Money Monday: Credit Card Hacking

Let's talk about getting to travel for free! 

But first, I realized in last week's post that I kind of jumped into the middle of the saving topic without covering the basics! However, for those of you who have not seen some of my prior posts, I do think that if you are just going to do one thing, it should be to pay into your 401k (403b/RRSP etc.) at least up to whatever your employer will match. If you don't have an employer who offers this, there are other ways to save, but I will cover them in a future post! You can find posts about a lot of these subjects on my Tips and Hacks page, but also here are a few of my favorites.

Every Quarter Counts: Three Tips for Growing Your Wealth Early 
Saving My Latte For a Rainy Day: Saving for Retirement
Make a Dollar Out of Fifteen Cents: What I Splurge and Save On 
My Last To Do List: Trusts and Other Documents 

The second thing that I think is important is to pay off all of your credit card debt. I did a review of a friend's finances once and the two things that really stood out to me were that (a) he had multiple charges for some subscriptions that he hadn't even realized because he was not looking at his statements and (b) he was not paying off his credit card in full every month! This can really add up! 

For example, if you have a balance of $5,000 with 25% interest rate and you pay it down $100 a month ($1,200 total), by the end of the year, your balance will be unchanged, at about $5,056, and you would have paid about $1,256 in interest that year. If you pay it down $200 a month ($2,400 total), your balance would be about $3,700 and you would have paid about $1,100 in interest. You would have to pay $475 per month to get it down to $0 by the end of a year, and you would still pay about $700 in interest. That is a lot of money to pay to the credit card companies! Obviously there are emergencies, but I think putting money aside for them in advance is much more prudent. 

So before I begin this post, I have to throw out the disclaimer that you should not do this if you can't pay off your card in full every month. Now let's talk about credit card hacking! If you are unfamiliar with this, it involves opening a credit card to get the welcome bonus, using the points for free stuff and possibly closing or downgrading the card later. Personally I like travel related cards, and Chase has one of the best values for that, so let's talk about that first. Side note: to my foreign friends, I am sorry, but these are US centric cards. However, please feel free to go to the bottom and let us know what card you use or any tricks you have to get the best value for your money!! 

Travel card ($600 - $1,500 bonus value) / $95 annual fee. The Chase Sapphire Preferred is currently offering $300 Chase Travel Credit + 60,000 bonus points (please verify by going to their site). What does this mean? Basically this can be worth anywhere from $600 - $1,500, depending on how you use it. Once you spend $4,000 in the first three months, you will get 60,000 points, and when you purchase any travel related items through their portal you will get up to a $300 credit. This includes the obvious things like flights, hotels and car rentals, but also has activities and cruises. 

For the points, at the very least, they can either be used to get cash back or buy gift cards at around 0.01 per point (value of $600) or you can use them to purchase travel through the portal, which is usually about $0.015 (value of $900) or you can transfer them to airline or hotel partners, which is where you can get the best bang for your buck. For example, if you transfer these points to Hyatt and use them to book a hotel room with points, the value will be about 0.02 per point ($1,200). This card does have a $95 annual fee, but it also gives you a $50 annual statement credit for hotels booked through their travel portal, so if you use this, it is only $45/year. This card also gives higher points per dollar in categories like travel and dining out and has no foreign transaction fees. 

In conclusion, if you travel at least once a year, this card may be a great fit for you! And if you don't love it after a year, you can cancel or downgrade to a no fee card. Basically with the current welcome bonus, you could stop using it after you get the bonus and still get value out of it for approximately six years (or more). If you travel a lot, you may want to go with the Chase Sapphire Reserve which gives you extra perks like lounge access and TSA Pre/Global Entry, but comes with a higher annual fee. 

Cash back card ($200 bonus value) / $0 annual fee. If you don't really travel a lot or you don't spend a lot on travel related items, you can get the Freedom Flex card, which currently has a welcome bonus of $200 after you spend $500 on purchases in the first 3 months. It gives you 5% cash back for a quarterly rotating bonus category, which includes groceries, gas, Amazon and pet services, which if you max this out, could equate to $300 per year. It has no annual fee and a 0% introductory APR. There are tons of different cash back cards with different % for different categories, so a combo of best bonus + best % for what you spend on is the way to go! 

Hotel card ($500 - $1,000 bonus value) / $99 annual fee. If you travel at least once a year and stay in at least one hotel/motel per year, I highly suggest getting a hotel credit card. I think the current best bang for your buck is either the IHG Premier or the Hyatt card. Let's talk about the IHG card. This is good for hotels like the Holiday Inn, Intercontinental and Staybridge Suites (list here). The good thing about IHG is that they are literally everywhere, versus places like Hyatt and Marriott which are sometimes pretty few and far between (or very expensive). 

It currently has a 140,000 point bonus (please verify by going to their site), which they state is up to 4 nights free, but I just booked a Holiday Inn Express in Strasbourg for ~24,000 points per night, plus with this card you get the fourth night free, so my four nights cost me 71,000 points, so this could possibly be more like eight hotel nights (or more in places like SE Asia or South America). If I would have paid for this room, it would have cost me about $500, which means that if I can book another at the same price, the welcome bonus would be worth about $1,000. In addition, you get an annual free night's certificate, which is good for up to 40,000 point hotel, which could equate to a value of about $200. This card does cost $99 per year, but if you use your certificate for a $200 hotel, it still "saves" you money! Last but not least, you get automatic Premier Elite status, which can give you perks like upgrades, early check in, late check out, and possibly a snack or a drink. Once again, if you decide this is not for you after a year or two, you can downgrade to a no fee card with no ding on your credit, or you can cancel if you choose. 

One last thing I want to talk about is a card that does not currently offer a bonus so is not really one for "hacking," but could be a great option for people who pay rent and that is the Bilt Rewards card. Please note that I have not used this myself, so you will have to do your own research. However, my understanding is that you can use it to pay your rent with no credit card transaction fees, even if you normally pay by check (they will issue the check for you) and you will get one point per dollar spent on rent plus extra points for other categories on rent day (the first of the month). You also get points for travel and other categories and it has no annual fee. You can then use the points for free travel, to pay part of your rent or for gym memberships etc. FYI currently a RT flight to Europe in Feb would cost about 40,000 points. 

Have you fallen asleep yet? No? Great, because one other thing I want to add is that if you do travel, many of these credit cards also come with added perks like rental car collision (LDW) insurance (normally $10 - $30 per day), travel trip delay or lost luggage protection, purchase protection, roadside assistance (~ $99/year value), TSA-Pre (~$100 value every four years), cell phone protection (~$75/year value) and more. These extras may cover the cost of your fee in some cases! 

Have you ever done any credit card hacking? Do you already have any of these cards? What is your favorite credit card and why? 

This post is part of NaBloPoMo. You can find the rest of my posts for this challenge here. You can find the list of participants and their information here. 

Purging 101: What Do I Do With This? And is it Worth it? (Part Two)

This is a continuation of yesterday's post about getting rid of all of my stuff! As many of you know, at the beginning of 2024, I decluttered my house and got rid of everything except for a few mementos, photos and some camping gear. I decided to do all the work myself and now am looking back to analyze whether or not it was worth it. After much research I ended up doing the following with the items listed below. 

Kitchen stuff. I sold some of the larger items on FBMP, but mostly I donated it to a local rummage sale, or gave it to Salvation Army. I did have some success posting some things in groups, like all baking items. Also bigger ticket items like my Ninja or Magic Bullet seemed to do better or sell faster in the long run.

$10 each or you can have the whole set for $40!!

Books. Unfortunately my local library is very picky about what they take and all of the Little Free Libraries were full, so most of my books went to Salvation Army. I also sold a few on eBay but they were not really hot ticket items. 

Random. It is interesting what people will buy. I sold unused printer cartridges and photo paper. I sold random assortments of photo frames and crafting supplies. I sold an antique radio to a woman who was going to use it in a play. I sold plants! Also, when I put out the free stuff, people took storage containers, even the ones without lids (I had set them out in groups), a roll of fabric, and a roll of Reflectex. I also gave a ton of stuff to friends and family, which really was my favorite way to get rid of things. I am sure they groaned every time they got a text from me saying, "Hey, do you want XXX?" but I felt a lot better knowing that some of the things went to a good home. 

Here are a few other places you can take things (for free): 
*these ones were especially difficult since none of them can be thrown in the trash. 

Household cleaners, paint, batteries, light bulbs, propane containers, aerosol cans, e-waste etc.: If the paint is unused and unopened (which seems silly), you can take it to Habitat For Humanity (Restore). You may also be able to return it to the place you bought it. If it has been opened, it has to go to the Hazardous Waste drop off with the other items in the illustration below. *for my local county. Please check your local location for confirmation of what they will or will not take. The cool thing about this is that you put the items in your trunk and you pull up, they take everything out, and you drive off. You never have to get out of the car! 

Take these* to Hazardous Waste drop off. 

Used motor oil: In my area, you actually can leave this on the curb for your regular pick up. Also many retailers who sell oil (like Walmart) or do oil changes (like Jiffy Lube) will take your used oil. Luckily I had graduated to paying someone to do this for me, so I did not have to worry about this. However, as a kid, my Dad used to make me change my oil, so I am familiar with the process! 

Used printer cartridges: Staples or Office Depot will usually take these. 

Used batteries: In my area, you could put them in a Ziploc and tape that to your recycling bin and Waste Management will take it on trash day. Otherwise you may be able to take them to Office Depot, or to the hazardous waste drop off. 

Electronics - Goodwill, if the item is still working (they are sometimes picky about this), and they may refurbish it and sell it, but check your local one, as some do not take them, or local e-waste pickup company, or if it is dead, you can take it to the same place that you take hazardous waste.

Now the summary that you have been waiting for. What was my time really worth? Ha. In the end, I estimate that I "made" about $45/hour for eBay, $25/hour for ThredUp and $47/hour for FBMP (*these are very ballpark numbers). However, if you add in the hundreds (or thousands?) of items I gave away, and the time it took to research that and sort them and pile them up and move them from place to place, it would significantly lower my per hour rate (remember the saga of the suitcase? Well I ended up putting in my driveway for free, and I probably spent a few hours going back and forth with people on that) and am guessing it would be closer to the $15/hour range, or maybe even less! 

Moral of the story? Some of the big ticket items may be worth selling, but the little guys may not be worth your time. Also FBMP takes more effort, but doesn't pay a whole lot more for the extra time. ThredUp was very little work and was things I would have given away for free anyway, so I feel like that was probably the least amount of brain power (which is a win for sure!) even though it consisted of the most items and paid nearly half as much. Also as an aside, if you are just sitting at home and have the time anyway, it's not a bad side gig! However, I think unless you want to have to be face to face with people and deal with a lot of flakes, I would pick eBay over FBMP for the ease of it. 

Also, as a last side note, if you are ever buying on eBay or FBMP (or Poshmark etc.), even if it is a Buy Now item, it never hurts to offer a lower price! Unless you absolutely NEED it now. However, as a seller, I would happily take an offer, as I was motivated to sell! 

Have you ever sold on eBay, FBMP or any other online retailer and if so, how did it go? What do you think your time is worth for these kinds of things (aka, would you pay someone just to not have the hassle)?? 

This post is part of NaBloPoMo. You can find the rest of my posts for this challenge here. You can find the list of participants and their information here. P.S. This is a draft I started in June 2023! Speaking of purging! 

Purging 101: What Do I Do With This? And is it Worth it? (Part One)

As many of you know, at the beginning of 2024, I decluttered my house and got rid of everything except for a few mementos, photos and some camping gear. While doing this, two things took me a lot of time. First, it took a long time to figure out where everything should go. I know, I could have just called a company to come and take everything and get rid of it for me, but that is not my way. I wanted to try to get some money for some of my items, and I did not want to PAY money to have someone else do what I could easily (HA. HAHA. HA!) do myself. 

Things to keep

If you don't mind paying to have this done, you can call a junk removal company. My friend in the Bay Area used this local one, who actually promises to recycle, sell or donate at least 80% of the items, which I find important. In fact, that is one of the reasons that I was so particular about finding where to take things; I did not want it to all just go in a landfill! However, in the end, it took me much longer than I had hoped. 

The second thing that took me forever was selling things. I had this entrepreneurial dream that I would sell all of my crap and make millions of dollars. This is why I am not an entrepreneur. The time it took to take photos, figure out prices, list and monitor (and sometimes haggle) probably netted me about $2.00 per hour. I will give a short summary about this at the end of this post. 

First let's talk about furniture. This is probably where I thought I could do the least amount of work to get the most amount of money. These things are large, I did not have too many of them and the price point is a lot higher than a pair of jeans or shoes. I had some good pieces, not in bad condition, no pet wear or chips or stains or cracks. I started by putting them on Facebook Marketplace. Ideally, I wanted to try to get a little bit back for this, but the work that is involved can be massive. Luckily, I was working from home two days a week at this point, as you really do have to have a certain amount of availability. However, I did leave quite a few items on my porch for people to pick up and I figured if they stiffed me, I didn't really care that much. P.S. None of them stiffed me. I ended up selling about 25% of my furniture. 

But what to do with the other 75%??? The places in my local area where you can donate furniture are VERY PICKY! Also, I would prefer to have someone pick it up, so I don't have to load it twice into a car. However, that was easier said than done. 

First, I scheduled a pick up with Restore (Habitat for Humanity). However, they basically rejected 75% of my things, even though when I filled out the form for the appointment, it said that they would take the items that I had. They will take new building supplies and like new household items, but "like new" means basically new. Also, I didn't have any of these, but if I did, I would have returned them to Home Depot for cash. They don't take anything that has patterns, has been painted, or has ANY tiny cracks or dirt spots (my couch had one tiny water stain on one arm). However, they did take my push mower (no motor, like the old fashioned kind) and my corded power tools (as long as they worked and were in a case etc.). They also would not take a kitchen table unless it had six matching chairs.

I ended up trying to get another company to pick up the rest but the wait times were horrible (pro tip: plan early, even if that means eating in camp chairs in the living room) and in the end I had to get Broski and his truck involved. We started by going to Salvation Army, but lo and behold, even though the website said that they took furniture, they would not take it, and so we ended up going to Out of The Closet, who is also picky, but not as picky as Habitat luckily! In the end, they took the rest of the large things, but Broski and I had to (a) make two trips (b) load and unload everything ourselves. 

Broski helping me give away furniture

Here is what I would do differently. I would start by taking what I could get for the furniture. I often would haggle and then the buyer would back out. I don't know what I was trying to prove, but I should have prioritized getting rid of it over making money. In the end, I gave it away for nothing so the $50 I was offered would have been better! Second, after I sold what I could sell, I would have put the rest on the curb with a "free" sign! I ended up doing this for a few left over items at the end and they went fast!! Even people driving by would stop and pick through stuff, which was surprising to me. I also don't really love having all of my goods out on display for the whole world to see, but believe you me, by the end, I could not give two flying trucks who saw my stuff; I just wanted it gone! I would definitely tell past me to get over myself and just put it on the curb. Then I would have donated (or trashed) what did not get taken, and saved myself the work. 

Free stuff! Going, going, gone!

Bulky trash. Speaking of trash, our garbage carrier (WM) let's you do one free bulky pickup a year, and they will take things like tires, mattresses, some electronics and furniture. I would have done this earlier, although I wanted to have everything sorted so I didn't end up with a bunch of trash at the end, so the timing was tricky. However, I think going through the garage and making a big pile early would have been better. Or if I wanted to do it at the end, I should have scheduled it sooner. I wanted to wait until the last minute, but only then did I learn that they schedule these a few weeks in advance, so I could not get it when I wanted it. I ended up going to the WM facility with a load in my car, which actually was not too bad. However, you do have to have a local address in order to do the disposal for free (you can dump for a fee otherwise), and I also had to schedule this (but could do that a couple of days in advance). 

Taking a load to the dump in my huge car.

Clothing and Shoes. Like the furniture, I did not want to just give it away, especially since I had some pretty high end pieces (I used to work in the fancy shoe department at Nordstrom, and some of my shoes were >$600 retail. I got them on sale though! I swear!). Why is it that if you spent a lot on it, you are more loathe to give it away? Or is that just me? Anyway, I put a bunch of them on eBay and FBMP, and same story as above, sold maybe 25% of them. We do not have a good consignment shop in my area (they want current styles, certain brands etc.) However, the good thing is that you can send a box to ThredUp, and they will try to sell your items and if they sell you will get a (measly) commission. I sent about six boxes to them in the end, and then gave the rest of the things to Salvation Army. 

Typical week's worth of donations

What I would have done differently. I was afraid to list things in multiple locations, but I should have tried to do that. I found that some things sold really well on FBMP and others were better to list on eBay so you can get a broader audience. Also eBay was way easier, as you just box it up and put it in the mail rather than having a person come over, or flake on you, or having a huge back and forth before they decide to buy. However, they do take a larger cut from you, but maybe it is worth it! 

Electronics. This one hurt a lot. I used to be big into photography, and still am, but I no longer use my DSLR or the four different lenses I had for it (and lights and flashes and diffusers etc.) But they all cost a lot and once again, I did not want to give them away for a pittance. So I tried FBMP and did not have a lot of luck, and finally got desperate and put them on Ebay and did not get a lot for them but I did end up selling everything camera related. I also disposed of many an old cell phone and laptop by taking them to the Hazardous Waste drop off. 

Sigh...tear...😢

...to be continued!!! In the interest of time (this got to be too long!), stay tuned for tomorrow, when I will go over a few more examples of where to take things and will also do the big reveal...what was my time worth?? 

Have you ever done serious decluttering at your house? What tricks did you use to get rid of stuff?  What's the weirdest thing you have ever sold? 

This post is part of NaBloPoMo. You can find the rest of my posts for this challenge here. You can find the list of participants and their information here. P.S. This is a draft I started in June 2023! Speaking of purging! 

Take Only What You Need to Survive

Have you seen Spaceballs? If not, let me tell you a quick story. The characters' flying Winnebago crashes in the desert and they have to walk to try to get help and the main guy (Bill Paxton) tells the princess that she should only bring "what she needs to survive." Later as he is trudging through the desert with a heavy box, he looks inside and it is a huge hair dryer. He admonishes her and she states that it is her "industrial strength hair dryer" and she, "can't live without it!" 

I stole this photo from my own blog, circa mid 2000s. 

The first time I traveled abroad, I carried two huge suitcases. Granted, I was going to live in France for three months, but looking back, I now know that I did not need a fraction of the things I brought. Oh well; you live and you learn, right? 

In early 2024, when I decided to get rid of everything, I made a list of the things that I "can't live without." Obviously these are different for everyone, but my list was actually not as long as I thought it would be. Of course, I then had to whittle everything down from a 1,200 SF house with a backyard and a garage to...just a bike, which I explain a little in this post. When I created this post, I had two funny comments. One was from NGS, who asked me to break down all of the clothing items that I had in my bag, and then after I answered, Jenny piped up to ask me to confirm that I only had one extra outfit aside from my riding outfit. So I decided to break it down even more and go over all of the clothes that I've had in my clothing bag for the last several months. 

First let's talk about base layer tops! 

From the top, L to R: (1) a tank top I just recently stole from my friend's outgoing Goodwill bag, because I was tired of wearing active tops! It will be going back into the Goodwill back soon. (2) a Smartwool mountain biking shirt, well used! Also I have a story about this! 

Bottom row, L to R: (1) I started this trip with just this one salmon Smartwool tank top! (2) Along the way I picked up the green Icebreakers top. 

A quick note about these tops; all three (except for the top L) are made from merino wool. This stuff is NOT cheap. However, I got all three on sale and they do live up to the hype in that they (a) don't smell, even after days (weeks?) of wearing them, (b) are lightweight and (c) wick moisture and/or dry easily! This was so nice to be able to rinse them out at the end of the day and have them be dry by morning. The only negative I have found is that the thinner ones don't hold up too well to daily outdoor use, but I will talk more about this at the end of this post! So, I may be a convert...but I still don't know if I can stomach paying full price (around $100+) for a t-shirt. 

Now let's talk about jacket layers. 

Top row, L to R: (1) Patagonia Houdini windbreaker. I talked about this in last year's gifts for active people post. I love this windbreaker. LOVE IT. It is a great extra layer when needed, or can be worn over a t-shirt to block the sun. (2) Mountain Hardware Ghost Whisperer. This is so light and warm, but actually have not worn it a lot on this trip (thankfully!!) I often wear it when I am doing laundry, as it is my only clean item! 

Bottom row, L to R: (1) Outdoor Research Aspire. Not really the color I would have picked, but this jacket keeps you dry! There is nothing worse than riding or hiking in the rain, and this actually made it bearable! (2) Uniqlo zip up sunscreen hoodie. This is basically my "nice" outfit at the moment! Pair it with black leggings and I am practically ready for prom! 

Last but not least, accessories and pants. 

Left panel, top to bottom, L to R: all of the accessories! Arm sleeves, cycling gloves, buff, socks, bra, waterproof gloves, neoprene socks, beanie, lightweight gloves. And yes Jenny, I only have one pair of socks and no underwear! :) 

Right panel, top to bottom: (1) cycling shorts, (2) capri pants. 

What have I used the least? (1) neoprene socks, (2) waterproof gloves, (3) arm sleeves. I am happy about this, as it means that it has not been horribly cold! What have I used the most? I wore the Smartwool mountain biking shirt pretty much every day for about 40 days, then the Icebreaker shirt after that for about two and a half months. Unfortunately, the Smartwool top faded a lot, so I emailed them and they gave me a refund! So now I have a credit to get something else, which I am very glad about, as that shirt is not really fit for going out in public! 

And there you have it; that is literally what I need to survive. You can of course find the rest of the list of items I carry here. 

If you could only bring an under the seat backpack on a weekend trip, what are your essential items? Do you own any merino wool items? 

This post is part of NaBloPoMo. You can find the rest of my posts for this challenge here. You can find the list of participants and their information here. P.S. This is a draft I started in August 2023! Better late than never! 

Sweet As! Let Me Have a Quick Squizz!

My work colleague, G-Money, is a Kiwi, and in the office, he was lucky to have me, because nobody spoke his language. Luckily, I speak fluent Kiwi. Who here has seen the movie Airplane? I speak Jive! 

So he would talk, or ask someone to do something, and they would give him this blank look, and I would have to step in and say, "that means XYZ."  I finally created a G-Money translator and when we would hire a new person, I would include it in their welcome packet. You think I am joking? I am not. We even distributed it around the office from time to time when someone was having a lot of trouble. Here are a few things that used to get a lot of questionable looks when he said them, along with their translations. Some of these are also used in other countries such as the UK or Australia, but the US folks were stumped. Disclaimer: he also grew up in Malaysia and went to British school, so some of these may be more British that Kiwi. 

* Sweet as. No, not sweet ass, although it sounds similar. This means great, awesome, perfect, sounds good. 

* Rubbers. Obviously in the US, these are condoms, or maybe a pair of boots you wear in the rain. In NZ, they are erasers (as in pencil). 

* Diarize. No, not write in your journal. This is "to schedule" or "put on the calendar." 

* Umming and awing. What we would call hemming and hawing. 

* Rub it out. This one got the 20-somethings giggling, but it just means to erase the board. 

* Crikey-dick! Something you say when surprised, like "oh my goodness!"

* Made redundant. You may know this one, but in the US, we would usually say "laid off." 

* Chocka. Otherwise known as chockablock or full. 
* Bugger. Dang it, usually preceded by "oh" or followed by "that" or sometimes by "that for a dollar," as in bugger that for a dollar. 

* Two shakes of a duck's tail. That's right; despite having a lot of sheep, no lambs for the Kiwis! 

* Happy as Larry. The same thing as, "happy as a clam." 

* The wops. The sticks, the middle of nowhere. "They live in the wops." 

* Have a squizz. Take a look. Like, once you are done, I will have a squizz at it before we give it to the boss. 

* Keen. Interested. He would say, "are you keen to go out for a drink tomorrow?"

* Heaps. A lot. This was usually used when we ordered food and he would exclaim that someone else got heaps!

These are not even all of them! He would also say Kia Ora every morning, which is hello in Maori. Last but not least, my favorite one, and one that he said A LOT, was...sucking eggs! Before I explain, does anyone else use this phrase? It is basically the equivalent of "you probably already know this/did this, but just in case you didn't....." and is used when you basically want to double check that someone did not forget to do something obvious. Like you may say, "sucking eggs, but did you turn off the oven?" or something like that. It's almost like a little bit Capitan Obvious though, and is usually a bit insulting to the person being addressed, as if they are too dumb to have done the obvious thing without being asked. So we used to laugh about it, as you knew you were going to basically be insulted as soon as you heard the phrase get started. 

Another thing that is interesting is when you have people from different countries, states or areas, and we don't realize that the other places do things differently. Like when Elisabeth did not know that we in the US have to pay to have our garbage picked up (do you pay for garbage removal where you are from?). Or when Melissa talked about her streaming services in Australia, such as Stan and Binge, which I have never heard about (do you have these where you are from?). The thing is, if you have lived in the same place for a while, you do not know that other people have something different. Yet another reason why I think traveling can really broaden your horizons! 

For example, I remember going to Japan in the early 2000s and the place we stayed (with a friend) recycled EVERYTHING. I mean, they had like 8 different boxes for each different kind of thing. I was amazed! I think at the time we may have had a separate can for recycling, but to be honest, I am not really sure (and I was living in San Francisco where you would think they would be environmentally conscious). Even if we did, it all went into the same bin! Mind blown! 

Or when I lived in France, and saw that everyone eats with their fork in their left hand and their knife in their right and they would cut one piece and put it in their mouth, then cut another and eat it, and cut another, and so on, and never put the two utensils down. Where I came from we would have our fork in our right, and our left hand in our lap. If we needed to cut something we would put our fork in our left, pick up the knife with the right, cut everything, then swap back and spear the smaller bits with our fork (held in the right hand), putting our left hand back in our lap. I was told before leaving for France that if I did this there they would think I was playing with myself under the table! 

Or did you know that in China their lucky number (because it sounds like the word "wealth") is eight and the number four is unlucky because it sounds like the word death. So when you turn 44, you better watch out. Also the number 14 sounds like "must die" and the number 24 sounds like "easy to die." Also in India, I ate my nan bread with both hands until I realized I was being looked at, and found out that they wipe with their left hand. Faux pas indeed! 

Anyway, it is interesting to see how things are done differently and I love learning what the differences are. 

So tell me, in your culture or area or family, what things do you find normal that you have later learned are not done the same way by everyone? In your travels, what new thing or way of doing things has intrigued or amazed you? Which of the Kiwi phrases have you heard before, or used yourself, and which ones did I miss? 

This post is part of NaBloPoMo. You can find the rest of my posts for this challenge here. You can find the list of participants and their information here.