits and pieces add up!"
Now that an uncertain economy is upon us, job security is even more tenuous than before, and the nation is grappling with shrinking home equity and plummeting investments, are more people using creative rewards strategies to get ahead?
Preliminary research seems to point to yes.
Colloquy, a Cincinnati, Ohio, retailer rewards consulting company says the average American family participates in 12 rewards programs.
And it appears many people are now combining rewards programs and coupons to get the best deals possible. One rewards company exec told an industry magazine, "What was more American than double-dipping?"
Columbus-based BIGresearch recently released a study indicating that 37 percent of adults
planned to use more coupons and 63 percent were unwilling to make a purchase without
a deal attached. They say this is the first time in 16 years that coupon redemption has not dropped from one year to the next.
Gas discounts offered by grocery stores also seem to be working. The number of people getting gas at the grocery store jumped from 13 percent in 2007 to 22 percent in 2008.
Personally, I have been known to milk my rewards programs. On a recent Sunday, I went to the local grocery chain with a sales flyer in hand. I bought only loss leaders, used my store card for discounts, used a few coupons, and paid with a rewards credit card. Then, I went outside and put gas in my car. I got a discount for buying groceries at that chain, and once again I paid with a rewards credit card.
DisneySteve is also using perks wisely:
"We went out to lunch today at a local restaurant that we like. They were having a special deal on gift cards: buy $100 worth and get $20 free. So we did just that. Not only that, but I charged them to my Discover card which has a 5% cashback bonus at restaurants through December, so I'll get $5 back on the purchase. That means I actually spent $95 and got $120 worth of gift cards. Coincidentally, our meal today came to exactly $25.00 which means the meal was basically free. We spent $95 (after the Discover cashback), got lunch for the 3 of us and walked out with $95 remaining on the gift cards."
How do you use rewards programs to stretch your budget? Have you gotten savvier in recent months, as the economy has gone south?
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