I have written recently about a membership program where you can pay a monthly or yearly fee. In return, you receive monthly credits that you can use to reduce costs. For example, for a $5.00 monthly cost, you get a $10.00 credit to use against expenses at the store.
Of course, there are tricks and hurdles you have to navigate to make best use of your benefits. For example, I recently used $6.00 of my $10.00 credit, expecting to be able to use the remaining $4.00 on my next purchase. However, when I went to make another purchase, there was no remaining credit.
When I called customer service to ask about this, they informed me that the $10.00 is available only for one purchase. You can’t use part of the $10.00 one time, and then another part another time. However, they were kind and put the $4.00 credit back on my account since I hadn’t known about the rule. They made a note in my file that I was now aware of the rule, so if the same thing happens to me in the future, I am out of luck.
Another trick is that the monthly credits have to be used within one month of when they appear. Otherwise, they are gone forever.
While my calculations show that I am financially ahead on this membership plan (and don’t ask me about some of my other membership plans!), I notice two things:
- First, it’s a bit of stress to make sure that I use my benefits each month, otherwise they disappear. We humans seem to be wired to dislike losses, so worrying about losing the monthly credits is a negative emotion for me.
- Also, I wonder if the time that it takes me to monitor the approximately $4.00 per month of gains would be more profitably spent elsewhere. That is, it’s nice to come out ahead $48.00 annually, and tax free at that. However, are there things more worth my time focusing on? Not sure, but it’s worth some thought.
hledger Upgrade
One thing that took very little time recently was my upgrade from hledger 1.43.1 to 1.43.2. My thanks to all those who make hledger happen!