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Home > Another Month Is Winding Down...

Another Month Is Winding Down...

November 28th, 2012 at 04:57 am

...and I am doing OK with the old budget. Smile

I did send a bit extra off to Citi MC, an extra $30.20 to be exact. This whittled the balance down to $1,400.00.

I estimated my 2012 income tax returns, and it looks as though I will net about $500. So, I did OK with my tax planning too.

I stopped at the grocery store tonight and whipped out my AmEx card for the very first time. I learned that they don't take AmEx! This particular grocery store is conveniently located, just a few subdivision blocks away. It has low prices. I do most of my grocery shopping there. So, I don't know if I will apply for that Preferred Blue AmEx card or not, the one Monkey Mama mentioned (and I think I read that CeeJay has that one, too) which gives 6% back on groceries but charges a $75 annual fee. I am going to try using the one I have (Blue) for a few months and see how much I can use an AmEx without changing my shopping habits.

I have been working on switching automatic payments to my WF Home Rebate Visa. If something falls into the "and 1% on everything else" category, I prefer to earn a principal reduction to my mortgage.

I have also been working on getting payees set up on bill pay, for those vendors who will not accept a credit card as payment, or who do but charge a fee.

I'm looking forward to whittling down the number of open credit cards I have. I want to get down to just AmEx, Chase Freedom, and WF Home Rebate Visa. I will keep my Kohl's store card open too, but that is the only store card for which I have any use. I think I am only one month away from being able to make that happen.

2 Responses to “Another Month Is Winding Down...”

  1. Ruth Says:
    1354118879

    Your grocery store comment made me think of an ad I just heard today. A local grocery store is suggesting to buy gift cards from their huge collection of gift cards (eg Visa) then pay for their groceries with it. I am not seeing any benefit to this. I must be missing something. Have you heard of folks doing this & getting perks?

  2. Petunia 100 Says:
    1354125222

    Hi Ruth,

    The only benefit I can see is that if a rewards card has a temporary bonus on groceries, it could make sense to buy gift cards during the tempoary bonus period.

    If there is some other benefit, I must be missing it right along with you. Smile

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