Get Rewarded

Do you feel a little like you need a second mortgage each time you fill up your vehicle? I sure do! Thankfully, we only live about 10 minutes from where I work and my kids go to school. Financial Guy, however, has a 30 minute one-way commute every day. For those of you shaking your heads and muttering, "amateur", because you drive much farther, I know you definitely feel the pain at the pump! Evidently, Mapco wants a piece of the money making pie, as they've recently come out with a rewards program.

My friend Scot was telling me yesterday that much like Kroger's Fuel Points program, Mapco now offers a similar 3c off each purchase incentive. This is all hear-say, as I haven't made it to my local Mapco yet to get mine-- but I am today!! You sign up in-store and get the rewards card. Then you can go online and choose how you want to use your rewards. It's dollars-spend based, so just like Kroger, the more you spend, the more options you have in terms of rewards. The rewards can even be used on purchases made inside the store, not just on gas, which is also cool. Now if I could just talk Kroger into sending me a $10 gift card every time I spent a certain amount of money at their pumps, but I digress. Apparently, at any time, if you decide you want to change how you use the rewards, you just go online and ba-da-bing, ba-da-boom, you change it. It's that simple. Put your shoes on kids, we're headed to Mapco! :)

And while we're out, let's hop over to Mimi's Cafe and take advantage of their buy one, get one free deal! The name of this restaurant makes me laugh because, at my house, 'Mimi' is what my kids call my mom and growing up she used to tell us she was NOT a short order cook, but now the old girl has a chain of restaurants... well, not really. :)  Go here to get your coupon, but hurry! It expires March 14, 2012.

Thanks, Money Saving Mom!



It's back! Restaurant.com is having their $2 gift certificate sale, again. What a great way to get gifts to local restaurants, but not break the bank in the process! You won't find chain restaurants on this site, but lots of good choices, still! Be sure to read the fine print. Most require that you spend a certain amount of money or may only be good on certain days of the week. Regardless, I'd say spending $2 on a $25 gift certificate is pretty smart any way you look at it!

How many $5 Amazon.com gift cards have you earned lately? None? Seriously?? Then you're obviously not using Swagbucks. If you've ever Google(d) something, you can use Swagbucks! It's a search engine that randomly rewards users with, well, Swagbucks. After accumulating a certain amount of Swagbucks, (depending on what you want to cash them in for), they can be traded in for a variety of items. My favorite is the $5 Amazon.com gift card. I let those puppies accumulate in my swag account, then when I have several, I make an Amazon.com purchase. Last fall, I paid a very minimal amount for 3 pairs of Teva sandals for our kids before visiting Disney World. Want to know just how much I paid? Go here. :)

It's Monday! Have a great week and save on, friends! :)