I love credit cards so much! v2.0 (see first page for add'l details)

[disfanforlife]

I ordered two air fryers from target today. They’re on sale plus an extra 15% off today only. Plus red card and my dd’s employee discount. One was $37 after discounts! I’m going to research both and then return one but sale is today only so I wanted to jump on it. It looks like something we will use, unlike the instant pot I bought two years ago

Love pioneer woman too!! She used to post on homeschool forums years ago when I was first homeschooling. I was a fan of her recipes then and been hooked ever since!

Thanks! I just ordered an air fryer from target a couple of days ago. I ordered the same one for 15% less and am going to return the other, too late to cancel.
Also ordered an iPad for my DD. Asked her to research best price and she found it on Best Buy. I ordered it and then found it on target or $20 less! Too late to cancel from Best Buy and they won’t price match this week but will return it when it comes in.

 

[havaneselover]

There is nothing to get because the clothes are absolute garbage with poor designs & fit The popularity lies in exclusion. Everything comes in one (small) size & being able to wear it elevates your social status. That's it. That's why girls want to wear it. I used to shop at Hollister in high school for the same reason. It felt like the cool club. BM is even worse, though, because I think Hollister at least went up to size 7. Maybe size 9.

BM uses the same tactics as Hollister did. Make basic (or honestly, at times, quite ugly) clothes, market them aggressively to teens & tell them that's what cool kids wear in California (why is it always California?!), convince them that they actually like the clothes when what they really like is the emotional reward of being able to buy them, hire aloof/snooty employees, and maintain "brand image" by excluding as many people as possible. I wish I didn't fall for it!

Well my dd is a swimmer with an athletic build. She was Mainly buying jewelry ($4 earrings and $8 necklaces) and a $10 belt.

The employees definitely didn’t seem aloof or snooty at the store by NYU.

My issue was mainly it was a tiny store packed with merchandise and customers.

 

[Mswiza]

As soon as the upgrade is processed you can use the "old" freedom and it will act just like a CSR until your new card arrives.

CSR only has 3x categories for dining and travel, not 5x.

That is what I thought for the new charges. Will the charges I have (from before I upgrade) that are pending at the time of upgrade count as Freedom charges or CSR charges? I need the CSR for next Saturday for a TSA precheck appointment. I guess since I could wait for the charges to post early next week and then call since I can still use the Freedom card if my CSR doesn’t arrive before Saturday.

 

[Haley R]

Wow target sucks. I FINALLY found Dh and I a pair of matching pjs in stock. When I clicked on his size and deliver to our house it said it was no longer in stock even though it shows up as in stock to ship. They really failed on this deal

 

[bernina]

That is what I thought for the new charges. Will the charges I have (from before I upgrade) that are pending at the time of upgrade count as Freedom charges or CSR charges? I need the CSR for next Saturday for a TSA precheck appointment. I guess since I could wait for the charges to post early next week and then call since I can still use the Freedom card if my CSR doesn’t arrive before Saturday.

Sorry, missed the part about pending charges I'm honestly not sure on that. I think I'd wait to upgrade until they post.

Out of curiosity what charges will you need the card for during the pre check appointment? I did global entry and the fee was paid (and covered with the credit) with my CSR at application time. Nothing was paid at the actual appointment (other than the airport parking charge). Maybe tsa pre check is a different process than global entry though.

 

[gottalovepluto]

The annual fee actually posted 60 days ago. Is it too late to have is credited?

It will be “pro-rated”. Basically they will divide $95 by 365 days and charge you for the days you had the card and refund the rest. Therefore if downgrading is what you want to do you should do it sooner rather than later.

 

[Ngwira]

Made good use of the 5,000 remaining Amtrak points I got from the BOA Amtrak sign up bonus that I snagged last year.
Was able to snag 3 tickets and paid cash for one to head to DC from Philly for my brothers graduation from Georgetown in May.

 

[CyndiLouWho]

I spent all night playing our new call of duty game (modern warfare) and fiddling with the stroller/car seat combo. I think I have a good handle on it. I love that we can take out the normal seat of the stroller and have just the carrier on it.

That’s so awesome. Be careful buying stuff too early, some things like car seats have expiration dates (the one that will fit a newborn should be fine, it will be outgrown before it expires). If you have a Buy buy baby nearby, check if they accept Bed Bath and Beyond coupons and gift cards. I used Discover cash back to buy discounted Bed bath and beyond GCs for 2 free Britax car seats which lasted until DS stopped rear facing at almost 4

Our convection oven auto adjusts down 25 degrees when the convection bake or roast option is used. Things seem to cook fine at that setting and trays of cookies always come out evenly cooked. One tip I found with our oven is to use the broil setting to pre heat. If I were to just put the oven on bake 350 it would take close to 15 min to come up to temp. I put it on broil and in less than 5-7 minutes it's fully up to temp and I just switch it to the normal bake/roast setting before putting my food in.

Ours definitely doesn’t adjust down, I’ve checked the temp, and things still tend to be more brown at the back of th woven so I rotate anyway. It only takes 5-7 minutes to heat up though. For 425-450 it might take 10 minutes.

 

[Ngwira]

Thanks, kind friend!
Yes, I find a whole lot of value out of MRs. I do sort of feel like I want to squeeze every penny out of them. This redemption (a $6417 ticket for 56,800 MRs) was pretty good

Also, I plan to use my Hilton FNC from my Aspire for my overnight in AMS. It really just keeps getting better and better!

Also waiting for my free night cert from the Aspire so I can cancel my one night at a Hyatt and get my points back. It’ll come in 8-12 weeks right?

 

[Mswiza]

Sorry, missed the part about pending charges I'm honestly not sure on that. I think I'd wait to upgrade until they post.

Out of curiosity what charges will you need the card for during the pre check appointment? I did global entry and the fee was paid (and covered with the credit) with my CSR at application time. Nothing was paid at the actual appointment (other than the airport parking charge). Maybe tsa pre check is a different process than global entry though.

TSA you pay at the appointment not at application. Thanks for your input, I think I will wait a couple days and then upgrade.

 

[wendow]

Anyone need a Chewy coupon? It’s good for $15 off $49 or more for first order. It’s a unique code so pm me if you want it.

 

[LuckyMamaInDE]

My sister needed an emergency dishwasher the day before Thanksgiving, my BIL couldn’t fix theirs. They went to Home Depot which apparently doesn’t stock anything but floor models. They had a dented floor model for $600 and wouldn’t give more $ off so they went to Sears Outlet. Found a Whirlpool, I think, stainless interior, 3rd rack, etc for $450 which they were able to take home and have BIL install before Thanksgiving. So far, so good and I can attest it’s very quiet.

We bought our oven from the Sears Outlet a couple years ago. I can't remember how much we paid, but I don't think it was more than $600 and it's a nice convection oven. It's crazy how fast it cooks things. I'm not sure what about it is "scratch and dent" other than maybe one wonky foot on it, but it doesn't wobble or anything.

We've bought so many appliances from the Sears Outlet over the past 20 years! My fancy schmancy LG French door fridge has a teeny dent on the side next to a cabinet----we got it 2 years ago for $400 off.

I’m going to be shopping for new appliances now during our home construction. I had already planned to take my plates, mugs, and wine glasses with me when I shopped for the appliances. I can’t stand designs that don’t allow efficient loading - we have a lot of dishes and cups...so many cups...every day.

My mom did the same when they needed a new dishwasher

 

[LuckyMamaInDE]

College dd is sad about going to back to school tomorrow She has a bunch of projects, papers, and exams to look forward to in the next 2.5 weeks. And then she'll come home 3 days before we return from our trip to India which makes me feel kinda bad.

But her brother and sister were here tonight, and we all decorated the and listened to all their favorite Christmas music!

 

[WVMomof3]

Watched Klaus tonight. And by that I mean I looked like this




And now I’m wide awake. Ughhh. Can not stay awake in front of tv.

 

[wendow]

And now I’m wide awake. Ughhh. Can not stay awake in front of tv.

And I don't sleep, even in front of TV lol. Watching 'Home Alone' right now.

 

[SouthFayetteFan]

The annual fee actually posted 60 days ago. Is it too late to have is credited?

I believe this was recently answered but in a downgrade situation, you will get pro-rated. If you cancel I believe you get nada. So a quick lesson to learn from this - if you truly want to cancel a card that you previously paid an AF on. Downgrade, wait for the pro-rated refund to post...then cancel

Really hoping for a good cyber Monday deal.

I am too!! Please Raise or TopCashBack (w/ Raise) - give us 10%+!!! If not for Monday, we might need to see what comes out next Friday morning...I'll certainly be watching closely.

That is what I thought for the new charges. Will the charges I have (from before I upgrade) that are pending at the time of upgrade count as Freedom charges or CSR charges? I need the CSR for next Saturday for a TSA precheck appointment. I guess since I could wait for the charges to post early next week and then call since I can still use the Freedom card if my CSR doesn’t arrive before Saturday.

I would try to wait for those to post as well to be safe if it's significant. I guess the question is how much money... If it's $100 in charges then you're talking a diff. of $4 in rewards, perhaps not worth worrying. If it's $1,000 in charges then you're talking a diff. of $40 and that might be worth holding off for.

 

[SouthFayetteFan]

I will! I started watching The Office because of all the recommendations here and I'm enjoying it. DH won't watch it, so it'll take a while for me to get through it all. I think the last thing he wants to think about at home is work.

Yep, DH, too. Right now we're trying to see if Jack Ryan on Prime is worth watching and I'm still not sold on it but we just started. I worked in a crazy, disfunctional, bizarre office, but it's been long enough since I quit that watching The Office doesn't make me feel like I'm at work.

So funny story...I am a former fast-food manager. I did this back in the early-mid 2000s. I actually became a manager while in college and did that for awhile after I first graduated. (Totally unrelated, but I worked 35-40 hours while full-time in college, even during student teaching - so the fact that I take naps during work now IMO is justified...) It was actually a pretty enjoyable job but not conducive to a healthy family life.

At any rate... during my time as a manager I was also going to school for my MBA. And in one of my MBA classes we watched an episode of the office (Diversity Day from S1). I'd never seen it before but I thought it was hilarious. So I binged the first 3 seasons and then watched regularly from S4 onwards. My wife also enjoyed it a ton.

After I got my MBA, I landed an office job. Day one, no joke...after the whole welcome spiel they sat me in my office in the back corner of customer service and let me get settled. I was unpacking a few things and I could faintly hear muffled phone conversations around me and then I heard the main phone ring... "XYZ Company, this is Caroline..." A few minutes later it happens again... And there is this strange feeling of happiness coming over me. It took me about an hour to realize, I was living "The Office"!! It was like a conditioned response that when I heard the phone ring and that line I smiled. At any rate, coming out of fast-food management, I just LOVED the office job setup for a long time. Obviously now I'm over it, but at that time it was amazing.

 

[SouthFayetteFan]

Ok - I am dominating the off-topic right now...so I will just continue. Sorry I've been quiet the last few days. Thanksgiving was busy and then Black Friday and today were too. Here's what I've been up to... (this is SUPER long so feel free to skip if you don't want to read all about my weekend)...

Thursday, great day, lots of family time! Totally disappointed in Drew Brees and Alvin Kamara as they left my fantasy team hanging in a must-win game. I still have a major man-crush on Brees though so I'll be quick to let that go. The team won and as my 2nd fave team, that makes me happy.

My wife went out for Black Friday on Thursday evening at 8pm. Black Friday and the Christmas season is the one time each year that I sort of let down my guard on our "super savings" mentality and splurge a little. She basically shops for everybody in a few hours that night using gift cards that we'd already sourced leading up to the day. We try to get at least something for each member of her family and mine so that ends up being 12 adults and 3 kids altogether. Kohl's is our go-to! She got back after 11:00pm. I should've been in bed at this point since my brother-in-law was picking me up at 5am the next day, but of course I'm still stewing over my fantasy team.

So she starts talking about how she doesn't like our tree. Granted, our tree is probably 8-ish years old and it was probably only $25 as some end of season cast-off. It truly is a crappy tree, but once she puts all the ornaments on it, I always felt it looked nice anyways. Apparently Hallmark movies exclusively use Balsam Hill trees, and they are the best. So being the wonderful husband in "splurge" mode I start pricing these trees. HOLY CRAP, people can spend $1,000+ on a Christmas tree...this is insane. But we find one for $159 on some sale...except it's "Traditional". Apparently at Balsam Hill you can shop by "REALISM" and they have categories of Traditional, Realistic, and MOST Realistic. We price out a few other options and we just weren't finding exactly what we wanted. I signed up for their "welcome email" and it's now past midnight so we call it a night...or so we thought. Get ready for bed, catching up on the DIS...and the welcome email comes out and it's $50 off a $200 order... This apparently excites me because I suggest we get out of bed, back downstairs to shop for trees on the computer. 12:57am we're pulling the trigger on a tree all-in cost of $202 from the "Most Realistic" category. Between their Black Friday deal and the coupon we found something that worked. This is still more than I've spent on the 3-4 prior trees we had combined, but my wife is happy... So 1:30am or whatever...finally off to bed.

4:45am is ridiculously early. There is absolutely no reason that any human should wake up at 4:45. At any rate, here I am, awake... Mind you that I do not wake up before 9am 4 out of 5 workdays a week. The only thing that gets me up before 8am is a vacation...I love getting up early on vacation because there's so much to do and experience! So we started at Old Navy and then hit Walmart and things were just super chill. It didn't feel like Black Friday...very boring and blah. We grabbed some Starbuck's around 6:30 and then headed to Home Dept. Dude...Home Depot is WHERE IT IS AT on Black Friday. Tons of employees, they're serving donuts on the way in...people everywhere buying Christmas Trees (I mean not trees as good as Balsam Hill..haha!) and there was just this great ENERGY in the air there. It was exactly what we needed - we were already dragging just a couple hours into our day but WOW, that was just what we needed! I got my older daughter a drone for $30 there. I figure it probably is kinda crap but if she likes it and uses it we'll buy a nicer one and if it's a one and done kinda thing nothing lost.

When we buy for our kids we try to get them 1 big item from us and then some other odds and ends (some of which in their mind might be from Santa). Sometimes we end up with 2 "big-ish" items from us if there isn't 1 big item that fits the bill. We try to keep Christmas low-key budget-wise as I just want to impart good priorities in my kids. I'm certain my older daughter realizes that we value experiences over things. Examples of the big item in recent years are (Disney Inifinity, Lego Cinderella Castle, Guitar, Golf Clubs, etc.) We had no idea what this years big item would be...

So the morning continues and I end up at Best Buy which is where my "big item" comes to the forefront! Amazon Fire tablets... We are not a big technology family. My wife and I each have an iPhone which I guarantee you I do not use to its fullest capability. I'm typing this message on a desktop computer I took from work after we sold the company that is 10 years old. We have some sort of wi-fi only iPad I got back in 2016 which the girls all share (I don't use it). At any rate, this $29.99 deal on Amazon Fire 7 Tablets sounds awesome for my 2 girls. Of course, I am SUPER over-analytical. So this turns into a debate over the following options:

• Fire 7 16GB for $29.99?
• Fire 7 32GB for $49.99
• Fire 8 16GB for $49.99
• Fire 7 Kids 16GB for $59.99
• Fire 8 Kids 32GB for $79.99
• And of course each of these options exist at Kohl's, Best Buy, Target, & Amazon...
• Buy in Store or Order Online?
• If Online, TopCashBack vs. Rakuten?

If you give an analytical person like me this many options...analysis paralysis will set in QUICKLY. Holy crap...I must've gone back and forth a million times on what to do. We got home around 12:30 and on the drive home I had decided Kohl's for the least expensive version was the way to go. Boom, it was decided...and of course Kohl's is sold out... You've got to be kidding me!! I spent 5 hours debating this and it's sold out!! It probably does not surprise you but this happens a lot to me. I wait too long and lose out on things! I re-think things and Amazon is the way to go...so I go to my local grocery store to by Amazon GCs (18% back in fuel!) but then I get there and can't figure out the optimal amount to buy after tripping in to the DoC post about the Amex MR Amazon deals. I literally stand by the gift cards with iPhone calculator in hand doing math for 30 minutes and drive home having bought nothing...because I want to analyze on the computer

At any rate, I ultimately decide to buy 2 of the Fire 8 Kids 32GB version. If you bought 2 they knocked $20 off the price. So $159.98 - LESS $20 from Amazon - LESS $30 by using 1 Amex MR - LESS $10.99 in TopCashBack - LESS $18 in Gas on the $100 GC I went back to buy = $87.58. If you factor in the CIP MSR this went towards you could call this a $68 net purchase for 2 tablets!

So basically from about 7:30am on my day was spent thinking about tablets... while shopping, eating, playing video games, basically whatever I was doing, lol!

Today I grabbed some Disney GCs on that 18% (3x fuel perks) promo (combined with my CIP MSR that puts me @37% combined). I'm now only bout $1,500 short of paying off my January trip. BUT I've maxed out the fuel I can redeem in the next few months so I need something else to come along. PLEASE RAISE - hear my prayers! I'd love to see a way to get 10%+ through Raise and then combo that with my CIP MSR which I need to finish off. I could also do another tank of gas after 12/18 but by then the gas deal will be back to a 6% value.

Tonight's excursion (after a lovely dinner at Red Lobster) was buying Jeans. My mom wants ideas for Christmas so I told her she could buy me some jeans. I'm hard to shop for me...I really want nothing, lol! At any rate...a pair of jeans for me is a 10+ year decision, so you don't just buy jeans. 12 pairs tried on, a few of them tried on twice, 75 minutes...but we found 3 pairs of jeans!

And then when we got home my wife and I spent a couple hours putting together a cart for Barnes & Noble. I redeemed a bunch of Amex MRs for B&N gift cards and we rounded off their Christmas items. Ended up getting 14 items altogether (a mixture of books, games and puzzles). It probably wasn't the best deal we could've gotten but I still have a lot of MRs so finishing their shopping "for free" was a good deal for us. We might put a few items away for the birthdays later next year but between the Tablets, Drone and this we basically have them handled. Probably some shirts, socks and underwear to come too, gives them more to open that morning!

Yes...I am a crazy person... But that was my weekend so far. How was yours??

EDIT: I totally left out 2 super important things!
- We ordered that tree at 12:57am on Friday morning... it showed up at 1:43pm Saturday! 36 hours and 46 minutes to get this tree...that was AMAZING! (And admittedly it does look pretty nice...)
- After getting 3 hours of sleep on Thursday night...I slept for 12 hours last night, haha! I was SOOOO tired at various times Friday. And now here I am typing to you all at 2:30 am with church in the morning so I best get at least 6 hours tonight!

One last edit... I also broke a record for buying things in person on Black Friday. I typically go out with Brother-In-Law and buy nothing...maybe 1 thing in some years. I'm honestly just there for the camaraderie of it all...It's strange but I enjoy just going out with him and hanging for the day. BUT this year I actually physically bought 2 things (shirt and drone) which is a record for me!

 

[PolyRob]

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! No meal for us this year (we celebrated in October). All the meals sound so yummy!

@PolyRob what is the best deal available online on the iPad? I'm going out for a few hours to meet a friend for breakfast (no respect for BF lol!) so hopefully whatever it is will still be available online around noon. Otherwise I'm happy I got my Sonos sound bar at BB $80.00 off + a $20.00 GC!

So sorry I am just seeing this tag! This gives a pretty great rundown of iPads this year

https://www.cnet.com/how-to/best-bl...PtanPYlmM_TFSCUCyrHVTCSM-E-LkkvVx19_xRuSS_61Y

Best Buy, Staples, and Micro Center had some pretty great deals. I will update you on anything else I see if you are still looking!

 

[wendow]

Oh my goodness! You and me, friend! The crush on Brees I'd embarrass myself if I went on and on. I'm in love with him, after my hubs of course...but it's a close race lol

So, we bought a new tree this year as well! I looked at the Balsam Hill ones. A lot. Ultimately, I chose one from Lowe's because of the ease of returning. Maybe I will and maybe I won't but I want options! At this point, it's up and I'm loving it.

You had quite the weekend! I'm happy for you and thrilled you splurged a bit~