Take your money to the max!

If you have good credit, you can follow these steps to stretch your money 30 - 50% (when used for buying land and cabin materials)

Step 1: Collect free money. $678.

$50 - Open a Bank of America Checking account and deposit $125. (Referrer & Referee each get $25)
$25 - Open a Bank of America Savings account the same day and get $10. ($25 when you deposit $1000)
$50 - Sign up for a Bank of America Credit Card, no annual fee, get $50 (must spend $50 within 90 days)

$35 - Open an ING online bank account and deposit $250, (Referrer gets $10 & Referee gets $25)
$50 - Open an ING shareholders account and complete 1 deal, get $50.

$100 - Sign up for the Discover More credit card, spend $500, get $100.
$150 - Sign up for the Chase Freedom credit card, spend $500, get $100.
$100 - Sign up for the Chase Saphire credit card, spend $500, get $100.
(or Chase Preferred Sapphire  card, spend $3000 and get $250)
$50 - Continental Airlines credit card, get $50 & round trip flight after 1st purchase. Add person. Benefits. *Annual fee after 1st year, but cancel at any time.

Min: Earn $678 in sign up bonuses when you deposit $475 and spend $1550.

Note: If your married, and you and your spouse both have good credit, you can double this number above.

Also, since all of the above credit cards are also rewards cards, you will earn between 1% and 5% cash back on that $1550 (or $4050) that was spent. 3% of $1550 is $46.50.
You should be able to complete step one within 2 weeks, provided you have $1550 to pay the cards of with.
You may want to set up a Mint.com account, to keep track of all your new (and old) financial accounts


Step 2: Collect free materials. $926.

(first, make sure the 4 above credit cards are paid off)

Using your Chase Freedom card, purchase a Lowes Tax Return gift card, online, before March 14.
On March 18, the Lowes will add 10% to the amount on the card.
Now keep your eye out for a 10% off coupon for Lowes. You can usually find them in the mail.
If your on active military status, you can get an additional 10% off with your I.D.
(if your not military, there is another work around to acheive 40% off, but its done in $25 purchase incriments!)
Thats up to 30% off of your entire purchase, plus 3% cash back on your credit card!
So if you load $2000 on the Tax Refund Card, and utilize all discounts, get $926 in free materials.

Also, the Chase Freedom card offers 0% apr for the first 6 months, meaning as long as you make your monthly payment, you wont be charged ANY interest (for the first 6 months only).
So if your careful, you can take 6 months to pay back that $2000 ($333 each month)


Step 2.5: Recap

So up to this point, you have either spent:
A. $3550 cash.
or
B. $1550 cash and taken out an interest free 6 month loan with payments of $333 per month.
and you have earned $745 free cash, and $926 in free materials. ($1671 free total)

Step 3: Be thrifty.

This could actually be step 0.5. Visit thrift stores and garage sales regularly.
Watch for items like:
Mirrors, medicine cabinets, light fixtures, furnature, bed frames, sweet dishes and mugs :), tools, sinks, etc..
A cheap new mirror is like $50, but its $5 at DI, thats a 90% savings!
Also, Home Depot and Lowes do special sales, like 30% off all flooring supples, or even up to 90% certain clearance products, so check those 2 stores often as well.

Conclusion: 


Basically, if your careful, and you have a little bit of money to invest ($2000 - $5000), you can double it by putting it into a property (through sign up bonuses and material discounts) and then possibly double it again by selling the property, (of course you would want to use it for a few years before selling it)

I think its realistic to say you could turn $2500 into $10,000 in less than 1 year, and have a blast doing it. Worst case scenario, you spend $2500 and a few weeks of work, and your stuck with a 1/5 share of a cabin on some large acreage for the rest of your life. Give me a call or email if this sound like something you want to do, or hear more about.