Citibank Shell Master Card 5% cash back NO MORE

I have the Shell MasterCard® from Citi® Cards that used to offer 5% cash back on purchase spend on gas at Shell gas station. It's been working good until about a month or so ago they changed the terms and conditions bla bla bla... you now have to spend up to $500 a month to begin getting some money back. No thank you!

And when I logged on to the account at https://www.accountonline.com/cards/svc/Login.do?siteId=SHELLCREDITCARD, there is another message:
Please Note: Due to upcoming system changes, the AutoPay feature will not be available after July 22, 2011. After July 22, you must pay your bill each month online, by mail, through your bank or using a bill payment service. For more information, please contact Customer Service.

No auto-pay? Inconvenient you customers and hope to collect more late payment fee?

I called their Account Assistance at 1-866-743-5562 24/7 and canceled my card.

Netflix price increase - are you canceling?

Just got the notice from Netflix that they are increasing their price, so much for last resort of cheap entertainment.
I am serious considering canceling the service, since we just had a baby and the last DVD sat on our kitchen counter for 3 weeks. Hmmm... suddenly RedBox sounds pretty good.

Here is the e-mail I received from Netflix today:

We are separating unlimited DVDs by mail and unlimited streaming into two separate plans to better reflect the costs of each. Now our members have a choice: a streaming only plan, a DVD only plan, or both.

Your current $9.99 a month membership for unlimited streaming and unlimited DVDs will be split into 2 distinct plans:

   Plan 1: Unlimited Streaming (no DVDs) for $7.99 a month
   Plan 2: Unlimited DVDs, 1 out at-a-time (no streaming) for $7.99 a month

Your price for getting both of these plans will be $15.98 a month ($7.99 + $7.99). You don't need to do anything to continue your memberships for both unlimited streaming and unlimited DVDs.

These prices will start for charges on or after September 1, 2011.

You can easily change or cancel your unlimited streaming plan, unlimited DVD plan, or both, by going to the Plan Change page in Your Account.

We realize you have many choices for home entertainment, and we thank you for your business. As always, if you have questions, please feel free to call us at 1-888-357-1516.

–The Netflix Team

Unlimited streaming does not include all the latest and greatest movies, just selected one like they have now.

Will you cancel Netflix with this price change?

Read more about this price increase in this Netflix blog.

Quicken Premier 2011

Argh, what a drag! Intuit is stopping the support for Quicken 2008 line of products. That means I have to spend around $50 on the 2011 version of Quicken Premier if I want to continue to download info. from my banks, credit cards and investment accounts.

I've been using Quicken for 12 years, and by reading the commnents on Amazon.com, I am not really thrill about getting the 2011 version, but what other choices do I have? There is no competitive product out there.

If you don't know which version of Quicken is right for you, visit Intuit's web site.

I got my copy of Quicken Premier 2011 through Amazon.com for $48.99, seems to be the best price around.

Baby: Wipes

Now you have the diapers, don't forget the baby wipes. These you can buy a lot, you'll need them until your child is potty trained.

Best price I could find is on Amazon.com, with subscribe & save, they come down to $0.02 per wipe.

Buying a portable stereo with CD mp3 usb SD

I have been looking around for a portable stereo (easy to carry aruond for my study room and to play music for my infant son) with the ability to play mp3-cd, usb flash drives, SD cards and with AM/FM radio. Turns out it is pretty hard to find but I found one on Amazon: NAXA NX-250 Portable AM FM Radio USB Port MP3 CD Player Boombox Stereo

* Top Loading Programmable CD Player
* AM/FM Stereo Radio
* USB/SD/MMC Input
* Two High Performance Speakers

The reivews are mixed, but I am willing to give it a try. I will see how it turns out. Now if they make one that also has chargable iPod/iPhone dock, that would be golden!

Baby: Diaper Genie

I consider anything that I spend money on that go straight into the trash is a waste of time and money.

But parents are suckers for all things baby related. For example, Diaper Genie. It doesn't give me 3 wishes, it burns a hole in my wallet instead - continuously.



The the worst thing is, you have to continue to buy refill. You can get the Playtex Diaper Genie II Refill (Pack of 3) at Amazon.com at $5.52 (with Subscribe and Save) each. We burn through 1 refill the first month. But here's the catch: The bigger your baby gets, the bigger her diapers get, and the faster you burn through those refills.



This is one thing I don't recommend if you are on a budget. It's a nice to have, not a must have. If you don't like smelly diapers, put them in free grocery plastic bag instead and take the bag outside.

Baby: Diaper

What's a good price for diaper?
Diaper $.16 - $.17 per count is a good price.

Find good deal on diaper
I signed up for Amazon mom program (15% off, free to join) plus use the Subscribe and Save (15% off, free to join automatic recurring shipment but you can just use it and cancel it right after) to save a total 30% with free shipping. I believe there is no tax for some states. I tried Huggies and Pampers, we perfer Pampers. Also not all diapers are available for Subscribe and Save program, I did some searches for you, these are the one you can use Subscribe and Save.

For examples:
Pampers Swaddlers Dry Max Diapers, Size N, 84 Count

Price: $21.25 $14.87 (after 30% discount -- includes the standard 15% Subscribe & Save discount plus an additional 15% discount for Amazon Mom members.) = .17/count
We bought 3 boxes of size N and our son out grown them in 4 weeks.

Pampers Swaddlers Dry Max Diapers, Size 1, 216 Count
Price: $41.99 $29.39 (after 30% discount -- includes the standard 15% Subscribe & Save discount plus an additional 15% discount for Amazon Mom members.) = $.14/count
Bought 1 box.


Pampers Swaddlers Dry Max Diapers, Size 2, 184 Count
Price: $41.99 $29.39 (after 30% discount -- includes the standard 15% Subscribe & Save discount plus an additional 15% discount for Amazon Mom members.) = $.16/count
Bought 1 box. Lasted exactly 2 months.

Pampers Swaddlers Diapers Economy Plus Pack, Size 3, 174 Count
Price: $45.99 $32.19.39 (after 30% discount -- includes the standard 15% Subscribe & Save discount plus an additional 15% discount for Amazon Mom members.) = $.19/count
Bought 1 box.

Pampers Baby Dry Diapers Economy Plus Pack, Size 4, 192 Count
Price: $44.45 $31.11 (after 30% discount -- includes the standard 15% Subscribe & Save discount plus an additional 15% discount for Amazon Mom members.) = $0.16/count

Pampers Baby Dry Diapers Economy Plus Pack, Size 5, 172 Count
Price: $44.84 $31.39 (after 30% discount -- includes the standard 15% Subscribe & Save discount plus an additional 15% discount for Amazon Mom members.) = $0.18/count

Pampers Baby Dry Diapers Economy Plus Pack, Size 6, 140 Count
Price: $44.44 $31.11 (after 30% discount -- includes the standard 15% Subscribe & Save discount plus an additional 15% discount for Amazon Mom members.) = $0.22/count

I have seen Parents magazine with $10 off coupon inside for Amazon diapers.

I also know other people use diapers.com, I believe you get $10 off on first purchase, but my research shown prices are about the same after that.

Are you able to find a better deal on diaper? Please leave a comment and share.

Baby: It's a boy!

Our son was born couple weeks ago, with that comes a bunch of expenses and new experiences. So I am going to blog them as times go by AND when I am not sleep deprived.

I am going to put baby related blog posts with the word "Baby" in the title, so you can search for them easily.

So here we go!