Thrifty Thursday: Use Your Credit Card, Part 2

 



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So I promised that I would explain how we make hundreds of dollars a year using our credit card. We have a ridiculous amount of credit cards, so it does take some amount of organization to be sure they are all paid on time. First of all, we have 4 major credit cards:

1. Discover - You automatically get 1% back on everything you use the card for. Also, quarterly, they have special cashback opportunities that allow you to get 5% back on whatever the deal is that quarter. For example, they may offer 5% cashback if you use your card to buy gas, at the grocery store, at a drug store, at a home improvement store, etc. for a few months. A couple ways you can redeem your cashback are by applying it to your bill or requesting gift cards to partner companies. One month, we had over $100 in cashback and we used $90 to get 2 $50 gift cards. One was to Kohl's and one was to Buffalo Wild Wings. Some of the companies offer gift card amounts for less cash than the cards are worth. For example, you can get a $50 gift card for only $45 in cashback.

2. Citicard - This is similar to Discover in that you always get 1% back on everything you use the card for, and quarterly, you can get 5% back on certain things. Like Discover, it changes every few months. I usually redeem my cash for its full value and get an actual check in the mail, though you have to have $50 to redeem it and request the check.

3. Sandals Bank of America - This card accrues points every time you use it. If we use the card at a Sandals resort, we receive double the points. We typically put the bulk of our expenses on this card and it accrues points fairly quickly. We usually cash this out when we have an extra expense that we weren't expecting. It often helps to soften the blow a little when those things come up. You can have the money applied to your account or even directly deposited into your bank account.

4. Capitol One - We only use this card when we go out of the country, because it is one of the few cards we have found that doesn't charge a fee for currency conversions when we are travelling somewhere that does not use US dollars.

In addition to the major credit cards, we have store credit cards. If you shop at a particular store often, it might be worth looking into. For example, Target offers 5% off everything if you use their credit card when you shop there. You also get free shipping when you shop online. Kohl's sends out numerous coupons and Kohl's Cash opportunities to people who use their credit card while shopping there.

Again, I do have to stress that you do have to pay off each credit card bill in full each month for this to be worth your while. As you can see, each card that you have comes with a new deadline and one more thing to keep track of, so just be aware of how much you can really handle and how much you can spend each month on each card and still be able to pay them off.

There are tons of other cards out there. The ones listed above just happen to be the ones I am most familiar with. What others have you used that have offered rewards?

Thrifty Thursday: Use Your Credit Card, Part 1

That's right. The title of this post says to "use your credit card." I must say that with a word of caution, though. If you are one of those people who cannot control yourself and have an unhealthy obsession with the way your credit card sounds as you swipe it in the machine at the store, then this tip might not be for you.

However, if you are one of those perfectionist, Type A personalities who can't stand for her bills not to be paid in full each month, then you could really make some money by using your credit card.

First, make sure your credit card has some kind of rewards program. Sometimes these programs are in the form of airline miles, points, or actual cash, among other things. If your card does not have a program like this, I would strongly consider getting rid of it and finding one that does. There are tons of cards out there that offer incentives for you to use them. One thing to be sure of, though, is that they do not have an annual fee. Some credit cards do still have these, so be sure to clarify that a card does not have one before signing up for one.

After you have applied and been accepted for your new card, then you can start accumulating rewards. We charge almost everything and get quite a bit of money back through these rewards program. Then, once you have accumulated a certain number of points, cash, or whatever, you can often redeem them for money or gift cards (or whatever the company's incentive happens to be).

The key to this is that you DO have to pay the credit card bill in full each month. If you don't, then the credit card companies win, folks. If you cannot (or know you will not) pay off your bill in full each month, then I would not recommend doing this. This only works if you pay it off each month, and that means you have to keep track of how much you have charged. No, you can't just go out on a shopping spree with your brand new shiny card and swipe it anywhere you please. Check out your purchases online and make sure you know how much you have on the card and how much you can reasonably pay off each month.

Stay tuned for Part 2 to find out how we make hundreds of dollars each year doing this!

Couponing at CVS!

I never thought I would ever post a picture of my couponing deals, but I was pretty proud of myself this morning:

This is approximately $64.58 worth of stuff:

Hello Kitty Valentines (for Ani to take to daycare)
2 tubes of Crest toothpaste
2 boxes of Skittles
2 boxes of Nature Made Mini Omega-3 vitamins (120 ct. total between both boxes)
bag of gummy worms
bag of Smarties
4 bags of Valentine's Day M&M's.

I paid $1.96 for all of that and $1.75 of that was just sales tax, which means I literally paid $0.21 to CVS for it.

The best part of this is that because of what I bought, $6 in Extra Care Bucks printed out for the next time I shop there. I actually made money on this deal....