Our 2015 property tax bill is now viewable online. We should be getting a paper copy in a few days. It is interesting because we are in almost a polar opposite of my parents. They have a very high county income tax, but pay almost nothing in property taxes. We have no county income tax, but extremely high property taxes (along with a flat state income tax and high sales taxes).
Public schools aren’t cheap. There is no such thing as a free education.
Frugal Boy got a doggy bank for Easter and he loves to put money into it. He even has a couple of dollar bills from a card given to him.
I am pretty sure that he doesn’t understand money, or the fact that it can be traded for more practical 2 year old things. If he did understand, he’d probably be trying to get that deposited money back out, but that is a lesson for another day. Right now, Shae and I are content to start building a habit of putting money in a ‘safe’ place.
Another life skill that we have been working on is grocery shopping.
He is good at not running into things or people, but we are still working on the concept of “Yours and Not Yours” or “The Stores vs Ours”. Those red grapes are awfully tempting, and he would frequently try to dash up and grab a couple while we were busy. He also thought that a gallon of not-butter should be placed in the cart, along with a carton of eggs.
Yesterday we went to the Peoria Zoo, Riverfront Museum, and Children’s Playhouse. All of the Peoria museums were having a membership swap day, so it was free admittance if you had a membership at any of them. We used our Prairie Wildlife memberships to gain access.
It was a cold day and the indoor places were packed with people. So instead of eating shoulder to shoulder with the crowds we employed a travel trick and went where the people weren’t.
Packing a picnic lunch is always a good life skill to learn.
Speaking of food, Frugal Boy has started to associate running with a good thing. About a month ago, when his aunt visited, Shae and I took our morning run with the jogging stroller as an opportunity to get donuts from our local bakery. Ever since then, Frugal Boy asks for donuts when we go on our morning run. We indulged him again yesterday. Hopefully exercise is now permanently associated with good things.
What if I told you that you could make your own FDIC insured certificate of deposit, that had the following terms:
Does it sound too good to be true? Good news, it is true. Granted this is a Do-It-Yourself package, so it lacks the convenience of ‘official’ deals.
Here is the quick and dirty on how to make up this ‘CD’ for yourself. Note: You will need a local Chase bank branch in order to complete this.
Obtain one of these Chase coupons. They can often be found in the junk snail mail, your email inbox, or in a pinch eBay.
Open a Chase savings account in branch and fund it with $15,000 of new money.
After the $200 bonus (aka “interest”) posts, withdrawal $14,900 to your regular accounts.
After 6 months has passed from account opening, withdrawal the remaining $300 and close the account. The final $300 keeps monthly fees at 0.
Profit! Congratulations, you made your own 3 month ‘CD’ with a rate far better than anything that you would find in pre-packaged deals. If you have a spouse, you could effectively turn this into a 6 month CD by shuffling the original seed money around accounts. A quick internet search showed that the best official CD rate for a 3 month term is 0.83%.
All of the fine print is below:
Chase SavingsSM has no Monthly Service Fee when you do at least one of the following each statement period: Option #1: Keep a minimum daily balance of $300 or more in your savings account; OR, Option #2: Have at least one repeating automatic transfer of $25 or more from your Chase personal checking account (available only through Chase OnlineSM Banking); OR, Option #3: Have a linked Chase Premier Plus CheckingSM, Chase Premier Platinum CheckingSM, or Chase Private Client CheckingSM account. Otherwise a $5 Monthly Service Fee will apply. A $5 Savings Withdrawal Limit Fee will apply for each withdrawal or transfer out of this account over six per monthly statement period.
To receive the $200 savings bonus: 1) Open a new Chase SavingsSM account, which is subject to approval; 2) Deposit a total of $15,000 or more in new money into the new savings account within 10 business days of account opening; AND 3) Maintain at least a $15,000 balance for 90 days from the date of deposit. The new money cannot be funds held by Chase or its affiliates. After you have completed all the above savings requirements, we’ll deposit the bonus in your new account within 10 business days. The Annual Percentage Yield (APY), for Chase SavingsSM effective as of 2/22/16, is 0.01% for all balances in all states. Interest rates are variable and subject to change. Additionally, fees may reduce earnings on the account. You can receive only one new checking and one savings account opening related bonus each calendar year and only one bonus per account. Bonuses are considered interest and will be reported on IRS Form 1099-INT.
**Account Closing: If either the checking or savings account is closed by the customer or Chase within six months after opening, we will deduct the bonus amount for that account at closing.
I’ve been spending my free time planning out our late Spring trip to Costa Rica. The trip represents a lot of things to us, including:
Having a good map is really helpful for planning purposes. The best reviewed map on Amazon is the Costa Rica Guide waterproof map. It doesn’t hurt that you can get the map for free by doing some advertising for them (see above link). I’ll admit, it’s why I am doing this blog post.
Saving $12 on a map might seem insignificant but it does add up. Last night while we were on our family walk, Shae and I did a mental addition of the current trip costs and credits (from card churning). With airfare for 4 people, a seven day rental 4×4 suv, and 4 of the 8 nights booked we have an out of pocket expense of around $100 so far. I figure the last four nights of lodging, food, souvenirs, and misc. expenses will push our total out of pocket expense to somewhere in the ballpark of $750-$1000 for Shae, Frugal Boy, and myself combined. I’m tempted to do one more credit card churn to knock off another $460 dollars from the total, but I don’t think we’ll be able to meet the min spend requirements. A better option might be to churn a couple of bank accounts instead (see here for a list).
Another Easter has come and gone. The only remaining evidence of it, is the decapitated lamb’s head on our countertop.
It was a busy weekend with three Easter egg hunts, a visit with the Easter bunny, a big party, a museum visit, and lots of stuff in-between.
The mom holding the girl in pink got sneezed on by the horse. Did you know how much snot a horse can produce. Now she does. Ewwwwww
Here Frugal Boy, mom, and grandparents check out the haul from a second egg hunt.
After the second egg hunt we looked at dinosaurs.
and then snakes!
That night we did some arts and crafts with aunties.
The next morning was the last egg hunt for the year. He sure did get a lot of practice in this year.
Then it was time to help grandma with the party.
Back to the grind!