Credit card Credit?

Newest technique for credit card companies to entice you to use their cards?  Early this week I got a new offer from a card company that I haven't used in over 6 months.  The outside of the envelope said, "statement enclosed," which automatically scared me.  

I thought, "did they tack on a hidden finance charge and I'm just now seeing it," or, "did I pay with the card and not realize it"?  Upon opening the statement, I found that I had a credit of $10 to my account.  OFFER.  Thorough examination of the form revealed a small sentence that tells all.  "Use this check by such-and-such date to take advantage of your savings."  So we get great offers all the time and use them to our advantage.  We never sign up for an offer unless it has 0% interest for 12-18 months and no balance transfer fees or other hidden fees.  Then we make sure that the amount we put on that card can be easily paid off within the time frame of the 0% offer.  I can see how this might make some people think that they HAVE that $10 and need to GET it into their hands or use it to buy something else.  But this offer came with no other great deals.  So beware!

At home today...we are taking the week off from school.  Things just worked out so that we couldn't fit school in (thank goodness for scheduled time-off).  I did go and buy some great flash cards for ds.  Words and consonant blends to help him more quickly recognize easy words.

So we had a doughnut fiasco last night.  The fam took a trip to a furniture store and were there for over an hour.  The kids had tried every piece of sittery they had by the time we left.  After the extended stay there we had one more stop to make before going home.  The mistake was driving by the doughnut shop.  We thought while I went into the store that daddy could swing around and treat the kids with the sweet stuff.  When I reentered the van, all faces were in pout-mode.  Ds had finished his first one and had ungratefully demanded the second one.  Well so much for a treat.  Our evening went downhill from there.  You can imagine the whining and pleading, the "I'll starve if I don't get another one" drama.  There were plenty left even for this morning but they had to go without.  How in this society can we get our children to appreciate what we or others do for them?  Ah, I hope to see the fruit of my labor someday...but not today!