DEAL: OnePass

1) You need a OnePass account, login to your account.
2) Under OnePass Frequent Flyer select Earn Miles.
3) Select ShopOnePass (this takes you to a series of links to online retailers).
4) Select Staples as the online partner.
5) On the left will be a gold link with your OnePass account number next to it, click this link and you will be taken to staples.com (make sure all scripts and cookies are enabled so they can track you and thus reward you).
6) Search for "Peachtree Pro Accounting 2009", you should see an accounting software product for $140.00, add this to your cart.
7) Search for "Casio KL-60L Labelmaker", you should see a $19.99 label maker with a $20.00 rebate, add this to your cart.
8a) You can either checkout now and get $159.99 of purchases, free shipping, $160.00 in rebates, and 640 points for OnePass, but have to also pay sales tax on all that. You also get to keep the stuff. To make this a super deal you need to follow step 8b).
8b) Goto: http://www.e-junkie.com/staples-coupons , and buy a $30 off $150 coupon (they cost $1.50). They will email you a coupon code and you should follow the links on staples.com to add coupons. Once you apply this coupon it should show -$30 from your purchase and thus only $129.99 for your purchases. The downside is that you lose 120 points from OnePass but after taxes you should still be paying less than $159.99 and you will be getting $160.00 in rebates. Thus you will end up making $19.40 (at 7% sales tax, and after $1.50 for coupon) and you still get 520 points.

Total deal: $19.40 NET cash from rebates, 520 points in your OnePass account.
(I use a cashback credit card and I get 1% cashback, thus in this deal I would get $1.42 in cashback on top of all of this, but you can compound whatever creditcard rewards program you are in. This is a general rule for perks from FAR [free after rebate] where you try to stack as many rewards programs on an otherwise zero cost transaction).

Total Cash Equivalent: $26.02 (assumes $0 value for software and label maker)

The label maker has an online rebate that you can fill out immediately after you make your purchase. The software rebate must be mailed in and I left off the cost of printing and postage for mailing the rebate. You could probably sell the software and the label maker and get $10 to $20 for them.

Continental Airlines OnePass (Instructional)

Continental's OnePass program uses points to buy flights (or other, but not my focus).

One-way flight: 10,000 or 12,500 points.
Cost to book a OnePass flight: $10 total.

Ex.: Trip from Charlotte, NC to Buffalo, NY, - 10,000 points. Trip from Buffalo, NY to Charlotte, NC 12,500 points. To book this flight you need 22,500 points and $10.

Taxes and airport fees may also apply, but the aforementioned 22,500 points and $10 are the same as the $220 price you would see online for a flight, this $220 similarly does not include the taxes and airport fees.

Value: I found a flight from Greensboro, NC to Boston, MA leaving on a Thursday and returning on a Wednesday for $229, I also found the same flight available for 20,000 points and $10. The rough approximation is that points are worth about $.01 each. Points can be more valuable if you use them to buy upgrades (but these are overpriced and thus you get more $ per point but less value per $).

Welcome to my new blog.

I have decided to avoid confusing blogposts on a specific topic and instead chronicle great ways to make some money, points, miles and everything else.

These posts are of two types: how to / instructional, and do it (a deal that is timely right now).