Credit Card Used For Health And Minor Indulgance

I’ve been having some trouble with shin splints. Things were improving after having a three day weekend, but having talked to a few people I decided to get a proper pair of walking shoes. I’d been walking 30 mins each way to work and back for the last few months in a pair of deck shoes, great for on the boat, not so good for pounding the pavement.

Not having bought a decent pair of shoes in some time I was prepared to pay around $200 get my shins back into working order. I managed to get away with it for $119.

Bargain I think, I’ve practically prevented $100 extra being put on my credit card and I haven’t been to the doctor either, so I’ve probaly saved another $60. So I wander out of the shoe shop, down the street a little, and into the mobile phone shop.

You can probably see where this is going but I’ll try and justify it anyway. My old phone is a piece of crap. It turns itself off for no reason, it has tiny buttons that make texting a nightmare, and my biggest hate is that it doesn’s sound like a phone at all. The closest sound that’s like a real phone is a recording of an antique phone from the 1930’s. I hate it, but it did like the way it made people look up and say “What the F$@#??” everytime it rang.

So at the end of the day I bought a new Nokia, that sounds like a phone and all for the princely sum of $199 which went onto gold visa one, along with the shoes.

I justify it thus.

I saved $160 by getting cheaper shoes and not going to the doctor. The phone came with a $30 prepaid card that a can sell, so I’ve really only put $9 on the credit card to buy a brand new phone, that comes with a 12 month warranty.

Which reminds me I need to get the credit card out again to pay my overdue cell phone bill, Doh !!

Credit Card Companies Suffering

This is a credit card news story that I like to hear, Irregular Payments reports that credit card giant MNBA is suffering due to customers paying off their debts quicker than expected.

I’m not sure if this is caused by people taking balance transefer offers at a lower interest rate, or growing consumer education that while credit cards are convenient, they are damn expensive to maintain and best paid off as quick as possible.

PS Looks like MNBA’s share price has dropped 16% after they announced below expected earnings, who says it pays to over charge.

Business Expenses

I bought a couple more domain names today on Gold Visa Two for sites I plan to develop in the near future. Total cost was $US23.48 which will probably translate to a little over $AU30 once the exchange rate and extra fees are charged.

I didn’t need the domain names straight away, but I’ve been reading about the Google Sandbox Theory and thought it’s best to get the domains now, even if I don’t get around to using them for few months.

I havn’t looked at my statement yet but I also expect recurring charges for web hosting ($90) and broadband ($50) on my credit card. I’m in the middle of moving some things around so hopefully next month my hosting bill will only have a $50 impact on my credit card.