General Schemes

Tax day is going to be a bit rough in our household. It’s looking like I’m going to owe a few thousand, which always is a bit of a sucker punch (despite being entirely expected.) After owing for many years, I’ve learned how to take advantage of these exceptionally large, known expenses. Extra rewards? Sign […]

Goodbye to a very, very rewards rich March. We will remember this as the period of multi-hour TSA delays, though our own flying experiences weren’t quite so harrowing (despite having an exit-row woman kicked off our flight from San Diego to DCA!) Lots of rewards postings and redemptions helped offset some bigger than normal vacation

I’ve long been hunting some new earphones for working out. At the same time, I’ve also been recovering from some big and unexpected expenses, so have worked to be really intentional on reigning in discretionary spend and budgeting deliberately. This most recent REI experience is a perfect highlight of being able to take advantage of

The month is now behind us, and so too are a range of new cards, offers, and fun travel bookings. I held off on major cash/like redemptions, so I’d say the volume of activity was generally lighter than is normal. Still good deals to be had, but this was primarily a banking-points month. Rewards ($643

This past month I was on the hunt for a new indoor bike rack. After some shopping around, I found the perfect setup from Container Store, added it to my cart, and prepared to move forward. Before I did, a nice little promotion popped up in my Capital One Shopping browser extension. “Exclusive Offer: $60

I love a deal. I ABSOLUTELY love freebies. Sometimes something comes up that feels like a sure thing, and then it doesn’t quite work out. Occasionally the wild speculatory market known as “the crypto market” drops off a cliff with impeccably bad timing. And yet, somehow, I’m still likely going to break even. Also another

Despite not even signing up for any new cards or accounts, I scored a pretty solid New Year’s haul. This is broken across true rewards (ex. cash back on cards) with $1,183, offers (ex. promotional discounts for spend) making up $103, and perks (ex. freebies or discounts for card ownership) contributing $454. The single-month amount

Occasionally there’s a gem in the late night phone doom scrolling. This popped up as I was headed to bed, and actually made me lose sleep because I felt the need to look into it further. I’m a fan of the “free” element of matching. I’m particularly a fan when the restrictions about that mean

Kathy’s favorite quote is “you choose how much you suffer.” When I’m presented an opportunity for a pile of free points, generally I’m willing to choose the suffering option for some free travel. Sometimes (but often not) that turns out even better than expected, like last week’s New York Hilton Grand Vacations “owners update.” TLDR

When I saw the statement credits for this promotion last week after two months, a big smile came across my face and I chuckled audibly. There was a part of me that wasn’t expecting US Bank to fulfill correctly. And while that’s partly true (I’m missing $10 of credits for 5 transactions), it looks like