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Finance

If you're not optimizing your credit card usage, you're leaving money on the table. Here is our current selection of credit cards and how we use each of them.

• AMEX Blue ($95/yr) : 6% back on groceries up to $6,000. This effectively allows you to shop for food tax free (about). 

• Amazon Visa: 5% back on all Amazon purchases. If you have Amazon Prime this card is a no brainer. 

• Sam's Club: 5% back on all Sam's Club purchases + % back on gas and restaurants.

• United Visa Club Card ($550-$700/yr): this card is great if you travel, you live near a United Hub, or have more than 2 children. If you have 2 or fewer children, we recommend the AMEX Platinum card. Both cards allow club lounge access, points back on airline purchases, free baggage, and extra travel perks. The difference: the AMEX Platinum card has access to lounges regardless of airline you're flying, but only allows for two dependents to enter the club lounge, while the United Card lounge access is only available while flying United, but allows all dependents to access the club.   

• Hyatt: if you plan to make a large purchase (generally $5,000 or above) it may make sense to apply for a hotel card. Hyatt, Marriott, and Hilton all offer deals on points at different times, usually worth a few nights stay. Marriott is most popular amongst the people we know, but check where you plan to travel, or where you travel most. 

• Lowe's: (or Home Depot). Get 5% back on your home projects. Especially a good deal if you have a remodel coming up. 

• Citi Mastercard: 2% across the board. We use this for purchases that do not fall into any category above. 

• Coming Soon....Robinhood: this card provides 3% back across the board. We will substitute this card for the Citi card once available. You can join the waitlist here: 

Household & Technology

• Cell Phone & Service: Mint Mobile is on the T-Mobile network and costs a fraction of the price of other phone providers. You'll have to bring your own phone, but most major providers make you pay for your phone in full anyway, just in installments. Unlimited talk, text, and data plans are $30/month, and you can customize plans for your family. Plus, if you sign up, Ryan Reynolds will send you scantily clad holiday cards. 

www.mintmobile.com 

• Internet: this is generally location dependent. We have Xfinity and it costs about $70/month. We don't add in any of their high speed options and all of our streaming services/gaming work just fine. 

• Home Phone: not all of our children have cell phones, so we have a home phone in case of emergencies. Our choice is Ooma, because of the low cost of devices and monthly rates. Base service is about $7/month, which covers the regulatory fees. 

www.ooma.com 

• Streaming Devices: we highly recommend bypassing a TV's integrated streaming apps and get a separate device, such as a Roku or Amazon Fire Stick. Check out our review on both devices here. 

• Laptop: Microsoft Surface is our go to device. We have them for ourselves and the kids, and they work seamlessly. Many low end laptops are bogged down with "bloatware", meaning the pre-installed apps and services that come with a device. Deals on Surface devices can be found pretty easily, and there are several form factors to choose from. 

• Remarkable: we recently purchased this device and it has been a nice addition. The Remarkable is a paper tablet for taking handwritten notes. It has a great battery life, it's very simple to use, and it's great for meetings when laptops would be rude or distracting. Amazon and a few other providers have similar options, but we've tried them all and the Remarkable is the best functioning device for that use case. 

• Kindle: we carry a small paperwhite kindle device with us pretty much everywhere. It has an amazing battery life, holds more books than we can read, and fits in a pocket/backpack/glovebox easily. It's a great device to learn something while you're waiting to pick up the kids, during activities, or while indisposed. It's a lot more valuable than doom scrolling YouTube shorts. 

• OneNote: we use this for note taking, home organization, records, and projects. You can access notes from all devices and share with those important to you. Check out our organization solution Suburban Planner here. 

• Home Security: home security has changed dramatically over the past decade, and no longer requires professional installation or high monthly fees. SimpliSafe, Ring, Google, Wyze, and others. MORE

• Water Management:

  • Flow by Moen

  • Strap on water sensor - stream

  • Water Sensors

• Coffee: coffee is the crux of our morning, and while a good coffee make is crucial, it doesn't have to cost thousands of dollars. Just look for a Specialty Coffee Association (SCA) approved coffee maker, a decent grinder, and you're good to go. For more info on all things coffee related, check our our detailed article about coffer here. 

  • GE Cafe Coffee Maker

  • Baratza Encore Grinder

  • Aeropress

  • Our favorite coffee roasters can be found here.

• Air Things: Radon is the second-leading cause of lung cancer in the United States. You can get an in home, one time use testing kit for about $20 on Amazon, or you can get an Air Things device, which monitors for Radon, humidity, and temperature via an app. If your home does not have Radon mitigation, this can give you a sense of your levels, and alert you if the air is unsafe. 

• Sensibo: If you live in a home without central air conditioning, or baseboard heat, mini-split heating and cooling units may be a great addition to the home. We installed nine of these units into a rental home with baseboard heat and no A/C, and it lowered our unitity bills considerably. Sensibo is an add on compatible with many units that allows you to control each unit via an app, adjust the automated settings, and monitor the health of the unit. 

• Rachio: if you have inground sprinklers, Rachio is a must. It provides exactly what you think it would: automatically set and run watering cycles from your phone, monitor the weather to skip watering on rainy days, and spray the kids with the touch of a button.   

• Ring: Ring is probably one of the few aesthetically appealing doorbells on the market, comes with several cover colors, and is easy to set up and use. We also have a separate 

• NEST Thermostat & Smoke Alarm: NEST is the standard for both products. Be sure to include a thermostat in your garage. Many new motorized devices such as hoverboards, bikes, and scooters come with lithium batteries. If one should spontaneous explode, you'll get an alert regardless of your location. 

• Home Audio: audio is a moving target, and very dependent on how the home is configured. 

  • Whole Home Audio

  • Theater Systems

  • Portable Audio 

• Kasa: these devices and app manage all of our lighting. We have plugs, switches, and outdoor plugs for all of the landscape lighting, interior lights, and holiday lighting. You can connect with Alexa for voice commands and set scenes to automatically turn on and off lights automatically. It's a great way to illuminate the home and save on power by shutting off lights remotely when not in use. 

• MyQ: we use this device and app to manage our garage doors. Great to check if the door is open before bed, or if a child need to get in unexpectedly.