Buying groceries with a credit card

polkadot

I did a search but didnt find anything that relates except "regular payment discussion" which didnt quite give me an answer that I could understand.

DH has a lloyds cc (the one that gives you a master card and Amex).I have a secondary card on this account.

In my SOA I have allowed £60 a week for groceries.This covers the groceries and I get my spending money for each week by taking the previous leftovers.Ive also allowed him £60 a month to use as he sees fit.Last year he got a really nnice bonus and has sold some leave which he'll have got this past week.I let him use his bonus as he saw fit-so he paid off one cc and a retail card...and then he bought a telly.

Ive always handled the groceries (and most of the money) but after his bonus he seems to have forgotten about our budget.

Last night we were talking it through again and he said he wanted me to put the grocery money onto the cc every month because "the man at the bank suggested it".I do think Ive seen that others do it-but how do you manage it.

Biggles

I wouldn't let a 'man at the bank' tell me how to organise my spending.

However, I'm not sure I see the problem; do you use small grocery stores that don't accept CCs? All the larger ones do as a matter of course.

CLAPTON

it's for you to budget as you see fit and in a way that works for you

personally, as I use cashback credit cards, I put absolutely everything I can on the card; however I still keep strickly within my budget

Linda32

I use a cashback credit card as well, so therefore use it as much as I can.
As said, all supermarkets take credit cards. Just make a note of every spend you make on it.

Its up to you what you use it for though, nothing to do with "the man at the bank"

glittermonster

I thought about doing it. Transferring the £ for tesco and petrol for the month to my cc after payday and just using that?

Not sure why though - what difference would it make?

JasX

polkadot wrote: »

Last night we were talking it through again and he said he wanted me to put the grocery money onto the cc every month because "the man at the bank suggested it".I do think Ive seen that others do it-but how do you manage it.

Not sure I entirely follow your logic as you've previously paid for groceries, he got a £60 'allowance'. Nothing to do with groceries??.

Think its more of a general relationship issue you have of balancing the household income / outgoings / spending money between the two of you.

Better looking at the whole picture rather than a single payment and sorting out something that works for the both of you -things will change from year to year so what worked fine 3 years ago is worth looking at completly afresh from time to time incase other things have skewed it since -who is still buying all the groceries? have other regular bills crept in one or the other of you have picked up? are you still earning similar amounts or has one partners income gone up/down since then.

either way the man at the bank can mind his own business :A

polkadot

Thanks for all the responses.I still do most of the groceries,Im also not earning (SAHM).He got a 4% increase at salary review in November.

He's suggesting it because of the cash back-and I think he's hoping that the "leftovers" are going to pay down the cc (its almost at its limit).
Which would be fine-but Im thinking of "minimum payments etc"-so when to pay it in relation to when we spend...and transferring money to be "available" when I want to spend it?

rhcp

I think the man at the bank suggested this as they get money each time you use your credit card.

I personally would stick to cash. If you give yourself £60 each week, you can see the money physically decreasing each time you spend some and it makes you think twice about whether you actually need something. With credit cards, it's easier to lose track of how much you spend.

dantheman2010

I use a credit card for groceries. So all groceries I buy between pay days (26th) gets paid the following pay day. So everything purchased between 26th Jan and 25th Feb will be bought on credit card but paid off on 26th Feb. The process repeats itself every month.

We have tried the downgrading brands idea, seems to work well. We recently tried Lidl, but please note Lidl DO NOT accept credit cards. So I was quite annoyed when I had already put everything through the till and bagged it (you also pay for the bags) only to be told I would have to put it on my debit card - kind of defeats the object of using a credit card for groceries.

So beware of this when/if trying "cheaper" supermarkets.

dantheman2010

Linda32 wrote: »

As said, all supermarkets take credit cards.

Tried Lidl at the weekend to see if it was cheaper, and they do not accept credit cards.

CLAPTON

if the CC is almost at its limit and not being paid in full each month then that is probably your biggest financial issue
why is the bonus being spent on new TV if the CC isn't being cleared each month?