How do YOU answer the credit card question?

Avatar for cmpat
iVillage Member
Registered: 02-21-2003
How do YOU answer the credit card question?
1432
Fri, 11-05-2010 - 3:30pm

Why can’t you just use your credit card?



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iVillage Member
Registered: 02-04-2009
Thu, 11-11-2010 - 10:49am

Okay.

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Kitty

"If you can't annoy somebody with what you write, I think there's little point in writing."-- Kingsley Amis, British novelist, 1971 t .

iVillage Member
Registered: 02-04-2009
Thu, 11-11-2010 - 10:51am

I bought new construction as pre-ground-breaking prices.

************

Kitty

"If you can't annoy somebody with what you write, I think there's little point in writing."-- Kingsley Amis, British novelist, 1971 t .

Avatar for savcal2011
iVillage Member
Registered: 10-06-2010
Thu, 11-11-2010 - 11:06am
Just to clarify. My mortgage wasn't a "special deal".

"I don’t mind a banshee, that’s fine. 2 banshees? I HATE you. I actually wish bad things upon you." -- Day[9] Daily #459 P1

iVillage Member
Registered: 05-13-2009
Thu, 11-11-2010 - 11:16am

Your point? Your interest on non-escrowed funds in a liquid investment account would be about $10-$20 a year.

I much preferred escrow accounts than paying the tax and insurance bills myself before online banking and recurring automatic payments

iVillage Member
Registered: 01-08-2009
Thu, 11-11-2010 - 11:19am

Ain't it the truth.

iVillage Member
Registered: 12-07-2003
Thu, 11-11-2010 - 11:53am
So how much interest do you make on your escrow account?
iVillage Member
Registered: 12-07-2003
Thu, 11-11-2010 - 12:00pm
I've never really understood the dividing every expense out over a year method of budgeting. It's recommended all over the place, but I find it much easier to just budget by the month. I know when the big expenses are and plan for them, but I don't need to necessarily save for them each month.
Avatar for savcal2011
iVillage Member
Registered: 10-06-2010
Thu, 11-11-2010 - 12:28pm
I've never used a "budget". I, for a long time, especially when things were much tighter than they are now, tracked my expenses. That was so I could know where my money was going, and where the "waste" was and where I could cut when needed. but I've never found a need for me to have something, even on a monthly basis, that says "This month we'll spend $150 on electricity, $50 on water, $450 on groceries, $1400 on the mortgage, etc".

I've really loosened my control on my finances in the last year. And I"m glad ... because I'm less stressed about them, and spend much less time on them, but so far haven't seen that it has had any negative impact.

"I don’t mind a banshee, that’s fine. 2 banshees? I HATE you. I actually wish bad things upon you." -- Day[9] Daily #459 P1

Avatar for rollmops2009
iVillage Member
Registered: 02-24-2009
Thu, 11-11-2010 - 12:34pm

We do have a budget, in the sense that we know that each month the overhead will be X, and we obviously know what that number is from adding up the electricity, the rents, phone bills, etc. We also track expenses and that is how we know how much the groceries, clothing etc are likely to be. The money for all this is transferred into a household/running account, the rest stays back.

iVillage Member
Registered: 12-07-2003
Thu, 11-11-2010 - 12:55pm
I've been considering switching to something similar. I can split my paycheck among accounts. Right now most of it goes into checking and a little into savings. At the end of the month, I transfer what's left into savings. I've thought of putting most of it into savings and just enough to cover the bills in checking. I can't decide if it would work for us or if it would be a hassle.

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