We opened the Southwest Rapid Rewards card on July 13. The first statement closed on August 1. The statement arrived in the mail today. This always surprises me since I track everything online!

Our purchases total $1553.14 so far. Yes, in just under four weeks. I know that I scheduled a utility payment of $128.33 for sometime this week. I have my van in getting an oil change right now. I will get fuel after I pick it up. Those two will likely total another $90. I estimate we only need to spend another $230. And I expect that will likely come from fuel purchases, as we seem to have made a lot of recent stock up purchases, paid school fees, and purchased shoes.

I am leaning towards simply redeeming the rewards for gift cards rather than airline tickets. Although the rewards do make it a very good deal when flying four people! We just don't have plans for a vacation, although there are things we want to do. It is a matter of setting aside the time to go!

When we redeem the rewards for gift cards, I hope to pick cards that we would normally use for purchases. I will use the gift card for payment and then move the cash we would have spent to the Snowflakes for Equity.

I need to start to look for another new card with a bonus. I was able to get the Citi Thank You Preferred card with a $250 bonus. That offer arrived in the mail addressed to me. I noticed they are offering $200 on their website now, but the spending amount is $1,500 rather than $1000. As you can see above, we seem to easily have money to spend. Not real proud of that, but we have the money and that is just where the money flows! My husband would apply for this card, if we decide this is the best offer. We will be deciding this soon.

I did get my Credit Sesame score update yesterday. It went down from 826 to 801. No big deal to me. Clearly still a decent credit score! And I would guess in a few more months it will be right back up there.

I went looking for discounted gift cards yesterday and ended up at

CardPool.com where I found Petsmart gift cards discounted 12%. Turns out my cats will need cat food in the next week or two. I purchased an electronic gift card (which for this store can only be used online) valued at $37.12, and paid $32.66. Savings of $4.46! It gets better. I used the Southwest card for the card purchases, so the transaction helps earn rewards. The cat food I purchased had free shipping which is why I chose to order online than run to the other side of town. My total purchase came to $38.15. I put the remaining $1.03 on the Southwest card. Oh, and before I even started the transaction I went to Ebates so I could get 4% cash back. I like that type of savings!!

Using CardPool is one way to save money on purchases you make anyway without opening a credit card for bonus rewards. Any money you save could be put towards debt payoff or increasing your savings goal.

Anyone use discounted gift cards for purchases? Do you use them with regularity or just on occasion?