I have a friend who recently told me that her and her husband have a credit card that gives them airline miles whenever they use it. She said that her flight for her trip out to California this summer to visit a family member was free because of all the miles they've earned from the credit card. I've been thinking about this, debating whether or not I want to do something similar ever since she told me about it.
Now, Dave Ramsey would be very disappointed in me if he knew that we were thinking about going this route. When I took Financial Peace earlier this year, I learned that credit cards that offer cash back or airline miles incentives are usually not a good idea, because the interest you pay on the credit card negates any good the freebies do for you. What my friend does is set aside the money that they would spend on whatever, and then pay the credit card bill in full every month when it shows up. I've questioned whether I would be able to do that well or not, so I haven't looked into a airline miles credit card yet.
Yesterday in the mail we got a flyer from Old Navy. (I have an Old Navy credit card. It's paid off and has been for months. I'm pretty proud of that!) It says that from August 15 to September 30 they will be giving triple points when you use your Old Navy Visa at gas stations, grocery stores and restaurants. For every 500 points you earn, you get a $5 gift certificate to Old Navy. I think I'm going to give this a try, to kind of see on a small scale how well I do with paying the card off in full every month. I always buy Raegan's jeans at Old Navy because they're good quality and fairly decently priced if you hit the sales, and they always have fun shirts that Zane likes. I already pull out cash every two weeks for groceries and eating out (per Dave Ramsey's Envelope System) so that should be easy to pay off, and why not just do the same thing for gas too? I figure it should be pretty easy now that I've got the hang of budgeting, and we may get the kids some free (or at least really cheap clothing) out of the whole experiment. And if I'm really good at it, we may try a credit card with airline miles.
I'll keep you all posted!
4 comments:
I really need to Dave Ramsey it up.
Sounds like a plan! Good idea!
I'm with Tab, I need to "Dave Ramsey it up" too lol!
Oh, I just looked closer and realized that is not my sister Tab! Haha! TabAtha, not TabItha ;) Silly me...
Olivia - lol! Good thing they spell their names differently, huh? :)
And I think everyone should take a Dave Ramsey class. I was very fortunate that I was able to take it through my employer for free. A lot of the tips were ones that I already knew, but it was good to get that constant reminder of, "No, you don't have to buy everything. Wouldn't it be better to be out of debt than to just have stuff?" That's really what I took away from the class.
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