Great Posts from Around the Web

Here are some great posts from the around the Blogosphere to know about.

Ways to Support Your Favorite Bloggers

As Bloggers are fond to tell you, Blogging is not easy.  It takes a lot of mental energy and time to figure out deals and write posts that are worthy of being read.


There are many ways to support your favorite Bloggers.  Your little bit really does add up here.

• Keep reading and sharing.
• Bloggers need readers like you!  If you like what you are reading, share with others.  It's good for everyone.

• Start Amazon searches from the Blog's website
• Most people aren't able to use a shopping portal for the vast majority of purchases on Amazon anyways so why not help a Blogger out! On the right side of my site you will find an Amazon search bar.  If you start your purchase there, I will get a percentage of what you purchase without affecting you at all.  Many bloggers have this capabilities.

• Start a subscription to take advantage of the Bank of America Better Balance Rewards Card or any other credit/debit card requiring a minimal number of monthly purchases.
• The Better Balance Rewards is one of my favorite cards.  You earn $25-$30 every quarter for having a balance on the card every month and paying it off.  There are many ways to set up automatic purchases.  One of them is to pay for a subscription to Freequent Flyer Book's monthly super secret tips.  They are a little more obscure than your regular Manufactured Spending techniques but they are more likely to last because of it.  Alternatively, you can start a $1, $5 or $10 monthly subscription on this site through PayPal, also on the right side of the site.  I don't offer anything extra except the knowledge that you are helping Oren's Money Saver continue to be successful.  I know, I should charge more!
• If you are trying to pay with the BBR card, you may need a $5 subscription.

• Send over deals and information
• I can't and don't come up with every deal on my own.  I need your help.  Comment on the blog or send me an email if you think I would be interested in something.  I usually respond pretty quickly but I have a lot of obligations so forgive me if I delay in responding.  A great deal is worth a lot of thanks.

Let's Not Forget that Manufactured Spending is a Hobby!

Lately, there have been a lot of posts on the topic of cost benefit analysis of Manufactured Spending.

It mostly started after twitter was blowing up about earning $9.70 per AmEx Card via Ticketmaster with AmEx Express Checkout.  Many were questioning whether it was really worth the time and effort?



Blogger Reactions:


Matt, the head of Saverocity, feels that we are chasing too many small deals. We should be chasing the bigger deals.  The deals that will make a real difference in our bottom line.

William of DoC points out that he has different times in his life, some hours are more valuable than others.  If during his "free time" he can earn an extra $100, even better.

Shawn at Miles to Memories thinks we should all be calculating our ROI (Return on Investment) in Manufactured Spend relative to time invested and only focus on the most lucrative deals.

Chuck at DoC is also constantly calculating his ROI relative to time.

Freequent Flyer Book doesn't put a premium on his time. He is interested in saving/earning the most number of dollars from his dollars.


I respect all of these approaches, but my personal approach is actually quite different.

Manufactured Spending is My Hobby and I Enjoy It!

If MS was my job, there is no question that all the posts above would be correct.

It may not be The Hobby, but it is my hobby.


My wife likes to say that "some people collect trains and stamps, you collect gift cards.  At least your hobby brings in money instead of costing money!"

This is the approach I take to manufactured spending.  I enjoy it, I really do.  Does it take a lot of time?  Absolutely.  I might be better off doing something else, but I don't want to do something else!

@Made_By_Hugo asked on Twitter

Pause for thinking: if u won the Mega millions would you still MS? If so / not so, why / why not?

My answer on Twitter:

yes. Totally addicted. Love that feeling of a good deal!

I would like to add as well that I don't just love a good deal.  I love efficiency and maximizing.  When I can stack multiple savings at once, that's the best.

I love going to the grocery store, buying a $2,000 of Visa/Mastercard Gift Cards on my Old Blue Cash, earning $80 (once liquidated) and earning fuel points at the same time.  I went this week, bought $1,000 worth, earned $40, saved $2.00 a gallon and pumped gas for $0.19 a gallon!  On my 25 gallons between my car and my wife's car we saved over $50 besides the credit card rewards!  It doesn't get better than that.

I got into MS just like everyone else by the lure of cheap travel and extra money, but now I am totally hooked!

If you enjoy it too, don't let someone tell you that you are spending too much time doing it.  You are the arbiter of your own time.  If you want to focus only on the low hanging fruit, I get that.  If you think you are better off doing something else so go do something else, but if you enjoy it, go to town, even at Walmart!

Opportunities Are There for Real Money!

I don't want people to think that I do this for fun only.  First of all, my fun is commensurate with how much money I am making (and how much I needed to figure out for the deal ).  Second of all, I also know that at the end of the year I going to make some real money which adds up to real savings in my retirement and investment accounts.  It even seems like the amount of money grows every year as more deals are available and a lot of them from your Pajamas.


Take the last 2 months of American Express as examples of what can be possible:

$9.70 per AmEx card for Ticketmaster
$9.60 per AmEx card for Newegg
$10 per AmEx card for Allen Edmonds
$7.00 per AmEx card for Petco
$3 per AmEx card at Office Depot - Much more if you take advantage of the raise reselling promotion.
$20 off $100 at Staples - $14 off Visa Gift Cards
$15 off $79 at Walmart - $10 off Visa Gift Cards


I have over 30 AmEx cards between my primary and authorized users and my wife's cards.  I hope to increase that number significantly before Small Business Saturday in November (link is from 2014).  I'll let you do the math yourself.

The Staples and Walmart ones weren't available on all of mine, but the other ones were.  Throw in a few eBay gift card reselling deals (Link 1, 2 and 3) and you have quite a bit of money in the last couple months.

This doesn't include any credit card sign up bonuses, MS, fuel points, and reselling that I do.

My Takehome Lesson

I enjoy all these different facets of MS (I enjoy sharing the deals sometimes more than actually taking part in them) and I will continue to do it as long as I enjoy it.  I go less frequently for regular MS than I used to and you can pick and choose as well what you want to do.

It's important to note that I don't do every deal I talk about.  I almost never go to Walmart.  I don't enjoy the experience so it isn't worth my aggravation.  The employees at Family Dollar are much more pleasant so I go there instead, even though it isn't as lucrative per trip.


You are your own MS gatekeeper, choose deals as you please!

Great Posts from Around the Web Part 1

Here are some great posts from the around the Blogosphere to know about:

I haven't done this for about a week and then I was away for a couple of days and a ton happened so here is part 1.  I will try to get Part 2 at some point this weekend.

Great Posts from Around the Web

Here are some great posts from the around the Blogosphere to know about.

I'm also going to rename this Doctor of Credit's Best Hits.  Seriously, though, if you aren't following the Good DoC, you are really missing out:

Great Posts from Around the Web

Some Great Posts from Around the Blogosphere to know about from last week or so.  I'm trying to empty my Feedly so here goes:

• Amazon Allowance Set Up Automatic Debit Or Credit Card Transactions
• Doctor of Credit
• This is a great way to set up automatic transactions on your credit or debit cards.  Can be used for Better Balance Rewards or for cards like the AMEX everyday or AMEX everyday preferred which requires 30 transactions a month for the highest earning rate.
• $20 Upromise Referral Bonus Returns
• Big Habitat
• All you need to do is be referred by someone who got an email from Upromise, make one purchase and you will get $20.  Feel free to leave a comment with your email to refer others.  Limit of 10 per person.  You can also look at the comments section there for people who are looking to refer others.

Important Posts to Know About

Here are a few Posts from around the web to know about:

• Discover Double Cash Promo No Longer Available for Signup for Existing Accounts?
• Frequent Miler
• Try to jump on these offers fast.  It's a shame if you missed out.  You might have to apply for a new card
• $100 Phillips Gas Gift Card for $90, Stack with Bonus Bucks for $24 Moneymaker
• Doctor of Credit
• Another great eBay reselling deal if you were targeted for extra eBay Bucks.
• Roll Gift Cards into Points for Triple Rewards
• Frequent Miler
• Great post about Sears Shop Your Way Points.  Great to know about because of the Discover Doubling promotions.  A great way to add a lot of cashback and free merchandise to your Sears purchases.
• Annual Twitter Recommendations
• Freequent Flyer Book
• Check out his choices.  You might want to add them to your Twitter feeds.
• I liked Manufactured Spending in New York City
• Chasing the Points
• I love my New York City routine.  I have Staples, USPS, CVS, Family Dollar all right within walking distance.  The worst part of MS is when you take the time out to go somewhere and you are rejected at the cashier.  Learn the schedules that work and it will make MS much easier.

Great Posts from Around the Web

Some Great Posts from Around the Blogosphere to know about from last week or so.  I'm a little behind on this so there are a whole bunch of them.

• New Targeted AMEX offer - Get $75 back with $250 or more Purchase at Staples, Home Depot & More (Use 5x)
• Frequent Miler Quick Deals
• This is one of the best AMEX offers ever available.  I was not targeted, but definitely check if you were.  Only on AMEX business cards.
• Staples Easy Rebate: Purchase $300 in Visa Gift Cards and Receive $20 Visa Gift Card (June 21-27)
• Travel with Grant
• There have been a lot of these lately.  I never get upset.

• Best Buy - $15 promo gift card per $150 eGift Card.  Up to 26% off online with Discover Deals
• Big Habitat
• Great promo if you are planning on shopping at Best Buy anyways.  Not always something available to resell but flash sales have been good lately.
• Maximizing the Discover Double Cash promo: Huge Rewards via Online Shopping!
• Frequent Miler
• Great post.  50-70% off Sears Purchases in July?  Count me in!  50% is more realistic, but it may drop to as low as 30% off everything.  Oh no.
• How to Receive Mobile Notifications for Hot Deals that Will Likely Die Quickly.
• Doctor of Credit
• Doctor of Credit is flat out one of the best blogs out there.  The only problem is that there was no way to get the best deals quickly to your phone or inbox (too many posts to check everything).  Frequent Miler solved the problem with a separate site called Quick Deals.  Doctor of Credit started a new Twitter handle that you can set up for mobile notifications.  I highly recommend you jump on board to not miss out.
• Santander Adds a Definition for What is a Direct Deposit for Their Extra20 Deal
• Doctor of Credit
• Basically, switch to real direct deposit to get your $20.  Loopholes will eventually be shut down.  They're on to us!
• New Targeted eBay Coupons - I got a free $70!  Stacks with Discounted eBay Gift Cards
• Miles to Memories
• I wasn't targeted, but it's worth looking in your account to see if you were
• Top Cashback Offering $14 for Your First Purchase on Fiverr, Profit of $8.50
• Doctor of Credit
• Quick, easy, pajama money.  My favorite kind.
• Chase Sapphire Preferred is terrible, get Slate Instead
• Freequent Flyerbook
• Ever the contrarian, Freequent Flyerbook is always worth a read.
• Upgraded My Toolbox to Gift Card Churning Means Increased Efficiency and Execution
• Chasing the Points
• Interesting idea. If you are doing a lot of gift card churning, this is something to consider.
• 5,000 Points Per Hilton Stay Through July 6 at all Properties Worldwide
• View from The Wing
• Extra points if you are planning on staying at a Hilton anyways
• A Way Around Chase's New Rules
• Doctor of Credit
• Going into a branch to sign up for a credit card isn't as convenient, but it might be the difference between getting approved and not approved.  You also might get a bigger sign up bonus than online.

Posts from Around the Web

Some Nice posts from Around the Web

• $20 Statement Credit when you spend $20 at Amazon with American Express - Targeted - Every Blogger today.
• One example from Doctor of Credit 
• My 90,000 Ultimate Rewards Mistake - Frequent Miler
• Almost happened to me.  I was reminded by the rep as I was cancelling to move over my points before I lose them
• When are more points more valuable than fewer points? - Freequent Flyer
• I love American Express Gift Cards.  I use them to load onto RedBird and in non bonused spend since I can buy significantly more than I am able to liquidate through manufactured spend.  However, I buy them with a Fidelity American Express rather than any of the points earning cards he suggests since I would rather have 2% cashback than the equivalent points. 
• $100 Bonus for Setting Up Schwab Account with $10,000 deposit - Hustler Money Blog via Doctor of Credit
• Schwab is my main account due to their ATM refunds, lack of fees, low maintenance fee and commission free ETFs (SCHB is my favorite) and smartphone deposits of money orders.
• Defending the Sapphire Preferred from its Critics - View from the Wing
• I tend to agree with the "haters" on this one (See "The Devil's Advocate" and "Travel is Free".  I love it for the sign up bonus, but not much else.
• 2x points on restaurants isn't great.  
• Most people don't spend too much on restaurants.  You can also get 5x this quarter from Chase Freedom or Discover.  You can buy restaurant gift cards this quarter to get 5x in later quarters.
• 2x on travel is ok
• You can get 2 cents with Fidelity American Express and it would take a lot of spending to make the miles worth the extra $95 annual fee.
• Transfer partners is great, but...
• You can unlock Ultimate Rewards Transfer partners if you or your spouse has a Sapphire Preferred or an Ink Plus.  Ink plus has the same annual fee, but also has 5x at office supply, cable, phone and internet.  A far better card for the same fee.
• How to Find Manufactured Spending Opportunities by Yourself - Miles to Memories
• I actually think this will probably work very well to reach a spending threshold for a sign up bonus.  Sign up bonuses aren't usually clawed back in my experience, but I'm not positive.  Once the bonus posts you can ask for your refund.  I don't usually like refund techniques, but for some reason this one feels different.  
• No Hotel Status? Get Upgraded Perks with Visa Signature! - Deals We Like
• I've never of this so it was an interesting read.

Nationwide Visa Buxx - Emergency Manufactured Spending Method

I bet you didn't even know that there was such a thing as emergency manufactured spending.  I mean, seriously, what is that?

Emergency manufactured spending happens when you have signed up for 8 credit cards in the last two months and you have activated each one and completed the spending required for the sign up bonus.  Everything is perfect, right?  Well, what about that one credit card that you put in your "to do pile" on your desk and forgot to take care of, just like everything else on your desk (is that just my desk?)?  Or, what happens when you go to your favorite 3 lettered drug store to buy some gift cards only to find out that they are out of stock and now, you have 2 days to complete $3,000 of spending or lose out on your bonus.  That, my friends, is a true manufactured spending emergency.



How are you going to spend that money without a big ding to your wallet?  This is where the Nationwide Visa Buxx comes in.  It isn't my go to tool, but it is always good to have a few tricks in your pocket.  Manufactured spending is an every changing game of Wack a Mole.  You don't want to be left needing to spend $10,000 in the next 3 months and no way to complete that spending because Vanilla Reload has been discontinued (Do people still use those?) or because Paypal shut down your account!  The nerve, seriously!



Nationwide Visa is a prepaid debit card designed to help your teenager with spending.  You sign up for an account and add your "teen" onto your account and a prepaid debit card will come in the name of your teen.  Funds can be added via Visa or Mastercard credit cards.  Cash can then be withdrawn via ATM.  While this is a fine system, the fees associated with the method make it, for the most part, not worth very much if you aren't in hitting a spending threshold.

Not Just for Teens

While the account is billed for teens, anyone can be a teen, since we are all teens at heart.  Seriously though, anyone can get an account.  Enter any correct social security number and that same person's correct age and you can get a card, even if your "teen" is your spouse who is 45.

Adding and Withdrawing Money and Fees

You can load up to $500 a day online, but you can only have a maximum of $1,000 in your account at any one time.  There is a $2 load fee so $1,000 will cost you $4.  Your first load will cost $5 for the permanent card, but according to Flyertalk you can use promo code 02050053 to remove that fee.


You can withdraw up to $200 at a time, but you can only withdraw up to $200 per seven days.

If you use an Allpoint ATM, there is no fee from Allpoint and a $1 fee from Nationwide Visa Buxx.  My local CVS pharmacies seem to all have Allpoint ATMs.  More on that later! Withdrawing $1,000 will therefore cost you $5 and will require 5 separate trips to the ATM over 5 weeks.  Kind of a bummer!


When you combine all fees, it costs $9 and fives trip to the ATM to manufacture a measly $1,000. If you assume you are loading with a standard 1% card, you get $10 of rewards for a gain of $1 after fees.  Not something worthwhile on a regular basis, but maybe something to consider to reach a spending threshold.


If you have a spouse you can get one account for each person and spend up to $2,000 a month.

Possible Manufactured with Bank of America Preferred Rewards?

The previous fee structure assumed a 1% earning credit card.  That isn't the only option.  You can't use Fidelity American Express because they won't accept American Express to load money.  Don't use a Citibank card like the Citi Double cash (2% cashback that isn't American Express) because Citibank codes the loads as cash advances and you will be charged a fee.



You can use a Bank of America Cash Rewards card connected to Preferred Rewards which will get you 1.75% or $17.50 cashback for every $1,000 you load.  The $9 in fees cuts it to $8.50 overall or $17 for two for the same number of ATM trips.  However, if you consistently go somewhere that has an Allpoints ATM, you might be willing to go through this for the $8.50 or $17.  I'm not willing, at least yet, except for a sign up bonus, but that's ok.



HT - flyertalk thread and Freequent Flyer Book