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November 29, 2006

Playing with money

Have you ever found a bill with "Where's George?" stamped on it? You can go to wheresgeorge.com, enter in the serial number, and see where the bill has traveled. In my four or five years of looking out for these bills, I've only found three and all of them were at the same farmer's market in Mountain View, California. It's probably another nerd like me marking them up who also likes heirloom tomatoes. Too bad I already have a girlfriend, or I would try to track down this cool person. (Hopefully, it would be a good looking female that wouldn't accuse me of stalking like that last time. But I digress).

A small site that shows pictures of money with funny stuff written on them is Stuff People Write on Money. I dunno, I think I could've done this in 2nd grade:

Ugly Money has a little bit better artwork. And when I say a little better, well, judge for yourself:

I mean, Gene Simmons' tongue is not that long. Just terrible. Can't really say anything bad about the colors, though.

The best site of this bunch is the one that shows you how to fold your money into shapes like snakes on planes. Well, actually, I couldn't find a picture of a plane, just a sailboat. It's money origami! Or as I like to call it, Origamoni. Also, Monigamey. Either one works, really.

Also, do you know the trick about putting a penny on a train track? Maybe I'll save those details for a future entry.

Posted by brian at 09:21 PM | Comments (0)

November 28, 2006

More money from Discover Card

I have two Discover cards. I got the second one in order to get a $25 sign-up bonus and almost never use the second one. I say almost because every so often (about every two years or so), I get something in the mail like this:

We sent you a new Discover Card several weeks ago and we've noticed it hasn't been used for any purchases yet. Please call us as soon as possible to confirm you've received your Card. You'll get $1 Cashback bonus for every purchase you make between now and December 31, 2006 up to $20 total ...

So I've been buying stuff with the second Discover Card, but using it sparingly. For example, when I fill up the car with gas, I put a $1 worth of gas on the Discover Card and use my Citibank card that pays 2% back on gas purchases to buy the rest. At the supermarket, my girlfriend pays for almost everything on our joint Citibank card that pays 2% for groceries and I'll pay for the milk on the Discover Card. So far, I've got 12 purchases for under $40 and earned $12.

Since you have to spend a certain amount with Discover Card in order to start earning a full 1% cash back, it's not my favorite card. On the other hand, sometimes it can be an awesome card since you can get 5% cash back on promotional items like clothes, concert tickets, books, etc. This month, you get 5% cash on movies and music and restaurants, so it's nice to have one Discover Card. But if you already have one, consider getting a second one just for the occasional free $20.

Posted by brian at 06:33 PM | Comments (0)

November 22, 2006

Frequent flyer miles made easy

The other day I wrote about a website, DealMine, that makes it easy to buy things cheaper by telling you about all the discounts available at online stores.

Well, a similar site is out there that lets you know how many frequent flyer miles you can accumulate by buying stuff at certain online stores. You can find those same offers at DealMine listed among all the other offers, but the WebFlyer Mileage Mall lets you focus just on frequent flyer miles. For example, from now until the end of the year, you can earn 6 miles per dollar spent at Target.com using your MasterCard (double the normal 3 miles per dollar spent).

The rest of WebFlyer lists other ways to maximize your frequent flyer miles and has a lot of good tips, although I didn't find a listing of the info I posted yesterday about how to quickly earn a free ticket on American Airlines ... hmm ... slackers!

Posted by brian at 07:35 AM | Comments (0)

November 21, 2006

Free ticket on American Airlines anywhere in the U.S.

Here's how to earn 30,000 American Airlines AAdvantage bonus miles with about 30 minutes worth of effort. You can turn those 30,000 miles into a free ticket anywhere within the U.S. or Canada where American Airlines flies.

First, sign up for the Citi/AAdvantage MasterCard. You earn 20,000 miles after you spend $250 on the card. Plus, you get a free companion certificate to bring along a friend if you buy an American Airlines ticket for $299 or more and you get a $50 off certificate for another American Airlines ticket. Call 800-603-0695 or go to the website.

Now, that Citi/AAdvantage MasterCard will cost you an annual fee of $85 but the fee is waived for the first 12 months. So get the card, use it for $250 worth of purchases, wait the 8-10 weeks to get the miles credited to your new AAdvantage account, and cancel the card before the 12 months is up so you never have to pay the annual fee. Or, if you like the card, pay the $85 annual fee and earn even more frequent flyer miles when you buy stuff.

Ok, that's good for 20,000 miles, but we still need to earn another 10,000 miles to get that free ticket.

Next, get a regular checking and e-Savings account from Citibank. The savings account pays 5.00% APY which is not bad and no minimum balance is required to avoid monthly maintenance fees. Once you pay two bills online for three consecutive months, 10,000 AAdvantage miles will be posted to your account within 90 days. Visit offer.citibank.com or call 877-681-9200 and use offer code CS2A.

These offers expire at the end of the year, so get on it!

Posted by brian at 08:06 PM | Comments (0)

November 19, 2006

Discounts made easy

If you're willing to spend a couple more minutes when you buy something online, you should be able to save a few bucks without having to sign up for anything. To check out what loyalty programs you probably already belong to and how you can buy things cheaper, check out DealMine.com. It brings a lot of the programs and rewards that are out there into one convenient place.

I typed in "Target" and found out I could save 10% off my order since my girlfriend is a member of AAA. But I could also save 10% if I was a member of ISIC, or 3 miles per $1 spent on my American AAdvantage credit card or 5 miles per $2 spent on my United Mileage Plus card.

The other cool thing the site does is allow you to compare prices on item from Shopping.com so you know the cheapest place to pick up some toys for your nieces and nephews this holiday season. I mean, have you seen the price of Legos these days?? If discounts apply, it automatically shows them, too. I haven't compared it with Froogle, my other favorite deal comparison site, but having a place that aggregates all the deals into one easy-to-use site is so darn convenient and a real money saver.

Posted by brian at 09:21 PM | Comments (0)