I've just paid the credit card balances on my June/July statements and thought it might be interesting to disclose my largest expenses... for the record, I do use credit cards to rack up those reward points, but I never carry a balance unless I'm purposely using a 0% interest-card, for which I always pay the balance in full when the interest-free period ends.
Amtrak Guest Rewards Chase Mastercard, balance from 6/13 to 7/12 : $895
Selected items:
Wedding gift at Crate and Barrel: $65
Car rental for the wedding: $44
Gas for rental car: $19
Cable bill: $165 (roommate pays me half along with rent)
Charity donation for friends' fundraiser: $50 (matched by my employer!)
Bed, Bath & Beyond for curtains and rod: $54 (included $12 savings using a $10 off coupon and a 20% discount on the most expensive item)
Two Virgin America flights from Las Vegas to NYC (BF purchased the flights there): $358
Discover Cash Back Reward Card, balance from 5/26 to 6/25: $683
Selected items:
Mini shopping spree at H&M: $50
Furniture at Ikea: $121 (YIKES! I don't even remember what I bought!!!! All I remember was the salad spinner, and that only cost $4!!)
Fancy dress to wear at upcoming weddings: $183
Outlet shopping in Freeport, ME: $300 (got some great deals on hiking clothes, work clothes and some fun summer stuff, all of which I've already worn- ya!)
Champagne for bridal shower: $163 (Will be split with co-MOH)
Cheesecake Factory lunch w/ best girlfriends: $35
This adds up to more than my balance, because I also had a credit applied for a dress I returned at Bloomingdales. I immediately turned around and spent that money on the "fancy dress" listed above.
Other expenses:
Rent: Whole apartment is $2700/mo, my share is $1375 (I had to buy my old roommate out of her share of the furniture we bought together, so I'm charging my new roommate a slightly higher rent-share to compensate me for using all of my furniture. My old share was $1465, as my bedroom is considerably bigger.)
Furniture share: $420 (I paid her 40% of the half she paid for our furniture to account for depreciation)
Electricity: $99, split with roommate
Transportation to work: $5/day comes out to $100/mo
Oh- I just remembered that what I bought at Ikea: two large mirrors to hang in the living room, which I should have remembered more easily, since it took more more than an hour to them hang all by myself.
While I don't budget (yet), I have to say that it helps to type out all of these items myself, as it makes a bigger impact than just reading my statement. I spent way too much money on clothes last month, especially because I wear work clothes 5/7ths of my life and on the weekends I usually just go to some of my old favorites. As I've been traveling every weekend, I just stuff my favorites in my suitcase weekend after weekend and so the other items in my closet are being neglected. (I started a large donation pile to address this problem). Thus, I should not be buying so many casual clothes at H&M, Old Navy, etc.... they just won't get worn as often as they should to make them worth it. As my mom used to say, "anything that goes on your a$$ is not an a$$et!!"
I spent more than $400 on travel-related expenses this month. That's actually less than what I spend on travel/hotels/cars most months, because the hotel was free. I paid for a hotel stay in Puerto Rico, but it was in early June, thus was on an earlier CC statement.
Also to be noted are the expenses I DIDN'T have this month. My hotel stay for the wedding I went to was free, because I had stayed at that hotel last year on a ski trip and they totally botched our reservation, so I wrote them a polite complaint letter, and they sent me a free-stay voucher. Yeah! I didn't think I'd ever be up in that corner of the world again, but it's a good thing I saved the voucher b/c it was less than 10 miles from the wedding! (My mom's other favorite saying is, "Don't underestimate the power of the pen!") I saved $190 on the hotel. I also bought my flights via a Jet Blue sale (paid for on my May CC statement) and was even awarded 50 extra True Blue points for it because it was during a special promotion. YEAH!!
Goal for next month: LESS SPENDING ON CLOTHES! I do not need more clothes!!! I also do not feel the need to stay on the forefront of fashion, so there is no need for me to be constantly buying clothes. Plus, I will not be buying clothes right now until I lose another five pounds, so that I'm not left with clothes that are too big once I fit into all of my existing clothes again ;P Too much weekend eating on all of my crazy trips, I guess.
Wednesday, July 23, 2008
Tuesday, July 22, 2008
How I Timed IndyMac Just Right... Or Did I?
I either timed my investment with IndyMac just right, or at the worst time... I can't decide.
Last summer, when I had accumulated enough money to make significant CD deposits, I decided to test the water by purchasing a 3-yr 2.95% fixed CD with my favorite bank in the whole world, USAA. I figured that the amount I was investing was a small enough amount relative to my savings that I wouldn't have to worry if I needed a lot of cash for a car or house down payment, and why I locked it up for 3 years, I'm not quite sure... again, was just testing the waters.
When I told my dad about my financial decision, he told me that Navy Federal was offering a special deal with 6% yield for 10 months- I'm in! I had gotten comfortable with the idea of CDs, so I purchased a CD at this special rate last July.
Come August, I've become very comfortable with putting my money into CDs, as there is not a home purchase in my near future (will probably be an NYC renter for a while), so I didn't hestitate to find a home for another chunk of change, courtesy of my summer bonus. Navy Federal was no longer offering such great rates, and USAA was competitive, but not as juicy as some other banks out there at the time. The reason why? Because there were a few banks laden with subprime mortgages that DESPERATELY needed some capital.
Last summer was when the subprime mortgage meltdown began (although it had been in the works for years), and several banks were suffering from writedowns on the mortages they had financed. Banks typically package up their mortgages into mortgage backed securities (MBS) that they resell and can be traded on the open market. (See more about MBS here) When the values of the mortgages go down, as they do when mortgages are less likely to be repaid, the mortgage lender has to sell them to investors at a loss. To compensate for the loss of writing down all of the mortgages, the banks then need to borrow money from the Fed to maintain the appropriate level of capital and liquidity. (The Fed will also take steps to make it easier for large banks to borrow money by lowering the rate on the discount window) Banks that are desperate for money will offer the highest rates on their CDs to lure investors to deposit their money. Hey, worked for me!
Summer 2007 was a terrible year for mortgage-laden Countrywide Bank, as indicated by their 5.65% 1yr CD yield, more than 50 basis points (half a percent) higher than the next best yield out there. (I regularly check current CD yields at http://cdrates.bankaholic.com/) I did my research first and learned that FDIC insures CD deposits up to $100,000, which made made me feel better about purchasing a Countrywide CD despite market rumors that the bank might collapse. I purchased a CD from them in August 2007, and since then, the bank has been able to turn itself around and is no longer in such imminent risk of default (that's just my opinion- please regard it as such). And in the meantime, I have been earning a nice 5.65%, with current market rates being an average of 3.75%, and having been much lower earlier this year.
So, given my flirt with danger via the Countrywide CD, I decided to prey on another desperate bank when my Navy Federal CD matured. A quick search on bankrate via the bankaholic link above identified IndyMac as the clear winner with a 4.35% 1yr yield, more than 50 basis points higher than the next best yield. On Thursday, July 10, I did a quick online account activiation, set up an electronic funds transfer, and then left for a long weekend! I really didn't think too much about it, until Sunday when I got a friendly note from fellow PF blogger J. Money with the news that IndyMac had been taken over by the FDIC due to lack of funds. I bought an IndyMac CD on Thursday, and they defaulted on Friday!!! Good or bad timing?
Well, I called the FDIC in a panic in the car while B was driving us home from the beach, and they assured me that my deposit was fully insured because it was below the $100,000 limit. Furthermore, my CD would exist and continue to earn my golden 4.35%, and not just turn back into cash, like I thought it might. (For more information on what the FDIC insures, MyMoneyBlog has a good summary here) Now that the FDIC has taken over IndyMac (once called IndyMac Bank, and now called IndyMac Federal Bank via the FDIC takeover), they will evaluate its assets and try to sell it to another bank. That bank will then either honor my CD at 4.35% or offer me the current market rate, at which point I will be able to withdraw my funds without a penalty before the maturity date. So for now, I am happily earning 4.35% until another bank steps in and decides what to do with it.
Possible outcomes for my CD:
A) If it is longer than a year before a bank buys IndyMac's assets and reevalutes my CD, then I will continue to earn 4.35% until maturity, currently the best rate. (IndyMac is no longer selling new CDs, for now)
B) If a bank buys IndyMac within the year, but rates have gone up, I can reinvest my money at a better rate!
C) If a bank buys IndyMac within the year, but rates have gone down, the new bank does not have to continue paying me 4.35%, and I will have to reinvest somewhere else at a lower rate.
If options A or B play out, then I win! And I timed the market just right, because no other banks are offering 4.35% or better right now.
If option C plays out, then I sort of win, sort of lose, because I will be earning the best rate available, at least for a little while. Then I will be back to where I started, but no worse off.
I will say that the only downside to this situation was the hassle of figuring out where my money was, as the electronic funds transfer took place before I could actually see my funds online, and that made me very nervous. Now it's just a waiting game to see who buys IndyMac Federal Bank, and what they decide to do with my CD.
Also coming up: this year's bonus will be wired to my account late August, and I will be looking for a good place to invest that, too.... I invested a lot of last year's bonus into the stock market, and, well, we all know how that is doing.... :( More on that later!
Last summer, when I had accumulated enough money to make significant CD deposits, I decided to test the water by purchasing a 3-yr 2.95% fixed CD with my favorite bank in the whole world, USAA. I figured that the amount I was investing was a small enough amount relative to my savings that I wouldn't have to worry if I needed a lot of cash for a car or house down payment, and why I locked it up for 3 years, I'm not quite sure... again, was just testing the waters.
When I told my dad about my financial decision, he told me that Navy Federal was offering a special deal with 6% yield for 10 months- I'm in! I had gotten comfortable with the idea of CDs, so I purchased a CD at this special rate last July.
Come August, I've become very comfortable with putting my money into CDs, as there is not a home purchase in my near future (will probably be an NYC renter for a while), so I didn't hestitate to find a home for another chunk of change, courtesy of my summer bonus. Navy Federal was no longer offering such great rates, and USAA was competitive, but not as juicy as some other banks out there at the time. The reason why? Because there were a few banks laden with subprime mortgages that DESPERATELY needed some capital.
Last summer was when the subprime mortgage meltdown began (although it had been in the works for years), and several banks were suffering from writedowns on the mortages they had financed. Banks typically package up their mortgages into mortgage backed securities (MBS) that they resell and can be traded on the open market. (See more about MBS here) When the values of the mortgages go down, as they do when mortgages are less likely to be repaid, the mortgage lender has to sell them to investors at a loss. To compensate for the loss of writing down all of the mortgages, the banks then need to borrow money from the Fed to maintain the appropriate level of capital and liquidity. (The Fed will also take steps to make it easier for large banks to borrow money by lowering the rate on the discount window) Banks that are desperate for money will offer the highest rates on their CDs to lure investors to deposit their money. Hey, worked for me!
Summer 2007 was a terrible year for mortgage-laden Countrywide Bank, as indicated by their 5.65% 1yr CD yield, more than 50 basis points (half a percent) higher than the next best yield out there. (I regularly check current CD yields at http://cdrates.bankaholic.com/) I did my research first and learned that FDIC insures CD deposits up to $100,000, which made made me feel better about purchasing a Countrywide CD despite market rumors that the bank might collapse. I purchased a CD from them in August 2007, and since then, the bank has been able to turn itself around and is no longer in such imminent risk of default (that's just my opinion- please regard it as such). And in the meantime, I have been earning a nice 5.65%, with current market rates being an average of 3.75%, and having been much lower earlier this year.
So, given my flirt with danger via the Countrywide CD, I decided to prey on another desperate bank when my Navy Federal CD matured. A quick search on bankrate via the bankaholic link above identified IndyMac as the clear winner with a 4.35% 1yr yield, more than 50 basis points higher than the next best yield. On Thursday, July 10, I did a quick online account activiation, set up an electronic funds transfer, and then left for a long weekend! I really didn't think too much about it, until Sunday when I got a friendly note from fellow PF blogger J. Money with the news that IndyMac had been taken over by the FDIC due to lack of funds. I bought an IndyMac CD on Thursday, and they defaulted on Friday!!! Good or bad timing?
Well, I called the FDIC in a panic in the car while B was driving us home from the beach, and they assured me that my deposit was fully insured because it was below the $100,000 limit. Furthermore, my CD would exist and continue to earn my golden 4.35%, and not just turn back into cash, like I thought it might. (For more information on what the FDIC insures, MyMoneyBlog has a good summary here) Now that the FDIC has taken over IndyMac (once called IndyMac Bank, and now called IndyMac Federal Bank via the FDIC takeover), they will evaluate its assets and try to sell it to another bank. That bank will then either honor my CD at 4.35% or offer me the current market rate, at which point I will be able to withdraw my funds without a penalty before the maturity date. So for now, I am happily earning 4.35% until another bank steps in and decides what to do with it.
Possible outcomes for my CD:
A) If it is longer than a year before a bank buys IndyMac's assets and reevalutes my CD, then I will continue to earn 4.35% until maturity, currently the best rate. (IndyMac is no longer selling new CDs, for now)
B) If a bank buys IndyMac within the year, but rates have gone up, I can reinvest my money at a better rate!
C) If a bank buys IndyMac within the year, but rates have gone down, the new bank does not have to continue paying me 4.35%, and I will have to reinvest somewhere else at a lower rate.
If options A or B play out, then I win! And I timed the market just right, because no other banks are offering 4.35% or better right now.
If option C plays out, then I sort of win, sort of lose, because I will be earning the best rate available, at least for a little while. Then I will be back to where I started, but no worse off.
I will say that the only downside to this situation was the hassle of figuring out where my money was, as the electronic funds transfer took place before I could actually see my funds online, and that made me very nervous. Now it's just a waiting game to see who buys IndyMac Federal Bank, and what they decide to do with my CD.
Also coming up: this year's bonus will be wired to my account late August, and I will be looking for a good place to invest that, too.... I invested a lot of last year's bonus into the stock market, and, well, we all know how that is doing.... :( More on that later!
Monday, July 21, 2008
Selling old stuff on Craig's List
I had a new roommate move in last month, who brought with her a great, dark-wood buffet to put into our already-crowded living room. (Half of which is now a bedroom, thanks to the ease of putting up temporary walls in NYC! That's the only way to make living here affordable when you're first starting out.) The rest of our furniture is dark leather or wood, so it matches quite nicely. I had a 3-yr old light-wood TV stand from IKEA that I bought "as is" when I first moved here, and as such it has some pre-existing scratches and dents but I got it for $80, more than $100 less than retail at the time. I'm now ready to depart with this piece of furniture, since there is not room for it AND the buffet, and they would serve the same purpose, anyway. (And shout-out to my roommate, who is probably not reading this, but just splurged on a brand-new 40 inch Plasma TV! YEAHHH!!!! My boyfriend hugs it whenever we leave the apartment. I think he'd leave me for her if more expensive toys were in the near future...)
My dilemna: do I try to sell it? Or just put it in our apartment building's trash room, where it will hopefully be discovered by someone and be given a proper, loving home? To some, it would seem simple: sell it! Why not make money on it? The reason I hesitate is that I don't know if I can coordinate with people who want to come see it, or even if I feel safe having strangers come to my apartment. I work 6:30-6:30 M-F and am traveling most weekends, and after work I have a host of client events/dinners/etc. that make my hours at home unpredictable. And living in NYC, I don't know how good I feel about having strangers come to see it or pick it up. I'm also a little embarrassed that there are so many dark scratches on it- I might not even get much for it in the first place.
Anyone had good or bad luck selling their old (and heavily used) furniture? Do I just bite the $25-$45 I might make on it and leave it in the trash room?
My dilemna: do I try to sell it? Or just put it in our apartment building's trash room, where it will hopefully be discovered by someone and be given a proper, loving home? To some, it would seem simple: sell it! Why not make money on it? The reason I hesitate is that I don't know if I can coordinate with people who want to come see it, or even if I feel safe having strangers come to my apartment. I work 6:30-6:30 M-F and am traveling most weekends, and after work I have a host of client events/dinners/etc. that make my hours at home unpredictable. And living in NYC, I don't know how good I feel about having strangers come to see it or pick it up. I'm also a little embarrassed that there are so many dark scratches on it- I might not even get much for it in the first place.
Anyone had good or bad luck selling their old (and heavily used) furniture? Do I just bite the $25-$45 I might make on it and leave it in the trash room?
Weekend Spending
If you haven't read my intro yet, you will soon learn that I travel, a lot. Therefore, my weekend spending stats will usually be a bit high, as I don't have access to the "free" food and amenities in my apartment.
Beginning with Friday night:
*Gift purchased for best friend's birthday: $76
*Tickets to Billy Joel's Shea Stadium closing concert: FREE!
(They were a gift!! An amazing gift, and we got to see Paul McCartney sneak onto the stage for the encore!! Paul performed at the first ever show at Shea with the Beatles, and so it was only fitting that he appear at the last)
*LIRR tickets to/from Shea, two beers, and a water: BF ("B") paid, probably $35
*Cab from Penn to my apt. at 1am: $15 w/tip
Saturday:
*Cab BACK to Penn at 6:30am: $15 w/tip
*Two AMTRAK train tickets to Washington D.C.: $168
*Two Krispy Kreme donuts and a water at Penn Station (my favorite thing about taking morning trains) : $4
*Two 1-day passes on the D.C. Metro: $15.60
*Lunch: FREE thanks to my best friend and her fiance, who packed us lunches
*Admission to National Archives and Portrait Gallery Museums: FREE!
*Dinner at Mexican tapas-style restaurant including two beers, for two, w/tip: $62
(On a side note, you'll be happy to know that one of our friends took the time to figure out the bill for seven people, rather than split it seven ways. Even though I may have had more than my fair share of guac ;) See J. Money's post on splitting checks- I got lucky, even though the check-tackler spent 15 minutes determining everyone's share)
*Two tickets to D.C. United soccer game: $84
*Drinks at the United game: $6.50 for my beer, and who knows how many B had.
Sunday:
*Newly acquired Costco card: FREE w/Dad's Business Membership (the most exciting acquisition of the weekend!!!! I love COSTCO!!!)
*Flintstones Vitamins and Neutrogena Sunscreen at Costco: $26
*North Face tight-rolling, low-temperature sleeping bag for the camping trips B wants to take, and small sleeping pad: FREE! w/ Dad's Bass Pro credit card reward points. Retail: $125
*Three tickets to watch the Baltimore Orioles lose to the Tigers: FREE w/ Dad's season tickets
*Crabcake, diet coke, and water at the stadium: $20.75 (They serve crabcakes at Camden Yards now!! I'm also in trouble b/c I didn't share it with B, oops)
*Two AMTRAK tickets back to NYC: FREE w/the reward points from my Amtrak Mastercard (~$200 value)
*Chinese take-out for two upon getting home: $32
Yikes. Including travel (half of which was free!) and not including the free items I got at Bass Pro and the Oriole's tix compliments of my dad, the two of us, together, spent over $500. No wonder my savings account is growing so slowly. But, I insist on traveling to be with the people I love (I was primarily visiting my two best friends who both had birthdays this past week).
A few notes on some of the expenditures:
I usually take the subway to reasonable destinations from my apartment, but if it's really late at night or super early in the morning, I usually splurge on a cab to be safe, and to save precious sleep time. I live a good 8-10 minute walk from the subway, so when you add in the time spent waiting for trains or transfers, I can easily save 30-40 minutes by spending $10. I tend to value the cost of my time, since I work such long hours and don't have too much time for myself in the first place.
Bass Pro: my dad's obsession... has been paying off for me lately, too. My dad has a Bass Pro credit card, and he uses it to make many of the purchases he needs for his office, which is sometimes upward of $100k for fancy equipment. I think he earns 1% towards purchases at the store (and 4% on purchases made IN the store), which translates to thousands of dollars in credit at Bass Pro. I think he's saving up for a boat or some other pricey purchase, but it's going to take him a while if he keeps taking me there to go shopping! He is very generous with his points and I think it makes him happy when I find something there that I need. On my last trip I got a pair of hard-soled hiking boots that I really needed, an air mattress w/ portable pump, and some North Face hiking pants... FREE! And then just yesterday I scored the sleeping bag I would need to go hiking/camping at Lake Placid later this summer. Every year he takes me there onChristmas Eve and basically tells me to get whatever I want... haha... and that's about all I'll get. At least he's found a reward program that works for him.
Speaking of reward programs, B and I were able to travel from Baltimore to New York for free because of all my spending on my Amtrak Guest Rewards Mastercard. I also have a Discover Card that I like to use for 5% cash-back categories, but I think I get great bang for my buck earning Amtrak tickets, because they're not cheap!
*Average cost of my Amtrak tickets: $100 (usually purchased last minute)
*Dollars spent to earn the ticket: $3000 (translates into 3,000 points, plus I earn some extra points by shopping online through their website)
*Approximate return on spending: 3.3%! Score! Now I don't feel bad about waiting until the last minute to get tickets.
I've found it really hard lately to use the flight rewards I've earned directly from the airlines (as opposed to earning them on a credit card). For example, I took advantage of some Jet Blue promotions and I fly them a lot in general, so I've earned a few free tickets, but while planning my trip to San Francisco for a wedding, I discovered that they are not as easy to use as they used to be. Thus, I'm happy with my Amtrak rewards because they're straightforward and easy to redeem, even though there are some holiday black-outs.
I'm curious- what credit card reward programs do YOU find useful? Do you stick with cash back?
Friday, July 18, 2008
Help!
As I'm new to PF blogging, but eager to get up-to-speed, can anybody tell me how to get a sidebar insert for savings/networth categories? You know, the sideways-bar chart looking things. Since I plan on remaining anonymous, I don't mind sharing all of the juicy details with y'all :)
Wedding Costs: Part 1
Yeah, I've been putting up a few posts today... trying to give my new readers enough to keep them busy while I'm of town this weekend, so hopefully they will want to keep reading next week when I'm back!
I'm now in the 7th inning of planning my best friend's bachelorette party and bridal shower, with my other best friend who is co-Maid of Honor. Luckily all of the girls coming to the bachelorette party are participating with the assumption that they will be paying their own way, and co-MOH and I have done a good job at finding a cheap hotel, nice-but-inexpensive restaurant, and VIP limo deal in the DC area.
Bridal shower planning has not gone as smoothly. Co-MOH and I had initially expected to pay for the shower ourselves, but we asked some former bridesmaid friends and consulted some etiquette websites, all of which suggested that bridesmaids help the hostess in splitting the cost of the shower. We sent a friendly email to the bridesmaids attending the shower about splitting the costs, and we received a less-than-friendly reply. (The other two are throwing a separate "stock the bar" party, so we did not expect them to contribute to this one) The bridesmaids we emailed happen to be the bride's sisters, and they responded that they will not be contributing, as it's inappropriate for siblings to throw the bride a shower. Um, you're a bridesmaid, and just happen to be her sister. Plus, as a sister, shouldn't you be more inclined to contribute?? Co-MOH and I were stunned at the response, and sent back a polite response explaining why we asked (etiquette appeared to indicate that bridesmaids split the cost) but said that we will ultimately respect their deicision. I am hoping that we can guilt them into contributing something, anything.
Otherwise, Co-MOH are using our bargain-hunting skills, yet again! We purchased all of the champagne using a coupon to a new liquor store, and when we were checking out of the craft store with her memory book supplies, they gave us a coupon for 25% starting that Sunday... so guess what we did? We politely put all of our items back on the shelf and returned Sunday! Haha... Now that we're on our own financing this shower, we'll be looking for even more money-saving ideas. We're cooking all of the food ourselves... coupon clipping, anyone?
I'm now in the 7th inning of planning my best friend's bachelorette party and bridal shower, with my other best friend who is co-Maid of Honor. Luckily all of the girls coming to the bachelorette party are participating with the assumption that they will be paying their own way, and co-MOH and I have done a good job at finding a cheap hotel, nice-but-inexpensive restaurant, and VIP limo deal in the DC area.
Bridal shower planning has not gone as smoothly. Co-MOH and I had initially expected to pay for the shower ourselves, but we asked some former bridesmaid friends and consulted some etiquette websites, all of which suggested that bridesmaids help the hostess in splitting the cost of the shower. We sent a friendly email to the bridesmaids attending the shower about splitting the costs, and we received a less-than-friendly reply. (The other two are throwing a separate "stock the bar" party, so we did not expect them to contribute to this one) The bridesmaids we emailed happen to be the bride's sisters, and they responded that they will not be contributing, as it's inappropriate for siblings to throw the bride a shower. Um, you're a bridesmaid, and just happen to be her sister. Plus, as a sister, shouldn't you be more inclined to contribute?? Co-MOH and I were stunned at the response, and sent back a polite response explaining why we asked (etiquette appeared to indicate that bridesmaids split the cost) but said that we will ultimately respect their deicision. I am hoping that we can guilt them into contributing something, anything.
Otherwise, Co-MOH are using our bargain-hunting skills, yet again! We purchased all of the champagne using a coupon to a new liquor store, and when we were checking out of the craft store with her memory book supplies, they gave us a coupon for 25% starting that Sunday... so guess what we did? We politely put all of our items back on the shelf and returned Sunday! Haha... Now that we're on our own financing this shower, we'll be looking for even more money-saving ideas. We're cooking all of the food ourselves... coupon clipping, anyone?
Airplane ticket #166
I've done it again, purchased yet ANOTHER plane ticket. I don't think I have had a credit card cycle all year in which I haven't purchased at least one round-trip ticket. I've already earned one Jet Blue round trip ticket and am well on my way to another. JFK is my home airport, so Jet Blue is my airline of choice, and while they tend to be the cheapest, I will still pay for their service and in-flight TV for up to $20 more than the next-cheapest airline if they are not the best deal. I consider this to be the price of entertainment value, as well as an investment towards free flights via my Jet Blue points.
My usual style of purchasing tickets is that I A) develop an urge to go somewhere or B) have a real reason to go somewhere (i.e. wedding, event), I find the best flight, and I try to grab it before prices go up. My favorite travel search engine is Kayak.com- it's simple and you can change all kinds of parameters to compare only the flights you want. (I've become picky about travel times and layovers since my weekends are short) Sometimes I watch fares for a while, but I'm of the camp that believes in "first price is the best price." Not always the case- flight prices do tend to fluctuate. My experience with Jet Blue is that if the price drops by more than $20 after you purchase the flight, they will award you the difference in flight credit to use for future flights. Given the current state of airline penny-pinching, I don't know how willing they are to do this anymore, but it's happened for me twice in the past.
In regards to the ticket I just bought, it involved some cost/time/convenience analysis.
I used a Jet Blue reward voucher to book a ticket to San Francisco the Thursday night before a Friday night wedding. (You can now split Jet Blue rewards into two one-way tickets) I know a lot of people in the Bay area, so I decided that rather than leave on Saturday, I would like to leave on Sunday so that I can visit some people and maybe go out on Saturday night. Having taken half a dozen red-eyes back to NYC from the west coast this year already, I decided early that I did not want to fly out Sunday night. Unfortunately, the only flight leaving the Bay area for which I could use my other one-way Jet Blue reward (OK I love Jet Blue but I hate how difficult they have made it to redeem rewards lately!) was a Sunday morning flight out of San Jose with a connection in Long Beach that would add about 2.5 hours to my travel time. San Jose is not convenient to either of the possible locations I would be staying (either with a friend in Oakland or in SF), nor could I get there using BART, and I like to be self-reliant rather than make a friend drive all the way out there super early in the morning. I found a flight on Virgin America (love airlines with in-flight entertainment) for $220 that left SFO slightly earlier in the morning, which means I could get back to NYC with some time to unwind, and get myself to the airport if necessary. I tracked the VA flight for a couple of weeks and watched it go up to $270, so when it came back down to $220, I felt the need to decide quickly.
Summary of options:
Free flight, inconvenient airport (might cost me $50 in cab fare to get there if no one can take me), extra 2.5 hours with layover
$220 flight, convenient airport, direct with an early-ish return to NYC.
Conclusion: I chose the $220 flight. I can save the voucher for another time, even if the flight value may not be as high as this cross-country one, but any added expense of getting to an inconvenient airport probably compensates for this fact.
My usual style of purchasing tickets is that I A) develop an urge to go somewhere or B) have a real reason to go somewhere (i.e. wedding, event), I find the best flight, and I try to grab it before prices go up. My favorite travel search engine is Kayak.com- it's simple and you can change all kinds of parameters to compare only the flights you want. (I've become picky about travel times and layovers since my weekends are short) Sometimes I watch fares for a while, but I'm of the camp that believes in "first price is the best price." Not always the case- flight prices do tend to fluctuate. My experience with Jet Blue is that if the price drops by more than $20 after you purchase the flight, they will award you the difference in flight credit to use for future flights. Given the current state of airline penny-pinching, I don't know how willing they are to do this anymore, but it's happened for me twice in the past.
In regards to the ticket I just bought, it involved some cost/time/convenience analysis.
I used a Jet Blue reward voucher to book a ticket to San Francisco the Thursday night before a Friday night wedding. (You can now split Jet Blue rewards into two one-way tickets) I know a lot of people in the Bay area, so I decided that rather than leave on Saturday, I would like to leave on Sunday so that I can visit some people and maybe go out on Saturday night. Having taken half a dozen red-eyes back to NYC from the west coast this year already, I decided early that I did not want to fly out Sunday night. Unfortunately, the only flight leaving the Bay area for which I could use my other one-way Jet Blue reward (OK I love Jet Blue but I hate how difficult they have made it to redeem rewards lately!) was a Sunday morning flight out of San Jose with a connection in Long Beach that would add about 2.5 hours to my travel time. San Jose is not convenient to either of the possible locations I would be staying (either with a friend in Oakland or in SF), nor could I get there using BART, and I like to be self-reliant rather than make a friend drive all the way out there super early in the morning. I found a flight on Virgin America (love airlines with in-flight entertainment) for $220 that left SFO slightly earlier in the morning, which means I could get back to NYC with some time to unwind, and get myself to the airport if necessary. I tracked the VA flight for a couple of weeks and watched it go up to $270, so when it came back down to $220, I felt the need to decide quickly.
Summary of options:
Free flight, inconvenient airport (might cost me $50 in cab fare to get there if no one can take me), extra 2.5 hours with layover
$220 flight, convenient airport, direct with an early-ish return to NYC.
Conclusion: I chose the $220 flight. I can save the voucher for another time, even if the flight value may not be as high as this cross-country one, but any added expense of getting to an inconvenient airport probably compensates for this fact.
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