I love credit cards so much! v3.0 (see first page for add'l details)

[LynnTH]

In Points news. Been cancelling my trips.

Vegas Rooms (6 rooms, 3 with points 3 on SW Card) - Cancelled online with Chase. Points back instantly. (Room was refundable). Waiting for SW Refund on CC.

Vegas Airfare - Delta made changes to the flights so chatted with Chase Travel today. They were able to refund my UR's instead of Travel Voucher. One flight changed 4 hours and one 2 hours. Points back instantly.

Disneyland Airfare - Delta made changes on this also and was refunded UR Points instantly

Disneyland Rooms - These were refundable. UR Points back instantly.

Disneyland Tickets - Bought through LMT Travel. Never received ticket voucher. Started a ticket for refund. Waiting on refund. Cancelled 4/14.

Alaska Cruise - Cancelled 3/27. Waiting on refund for Cruise and Excursion booked.

Alaska Airfare- Waiting this one out. If I cancel now - I can get voucher. Going to wait to see if Delta makes any changes or cancels flight to get refund. Some by Delta Points and some by UR Points/CSR.

I was below 100,000 UR's now have about $305,000 with about 140,000 more coming. Unless we end up having to cancel December Cruise. That will be about another 300,000 UR"s - hoping we can still cruise...

 

[amcc]

Do you have the 20% off Amazon MR points offer?

Thank you!! This is what I did. All in $217 (had used some of the 20%), paid with gift cards from Staples that I got with Chase with the 30 off 100, and $92 in cash on Amex where I've got the extra 5x points on Amazon offer (450 MR). He paid me for them but he really liked how we got the price down playing with various deals from originally paying with tax Apple's $267 to Verizon $240 and then $217 by finally asking here and getting this suggestion.

 

[Calfan]

One thing I forgot to mention earlier when posting about the extension of SWA travel funds. My understanding was that the extension would apply to travel funds with an expiration date up to September 7, 2020. However, I had some travel funds set to expire after that date, on September 25, 2020, and these were also extended. Literally every travel fund in my account now expires on September 7, 2022. Huge kudos to SWA for this.

And I totally forgot the most exciting part of my day! I popped in to Albertsons mid-morning today to pick up a prescription, and there was a whole aisle filled with toilet paper!!!!!! We were literally down to about our last 6 rolls, so this was huge .

 

[mom2elal]

DS was able to find fresh block yeast at Founding Farmers yesterday. He had to buy a pound but it was only $5. We still have 3 packs of the dry ones left but that won't last too much longer. Told DS to freeze part of his and break some off for me.

We've had yeast last years past the expiration date in the freezer!

 

[Haley R]

I plan to close my CIP when the annual fee hits on 5/1. My statement closes on the 5th, but I think as long as it gets refunded before the payment date it should be OK. I had considered whether I should send the SM a few days before 5/1, but it sounds like they did respond to you quickly today so I may be fine waiting.

Ours will hit 5/1 and Dh went ahead and sent a SM today just in case. But that’s mainly because we’ll be so exhausted

 

[Judique]

We've had yeast last years past the expiration date in the freezer!

Apparentally keeping it moist in the freezer is the key to it's life. Fleishmann's say's 3 months, but like everything, your mileage may vary.

 

[mgarbowski]

There's been discussion of whether you have to activate a new card in order to use it. I just received a new Amex card due to a product change. The card did not even come with instructions to activate it. I'm sure Amex must still do it for new card accounts, but this is at least one DP that they don't even bother for new cards on existing accounts.

 

[ten6mom]

You're all talking about "freezes" and "spring" and it's going to be 100 here on Saturday

 

[elgerber]

You're all talking about "freezes" and "spring" and it's going to be 100 here on Saturday

Rude LOL. We were at 28 this morning.

 

[IFlossU]

You're all talking about "freezes" and "spring" and it's going to be 100 here on Saturday

Ah man, you’re right. 100+ degrees forecast every day starting Saturday. Spring was nice while it lasted

 

[ten6mom]

Ah man, you’re right. 100+ degrees forecast every day starting Saturday. Spring was nice while it lasted

It was nice, wasn't it?

Now we wait until November for nice weather again!

 

[afan]

I, like many of you, am looking into options for fun domestic trips. This is partially due to COVID-19, but mainly due to the fact that DH and I are currently wrapping up our adoption approval process! We're set to be officially approved in May. Our South America trip (which was cancelled due to COVID) was going to be our last international hurrah for the foreseeable future, as we won't be able to travel internationally with the baby until after finalization (likely 1-2 years). With that said, here are some of the top options we've been considering:

1) National Park camping trips (we do these fairly often as is)
2) AMTRAK train trips - we've not done these but have heard good things
3) Mississippi river cruise - seems awesome but VERY expensive...
4) Hawaii
5) Alaska RV adventure
6) WDW (of course!)

The biggest problem with planning domestic trips is that I've struggled to figure out how to maximize my points/churning game. Does anybody have examples of awesome churning-enable domestic trips? I really do like the idea of some type of US River trip, i'll have to look into whether I can somehow do that with points.

Congrats on the adoption! That's so exciting.

 

[georgina]

One thing I forgot to mention earlier when posting about the extension of SWA travel funds. My understanding was that the extension would apply to travel funds with an expiration date up to September 7, 2020. However, I had some travel funds set to expire after that date, on September 25, 2020, and these were also extended. Literally every travel fund in my account now expires on September 7, 2022. Huge kudos to SWA for this.

There were 2 parts to the statement -

1)Customers’ funds that have expired or will expire between March 1, 2020 and September 7, 2020, will now expire September 7, 2022.

2)Any travel funds created because you cancel a flight between March 1 – September 7, 2020, will expire September 7, 2022.

Mine were supposed to expire Oct 29 from the flight I had to cancel for May. They were extended today also, based on part 2. It also goes on to say that once you use those funds, they go back to expiring a year from the date you book a flight with them. So if I book a new flight on May 28 when they open up new dates, the expiration will change to May 28, 2021!

 

[Albort]

There's been discussion of whether you have to activate a new card in order to use it. I just received a new Amex card due to a product change. The card did not even come with instructions to activate it. I'm sure Amex must still do it for new card accounts, but this is at least one DP that they don't even bother for new cards on existing accounts.

if u run into problems, americanexpress.com/activate will always work...

 

[georgina]

Rude LOL. We were at 28 this morning.

We've had snow flurries off & on all day (nothing sticking). Low of 26 predicted tonight. It was beautiful and sunny yesterday, close to 60.

 

[Haley R]

As good as target shipping has been, they maybe just shouldn’t ship things that crush easily lol. At least they’re quick to refund

 

[mmmears]

I bought a sourdough starter on etsy - said the old ones are the best, blah blah blah - and it has totally failed. Nothing I do gets it to "start" - feed it, temperature, change to bottled water. I'm going to make pancakes with it and just stick to normal bread.

I'm having a hard time getting mine to rise, but I started it on my own and I really don't know what I'm doing. It looks so easy in the youtube videos.

Make your own. I had a lovely rye starter, which I threw out for Passover, but I am currently 3 days into making a new one. I'm making this one out of regular all purpose (unbleached) flour. So far so good. It should be ready to use by Friday.

Also bought some Teff flour (when I couldn't find anything else). I will be trying my hand at making Injera. This is currently fermenting right next to the starter.

Sounds like you know what you're doing. We have 2 here, one made with KA Bread Flour and one a mix of that and some local flour blend. We can't seem to get them to rise/double. They both bubble, but otherwise it's just sitting there. I have read so many conflicting things online that my head is spinning and then today, while trying to keep "The Child" warm in our cold house, I think I put it too close to the oven and now I'm worried that that one is not going to make it.

 

[Judique]

You're all talking about "freezes" and "spring" and it's going to be 100 here on Saturday

I'm happier with my 'freeze' projection because they are saying 38 degrees and back up to almost 60 tomorrow. We are getting more Spring than usual this year. Usually it goes winter, 2 days of spring, summer. I can do without 100 degrees. Prefer about 75ish.

 

[punkin]

I'm having a hard time getting mine to rise, but I started it on my own and I really don't know what I'm doing. It looks so easy in the youtube videos.



Sounds like you know what you're doing. We have 2 here, one made with KA Bread Flour and one a mix of that and some local flour blend. We can't seem to get them to rise/double. They both bubble, but otherwise it's just sitting there. I have read so many conflicting things online that my head is spinning and then today, while trying to keep "The Child" warm in our cold house, I think I put it too close to the oven and now I'm worried that that one is not going to make it.

How long have you had them? Is it a 1:1 ratio of flour and water?

 

[afan]

I need some recommendations please I just discovered upon my internet search that Neutrogena has stopped making their Norwegian forumla moisture wrap body lotion. I'd just thought Target stopped carrying it in store when I didn't see it but since I hadn't needed it I didn't look way back then. So in the next few months I'm going to need a replacement.

Looking for a lotion that's not expensive that's under $20 for a decent size bottle, this one is 15 oz and was around $10. Needs to be unscented and even if it says unscented needs to not smell funny because we all know nothing is really unscented. Also needs to be non greasy/oily. I want to to do it's job, rub in and leave my skin dry because it's rubbed in like it's supposed to. Prefer a lotion over a cream or butter, this is mostly used on my hands and I have stuff for when they get uber dry in the winter/too much hand washing.

I've previously tried vaseline and feel like it's too watery. I think they also had a new type out that I tried in the store and it was greasy and smelled so I had to use a wet one. It doesn't need to be fancy and have all the "new" stuff in it, I'd like something comparable to what I was using. Really sad they stopped making it since I feel like it's closer to the product that they started with than what they are now. I do have other face lotions and stuff I use but they don't have a comparable replacement.