Anonymous
Post 07/31/2012 21:05     Subject: Re:What is your monthly credit card bill?
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?


We get cash back.


Cant u get cash back from your bank card|?


"Cash back" in this context is free money--our card automatically gives us back 1% of what we spend, though deals vary. (Different than paying for something by debit card, then getting cash also--in that case, the amount of cash is added to the total of what you're buying. No free money there.)
Anonymous
Post 07/31/2012 20:49     Subject: What is your monthly credit card bill?
Anonymous wrote:$5000Kers - does that include things like cable, internet, cell phones, utilities and mortgage and/or rent?


I am OP. In our case, the $5k does not include those things. That's why it's alarming. It does include car insurance.
Anonymous
Post 07/31/2012 19:32     Subject: Re:What is your monthly credit card bill?
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?


Cash rewards, airline miles. We never carry a balance from month to month.
Anonymous
Post 07/31/2012 19:18     Subject: What is your monthly credit card bill?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:$5000Kers - does that include things like cable, internet, cell phones, utilities and mortgage and/or rent?


in my case no. We pay separately for tuition, mortgage (2 houses), utilities, RE taxes and insurance. Also pay the housecleaner by check. We charge travel, groceries, clothing, restaurants, home related purchases, doctor copays (but i usually write a check for the rest of the bill). We don't have cable. Pay cash for cars so no car payments.


how do you live without cable? don't your kids like watching disney jr?


One's in college and one's in HS so no, Disney Jr does not appeal. We watch regular TV, Netflix, etc. the kids have travel and high school sports and schoolwork so not much time for TV anyway. Just too cheap (despite high HHI) to pay for cable.
Anonymous
Post 07/31/2012 18:25     Subject: What is your monthly credit card bill?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:$5000Kers - does that include things like cable, internet, cell phones, utilities and mortgage and/or rent?


in my case no. We pay separately for tuition, mortgage (2 houses), utilities, RE taxes and insurance. Also pay the housecleaner by check. We charge travel, groceries, clothing, restaurants, home related purchases, doctor copays (but i usually write a check for the rest of the bill). We don't have cable. Pay cash for cars so no car payments.


how do you live without cable? don't your kids like watching disney jr?
Anonymous
Post 07/31/2012 18:10     Subject: Re:What is your monthly credit card bill?
Please post what your credit card bill is (if you also put everything on it like groceries, clothes, misc, etc) and pay it off and what is your gross income..thanks!
Anonymous
Post 07/31/2012 17:28     Subject: What is your monthly credit card bill?
Anonymous wrote:$5000Kers - does that include things like cable, internet, cell phones, utilities and mortgage and/or rent?


in my case no. We pay separately for tuition, mortgage (2 houses), utilities, RE taxes and insurance. Also pay the housecleaner by check. We charge travel, groceries, clothing, restaurants, home related purchases, doctor copays (but i usually write a check for the rest of the bill). We don't have cable. Pay cash for cars so no car payments.
Anonymous
Post 07/31/2012 17:26     Subject: What is your monthly credit card bill?
5 to 7 k on Amex so we pay it off every month.
Anonymous
Post 07/31/2012 17:22     Subject: Re:What is your monthly credit card bill?
Anonymous wrote:I am a PP with $6k bill. Yes, includes utilities, trash, phone, cell. We don't have cable or mortgage.


I totally understand if you don't want to do this, but can you give your HHI and breakdown of some of the costs? Like eating out, vacations, clothes, childcare, cleaning service, landscaping, etc...?
Anonymous
Post 07/31/2012 17:06     Subject: Re:What is your monthly credit card bill?
I am a PP with $6k bill. Yes, includes utilities, trash, phone, cell. We don't have cable or mortgage.
Anonymous
Post 07/31/2012 17:02     Subject: What is your monthly credit card bill?
Sorry not $5000K, that would be a lot!!
Anonymous
Post 07/31/2012 17:02     Subject: What is your monthly credit card bill?
$5000Kers - does that include things like cable, internet, cell phones, utilities and mortgage and/or rent?
Anonymous
Post 07/31/2012 16:51     Subject: Re:What is your monthly credit card bill?
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?

As someone mentioned, most people have some sort of rewards-based card. We get cash back.


Also, we prefer to keep most of our money in a money market account and just move it to checking as needed.


Both of these reasons are exactly why I charge everything. You also get some product insurance depending on the card so that's a benefit too.
Anonymous
Post 07/31/2012 16:49     Subject: Re:What is your monthly credit card bill?
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.


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).


NP here - I do this about every six months just to get an idea of where we're spending, it's very helpful.
Anonymous
Post 07/31/2012 16:41     Subject: What is your monthly credit card bill?
Ours is $1-2K, and our HHI is $136K. This doesn't include most groceries except our CSA though.