March 14, 2013
Today is March 14th! In the United States, we refer to this as Pi Day because of the way we write dates. Most people in the world write the date as Day/Month/Year. That makes sense: go from most granular to least in progression. In the United States, just as we adamantly refuse to use the sensible metric system, we also refuse to write dates in a sensible order. Our dates go Month/Day/Year. And, sometimes we leave off the year and simply write Month/Day. The benefit of this approach is that one day a year the date is 3/14 which can also be written as 3.14 which also happens to be the first 3 digits in Pi. Therefore, March 14th is Pi Day.
Since Pi sounds like “pie”, it makes sense to celebrate Pi Day by eating pie. This is also the one day of the year where it is imperative that rather than maximizing cost savings or point earnings, you should try to earn 3.14% cash back or 3.14 points per dollar for any pie you buy. This is not an easy task, but luckily for you, Frequent Miler is here to help…
3.14% Cash Back
TopCashBack is a cash back portal. The general idea is to start your online shopping at TopCashBack, click through to the merchant you want to shop at, and if all goes well you’ll eventually get some extra cash back for whatever you buy. At my suggestion (thank you!), TopCashBack is celebrating Pi day by offering 3.14% cash back at PlasticJungle (today only).
PlasticJungle is a gift card reseller. They buy and sell discount gift cards. The trick today, is to go through TopCashBack to PlasticJungle and buy an e-gift card to a store or restaurant that sells pie. Once the gift card arrives, print it out, and go visit the local merchant to buy the pie.
3.14 Points per Dollar
If you prefer miles and points over cash back, you’re in luck. There is a way to earn 3.14X while buying pie today. Here’s how:
- Log into the Ultimate Rewards Mall with your Chase Sapphire Preferred account (this part is very important).
- Find and click through to Groupon, which is currently offering 2 bonus points per dollar through the mall.
- On the Groupon site, find a local deal for a restaurant or market that sells pie. Pizza pie is a good option if you’re not yet ready for dessert (see picture below).
- Pay with a card that earns only 1 point per dollar. Do not pay with your Sapphire Preferred card which earns 2.14X at restaurants and 1.07X elsewhere (because of its 7% annual dividend).
Why this works: If you follow the instructions above, you will earn 2 points per dollar on your Sapphire Preferred account and 1 point per dollar on another card. At the end of the year, your Sapphire Preferred account will earn its 7% annual point dividend, so the 2 points per dollar you earned will become 2.14 points per dollar. When added to the 1 point per dollar you earned on another card, you will have earned 3.14 points per dollar!
Happy Pi Day!
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most of us say “March 14th”, not “the 14th of March”. thus, 3/14
TCB only shows 2.5% right now. I assume this will be updated or are they having issues with PJ, in addition to Amex?
Is that because most “of us” are from the US?
Zac: TCB’s search results show 2.5% for PJ, but if you click through you’ll see 3.14%
Seemed much easier than last years Pi day…
@mrredskin, it is either March 14 or 14th of March.
I knew this post would be yours when looking through the mobile boarding area site list of blog entries for today on my commute in haha.
But discover cashback is 15% if you have one of their cards, it makes groupon so much cheaper!
Wait, discover cashback is 15% for groupon? Wow, how did I not know this. Is this temporary? Or have I been overpaying by 15% all of these years!?
Even some of us Americans prefer the D/M/Y way of writing dates. Of course, if it’s a computer file, then it goes yyyy.mm.dd and then like magic they are all ordered by date even if the file creation date gets changed/modified.
2.5% vs 3.14% not that big of a deal, but it’s something.. be careful that they didnt raise the gift card prices or lower the payout rate!
Did I just read this correctly? FM saying to NOT maximize your miles by using your CSP in item 4 above, as that would result in earning MORE than 3.14 points. What on earth is going on here? Please immediately cancel my subscription and return my unused portion to my account,
If only you could buy discount AMEX GC’s and use those for pie!
Hehe, cute. But what about those of us who don’t want to just round pi to a rational number with only two significant figures?
I already made round 1 of purchases for pi day at PJ. ecodes were available within minutes.
round two it’s much much much slower
I have never gotten TCB to recognize an ecode purchase, is this something that has been earned by soemone out there?
Justin, I’ve received confirmation from TCB on an ecode purchase this morning.
I would argue that our date structure is much more sensible, and actually YYYYMMDD is even more sensible. That way computer systems can do simple text sorts to sort dates.
Not as big of a deal with date data types these days, but it can be for simple text based files.
P.S. May the 4th be with you is my favorite day of the year. Star Wars day!
For a more vulgar celebration, today is also Steak & BJ day, one month after Valentine’s day. Omaha Steaks in the UR mall gives out 6X.
Next year, we get pi month
I had a problem on my order today and found the customer service telephone number is “(877) MY-JUNGLE”. When I really typed it on my cell phone, my first reaction is “What heck!” It is not a 10-digit number!!!! Then I realized it is (877) 695-8645. Very nice representative, problem solved!
Just sold a $100 Target GC to PJ that I got from using $10GC with $75 coupons back in December. Since Target no longer sells Amazon GCs I got an AZ GC in return from PJ. Yay!
Again with the TCB? Good luck dealing with them!
So does that mean July 22 in Pi day in Europe?!
for the mathmatically challanged: Pi is derived by dividing 22 by 7
I sold a $100 Target GC this afternoon to PJ and I haven’t gotten an email from TCB, and there isn’t any mention of PJ cashback yet. How long does it normally take?
Ken: I received my notifications the next day. Have you received any yet?
FM: Nope, no email, and no record of it on TCB’s website.
Hi Everyone,
@Zac- did you manage to find the rate?
For anyone who has made a transaction but can’t see a tracking transaction can you go to ‘customer care’, click ‘view or lodge a claim’ and submit a missing cashback claim?
Many thanks,
TopCashBack
@TCB – I submitted a case last month and still nothing has been updated with the Pi day promo. Nor has my case about the Virgin Mobile phones I bought back in November been updated. It’s been over 5 months, how much time does it take for you guys to get your act together?
Hi Ken,
I’m sorry that you have had a problem here. Can you email contact@topcashback.com and I will chase it up for you? Please put FAO John on the email.
Best wishes,
John
Hi Ken,
Please could you email me on contact@topcashback.com
FAO SALLY.
I will then look at your account and give you an update.
Have a great day!
Many thanks,
Sally
@John and Sally – Email sent, fingers crossed