Who Wants to Win a $300 American Express Gift Card? Enter Now!

Posted by Danelle Ice at 12:19 pm

Nov 152011

Update: This giveaway is now closed. Please stay tuned for the winner announcement!

The following is a sponsored experiment conducted for American Express and giveaway with prize donated by American Express.

I’m giving away a $300 American Express gift card to one lucky winner just in time for Christmas shopping! Keep reading to find out how to enter.

Our $300 American Express gift card giveaway is part of an experiment I just did for American Express involving their new Blue Cash cards. They wanted me to calculate how much cash back I would get for a whole year if I paid for all my groceries and fuel on the American Express Blue Cash card instead of my debit card. Boy, did I get a surprise!

My Yearly Spending Experiment

I needed to calculate how much I spend each year at the grocery store and at gas stations so that I could find out how much money I would get back if I paid with the American Express Blue Card instead of my debit card.

I divided my grocery and fuel expenses into the 4 top items I spend on so that I could get a good estimate of my monthly spending. These top 4 categories were food, diapers for two babies, baby formula for one baby and half formula for one toddler, and fuel for our two vehicles.

Food Costs: $12,000 per year

$250 per week x 4 weeks = $1,000/ month

$1,000 per month x 12 months = $12,000/ year

Diapers Costs: $1,344 per year

$14 a box x 2 boxes per week = $28/week

$28 per week x 4 weeks = $56/ month

$56 per month x 12 months = $1,344/ year

Baby Formula Costs: $1,008 per year

$14 a can x 6 cans / month = $84/ month

$84 per month x 12 months = $1,008/ year

Fuel Costs: $2,880 per year

$60 per fill up x 4 fill ups = $240 / month

$240 per month x 12 months = $2,880/ year

It’s shocking to see that we spend so much in a year on those basic necessities! Plus, what seems like a lot to me for our family of 6 might seem much cheaper to someone else with higher expenses.

Next, I had to calculate how much I would have saved by getting cash back on my purchases if I had paid with the American Express Blue Cash card instead of a debit card. Adding my food costs, diapers costs, and baby formula costs together gave me my grocery store total for the next calculation.

Grocery Store Total: $14,352 per year

x3% cash back

$430.56 cash back per year

Gas Station Total: $2,880 per year

x2% cash back

$57.60 cash back per year

For an entire year, I would get $488.16 back if I just paid with the American Express Blue Cash card instead of a debit card! To me, that’s a significant savings for things I have to buy anyway.

Calculate How Much You Would Save with Blue Cash

Now you can calculate how much you would get as cash back for an entire year! I know you want to compare your number to mine and see if it’s higher or lower! Plus, you’ll need to do this step to enter the $300 gift card giveaway. Fill in the blanks for your expenses:

Food Costs: $12,000 per year

$______ per week x 4 weeks = $______/ month

$______ per month x 12 months = $______/ year

$______/ year x .03 = $______ cash back

Fuel Costs: $2,880 per year

$______ per fill up x ___ fill ups = $______ / month

$______ per month x 12 months = $______/ year

$______/ year x .02 = $______ cash back

What does your total possible savings look like? Is it higher or lower than mine?

Why are We Giving Away a $300 American Express Gift Card?

We’re able to give away the $300 American Express gift card thanks to a promotion American Express has going right now. They want people to know that using the American Express Blue Cash card can save you money over using your debit card to pay for grocery and fuel expenses because it gives you cash back for purchases at qualifying types of stores.

Unfortunately, superstores and warehouse club stores do not count for cash back in the grocery category (3%), so unless I switched to a different store for groceries, I’d only get 1% back on my Walmart purchases.

The American Express Blue Cash card pays 3% at super markets, 2% at gas stations, 2% at department stores, and 1% everywhere else.

If you want to take advantage of the Blue Cash Preferred card from American Express or the American Express Blue Cash Everyday card, you can click on those links to find out the specific features for each one.

But remember, you DON’T have to apply for the American Express to enter our contest – we’re giving away a $300 American Express gift card anyway!

Design H_

How to Enter for the $300 American Express Gift Card

One lucky person will win a $300 American Express gift card. By entering this contest, you agree to our Giveaway Terms and Conditions and it is open to USA residents only. Random drawing to be held and winner to be announced on November 21, 2011.

To Enter:

You must post a tweet with the hashtag #Bluecashmeifyoucan on twitter telling me (@HomeEverAfter) how much cash back you would get on fuel and groceries for 1 year if you were using the American Express Blue Cash card.

Then, come back to this post and leave a comment below with a link to your tweet. Do this between today (11/15/11) and Monday, November 21, 2011 at 10am PST.

Extra Entries are for after you’ve done the mandatory entry above. You can do all the extra entries once PER DAY per person, so bookmark this page!

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Disclaimer: In compliance with the FTC Guides, this article has material connections. IS World Media (ISWM) has been compensated for posting about this campaign and the winner will receive a free $300 gift card provided by American Express.