2022 TALLY (Preliminary):
$200 Capital One (DL credit card - used for auto insurance)
$ 30 Citi Reward (for charging hotel)
$ 15 AmEx Reward (for charging insurance)
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$245 TOTAL *ONE-TIME REWARDS*
Ongoing rewards:
+$296 AmExRewards (6% cash back groceries/streaming services)
+$71 Target rewards (5% discount Target purchases; mostly groceries)
+$128 Visa Rewards (3% cash back restaurants/fuel). Ended up also using for groceries in Q4 (3% cash back)
+$919 Citi 2% card (2% back everywhere - health insurance/medical is the *big* expense that we charge, is more than our mortgage payments)
Grand Total = $1,659
I just want to add that historical figures below do also include bank bonuses. They just don't generally work very well for us so I do not utilize as much. (We did -0- bank bonuses in 2022).
Year 2011 = $4,164
Year 2012 = $2,782
Year 2013 = $2,623
Year 2014 = $3,128
Year 2015 = $2,585
Year 2016 = $1,906
Year 2017 = $3,578
Year 2018 = $2,096
Year 2019 = $2,266
Year 2020 = $2,107
Year 2021 = $2,377
Year 2022 = $1,659
Total 12 Years = $31,271 ***Mostly Tax-Free Income***
Note: I have been tracking since 2011 because that's when the rewards got CRAZY. We have always utilized cash back on credit cards. It's just been extra rewarding during the past decade.
***CAVEAT - I absolutely do not recommend utilizing credit card rewards in this manner, unless you are in full control of your credit card spending. We treat our credit cards like debit cards; only charging if we have the cash on hand already. We've never paid a cent of fees or interest.***
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I am just leaving this as a placeholder. All I need to do is add in the December rewards when I have them, for the final 2022 tally.
Honorable Mention to I Bond interest. ~$1,200 interest this year and will be more next year. I won't include it because it's not a "bonus". It's basically the equivalent to bank interest. But it was such a boost this year, and might be some of the reason I did not pursue more rewards.
In addition to the I bond boost, I just am not as motivated with MH working, and with the kids making their own money and paying for more of their own expenses. The credit card rewards made all the difference during our lower one-income years. I feel like I say "meh" every year, that I am losing interest in these. But... I keep getting enticed by the easy $800 here and there. This might be the first year I let it go. (The year is not over it. Will see.) I did do a big reward (in 2021) to pay for MM(19)'s college laptop and I might to the same for DL next year. So I can see some potential bigger rewards on the horizon.
MM(19) did do a $200 credit card bonus this year. But he didn't need me to co-sign his credit card. I was not involved in that, so won't add that to the tally. I did get DL(17) a credit card and a bonus (and helped him with the spending to get the bonus.) Same as we did for MM, it was nice to have a $200 chunk to apply to his first big car insurance bill.
There was also a couple of obvious small rewards that I just had to click a button and/or switch credit cards to redeem. (I didn't seek them out, but I got an email or saw mentioned online.)
Given the low energy I put towards looking for credit card bonuses recently, it's no surprise that this will be our lowest year (since tracking).