Our 2014 AMEX Small Business Saturday shopping spree!

We don’t do very much shopping, but every year we go on a small shopping spree for AMEX Small Business Saturday! 

As you may know, this past Saturday was the annual Small Business Saturday promotion.  This year, AMEX offered a $10 statement credit per AMEX card for spending at least $10 at a participating business.  Each eligible AMEX card (including Bluebird) could get a $10 statement credit up to 3 times for a total of $30 free from AMEX.  We have 6 American Express credit cards between the both of us and 2 Bluebird prepaid cards for a total of 8 cards eligible for this promotion.

Just like last year, we started the day by going to Bruxie restaurant, home of the waffle sandwich. 

I ordered the crème brulee sandwich with fresh strawberries and a vanilla latte for a total of $10.21.

My wife ordered the country sausage and egg waffle with soy decaf latte for a total of $11.23.

We paid separately to maximize our AMEX credit.  After factoring in 2 $10 credits, breakfast cost us $1.44 ($10.21 + $11.23 - $10 - $10)!

Next we swung by Blaze Fast-Fire’d Pizza to pick up some gift cards.  We went at a time when the restaurant was not busy and picked up 5 $10 gift cards.  We originally wanted to get more gift cards but the register was having some problems.  Coincidentally, there was a store promotion where if you purchased $30 worth of gift cards, you would get a coupon for one free pizza.  Because the cash register was having problems processing our gift cards, the nice cashier hooked us up with 2 free pizza coupons!

We bumped into a customer who also came for gift cards since he also knew about the AMEX Small Business Saturday promotion.  We had a nice chat about using miles and points to travel the world for free.

Our next stop was Nature’s Pet Cuisine, a local boutique pet food shop specializing in holistic pet products.  

All the pet foods and treats sold here are all natural, grain free, and non GMO.  We picked up $90 worth of treats such as coconut treats, buffalo lungs, chicken bites, buffalo ears, dried sweet potato, buffalo jerky, buffalo trachea, and more.   After explaining the AMEX Small Business Saturday deal to the storeowner, we made 9 separate transactions of $10.80 (tax was 80 cents) each.  Our total came out to be $97.20 and we will have effectively paid $7.20 ($97.20 - $90 AMEX credit) for $90 worth of quality dog treats. 

Abby was very happy to gnaw on her first dried buffalo ear tonight.  

Our final stop of today was to visit a local Japanese BBQ restaurant called Gyu Kaku.  Here we picked up 8 $10 gift cards spending a total of $80.  After our AMEX credits, we will go back to the restaurant for a nice dinner with $80 worth of free gift cards.    

Thanks to American Express and their awesome Small Business Saturday promotion, we will have saved $240 and supported several local businesses at the same time.