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Some Credit Card Rewards are Shrinking…

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We have some credit cards with rewards, and we have some that we could redeem. I haven’t done it yet – I was thinking of doing it as a celebratory measure once our credit card debt was paid off. But this article at Yahoo Finance made me wonder if we should cash out while the gettin’ is somewhat still good.

Citibank’s move is just the latest in a flurry of reward program cutbacks. Nearly every major issuer has altered their reward offerings over the past year in some way: attaching more strings to membership, limiting cardholders’ earning ability, scaling back reward offerings or inflating redemption levels.

Via Yahoo Finance Article

We don’t have too much that we can redeem for. We have used our cards quite a bit, but some of them were used before a reward system was in place. But anything back from our credit cards is better than nothing so I’ll be doing some rewards shopping this weekend.

Sickness Sweeps Through the Household

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Ah, it’s that time of year where sickness sweeps through the household. Usually our son gets sick first and then me and my husband follow. Somehow my husband escaped this latest germfest. Not sure how he did it.

When anyone is sick, I’ll be the first to admit that our food budget is pushed aside. I am a comfort food type of gal, and when I get sick I want strawberries. Lots and lots of strawberries. They could be $6 a pound, it doesn’t matter. I need those strawberries. Our son gets some tasty Minute Maid juice bars and some sort of “treat” that he is craving.

Thankfully it looks like we won’t need doctor care this time around. I’m basically better and our son is starting to get better as well. Even though we have health insurance, it isn’t the best plan out there. I remember a time when our employer-sponsored health insurance covered 100% of almost everything. We didn’t have to pay a dime for our son’s birth. I wonder if any employers still offer insurance like that now-a-days.

There is some talk of our health insurance rates going up as much as 55%. If that happened, our health insurance would cost $620/month. I try not to think about it too much, but every time I open our bill I get a little nervous. I hope things get better with health care costs across the board.