{"id":1167,"date":"2010-11-12T05:52:06","date_gmt":"2010-11-12T13:52:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/couponshoebox.com\/tips\/?p=1167"},"modified":"2012-04-23T15:18:49","modified_gmt":"2012-04-23T22:18:49","slug":"can-credit-cards-be-part-of-a-frugal-lifestyle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/couponshoebox.com\/tips\/can-credit-cards-be-part-of-a-frugal-lifestyle\/","title":{"rendered":"Can Credit Cards be Part of a Frugal Lifestyle?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>When it comes to <a href=\"https:\/\/couponshoebox.com\/tips\/frugality-as-a-lifestyle\/\">frugal living<\/a>, it seems obvious to some that there is no place for credit cards at all. Indeed, the idea of credit cards as part of the frugal lifestyle seems impossible. Many of us believe that credit cards are the complete opposite of everything frugal. They promote consumerism, materialism and debt.<\/p>\n<p>However, this view might not be totally fair to credit cards. Indeed, like many money tools, credit cards can be scary &#8212; or they can be helpful. It&#8217;s all about how you use credit cards. Used responsibly, as part of a plan, you can incorporate credit cards into your frugal lifestyle.<\/p>\n<h3>Credit Cards: Get Cash Back, Free Stuff and Promotional Savings<\/h3>\n<p>One of the ways that credit cards can help your frugal lifestyle is through the rewards you can earn. When you make use of rewards credit cards, you are providing yourself with opportunities to maximize your money. Rewards programs offer you some of the following perks:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Cash back<\/strong>: You can get cash back when you make purchases on certain cards. This cash back can range from 1% on most purchases to 3% or 5% cash back on particular purchases. Free money is always a good thing.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Free stuff<\/strong>: Some rewards programs will let you redeem your points for merchandise, or for discounted travel. You can get airline tickets, hotel stays and other perks when you accumulate enough rewards.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Promotional savings<\/strong>: Many credit cards are now offer special savings when you shop through their networks. You might also get bonus points that can be used for cash back or other merchandise.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>If you are careful with your credit card, you can use rewards to save money and live a little more frugally. It is also worth noting that purchase protection and extended warranty protection can also be perks of your credit card, and help you save in the long run.<\/p>\n<h3>Creating a Credit Card Spending Plan<\/h3>\n<p>Of course, it isn&#8217;t keeping with the tenets of frugal living if you end up spending without a budget or a plan. Instead of just using your credit card blindly, you need to come up with a plan. I have a plan for my credit cards:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>My Upromise card is used for all online purchases. This helps us save up toward my son&#8217;s college costs.<\/li>\n<li>My miles card is used for bigger purchases that we have planned to make. We often save up the money, then use the miles card. Because we have saved up, we can just pay off the balance.<\/li>\n<li>My cashback card is used for most other purchases during the month (groceries, gas, etc.), since many of those things come with a 3% cashback rate instead of a 1% rate.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>We spend money according to what is in our budget. At the end of the billing cycle, when we get our credit cards, we can pay off what was spent with money that has been sitting in our checking account. At some point, I&#8217;d like to get really ambitious and keep most of the money in the savings account until the end of the month, having it earn interest, and only transferring the money to the checking account when it&#8217;s time to pay the credit card bills.<\/p>\n<h3>Avoiding a Balance<\/h3>\n<p>In my mind, credit cards can be a good part of a frugal lifestyle as long as I&#8217;m not carrying a balance. If I&#8217;m not <a href=\"https:\/\/couponshoebox.com\/tips\/4-ways-you-are-probably-wasting-money\/\">wasting money<\/a> on interest payments, there really isn&#8217;t a problem, and I can reap the benefits that come with good credit card rewards programs.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>When it comes to frugal living, it seems obvious to some that there is no place for credit cards at all. Indeed, the idea of credit cards as part of the frugal lifestyle seems impossible. Many of us believe that credit cards are the complete opposite of everything frugal. They promote consumerism, materialism and debt. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[8],"tags":[45,510],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/couponshoebox.com\/tips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1167"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/couponshoebox.com\/tips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/couponshoebox.com\/tips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/couponshoebox.com\/tips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/couponshoebox.com\/tips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1167"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/couponshoebox.com\/tips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1167\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/couponshoebox.com\/tips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1167"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/couponshoebox.com\/tips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1167"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/couponshoebox.com\/tips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1167"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}