Monday, November 30, 2009

Raises & Bonuses

We recently had a staff meeting where it was announced that end-of-year raises and bonuses will be given out within the next few weeks. 

Raises will be small, most being around 1%, and with a maximum of 2% being awarded to "exceptional" employees. But with most of my friends and family (including my husband) receiving pay cuts or a pay freeze, even a slight increase is quite welcome! 

And the best news is that the company has decided to still give out bonuses. Optimistically, I'm hoping for $1000 in after-tax money, which would be more than I've received in years past... but hey, I'll take whatever I can get :) 

Wednesday, November 25, 2009

A new credit card

Hubby recently went on vacation, charging $750 to his credit card. He covered someone else's expenses for part of the trip, and bought a few things beforehand that he didn't end up using, so the total cost will come out to about $500 after returns & reimbursements. 

And since he was spending money, I decided that I should too. I went shopping at Kohl's and picked out some new clothes for myself. The in-store radio kept playing ads trying to convince people to take out a store charge card to save 10%... and I normally don't cave. In fact, until then, I had never taken out or even applied for a store card.

But Kohl's sends out monthly discount coupons to its cardholders, good on full-price AND sale items, and I want some. The card doesn't have any monthly fees, and I plan to pay in full every month anyway, so it's sort of a win-win for me. I also don't anticipate taking out any new credit lines anytime even remotely soon, and I only have one card with a balance (and that'll be paid off in the next 4 months), so I should be able to handle any minor credit score ding caused by opening a new card.

They gave me a 15% discount, and a $1000 credit limit. Woohoo!