6 Pack Large Coffee Mugs (14ozs) - $10

 I love coffee, but there is nothing worse than drinking coffee from a tiny mug.  I have to keep getting up for another cup and adding creamer and sugar.  I'm much too lazy for that.

Well, if you have the same problem, here is your solution:

14-Ounce Colored Ceramic Coffee/Soup Mugs, Large, Set of 6 - $10 from Amazon

Gevalia Mocha Latte - Free Sample

Free Sample of Gevalia Mocha Latte

One free sample per person as long as there is a separate email address.  The form was accepted for me and my wife even though they are being sent to the same address


I'm pretty sure that regular Gevalia coffee has a hashgacha, but I would check this for a hashgacha once it comes.


HT: Hey It's Free

Free Coffee - Sunoco APlus

Tomorrow and Monday, September 29th and 30th, you can get a free cup of coffee at Sunoco APlus locations with this coupon.

Not every Sunoco is an A Plus location so find your closet location here.

Activate Chase Freedom and Discover it 5% Categories

Disclaimer - The Discover offers are no longer valid.

You can now activate Chase Freedom and Discover it 5% Categories.  5% categories last from the beginning of October until the end of the year.


Chase Freedom - 5% back on up to $1,500 of purchases at Amazon and Select Department Stores - Activate here
         Apply for Chase Freedom here - $100 Sign up bonus for spending $500 in 90 days

Discover It - 5% back on up to $1,500 of purchases online! - Activate here.
         Apply for Discover it™

Free Kid Friendly Activity - Flat Rock Brook Nature Center - Englewood NJ

I'm always looking for good, inexpensive activities to do in the Teaneck area.  This past Sunday, my family found a really good one.

Flat Rock Brook Nature Center in Englewood, NJ is 2 minutes off the Jones Road exit of Route 4.  

Everything is free, including parking.  They have nature hikes that include bridges and ponds.  It is perfect for kids 2 and up.  We have a newbord so we carried him in a BABYBJORN Carrier. 

Buying From Target.com - Maximizing Spending

Disclaimer: I receive a referral commission for the following link(s) and I greatly appreciate supporting the site:  Top Cashback and Raise



I've talked about buying from Target.com before, but I made a new order tonight and I have a little extra information here (hint- It's at the very end) so bear with me.


My family spends a lot of money at target.  At this point, we buy diapers and wipes for two sets of children and baby formula.  All that adds up big.


Here are my steps for maximizing my savings:

• Target Red Card - 5% off and free shipping with no minimums.  As I will explain, I pretty much never use this card anymore, but I still get the extra 5% discount.
• Taking Charge of Education - Pick your favorite school and Target will donate an additional 1% of your purchase to that school.  If you have no school, please pick Jewish Heritage in Amherst NY.  School ID 118518.  They have a small budget so every dollar matters.
• Buy Gift Cards 
• I am consistently checking giftcardgranny.com for discounted target cards, which is a aggregate site for websites that sell discounted gift cards.  I will usually buy anything better than 4%, but let's assume 4%. Tonight I was able to buy it for 6.7% discount.  Here is a picture of it after I already bought it.

• Top Cashback - Most of the time, GiftCardGranny will report that Raise.com has the best value.  I know that if I go to Top Cashback first, I will get extra cashback.  Right now it is at 2% so my 6.7% from Raise was really 8.7%.
• Credit Card for Gift Card - You get your normal rewards from your credit card when you buy the discounted gift card.  Unfortunately, Raise.com does not accept American Express so I can't get 2% back so I am stuck with only 1.5% back.  8.7% just became 10.2%
• Paying at Target.com - my Target Red Card is connected to my Target.com account. I assume this happened when I saved the card for future purchases, but I'm not positive.  Since the Red Card is connected, I get 5% off and free shipping even when I use a gift card for the entire purchase!  I get the benefit of the Red Card without ever using it!.  10.2% has now become 15.2% with free shipping!  Savings like a Boss!

American Express and Shop Rite - Spend $150 get $30 off - Free Money!

Register any American Express card you have here.  Spend $150 in one purchase at Shop Rite and receive a $30 statement credit onto your card.

You should get an immediate email that you have registered your card and another email once you spend the $150 saying you will be getting $30 back.

Shopping must be done by 10/12/2013


Every American Express card is eligible, including Authorized Users of cards issued by American Express.  If the card is not issued by American Express (ie. - Citibank AMEX, Fidelity AMEX, PenFed, etc.) only one card is eligible, not authorized users.  You will be able to tell based on whether the authorized user has a distinct account number on the front.  If it is distinct, it is eligible, if not, it isn't eligible.


Spend money on anything to get to $150.  I bought a $200 Visa Gift Card, which looks like this.

I had an email waiting for me when I got home. I used my American Express Blue Preferred and got the email saying I was successful.  There is a $7 fee so it is only a net of $23, but I get another 6% for buying it at a grocery store so I will get an extra $10.50 in rewards for a net of over $33.  In addition, I can load this card onto Bluebird at Walmart so that it is all profit!

Shop Rite sells Shop Rite and gift cards from other brands without any fees (at least mine does) so you can buy $150 worth of gift cards without any fees!

Discover it - 5% Cashback Online!

* Earn 5% Cashback Bonus for online purchases from 10/1/13 (or the date on which you signed up, whichever is later) through 12/31/13, subject to a cap of $1500 in purchases. Offer does not apply to government products or services, education providers, utilities, or travel. Amounts that are not charged to your card during your online purchase will not qualify. These purchases must be made by 12/31/13. Purchases made using Near Field Communication (NFC), virtual wallets, or similar technology may not be eligible. If a purchase is coded for a category other than listed above, it will not qualify. Rewards are added to your Cashback Bonus account within 2 billing periods. See Cashback Bonus Program Terms and Conditions for further detail.



Disclaimer: I receive a referral commission for the following link(s):  Ebates, Discover offers are no longer valid.

DISCOVER IT™'s upcoming 5% category is online shopping.  I buy everything I can online for convenience and extra points so I'm pretty pumped.

The maximum spending is $1,500 for the months of October, November and December.  Here is one idea of how to maximize rewards if you can't spend the full $1,500 online.  I haven't tried it myself and I won't until October starts so stay tuned.

1. Gift Card Mall - You can buy 3 $500 Visa Gift Cards for $1,522.11 which is equal to 1.47% in fees.
1. Start you purchase from Ebates and you will get 1% cashback into your ebates account so you will be getting 4.5% back instead of 5%

The terms and conditions from Ebates shopping at Gift Card Mall state the following:

You won't get cashback for the extra fees, but the actual $1,500 should get you 1% cashback.

Anyone have any other ideas?  Share them in the comments

Lands End Email Sign Up - Free $5 Shop Your Way Rewards

Sign up for Land's Ends emails and you will get $5 in Shop Your Way Rewards money.


Shop Your Way Rewards is the joint rewards program for Sears, Lands End, Kmart and My Gofer. You get the equivalent of 1% of every dollar your spend towards your next purchase.

It's a free program so there is no downside other than having to set up a new email filter to get rid of the emails cluttering your inbox.



You can find your Shop Your Way Rewards number by clicking on Rewards points in the top right corner as shown in the picture below.

Charles Tyrwhitt Shirt and Tie - $50 Including Shipping

If you click this link (You won't find the deal from the regular site), you can get Charles Tyrwhitt shirts for $40 and it comes with a free tie. Shipping adds another $9.95 so it comes out to $50 total.

The normal price for a shirt is 4 for $200 on sale and ties are also $40 each on sale so this is a great deal.


I am a big fan of Tyrwhitt shirts and I have been slowly replacing my Brooks Brothers shirts with Tyrwhitt shirts because they look much nicer, last longer and Brooks Brothers seems to have gotten rid of their unlimited return policy. Too many people like me.


Tyrwhitt shirts are also backed up by JK.


Thank you YK for the tip

Start your purchase from Chase Ultimate Rewards Shopping Portal and you might get 5 points per dollar spent cashback as well.  The deal is only from this link so here is how it might work.  Go to Ultimate Rewards and then on to the Tyrwhitt main site.  Then come back to the blog and click on the special link.  You probably won't get anything, but it's worth a shot!

Bank of America Shopping Portal is 6% so choose whichever one based on the card you have.

Free Money from Staples - Oren Strikes Again!

Disclaimer - The Discover offers are no longer valid.

I love it when Staples coupons come in the mail.  Their online coupons almost always work on Visa gift cards.  A Staples online coupon means that I can buy money at less than cost.  That is never a bad price.

The coupon I got was for $25 off a $75 purchase.  Staples sells Visa gift cards in $50 and $100 denominations so I picked up a $100 gift card.  The normal fee is $106.95.  After a $25 code, the final price came to $81.95 or 18.05% off!  Not too shabby, but it doesn't end there.  

Maximizing the Purchase

Now, that I know I'm going to buy the card, I need to figure the best way to buy it in order to get extra points/money.  

A check on cashbackholic.com shows that if I use my Discover IT™  and Shop Discover portal I

will get 5% extra for a total of 6% off the price.

If I use the Chase Ultimate Rewards portal I will get 3 Ultimate Rewards points per dollar spent.

However, I have a Chase Ink Bold card (there is an annual fee after the first year) which gives 5 UR points per dollar spent at office supply stores like Staples.  Therefore, if I start shopping through ultimaterewards.com and use my Ink Bold, I will get an 8 UR points per dollar spent (655 points). 

1 UR point is worth at least one cent because it can be redeemed for a penny so this is the equivalent of another 6.55% (8 points off the final price, not the value of the gift card) off the price for a total discount of 24.6%!  Far less shabby!




Incidentally, it came with a coupon that gives you 3 pieces of luggage with a $100 order. So, I bought another $100 visa gift card for $106.95 and got another 8 UR points per dollar (856 points) for the equivalent of them paying me $1.50 to take 3 pieces of luggage.  Anybody looking to buy some luggage?  I will give a good price ;)

Chase Freedom and Kohl's - 15-25% + 20% off Like a Boss

Kohl's is probably my favorite store that I just about never shop at.  I may start now.

If you have a Chase Freedom, right now is a great time to be shopping at Kohl's online.

Here is how to save a lot of money.

• 5% 
• Kohl's is included in the current 5% rotating categories on Chase Freedom so you get 5 points back for ever dollar you spend in Kohl's up to $1,500 until the end of September.
• If you already spent the $1,500 at gas stations, like me, you aren't eligible for this 5%.
• Activate here
• 10%
• If you start your shopping from Chase's Ultimate Rewards Shopping Portal. You will get an additional 10 points per dollar spent.  Either do your shopping this way or buy physical gift cards and you now have 15% off the next time you shop at Kohl's.
• 10% 
• According to Frequent Miler labs, you can use a Kohl's gift card to pay and you will still get 10 points from Ultimate Rewards Portal.  So, buy physical gift cards to get your first 10% through Ultimate Rewards.  Then, go back through Ultimate Rewards portal to get another 10% when you pay with your gift card.
• If you follow these tips, you will get 25 Chase Ultimate Rewards points per dollar that you spend at Kohl's.
• 20% 
• Use coupon code MARCHING to save 20% off a $100 purchase.  There is almost always some sort of coupon code available.
• Kohl's Cash
• Get $10 off Kohl's Cash for every $50 you spend.  This is officially expiring today, but they usually have a similar promotion.

Soda Stream Kit for $86, 2,175 Ultimate Rewards Points and $10 Kohl's Cash

A Sodastream Soda Maker Starter Kit from Amazon costs $80 with free shipping.  From Kohl's the same product costs $100 + a $5 shipping surcharge, which is not a good deal on its own.

However, when you add coupon code MARCHING (you have to add another product to get over $100 to qualify for the the 20% discount).  The price drops to $86.11 before taxes, which is still more expensive before the Chase Freedom kicks in.

You will however get 2,175 Ultimate Rewards points which is a minimum of $21.75 back so you are really only paying $64.25.

Then you will get $10 Kohl's cash for spending over $50 which can be used on your next purchase.

Overall, not too shabby!

One Caveat

If you buy the gift cards, it will take a few days to come in the mail and there is no guarantee of a promo code and Kohl's cash at that point, but I think it is still likely.  You can still everything else today and get 15 Ultimate rewards points instead of 10 and skip the gift card step.