January Goals: Strategically Save and Spend

I kinda forgot to set my Jan goals. These goals only pertain to saving money and deal-finding. Last year, I set a goal to collect Target giftcards for use during Christmas and boy, did they come in handy! I am doing the same this year as well as a few other things as well.


GIFTCARDS

1. Accrue (4) $5 Target giftcards (ACTS Mouthwash and Barilla pasta deal).
   Total spend: $30 OOP, get $20 in giftcards
2. Accrue (2) $10 CVS Cashcards. Week of 1/13 and week of 1/19.
   Total Spend: $30 OOP, get $20 in giftcards
3. $10 Sephora giftcard from Viggle 5,000 points to go. Yes, Viggle gives out free giftcards for watching TV :-)

My total spend estimates listed above is my budget, if I know the deals in advance I am in a better position to budget and sometimes I don't know all the deals and therein lies the challenge :-)  I give myself a $5 buffer.

SAVE TO SPEND

1. Yes, I have funds I save just to spend at a later date. These funds come in handy for Christmas shopping, clearance shopping and other things that I know I am going to spend money on down the line..might as well be ready for it.  Christmas Shopping: $10; Clearance Shopping: $10;Bday parties, kids school trips fund: $5. I'm staring small this month only because I have other savings goals in addition to these that I've allocated funds to as well.

AD HOC EARNINGS

1. I like to make back whatever I spend in ad hoc expenses via surveys and Swagbucks. Those are my two main ways to make money online. So this month, my spend is: $85. Which means I need to make $85 to cover it. I plan to split this between Swagbucks and my favorite survey site My Survey. I need about 5000 Swagbucks to cash out at $50, and to complete about 5 full surveys to cash out at $40. I know this totals $100, but I can only cash out in increments of $20 with My Survey and $25 with Swagbucks.  I used all of my Swagbucks in December, so I'm starting with just 350 this month, but I am sure I can do it!  And you can do it too! Click here to join Swagbucks and click here to join My Survey!