Father’s day weekend recap - an expensive weekend and a new Credit Card

June 18, 2007

 I started the weekend hoping I wouldn’t spend a lot of money. Should’ve known better. Every weekend that I hope I don’t spend money turns out the opposite way.

 My wife is due next month and she asked me for a rocking chair (one of those gliders). I always scavenge the web for deals before I buy anything, so we found a used one on Craigslist (I love that service) for a decent price ($200). It was a bit of a drive, but I think it was worth it. We bargained for $150 and got the deal. The downside was that we had to have lunch on the road ($20), but I’m happy with the outcome.

 Then on Sunday (Father’s Day), we decided to go to IHOP for a nice breakfast. I’m not a big fan of IHOP. For some reason, I always leave that place feeling that it wasn’t worth the money. This time was no different. Spent $31 on breakfast, and it was good, but I don’t think it was worth the money.

 After breakfast we decided to go to Toys R Us to buy something for my kid to draw (pencils, water books, crayons, something cheap). I’ve always wanted to buy him a Thomas train set, but they are extremely expensive. But there was this set there for $149 (from Imaginarium), including a train table and a train set. Plus they were offering 10% if you signed up for their Credit Card. Sounded like a good deal to me. I’m not a big fan of having hundreds of Credit Cards, but after reading the terms, I thought it might be worth it. You get a 10% coupon everytime you get 1,000 points. Most purchases on Toys R Us and Baby R Us are worth 4 points for each dollar, and most purchases outside these stores are worth 1 point for every dollar.

 The first point of the post was that you can save money by looking at second hand options or non brand options. There are a lot of options out there to save money. Although I spent quite a lot of money this weekend, I saved roughly $300 by getting a second hand glider and a non branded product (Imaginarium isn’t as expensive as Thomas).

The second point of this post was about the credit card. 

 I don’t have one of those 5% cash back credit cards (I rather use an AMEX that gives double rewards), but it seems to be a favorite among personal finance bloggers, so I’m gonna use it to compare. Those cards don’t give 5% for every purchase. For some purchases they are 3, 2 or even 1%, so let’s assume the average being 3% cash back.

 Let’s say I plan on spending $300 (enough to get me 1,000 points and a new 10% off coupon) in the next few months at Toys R Us (I have a toddler and a baby due next month). Should I choose my cash back credit card or my new Toys R Us credit card?

 If I use my cash back, 3% of $300 is $9. Even if you assume you get the max 5% back, you’ll get $15. On the other hand, if you use the Toys R Us credit card, you won’t have that cash back, but instead a 10% coupon. To get even, you would have to spend between $90 and $150 to get a $9 to $15 discount.

 So unless I have a fairly expensive item to buy at Toys R Us, the card won’t do me much good. I generally don’t buy big ticket items at Toys R Us. I tend to shop online for a better deal, so most likely I’ll be cancelling this card after a few months (unless they give me a pretty high credit limit to improve my FICO score).

Posted in Finances