I still haven't added up the pre-Easter spending, but I'm feeling better about it. I did look at each transaction, and I can justify all of them. I prefer to not spend everything in each budget category every month. In fact, I rarely do. But I can do some "moving around" of money from categories I don't need this month. It is what it is! And we had a wonderful weekend! Saw friends and family and bought a fun new (to us) car. Life is good. I'm going to try not to beat myself up about it! Wasn't our last dime. If there is anything left at the end of the month in any category, it all goes to extra savings. Not sure there will be much this month (there was a chunk last month, so that's good), but we will see.
So... we haven't had credit cards for years. There was a point when there were so many games and tricks and even though we tried to follow the rules, we got screwed a few times. (Not big time, but I hated paying interest... and we got caught in the crazy way they calculate things by the number of days in a month. So it was off when the month had 31 or something...Meh. Made me mad!) So we closed all the accounts and have paid cash ever since. It has worked great for us, but I've been feeling a little jealous of all the credit card rewards that everyone is talking about.
Three offers came in the mail today. Chase for The Husband, and Bank of America for both of us separately. I'm tempted. Any ideas? Warnings? Suggestions? All of them are "spend $500 in 90 days, get $150 back." Each has a percentage of cash back for purchases, too. Hmmm... I'm not quick to make any kind of financial decision, including this one. But I'm thinking about it.
Why haven't I done the taxes yet?! 
Not worried, yet!
Credit Card Offers?
April 9th, 2012 at 08:54 pm
April 9th, 2012 at 11:12 pm 1334013149
April 10th, 2012 at 12:00 am 1334016009
I've been doing it since last year. It's easy as can be. I'm just very, very careful not to pay a penny in interst (or on an annual fee) and I track my spending each month to make sure I hit the target number. When you're done, you can cancel the card if you like. The $500 spend in 3months is easy to hit, even for frugal people. i'm working now on a $2,000 spend, and I'm a little concerned I might not make it, even though I looked at old credit card bills to see what my average monthly spend was. since I already got the card though, if I have to pay a small fee to pay for some bill with the credit card, just so I hit that target, i'dd do so this time only, as there's $250 in gift cards riding on it!
April 10th, 2012 at 01:12 am 1334020332
I'd only be in it for the "get $150 back," and then I would cancel. I don't think these offers are great, beyond the $150, and I don't particularly like credit cards in general.
April 10th, 2012 at 01:21 am 1334020915
Also, if you are untempted to overspend, keeping a credit card for the cashback program may be profitable for you (adding up to hundreds each year depending on how much you normally spend) if you can make sure you pay on time each month. It also helps out your credit score by showing that you can manage credit effectively.
April 10th, 2012 at 01:26 am 1334021199
I would suggest looking at MyMoneyBlog for some special offers might be more lucrative!
April 10th, 2012 at 01:37 am 1334021835
I'm not worried about my credit score.
April 10th, 2012 at 02:51 am 1334026268
Oh, and if you're willing to pay $99 for $500 worth of Amazon gift cards, this is an excellent one:http://www.mychasecreditcards.com/T600-004/default.aspx?LP=6000214&AFFID=lw9MynSeamY-aAOeeOamE6soW5.k8l3I1w&CELL=6H8X&pvid=u1011881t0f0fp0dd0c128590s&vanity=southwest/octaffiliate You only need to make one purchase but you have to pay a $99 annual fee (which they might refund once you cancel, though it's not a guarantee)
If you want to work harder for $500 in gift cards but not have to pay an annual fee, look for the Citi ThankYou offer for 50,000 points if you spend $2500 in three months.
Those are the 4 best rewards available, to my knowledge.
April 10th, 2012 at 03:24 am 1334028283
April 10th, 2012 at 03:35 am 1334028948
Actually, mail offers are good because if you have a good credit score you often get better direct-mail offers than the mass offers.
If your score is good, I wouldn't worry about it. The last two times we refinanced were in the middle of the two biggest credit card extravaganzas. IT made absolutely no difference. (So our FICO was 800 instead of 820 - that kind of thing. Big whoop!). Of course, we have excellent FICO scores, no debt but mortgage, never carry balances... We open the cards, get the reward, and close the cards. In that case the annual fee is generally moot. Most the time it is waived. When not, I had it refunded when closing the card. But read the fine print on that, and check other people's experiences on specific cards.
Of course, I say this because I get the feeling you are in a similar FICO situation as us, and similar financial habits, so you will probably have much the same experience. {Obviously different financial situations will have different FICO results}.
Check out mymoneyblog.com for lots of discussion on the subject, and for the best offers.
April 10th, 2012 at 03:37 am 1334029046
April 10th, 2012 at 03:48 am 1334029699
April 10th, 2012 at 04:10 am 1334031030
The time we had to pay interest (and it wasn't much, but it irritated me!) ... I'd just had a baby, and I had a toddler, and a school aged child, and The Husband had a new job and I was overwhelmed, and because the month had 30 days not 31 or 31 not 30 or some ridiculous thing, the dates shifted and I paid, but it posted ONE DAY LATE. Aaargh! Just annoying. Never been late before that.
I might start my experimenting with two of the offers we got today. No fee, spend $500, get $150. Totally do-able. Then cancel. What fun!
April 10th, 2012 at 01:09 pm 1334063398
April 10th, 2012 at 03:29 pm 1334071775
Funny, it was probably a matter of a FEW dollars, maybe $15? Not really anything to be this excited about, but it was an emotional time for me, and I felt cheated!