Money Matters

 YAY!!!!! I am loved the first month of 2024!!!!!  I felt like I was in a good place mentally and physically  walking into 2024 because I took a lot of time for me.  Never ever apologize or explain why you need time for yourself. On Tuesday, I was watching people recording their Zoom tech layoffs on TikTok and Instagram and how incredibly brave they were to be vulnerable enough to record their feelings about being laid off for the world to see.

I made lots of money in January and that's  because I was picky about the deals that I choose to do.  I do not do most freebie deals unless it implicitly benefits my family or I can donate it.  Back in the day, I used get all the freebies but what I've learned over the years is that you have to manage freebies and that takes time away from spending time with my family. 

The closing of two San Diego Walmart Neighborhood Stores was really unexpected because I know the store on Imperial is the only grocery store in that area and if you don't a car, it's even tougher to get food.  Even National City doesn't have a grocery store, they only have Walmart.  The Walmart Neighborhood stores always have these hidden gems like the $5.98 Air Wick Essentials Mist Kits but they had other clearance items and hard to find items at those stores.  

I am still kinda stunned that Points Rewards Plus took so long to replenish the rewards and we can only redeem points twice after the 7th day of your most recent redemption. However, the the Points Rewards Plus is supposed to resume in March.

It was shocking to me that I had to reach out to Merryfield to find out that they are no longer offering $5 gift cards.  In my opinion, companies have a moral obligation to let their customers know when they've decided to reduce a customer's experience like the $5 gift card.  Companies are not in the business of being altruistic, they are in the business of making money.

The Finish Ultimate, I kept doing it over and over and over because it was a quick and easy money maker as Vons, Ralphs and Target kept me stocked up! However, I don't know what is going on with Swagbucks because it was working for me until I started submitting receipts from the closing Walmarts stores but even without Swagbucks, when I bought the Allegra Kids and the adult Allegra and the Nicorette at 50% off, I still made a killing.  The weird thing was the Allegra offers on Swagbucks disappeared...like both of them even though I'd submitted my receipt to SB first BUT they gave me the $15 for the Nicorette...so it was a $8 MM!

I've received $98.50 from settlements, $50 PayPal from Shopkick, $56.60 PP from Shopmium, $4 Amazon gc from Alexa, $164.05 PP from Ibotta, $23.22 PP from CO51, $35 Amzn gc, $70 Target gc from Swagbucks. 

My goodness, it took forever to get the second $25 PayPal for the Progresso Soup but it come through!  The second set of soups, I did donate them to the food bank.

Yes, I did return one of the Poop-Pourri back to Target so I wouldn't loose money on the deal as I wouldn't have ordinarily purchase the product.  I would have loved to kept both products but once the glitch stopped working on Ibotta, I had to return at least one of the products to be whole.

Below are my favorite deals from the month of January:

The free donuts at Vons

$4.50 MM Rind

$5 MM Air Wick Refills (the refills were on clearance for $4.50 each)

$0.94 Lean Cuisine

$4 MM Allegra Kids

$8 MM Nicorette

$4 MM Sweet Tarts

$3 MM Clorox Wipes

$5.62 MM Airborne

$4.32 MM KY Warming Liquid

$3.26 MM for 2 El Monterey single burritos 

$4.68 MM Optic White Renewal toothpaste