Cashback and Reward Offers this year: $975

How much money have you made applying for offers and Rewards this year? So far I have made close to $1000 in cash and Gift cards. Here is a list of the offers and rewards I have accumulated so far this year. So far my credit score has not dropped, it actualy went up. My friends at work think that all this free money stuff I do is for the birds. I think of this money as a bonus for having a decent credit score. My score is not that great , but a little above average.

1. Citi Checking Account $200 Cash (Opening Account)
2. Citi Premier Pass Elite $150 in gift Cards (Opening Account)
3. Citi Diamond Reward $100 in Gift Cards (Opening Account)+ $200 ( Reward Gift Cards)
4. Citi Professional $100 in Gift Cards (Opening Account)
5. Citi Divedend $150 in Cash Back rewards
6. Unwired $20+$5
7. Fatcash $40
8. Creditcard offers.com $10

How much was your Raise? mine was only 5.7%

I finally got my raise today. It was 5.7% . I felt a little dissapointed as I thought it was going to be around 9-10%. The 5.7% percent just covers the higher cost of gas, health insurance and electricity. I bumped up my 401K to 9% from 8% and increased my biweekly contribution to my Roth by $10. I only saw a $60 increase in my take home pay after I make my extra contributions. The only thing to do is to pretend the raise never happened and put my whopping $60 into my Emigrant account. This will bump up my biweekly contributions to $200. I am planning on purchasing a home whithin the next 18 months so I plan to use this account for my downpayment? How much was your raise?

Citi Premier Pass-Elite Level Card 15,000 Points

I just received my card in the mail last Friday. I went and bought a 12 oz. milk for .99 with my card on Sunday. Today I got 15,000 Thank you points in my account. I ordered a $50Home Depot Card for my dad, and a $50 Target Gift Card for my mom. I'll save my other points to help me pay for a vacation. I usually do not order gas cards because you will not be earning points by paying with a gift card. You can earn an additional $10 if you apply through cardoffers.com. I will cancel the card in under a year because the charge you $75 per year after the first year.

Tip: Place your name as your buisness name

Citi Dividend Card Lowers dividend by 3%

I got the letter. I was hoping it was only rumors, but to my dismay I received the Citi Dividend Card letter about the reduction in dividends. They are decreasing the divedend to 2% for purchases in supemarkets, gas stations, and drugstores. They added a 2% dividend on utilities to compensate for the 3% drop in dividend. The change will take effect on October 13, 2006. I have not looked at other cards yet, but plan to apply for a different card thay pays out a dividend. Any suggestions? I have other cards with Thank You Points, but nothing beats the $50-60 check I get in the mail every 2 to 3 months.

What to do with $250

I recently opened a second ROTH IRA account with E-trade because of their great selection of no load, no transaction fee mutual funds. I came upon this little fund called the Hodges Fund(HDPMX). It only requires a min. of $250 to open and has a pretty good track record. I am going to keep investing in this fund until I can afford to buy one of the Bridgeway funds that require a $2000 min. investment. E-trade was the only place I could find that offers Bridgeway funds with no transaction cost. My other ROTH is with Fidelity, but their trade fees are too much for an small investor like me. They charge $19.99 per trade and charge transaction cost on most of the outside funds. The fees will go down once I pass the $50,000 mark. I am at $36,300 because my 401K is also in that account. I am hoping for a rally and more employer contributions.

Save Over 50% Eating out at Restaurants

I typically buy restaurant.com certificates through Fatwallet. They offer 7% casback plus coupon codes of up to a 60% discount of the already discounted certificates. If you use your rewards card you will get an additional 1% reward. I recently bought a $25 certificate for $4.60(after fatcash and rewards). The min. purchase for the certificate was $35.00, so my girlfriend and I had desert and coffe after our meal. We only paid $16+4.60(certificate) for an excellent meal. I paid it with my 5% rewards card to save a little extra. Have fun trying out new places.

Google Coupons with Google Maps

Google has partnered with Valpak, the top U.S. supplier of coupon advertising, to provide more than 20,000 coupons from current Valpak advertisers when consumers search for relevant stores using its Google Maps map and local directory service. Google also lets local buisness owners enter coupons for free to increase traffic to their stores. Start Clipping.

$20 Off Orders Over $30 with Google Checkout.

Google checkout has a few retailers that offer $10 off your order of $30 or more (before S&H and tax), just enter the coupon code listed here after clicking Google Checkout. To get the extra $10 register a CitiBank card with Thankyou Points Google Checkoutand they will give you 1000 ThankYou^SM Points the first time you use Google Checkout. Have fun shopping.