Free Money... Yes, Please!

I love free money!

Credit Cards are not great for everyone. I believe that if you pay your bill, completely, before it is due, there is no issue with using them.  When you begin carrying a balance is when "they" start taking your money.

With that said.  I have two credit cards with quarterly, 5% cash back rewards and "1%" on everything else" (there's a catch to Discover's 1% on everything else...).  The quarterly rewards are great... but I would always get them confused!

I have heard of writing the 5% cash back at that time on your card with a fine tip sharpie.  My handwriting is bad for starters and trying to write small makes it worse.  I wanted to come up with something that I could quickly glance at and was legible.

I decided to make a table in Pages and make the font size small, but readable.  This is what I created:

Cash Back Wallet Insert

I then was able to use some clear packaging tape and put it on the inside of my wallet.  Now whenever I am at a cash register, I can look at the insert quickly and know which card to use on any given month!

This month I earned over $40 in cash back rewards on things that I was going to buy.  Then I paid them off at the end of the month.  No fees!

If you would like the Pages or Word file, comment or email me!

Yes, doing the math means that I spent a lot of money too, but we didn't buy things we aren't going to use.  I think there are great ways credit cards can be beneficial and other ways they can be detrimental.

How do you use your cards?

Cutting Corners.... Literally

My wife and I are living with her parents and it is great.  The only thing that is tough is that we don't have as much room as we're used to.  Finding places to store all of our stuff that we brought with us from office supplies to frozen food has been tough, but her parents are great and we have managed well.

Last week Lydia was going through some of her and her sisters' old toys and whatnot from their closets.  She stumbled upon an old doll cabinet and came up with a great use for it in our room so we don't take up too much pantry space.

One of my contributions was making our office material a little more accessible.  When using cabinets or drawers, I don't like having to take boxes out to get what I need because I tend to move something else in the drawer and then the box doesn't fit back in there.  I have thought of ways to use cardboard and boxes more efficiently and this is one of those ways.

Basically I just cut part of the front of one box and repositioned the boxes.  So now, instead of having to take the box out to get an envelope, I just grab an envelope and the box can be moved/repositioned if need be without much mess.  

 

When we have our own desk, I will be using some of these thoughts and ideas from my favorite blog Life Hacker.  Check them out for everyday ideas from cooking, technology tips and tricks and how to stay organized!