Editor’s Note: We ask our Customer Columnists to write about anything and everything they can think of to help our readers save money and budget better. Occasionally, they ask to write about PerkStreet. While we don’t expect them to do this, we blush when they do. Thanks go out to Julie for giving us a shoutout in this post.

When we decided to remodel our house, we realized it was a very daunting task. And while it’s exciting and fun to pick out new samples and imagine our dream home, our reality is a tight budget and constant calculations of our expenses. But by using our PerkStreet debit card, we’ll have more than just a remodeled home when all is said and done.

I could say that we are paying for everything with cash, but we unfortunately cannot. We are, however, using our PerkStreet debit card as much as possible: For instance, we made $19 in perks just by paying for our condo’s appraisal with our PerkStreet card.

For the larger purchases, we’ve chosen to finance on a 12 month, same as cash plan. These plans can be scary: If you miss a payment, are late making a payment, or fail to payoff the loan in the given time period, you’ll have to pay all of the interest since the day of purchase. While that can be a devastating consequence, it might prevent you from failing to meet the loan’s requirements and keep you from entering into even more debt. And, when it comes time to pay off the loan, we’ll make sure to use our PerkStreet debit card there too.

To prepare for our remodeling, we’ve done a lot of shopping at Home Depot, using our PerkStreet card for all of our smaller purchases, like paint, caulking, plaster, light fixtures, hardware and other bits and pieces. Not only can we use our PerkStreet card to earn cash back, but by shopping at Home Depot for the supplies necessary to complete some of the work ourselves, we’ll wind up saving a bundle.

I’ve done the math: at 1% cash back, with an estimated expense of $6,000, we’ll earn $60 in cash back from remodeling our home with PerkStreet. It might not seem like a lot, but it’s better than $0, and will be plenty to reward myself with when our job is done!

Have you undertaken any home improvement tasks recently? Did you use your PerkStreet card? Tell us about your recent perks earnings in our comments section below!

Julie Thompson is a Christian, a wife and mother of three children. Julie’s favorite way to save is by using coupons. She loves to budget, save money, craft, paint, and sew… then blog about it so others can learn as she learns. Her favorite quote is, “The greatest tragedy in life is when you give up what you want most for what you want now.” When she has time, she runs an Etsy shop and a personal blog to help others learn how to save.

Photo: The Consortium