Blog Money Whore

Right now, I have $23 in cash in my wallet. That’s actually more than I usually carry. In fact, before I went to the ATM a week ago, I went for more than two weeks without any cash whatsoever in my wallet! However, I’ve recently begun to use more cash primarily due to riding public transportation and going to farmers markets. Otherwise, just about everything else goes on a credit card.

Yes, I know the usual mantra. Credit cards are evil. They encourage overspending. They have high interest rates. They blah blah blah. However, they are extremely useful and make my life easier by using them religiously for everything possible. Here’s how I prioritize my spending:

1. If I’m buying something that qualifies for 5% cash back for Discover, then I always charge it to a Discover card. Depending on how you redeem, you can get up to 10% cash back!
2. If I’m buying something at a grocery store, drugstore, or gas station, I charge it to a card that gives me 5% cash back for these types of purchases.
3. If my purchase doesn’t qualify for either of those 5% cash backs, then I charge it to my Fidelity 529 card, which gives me 2% cash back. Although this card is no longer offered to new members, there are other 2% cards in existence.
4. If credit cards aren’t accepted, then I pay via cash or check, though I generally use checks only for rent or other large amounts. I can’t think of a single guy I know who actually carries a checkbook.

I believe that credit cards actually give you a better way to track your spending than cash. With credit cards, all purchases show up on a monthly statement that you can easily import into software like Quicken to keep track of your spending. With cash, you’re stuck trying to remember where all your money went. I have no idea how much I spent on beer, food, public transportation, etc. from the $100 I took out from an ATM last week, but I know exactly how much I spend on each category when I charge it.

In the end, it’s all about you and your mentality. If you treat credit cards as a black box from whence money magically appears to pay for your items, then you’ll be screwed with thousands in debt. But if you treat credit cards as a way to spend money that you actually have, then you’ll be just fine.

How evil are credit cards really?

I grabbed another hot one from the BzzAgent FrogPond today: check out Snopes.com!

This is a site that I’ve been visiting for years and that has a great research team that confirms and busts hundreds of myths, legends, and rumors. If you get some stupid email forward from some stupid coworker about some stupid urban legend and want to tell him that he’s stupid, then you can likely find the research to back it up at Snopes.com.

These guys opened shop long before Mythbusters ever aired on the Discovery channel, and they know their stuff!

• Earnings: Referrals earn better status at BzzAgent, which can result in MyPoints

Now that I’m in California, I’ve been strongly thinking about buying a car. Although San Francisco’s public transit system seems to be adequate for my needs, I frequently do need to leave the city, which can be a giant pain. There are no nearby BART or Caltrain stations, so this easily adds an hour to any trip. Then, when I get to the stations, which tend not to be near anything, I still need to get a ride!

As a result, it seemed rather fortuitous that I was invited to the latest BzzCampaign for the 2009 Dodge Ram 1500. I plan on doing a fair amount of gardening and hauling, so I do have legitimate reasons for buying a pickup! Plus, I enjoy hiking and skiing, and I don’t get to do either much due to my current lack of wheels.

Anyway, I’m excited to report that I have two e-certificates to give away that will allow you to buy a 2009 Dodge Ram 1500 at 1% below factory invoice! To get one of the e-certificates, just leave a comment with your email address. Don’t worry. Your email address will only be used two contact you in case you win. I’ll choose two random commenters at the end of the month (provided two people even bother commenting). You will receive the e-certificate via email, which you can then use at the Dodge website to get a 2009 Dodge Ram 1500 at a steal!

In the meantime, check out the craziness at the Ram Challenge where four teams of firefighters, cowboys, military men and contractors push their Dodge Rams to the limit! And don’t forget to sign up for updates and news about the new 2009 Dodge Ram 1500 from Dodge here.

Oh, one more thing: don’t forget to register to win a 2009 Dodge Ram 1500!

• Earnings: MyPoints for each referral and each Bzz

Much like the August 2008 Earnings post, this ones comes a bit late as well. However, that doesn’t mean there’s no news to report! In September, I had no posts but I did have 1,077 pageviews. This generated $9.63 in AdSense earnings and $0.14 in AdBrite earnings.

I’m excited to see what has/will have happened in October, especially since the economy has really tanked. Will this site generate less money? Will it matter? After all, the chump change only pays for maybe one meal per month. I’d need this site to make about 200 times more money to cover my monthly expenses. Maybe I should try running 200 sites instead.

As always, this will soon appear in the Earnings, Pageviews & Posts table.

Unfortunately, this post comes a bit too late, though I’ll date it for when it was supposed to have been posted. As is obvious, I haven’t been thinking much about blogging lately, though I hope to get that fixed now that I’m more settled in. I recently moved from Boston to San Francisco, which caused tremendous upheaval and giant headaches. However, everything’s good now, and I’m ready to refocus.

Anyway, August was an interesting month seeing as I had absolutely no posts aside from the July 2008 update. So does that mean I made absolutely no money? Of course not! That’s the wonder of content-heavy websites. As Google has repeatedly said, content is king.

Google AdSense brought in $8.18, and AdBrite brought in a whopping $0.17. This was based on 1,180 pageviews and one post.

This will appear shortly in the Earnings, Pageviews, and Posts table.