As another Lame Cherry exclusive in matter anti matter.
Since the death of the mother and all these additional bills, I have tried to become even more like Richard and Stephanie. I keep looking for a way to live on air alone.
What we have engaged in as something more is we are paying more bills with cashback cards. Of course the bills have to be paid, but while I was already utilizing Discover in debit and credit cards which is more to keep track of, it is a welcome thing to have a percentage coming in, when if I used our bank card, nothing comes in.
Over Christmas I tried primarily to get things through Amazon. More difficult now as Ebay has better buys, but when I needed an electric fencer module, I found one on Amazon and those purchases give 5% cash back on Amazon.
As I do not eat out at restaurants as we can not afford that, the other Discover bonuses, including hotels does me zero good. This though is about Amazon grocery from January to the end of March.
We have been buying groceries on the Discover card, after I called them up and asked if our Wolverine Cache Store was included, as there is nothing brand name about the brier patch. Walmart and Cosco are as foreign as Peking in this region. The nice Discover card gal checked, and assured me that the WCS was indeed covered. I said "thank you", but expected that it would not be covered and I would be back to 1% which gets you nothing.
For our internet to put this blog up, it is autopay set up monthly on the Discover which saves 5 bucks, but costs with taxes and regulations 7 dollars more.......but that is more excise tax realities in America, but I get 19 cents cash back I think, which sucks or it was less than that and the cash back was for something else like male and female electrical plug ins, which is nothing to do with porn, even though it sounds like it.
So I see with 50 dollar fencers and other things, we had 10 dollars again in the account. I think I redeemed 120 dollars from several years of purchases in January, and five years ago in discounts, coupons and price reductions I used that cash back to purchase Star Trek Original, but those days of splurging on childhood lusts are done until the money comes in, as now it is looking in the window again thinking life sucks shit.
The point in all of this is, if I had used other credit cards or my bank card, I would have received little or nothing from buying things we needed. This brings us to groceries which I am looking at now a list of what we may need for the year as in toilet tissue and I do not know exactly what all, but at 5% cashback, I might as well get money back for something I am going to have to future purchase up to reason.
Of course that can not be things which spoil or degrade, but it is why my brother lit up when I finally got him to get a Discover card. Previously he was Cabelas, but as I never buy anything from that expensive place what good were those points. Discover though has been munificiently helpful in what I have used the card for and if I get 50 bucks back for buying things I have to purchase, then I am ahead of the game.
I see my American Express has like things going on with it and I will have to check the Mastercard that LL Bean has, which is a long story in the reason I have that card is I prayed for a card without any credit history and in the mail, up appeared this LL Bean Visa card. They gave me 500 dollars credit and the rest is a history of LL Bean changing companies and now credit cards. It used to be you got Bean points and free shipping in using the card which amounted to 10 dollars a year or 20 for things. That made Chamois shirts or fleece lined pants affordable, but I rarely use that card now as they started free shipping on things years ago.
The point is Discover is way ahead in consumer friendly compared to these other cards.
In making a point, I also have a gas card which really baffles me when I see people at the same place fill up for 2 cents cheaper gas, but my gas card takes off 5 more cents, which they people will not expend the effort to getting a card like this.
I really like my gas card as it is all itemized and I pay it once a month. It makes taxes easier to keep track of. It is like the Discover card in it saves me money or it makes me money and that is why I am posting this as in my dire straights, I count every penny and while it is more convenient to use a bank card, it is wise to use a card which returns me money.
I have a Discover debit card too which has like 13 bucks on it in cash back, which is a card I do not use a great deal, but I keep it loaded with cash into the account as if you overdraw a card it is like 25 bucks which is not what I want as 25 bucks is a great deal of money to me, and even more money to rich people as those donations from the rich are few and far in between.
The point is, if you tailor your purchases you can help your budget. You still have to be adult and pay the bills, but the little extra to keep track of makes me smile as I save the cash backs for our future home.
One more thing and this is from Oprah, or an Oprah expert. He said people should have 4 credit cards. I think 3 is plenty, but the reason is, for billing cycles as you can set up credit cards on each week of the month.
Here is an example. When LL Bean sent me that Mastercard, I was debating in our poverty of what to do with my emergency Tracfone. I had like 7 months of time on it in December, but 100 bucks is 100 bucks in waiting. Well Tracfone is being squeezed by other carriers now and gave me a deal with coupons for the entire thing for a year with taxes included for 95 bucks.
I bit on that in saving money and purchased on December 30th. I started wondering as the bill did not come as I expected as I was not paying attention to the billing cycle. I finally phoned Bean up which I think is Citibank Mastercard, and the gal explained the bill was not due until February 17th. That is what the Oprah guru was talking about in budgeting money. I will not buy things in trusting I will have money in a donation in the future or a paycheck ever, but in this case I had almost 2 months to pay a bill, instead of perhaps a week if the billing cycle was closing when I made the purchase.
Yes it is more to keep track of and I do not use cards like this, but the bill came on like the 25th of January to my relief and it was paid immediately. It is a way though of using credit cards as a system to pay bills and make them work for you. Each card you are supposed to be able to set up for a billing date of each month. Four cards would mean one week each month.
With this Discover card though I just use it for the cashbacks when it is areas I will get money for. I wait on things for months like that fencer module for purchases on Amazon, as even though it is fag friendly, I do like that store front as the customer service has been really good when the vendors have been not.
With that this helpful hint has run it's word course and it is time to close. I can not though say enough good things about Discover as the customer service is White Americans with brains who are always helpful. They were most helpful in dealing with the mother's credit card and I have only good things to say about that American corporation.
Again with that, Nuff Said.
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