Yikes. Our HHI is $190k, no mortgage (house paid off), and I'd say our monthly credit card bill is $6k, which we pay off. We use it for everything in order to get cash back and keep track of spending. I feel like the $$ is trickling down the toilet for constant purchases, $40 here, $120 there, etc. Our biggest amount per month is on food, we have a child with celiac and SN, so we spend a lot on special food and organics.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Ours is usually $8-9k, this month it was $5k, which was low. Also pay off every month. Get about $1300 cash back each year on our Costco Amex. We don't charge utilities and things like that, but there always seems to be some travel or other one off purchases that drive up the balance.

May ask you HHI?

We are at $260K and our charges are around 4K each month.

HHI is reasonably high - depends on the year but usually around $750k+.

No.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Serious question: If you have the money in the month, why are you putting that much on a credit card on a monthly basis for your living expenses? Why not just use your checking card and have it taken out your bank account?

We get cash back.

Cant u get cash back from your bank card|?

Anonymous wrote:Serious question: If you have the money in the month, why are you putting that much on a credit card on a monthly basis for your living expenses? Why not just use your checking card and have it taken out your bank account?

We get cash back.

We have four credit cards. I'd say we put a total of about $4500 to $5000 a month on them. We do not carry a balance. HHI of $440K.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is OP. We also have cash back cards (I just put in requests for $1k in checks, which is what got me thinking about this). I track our spending on Mint, but we don't really have a budget per se. With a HHI of $250k and a mortgage of just $2500k, we have plenty left over to save for retirement and college and pay for daycare. I tend to think of us as living modestly, but we will spend on travel and things for the house. Still, I guess it's just astounding to me that we're blowing through $5k a month in addition to the more fixed expenses like mortgage, utilities, school loan.

OP again. I should add that I guess I fear this will only get worse. The kids aren't in school yet, so I only see costs for their clothing, activities, and food growing. Also, we will likely do more elaborate vacations.

This was us 3 months ago. We were blowing through so much cash, and not thinking twice about it. DH and I took our credit cards out of our wallets and went on a 60-day spending freeze. We took out a set amount of cash each week for personal/family expenses, and if we ran out of cash, we couldn't go out to dinner, go to that yoga class, etc. We switched all our utilities to our debit cards and we are sticking religiously to our grocery budget. It has not been fun, but like you, I could only see things getting worse in the future as general expenses will increase. At some point, we might go back to putting everything on CC's (we also have a cash-back card), but for the time being, we are more focused on getting daily expenses under control and this is what is working best for us.

Anonymous wrote:Ours is usually $8-9k, this month it was $5k, which was low. Also pay off every month. Get about $1300 cash back each year on our Costco Amex. We don't charge utilities and things like that, but there always seems to be some travel or other one off purchases that drive up the balance.

May ask you HHI?

We are at $260K and our charges are around 4K each month.

Anonymous wrote:Serious question: If you have the money in the month, why are you putting that much on a credit card on a monthly basis for your living expenses? Why not just use your checking card and have it taken out your bank account?

Some PPs have already answered, but I have another reason as well.

Some merchants will place a large hold on your card when charging something--for example hotel rooms when you are traveling. I once used my debit card when I charged a hotel room. In addition to charging the hotel room rate, they also placed a large hold (well, I think it was a couple hundred dollars, but at the time I was a college student--so that was a large amount to me!) incase I damaged the room, took items from the minibar, long distance phone calls, etc. This hold was still in place several days after i checked out the room. So the money was in my account, but I couldn't actually use it! Like I said, at the time I was a college student, so that couple hundred of unusable money was a pretty big deal.

For most more established adults, the one time $200 hold up won't be a huge deal--but imagine if you were driving a long, multi day road trip, and each hotel you stopped at did this--holding up your cash for several days. You could easily rack up a thousand in "held money" on your debit card. For me, I'd rather have the holds on my credit card...

Anonymous wrote:This is OP. We also have cash back cards (I just put in requests for $1k in checks, which is what got me thinking about this). I track our spending on Mint, but we don't really have a budget per se. With a HHI of $250k and a mortgage of just $2500k, we have plenty left over to save for retirement and college and pay for daycare. I tend to think of us as living modestly, but we will spend on travel and things for the house. Still, I guess it's just astounding to me that we're blowing through $5k a month in addition to the more fixed expenses like mortgage, utilities, school loan.

OP again. I should add that I guess I fear this will only get worse. The kids aren't in school yet, so I only see costs for their clothing, activities, and food growing. Also, we will likely do more elaborate vacations.

Anonymous wrote:This is OP. We also have cash back cards (I just put in requests for $1k in checks, which is what got me thinking about this). I track our spending on Mint, but we don't really have a budget per se. With a HHI of $250k and a mortgage of just $2500k, we have plenty left over to save for retirement and college and pay for daycare. I tend to think of us as living modestly, but we will spend on travel and things for the house. Still, I guess it's just astounding to me that we're blowing through $5k a month in addition to the more fixed expenses like mortgage, utilities, school loan.

I would take several months' worth of bills and try to get a breakdown of what amounts are going to given categories (food, clothing etc.). It always feels better to know where your money is going (even if spending isn't objectionable).

Ours is usually $8-9k, this month it was $5k, which was low. Also pay off every month. Get about $1300 cash back each year on our Costco Amex. We don't charge utilities and things like that, but there always seems to be some travel or other one off purchases that drive up the balance.

This is OP. We also have cash back cards (I just put in requests for $1k in checks, which is what got me thinking about this). I track our spending on Mint, but we don't really have a budget per se. With a HHI of $250k and a mortgage of just $2500k, we have plenty left over to save for retirement and college and pay for daycare. I tend to think of us as living modestly, but we will spend on travel and things for the house. Still, I guess it's just astounding to me that we're blowing through $5k a month in addition to the more fixed expenses like mortgage, utilities, school loan.

Anonymous wrote:
Serious question: If you have the money in the month, why are you putting that much on a credit card on a monthly basis for your living expenses? Why not just use your checking card and have it taken out your bank account?


because a debit/bank card is riskier, if compromised you have less protection against fraudulent charges


This isn't true.

"Credit card companies are held to strict liability laws; the law limits consumer liability for credit card fraud to $50. For example, if you notice suspicious charges on your credit card statement such as double billing or an incorrect charge, the credit card company is obligated to investigate if you send in a written request within 60 days.

For debit card fraud, your liability is $50 if you notify the bank within two days of noticing the fraudulent charges. After two days, your liability increases to $500, and up to your entire account balance after 60 days. So, if you report the theft after two days, you can be held responsible for paying for purchases or charges that you didn't make. Although many banks have started to implement voluntary plans to limit customer liability to $50, there is no federal law regarding this issue."

Also with a Dcard, the money is not available to you until the fraud case has been resolved.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Serious question: If you have the money in the month, why are you putting that much on a credit card on a monthly basis for your living expenses? Why not just use your checking card and have it taken out your bank account?

because a debit/bank card is riskier, if compromised you have less protection against fraudulent charges

This isn't true.

Of course it's true

http://money.usnews.com/money/blogs/alpha-consumer/2009/08/18/fraud-protection-debit-versus-credit-cards