Over 15,000 Points from $2500 Spend Today

 

 

I have a confession to make: I hate shopping, with the exception of food shopping, which as a foodie I enjoy because of thinking about what I'll make with my Trader Joe's and Farmers Market purchases. Probably with many folks it's the other way around: they like shopping for clothes, shoes, electronics or stuff for their home, but not mundane grocery shopping.

 

Nevertheless, we all have to shop for necessities sometimes, so today for me was shopping day. Some of the shopping was at Office Max for Amazon gift certificates and other things I needed, some was at Sears, and there was a bit of grocery and drugstore shopping as well. The total spent? About $2500. Total points earned? Over 15,000 points, although of course points will post later, since the transactions were today. Combine that with the 50,000 sign up bonus for the Ink Bold or Ink Plus and that's just about enough for first class one way in Lufthansa or Swiss to Europe. I don't know about you, but I'd like to fly Lufthansa's new First Class and see how it compares to Lufthansa's old First Class.

 

Anyway, here's how the spend and points broke down:

 

We do a ton of shopping at Amazon, so we went through our previous stash of Amazon gift cards faster than I anticipated. It was time to get replacement cards so we could continue getting 5X Points for All Amazon Spend. I also had some other office purchases I needed to make right away. Normally, for non-gift card purchases it would be best to use the Ultimate Rewards Mall and click through (this month Office Max is at 5X) and then also use your Ink card to get an additional 5X, but I didn't have time to wait for shipping.

 

Thanks to using the Ink Bold I'll receive 5X points, so over 10,000 points total. You could also use the Ink Plus or Ink Classic to get 5X on your Office Max or other office supply store spend. See Ink Bold vs. Ink Plus vs. Ink Classic vs. Ink Cash: Which Business Card?

When it's just me, I tend to be pretty cheap for lunch, so I only spent $4 on a sandwich. Thanks to the Chase Freedom 5X for dining purchases this quarter and Chase Exclusives bonuses, I'll get 30 points for that $4 spend. Not too shabby!

There are some things that Amazon doesn't have (shock, I know) so stopped by the drugstore for them. As I mentioned in Earn Miles and Points for Dining I and many other Citi AAdvantage card holders are currently able to take advantage of an offer that gives us 3X AAdvantage miles for all dining, grocery, drugstore and gas spend, up to a total of 2500 AAdvantage miles, through 9/30/12. So my $10 spent will earn 30 AAdvantage miles.

 

It was time to stock up on yogurt and fresh fruit, and just as described above, the $16 spent at the grocery store will earn 3X, for a total of 48 AAdvantage miles. Some might scoff but hey, every mile and point counts and it's really no effort to just use the card that earns you the most points. 

One of the realities of vacation, at least for our family, is losing at least one thing on a trip. In this case, my husband forgot his bathing suit at the last hotel we stayed at, so we have to replace that, plus there are a number of things that for some reason weren't available after I had already submitted my last Sears order. Kind of frustrating, since I haven't experienced that problem with Amazon (i.e. if I'm able to put something in my cart, it actually exists in inventory) but in any case, I now need to find some alternatives for basic clothing items and shoes. The good thing is that Sears purchases made after clicking through from the Ultimate Rewards Mall are at 10X using the Chase Freedom, and Sears 20X Bonus Points via the Ultimate Rewards Mall and Freedom are possible. But for purposes of this post and my actual spend today, I'll just include the 10X.

 

Here's the summary:

Card	Purchase Type	Spend	Bonus	Points
Ink Bold	Office Max	$2013	5X	10,065 UR points
Freedom	Lunch	$4	5X + Chase Exclusives	30 UR points
Citi AAdvantage	Drugstore	$10	3X (promotion)	30 AA miles
Citi AAdvantage	Grocery	$16	3X (promotion)	48 AA miles
Freedom	Sears	$500	10X	5000 UR points
Total		2543		15,173 points

 

All told, this works out to about 6X, due to the major 5X Office Max and 10X Sears purchases. What miles and points have you earned recently with shopping?