Money Matters
csuave
member
Dear Community,
Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
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Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
The Good Old Days
Julieanne made a comment about the good old days with 6% interest that got me thinking.
What was a too good to be true deal that you had in the past?
Mine was my Discover Card. Probably about 15-16 years ago when redeeming cashback for gift cards was a newer thing they had a deal where you could redeem $20 in cashback bonus for a $40 gift card. I did this several times for Red Lobster/Darden. Also back then they gave you cashback bonus when you would use the card to get cash at the register (and there was no charge for this). I would go to the grocery store and spend $10 and then add $30 cash for $40 total and they would bonus on the full $40....it was like they were paying me to use the card as an ATM.
What was a too good to be true deal that you had in the past?
Mine was my Discover Card. Probably about 15-16 years ago when redeeming cashback for gift cards was a newer thing they had a deal where you could redeem $20 in cashback bonus for a $40 gift card. I did this several times for Red Lobster/Darden. Also back then they gave you cashback bonus when you would use the card to get cash at the register (and there was no charge for this). I would go to the grocery store and spend $10 and then add $30 cash for $40 total and they would bonus on the full $40....it was like they were paying me to use the card as an ATM.
Re: The Good Old Days
It was an issue in later years though, when I couldn't pay the card off.
My too-good-to-be-true was a roundtrip ticket to New Zealand for about $300 that @Xstatic clued me into about a year ago. Alas, I had it in my cart and then hesitated. And then it disappeared. Lesson learned!
Back in the days of 6% interest on money markets you also had like 10-15% interest on mortgages. Now what would be GREAT would be to get the 6% back today, since so many people have locked in historically low mortgage rates.
Also, credit card points used to be a lot more lucrative before every person and their brother started reading TPG's blog. They also used to be a lot easier to earn. It used to be that you could buy $1 coins from the US Treasury using a credit card, and there was no tax, shipping charge, or credit card fee. People would order them and have them delivered to their bank to be deposited into their account, and then use the money to pay off their card. People were racking up hundreds of thousands of points this way, and it was totally legal and went on for a really long time before the US Treasury stopped taking credit cards. I never personally engaged in this, but I can't deny the brilliance of it.
Starwood used to give you points when you stayed at their hotel on points. It was amazing. They don't do that anymore.
The best thing I have going for me right now is the forever stamps from 2012 that I still use.
I remember back in the '90s, when the Internet was first becoming common in households, so many websites would give out all kinds of amazing deals just to get people to visit.
Deals like "$20 off your first order when you spend at least $20". Big name companies were jumping on the bandwagon and giving away free products if you "signed up for them", which got you on their e-mail list, but a small price to pay for free pantyhose, or full sized bottles of shampoo and conditioner, all kinds of things. I got SO much free stuff back then.
@hoffse's US Treasury example reminds me of a new money making opportunity I am about to try. Buying textbooks off Amazon retailers (and other textbook websites) and then sending them back to Amazon's "trade-in program". Obviously when there is a nice difference between those two prices. But it occurred to me that a secondary benefit is I'll get cash back rewards from my initial purchase. For buying a product I'll immediately be trading back for profit anyway. Not quite as awesome as cash back for buying cash, lol. But an extra perk for my new resale endeavor.
My second apartment in Chicago was in the Roscoe Village neighborhood for $700/month, a couple years before it got "hot". It was a real 1 bedroom with another little room they were calling a "den", which I used as a walk in closet. I left the neighborhood when I bought my condo. After I sold it I wanted to move back and couldn't afford it anymore, in the couple years I was gone people figured out what a great neighborhood it was :-P
When H and I first started dating, he was living in a huge apartment located on the back of a B&B. The place had all kinds of really nice features - heated floors throughout the whole place, jacuzzi tub with separate shower, gas fireplace, lots of windows and light, huge kitchen, the list goes on. He also had no neighbors to deal with and the B&B only had guests during the spring, summer and fall (and not that many even then) so it was quiet all the time. We were also less than 5 minutes from the grocery store and could make it to the liquor store in back during a TV commercial. Best part - the rent was $625 a month and it included all the utilities plus cable. The place could've easily rented for $1,000+ a month with no utilities included. We're still kicking ourselves 2 1/2 years after buying a house and leaving that place, especially since our neighbors are absolutely awful and we're a lot further from town (and it's a lot more expensive for a place not nearly as nice).
Oh! I'm having flashbacks. When my H and I first moved in together, we rented a Southern mansion (built in 1851) that had been subdivided up into separate units. There were two units on the first floor and we rented the larger one. It had previously been a B&B but, she had just decided to go with permanent tenants instead when we saw it.
This place was insane! 16 ft. ceilings with hand carved moldings. Hardwood floors. Crystal chandeliers with medallions in every room. Large bathroom with both a Jacuzzi tub and a stand-up shower. Huge courtyard in the back with lots of colorful flower beds. The only thing that was awful was the smallest, galley kitchen I have ever seen, lol. It was an addition added much later in the house's life and was just squeezed onto the side of the house barely before the property line. 1/4 mile walk to the French Quarter.
This was 13-14 years ago. It wasn't a bargain at the time. We paid either $900 or $1,000/month, which was a fair price. But it would be double that now. It was a 2 bed/1 bath, but large bedrooms. Oh! And there was an enormous pocket door...almost as high as the ceiling and as wide as the space. Between one of the bedrooms and the living room. It could be closed to be a bedroom or opened to double the living room space.
(Sigh) Loved that place. I would have never left. We lived there for over two years, but then our landlady had to give us a 30-day notice to vacate because she needed to do some kind of shoring with the foundation and she couldn't have people living there while she was doing that.
She currently has it for sale for $1.85M. I can't even tell you how much I'd love to buy it. Living there, I always felt like "this looks like houses I have taken tours of in Natchez, MS". I joked with my H if he thought she would give us an 80% off discount because of our good, previous tenant relationship with her. We actually run into her a few times a year because we still live nearby and my H rides his bike past that house all the time.
For some fun, below is the link to the listing. You'll see why I'm bummed to no longer be living there, lol. Ignore the "zestimates" they are beyond ridiculously low. Most, but not all, of the first pics shown are of our previous unit:
http://www.zillow.com/homedetails/1725-Esplanade-Ave-New-Orleans-LA-70116/84449534_zpid/
I kind of miss the days in the housing market where there were a ton of short sales and foreclosures. They were a pain to deal with, but there was definitely a deal to be had there.
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