Traction

Well.  There you have it.  I lost/mis-placed $160 of the money I manifested and I lost traction.  Here we go again!

Credit Card Challenge

I'm challenging you to not use your credit card(s) for ANY purchase for the next week.  Yep.  You read that right!

I've been doing that for a few weeks, longer maybe.  Wow.  Money struggle is real.  I'm more conscious and I feel better.  Makes you more aware.  Do the week, try for two and see where it leads you!

Put them away, take them out of your wallet.  Of course, in case of an emergency, sure.  But try it out.

There's also a flip side to this, when you really look into credit cards and interest that I will be exploring in detail shortly.

Transfer that ish.

A friend told me about how she opened a credit card with 0% APR for an introductory period and transferred a balance of a debt over to that.  I didn't even think about that before so I started looking into it.  She sent me a referral link for the one she had, which provides a cash back option, she screenshotted from her statement to show me that at two restaurants they gave her 10% cash back credited to her account.  I was sold, even though the primary reason I was to open this account was to pay off transferred balance debt, I wanted in.

That's how they get you.  So I opened an American Express Blue Cash Everyday account.  They're currently offering 0% APR for 12 months, which I have an alert set up for 10 months from now to have it down to zero.

The transfer process was easy enough, you just enter your card information in and the amount you want.  Mine took about two weeks to get approved.

I also called my credit card companies and told them I needed a lower interest rate.  Chase did not fly with that, so that was the full balance I transferred over to the AmEx immediately.  Capital One however, lowered me 4% for 7 months, which was pretty cool of them.  Another cool thing about Capital One is that they have the checking and savings accounts available, Capital One 360.

Formerly ING, an online bank that had a higher than average interest available for savings was a draw when I signed up.  I've kind of just let it hang out and forgot about it for some time.  I didn't have any money in it for a while.  Now I have it set up as a back up to pay my Ventures card bill each month, to pay more than the minimum.  Not saving as much as I'd like, but I've got a purpose for it.

I did some digging on the AmEx Blue Cash Everyday account for more benefits of being a card holder and found some surprising options that can be added to your card (with expiration date).  Here are three of them.

Another place to look when you're on the hunt for money back!

Happy Transferring!

Is Cash Back Really a Thing?

It wouldn't take long to do a Google search on cash back options for online shopping, or in-store coupons for that matter.  You probably just don't think it's worth the time.  I'm telling you, it is.  There are sites like, honey, wikibuy and eBates.  I've been testing these so let me give you a quick breakdown.

Because guess what, they all offer coupons.  Plus, eBates provides cash back, in a check, mailed to your door!

That should be good enough right?  I told you it was a quick breakdown.

Here's what you do.  Say you want to shop at Nike online.  You go to eBates and type in Nike.  This is just a snip it from today's list, as it's of course subject to change.

Then you click Shop Now and you're directed to the site, do your thing and remember the coupon code and then will get 10% of what you spend back to your eBates account. Pretty easy right?  

There's also the option which is what I opt for, to have eBates (and the others) as a plug in on my Chrome bar, so when I'm on a website that is part of one of these, it allows a pop-up to say, HEY LOOK AT ME!!!  For eBates you'll have to Activate the link, it just redirects you to the same page and shop away.  Very simple and only takes a few minutes to set up the accounts and add the plug ins.

They search the internet for deals, so you don't have to.  As you can see when I went to Nike, what comes up as available options! They can all work together if you'd like, because whatever coupon is best, you should obviously use.

Another cool thing, is I know we're all Amazon freaks; honey scans Amazon deals and finds you the best possible price.  You can also add something you want to buy to a drop list and it will alert you when the price drops.

Now go check them out!!!

Now What?

The question I always ask myself when I set up a plan is, now what?  Well.  That's where I usually fail too!  I can't this time, there is too much at stake to fail. 

Once I knew I finally needed to fix my financial situation I took these steps and opened these accounts:

• Mint - Yes, you have to link any existing financial accounts to this, huge leap of faith that they'll have access to that information but in all honestly, it was the quickest way for me to see where I was at.  Easy to use, clean looking and really lays it out there for you.  Smart system and they've been around for a while.
• Acorns - Again, you'll have to link your cards to this if you want it to work.  Acorns rounds up your change on purchases and puts it into a savings account and invests into various stocks, so I think of it as day trading for the poor.  I linked a credit card to it, but don't use it too often and now I am not using at all so this will be at a standstill.  Unfortunately they do not support the linking of my debit card which is a smaller bank, so until they can do that I looked into another option which lead me to..
• Stash Investing - They link to my bank, so I currently have it taking out $5 a week so I shouldn't even notice it and can change the frequency if needed to every 2, monthly, etc.  This however doesn't do the round up change, maybe they'll roll that out at some point.  Stash gives you a hands on approach to investing, where you can pick the stocks you invest in ($5 minimum).

I don't want to bombard you with TOO much right now but I also bought this book called Unleash Your Inner Money Babe by Kathrin Zenkina.  It is changing my mindset on money and this book combined with another (deserves a separate post), will be the basis of my success.  Implementing these ideas and logging it all for you to follow so that you too, are empowered and able to succeed in your process.

Her book is a 21 day challenge, although I'm taking the scenic route.  I'm on Day Seven, and I have seen $280 manifest to me in some way.  Not bad.  It just opens your eyes a bit and I'll be detailing that soon.

Thank you for reading and be sure to follow and share!

Asking For It.

It.  What is it?  And why do we want it?

It is anything you want it to be.  It's true.  Is it a new pair of shoes?  A vacation, or a guy you've been eyeing at the gym for some time and don't know how to approach him.

Is it money?  Most likely for some it = money.  I can't afford it.  If only it wasn't so much.  It seems impossible.  It seems far away, but all we have to do is ask.. for it.

We need to change our mindset around money.  That's why I'm here.  I have had such a negative relationship with money for so long but I need to turn that around, and YOU DO TOO!  Let's do this together and get yourself a piggy bank while you're at it!  You're going to need it!