Well, The Son’s youth orchestra is over for the season.  While The Son is ready for the break, he’s bummed because it also means a break in his Wednesday trips to Wendy’s.  Yup, that’s right.  No more weekly Baconators and vanilla Frosties 

I’m sure we’ll find opportunities to eat out now and again but I think this will be a good opportunity to show the kids how those fast-food meals add up over the course of a year.

One expense that will be increasing rather than going down will be The Son’s cello lessons.  No, the teacher didn’t raise his rates (though I suppose that will happen at some point) — we’ve decided to move from 3/4-hour lessons up to 1-hour lessons.

I just crunched some numbers and estimate that we can expect to spend ~$2,200 - 2,500 throughout the year on activity fees — that’s between the kids’ sports fees, private lessons, etc.  I’m currently allotting $150 per month to our YNAB Kids: Lessons & Activities budget category but I’m going to increase that to $180 a month starting in May.  I’ll push it up even further, if and when necessary.

Cello Teacher — $131.25
I need to check my records because I’m not quite sure whether I’m paying in advance or in arrears with this check but I felt it was time to give him another check.  I’ll get it figured out and write another check, if necessary, to pay us up through the end of the month.

I have a brand new credit card in my wallet — a Capital One Cash Rewards card.

The card offers 1% cash back on all purchases, the rewards don’t expire for the life of my account, there’s no limit on the amount of rewards I earn, and I can request my cash back whenever I want.  In other words, it offers all kinds of benefits that my old Citibank Dividend card didn’t offer.  Plus it has a $10,000 credit limit.

The most important feature, and the main reason I applied for the card, is that I am the primary account holder.  Now, along with my new Amex Blue Cash card, all of the credit cards I carry in my wallet are my own and will work toward building my own personal credit history/score.  My old cards were all on joint accounts with The Husband.

No, I’m not preparing for a divorce.  We’re being pragmatic; we’re “putting our house in order”, if you will.   I’m preparing for widowhood.

But enough of that – back to the excitement of my new card.  The truly fun aspect of this credit account is that in another week or so I’ll get a newly minted personalized card that I created using their Card Lab.

I’ve only been a cardholder for about two weeks now but every time I use the card I’m reminded of how thoroughly ugly the design is.  Don’t get me wrong — I not a spendaholic with a sick attachment to my credit cards and I’m not vain about what my credit cards look like.  But there’s no escaping it, the card is butt ugly.

Capital One’s card lab has a selection of preloaded graphics and photos that card owners can choose from to customize their cards.  Or you can upload your own photo.  I thought it would kind of fun to have a picture of my kids on my card but I couldn’t find one that worked — one or the other’s face was always obstructed by the Visa logo.  The photo I choose, the daylily pictured above, is better anyway – it was taken by my then 12-yo son.

So in a week or two I’ll have my own personalized Visa card and every time I use it I’ll be reminded of the most important thing in my life — my family.  Even though I’m not unhappy with the amount of money I spend every month, there’s always room for improvement.  Seeing that card and being reminded of what’s really important in my life might just help me carve a little more fat off my monthly spending.

[photo credit:  The Son]