Back with a bang!

I know it has been quite a few months since my last post. I have been extremely busy with work and a couple family emergencies that have kept me from making my monthly contributions. Luckily, things have gotten back to  normal. This week was once again SUPER DOUBLES at Harris Teeter. It couldn't have come at a better time. The fridge was looking dreadful and the cabinets were getting bare. Let's see how well I did this week.

2x Jose Ole taquito boxes
3x Nature Valley granola thins
1x Stouffer's steak gorganzala family meal
2x Tyson chicken tenders
1x Kraft masterpiece BBQ sauce
1x Tyson chicken bread bowl
1x Digorno pizza
1x Red Baron pizza
2x dole fruit crisps
1x turkey meatballs
1x Tyson chicken bites
2x Nissin chow mein
1x Dawn detergent
1x Healthy choice skillet meal
1x Pumpkin eggnog
1x Hunts ketchup
2x Prego pasta sauce
1x Pizza slice (I was hungry and wanted a snack from the pizza bar :P)
1x Campbell's chicken and potato soup
1x Progresso soup
1x Gillette shave gel
1x Gillete xtreme razor pack
1x Scott toilet paper (18 pack)
1x Electrasol tabs
1x Purex laundry detergent
1x Ensure protein drink (4 pack)
1x Mennen shave gel
8x Yoplait yogurt cups
1x Pantene conditioner
3x Yoplait light with granola
1x Reynolds aluminum foil
1x Palmolive dish liquid
1x black cherry Mio mix
1x Potato skins
1x Buitoni pasta

 $209.33 worth of groceries, and I spent a total of $121.56 after tax (42% savings). Although not my best outing, I can say that there is now little extra room in the fridge and the freezer is COMPLETELY full. The cabinets are packed as well. This should last for at least a week :) Until the next shopping event, clip those coupons and watch for great deals. Laters.

Super Doubles 6/20-6/26

Harris Teeter is having a Super Double event this week (doubling coupons up to $2.00 face value) so of course I had to do my monthly shopping. Let's see how I did.

2x Dole fruit crisps
4x Mariani dried fruit
1x frozen Pina Coloda mix
2x simply potatoes
2x yoplait yogurt
2x Gillete deodorant
1x Dove deodorant
2x Lance cracker creations
1x Coppertone sunscreen
1x "Warming" oil
1x Jose Ole chicken taquitos
16x Chobani greek yogurt
1x Internation Delight iced mocha
1x So Delicious almond milk
1x 8th continent soy milk
2x Silk soymilk
4x MetRx protein bars
2x Lunchables
2x Barilla meals
2x Hormel complete meals
1x Tyson chicken strips
2x Yakisoba japanese noodles
1x Steak kabob
2x 2lb boneless chicken breast
1x garden salad
4x frozen veggies
7x Chicken of the sea
1x fresh blueberries
2x fresh raspberries
1x fresh seedless grapes
1x whole wheat berry bread
1x honey wheat bread
4x Snyders pretzel nibbles
2x Jimmy Dean breakfast bowls
2x Hot Pocket snackers
4x Lean Cuisine meals
2x Xtra laundry detergent
1x South beach bars
1x Special K bars
1x Kellogs' Fiber plus bars
4x Campbell's select soups
1x applesauce
1x Garnier fruitis conditioner
1x bananas
1x 8pack paper towels
2x Tyson chicken patties
1x Ball park hamburger patties
1x Hawain Tropic tanning oil
1x Banana Boat sunscreen
1x Hormel pork filet
2x KC Masterpiece BBQ sauce
1x Lloyds chicken barbecue
2x Jello pudding mix
1x Pizza slice
1x Cottage cheese
1x Capri sun fruit and vegetable drink box

$369.20 worth of groceries and we spent $160.45 out of pocket. (57% savings) Plust my cabinets are stuffed, the fridge is packed, and I even started filling up the cabinets at work. Buying the fresh fruit and meats hurt the savings a bit, but I'm quite happy with all the food we have.

Double Coupon groceries 4/18 - 4/24

1x YoCrunch yogurt
6x Yoplait yogurt cups
1x Yoplait 4 pack
2x Jello pudding
2x Yoplait greek yogurt
1x Suave conditioner
2x Suave shampoo
2x Birdseye mixed veggies
1x Birdseye broccoli
1x Birdseye corn
1x Lean pocket
1x Zone bar
1x Balance bar
2x KC Masterpiece BBQ sauce
1x Cheerios
1x Golden grahams
2x Honey wheat bread
3x Dentyne gum
2x Lysol wipes
2x Valley fresh chicken
1x Oscar Meyer shaved turkey
1x Wisk detergent
1x Rosina meatballs
1x Kashi chicken fettucini
1x Pagoda egg roll
6x Silk soymilk
1x Jose Ole taquitos
1x Colgate toothpaste
1x Fruitis shampoo
1x Fruitis conditioner
4x Pure protein bars
4x Ramen Noodles
1x Vlassic pickles
1x TGIF chipolte chicken pasta meal
3x Stouffers steam fresh meals
1x Egg beaters
3x Tyson chicken tendors
1x Johnson and Johnson baby powder
1x El Monterrey taquitos
3x Cup o Noodles



$191.85 of groceries.....spent $77.06 (60% savings)

How to Superpoints for rewards

There’s no limit to the number of redemptions you can make per month, but you must achieve at least Basic member status and have reached your redemption threshold. For example, if you have accumulated exactly 500 points and want to redeem them for a reward worth 500 points, you must upgrade your level to Platinum.

Upgrading to basic is very easy.  All you need to do is complete your registration by updating with all the necessary information and you’re instantly a Basic level member. You’ll get 30 daily clicks of the superLucky button instead of 5, your redemption threshold will be set to 2,500 points. If you would like to become a gold member, refer 2 to 4 friends who also upgrade to the Basic level. Click Advanced Profile from the Account Information page and fill it out. Then, click Member Info and upload a valid photo of yourself. You’ll instantly get 50 daily clicks of the superlucky button instead of 30, your redemption threshold will be set to 1,000 points. Also, you’ll receive all the points your friends win from the Superlucky Button. This is where the earning adds up quickly. Now for those who want to get the full glory that Superpoints has to offer, you must be a platinum member. Get 5 referrals to basic status and you will be rewarded with 100 superluck button clicks and a redemption threshold of 500 points.

Once you have become at least a basic member, it's time to start earning points. Point can be earned through the super lucky button, offers, videos, friend referrals, and email. Personally I do the button daily, videos daily if available, and can usually count on at least 1 email a day with points inside. The offers are a great way to earn some high amounts of superpoints, but I don't want to spend any money or download any programs to my computer, however, that option does exist.

SuperLucky Button*: All you do is click the button and it will check to see if you have won. Each click gives you a chance to win as much as 300 points. Depending on your member level, you can win with the button as many as 5, 30, 50 or 100 times daily. To ensure a better chance at winning, spread your clicks throughout the day. The button resets midnight pacific time.

SuperLucky Mail: Members who validate their email receive a daily SuperLucky Mail with a randomly selected amount of points, which range in value from 1 to 450. All you do is open the mail and click the link to claim the points! SuperLucky Mails don’t expire, so you can check your inbox at your leisure.

Now that you have points it's time to cash them in. Look through the rewards catelog and choose a reward which fits your redemption threshold. Click the reward and then confirm that you want to redeem your points for it. Your SuperPoints count will be reduced by the amount of the reward you’ve chosen and the reward will show up as “Pending” in your list of Fulfillments until the following Monday or Tuesday.

If you’ve ordered an Amazon gift card, they will email you a code to enter at the appropriate Amazon site (.ca or .com) to receive the amount of the gift card. You must have an Amazon account to be able to enter the code. Once entered, the amount of the gift card will be added to your Current Balance.

Before you redeem for cash via PayPal, you must create a PayPal account using the same email you used to sign up for SuperPoints because they send the cash to that email and your PayPal balance is automatically updated. Also, you must add your bank account to your PayPal account before you can use your funds.

This site is an amazing way to earn a little extra money and there's not much effort involved. I usually end up with enough points to cash out $10 - $20 per month. That's an incredible possible $240 a year just for clicking a button. All it takes is taking the 5 - 10 mins a day (I do all my daily stuff while I watch TV) to get you to the rewards you want. So get started today and you will be earning your own gift cards in no time.

Here's a link to get you started!  http://superpoints.com/refer/eternalpaw

Triple coupons = nice savings

1x Tyson chicken nugget bag
6x Yoplait yogurt cups
1x YoCrunch yogurt
1x Dannon Light and Fit
3x Silk soymilk
1x Danimals yogurt pack
1x Minute maid orange juice
2x Dannon greek yogurt
2x Listerine
3x Planters nutrition bars
4x Starkist tuna
3x Dole fruit in cup pack

$63.00 groceries......paid $19.55 out of pocket (69% savings)

Superpoints is a great site

Why do I like Superpoints?

To be honest, I would rank this as the second best online money making site (second behind Swagbucks). It isn't as lucrative or automated as Swagbucks, but I feel that it’s less time consuming than Swagbucks!

The more friends you have sign under you the quicker you earn, however most of the points I have gotten have come from the daily emails Superpoints sends as well as the button. Be sure to check those emails frequently because you do start out with 1-5 pts but the more you redeem the higher your point counts go.

The biggest way to win with Superpoints by far is the lucky button. Take 5 - 10 minutes of your day and be sure to click on the Super Lucky Button every day. When I first started I would only win 1-5 pts out of 30 clicks but the more I clicked each day the more points I get.

Be sure to fill out your basic information on your profile because it increases your membership and you get more points and more clicks also you can redeem quicker!

The best part about Super Points is that you don’t have to wait 2-4 weeks before getting your prize you redeem for. Superpoints usually sends out the prize in a matter of days. This is actually a lot better than Swagbucks, which seems to only send out prizes once a month.

If you use PayPal be sure to have that as your email address with Super Points so you don’t have to change it later. But here is the best part if you redeem for PayPal cash you can expect in your account within one week of redeeming your points. You can't beat that. 

So what are you waiting for? Go click on your Super Points Super Lucky Button. 

Here is an invite so that you can get started. http://superpoints.com/refer/eternalpaw  Also be sure to watch my page because I will post invite links regularly and some may even be bonus point referrals :)

Grocery trip week of 2/15 to 2/21

1x half gallon Smart Balance milk
6x Balance nutrition bars
1x Farm Rich Mozarella sticks
1x Farm Rich Philly Cheese Steak snackers
1x El Monterry Taquitos
2x Jose Ole Chicken and Cheese Taquitos
2x Kraft grated parmesan cheese
1x Sorrento Riccota cheese
6x Yoplait yogurt single cups
3x 4pack YoCrunch yogurt
10x Yoplait Greek yogurt
3x 4pack Activia yogurt
2x half gallon 8th Continent soy milk
8lbs of boneless, skinless chicken breasts
3x navel oranges
3x Trident gum
1x Smart Balance peanut butter
4x  2lb bag turkey meatballs
1x Dawn dish detergent
1x Skintimate shave gel
1x Pert Plus shampoo&conditioner
4x Degree deodorant
1x Jimmy Dean breakfast bowl
1x Ocean spray fruit shapes
4x Fiber One snack bars
2x Nature Valley granola bars
1x Snackwell snack bars
1x Totinos Pizza stuffers
2x Lunchables
3x Ragu pasta sauce
1x Mt. olive relish
1x Dole Fruit crisp
2x Peanut M&Ms
2x Mentos gum
1x Zone nutrition bar
2x MetRx protein bars
1x frozen mixed vegetables
2x Listerine
1x J&J baby powder
1x Peanut butter Cheerios
1x Crest toothpaste
1x Planter's nutrition bars
3x Hormel complete meals
2x Swanson premium chicken breast
1x banana chips
1x Dole fruit cups
1x Snuggle fabric softener


$287.64 of groceries......$139.34 out of pocket (52% savings)

You can bargain just about anything

        Times have most certainly changed.  Before the economy took a nose dive, it was common practice to only negotiate on large items (house, car, or tv). Then things changed. As the economy is struggling to get back on its feet, I have found that EVERYTHING can be negotiated. All you have to do is ask. If an item isn’t on sale, then you need to speak up and negotiate the price. You shouldn't feel embarrased to ask the salesperson “Can you do better on the price?”  These little seven words can mean the difference between paying full price and getting a nice discount. The worst thing you will hear as a reply is “no” but more often then not negotiation will begin. Remember, the seller wants your business and will in most circumstances make "changes" to ensure he has your business. You have absolutely nothing to lose by asking and the potential to gain a good deal.

        Today, I put that belief into practice. While scanning through my credit card bills, I noticed my internet bill had gone up. I immediately called the internet provider and asked to speak with someone for customer retention of my account. The salesperson on the phone was happy to assist me. I informed her that I noticed my bill had increased from previous months and was curious as to why the change had occured. Turns out I was set up under a promotion that had expired. No matter. I then told her that I had received offers from competing companies offering the same service for a cheaper price, but I have been with this company for quite a while. "Can you do better on the price?" Immediately, she replied, "That's what I needed to hear. Let's see what we can do."  By the end of the transaction, I was set up on another promotion. My phone call to the company and those seven little words saved me 30% on my internet bill each month.

        So don't hesitate to ask for a better price. If the business really wants your business, then they will make accomadations. Seven simple words that cost you nothing but breath and initiative can present BIG savings. All you have to do is ask!

I should have done better

Not sure where exactly I went wrong, but thought I had adjusted my tax being withheld so that I would only get a $100 (+/- 50) for a refund. However, that is not the case. I overpaid a whopping $1100. That's a large amount of $$$ to just for all intensive purposes "stick under a mattress." At first I thought I could attribute the oversight to all the stuff that I donated this past year when my girlfriend and I combined into one house and had to get rid of a LOT of stuff. Obviously it would be hard for me to plan for that when setting up my tax papers, but that only accounts for about $300 of my refund. So what exactly was different from last year that caused an $800 difference? The only thing I did differently is make MORE money.....which in turn means I should owe MORE money. Now don't get me wrong. I'm definitely not complaining about an $1100 "windfall."  It's just I'd rather have that windfall throughout the year so that I can at least earn interest on it (more than likely, I would just accelerate my debt payment that much faster). Oh well, this year should be more stable and give me an actual idea of where my numbers need to be.

Say goodbye to debt

Today I have decided to make my debt free future sooner. I already max out a ROTH IRA every year and put in 15% of my income to my ROTH 401(k). I have about 6 months "emergency" money available and another 2-3 months available if all else fails. That being said, today was pay day. After setting aside all monthly expenses, I still had a good amount left over. So I decided to give my mortgage a little boost and applied all the extra (minus about $200) to my principal. It feels good to know that by the age of 31 (maybe even 30) I will be COMPLETELY debt free.

How does $25/month in Amazon bucks sound?

http://www.swagbucks.com/refer/eternalpaw

Sign up for swagbucks using the above link. It's absolutely free. You earn swagbucks by doing things you already do online. The first thing I would suggest doing is changing your homepage to www.swagbucks.com and using that page as your search engine. You can win swagbucks by doing searches, daily poll, NOSO, downloading and using the toolbar, doing offers, answering surveys, and watching swagtv.

So you may be thinking that this sounds like too much work, but believe me it is REALLY easy. Every day, I make it a habit to check the daily poll (1 swagbuck), skip through the NOSO (2 swagbucks), logon to the toolbar (1 swagbuck), and watch SwagTv (a max of 150 swagbucks *limited time*).  For the SwagTv, I found
 http://sbbot.blogspot.com/ to be a marvelous tool. It will reload the videos for you until the meter reaches 100% at which point you will need to put in a CAPTCHA. About every 5-6 minutes you will earn 3 swagbucks.  If you search through the swagstore you will see a great number of items that you can exchange your swagbucks for. Personally, I think all of the prizes do not compare to the $5 Amazon gift card. However, you are only allowed to buy 5 a month. Even if you just did the swagtv daily, you would have enough swagbucks by the end of the month to get $25 in amazon gift cards. I have actually made over $500 so far. As for what to do with the "extra" swagbucks, I have chosen to bank my bucks until I have enough for the $100 paypal giftcard. I've never won a swagstakes and do not know anyone who has so I do not participate often.

This is a great way to make a little extra money without having to do much work at all. Just get started and see for yourself how easy it is to get just about anything you want (as long as you can buy it on Amazon) for all intensive purposes FREE.

Failures and Accomplishments

Be prepared to follow me on my journey to becoming a millionare. You will get to experience all the successes and exciting times of the journey. You will also get to experience the darker side. Join on the ride and maybe you can take some of my successful paths and learn from those not so enhancing moments. Also feel free to offer tips and suggestions. Sit back, relax, and enjoy the journey!