Chase Credit Cards

Dear Annabelle,

Once we are, hopefully, approved for the Chase Sapphire Preferred we are planning to also apply for the Chase Freedom card.  It doesn't have an annual fee so we could keep it long term.  This seems like a good idea as far as keeping a relationship with the bank; although our mortgage is currently with them so I am not sure if that matters.

The advantage of this card is that it gives you 5% cash back on specific categories, which change every 3 months.  Note to self: you have to activate the category every 3 months.  If you only have this card then it gives you cash back but if you have the Chase Preferred you can transfer your points from this card to the Chase Ultimate Rewards account that you have with the Preferred card.  I guess that would be something to consider if we were going to cancel the Preferred after a year.

The Chase Freedom also has a 0% Intro APR for 15 months on purchases.  We would like to find cards with 0% since our cash flow is having some issues at the moment.  We decided to put 20% down on the mortgage but it left us with little savings otherwise.  What we did instead for cash flow was got a home equity line of credit (for 45K) but we would like to not have to use it.  It would be nice to have 0% for a while, until Andrew's stocks come due in the summer.

Hugs,
Jen

Gardening Ideas

Dear Annabelle,

We aren't sure yet if we are going to garden at this house or not but I am amassing links to interesting gardening ideas.  We currently have two really large cottonwood trees that we might not be able to keep; but if we do I am not sure if there will be enough sun to garden, we shall see this summer.

Links:
- How to grow an avocado tree
- Container gardening
- 6000 lbs food on 1/10th acre 

Hugs,
Jen

Neat Idea: Shoe That Grows

Dear Annabelle,

I came across a neat idea the other day.  An NGO is selling shoes that grow with a child's foot.  They are found at theshoethatgrows.org.  They are mainly set up so that you can donate the shoes to children in developing countries.

It made me wonder whether it would make sense to get some for the girls.  It would definitely be economical and then I wouldn't have to go shoe shopping (Ais used to always take them).  Something to think about.

Hug,
Jen

Credit Cards

Dear Annabelle,

I have been doing a bunch of credit card research intermittently to try and better understand the whole points/frequent flyer system.  At this point we (well Andrew) has applied to the Chase Sapphire Preferred (why does sapphire has 2 p's?).  They said he would hear by mail.  He has put a block on his credit file so that might cause issues...his SSN was stolen along with millions of other people's when our health insurance company's records were compromised...urg!

I am also going to transfer my AMEX from Canada to an AMEX in the US since they will let you get one new card and I figure that will be good for building my credit.  At least in the US being an extra card holder also builds your credit - you don't have to be primary.  In this case though I am going to try and find a no annual fee one since I figure it will be best for me to keep it for a long time to build the credit.  I just need to wait for our paperwork to go through that adds me to the family bank account here (so much financial paperwork with the move!).

I am sure I will have much more to write on this subject as I go through the tabs I have open on my iPad but this is the current state of affairs.

Hugs,
Jen

Starting a Blog

Dear Annabelle,

So the name Now What Musings was taken here and I figured that something was better than nothing so here is "Now What Letters".  Which I find amusing since obviously they are not letters; but it is inspired by all those old letters we used to write each other so that is what came to mind.

It appears that Google has a free blogging platform so I went with that.  We can customize how it looks - this was just the default.  I will write more soon.

Hugs,
Jen