Category Archives: Weekly Updates

Weekly Review (Monthly Version!)

(This is a data recovered post, originally published on May 21st, 2015.)

This weekly review actually covers a period from about April 7th – May 7th. As I reported in this post I had an extremely busy month or so at work, so I was unable to get any meaningful updates up online. Recovery from the busy season isn’t instant, and I am still about a week behind, but we’re getting there…

The overtime also meant some extra commutes; bad for gas expense, but good for my savings totals! From April 7th to May 7th I pumped $72.78 in free gas during my commutes to and from work. That brings my total free gas to $228.96 since January 1st! Learn how I did it at my free gas tactical page.

I did my monthly spreadsheet update for my wife’s and my credit card accounts. In the past month we:

redeemed no points or miles
earned 19,774 airline miles
earned 58 hotel points
earned 1,222 Chase Ultimate Rewards
earned 1,315 “other” points (Wells Fargo Rewards and Barclay Arrival Miles)
avoided $37.76 in interest charges

New Posts this Week
– Regrouping After a Hiatus is my report on the aftermath of my busy work season, during which I fell behind in everything including this site. This post begins to explore some methods of getting back in the action after you take an extended break from your value tactics program.
– Menards Haul Spring Update shows approximately the last month’s worth of free Menards stuff.

Website Update
I may need to move the website to a new host in the near future. If this happens I will try to keep the downtime as short as possible.

I have an ever-growing list of improvements I want to make to the site, but I have precious little time to devote to keeping content updated, let alone to work on design enhancements. If something on the site is broken, if you find a typo, or if there is some feature I could add that you just can’t live without, contact me! (Yes, I realize how ironic it is that I just linked the contact page, which needs a major revamp.)

Travel News
The busy spring has flown by, and it’s hard to believe Nicoleen’s and my anniversary trip is less than 2 months away. The destination is still a secret, but seconds after the details are revealed to Nicoleen, you’ll be able to read about them at ValueTactics.com!

If this summer’s vacation is approaching at warp speed, our last trip is fading into the past just as rapidly. Jamaica 2015 was almost 3 months ago, and I still haven’t posted the trip review as I promised. That review is currently in the works, so visit the site regularly to see it when it’s published. Better yet, like ValueTactics on Facebook and follow us @ValueTactics so you never miss a single post!

Credit Card News
A lot of good promotions have popped up during my “month off.” The most exciting one, in my opinion, is Chase’s United Mileage Plus Explorer card. The sign-up bonus on this card is now at 50,000 United Miles, enough for two domestic round trip tickets. The card bonus is normally 30,000 miles, so this deal is a significant improvement. But it won’t last long; the promotion ends on June 2nd, so get the card now if you’re interested. Here is Frugal Travel Guy’s post on the subject (includes a link to the application):

Now you’re updated. Go employ some Value Tactics!

Half an Update

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My apologies for the lack of updates, folks. It’s the busy season at work and I’ve been running from one fire to the next (some days literally!). Since I had to skip the last weekly review, consider this a preview of the upcoming bi-weekly catch-up review.

Menards has it’s 11% sale again this week, so there are no free-after-rebate items. On Tuesday I used the big gas coupon, for $1.00 off per gallon on 25 gallons. In the past week and a half, I’ve used free gas tactics to get 31.18 in free gas!

For the first time in my life, I owed money back on income taxes. How better to turn a bad situation into a good one than to earn some miles or points by paying the man! Part of the intent for my last round of card apps was to utilize this guaranteed spend. Expect to see a full post on this in the coming days.

That’s all for now; my 5 minutes of peace are over. Back to the grindstone…

Weekly Review (April 7, 2015)

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It’s been a busy week- with value tactics and at work. This weekly review is a day late. What are they gonna do, take away my birthday?

I used the free gas tactic to get $6.52 worth of free gas this week. At Menards this week I made off with $179.51 in free stuff! For a complete list of items I got with free-after-rebate deals, check out my recent post.

New Posts this Week
– Menards Haul This week I featured some unadvertised free-after-rebate items, including a couple no quantity limit items. I also explain how I got an instant rebate check for expired sale items.
– My Last Round of Credit Card Applications – Overview outlines my latest mini app-party and briefly gets into the reasons I only got two cards this time. This post also has links to the most up to date info on the card offers I took advantage of.

Credit Card News
In addition to the two new cards I added to my wallet, we had some other card maintenance to do last week. Nicoleen’s annual fee was due for her American Express Delta Gold card, so she called to cancel. I’ll do a full post on her phone call within the next few days, but here’s a preview: She’s going to pay the annual fee and keep the card open (gasp!) 🙂

Now you’re updated. Go employ some Value Tactics!

Weekly Review (March 30, 2015)

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Lots to report this week…

I used the free gas tactic to get $9.82 worth of free gas this week. That brings my 2015 total to $149.66, which means that 17.6% of my work commute this year has been FREE!

Menards had their 11% sale last week but this week’s ad flyer has 4 free items.

Look for a Menards haul post later this week.

New Posts this Week
– My Favorite Blogs is a list of websites that I used to get my start. I still visit them frequently to make sure I don’t miss any big news. In the post I give a brief review of each site and lay out what I use them for. You’ll find some great resources there.

Credit Card News
Nicoleen has three cards to cancel or downgrade in the next couple weeks. Check the site daily or subscribe to my RSS feed to get the reports of how it goes and whether she manages to get any retention bonuses or avoid annual fees.

I will be doing a mini-app party as soon as I’m done writing this post. Stay tuned to read what cards I’m applying for!

Points & Miles News
The biggest news of the week is that as of today, all U.S. Airways Dividend Miles accounts and American Airlines AAdvantage miles accounts are now officially merged. Check out Milevalue’s report here.

Now you’re updated. Go employ some Value Tactics!

Weekly Review (March 23, 2015)

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I redeemed 8,750 My SA Rewards points for the 0.50/gallon gas coupon and used it on double coupon Tuesday this week. I pumped $26.50 in free gas on that purchase. That brings my total free gas (for work commute miles only) to $139.84 since January 1st! Learn how I did it at my free gas tactical page.

I did my monthly spreadsheet update for my wife’s and my credit card accounts. In the past month we:

redeemed no points or miles
earned 1,895 airline miles
earned 8,443 hotel points
earned 1,193 Ultimate Rewards/other points
avoided $99.47 in interest charges

New Posts this Week
– Are you too disorganized for this stuff? NO! is a response to those who have told me they just couldn’t keep due dates, card info, bonus requirements, etc. straight; and therefore can’t get into the credit card game. I explain how you may not have to be as organized as you think. And when you stop and think about the costs and benefits of making yourself do the minimum amount of organization to make this work, it’s well worth your effort.

Website Update
The to-do list of modifications I need to make to the site layout and design code keeps growing, but I have had no time to devote to it. Running a website as a one-man show is hard!

Those of you following ValueTactics on Facebook will need to update your bookmarks and “like” the new page here. The combination of my ignorance and Facebook’s complete lack of customer service* has resulted in the need for a reborn page.

Now you’re updated. Go employ some Value Tactics!

* I originally made a Facebook account for ValueTactics using the name “Value Tactics” and created the first ValueTactics Facebook page with that account. It turns out Facebook doesn’t allow “fake” accounts with an alias. I tried to move the page to my personal account, but over the years Facebook has literally removed all methods of contacting a person. All avenues of help end up making their way to the help forum, which doesn’t seem to be monitored by Facebook staff. After about 2 hours of frustration I decided to cut my losses and just create a new page with my personal account (like I should have done in the first place).

Weekly Review (March 15, 2015)

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It was a slow weekend at Menards. Today there was only 1 new ad flyer and I wasn’t able to max out the quantities on all the free items; my new purchases finally caught up with my available in-store checks. The total retail value of items I bought for free this weekend was only $11.99.

It was a little better week on the free gas tactics front. I redeemed points for the “big coupon” on Tuesday and filled my car and two 5-gallon gas tanks at a $1.06/gallon discount. My total free gas for the week* ended up at $28.73.
* commute only – not counting personal miles or my wife’s car

New Posts this Week
– Early March Menards Haul shows my free Menards stuff from the past couple of weeks.
– Tracking is the Key (and why you shouldn’t do it) is a response to those of my friends who see the value in using the tactics presented on this site, but who see the tracking and record keeping I do, and think it’s a necessary step. It IS a necessary step, but I’ve already done it for you! That’s one of the main reasons I created ValueTactics.com in the first place!

New Deals
No big credit card or points news this week.

We’ve been having warmer weather up here in Minnesota, which makes me think about flea market/garage sale season. So I’ve been thinking about some of my free stuff tactics and miscellaneous and one-off ways to make money by selling things. Yesterday I found myself half owner in a few dozen 40″ soccer balls and double action air pumps, for the low cost of offering some space in my storage shed. My friend and I will be partnering to market these online soon. I’ll let you all know how that goes. You never know when an opportunity to create value might come along, out of the blue. Just have to keep your eyes open! (Although a 40″ high-quality soccer ball with washable removable cover is hard to miss!)

Now you’re updated. Go employ some Value Tactics!

Weekly Review (March 8, 2015)

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It was a good weekend at Menards! Today there were 5 simultaneous ad flyers going, including a Crazy Days sale. (Crazy Days are Fri-Sun sales, usually with several free items) The total retail value of items I bought for free this weekend is $133.40.

My free gas total for the week was $6.81 using free gas tactics. One of the coupon flyers we get in the monthly junk mail has a few 15 cent coupons which are valid Sundays only. With gas prices edging slowly back up, I’ve been filling up on Sunday nights to save every dollar I can on gas.

Travel News
My wife and I returned on Tuesday from a 4 night, 5 day trip to Couples Resort in Negril, Jamaica, to celebrate our 10 year anniversary!

The main pool at Couples Negril

We splurged a bit on this all-inclusive resort. I planned the trip between April and August of last year and at the time I didn’t have many points or vouchers built up for lodging. So I decided to bite the bullet and make this my last “full price” vacation before starting to reap the rewards I’d been accumulating with points and miles. Although we paid for the resort (got a decent early bird sale price) we did get the airfare for free! $618.69 in airfare for FREE by redeeming 40,880 Southwest Rapid Rewards I got by transferring points from my Chase Ultimate Rewards account. Yes, if you’re doing the math, that’s less than you’ll get with just the sign-up bonus from Chase’s popular Sapphire Preferred card! With just this one card’s bonus you could fly to a Jamaican paradise with your wife, girlfriend, or mother-in-law. Then when that person gets the card too, they can return the favor and fly you two back there next year!

The trip was exactly what we needed after a long winter full of cold weather and stress. The resort was outstanding and the weather was great. I’ll do a full review coming soon. I’ll also do a breakdown of how we flew for free and what the whole trip cost us. Stay tuned. . .

New Deals
The only newsworthy change in the card world this week was a negative one: it looks like the Southwest Rapid Rewards Premier card is back down to 25,000 bonus points with every public offer I could find. This card had been at 50,000 points for some time, which it will almost certainly be back to in a few months, as this card is one of the most predictable as far as bonus offers go.

Now you’re updated. Go employ some Value Tactics!

Weekly Review (and Preview!)

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Part of my purpose for creating ValueTactics.com is to give regular updates of my activity with these tactics. It’s a way for readers to see how all this plays out in a real person’s life; not just as a string of hypothetical examples. With these weekly reviews you can see how day to day decisions and actions can add up and create a lot of value.

I also want to keep you updated on new card offers, points program changes, and other tactical intelligence to help you create and capture as much value as you can.

The 11% sale is finished at Menards, and there were two active ad flyers on Sunday. I picked up 30 stackable locking storage jars, 4 paint brushes, and 2 stain brushes for a total of $0.00. The total retail value was $70.09.

My free gas total for the week was $11.34 using free gas tactics.

I redeemed 5000 Wells Fargo Rewards for $50 cash.

I did my monthly update on my Big Spreadsheet and found that my wife and I had a net gain of 1,017 points this month (all types combined). That didn’t seem like a lot until I remembered that I spent 45,000 miles on a round trip ticket to Costa Rica for a friend.

Travel News
My wife and I are packing our bags tonight, because tomorrow morning we take off to paradise to celebrate our 10 year anniversary!

Order this and other great panoramic prints at Blakeway Panoramas.

Stay tuned for trip updates…

New Deals
The only major news this week in the card world is Chase’s public bonus offer of 55,000 miles on the United MileagePlus Explorer Business card. Even if you own a business, I recommend getting a personal card from Chase first so you can establish your relationship with that important card issuer first. Here is Frugal Travel Guy’s report on the new bonus offer: Increased Sign-Up Bonus for Chase United MileagePlus Business Card

Now you’re updated. Go employ some Value Tactics!