December Thoughts

 December 2020 will be the 24th month I have tracked my spending. Two years! And a lot of dollars. 😐

As part of estimating where I will end up for 2020 year end I wanted to look over my December 2019 spend and see what is likely to change.

Savings opportunities I see are approximately $300 in holiday get togethers that won't happen because 2020. About $150 in alcohol purchases for home consumption, I recall this being to load up on Point Pistachio beer not a holiday surge in consumption. I also spent about $150 on work breakfasts and lunches last December, much less opportunity to hit the McDonald's drive thru when there is no commute. 

I also spent $300 on restaurant gift cards last year to claim the holiday bonuses, as of this writing I still have a small balance left on one of those. I will not be buying those this year as I am going out much less and am even less willing to commit cash to a business with a less than stable future. 

Holiday gifting was about $500 last December and for now I am expecting to keep this amount about the same with a few meaningful and useful gifts.

Increased spending is only expected on my association dues, because of a renovation special assessment these are up by $225 over last year for a few more months. It is what it is.

Factor in some increased grocery spend to account for more at home dining and I am going to target a $500 reduction in spend for this month.

December is also when my Chase IHG MasterCard annual fee hits, this is an $89 expense. This is very much a card to have rather than to use so I don't have a comfortable amount of leverage to ask for a fee waiver.  Despite not spending a single night in 2020 at an IHG property I see the free night and other benefits that come with this card as worth the fee. $89 in 2019 will be matched by $89 in 2020.

Credit Card Shuffle

Like most of the world's population my travel and even excursions from my home have been greatly curtailed this year. This did not stop the wanderlust but practicalities quickly tampered those thoughts. The grounded version of wanderlust is considering how to travel the most for the least dollars when it is again safe to do so.

At the beginning of the year I held three travel credit cards with annual fees and thought I was getting value above the fee from each. Home for me is MSP, Delta's second largest hub (suck it Detroit!), and nonstops have become increasing valuable to me over the absolute cheapest fare so the Delta and the SkyMiles American Express card made sense for me for the free bags alone. Earlier boarding makes basic economy a more attractive option and this year's revision of refunding the annual fee via Delta gift card if $10,000 was spent made it even sweeter. I generally use this card for purchases that I don't have a higher earnings rate for as I consider one SkyMile to be worth slightly more than one penny.

I have also been a Holiday Inn/IHG points slut for over a decade now. Each year they are by far my most frequented chain due to the lower price points and simple number of locations. I have had an IHG card for several years, last year I opted to upgrade to the Premier as I found the fourth award night free a greater value than the 10% points rebate. The card comes with an annual free night good at most properties, effectively all for my travel patterns. I have yet to stay at an IHG property in 2020 but this card will be a keeper for years to come even though I don't really spend on it outside of my stays. This is a card to have, not to use.

The third travel card I began the year with was the Hilton Surpass American Express. Hilton has become my second hotel chain and the appeal of free breakfast and the limited PriorityPass membership made this card very useful. Hilton has received all of my non work travel to date in 2020. The annual fee came due last month and I decided that it was time for some belt-tighting. The only time I used this card was for Hilton hotel stays and the odd convenience store purchase where the card was at front of wallet during those hotel stays. There was no offer of a retention bonus due to the low spend so I closed out this card. $95 stays in my wallet in exchange for loss of uncertain future perks, I think I will be keeping the gold status the card granted through early 2022 though. Closing a card did give me an excuse to consider a new card to replace it. More on that next time.

What's in My Wallet?

What credit cards are in my wallet and why?


Delta SkyMiles Gold American Express Card my link My home airport is MSP, Delta dominates, and I like having the freedom to check a bag without a fee. Until this year I would have said it was a card to have but not to use. New features include 2x miles on dining and groceries as well as $100 Delta gift card when $10,000 is spent in a calendar year.

Chase IHG Rewards Club Premier my link Truthfully, this card isn't often in my wallet. It is very much a card to have but rarely use. I use this on IHG stays and nowhere else. Perks of the card include IHG Platinum status which gets you 50% more points and upgrades such as they are at IHG. This card also rebates the fourth night on award bookings which makes it very valuable to me. Ignoring that benefit there is also an annual free night which alone offsets the $89 fee. The card also offers Global Entry/TSA Pre reimbursement, I have yet to use this benefit but will be making use of it next year at GE renewal.

Citibank Costco Visa I surprisingly love Costco despite not being a fit for Sam's Club, very different product mix. I picked this up initially because at the time I joined Costco my wallet ran on Mastercard. This card gets heavy use for the 4% back in gas and 3% in travel in and dining. My Costco spend also goes on it as I don't have a card that can do better than 2% at Costco and my membership info is printed on the card so one less thing to carry. I would consider this the best no annual fee travel card out there. The downside is cash out only happens annually and must be done at Costco.

Citibank Double Cash This is actually my oldest credit card, it was opened as an AAdvantage card and product changed to avoid the annual fee. Likely due to product changing into this card it is a WorldElite card giving some additional MasterCard sponsored benefits, I have only benefited from the Lyft and Fandango credits. 2% on everything is a nice catch all card when I decide a SkyMile isn't worth that much.

Synchrony Verizon Visa This is the newest card to my lineup, it only makes sense if you intend to be a loyal Verizon Wireless post paid customer. I have the Verizon bill setup to charge to this card as I get the autopay discount and a 2% rebate on that spend. Like the Costco card this also offers 3% on dining and 4% on gas, the main difference being this card allows monthly redemption and only to Verizon Dollars. The benefit that got my attention with this card was 4% on grocery stores, 4% in quasi-cash has more value to me than 2 Delta miles or IHG points.


Chase and American Express links contain referrals, there may be better signup offers available.