I have been contemplating looking for a good VISA card to get: I’d like a VISA b/c it’s better for traveling overseas, but currently we just have a Mastercard that we like. You have given me really good food for thought and I’m wondering if you would recommend the card you use? For points that carry over and don’t have blackout dates, etc? You can email me if you’d rather: jolynatbudgetsarethenewblack.com.
Thanks so much for your comment!

I use Excel to plan in advance all our spending and income with a running projected balance. At the moment it’s set up through to December 2011. We get paid on alternating weeks, our mortgage comes out every other Monday, the phone bill automatically goes on the VISA in week 3 ever month, we each fill our gas tank every week, we buy about the same amount of groceries every week. Really most of our normally spending is completely predictable so there’s no reason for any surprises. By cutting out all nonessential spending we live on about 55% of our take home pay. Every Friday once the pay is received and that week’s charges to the credit card have been paid (yes paid off every Friday) then I skim off everything above ~$1100 and tranfer it to our retirement accounts or make an extra mortgage payment. If I write a check which is rare, I add a row to the spending plan and the balance goes down. In other words the minute I write the check I assume the money’s gone and that’s reflected in the balance on my spreadsheet. If the check doesn’t clear by Friday I move it to the next week and continue doing that until it does clear. Virtually all our spending is done on the credit card and is paid off every week. With groceries, gas, insurance, phone, cell, internet and miscellaneous spending all earning points we earn enough travel miles for 4 flights to Europe every 2 years. By having virtually all our expenses going on the credit card it means I can hold off the payment until the paycheck is received every week. That way payment never goes out ahead of the pay arriving and there’s no reason to ever go into overdraft, or below $1000 where I’ll cause the bank fees to kick in for the month. I carry my debit card and $10 cash at all times for those few times when I can’t use my credit card, but the cash gets dusty and I’ve only used my debit card once in the past year.

I really like your blog. I am a casting director for a docu-reality series sponsored by the USO about military families awaiting the return of a loved one stationed overseas. This series is about how the family prepares for their service member’s return and highlights the bravery, sacrifice, and courage military families need to have. I would love if you submitted to be part of the series. You can find an online submission form at http://www.roadtoreunion.com or email me directly at roadtoreunioncasting@gmail.com for more information.

Thank you so much,
Chris