Depending on how you want to parse out our latest credit card bill - which was three times the normal monthly total (!)* - LD and I either spent our $1200 on groceries, gas and other essential miscellany; a fraction of my dental bills (ten years of avoiding the dentist will land you roughly four hours in the chair to the tune of about $2800, after insurance); or Kaylee’s dental work, which was actually just under $1200. If we hadn’t spent the money on Kaylee’s teeth…well, Ralphie’s scheduled for an extraction next month as well.

I had hoped to either save it or make an extra mortgage payment, but no go.

At no time did the thought of squandering it on luxury goods cross our minds.

* On the plus side, the Amazon points I earned through those crazy credit card charges will buy a small library. Ripley, here I come!

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Tagged: rebate checks

As part of their Earth Day Lite ™ coverage, CNN solicited suggestions on saving money in this tough shitty economy. What this has to do with Earth Day, I know not, other than that saving money and “being green” sometimes intersect. They could have elaborated, really.

Anyway, Cheryl from New Mexico kind of irritated me:

DON LEMON: Here’s what Cheryl from New Mexico writes: “I no longer shop online, and I don’t use credit cards except in an extreme emergency. And that is almost never.”

Zum, what’s with all the hating on the credit cards and the internets? As long as both are used responsibly, they can help you save money.

Let’s start with the credit cards, since they’re a wee bit more difficult to defend than the internet. As long as you know how to play the system, credit cards can be pretty durn useful. For starters, don’t charge more on a card than you can easily pay off - in full - the next month. Inexplicably, banks are exempt from usury laws, such that 36% interest rates are the norm. So I’m definitely not saying that you should run out and charge expensive items that you wouldn’t otherwise be able to afford. Overspending, bad. Interest charges, bad. Greedy banks, bad. No argument there.

But as long as you stay within your budget, charging everyday items is a good thing. You can increase your credit score and earn rewards from your credit card company. (I earn $25 Amazon gift certificates, usually to the rate of 1-2 a month. How do you think I fund all those book piles?) And I’ll only pay with credit when shopping on eBay - if the seller ends up being a fraud, I can contest the charges. Not so much if I pay via a cash transfer from my bank, something that Paypal always seems to be pushing, the the point of harassment.

The “Credit cards, evil!!!1!!” meme is especially annoying, perhaps because this is something I’ve been hearing lectures about since I got my own card. Back when I first moved in with Shane, when I was still in college, I worked at a local grocery store part-time. Since I was already there, and I hated wasting time with the unpaid, forced half hour lunches I had to take during every shift six hours or longer, I did all the grocery shopping for us, usually during my lunch break. I could not believe the admonitions some of the guys (they were always guys) in the grocery department would give me about paying for groceries on my credit card! As though I was going to blow my paycheck on shiny glass jars of peaches or something. We wimmins, just can’t be trusted with plastic. We have an extra special femaley spending gland, located somewheres down near the ovaries, donthchaknow?

In retrospect, my store was filled with Nice Guys ™, probably of the concern troll variety. I just didn’t have the blaming skillz to call ‘em out harshly as I should have. Patriarchy-blaming is yet another gift the internets has bestowed upon this featherhead.

(More below the fold…)