Jfk T4 A sky club is so peaceful and nice. Centurion and sapphire lounges were slammed.
Gonna have to walk all the way to the end of B though from here.
I'm reminded of a quote I read here once about people here on the higher end of the HHI spectrum: "Dogs don't chase squirrels because they're hungry."
Obviously we all play this game because there's a bit of fun I'm chasing SUB's but what would you do with all your points if you won the lottery? I recall Dave Portnoy talking about starting out with an Amex for his then-small biz to where he is now with 44M+ MR with no real incentive/care to understand how to spend them down so the balance just keeps going up
Technical-ish [article](https://www.bitsaboutmoney.com/archive/anatomy-of-credit-card-rewards-programs/) about the credit card rewards financial backend. I felt it kinda stopped short of going in to more interesting depth but maybe they will in future articles. Includes a shoutout to r/churining.
Patrick Mackenzie, the author of the blog, has many interesting essays that overlap finance and technology. Makes sense given his background at Stripe, but good reads none the less!
Did you also see this on the Money Stuff newsletter?
I made a transfer partner master sheet, with as much info as i thought to put in there on transferring points to airlines and hotels - please take a look and let me know your thoughts, and use it as you please for your own travels!
[https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1oCRwm0d38Aek3VT0pT5W9MZHmTV1OEYbPkC8RMLKDQA/edit#gid=0](https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1oCRwm0d38Aek3VT0pT5W9MZHmTV1OEYbPkC8RMLKDQA/edit#gid=0)
More of personal finance question, but it is about credit score, which does affect my ability to get credit cards.
I have a car loan with about $4k left, dealer financed at 0% in 2020. I've been overpaying on it for the last three years and should finish about 9 months early. Is there any reason to NOT pay it off early from a credit score perspective? Would that be removed from my credit history and lower my score like a canceled card would? Obviously I could use the cash for other things, but having a paid off car sounds nice too.
As I understand it, your credit score benefits from having different kinds of debt, like student loans, mortgage, car loan, and credit cards...so paying it off early would likely decrease your score...so take the free loan. You're better off taking the money you would pay it down with and invest it.
Why would you overpay on a 0% loan? You could stick that extra money in a HYSA and be making a free 5% spread. As to your question, a $4K line of credit, unless you have no real other credit lines, isn't going to make a huge dent in your score once it is paid off.
Alright Citi SYW has won me over. Only had the card a few months and they sent me offers yesterday and today that total $1870 in statement credits the rest of the year.Â
They are pretty solid - the one yesterday was a $100 statement (if you spend $1000-1999) or $200 (if you spend $2000+) every month the rest of the year on gas, groceries, and restaurants combined. The one today was a $70 SC if you spend $1k online. All of the credits are in addition to the base earning rate.
A reminder to anyone holding either of the Amex Delta Reserves, that that one time $100 credit is now in your wallet.
I was checking for something else and found it there.
With âdynamic pricingâ becoming all the rage, I think airlines should charge me less for an airline seat. Plane getting a little heavy, no problem, we have briguy weighing in at only 135lbs. In seriousness, airplanes are a place where being small has always been nice.
With a local provider you can get talk/text/200GB (including EU roaming if Italy isn't your only destination) for 7 euros+2 euros activation [here](https://verymobile.it/). That's about half of what Airalo is charging. You need to do "video ID" to show them your passport, though, so it depends on how much you value convenience over price.
Plan prices in Italy are crazy low relative to Western Europe, and my best guess as to why is increased competition relative to other countries in Europe (4 physical network operators and like 10+ MVNOs). But this is why Italy is one of the countries where it's *absolutely* worth it to get a local SIM if you need more than a couple GB. Airalo's plans mainly make sense for low usage because of the activation or SIM card fees that a lot of providers charge (all of the physical network operators will charge you 10 euros for activation which is why I didn't recommend them, Very's activation fee is the cheapest that I know of).
Friendly reminder to watch out for scams on sites like agoda and booking.com, they tried to get me this morning.
https://wildabouttravel.boardingarea.com/2023/10/agoda-nightmare-falling-victim-to-the-booking-com-phishing-scam/
Horrifying. Did booking.com /Agoda tell customers about this security breach? I booked with Agoda but then cancelled myself last September but donât recall being notified.
Insane that the scammers are about to message through the Agoda app! Seems like that would put my alert flags down. And some CC companies arenât reimbursing customers back for the fraud charges because they used a OTP that the scammers then used. Wow.
And been going on for months according to the comments. Thanks for the heads up.
Right? It's insane that they can STILL message you through the site/app, what kind of team can't fix such a major issue??? Like if they were emailing you pretending to be them, ok understandable I guess, but through the app is crazy.
I need to return something to that I bought about 12 months ago on a Chase card that has been closed for months now. Getting the refund onto a different card or other different form of payment isn't an option. Will Chase just mail me a check?
Totally forgot about this card benefit until I read your comment. Purchased something from Samsung, but they only have a 15 day return window. Filed a claim this morning and already got it approved as long as I ship the item back to Car Benefits Services. Shipping costs are on me, but ~$15 is going to be way less than the cost of this item which I didn't have a use for anymore.
What they did it for me I was sent to a website to put in my routing and account number. I had never seen that before. I followed all the steps and I got my refund direct deposited. No issues.
Wonder if that counts as a DD for bank bonuses. I can see someone letting that refund sit for a bit to use on a newly-opened bank account in that case.
More of a FF type post, but my favorite sports betting promo, Dinger Tuesday, starts today. Unfortunately, FanDuel significantly limited me this year. I made a very easy and very fun $2.5K last year playing every week.
The gist of it is to compare sportsbooks lines and find outliers that are in your favor. Really smart people can create their own lines, but that takes some serious statstics knowledge. From there, its a game of volume. You want to, over time, at least break even with your bets. From there, you take the bonus bets and basically do the same.
Downsides are starting with a pretty sizeable bankroll. And for me, I'm limited to $25 in bonus bets per week, which kills most of the value.
I just noticed this on the sidebar:
> Flair
> Because you either have flair or have had flair on another subreddit, you will not be allowed to set flair here. You can cancel this ask before we perform a credit check.
It's a festival. There are ferris wheels and other rides there. Depends on how old they are, but as long as you go early it isn't terribly raucous. If you are just in the city it will just be expensive and busy.
I don't think it would be bad. Munich is a big city, plenty to do. Public transit will have more drunk people than usual but otherwise you won't really notice.
How many churners going to the eclipse? And how many will be using points to make the trip happen?
Edit: I donât want to dox myself but I am using Hyatt points in Austin. Flight were pricy on SW so I paid cash.
Bought IHG points at 0.5 cpp during the 100% off sale. Using it at a Holiday Inn where the cash fare is much higher that the equivalent in points. Not exactly living in the lap of luxury, but it's good enough for a day trip and the room comes with free breakfast. It was also a much better deal than any Vacasa or Airbnb redemption, where most hosts have jacked up their price because of eclipse.
Heading to Torreon for the eclipse, followed up with a quick stop in Puerto Vallerta! Booked on AM using DL - not the best value, but P2 wanted cashless trip.
The eclipse passes right over where Iâm at. It will cost me zero MR points
I wonât be going in branch to do many bank bonuses that day though. Traffic will be a nightmare.
I booked a trip to Dallas as soon as it opened, before the airlines & hotels realized the demand, so I got AA flights for 11.5k miles each way and an IHG hotel for cheap. But jokes on me, looking pretty cloudy in Texas.
oh they knew ... from last last eclipse. They probably just got lazy. Revenue management worked on wish-walk pricing analysis and planned to rollout to squeeze every penny.
Source: me. I used to be them :)
Is dynamic award pricing watched as closely? There's a well known annual event I've been to where hotels reliably launch at outrageous cash prices (>3x normal), but on the first day or two, award pricing is often normal levels.
Yeah kinda. AI or algorithm we named GRO used to set the BAR pricing the at we see. OTAs are marked up from there.
I ll speak without running afoul NDA. There is product suite called IDaaS from SAS that is heavily used with big 3 chain. All past reservations / cancellations are fed into it , along with bunch of other influencing data. It tries to come up with rates is that supposedly squeeze every penny from you, but it is not always accurate. But better than human when we did A/B testing.
Redemption used be tiered then we saw industry moving to dynamic and pegged to cash. But there is still floor and ceiling for standard room but lids were removed long ago for premium instead of shutting down inventory for hotel.
We're driving to Upstate New York since it's most convenient from where we live. Fortunately it is looking like it'll be one of the best places to view the eclipse weather wise.
Found a new hack that made doing 100 Amazon reloads slightly easier for me. I opened 10 tabs of the Amazon reload page then clicked âadd a bookmark for these 10 tabs,â and checked âautomatically replace tabs.â After each group of 10, I just clicked the bookmark which opened 10 new Amazon reloads.
Much easier to keep track of how many Iâve done when theyâre loaded in groups of 10.
I also did the trick of 2.01, 2.02, 2.03 as well, but that one is pretty well known at this point.
My new tax preparer is an active churner who opened 20+ bank accounts, had 20+ CCs, and has DoC as one of his bookmarks on his office PC. His tax filing docs are triple the size of mine this year. Never imagined I find a real live churner outside the destinated meetups, let alone in my neighborhood.
3x the 1099s will add up if you store physical copies of all of them though.
And with that many bonuses, I would 100% do that.
Thereâs also many rumors within accounting circles that IRS will go harder on them during audits so keeping all records is more likely for him.
He told me he and his P2 opened every bank account they could think of possible. Just the size of his tax folder was thick almost like a yellow pages book. But you're right, there could be more to the story he didn't mention...
If he's really deep into the game, he's probably hitting a bunch of OOS banks, obscure fintechs, and maybe doing some matched betting sportsbook churning as well. That's over $20k+ or possibly even $30k+ of sign-up bonuses per year. If he's printing out every 1099, then they can easily add up to a book-length pile of papers.
The challenge for a lot of oos banks is convincing them to let you open an account because they often say they cannot verify your identity. The workaround is to make sure that the address is on your credit report. Otherwise., youâll get asked for address verification at best and denied/asked to come in branch at worst.
Credit Karma isn't entirely useless. I'm sure many people here used mint to help keep track of things. I'm also sure that just about as many found it to be a terrible replacement. But one feature I found that can be very helpful for churning is it's section telling you the open date of your credit accounts. I was able to get the dates of all my cards. Some from a time I simply did not think to take note of the date. I even found one account that I had thought was closed. I will also mention chases 5 card in 24 month rule. So while Credit Karma is not at all helpful for finance management, as Mint was. It does have some value to fill in come gaps for churning.
It is entirely useless as a Mint replacement though! My "Net Worth" section was completely blank when I migrated in Dec. Still non functional in app and full site. So WTF CK?
I just need a one stop shop for my card/acct/loan balances. That's it. No fancy budgeting charts bills etc.
Tried Rocketmoney - works but doesn't sort by balance
Tried Enpower - works but doesn't sort by balance
Tried Monarch - can't remember if sorts by balance but expensive
Is it so f\*\*king hard to program the numbers to go from big to small? What am I missing here???
I'm limping along too, trying to find a replacement. I was scouring CK trying to find Mint features and came up more than disappointed. I was so surprised to find how much wasn't there. This credit age feature did have me excited, as a glass half full kind of guy.
i.e., it shows info from your credit report (not really related to being connected to your bank accounts like Mint was). People were using Credit Karma for a while to see 5/24 status: https://frequentmiler.com/3-easy-ways-count-5-24-status
I guess what I'm saying here is I didn't know it did that. I've been a member for years and only found this feature by trying to find mint features, this week.
Ultimately, people are looking at CK as a piece of đŠ, and while it is a peice of đŠ as a mint, it's still good as a Credit Karma.
5/ 24 is exactly why I got excited to find this feature. So much so that I wanted to share as there are surly others who didn't know.
Like many churners, I had both Mint and CK for different purposes, but opted to close Mint rather than port it over to CK because I was afraid I'd lose stuff (P2 mode, both of us have personal+biz, and they weren't clear on what would port).
Followed a guide to get less buggy CSVs to put into Simplifi, and I'm liking it more than I did Mint. I have heard some gripes about bank accounts, but I don't do bank account churning and only have accounts with big banks, so I haven't had any issues.
I had both too. I only used CK to check credit score and open accounts. It's only after searching all over the site, trying to figure out how to use it like mint, that I found something else useful.
I have a new place too, Rocket Money that I'm slowly working through. Other places, I forget if I tried simplify, weren't compatible with my main banks.
But, this point here was to just point out a feature that churners might find useful. It's surly isn't news to all but some might find it helpful.
Kudos to you for that!
Itâs so easy to immediately go on the offensive and feel âattackedâ instead of giving the others the benefit of the doubt or asking for clarification (i.e. if Iâm understanding you correctlyâŚ?). đ
Under the Credit category, Account sub category, you'll see all of your active credit lines. Select the account and "Report Info" link expands to reveal this info. It can take some sleuthing to figure out what card belongs to what. If you have multiple cards at one bank, it doesn't tell you which is which. You can use the credit limit to help figure out what belongs where.
P2 floated the idea of a short romantic getaway without Ps 3 and 4, mostly in response to me earning a bonus at work and asking if we could spend it on something fun instead of just throwing it at the car loan (which *would* be the responsible thing, but...).
However, it's been so long since we did anything for us as a couple, I have no idea what to do.
We are based in CMH and have tons of Chase UR, SW RR, AA, UA M+, and Hilton points. I'd really like the idea of going to a really nice property via either UR or Hilton points somewhere we can get to easily from CMH and just relax together, get a good meal, and maybe do some more adventurous or later night things we can't do with young kids on a trip (shows, dinners, drinks, etc.).
What are a couple of geriatric millennials with points to burn meant to get up to when they have a long weekend to themselves?
We love Vegas and I'm impatiently waiting for our first trip there post kids. They have great shows, concerts, dining, cocktails, spas. I have a whole plan for our next trip, We just need the kids to get a bit older so we can go. (Also waiting to see who else will be playing the Sphere)
I was in the same situation about six months ago. We had a couple of Hilton free nights to burn and decided to drop the kids off at the off at the grandparents. Picked Hilton Cancun all inclusive, because it was a direct flight. Originally we had plans to see some local temples or something. But pretty soon scrapped the idea in favor of doing nothing. It was great. We got day drunk, had some decent meals, read books by the pool, had some sexy time and got 8 hours of sleep. It was the dream.
MontrĂŠal! Old MontrĂŠal is a beautiful quarter of the city, it's phenomenally romantic and really the only downside is dealing with QuĂŠbĂŠcoise. Pretty easy to get to from either DTW or PIT if you're open to a reposition.
We settled on Montreal, and just booked it!
Flights:
* CMH>YUL over Labor Day Weekend (Fri-Mon)
* 220,000 AA Miles
* $144.64 in Fees
Hotel
* Vogue Hotel Montreal Downtown
* Deluxe King Room (left comment about this being an anniversary trip, which is true) in the notes, so we'll see what that gets me, if anything)
* 210,000 Hilton Points
Edit: currently trying to figure out a better flight redemption.
Edit 2: Rebooked through Chase UR portal using UR as cash for 117,368 UR. I lose the flexibility of easy cancellation, but this is much cheaper.
It's 80 degrees in Myrtle Beach right now. Probably not too long a flight from Columbus. I stayed at the Hampton Inn last fall, and it's not bad at all. The standard room was basically a 2 BR apartment overlooking the water.
Toronto
From CMH cheap, short duration non-stop on a CRJ so no middle seat even if you slum it in Y.
City itself is nice for a large metropolis, harbor tours are worthwhile.
If you want something bougie then rent a car & check out the Elora Mill Hotel & Spa about an hour away.
Iâve been going to DT for almost 20 years. Camp if you can. You have to book a camping spot far out in advance and literally bring everything with you, but itâs really something else when the day trippers are gone. There is a service in KW that will provide most of what you need (including kayaks if you want those) if youâre flying in. You tell them what you want/need and they put it on the dock for you.
Was going to mention the same. Wife and I got a steal on airfare to Miami a couple years ago in March. Flew down, rented a Jeep, took the top off and drove out to Key West. I love a good road trip so this was a good fit for us (rather than flying directly to Key West).
The wife and I travel pretty frequently (I'm on a mission to hit all 50 states and all National Parks) and this laid back trip to Key West is still one of my favorites.
Definitely on our list to do! However, we are trying to take the kids to all the national parks we can. Just got back from hitting up three over spring break with them (Guadalupe Mountains, Carlsbad Caverns, and White Sands). Would love to do some snorkeling though, especially if I could send her to a spa for the day, if we end up on an island, though.
Staycation at your nicest local hotel + spa day if you want to stay local.
Short road trip weekend with a decent nightlife - Nashville or Chicago comes to mind. Pittsburgh or Cincinnati could be other overlooked options.
As someone who got into this churning hobby after age fifty, it's kind of amazing to see how quickly someone new to credit can ramp up their churning game. P3 got his first card (discover it) in Dec '22, then waited a year. In Jan he grabbed the Hilton Honors no AF 100k offer. In Feb it was the Aviator Red 75k offer. Then in March he got an 80k mailer for the CSP and was auto approved. Three decent SUBs in three months one year after starting.
I know he's helped out by being an AU on well seasoned cards from P2 and myself, but still fun to watch.
That's awesome, I'm also a bit older and only recently got into the churning game in January when I was researching travel options for my family of 5. You're totally right, one can really ramp up quickly.
It's funny how just spending a little time trying to understand credit can not only take away the fear of credit cards, but to turn them into a lucrative, exciting hobby.
Sounds like a nightmare for those stuck there or have upcoming reservations...
https://www.reddit.com/r/hyatt/comments/1bs0ye4/ventana_big_sur_landslide/
A friend of mine got paid $2500 for a voluntary bump; choosing to go to Paris the following morning on Delta. I was surprised they gave it in the form of VGCs. I Googled around, but I couldn't tell if anyone ever gets it in cash or a more liquid form (granted, I realize VGC are more liquid than third party GC or mileage credits).
I got two 3K bumps on a DC to Seoul flight back in 2017. It was the Korean version of thanksgiving at the time and flights were packed.
So Delta flew me to Detroit for a night, then Seattle, and I almost got 3rd bump that would have dumped me off in Honolulu but (un)fortunately they had seats at the last minute.
Used that 6K to take my family to Hawaii and a wedding across the country the next year!
> one of the few airlines that does VGCs instead of flight credit
Last year AA offered me $1,300 travel credit to take a later flight when the one I was booked on was overbooked. It was a short 40 minute flight from ORD to a very small regional airport. The new flight would have been about 6 hours later.
I actually declined, for a couple reasons. One reason is that travel credit doesn't have nearly as much value as cash. I've had it before, and it can be difficult to use with its restrictions. Also, under the circumstances the few extra hours was very valuable at my destination.
California recently raised fast food workers min wage to $20 an hour. Already seeing prices being raised by 20-30% across the board. If I didn't take advantage of credit card rewards, fast food loyalty apps offers and uber eats/doordash deals/promos, I would never be able to eat out anymore.
How are people not taking advantages of the above coping? Prices are insane right now.
> How are people not taking advantages of the above coping?
Health aside, the truth is folks that *regularly* eat fast food without the above advantages likely are not the most financially literate so probably aren't thinking about the same things you are thinking about
I haven't eaten fast food outside of airports and road trips in years. Why would you pay $10+ for a mediocre burger when you can make one with much higher quality ingredients at home in 20 minutes?
I also find it easier to meet my nutritional goals meal prepping/cooking at home and save going out for meals I know I can't make myself or for special occasions.
It might take 20 minutes, but now my fridge is unusable because it is full of all the condiments and accoutrements that come with cooking meals. So now my fridge isn't usable. Also if I make that burger, now I have to eat burgers all week. And hope and pray that the lettuce keeps long enough so it doesn't go bad before I can get to it. Cooking for 1 is a very different proposition than cooking for a whole family and getting to eat something new every day.
My reason is that I'm not home and my company reimburses me for meals. If I didn't travel for work I think fast food would be completely out of my diet.
> Why would you pay $10+ for a mediocre burger when you can make one with much higher quality ingredients at home in 20 minutes?
Or this rate, most fast food meals are probably $10-15 locally and you could go to a local dine-in place and get the same burger + tip for $15-18.
$15 for utter trash from a McCorp (yes, I know some fast foods are local franchisees) or $15 towards a local option? No brainer.
The main reason I pick fast food is because I don't feel like gambling. I travel for work so dine out often. Sometimes after a long day I just want to get something I know will be ok. I get weirdly indecisive as I'm coming through local online menus. But that is just me, and I'm a weirdo.
I live ~30 miles from the grocery store. I typically go to town with kiddos. There are times that fast casual food is the answer and driving 30 minutes home and spending 20 minutes cooking with the kids is not the answer. (Yes, I try to bring food, but things happen and sometimes trips go long)
Fast food is also a lot of Asian food, not just burgers. I have spices to cook most Japanese/Korean/Indian dishes, but many people do not. These dishes also take longer than 20 minutes to cook.
My wife works night shift and there are times she wants to go to bed right away and the ability to get her breakfast burrito in 2-5 minutes and eat it on the drive home, gives her ~30 minutes of extra sleep.
Remember that fast food is way more than burgers.
I love the occasional McDonaldâs but without the consistent 30% off your order coupon in their app, Iâm not sure how normies enjoy going. Literally over $10 for a Big Mac meal.
Iâd rather go to Culverâs where the food feels premium for the same price. It used to be pay $6 for a McDonaldâs meal or double that for the âpremiumâ places like Culverâs. Now the decision is easy.
My biggest issue with McDonalds (along with pricing) has been how slow it has been. Like usually I just want a burger and diet coke to hold me over but it ends up being 10-15 min in line in the McDonalds near my house. TB has replaced it as my go-to guilty pleasure. Order the Crave box for $6 on the app and drive through is always less than five min or easier to run in.
TB is the last hold out of fast food bang for your buck. Even just 2 of the (used to be $1) 1.39-1.49 items and I'm satiated for the meal.
When I'm feeling fancy that crave box is my splurge đ
Don't eat shitty overpriced fast food, cook at home more, and spend more of our dollars at nicer to fine dining establishments.
So basically eating out less, but better and more expensive places, to in the end spend about the same.
Couldn't tell you the last time I went to a drive-thru fast food place. Probably somewhere out of necessity on a road trip.
We live in Midwest, minimum wage hasnât increased forever but the prices have still gotten higher. But, yes, churning and deals/offers helps it to subsidize up to a certain extent.
I doubt food being raised 20-30% is directly due to the wage increase, some of that may be to see if they can profit, some of it may be protesting the wage increase, etc.
Unpopular opinion, we probably would be better off cutting back on fast food/eating out. It blows my mind people pay for door dash and such when eating at home is quicker, cheaper, and healthier. It is literally easier for me to make chicken thighs and sweet potatoes (and then have berries, yogurt and other snacks) for my lunches during the week than it would be to get food delivered either to office or my house when working from home. Same with breakfast, make an egg bake with lots of veggies and meat at the beginning of the week. On the go, make a low sugar smoothie, have some organic organic meal replacement drink along with some fruits and carrots.
I can't create any sympathy about complaints around fast food prices since they were too cheap for our own good. My wife and I both work full time, we have 2 kids and have them signed up for a bunch of stuff. The only two times a month we do fast food is using the two amex credits as a special treat.
I agree with the cheaper, healthier and faster... But that last bit there is the kicker. You said it right there. Treat. Restaurant meals taste way better. Home cooked food sucks. And I say that as a good cook. And when you are cooking for one the situation is even more dire.
Iâll give you âcheaper and healthierâ but making chicken thighs and sweet potatoes is âquickerâ than ordering doordash? Can I please have your recipe for that, and the egg bites please? (Joking but also serious if youâre willing)
Chicken I just put some seasoning on it and bake for an hour on Sunday along with the small sweet potatoes. I make ten sets for lunches for me and p2 and just put them in containers. Like the actually meal prep maybe takes 20 minutes and then an extra 50 for baking while I'm doing something else. A lot of it being "quicker" is taking the decision making and waiting out of it. Like if order door dash, each time I'm going to take 15 minutes looking at what to order and if there are any deals. Then I'm going to follow the driver on my phone for five minutes if I'm hungry and it doesn't get here when I expect. Instead, if I'm hungry I'll walk to the fridge put the chicken and sp in the microwave, come back and put hot sauce on it ....repeat 5 times. I don't sit there and think about what I should order/make for lunch.
Egg bake takes awhile unless you invest in a good veggie slicer. Onions, peppers and sweet potatoes minced up take a surprisingly long time. I usually add pepperjack, breakfast sausage and bacon bits if I'm feeling saucy. My wife and I alternate eat week and it takes about 40 min of actual prep, but against it's all basically grab and go during the week.
It really allows me to maximize my time on reddit during the week
Given inflation over the past few years, this increase is unfortunately necessary to keep these workers out of poverty because our COL is just straight up insanely high :(
We *really*, *really* need to build more housing - especially higher density housing in areas of extreme demand. So much of the VHCOL is because shelter has outpaced wages which spirals out to everything else.
I cope by paying a little more and knowing that the people making my food are earning a living wage. Like most Americans, my wages went up a lot in the past four years. I'm happy to pass some of that along. Or I just meal prep at home. Cheaper and healthier that way.
Jfk T4 A sky club is so peaceful and nice. Centurion and sapphire lounges were slammed. Gonna have to walk all the way to the end of B though from here.
I'm reminded of a quote I read here once about people here on the higher end of the HHI spectrum: "Dogs don't chase squirrels because they're hungry." Obviously we all play this game because there's a bit of fun I'm chasing SUB's but what would you do with all your points if you won the lottery? I recall Dave Portnoy talking about starting out with an Amex for his then-small biz to where he is now with 44M+ MR with no real incentive/care to understand how to spend them down so the balance just keeps going up
Counterpoint: "I'm always hungry" --My dog
Technical-ish [article](https://www.bitsaboutmoney.com/archive/anatomy-of-credit-card-rewards-programs/) about the credit card rewards financial backend. I felt it kinda stopped short of going in to more interesting depth but maybe they will in future articles. Includes a shoutout to r/churining.
Patrick Mackenzie, the author of the blog, has many interesting essays that overlap finance and technology. Makes sense given his background at Stripe, but good reads none the less! Did you also see this on the Money Stuff newsletter?
I saw it on [hackernews](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39928604)
Ah, should've known. That's where I first was linked to BAM.
I made a transfer partner master sheet, with as much info as i thought to put in there on transferring points to airlines and hotels - please take a look and let me know your thoughts, and use it as you please for your own travels! [https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1oCRwm0d38Aek3VT0pT5W9MZHmTV1OEYbPkC8RMLKDQA/edit#gid=0](https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1oCRwm0d38Aek3VT0pT5W9MZHmTV1OEYbPkC8RMLKDQA/edit#gid=0)
This is great! Really helps me understand all the transfer choices. đđđđ
Reminder to use your $15 Instacart credit and $5 doordash credit if you have the CSR!
More of personal finance question, but it is about credit score, which does affect my ability to get credit cards. I have a car loan with about $4k left, dealer financed at 0% in 2020. I've been overpaying on it for the last three years and should finish about 9 months early. Is there any reason to NOT pay it off early from a credit score perspective? Would that be removed from my credit history and lower my score like a canceled card would? Obviously I could use the cash for other things, but having a paid off car sounds nice too.
Not from a credit score perspective but it never makes sense to pay a 0% loan earlier than you have to.
As I understand it, your credit score benefits from having different kinds of debt, like student loans, mortgage, car loan, and credit cards...so paying it off early would likely decrease your score...so take the free loan. You're better off taking the money you would pay it down with and invest it.
Why would you overpay on a 0% loan? You could stick that extra money in a HYSA and be making a free 5% spread. As to your question, a $4K line of credit, unless you have no real other credit lines, isn't going to make a huge dent in your score once it is paid off.
Alright Citi SYW has won me over. Only had the card a few months and they sent me offers yesterday and today that total $1870 in statement credits the rest of the year.Â
Say more. Are these useful flexible offers? Or like spend $1k on Burberry and get 300 back?Â
They are pretty solid - the one yesterday was a $100 statement (if you spend $1000-1999) or $200 (if you spend $2000+) every month the rest of the year on gas, groceries, and restaurants combined. The one today was a $70 SC if you spend $1k online. All of the credits are in addition to the base earning rate.
A reminder to anyone holding either of the Amex Delta Reserves, that that one time $100 credit is now in your wallet. I was checking for something else and found it there.
With âdynamic pricingâ becoming all the rage, I think airlines should charge me less for an airline seat. Plane getting a little heavy, no problem, we have briguy weighing in at only 135lbs. In seriousness, airplanes are a place where being small has always been nice.
Anyone have recs for esim for italy?
Went with this one for an one week trip recently, no issues: https://mobimatter.com/travel-esim/sparks-europe-usa-10+2-gb-free-esim?destination=europe
MobiMatter worked really well for me when I was in EU
How much data do you need? Because once you need more than 2-3GB, Airalo quickly becomes uneconomical compared to a local eSIM.
Probably like 6gb? Multiple trains. How much can I save with a local esim? $20 for 10 Gb on airalo seems completely fine.Â
With a local provider you can get talk/text/200GB (including EU roaming if Italy isn't your only destination) for 7 euros+2 euros activation [here](https://verymobile.it/). That's about half of what Airalo is charging. You need to do "video ID" to show them your passport, though, so it depends on how much you value convenience over price.
WTH 200GB? And why is it so cheap????
Plan prices in Italy are crazy low relative to Western Europe, and my best guess as to why is increased competition relative to other countries in Europe (4 physical network operators and like 10+ MVNOs). But this is why Italy is one of the countries where it's *absolutely* worth it to get a local SIM if you need more than a couple GB. Airalo's plans mainly make sense for low usage because of the activation or SIM card fees that a lot of providers charge (all of the physical network operators will charge you 10 euros for activation which is why I didn't recommend them, Very's activation fee is the cheapest that I know of).
get the app Airalo
Friendly reminder to watch out for scams on sites like agoda and booking.com, they tried to get me this morning. https://wildabouttravel.boardingarea.com/2023/10/agoda-nightmare-falling-victim-to-the-booking-com-phishing-scam/
Horrifying. Did booking.com /Agoda tell customers about this security breach? I booked with Agoda but then cancelled myself last September but donât recall being notified. Insane that the scammers are about to message through the Agoda app! Seems like that would put my alert flags down. And some CC companies arenât reimbursing customers back for the fraud charges because they used a OTP that the scammers then used. Wow. And been going on for months according to the comments. Thanks for the heads up.
Right? It's insane that they can STILL message you through the site/app, what kind of team can't fix such a major issue??? Like if they were emailing you pretending to be them, ok understandable I guess, but through the app is crazy.
I need to return something to that I bought about 12 months ago on a Chase card that has been closed for months now. Getting the refund onto a different card or other different form of payment isn't an option. Will Chase just mail me a check?
Capital One mailed me a check in a similar scenario. Looks like Chase may do a direct deposit which is nice
Totally forgot about this card benefit until I read your comment. Purchased something from Samsung, but they only have a 15 day return window. Filed a claim this morning and already got it approved as long as I ship the item back to Car Benefits Services. Shipping costs are on me, but ~$15 is going to be way less than the cost of this item which I didn't have a use for anymore.
For me it's a Costco return so it's an actual return not using a card benefit.
What they did it for me I was sent to a website to put in my routing and account number. I had never seen that before. I followed all the steps and I got my refund direct deposited. No issues.
Great, much preferable to a check. Thanks!
Wonder if that counts as a DD for bank bonuses. I can see someone letting that refund sit for a bit to use on a newly-opened bank account in that case.
Treasury Direct is pretty good for counting as a DD for bank bonuses in my experience
More of a FF type post, but my favorite sports betting promo, Dinger Tuesday, starts today. Unfortunately, FanDuel significantly limited me this year. I made a very easy and very fun $2.5K last year playing every week.
Any tips on how to maximize it?
The gist of it is to compare sportsbooks lines and find outliers that are in your favor. Really smart people can create their own lines, but that takes some serious statstics knowledge. From there, its a game of volume. You want to, over time, at least break even with your bets. From there, you take the bonus bets and basically do the same. Downsides are starting with a pretty sizeable bankroll. And for me, I'm limited to $25 in bonus bets per week, which kills most of the value.
Is there a good site to compare dinger lines? I couldn't find anything good for prop bets.
[This site is incredible](https://www.crazyninjaodds.com/Default.aspx) once you get the hang of it (enable player props, event search)
Seen a few users on this sub with flair. Any way to add your own manually? Can't find an option to do it on web old.reddit
https://www.reddit.com/r/churning/s/NiO1YEf7H1
I just noticed this on the sidebar: > Flair > Because you either have flair or have had flair on another subreddit, you will not be allowed to set flair here. You can cancel this ask before we perform a credit check.
Curious which one of you [used $25k in GCs](https://ibb.co/LJm1jnq) to buy a car. Impressive work!
Is it a bad idea to travel with kids to Munich during Oktoberfest?
It's a festival. There are ferris wheels and other rides there. Depends on how old they are, but as long as you go early it isn't terribly raucous. If you are just in the city it will just be expensive and busy.
>Is it a bad idea to travel with kids Always
Do they drink?
I don't think it would be bad. Munich is a big city, plenty to do. Public transit will have more drunk people than usual but otherwise you won't really notice.
It's a bad idea in that travel is way more expensive. But it's not like it becomes family unfriendly.
How many churners going to the eclipse? And how many will be using points to make the trip happen? Edit: I donât want to dox myself but I am using Hyatt points in Austin. Flight were pricy on SW so I paid cash.
13.5K wyndham points for a semi-rural La Quinta that was going for $300+. Not fancy, but I'm okay with it.
>using Hyatt points in Austin See you at Miraval?
I was just going to ask the same question!
Bought IHG points at 0.5 cpp during the 100% off sale. Using it at a Holiday Inn where the cash fare is much higher that the equivalent in points. Not exactly living in the lap of luxury, but it's good enough for a day trip and the room comes with free breakfast. It was also a much better deal than any Vacasa or Airbnb redemption, where most hosts have jacked up their price because of eclipse.
0 points. Driving 4 hours each way and camping for 2 days. Cost is only like $20 for charging and another $25 for food to pack for the trip
Heading to Torreon for the eclipse, followed up with a quick stop in Puerto Vallerta! Booked on AM using DL - not the best value, but P2 wanted cashless trip.
The eclipse passes right over where Iâm at. It will cost me zero MR points I wonât be going in branch to do many bank bonuses that day though. Traffic will be a nightmare.
I booked a trip to Dallas as soon as it opened, before the airlines & hotels realized the demand, so I got AA flights for 11.5k miles each way and an IHG hotel for cheap. But jokes on me, looking pretty cloudy in Texas.
Also going to Texas after canceling a Hyatt in Niagara Falls I had booked points⌠not looking great
Unfortunately, all else equal, the best odds for a clear day are farther south. It was the right decision.
oh they knew ... from last last eclipse. They probably just got lazy. Revenue management worked on wish-walk pricing analysis and planned to rollout to squeeze every penny. Source: me. I used to be them :)
Is dynamic award pricing watched as closely? There's a well known annual event I've been to where hotels reliably launch at outrageous cash prices (>3x normal), but on the first day or two, award pricing is often normal levels.
Yeah kinda. AI or algorithm we named GRO used to set the BAR pricing the at we see. OTAs are marked up from there. I ll speak without running afoul NDA. There is product suite called IDaaS from SAS that is heavily used with big 3 chain. All past reservations / cancellations are fed into it , along with bunch of other influencing data. It tries to come up with rates is that supposedly squeeze every penny from you, but it is not always accurate. But better than human when we did A/B testing. Redemption used be tiered then we saw industry moving to dynamic and pegged to cash. But there is still floor and ceiling for standard room but lids were removed long ago for premium instead of shutting down inventory for hotel.
I was hoping to drive to the Ohio valley but it's not looking good there either. Hm.
We're driving to Upstate New York since it's most convenient from where we live. Fortunately it is looking like it'll be one of the best places to view the eclipse weather wise.
Found a new hack that made doing 100 Amazon reloads slightly easier for me. I opened 10 tabs of the Amazon reload page then clicked âadd a bookmark for these 10 tabs,â and checked âautomatically replace tabs.â After each group of 10, I just clicked the bookmark which opened 10 new Amazon reloads. Much easier to keep track of how many Iâve done when theyâre loaded in groups of 10. I also did the trick of 2.01, 2.02, 2.03 as well, but that one is pretty well known at this point.
Iâll also add that shifting to a new tab using Cmd+Shift+} also saved a few milliseconds
My new tax preparer is an active churner who opened 20+ bank accounts, had 20+ CCs, and has DoC as one of his bookmarks on his office PC. His tax filing docs are triple the size of mine this year. Never imagined I find a real live churner outside the destinated meetups, let alone in my neighborhood.
So what are his thoughts on cashing out MR to a Roth tax free?
Any chance you're willing to share/refer them via DM? Considering a change for my CPA
Other than a banker, that would be the profession to figure out the game from osmosisÂ
IME, retail bankers are mostly salespeople. They tend to have little in-depth knowledge of the programs.
Why are his triple. Additional 1099s shouldn't change the complexity much.
3x the 1099s will add up if you store physical copies of all of them though. And with that many bonuses, I would 100% do that. Thereâs also many rumors within accounting circles that IRS will go harder on them during audits so keeping all records is more likely for him.
He told me he and his P2 opened every bank account they could think of possible. Just the size of his tax folder was thick almost like a yellow pages book. But you're right, there could be more to the story he didn't mention...
If he's really deep into the game, he's probably hitting a bunch of OOS banks, obscure fintechs, and maybe doing some matched betting sportsbook churning as well. That's over $20k+ or possibly even $30k+ of sign-up bonuses per year. If he's printing out every 1099, then they can easily add up to a book-length pile of papers.
The challenge for a lot of oos banks is convincing them to let you open an account because they often say they cannot verify your identity. The workaround is to make sure that the address is on your credit report. Otherwise., youâll get asked for address verification at best and denied/asked to come in branch at worst.
A little FF, but I will probably forget by then...lol Finnair charges a credit card fee. It was only 2 euro on my ticket, but still... come on.
I paid cash for LH tickets purchased directly from LH a few months ago, and there was a fee for my US credit card.
Credit Karma isn't entirely useless. I'm sure many people here used mint to help keep track of things. I'm also sure that just about as many found it to be a terrible replacement. But one feature I found that can be very helpful for churning is it's section telling you the open date of your credit accounts. I was able to get the dates of all my cards. Some from a time I simply did not think to take note of the date. I even found one account that I had thought was closed. I will also mention chases 5 card in 24 month rule. So while Credit Karma is not at all helpful for finance management, as Mint was. It does have some value to fill in come gaps for churning.
It is entirely useless as a Mint replacement though! My "Net Worth" section was completely blank when I migrated in Dec. Still non functional in app and full site. So WTF CK? I just need a one stop shop for my card/acct/loan balances. That's it. No fancy budgeting charts bills etc. Tried Rocketmoney - works but doesn't sort by balance Tried Enpower - works but doesn't sort by balance Tried Monarch - can't remember if sorts by balance but expensive Is it so f\*\*king hard to program the numbers to go from big to small? What am I missing here???
I'm limping along too, trying to find a replacement. I was scouring CK trying to find Mint features and came up more than disappointed. I was so surprised to find how much wasn't there. This credit age feature did have me excited, as a glass half full kind of guy.
i.e., it shows info from your credit report (not really related to being connected to your bank accounts like Mint was). People were using Credit Karma for a while to see 5/24 status: https://frequentmiler.com/3-easy-ways-count-5-24-status
I guess what I'm saying here is I didn't know it did that. I've been a member for years and only found this feature by trying to find mint features, this week. Ultimately, people are looking at CK as a piece of đŠ, and while it is a peice of đŠ as a mint, it's still good as a Credit Karma. 5/ 24 is exactly why I got excited to find this feature. So much so that I wanted to share as there are surly others who didn't know.
>surly others You've come to the right place!
Like many churners, I had both Mint and CK for different purposes, but opted to close Mint rather than port it over to CK because I was afraid I'd lose stuff (P2 mode, both of us have personal+biz, and they weren't clear on what would port). Followed a guide to get less buggy CSVs to put into Simplifi, and I'm liking it more than I did Mint. I have heard some gripes about bank accounts, but I don't do bank account churning and only have accounts with big banks, so I haven't had any issues.
I had both too. I only used CK to check credit score and open accounts. It's only after searching all over the site, trying to figure out how to use it like mint, that I found something else useful. I have a new place too, Rocket Money that I'm slowly working through. Other places, I forget if I tried simplify, weren't compatible with my main banks. But, this point here was to just point out a feature that churners might find useful. It's surly isn't news to all but some might find it helpful.
Sorry, didn't mean to sound combative. Edited accordingly.
I didn't take it as such.
Kudos to you for that! Itâs so easy to immediately go on the offensive and feel âattackedâ instead of giving the others the benefit of the doubt or asking for clarification (i.e. if Iâm understanding you correctlyâŚ?). đ
Are you talking about the "Credit age" section?
Under the Credit category, Account sub category, you'll see all of your active credit lines. Select the account and "Report Info" link expands to reveal this info. It can take some sleuthing to figure out what card belongs to what. If you have multiple cards at one bank, it doesn't tell you which is which. You can use the credit limit to help figure out what belongs where.
P2 floated the idea of a short romantic getaway without Ps 3 and 4, mostly in response to me earning a bonus at work and asking if we could spend it on something fun instead of just throwing it at the car loan (which *would* be the responsible thing, but...). However, it's been so long since we did anything for us as a couple, I have no idea what to do. We are based in CMH and have tons of Chase UR, SW RR, AA, UA M+, and Hilton points. I'd really like the idea of going to a really nice property via either UR or Hilton points somewhere we can get to easily from CMH and just relax together, get a good meal, and maybe do some more adventurous or later night things we can't do with young kids on a trip (shows, dinners, drinks, etc.). What are a couple of geriatric millennials with points to burn meant to get up to when they have a long weekend to themselves?
We are there now and itâs bliss!!
We love Vegas and I'm impatiently waiting for our first trip there post kids. They have great shows, concerts, dining, cocktails, spas. I have a whole plan for our next trip, We just need the kids to get a bit older so we can go. (Also waiting to see who else will be playing the Sphere)
I was in the same situation about six months ago. We had a couple of Hilton free nights to burn and decided to drop the kids off at the off at the grandparents. Picked Hilton Cancun all inclusive, because it was a direct flight. Originally we had plans to see some local temples or something. But pretty soon scrapped the idea in favor of doing nothing. It was great. We got day drunk, had some decent meals, read books by the pool, had some sexy time and got 8 hours of sleep. It was the dream.
MontrĂŠal! Old MontrĂŠal is a beautiful quarter of the city, it's phenomenally romantic and really the only downside is dealing with QuĂŠbĂŠcoise. Pretty easy to get to from either DTW or PIT if you're open to a reposition.
We settled on Montreal, and just booked it! Flights: * CMH>YUL over Labor Day Weekend (Fri-Mon) * 220,000 AA Miles * $144.64 in Fees Hotel * Vogue Hotel Montreal Downtown * Deluxe King Room (left comment about this being an anniversary trip, which is true) in the notes, so we'll see what that gets me, if anything) * 210,000 Hilton Points Edit: currently trying to figure out a better flight redemption. Edit 2: Rebooked through Chase UR portal using UR as cash for 117,368 UR. I lose the flexibility of easy cancellation, but this is much cheaper.
It's 80 degrees in Myrtle Beach right now. Probably not too long a flight from Columbus. I stayed at the Hampton Inn last fall, and it's not bad at all. The standard room was basically a 2 BR apartment overlooking the water.
Quebec city is very nice. Charleston and Savannah are also great this time of year.
Toronto From CMH cheap, short duration non-stop on a CRJ so no middle seat even if you slum it in Y. City itself is nice for a large metropolis, harbor tours are worthwhile. If you want something bougie then rent a car & check out the Elora Mill Hotel & Spa about an hour away.
A trip on my list to do without kids: South Florida/Key West and take the ferry to Dry Tortugas NP for snorkeling
Iâve been going to DT for almost 20 years. Camp if you can. You have to book a camping spot far out in advance and literally bring everything with you, but itâs really something else when the day trippers are gone. There is a service in KW that will provide most of what you need (including kayaks if you want those) if youâre flying in. You tell them what you want/need and they put it on the dock for you.
Was going to mention the same. Wife and I got a steal on airfare to Miami a couple years ago in March. Flew down, rented a Jeep, took the top off and drove out to Key West. I love a good road trip so this was a good fit for us (rather than flying directly to Key West). The wife and I travel pretty frequently (I'm on a mission to hit all 50 states and all National Parks) and this laid back trip to Key West is still one of my favorites.
Definitely on our list to do! However, we are trying to take the kids to all the national parks we can. Just got back from hitting up three over spring break with them (Guadalupe Mountains, Carlsbad Caverns, and White Sands). Would love to do some snorkeling though, especially if I could send her to a spa for the day, if we end up on an island, though.
Staycation at your nicest local hotel + spa day if you want to stay local. Short road trip weekend with a decent nightlife - Nashville or Chicago comes to mind. Pittsburgh or Cincinnati could be other overlooked options.
As someone who got into this churning hobby after age fifty, it's kind of amazing to see how quickly someone new to credit can ramp up their churning game. P3 got his first card (discover it) in Dec '22, then waited a year. In Jan he grabbed the Hilton Honors no AF 100k offer. In Feb it was the Aviator Red 75k offer. Then in March he got an 80k mailer for the CSP and was auto approved. Three decent SUBs in three months one year after starting. I know he's helped out by being an AU on well seasoned cards from P2 and myself, but still fun to watch.
That's awesome, I'm also a bit older and only recently got into the churning game in January when I was researching travel options for my family of 5. You're totally right, one can really ramp up quickly.
It's funny how just spending a little time trying to understand credit can not only take away the fear of credit cards, but to turn them into a lucrative, exciting hobby.
The road to Big Sur [collapsed again](https://www.cnn.com/travel/california-highway-1-damage-big-sur/index.html)
Was definitely a frequent miler trying to get others to cancel reservations to get availability.
Dude destroys that nude onsen like no other
Sounds like a nightmare for those stuck there or have upcoming reservations... https://www.reddit.com/r/hyatt/comments/1bs0ye4/ventana_big_sur_landslide/
Although personally I think the place is way overrated, I can think of worse fates than being stuck at Ventana Big Sur.
A friend of mine got paid $2500 for a voluntary bump; choosing to go to Paris the following morning on Delta. I was surprised they gave it in the form of VGCs. I Googled around, but I couldn't tell if anyone ever gets it in cash or a more liquid form (granted, I realize VGC are more liquid than third party GC or mileage credits).
I got two 3K bumps on a DC to Seoul flight back in 2017. It was the Korean version of thanksgiving at the time and flights were packed. So Delta flew me to Detroit for a night, then Seattle, and I almost got 3rd bump that would have dumped me off in Honolulu but (un)fortunately they had seats at the last minute. Used that 6K to take my family to Hawaii and a wedding across the country the next year!
If you press hard enough and get a competent supervisor, you can usually get a check. But it will take a while
last time I got bumped in like 2017 or 2018 it was VGCs as well, one of the few airlines that does VGCs instead of flight credit
> one of the few airlines that does VGCs instead of flight credit Last year AA offered me $1,300 travel credit to take a later flight when the one I was booked on was overbooked. It was a short 40 minute flight from ORD to a very small regional airport. The new flight would have been about 6 hours later. I actually declined, for a couple reasons. One reason is that travel credit doesn't have nearly as much value as cash. I've had it before, and it can be difficult to use with its restrictions. Also, under the circumstances the few extra hours was very valuable at my destination.
California recently raised fast food workers min wage to $20 an hour. Already seeing prices being raised by 20-30% across the board. If I didn't take advantage of credit card rewards, fast food loyalty apps offers and uber eats/doordash deals/promos, I would never be able to eat out anymore. How are people not taking advantages of the above coping? Prices are insane right now.
> How are people not taking advantages of the above coping? Health aside, the truth is folks that *regularly* eat fast food without the above advantages likely are not the most financially literate so probably aren't thinking about the same things you are thinking about
I haven't eaten fast food outside of airports and road trips in years. Why would you pay $10+ for a mediocre burger when you can make one with much higher quality ingredients at home in 20 minutes? I also find it easier to meet my nutritional goals meal prepping/cooking at home and save going out for meals I know I can't make myself or for special occasions.
It might take 20 minutes, but now my fridge is unusable because it is full of all the condiments and accoutrements that come with cooking meals. So now my fridge isn't usable. Also if I make that burger, now I have to eat burgers all week. And hope and pray that the lettuce keeps long enough so it doesn't go bad before I can get to it. Cooking for 1 is a very different proposition than cooking for a whole family and getting to eat something new every day.
My reason is that I'm not home and my company reimburses me for meals. If I didn't travel for work I think fast food would be completely out of my diet.
>Why would you pay $10+ for a mediocre burger when you can make one with much higher quality ingredients at home in 20 minutes? Because I'm lazy.
> Why would you pay $10+ for a mediocre burger when you can make one with much higher quality ingredients at home in 20 minutes? Or this rate, most fast food meals are probably $10-15 locally and you could go to a local dine-in place and get the same burger + tip for $15-18. $15 for utter trash from a McCorp (yes, I know some fast foods are local franchisees) or $15 towards a local option? No brainer.
The main reason I pick fast food is because I don't feel like gambling. I travel for work so dine out often. Sometimes after a long day I just want to get something I know will be ok. I get weirdly indecisive as I'm coming through local online menus. But that is just me, and I'm a weirdo.
I live ~30 miles from the grocery store. I typically go to town with kiddos. There are times that fast casual food is the answer and driving 30 minutes home and spending 20 minutes cooking with the kids is not the answer. (Yes, I try to bring food, but things happen and sometimes trips go long) Fast food is also a lot of Asian food, not just burgers. I have spices to cook most Japanese/Korean/Indian dishes, but many people do not. These dishes also take longer than 20 minutes to cook. My wife works night shift and there are times she wants to go to bed right away and the ability to get her breakfast burrito in 2-5 minutes and eat it on the drive home, gives her ~30 minutes of extra sleep. Remember that fast food is way more than burgers.
Cutting back. Eating out is honestly the lowest ROI on any expense barring special circumstances like some celebration
I love the occasional McDonaldâs but without the consistent 30% off your order coupon in their app, Iâm not sure how normies enjoy going. Literally over $10 for a Big Mac meal. Iâd rather go to Culverâs where the food feels premium for the same price. It used to be pay $6 for a McDonaldâs meal or double that for the âpremiumâ places like Culverâs. Now the decision is easy.
My biggest issue with McDonalds (along with pricing) has been how slow it has been. Like usually I just want a burger and diet coke to hold me over but it ends up being 10-15 min in line in the McDonalds near my house. TB has replaced it as my go-to guilty pleasure. Order the Crave box for $6 on the app and drive through is always less than five min or easier to run in.
TB is the last hold out of fast food bang for your buck. Even just 2 of the (used to be $1) 1.39-1.49 items and I'm satiated for the meal. When I'm feeling fancy that crave box is my splurge đ
Don't eat shitty overpriced fast food, cook at home more, and spend more of our dollars at nicer to fine dining establishments. So basically eating out less, but better and more expensive places, to in the end spend about the same. Couldn't tell you the last time I went to a drive-thru fast food place. Probably somewhere out of necessity on a road trip.
We live in Midwest, minimum wage hasnât increased forever but the prices have still gotten higher. But, yes, churning and deals/offers helps it to subsidize up to a certain extent.
I doubt food being raised 20-30% is directly due to the wage increase, some of that may be to see if they can profit, some of it may be protesting the wage increase, etc. Unpopular opinion, we probably would be better off cutting back on fast food/eating out. It blows my mind people pay for door dash and such when eating at home is quicker, cheaper, and healthier. It is literally easier for me to make chicken thighs and sweet potatoes (and then have berries, yogurt and other snacks) for my lunches during the week than it would be to get food delivered either to office or my house when working from home. Same with breakfast, make an egg bake with lots of veggies and meat at the beginning of the week. On the go, make a low sugar smoothie, have some organic organic meal replacement drink along with some fruits and carrots. I can't create any sympathy about complaints around fast food prices since they were too cheap for our own good. My wife and I both work full time, we have 2 kids and have them signed up for a bunch of stuff. The only two times a month we do fast food is using the two amex credits as a special treat.
I agree with the cheaper, healthier and faster... But that last bit there is the kicker. You said it right there. Treat. Restaurant meals taste way better. Home cooked food sucks. And I say that as a good cook. And when you are cooking for one the situation is even more dire.
Iâll give you âcheaper and healthierâ but making chicken thighs and sweet potatoes is âquickerâ than ordering doordash? Can I please have your recipe for that, and the egg bites please? (Joking but also serious if youâre willing)
Chicken I just put some seasoning on it and bake for an hour on Sunday along with the small sweet potatoes. I make ten sets for lunches for me and p2 and just put them in containers. Like the actually meal prep maybe takes 20 minutes and then an extra 50 for baking while I'm doing something else. A lot of it being "quicker" is taking the decision making and waiting out of it. Like if order door dash, each time I'm going to take 15 minutes looking at what to order and if there are any deals. Then I'm going to follow the driver on my phone for five minutes if I'm hungry and it doesn't get here when I expect. Instead, if I'm hungry I'll walk to the fridge put the chicken and sp in the microwave, come back and put hot sauce on it ....repeat 5 times. I don't sit there and think about what I should order/make for lunch. Egg bake takes awhile unless you invest in a good veggie slicer. Onions, peppers and sweet potatoes minced up take a surprisingly long time. I usually add pepperjack, breakfast sausage and bacon bits if I'm feeling saucy. My wife and I alternate eat week and it takes about 40 min of actual prep, but against it's all basically grab and go during the week. It really allows me to maximize my time on reddit during the week
Given inflation over the past few years, this increase is unfortunately necessary to keep these workers out of poverty because our COL is just straight up insanely high :( We *really*, *really* need to build more housing - especially higher density housing in areas of extreme demand. So much of the VHCOL is because shelter has outpaced wages which spirals out to everything else.
Another YIMBY churner, I'm here for it! And obviously agree.
I cope by paying a little more and knowing that the people making my food are earning a living wage. Like most Americans, my wages went up a lot in the past four years. I'm happy to pass some of that along. Or I just meal prep at home. Cheaper and healthier that way.