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tuyop posted:I get calls a couple of times a year to literally double or triple my credit limits. I usually say yes. Just having the credit available doesn't hurt you.
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Oct 3, 2014 14:30
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tuyop posted:I get calls a couple of times a year to literally double or triple my credit limits. I usually say yes. I just started playing the sign-up bonus game (credit card churning seems to be the hip name for it these days). Between my credit cards and line of credit, I have over 1.5x my gross annual income in available credit. It's insane. I don't see how it could be bad though! Plus if I get cancer, I will have some fun before I die.
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Oct 4, 2014 19:00
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tuyop posted:I get calls a couple of times a year to literally double or triple my credit limits. I usually say yes. When I was in college I would always turn down the credit limit increase, and they'd always just raise it anyway a month or so later. Now I have a high limit card just in case I get into a really bad situation when traveling on business.
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Oct 4, 2014 20:07
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I got my first card when I was 18 from Citi (back before the crisis and credit flowed like water) with a line of $600 and by the time I finished college they had raised it to almost $14,000. I never asked for an increase once and the only income I had was part time work for beer money.
nickutz fucked around with this message at 22:56 on Oct 4, 2014 |
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Oct 4, 2014 22:54
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Those were the days. When I was a student, I asked for a limit increase, and told the bank I had an annual income of something like $4,000. So they increased my limit by $10,000.
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Oct 6, 2014 20:01
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Thinking about getting into credit card churning to reduce travel costs. Is there some downside besides the administrative overhead? edit: just signed up for 2 cards, Chase Sapphire Preferred and Capital One Venture. I hope I didn't just make a huge mistake. Cicero fucked around with this message at 07:26 on Oct 15, 2014 |
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Oct 15, 2014 04:54
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Your credit rating will take a hit in the short-term. Mine certainly did. But it'll recover after the impact of the hard checks and newly opened credit accounts wear off. I'm hoping my credit rating will recover and then surpass my previous peak due to a lower utilization ratio. I also don't have to renew my mortgage for four years (  ). But if you're looking to borrow in the near future (particularly a mortgage. A car might not be as big of a deal), you may want to re-consider your churning. The added administration is easily handled using a spreadsheet and Mint. Here's an example of the spreadsheet I use to make sure nothing gets lost in the churning shuffle: 
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Oct 15, 2014 13:17
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I'm actually starting to follow my own advice and have started bringing my own food to work. That egg cooker I bought has helped with this a bit but I also went to aldi and got some good sandwich stuff. I know its technically a waste of money but drinking sparkling water has helped me kick my caffeine and artificial sweetener habit. The water at work tastes pretty bad and the water I have at home isn't much better even though I filter it. Taxes will finally lower on my house soon. I think they'll drop from 1200 a year to 600.
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Oct 24, 2014 15:42
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I spent $4 on eating out this week plus one coffee for $2.75. I also upped my 401k contribution significantly for the rest of the year. I was aiming to max out the contributions this year but backed off of that since we bought a house in March and I felt it prudent to re-up our emergency fund instead.
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Oct 24, 2014 16:36
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Wife is eligible for 401k now so putting in 5% to get the 3% match. I upped mine to 10% plus I get a 4% match. $5500 Free money. I ate dinner at a gas station last night though. Got to love crazy plane delays.
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Oct 24, 2014 17:28
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Sephiroth_IRA posted:I know its technically a waste of money but drinking sparkling water has helped me kick my caffeine and artificial sweetener habit. The water at work tastes pretty bad and the water I have at home isn't much better even though I filter it. I have a personal policy that I never pay for water if I can avoid it. We have a water cooler at work that's $4 every two weeks, but gently caress that. The water at my office is terrible too, so what I do is half fill-up my Nalgene water bottle every afternoon before I leave work and stick it in the freezer, laying down on its side. Then in the morning I have a water bottle that is half ice on one side, and I can pour water into the other side. It slowly melts throughout the day, but even now at 1:45pm, it's still icy cold and tastes great. It's such a routine for me now that it's just automatic. It's just a thing I do before I leave work. I forget maybe once every 6 months and then have to endure terrible water for one day. As I type this I realize how BFC this water behaviour is, but I refuse to pay for bottled water. It's bad for my wallet and bad for the environment to drink bottled water over the stuff that comes from the taps. Rick Rickshaw fucked around with this message at 17:49 on Oct 24, 2014 |
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Oct 24, 2014 17:46
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I agree but the tap water I have access to just plain sucks. My I should have the stuff tested. I honestly could just find a public drinking fountain and fill several large empty gatorade bottles up. Fountain water never disappoints.
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Oct 24, 2014 18:24
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Sephiroth_IRA posted:I know its technically a waste of money but drinking sparkling water has helped me kick my caffeine and artificial sweetener habit. The water at work tastes pretty bad and the water I have at home isn't much better even though I filter it. This probably won't make you feel any better, but I go through 2 cases of Pelligrino a month. It's such a luxury, and I know it, but god it tastes so good. I do drink self carbonated tap water at home though. I buy cases of Pelligrino so I don't get tempted to buy it when I'm at school or whatnot.
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Oct 24, 2014 18:43
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Took my 25 dollar a week coffee habit and am now funding my savings account with a fresh 25/week. A caffeine pill in the morning has completely killed my coffee needs and it's 100 days worth for 3.50
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Oct 24, 2014 19:04
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I listened to a Vangaurd webinar yesterday and they said studies show people spend 12-18% more when using a credit card instead of cash. McDonalds didn't even take cards until they did a study and found people spent significantly more per transaction with a card. If you can't stick to a budget look into the cash method as you may be able to cut down on spending I guess.
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Oct 24, 2014 19:08
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Upped my 401k savings rate to 20% today. With the employer match, I'm socking away nearly $1200/month. Plus, anything left over from my budget goes into my Roth IRA next year. I'll be worth 100k before I'm 25. I'm sure some of my friends on the west coast are doing better, but I've never worked more than 40 hours without overtime pay. 
Not a Children fucked around with this message at 19:14 on Oct 24, 2014 |
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Oct 24, 2014 19:11
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spwrozek posted:I listened to a Vangaurd webinar yesterday and they said studies show people spend 12-18% more when using a credit card instead of cash. McDonalds didn't even take cards until they did a study and found people spent significantly more per transaction with a card. If you can't stick to a budget look into the cash method as you may be able to cut down on spending I guess. I saw an article on CBC.ca today about that. Here it is: http://www.cbc.ca/news/business/cashless-buying-poses-financial-risk-for-those-without-self-control-1.2811447/ Unsurprisingly it's already off the first page. BFC is the only place I can read about self-control. I disagree with this notion though for anyone who has some self-control. Before I started using Mint, cash was my killer. It went totally untracked. At least with Online Banking I could see the transaction after a few days. Now that I track even cash transactions via Mint, it makes no difference whether it's cash or VISA and I might agree that if it's plastic it might feel a little less real. Prior to tracking everything though, cash didn't feel real because there was no way to track the long-term effects of cash expenses. Rick Rickshaw fucked around with this message at 19:32 on Oct 24, 2014 |
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Oct 24, 2014 19:27
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I agree it is all about tracking. We hardly use cash but sometimes people will pay us back in it and it just kind of disappears... My wife basically said she doesn't like cash because it means I don't know what she is spending it on and can't properly track it, that a girl! Haha. Cash also burns a hole in her purse though, credit not so much. Just buys what she needs. E: The article makes some good points about advertisements in your inbox though. Filtering those is a great idea. I actually just bought 3 pair of Levi Jeans because of none of those emails. I was looking to buy some jeans though so the discounts were nice. Unrelated I bought a pizza from Papa Johns last weekend and thought 'drat is that expensive' since we usually make our own at home. So I searched for coupon codes and got it for 40% off. $7 after taxes was a pretty good deal for my laziness and it was enough for 2 meals. spwrozek fucked around with this message at 19:50 on Oct 24, 2014 |
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Oct 24, 2014 19:42
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Dominos is 50% off for students here.  So we just buy twice as much every time. 
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Oct 25, 2014 18:03
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Hey ordering pizza is like three meals, sometimes four! Once upon a time I spent way too much time with a pizza pizza menu to try and min/max my pizza dollar. Good times. (Now I just go out to eat because the food's a lot better)
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Oct 25, 2014 20:53
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Sephiroth_IRA posted:I did this a year ago. We got a really great deal on weights, a power rack and a adjustable bench. The only issue was that the only place we had for all that was in our living room and it took up a ton of space. The good thing is that since you got such a good deal if you ever decide to quit/switch to a gym you'll get your money back or more. Brazil especially. Sony was (is?) building a plant in Brazil to get around the crazy customs markup on Playstations, which is the goal of those sorts of measures in the first place.
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Oct 25, 2014 22:27
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I can officially say I've broken my daily coffee habit. Those $2 a day really do add up over time.
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Oct 27, 2014 13:22
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Arabian Jesus posted:I can officially say I've broken my daily coffee habit. Those $2 a day really do add up over time. I'm working on my energy drink habit. I found that Aldis sells a very good Red Bull knockoff for about $.60/can, but I didn't buy any on my grocery run yesterday. However, I cannot break my Clif bar habit. The Aldi version is tasty and actually a little bit better nutritionally than the Clif brand, but I just can't get my butt moving in the morning to make breakfast. A granola bar and a piece of fruit (usually a pear) are fast and easy enough that I can eat at my desk when starting my day.
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Oct 27, 2014 13:29
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Intermittent fasting is totally the most financially-savvy eating scheme. I feel like a broken record here.
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Oct 27, 2014 13:57
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Free coffee is killing me in the morning so I'm just going to quit drinking the stuff. Anyway I've been munching my sandwiches and eggs happily at work for a couple weeks now  Saving on food and a little on gas everyday now.
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Oct 27, 2014 23:29
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Food really is no joke. This year, since I've started tracking how much I spend on eating out at work in a separate budget category, I've realized how much I save compared to someone who spends $10 every work day on lunch and/or coffee. This year I've spent $134 on eating out at work. Most of those were fairly social events at restaurants with coworkers. Compare that with someone who eats out for $10 x (22 working days in a month) x (10 months) = $2,200. And I've only spent $2,713 on groceries this year so far. Which includes everything I ever buy at Costco or the grocery store, including the food to make my lunches. Sure, maybe my grocery bill would be a little lighter if I ate out at work, but it wouldn't be $2,200 lighter. Eating out is death by a thousand paper cuts. "Don't eat out today", goons. 
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Oct 28, 2014 01:40
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Nocheez posted:I'm working on my energy drink habit. I found that Aldis sells a very good Red Bull knockoff for about $.60/can, but I didn't buy any on my grocery run yesterday. This is the habit I'm trying to knock back. In fact I have substantially reduced my spending on them. Then just as I cut back a lot I've started working long hours again. I'm pretty sure they're a decent chunk of my monthly spend. Time to monitor my spending.
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Oct 28, 2014 22:53
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Rick Rickshaw posted:Food really is no joke. This year, since I've started tracking how much I spend on eating out at work in a separate budget category, I've realized how much I save compared to someone who spends $10 every work day on lunch and/or coffee. Start learning how to cook, goons. Saves mad cash (and is satisfying). reflex fucked around with this message at 23:13 on Oct 28, 2014 |
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Oct 28, 2014 23:08
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Okay, finished tallying up our wedding and honeymoon costs for anyone who is interested/pricing out their own wedding: I had budgeted 10k so I am glad we were under that! The morning wedding was a small 30-person family thing, then we had about 100 people total come to the receptions. We did the barbecue and cocktail reception at our house that night for friends who were working during the day. Nothing fancy, just a fun day with family and then a night of drinking and partying with friends. We ran into one problem where this company was at the venue we had rented (a park gazebo) when we got there. To apologize, they let us play bubble soccer with their equipment which was the coolest thing ever: we did groom vs. bride bubble soccer teams. I am glad we got the photographer we did, even though that was like 1/6th of our costs. Anyway, best day of my life, A++, would marry him again
moana fucked around with this message at 01:26 on Oct 30, 2014 |
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Oct 28, 2014 23:45
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moana posted:Okay, finished tallying up our wedding and honeymoon costs for anyone who is interested/pricing out their own wedding: I heard that you also quit your job?
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Oct 29, 2014 02:22
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Congrats on the wedding and on having a Disney character named after you.
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Oct 29, 2014 02:32
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tuyop posted:I heard that you also quit your job? Cicero posted:Congrats on the wedding and on having a Disney character named after you.
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Oct 29, 2014 02:55
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Does anyone from the UK (or in general) know what to do when your employer forgets to deduct tax from you?
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Oct 29, 2014 09:23
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Lazerbeam posted:Does anyone from the UK (or in general) know what to do when your employer forgets to deduct tax from you? Calculate your contributions yourself and save them until tax time. Really, they're doing you a favour because you can collect some tiny amount of interest in the meantime!
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Oct 29, 2014 13:17
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That's what I thought, thank you!
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Oct 29, 2014 13:29
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Lazerbeam posted:Does anyone from the UK (or in general) know what to do when your employer forgets to deduct tax from you? Ring up HMRC, stuff can take a little while to process with them but every time I've had to contact to change tax bands or anything like that they've always been really good. Can't hurt to get it on paper that you contacted them in the event something goes tits up either.
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Oct 29, 2014 14:12
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Oof. I was on track to hit my goal of paying off the 13k left on my car by Jan 1 until I got hit with a $450 bill for brakes pads and rotors on Saturday and another $550 bill for dental work today. Please practice good dental hygiene BFC. edit: Also try not to put 36k miles on your first car in 14 months 
Gorman Thomas fucked around with this message at 17:50 on Oct 29, 2014 |
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Oct 29, 2014 17:46
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I highly doubt you needed new rotors 36k miles in, but either way you should try to do your own basic car maintenance when you can. Pads are usually less than $50 a set for each front and rear.
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Oct 29, 2014 18:35
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Yeah brakes and rotors are fairly easy to do, unless something else is wrong.
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Oct 29, 2014 18:38
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Probably should have mentioned I bought it used with 15k already on it. I've been meaning to learn how to do basic car maintenance but I keep putting it off because video games.
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Oct 29, 2014 18:46
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