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Progress on debt; various gift card & credit card doings

March 27th, 2012 at 04:01 am

One of AS's student loans hit with $127 going to principal. That takes our March debt repayment to $4003! Woo hoo! She has one more small student loan payment this month; let's see if I'm of sound enough mind to record it on time. Smile

Made it through the work day somehow; luckily it was slow enough that I could do each thing I got as soon as I got it, so that puts me ahead for the week a little, hopefully. I was going to cook and save our pizza delivery for another day, but after working through lunch and braving the cold drizzle home, I gave in (it was scheduled on the menu so I didn't feel guilty).

I suddenly felt insecure that we had a bunch of gift cards laying around -- some in various wallets, some hidden around the house -- so I went and collected them and filed them in their own folder. If I can recall (too lazy to get the folder) I found:
$10 Punch Pizza card
$75 Tom Pham's Azian Kitchen cards
$30 Wild Rumpus (kids' bookshop)
$100 Barnes & Noble
$165 Target
$200 Amex card

I gave a $25 Target card back to AS so she could buy a couple more things before the birth but the rest are waiting there. That's not counting the $1800 in Amazon credits that we've accumulated from credit card rewards and family gifts. Oh, and I have $30 in my Amazon account. And we just redeemed a $30 credit for our diaper service that someone gave us at the shower. And I think AS has some iTunes credits in her iTunes account. And she just ordered a $25 CVS card from MyPoints. Yeesh!

Speaking of which, we decided not to use the Amazon credit to buy the stroller. NT applied for (and was approved for) a Chase Sapphire card (that's the spend $3000, get $500 cash deal, which rumor has it is going away soon). We'll charge the stroller on that when we get it. I think I can cover that with the budget surplus. I think the stroller & supplies will come to about $1250, so the Chase account will be nearly halfway there. The rest will be easily met by charging regular expenses over the three months we have.

With AS's Chase card yielding $200 as soon as we finish charging $500, and this new Chase card giving us $500 after we charge $3000, we'll actually only have to spend about $550 out of pocket, net, for the stroller and supplies. So I think it's a good call, and then we'll still have the Amazon credits for little emergencies that come up.

4 Responses to “Progress on debt; various gift card & credit card doings”

  1. ThriftoRama Says:
    1332864611

    We had the same gift card problem. People give them to us all the time, but I only really ever shop at the grocery store, so they end up scattered. I finally gathered them up and put them in a small box in my closet. We have a lot of stored value on there. $80 to macy's $50 to JOann Fabrics, $50 to a fancy steakhouse, $20 at Kohls, etc. Secretly I wish I could turn them all into cash and use it to pay down the car.

    Anyway, sounds like you guys are doing all right and have a solid plan for baby No. 2. I will say two kids isn't double to work, but having a good plan especially for how the transition is going to go. Makes it easier on the tire adults and the "what do you mean I'm not the center of the universe?" older sibling.

  2. FrugalTexan75 Says:
    1332899171

    Thrift - you can turn them into cash by selling them on Ebay - the restaurant one might not work, but the others I bet would. Smile

  3. mjrube94 Says:
    1332937563

    Thrift, you can also go to cardpool .com and plasticjungle .com. They tell you on the spot how much they're willing to pay. I've dealt with both companies several times with no problems...(when you see what they'll offer you, you can always then look at current listings on eBay to see if it's competitive). Good luck!

  4. Yvonne Says:
    1346096612

    Hello,
    I noticed that you are a member of mypoints, I’m a member of mypoints too. I usually order the walgreens gift cards with the points that I earn.
    Have you tried swagbucks? You can earn digital dollars and redeem them to purchase any of several gift cards, and/or products. I earn most of my swagbucks by searching the web and watching videos on SBTV (swag bucks tv), but there are several ways to earn those digital dollars. You can be my referral if you want. Here is the referral link: http://www.swagbucks.com/refer/kaay81

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