Free money!

Hmmm, free money and Pottery Barn gift cards, do I have your attention yet? There is nothing more fun then getting free money, and I'm not talking about when you find a penny on the ground when you're out and about. I'm talking real money here.

While I have normally never believed in any of those "rewards" programs, I've gotten really lucky the past couple weeks with them.

First example, we do our normal banking through our credit union who doesn't really deal in rewards and such because they don't rip people off with a bunch of extra charges in the first place, and therefore can't afford to give customers all those little perks, but for my husband's business, he's gone through National City long before I came along. He doesn't have a ton of expenses for his business besides gas, maintenance, and the occassional lunch with a client (he ownes a lawn and landscaping business in case you care), but in the past three years, they really added up. He had just over 100,000 points. So he chose the $100 Home Depot gift card (41,500), which I got o choose the $100 Pottery Barn gift card (40,000 pts). Woohoo! I did say he could put it away and give it to me for a Christmas present though. =(

Second example, we buy our gas from Speedway gas stations 90% of the time. It just so happens with my husband's landscaping business, we use A LOT of gas. So we've been collecting speedy points for awhile now. I usually pay no attention to our points, but looked at the reciept yesterday and noticed we had almost 90,000 points. So not only did I redeem my points for a $100 gas gift card (66,000 pts), but I also snagged a $25 JCPenney gift card (19,000 pts). Hmmm, one step closer to that end table I want!

And lastly, I'm a member of the Mariott rewards program. I don't travel a whole lot, but from time to time, I have to go to DC for work and we always stay at the Mariott. I've probably only stayed maybe 40 nights in the past two years, but they constantly call us with killer deals. The other night, they railed me in. I put down a $199 down payment for 5 nights, 4 days to either Myrtle Beach, Hilton Head, Orlando, West Palm Beach, Aruba, St. Kitt or St. Thomas. If we decide to stay within the US, we only have to pay the $199. If we go to Aruba, St. Kitt or St. Thomas it's only another $200! Yeah, there is the whole catch about listening to a 90 minute presentation, but even at 25 years of age, Todd and I are experts at these things. The key, get into a huge fight about money and act like your going to get a divorce. Works every time!