About sixteen years ago, I met him for the first time. My trainwreck sibling brought home this adorable puppy he had no business adopting because he had not one thing in his life that wasn’t a mess. I was furious at my sibling – he didn’t even take care of himself, how could he drag
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May 21, 2007
BoyDucky asked me to go to a wedding with him and his brother/sis-in-law in Vancouver this July. A looksee on Farecompare.com, Orbitz.com, AA.com and United.com later, it seems that the airfare is not just ‘spensive, it’s pretty ridiculous.
I went through the whole process of agonizing over whether I can really afford to spend $450 on airfare and another $200 on the hotel. You can, however, can skip the agonizing: that’s a no. Or at least I couldn’t possibly justify it. And then the epiphany hit me: If I had just held off on redeeming all those points for another week, redeeming them for gift cards I won’t need anytime soon after all, I could have my ticket! And I could have probably redeemed more points for the hotel stay! *groan* Now how am I supposed to learn my lesson about the evils of hoarding when this sort of coincidence occurs?
I feel like a prize just slipped through my fingers.
I’m still 3k United Miles shy of the required 25k, or 6k Thank You points short, looking over all my rewards accounts. I suppose I could look into converting some Starwood points (20k points –> 25k miles) into United miles, if I want to give up on my Starwood points for now.
Right about now I’m not sure if it would have been better to consolidate and focus my rewards earning on just one or two accounts, or if I should be grateful that there may still be some point gyrations that would save me $450-650.
Yar, I say! Thar be fist-shakin’ in the Ducky household tonight. (There also be some consideration of asking Big Boss if he couldn’t spare a few, oh, say, 25k miles. What? It could be a “creative” perk!)
Ah well. I could always not go.
Edit: Holy cow! The only award flights available are 50k miles!
May 17, 2007
I’m so excited, my first requested Paperback Swap book came in today, and I’ve sent two out! Practically free books in the mail, what could be better? (Well, you know, other than checks and great coupons, of course 😛 )
May 16, 2007
Q: Shall I buy your Comic-Con tickets when I buy mine?
A: Sure, "or I could just buy 'em myself but I know how it pains you to know that
I'd be purchasing them with my debit card. Might as well let you
get some points outta it."
BoyDucky gets it! He DOES see me wince/twitch/grimace horribly EVERY time he
buys something with a debit card! I'll have him converted yet, my pretties ....
=D
May 14, 2007
I’m a points rewards packrat. I maximize points earnings, and then I hoard them, planning and obsessing about the various rewards or gift cards that I can redeem them for. Like frequent flier miles, the consensus is that you should not do this. You earn ’em, and burn ’em because you don’t know when the program’s going to change and the earned points/miles aren’t worth anything to you until you redeem. Duh.
I never listen, of course. It always seems like a good idea to hold out for a higher redemption level, because what if I want to redeem for something like airline tickets instead of gift cards, and what if I want to buy from another store? Except 1) I’m already well over the threshold for the best redemption value you can get: there isn’t a better discount for, say, a $200 gift card instead of $100. The difference between $10, $25, $50 and $100 gift cards can be substantial, but $100 for 10k points is the best deal you’re going to get.
2) The only airline tickets I’m going to need for the forseeable future are to go see BoyDucky which costs between $110-$150, which is not worth the equivalent $250 in gift cards. If I were to be flying cross-country, the 25k points for a ticket would be a far greater value but I have no vacation plans of any sort for at least through the end of this year.
And 3) Well, it’s not like there aren’t a limited number of stores to redeem cards for anyway! I may as well start somewhere and redeem some money for each store I’m likely to frequent.
Much like when I discovered that I’d been uselessly hoarding my Discover rewards for more Double Cash Rewards because the $40 for $20 Borders GCs were now $25 Gift Cards for $20 of rewards, I lost out on the premium Citi Redemption because of my nearly pathological need to hoard points. *Tsk* It was to my intense chagrin that I found that the $100 gift cards I’ve been saving Thank You points for were no longer available at the 10k point redemption level. Instead, they’re only available at $50 for 6k points. But of course. I paid 5k more Thank You points than I expected, to get only $250 worth of gift cards, instead of $300.
In the spirit of reformation, I went ahead and ordered the $100 gift card for BoyDucky’s birthday even though that’s not for another 6 months, and I’m going to figure out what to redeem the last 20k points for, before the $100 for 10k goes away entirely. And I’ll redeem my MyPoints for a gift card as well, since I’m well over the minimum needed for a $25 gift card. Target gift card, anyone?
As Moneydummy noted, the price of eggs has been astronomical of late. The local grocery store prices a carton of 18 eggs at 4.50, BOGO. At first, 36 eggs for 4.50 might sound like a bargain, but it’s really not. That’s a dozen more eggs than we need for the next 2-3 weeks, and encourages both the waste of money (1.50) and the eggs (1 dozen).
Luckily, I had my cell phone with me and checked in with MaDucky who advised me to go to Longs Drugs. It turns out that their regular price is less than half that of Vons’, and only cost me 2.50 for 2 dozen eggs. Certainly worth the $2 savings and knowing that none of the eggs will go to waste. Yes, it cost me an extra 5 minutes to stop at another store, but it’s just across the street from my house anyway, so I didn’t go out of my way either.
Another option that just occurred to me is Trader Joe’s. I know BoyDucky always goes to TJ’s for his eggs because they’re 99 cents/dozen, but if they have a few other basics at lower prices than Vons’ sale prices, it’d be worth splitting the trips, again because TJ’s is just across the street from my house. I should have checked it out yesterday instead of making a beeline for Longs but I had juice and yogurt in the car, and tunnel vision to boot.
Next week, I plan to scout Trader Joe’s for their pricing on staples like milk, eggs and bread, while trying to avoid those landmines of specialty goodies they always have. I love good food, but with the price of gas these days it’s important to make sure the grocery dollars are stretched as far as they can go!
May 10, 2007
Though I rarely get to watch television, I’ve been known to enjoy tidbits of Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert, on occasion. I happened across this hilarious little segment of last night’s Colbert Report. THE most important segment, really:
And the best comment posted has to be:
“Well, Evelyn [Mrs. Colbert] ought to be okay with it. She just won every fight for the rest of their lives, with a handy visual aid. “Oh, really, Stephen? [Flips on large screen tv with freeze frame of appropriate moment.] Fonda. Take out the damn garbage.”
What if you were getting older, and were told you only had a year left? What would you do differently? “Live like you were dying” as Timmy McGraw says?
What a twisted opportunity that presents. You’ve got nothing to lose living life to the fullest, and enjoying your hard-earned savings, right? As all of us ponder, from time to time, what’s the point if you’re not enjoying life? We talk about how aggressively we should save simply because we just don’t know what’s going to happen next, and we don’t want to be caught short in retirement. And that’s a valid point. But what if you knew you only had a year to live? Sorta boils down the questions, doesn’t it?
Perhaps. Or you could be this guywho was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and “quit his job, sold or gave away nearly all his possessions, stopped paying his mortgage and spent his savings dining out and going on holiday.” He then finds out that his diagnosed cancer was actually “no more than a non-life threatening inflammation of the pancreas.”
Oh, the irony! Still, in time-honored tradition, he feels “really pleased that” he’s “got a second chance in life… but if you haven’t got no money after all this, which is my fault — I spent it all — they should pay something back. If he can’t get compensation, he is considering selling his house or suing the hospital that diagnosed him. The hospital has said that while it sympathizes with Brandrick, a review of his case showed no different diagnosis would have been made.”
(Wait, I thought this guy was a Brit, are they as sue-happy as we Americans are? He admits it was his fault for spending it all, but yet the hospital is still responsible for his spending spree. But if he’d really had cancer, they’d be responsible if he hadn’t had a chance to enjoy life, if he had been misdiagnosed with the inflammation of the pancreas. They really can’t win for losin’.)
I notice that it doesn’t mention that he spent anything on cancer treatments, though. I guess he was going to let nature run its course? Of course it sucks that he had to think he was dying, but goodness, did he have to spend himself silly? I can’t help but think that if he’d considered making a will to distribute something to those he was leaving behind or even a worthy charity to receive his wealth after he passed, he wouldn’t be in quite such dire straits: “Brandrick was left with little more than the black suit, white shirt and red tie that he had planned to be buried in…”
Not that he was obligated to leave anything behind, but I’m just sayin’. Charity can still pay off, even if you’re dying. Or not dying.
Moral of the story? Don’t be so quick to believe everything doctors tell you, they’re not infallible. You might end up living.