Showing posts with label credit cards. Show all posts
Showing posts with label credit cards. Show all posts

Wednesday, March 28, 2007

CIBC Visa statement improved

Here's something I meant to talk about a while ago: my CIBC Visa statement is now showing spending categories. This way I see how much we spend on restaurants, groceries, etc. every month. There are a few mistakes sometimes in terms of what gets allocated to which category but overall it's pretty good. I find this really helped me get an idea of where my money is going. It really works well for me because I put EVERYTHING on credit card (to get all those Aeroplan miles :-). I also always pay my card in full every month.

Why is this so good? You see, the thing is I don't like to do a budget or track my expenses. I pay myself first (investing, travel money), then my bills (mortgage, VISA) ... I try never to spend more than what I have in cash. I buy my cars used and pay them cash, etc. So far, this has worked really well for me but it's not for everybody. In my case, this gives me more time to do stock research for example instead of spending countless hours playing around in Quicken to track all my expenses. It really helps that my wife and I have the same spending habits and we're not impulsive buyers. We spend a lot on travel and restaurants, but so far that never busted the bank :-) Although I won't stop buying lattes, maybe cutting on 50% of the restaurants would make me save a good 200$ a month.

I know a lot of you are budgeting out there so what am I missing that would really help me save more money?

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