What About Your Lifestyle/Habits Saves You Big $$$ ?

[puffkins]

No. This is unrealistic and it just sounds like you are spitting out whatever Dave Ramsey says.

I had to look up who Dave Ramsey was. As I touched upon in the above response, It is only unrealistic if people feel entitled to a particular standard of living that exceeds their actual income flow. Americans love living on borrowed money rather than actual funds at hand.

Let's bring it home to Disney. Can the vast number of people on this website actually pay for their next Disney vacation with money they have in the bank or are they charging it to their Platinum Travel Super Double Plus Preferred credit card?

It's the American way...the road to financial ruin.

 

[DLgal]

I had to look up who Dave Ramsey was. As I touched upon in the above response, It is only unrealistic if people feel entitled to a particular standard of living that exceeds their actual income flow. Americans love living on borrowed money rather than actual funds at hand.

Let's bring it home to Disney. Can the vast number of people on this website actually pay for their next Disney vacation with money they have in the bank or are they charging it to their Platinum Travel Super Double Plus Preferred credit card?

It's the American way...the road to financial ruin.

Those Platinum Travel Super Double Plus Preferred Credit Cards pay YOU to travel. They give away money like it's CANDY. To date, we have made over $5000 in bonus earnings with ours and have paid exactly ZERO to the company in interest or fees (they waive the annual fee for active duty military cardholders). Why would anyone pass this up? Credit cards can be used to your advantage and provide a whole host of benefits, security, insurance, and other protections that cash cannot.

Interest is only bad if your rate is higher than what you can make by investing your cash instead. We consistently take out low rate car loans (under 1%) because our cash earns more by being invested.

 

[puffkins]

One last note and then I'll probably back off of this thread since I do not wish to debate everyone (I assume I'll be the only one holding this point of view.)

If you want to become a Doctor, which costs considerable money, fine and bless you. We need Doctors.

The problem is that people are stupid with the rest of their budget. They own $1000 phones and $120 cable/streaming services per month and wear $300 sneakers and spend $5k a season for their child to play league ball and drive $50k cars where a $20k car would do just the same and so on.

The huge purchases in life - - -a home, a degree for your career - - - no problem. It's the smaller purchases/expenditures that show the entitlement complex to excess that borders on destruction.

You all have a wonderful day.

 

[puffkins]

Those Platinum Travel Super Double Plus Preferred Credit Cards pay YOU to travel. They give away money like it's CANDY. To date, we have made over $5000 in bonus earnings with ours and have paid exactly ZERO to the company in interest or fees (they waive the annual fee for active duty military cardholders). Why would anyone pass this up? Credit cards can be used to your advantage and provide a whole host of benefits, security, insurance, and other protections that cash cannot.

Interest is only bad if your rate is higher than what you can make by investing your cash instead. We consistently take out low rate car loans (under 1%) because our cash earns more by being invested.

Thanks for not reading my original post above. Using a credit card and paying the balance down to 0 each month was a point I already made. I do the same thing with my travel rewards card.

Most people carry a balance and that was my criticism. Take care.

 

[DLgal]

Thanks for not reading my original post above. Using a credit card and paying the balance down to 0 each month was a point I already made. I do the same thing with my travel rewards card.

Most people carry a balance and that was my criticism. Take care.

We carried credit card balances for many years when we were young and newly married. We had student loans and car loans too. It didn't lead to "financial ruin" and your blanket statement that it does is just flat out wrong. Irresponsible spending habits and lack of discipline leads to financial ruin, along with occasionally circumstances beyond peoples control, like massive medical bills or being defrauded.

We simply spent more than we made for awhile, out of necessity,, because my husband was paid very little at the beginning of his career, as most people are. Over time, our income has increased dramatically and we have now been able to afford pretty much anything we want, with careful spending most of the time and saving.

 

[Donald13]

Those Platinum Travel Super Double Plus Preferred Credit Cards pay YOU to travel. They give away money like it's CANDY. To date, we have made over $5000 in bonus earnings with ours and have paid exactly ZERO to the company in interest or fees (they waive the annual fee for active duty military cardholders). Why would anyone pass this up? Credit cards can be used to your advantage and provide a whole host of benefits, security, insurance, and other protections that cash cannot.

Interest is only bad if your rate is higher than what you can make by investing your cash instead. We consistently take out low rate car loans (under 1%) because our cash earns more by being invested.

And let people live how they want to. But since you asked, not the person responding but the one who knows it all, we save and pay cash. We also own dvc and use cc points for flights.

 

[Donald13]

We carried credit card balances for many years when we were young and newly married. We had student loans and car loans too. It didn't lead to "financial ruin" and your blanket statement that it does is just flat out wrong. Irresponsible spending habits and lack of discipline leads to financial ruin, along with occasionally circumstances beyond peoples control, like massive medical bills or being defrauded.

We simply spent more than we made for awhile, out of necessity,, because my husband was paid very little at the beginning of his career, as most people are. Over time, our income has increased dramatically and we have now been able to afford pretty much anything we want, with careful spending most of the time and saving.

But they say “take care” so they are genuine and respectful.

 

[puffkins]

Unbelievable, lol. Whenever possible, turn to ad hominem. It works every time.

 

[Donald13]

Unbelievable, lol. Whenever possible, turn to ad hominem. It works every time.

No one attacked u but keep thinking that.

 

[ruadisneyfan2]

Most people carry a balance and that was my criticism. Take care.

I don’t carry a balance. Our mortgage is our only debt and it will soon be paid off, 7 years early.

You know what they say, “When you ASSume…”

Was every decision I made in life perfect? No, and that’s why I don’t run other people down for their choices.

 

[MissBritt]

So the thing about credit is that it's a risk. Maybe a relatively small risk depending on the scenario, but it's always a risk. We were smart with our Disney Visa. We put everything on it, paid it off every 1-2 weeks, never had a balance for years. Racked up enough points for 3 of us to go to WDW and stay in a Mod resort for 3 days for $0. Kept working the system that was working for us. Then suddenly the rug was pulled out from under us in the form of job loss. Couldn't pay the almost $700 on the card as well as all the other bills. Made minimums for a while, but put charges on it as well when a kid outgrew his shoes overnight etc while working multiple PT jobs and making less than 1/4 prior income for nearly a year. That card became a massive burden. That's how you get stuck in endless CC debt. It's all fine until it isn't. Look at all the people wrecked with c19 fiascos.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

So the thing about credit is that it's a risk. Maybe a relatively small risk depending on the scenario, but it's always a risk. We were smart with our Disney Visa. We put everything on it, paid it off every 1-2 weeks, never had a balance for years. Racked up enough points for 3 of us to go to WDW and stay in a Mod resort for 3 days for $0. Kept working the system that was working for us. Then suddenly the rug was pulled out from under us in the form of job loss. Couldn't pay the almost $700 on the card as well as all the other bills. Made minimums for a while, but put charges on it as well when a kid outgrew his shoes overnight etc while working multiple PT jobs and making less than 1/4 prior income for nearly a year. That card became a massive burden. That's how you get stuck in endless CC debt. It's all fine until it isn't. Look at all the people wrecked with c19 fiascos.

That's usually why they don't recommend putting a huge percentage of the available balance used up on your card in case of the unforeseen (as well as playing a role into your credit score). Yes you'd be paying interest and owing but if you've used up 50% (just random number) of the available balance and then experience an emergency you're left with the prior balance, then the current balance and it can become too much to manage in a timely manner most especially during that time of emergency. I know a lot of people here have scoffed at looking at the interest rates but I can't. Having had a parent file bankruptcy AND that affect my ability to get a loan to go to college I guess I look at things differently (though I can't say that's the same opinion someone else would have if they were in my shoes).

**Don't have a clue what your percentage was just more general discussion.

 

[Judique]

People usually speak from their own experiences.

That makes me think that the poster with the one way opinion on credit had a very rough time at some point and has possibly recovered, but now is so traumatized that they believe no one who uses credit knows how to handle it wisely.

I wonder if they expect to earn interest when they put their money into savings or other investment vehicles such as retirement accounts? Do they understand where those profits come from?

Or perhaps they just have a very lumpy mattress.

 

[barkley]

Credit cards can be used to your advantage and provide a whole host of benefits, security, insurance, and other protections that cash cannot.

i'll agree with this but i think it's important to weigh the advantages and not overspend beyond one's means to chase garnering the rewards and benefits some credit cards offer. i personally have one that i exclusively use for paying all forms of our home, auto, rec. vehicle and umbrella insurance as well as home improvements b/c in addition to the items you've listed above it pays back the highest dollar percentage i've found for a no fee card (don't like paying for a credit card personalty). it's paid in full before the statement arrives and i let those reward dollars pile up and once a year do a statement credit that pays off a nice portion of those insurance costs (lots of home improvements in this past year so it covered about 75% of our entire year's homeowner's premium this last month). what concerns me is when i see allot of folks chasing the rewards on cards and while being great about taking advantage of 0% interest offers they are racing to find the next 0% card to transfer to b/c they are not paying the balance off. i see it time and time again-0% is ending on one card so open another that offers 0% for a balance transfer BUT HEY! there's a bonus of $500 if you 'just spend' a couple of thousand in the first 90 days so they add another thousand in debt to the new card (i rarely if ever hear of anyone who applies the bonus money to the balance). it's like a never ending cycle. some people get a kick out of it-for me once we were fortunate enough to become debt free i never wanted to be in debt to anyone (credit card company did tell me to please at least wait until charges are fully posted vs. just showing as pending before i pay them though ).

to each their own.

 

[barkley]

meat prices are insane. i think that it's affecting pretty much the entire u.s. that said, we all know the value of having a freezer and stocking up when there are sales but i want to share another concept i use that really hit home with savings for us this week-

educate yourself on your preferred stores meat stocking, sales and price reduction practices b/c it can save you A BUNDLE.

by this i mean-both my national and regional chain stores have the same practices:

sales start on wednesday morning at opening

meats are packaged overnight by staff to put into the coolers but before stocking they pull the identical items from the coolers that were left from the prior day and reductions are put on them ($1-$3 off per package, frequently on ground beef/chicken breasts, 30-50% other cuts of beef most often but also pork). those reduced packages are either put into a separate cooler area or on top of the newly packed. both allow stacking a dollar or percentage discount on top of bogo sales.

i have found that the meat department staff are very willing to share this information if you simply ask.

if you can shop their sales at the right time on the right day it can save you tremendously.

here were my savings this week by utilizing this practice (i was doing a restock of my freezer so i took full advantage)-


store #1-

lean ground beef on sale for $2.69 per pound but i got there early enough to find $7 in additional price reductions-net cost $2.23 per pound (got 15 pounds)

store #2-

had a bogo sale BUT they traditionally raise the per pound price when they do this so i got there as early as possible and hoped for the best-SUCCESSFUL!-

boneless skinless chicken breasts- net price $2.00 per pound (hasn't been under $3 a pound in months)-got 11 pounds.

seasoned chicken drumsticks (big value pack)-no bogo but marked down from $1.99 a pound to $1.49 a pound-got a 4 1/2 pound pack.

BIGGEST SAVINGS-

london broil, normally $6.49 was marked down to $4.99 but had a 30% off coupon for a net price of $3.67 per pound (got the largest double pack on that deal-3 3/4 pounds).

loin tip steaks, normally $10.49, was bogo but i also found a 30% off on one package (they honor it along with the bogo offer) so the net price was $3.82 per pound (2 packs totaled 4 1/2 pounds).

i saved close to 50% by virtue of knowing when the stackable savings were available to take advantage of.