How much have you saved?

[11522914]

Hello everyone.

This is not about saving and investing for your retirement.

To start off I realize most of you great folks do not, would not, could care less, a waste of precious time, etc know how much money do you actually save using minimal effort in the process.

A little history

Back in 2015 I had a reputation at work for being the one who knew how to get the best deals, maximize credit card rewards, using cashback portals, where to get coupons. Everyone said I must save a ton of money. I thought how much do I really save? Since I have been using Quicken to track every penny I have spent since the early 90’s I thought maybe I could track it in Quicken.

I came up with making tags in Quicken to track how I saved money. The only rule was in order to claim the savings I had to make some minimal effort. I couldn’t count going to a store and an item was on sale. If I had to find or clip a coupon then it counted.

Some tags I created:
Coupons
Credit card rewards
Negotiations
Gift card discounts
Cashback portals
Reward point programs
Many others

So how much have I actually saved? YTD I have saved $3,860.48.
Take a guess how much I have saved since June 2015.

$40,977.07 - $6,556.33 a year - $546.36 a month.

Not bad for something that really doesn’t require that much time, although, again, I realize that for the majority this is a complete waste of time to track this.

Top tags $17,332.39 in credit card rewards – typically flights, hotels, cabins, etc, $8,808.01 using coupons, $2,453.61 buying gift cards using credit card rewards, $2,402.08 buying gift cards at a discount.

How much have you saved or what type of activities/programs do you use to save? I'm always open for new strategies.

Kevin

 

[Dtail]

We use credit card rewards heavily and monitor it closely. Earn about $3,600 yearly.
I get discounted gas cards at Publix based on total purchases, plus get bank cashback rewards. Don't know these totals, but definitely under $500 yearly.

 

[Sojourner]

So how much have I actually saved? YTD I have saved $3,860.48.
Take a guess how much I have saved since June 2015.

$40,977.07 - $6,556.33 a year - $546.36 a month.

Those are pretty impressive numbers. Congrats! My yearly savings are probably around $750 from credit card cash-back and signup bonuses. I have no idea what my "all in" yearly savings (including coupons, "negotiations", loyalty points/rewards) from all sources would be. But I'm quite certain they are nowhere near $6k/year.

I realized long ago that I'm the kind of person who likes to exert fairly minimal effort to get cash rewards/discounts, to the tune of maybe 5-6 hours/year. Anything more than that starts to feel like w*rk, honestly. But I get that it's a fun pastime for many folks and can be quite lucrative for those who take it seriously and devote a fair amount of time and energy to it.

 

[rodi]

Since I don't have the tags I can only estimate from the easy to find buckets:

- Costco executive membership reward (minus annual fee for costco) - around $400/year.
- Costco credit card rebate - around $500/year.
- Amazon 5% back on purchases - about $20/month --> $240/year.
- Travel rewards cashback - About $600/year.

... so a bit less than $2k/year on the easy to figure out, ZERO effort, rewards.

I'm sure there are more, but those were the easy to estimate ones.

 

[travelover]

I didn't buy a yacht, so there is a million dollars saved, right there.

 

[stepford]

I didn't buy a yacht, so there is a million dollars saved, right there.

Exactly. If your saving is proportional to spending (cashback programs, CC rewards, etc.) then greater savings doesn't necessarily mean you've come out ahead. It just means you've spent more money on more stuff for a fraction less.

I prefer to use total spending as a financial metric.

 

[ivinsfan]

I not only saved but made money today I got 10 packs of 80 count Bactive wipes and Menards is paying me 10 bucks to haul them out of the store.

Let's see someone top that.

 

[Walt34]

I didn't buy a yacht, so there is a million dollars saved, right there.

Only I didn't buy an airplane (only R/C models, which are bad enough) so I also saved a bundle. Not to mention the cost of the divorce which might happen if I were to buy an airplane, so I saved even more!

 

[Major Tom]

I don't know how much money I save. I'm always careful with my purchases, but don't go to too much trouble to find the very lowest price. Sometimes, I'll pay a little more if I like the vendor from whom I'm buying, or if there is a convenience factor involved.

I pay very reasonable rent on a tiny place, in a HCOL living area. I naturally tend to lead a minimal lifestyle. As a result of this, my biggest "savings" come from all the stuff I'm not buying. My main form of local transport is an old bicycle which, by the very nature of the beast, saves a ton of money over a car.

 

[daylatedollarshort]

I don't track the totals by year, but in a good month I can get $1 - $2K in freebies and discounts. That was pre-pandemic, with a lot of that total being discounted or free concert, play and event tickets from seat filler subscriptions, library passes and Facebook specials.

Things I do: cash back credit cards; credit card signup points; bank bonuses; ink recycling; contests; thrift shop shopping; Freecycle type sites (including a free big screen TV and patio table); cash back portals; estate sales; contests; library (free event tickets, music downloads, streaming); annual passes for gardens, zoos, parks, museum and wineries; Groupons; entertainment.com coupons for half price dining; free and discounted ride share and public transportation passes for seniors; inexpensive activities through senior center memberships; seat filler memberships and veterans discounts.

A big one is product reviews - over $5K this year. Grocery Outlet shopping - they put on the receipt the savings over Safeway type prices and we usually get at least 50% off.

 

[Jerry1]

We get the credit card rewards (Fidelity, Costco and Apple). We also use coupons. Our main grocery store is Kroger. We have their “member” card and take advantage of the deals every Wednesday when their paper comes out. Their best deal is gas points on purchases when combined with gift cards. They run 4X points on gift cards so we’ll get a $250 Amazon gift card. That gives us four time the points or 1000 points which equates to a dollar off of gas. When I run my truck down before filling up, that’s at least 20 gal, so $20 of savings.

 

[Car-Guy]

Just bought a new truck for a little over 80k... I seriously considered buying one with more options for almost 100k so the way I see it, I save 20k on this single purchase. Paid for the difference between the new truck and my trade-in with a 1.5% cash back credit card so I saved even more.

 

[ivinsfan]

Just bought a new truck for a little over 80k... I seriously considered buying one with more options for almost 100k so the way I see it, I save 20k on this single purchase. Paid for the difference between the new truck and my trade-in with a 1.5% cash back credit card so I saved even more.

Somehow this doesn't pass the smell test//

 

[Jerry1]

Just bought a new truck for a little over 80k... I seriously considered buying one with more options for almost 100k so the way I see it, I save 20k on this single purchase. Paid for the difference between the new truck and my trade-in with a 1.5% cash back credit card so I saved even more.

Somehow this doesn't pass the smell test//

Seems perfectly reasonable to me.

 

[SnowballCamper]

Seems perfectly reasonable to me.

When I tried to pay for a car with a debit card, I was politely sent home with the car and the expectation that I send a paper check. The interchange fees from card transactions are no joke. With small businesses and large purchases (over about 1k) I can usually get them to discount the fee off the price in exchange for a paper check.

It's tricky to count savings.... Does the $7,500 electric car tax credit count as savings? I even used the clean diesel tax credit on a VW (also $7,500) which they eventually bought back from me, amounting to free use of a car for about five years. What about the gas I don't buy for my electric car?

On the other hand I did pay about $700 for a set of kitchen knives, but that was back in 2004, and I still get use out of them daily.

I don't spend much time shopping for the deals and rewards, I look for the value & use I can get from a purchase. But I did finally give in and sign up for a rewards credit card that I use for most all small purchases.

 

[Car-Guy]

Somehow this doesn't pass the smell test//

What doesn't pass the smell it my post? That I paid over 80k for a truck? That I could have spent 20k more? That I paid the difference after the trade with a CC? All of the above? Or something else?


Check them out.... Base price for this model of truck starts at ~70k, and fully loaded w/ttl they can run over ~100k. Actually these days, many dealerships are "asking" (and getting) 10k or more over window sticker. So 110k or more is possible. https://www.ramtrucks.com/trx.html

Seems perfectly reasonable to me.

It may not be "reasonable" by some POV's but it is true!

 

[aja8888]

I paid about $30 K for my daughter's wedding two years ago. If we would have went with what she wanted to do for a wedding, it would have cost me about $75 K. Therefore, I saved $45 K on that wedding.

On another note, over the last two years, 2% cash back on my PenFed CC got us $1,823.25 as of today's checking on it.

 

[rk911]

we're in the other camp...trying to remember which card to use where, when and for what is just not worth the effort involved. K.I.S.S.

 

[Out-to-Lunch]

What doesn't pass the smell it my post?

I'm not Ivinsfan or Jerry, but pretty sure it is this part:

I save 20k on this single purchase.

 

[Car-Guy]

^^^^^^

"If" you are correct, I guess these two copied post below would not pass the smell test either? Just keeping with the theme of the thread.

I didn't buy a yacht, so there is a million dollars saved, right there.

I paid about $30 K for my daughter's wedding two years ago. If we would have went with what she wanted to do for a wedding, it would have cost me about $75 K. Therefore, I saved $45 K on that wedding.

 

[ivinsfan]

^^^^^^

"If" you are correct, I guess these two copied post below would not pass the smell test either? Just keeping with the theme of the thread.

LOL it started with coupons and gift card discounts...

 

[RobbieB]

I don't save anything. I'm past saving, I'm retired.

Now I just blow that dough. No budget, no tracking anything.

But 7 years after I retired, I've got more dough than I started with. So spending looks OK -

 

[calmloki]

We've cashed in $5400 this year in bonus earnings - mostly from his and her credit card bonus amounts that I consolidated in a Chase Sapphire Reserve stash, taking advantage of the "pay yourself back" program making any points worth a penny and a half. Building materials, Walmart, restaurants - it tickled me to buy a $600 refrigerator for the rentals with $400 worth of points.

 

[Car-Guy]

LOL it started with coupons and gift card discounts...

 

[skyking1]

yeah and then you darn dough-blowers took the thread RIGHT into the weeds.
Pfft.
Dough blowers.