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Old 01-13-2018, 09:31 AM
 
2,212 posts, read 1,070,891 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by jrkliny View Post
Sounds like a lot of progress towards simplification. If you have a credit card with reward points those add up. We charge even $5 purchases and hardly ever use cash. Last year I wrote one check. I believe that was for the DMW or some other government agency still in the dark ages.
LOL..yeah my "checks" are also to the government. I could have paid online but they had a $25 fee so I drove the 10 minutes to the tax office and paid by check.

I keep about $40 or so in my wallet "just in case" but hardly ever need to replenish it.
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Old 01-13-2018, 09:55 AM
 
Location: equator
11,035 posts, read 6,589,028 times
Reputation: 25523
Living car-free has greatly simplified our lives, and saved tons of money.


Agree that using credit cards makes life smoother too. All the budgeting is right there on the statement, and the rewards are a bonus. No interest paid in many years....


But we have to keep some cash around for taxis, buses and cafes....what did we do before ATMs?!
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Old 01-13-2018, 10:06 AM
 
8,583 posts, read 15,980,904 times
Reputation: 11355
Quote:
Originally Posted by skycaller23 View Post
I pay for everything with my CC..bills, food shopping, etc.
My monthly CC bill is how I track my budget and it makes it so much easier as I don't have to remember to record all my spending. The CC bill covers about 95% of my budget and then I just add in the extra cash I put in my wallet and one or two checks I do write.
I do half of my spending that way but am not sure some of my bills can be on auto draft from my credit card account. I will check on that. The bank has the annoying feature that only the last 3 months can be printed out. I often forget to print often enough and miss months.
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Old 01-13-2018, 10:32 AM
 
7,898 posts, read 7,094,681 times
Reputation: 18587
Quote:
Originally Posted by kelly237 View Post
I do half of my spending that way but am not sure some of my bills can be on auto draft from my credit card account. I will check on that. The bank has the annoying feature that only the last 3 months can be printed out. I often forget to print often enough and miss months.
If you do not want to do auto pay, you should be able to quickly make a payment with electronic funds transfer. If your bank does not provide that capability and if you cannot access at least the past several years of records, I suggest you change banks.
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Old 01-13-2018, 11:00 AM
 
8,583 posts, read 15,980,904 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by jrkliny View Post
If you do not want to do auto pay, you should be able to quickly make a payment with electronic funds transfer. If your bank does not provide that capability and if you cannot access at least the past several years of records, I suggest you change banks.
I was probably not very clear...
I do auto draft from checking for all my bills, but would like to switch the ones I can to
credit card auto payment. My hulu & cell phone allow that, but not sure what other bills I could do that way.
I will check on that..
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Old 01-13-2018, 11:02 AM
 
Location: SW Florida
14,891 posts, read 12,052,980 times
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The online banking options come to mind as probably the most convenient, time-saving measures affecting my life.
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Old 01-13-2018, 12:39 PM
 
Location: Central Ohio
10,823 posts, read 14,900,285 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Sand&Salt View Post
Living car-free has greatly simplified our lives, and saved tons of money.

Agree that using credit cards makes life smoother too. All the budgeting is right there on the statement, and the rewards are a bonus. No interest paid in many years....

But we have to keep some cash around for taxis, buses and cafes....what did we do before ATMs?!
I would like to go with an electric car because I don't see long car trips in my future. At night I don't feel safe anymore so I avoid night time driving or driving in the rain and snow. Leave that up to the kiddies who have to work a job to pay taxes so we can continue getting our SS benefit checks.

We bank with 5/3rd and they have the best ever banking app I've seen. With a simple swipe we can view or checking account, savings and credit card current balance and we use that for budgeting. Everything goes on the credit card; food, entertainment, clothing, beauty supplies etc it is all on the credit card. Our balance never goes over $1,300 and when it gets close we close down... statement date is the 17th so it's paid on the 17th and we start over with a zero balance.

The only thing not counted on the $1,300 is anything medical, dental or vision because my wife gets reimbursed for all out of pocket medical expenses through her state retirement medical savings account. To get the money all we need do is produce proof that we paid xxx out of pocket.

What we are discovering is we don't spend $1,300 a month it's closer to $1,000 so what we do is "roll over" the left over money so if something really good comes up we can go do it.

All other bills are auto-pay so I don't even think about them. I want life to be easy on us.

Snowed with wind last night so we ended up "snowed in" today but no big deal. It's 2:30 in the afternoon and I still have my bath robe on so maybe I should get a shower before 6:00?
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Old 01-14-2018, 12:15 PM
 
12,053 posts, read 10,226,066 times
Reputation: 24782
finally set my coffee order on a recurring basis. Don't know why I didn't do this before!! I use Rogers Coffee. Love it.
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Old 01-15-2018, 06:26 AM
 
Location: Central NY
5,946 posts, read 5,099,666 times
Reputation: 16881
Quote:
Originally Posted by Clemencia53 View Post
finally set my coffee order on a recurring basis. Don't know why I didn't do this before!! I use Rogers Coffee. Love it.

I have never heard of Rogers coffee. Nice to hear you enjoy it.

I have often wished I could go to a coffee tasting place to see which blend/flavor I might like. Or purchase a small packet for one or two cups to see which one I like best.

I don't have a Keurig, I prefer having a pot going in the kitchen.
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Old 01-15-2018, 07:02 AM
 
12,053 posts, read 10,226,066 times
Reputation: 24782
Quote:
Originally Posted by NYgal1542 View Post
I have never heard of Rogers coffee. Nice to hear you enjoy it.

I have often wished I could go to a coffee tasting place to see which blend/flavor I might like. Or purchase a small packet for one or two cups to see which one I like best.

I don't have a Keurig, I prefer having a pot going in the kitchen.
I like a nice strong coffee so I get an espresso roast.

I used to have a cappuccino machine, but now I just want my coffee quickly! The Keurig works for that. The pods I get are 98% biodegradable.

I tried the reusable ones and boy what a mess. Trying to fill that thing with ground coffee early in the morning - no thanks.
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