I went to Kohl's today because I realized I did not have a shirt for the suit I'm wearing to church tomorrow for Easter Sunday. I have come to like Kohl's quite a bit, because they always have stuff on clearance sales of 60-80% off and there's almost always a coupon or other %-off deal that you can take advantage of to make the clothes even less expensive.

In light of my previous post, in which I noted that I failed to reach my 2008 deal goal, I have been wondering whether I have become a deal elitist. While I've wondered before if deals are drying up, the other possibility is that I am simply pickier about the deals that I am willing to participate in.

For example, over the last week or so I've rejected two deals that seemed to me not really worth the time and effort.

In October 2007, I speculated whether easy money deals were drying up. True or not, I certainly did not take advantage of as many deals in 2008 as I did the previous year. Here's a brief rundown of my deals for the year:

Got a $20 rebate check from a FRAM air filter for which I only paid $7.54. I love making money on deals like that, especially when it's something that I can use. (And yes, I have bought things that I could not use because I got more cash back from rebates than I used to purchase the item – don't blame me; blame the system.)

I also received today a $20 Visa prepaid debit card from a Chase Credit Card Protector offer. Nice little Christmas bonus for me.

I got an e-mail today from ShareBuilder. Awhile back I had opened a number of accounts to take advantage of some free-money deals, but they each required purchasing a stock. Since ShareBuilder's real-time trade fees are relatively high compared to some other brokers, I have simply left my purchases where they were, earning small dividends appreciating – and then depreciating. (Yes, the stocks are actually worth less now, even with reinvested dividends, than they were when I bought them – good thing I bought them with free money.)

During the month of October, Zecco is offering unlimited free trades with no minimum balance requirement. This is a great deal, since normally they require $2,500 minimum account balance for only 10 free trades each month.

Awhile back I signed up for Revolution Money Exchange [referral link] to get the $25 sign-up bonus and a couple referrals. It was an easy way to make a few extra dollars toward my 2008 deal goal of $2,000.

Back at the beginning of February, I set a goal for myself to earn $2,000 this year in deal and "found" money – through promotional offers, incentive checks (such as signing up for Chase Payment Protector or various Trilegiant programs), and general arbitrage plays. Basically, to reach my goal that means "finding" about $167 per month.

How am I doing so far? Here's the run down:

So, I was doing some number crunching and discovered that last year I completed $1,428.95 in sundry deals over the course of the year. Most of that was from sign-up bonuses and in the form of cash (or cash equivalent, such as a statement credit). I also got at least $50 in gas cards, and a free iPod shuffle (Gen 2), which I gave to my daughter.

Happy to announce that my story of How petty greed translates to more fees was added to the Carnival of Money Stories #32, hosted by The Baglady. There are some other good lessons to be learned from the stories in this week's carnival, so if you haven't read through it already, check it out.