As I have mentioned before, couponing has allowed us to save a significant amount of money in the last six months. We have been able to put that extra money towards paying off house expenses (specifically our little surprise renovation project), adding to our savings and it has allowed us to enjoy fun things that we would not have had money in our budget for otherwise. In the last few years we have been really wanting a new, higher-end digital camera. We thought maybe would buy one before our Honeymoon last year but we never quite got around to it. Black Friday came and went this year and even though we saw the models we wanted for great prices, it just wasn't in our budget. Lately, I have been taking advantage of all the great deals at Target and CVS where you can earn gift cards with your purchases. I normally just take these gift cards and use them towards my weekly grocery trip or use it on my next Target purchase. This gave me an idea; what if I saved this "found money" towards something big? That is exactly what we are going to do.Every time I earn a Target gift card with my purchases or earn a $10 American Express card at CVS, we are going to save them in an envelope and put them towards a camera next Black Friday. I will also be using my reward points from my online search/cash back sites to redeem for gift cards as well. I specifically use E-bates, SwagBucks, and MyPoints.Our goal is to have $600 in Target/Prepaid Gift Cards by next November so that we can use them to buy the camera we want on Black Friday 2012. It seems like a high number but I have probably earned close to $100 in Target and Amex cards (from CVS) in the last few months alone. They are in small amounts ($5-$10) and won't really be missed now that we are saving them. I will try to update on our progress periodically.
