What I'll Be Doing On This Snow Day

As everyone has heard, a snow storm has hit the East Coast. For once, we have a snow day WITH snow. I could write about how to protect yourself from travel cancellations (wrote about that here) or about jaunts to warm destinations.

View From My Apartment Balcony

Since I am stuck at home, not really Metro is running, so I could go somewhere, I feel like I need to get some long-standing tasks done. Here are 10 things I hope to accomplish today:

1) Complete Federal Taxes (Maybe use this offer)

2) Book March Trip to Canada (looking at you United Miles)

3) Finish Hotel Confidential Reports (don't know about Hotel Confidential, see here)

4) Pack for this weekend (Get Away to the Mountains)

5) Research Australia // New Zealand Trip (I doubt I even do this today)

6) Research 15 Ways to Earn Hilton Points (upcoming series)

7) Complete eRewards or Opinion Miles Club -  (I should earn some miles today, somehow)

8) Write a post on my secret love, Swagbucks.

9) Verify I have all my credit cards - I feel like I may be missing 1 or 2. I tend to leave them at bars

10) Drink??? Yes, best thing to do on a snow day is drink and I have this baby waiting for me:

Will I get all 10 items done? Probably not, but its better to have a list than sit in front of the TV waiting for midnight. Why Midnight? The release of Season 2 of this baby begins:

Happy Snow Day!
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Need Shoes? 21X United Miles @ Shoe's.com

A few days ago, I saw an email from United offering 21x miles for purchases at Shoes.com. This offer is only for those with United Mileage Plus Credit Cards. Otherwise, its been reported that payoff is 15x miles per $1. To earn the points, you have to log-in to the United Mileage Plus shopping portal.

I didn't think about it much about the email. United sends them all of the time and I tend to glance at them. That changed last night when I looked at my dress shoes:

My plan was to buy new black dress shoes next month, but 21x points per $1 is a great deal. I decided to move up my purchase. I am a big Johnson & Murphy fan, so I bought two pairs of their shoes. One for good weather and another for not so great weather:
                                            
In addition, until 8/31, you can get 20% off of your entire order plus free shipping.

Typically, you can not use codes and earn miles. However, this one comes from the United website and per the terms and conditions, this code is allowed:

Unfortunately, my shoes were not eligible for the discount. Therefore, my shoe purchase earned me 5,460 United miles - $260 x 21 = 5,460

I am trying to earn 75,000 United miles in the month of August, so this purchase goes a long way.
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Investments

United Airlines has partnerships with Fidelity and ShareBuilder that allows MileagePlus customers the opportunity to earn miles for signing-up and investing money with these companies. The amount of miles you can earn is determined by the amount of money you have to invest. The good new is between the two companies there is an option for people at all investment levels.

For those who have $25,000+ to invest, Fidelity's offer is better.

Fidelity currently offers MilagePlus customers the opportunity to earn up to 50,000 Mileage. The current offer is tiered with those investing $25,000 to $49,999.99 earning 15,000 miles, $50,000 to $99,999.99 earning 25,000 miles and $100,000+ earning 50,000 miles.

The terms and conditions state that you must open a new non-retirement account or add new money to an existing brokerage account. Those opening a new account have 60 days to transfer the funds to earn money; while those adding new money to an existing account have 30 days to make the transfer to qualify for the miles.

For those with significantly less money to invest, like me, Sharebuilder is the offer to look at.

The current offer from ShareBuilder is 2,000 miles after opening a new account and making your first trade.

The offer does not have restrictions on the type of account, other than it being an investment/brokerage. You can open up general investment, retirement or custodial accounts.

Also, unlike the Fidelity offer, there is no minimum investment required. However, you will need enough money to complete your first trade; therefore, you could call that the minimum investment.

I would be remiss not to give a warning here. Investing money comes at a cost. Each of the companies charges to make trades on your behalf. Please look at the cost sheet before making the decision to sign-up for either promotion. If, like me, you are in the market to start investing money, these are good (not great - I have seen better) offers to use.

Happy Investing!


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 Have a question for us? E-mail us at chris@doitforthepoints.com or jd@doitforthepoints.com

New Customers Earn Miles with Peapod

Located in the United Shopping Mall, Peapod is offering somewhere between 400 to 600 miles for new customers first order.

Peapod is a home grocery delivery service. Purchase your groceries online and someone delivers them to your front door.

Peapod currently serves the following states/area: Chicagoland, Milwaukee, S.E. Wisconsin, Indianapolis, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Southern New Hampshire, New York, New Jersey, Maryland, Virginia, Washington D.C., Philadelphia, S.E. Pennsylvania

To earn United miles, one needs to be a new customer and spend at minimum of $60 on your first order.

Earlier I stated that you can earn 400 or 600 miles because as you can see the offer on the United page states you earn 400 miles for shopping. However, when you click the Shop Now button, the systems says you will earn 600 miles.

So, one will earn somewhere between 400 to 600 miles for using the service. The cost for delivery depends upon your zipcode and amount of your order. Where I live the cost of delivery is as followed:

Where my mom lives the shipping is different:

It is important to note that Peapod offers $15 to $20 coupon codes for new customers. However, you can not use the coupon code and earn miles. It is one or the other. So, one has to decide is 400-600 miles worth  not saving $15?

Currently, one can earn miles through Peapod with American Airlines, Delta and Southwest.

Peapod can save you time and also earn you miles.

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Way to Earn Miles: Through Social Media via Bckstgr

If you are an avid social media user like I am you are always looking for an easy way to combine your social interactions with a way to actually earn real value. Previously there was a connection through FourSquare that would allow you to earn United miles every time you checked into an airport in your area that United flew out of. But that was shut down last summer.

Register. Earn. Redeem. Get exclusive products & incredible experiences.

Instantly earn United MileagePlus®award miles when you engage participating brands via social media – then use them for once-in-a-lifetime experience and lifestyle rewards.

SIGN UP TODAY!

Now the easiest way to earn United miles through social media is through the company, Bckstgr. If you sign up through the site and then link your social media accounts they will send you notifications when companies they partner with are offering opportunities to gain miles through simple actions with social media. Previously they have had offers that added up to a total of 1,500 points. Not a huge amount, but still adds up! Right now the product is still in it's beta testing phase so the opportunities to earn miles are few and far between. But it never hurts to sign up.

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Follow us on Twitter @doit4thepoints! Have a question for us? E-mail us at chris@doitforthepoints.com or jd@doitforthepoints.com