I've been meaning to share this for awhile.... probably not the first one to think of the idea. When I tell my friends they are pretty impressed!
Calling it my Hustle because it's very trendy on the blogs to talk about a Side Hustle. I don't have other ways of making money, besides my full time job. So I try to think outside the box to maximize my cash back. I guess you could call it a Lazy Hustle.
I have the AMEX Preferred Cash card. The biggest benefit is the 6% cash back at the grocery store, up to $6000 year. I've never come close to maxing that out, which I want to do (without being wasteful) because that's a guaranteed $360.00, less the $95 yearly fee.
Besides the obvious buying groceries, I also purchase gift cards for other businesses I frequent on the regular. This is mainly Starbucks and Amazon for me.
Now here's a more clever one, if I do say so myself. I have both a Fred Meyers (Kroger) and Safeway close to my home and each has a gas station. I also have QFC (another Kroger) a little farther away. I buy gift cards for the stores (Kroger at QfC, Safeway at Safeway) so I earn 6% back at each gas station. I don't get 6% back at F.M. because it's categorized as a discount store. So I use the gift card purchased at QFC for anything I buy inside FM AND their gas station.
Conservatively I can earn an additional $100/year by doing my Grocery Gas Station hack, if I do it consistently. I earn even more by using the QFC card for FM store purchases (they sell clothing, home goods, electronics etc). It covers the annual fee! It's a bit more thinking to keep track of my GC balances but I just cut up blank address labels and stick them on the front of the cards and update the balance with a pen after each use.
The other idea, which I haven't done yet for some reason, is to buy Netflix GCs and load them on my account. That would earn me about $15 more/year.
So, any other ideas from Cash Back experts??
My AMEX 'Hustle'
February 23rd, 2018 at 10:30 pm
February 24th, 2018 at 03:00 pm 1519484459
February 24th, 2018 at 04:09 pm 1519488548
February 25th, 2018 at 07:15 pm 1519586145
Have you considered using Ibotta to make a little extra as well? I just joined. In two weeks I have purchased things I normally would have purchased, but they happened to be on the list of items eligible and I have $6 in my account. I consider that a side hustle of sorts.
February 27th, 2018 at 04:39 pm 1519749557