Archive for January 19, 2010
End of Year Wrap Up: $4,875.05 in Savings!
Ok, so it’s a little past the end of the year, but not too far past. I finally got around to tallying up all of the money I saved and earned as a result of coupons, rebates, loyalty cards, online surveys, eBay sales, cash back sites and blogging last year and I am pleased to report that I earned/saved a grand total of $4,875.05. The following is a breakdown of my savings…
I received $809.05 in the form of mail-in rebates, primarily from the Rite Aid Rebate Plus program along with a whole host of rebates I received from ‘Try Me Free’ stickers I found on the front and back of popular products. In addition to the mail-in rebates I received another $233.97 from various cash back websites including those that provide additional cash back for referring new members. I earned the most by far from Ebates referrals.
I earned $170 in gift cards from various survey sites. I selected four $25 gift cards to Macy’s, two $10 Shoppers Warehouse cards and one $50 gift card to Home Depot. I also earned $78 from Pinecone Research.
In total I sold $408.06 worth of unwanted items on eBay. The list included CDs, popular books and a hodge-podge of new and like new cooking supplies.
I earned nearly $900 in ad revenue from this blog. I have minimal advertisements, due the strict restrictions of BlogHer Ads, so I was quite surprised by that total. Thanks to this blog I also received a number of books, which were sent for my review and a handful of free household products, including a beautiful Le Creuset oval dish.
From January 1st through December 31st of last year I also saved $1395.97 using a combination of coupons and weekly sales at Giant Food and saved over $800 at CVS stores using sales, coupons and the infamous ECB program.
Lastly, I earned $80 worth of credit by referring readers to Groupon.com. Funny enough, when I posted about my success with Groupon I didn’t even know that the site provided referral credit. I just wrote a post to document my experience.
I must say that I am more than shocked that the total for all of these efforts reached $4,875.05 in savings. Each act in and of itself is very small. I earned a few cents back for purchasing something through Ebates. I saved a couple of dollars at the grocery store by matching sales with coupons and I earned a few dollars here and there by filling out online surveys. I had absolutely no idea that all of these tiny efforts would result in such huge savings.
I’m not certain how my numbers will compare this year. I have much less clutter and therefore much less stuff to sell on eBay. I think my Ebates referrals have nearly tapped out, I haven’t received a new referral credit in ages, and I’m not sure how much I will earn in ad revenue from this blog. Still I plan to continue clipping coupons, searching for sales and submitting rebates. You just never know how much it will add up to.
