Best posts made by cpaynter

@ctcarl said in McDonald's - $1 Sandwich w/ App - Excludes Signature Crafted and Double Quarter Pounder w/Cheese - Valid 1x/day through 9/30/18:

Tried this out today…Buttermilk Crispy Chicken Sandwich and a soda for two bucks. w00t!

The only issue I ran into is that the app is very permission-greedy, and I don’t want McDonalds (or anyone else, for that matter) knowing precisely where I am every minute of every day.

I disabled Location Services for the app and picked the restaurant location manually, and it seemed to work, gave me an order #, etc. But since it never “saw” me arrive, it never released my order to the restaurant, and they couldn’t pull it up.

I finally enabled Location and the app said “Oh, you’re here!” and released my order. Long story short, you can disable other permissions…to keep Ronald’s red nose out of your address book, for example…but unless you enable Location Services, “no soup for you!”

Agree with you about the buttermilk chicken sandwich. I would compare it quite favorably to a Chick-fil-A sandwich. And for a dollar, I can actually afford it! After five days of the buttermilk chicken, I decided to go off book and try a QPC. It was fine, but I think tomorrow I’m back to the buttermilk chicken.

I’m in the “I don’t really give a rip what McDonald’s knows about me and my habits” if they’re going to keep feeding me lunch for a buck.

Chris

@redmed said in Best Safe Way To Pay Google Play:

What is the safe way to pay Google Play to keep your CC & bank info out of the cloud?

Um, since a great number of physical stores now use the cloud for processing transactions, what makes you think that most of your in-person transactions aren’t ending up in the cloud?

As for fraud, i believe it’s safe to say the majority of cc fraud arises from data acquired from brick and mortar transaction processing, not online. The crooks may use the card information information online, but you lost it in a store.

Aside from which, with a cc, you’re protected 100% from fraud.

The safest way to pay Google play is to enter your credit card information directly into Google play.

Honestly, I think people worry about the wrong things.

Chris.

@principalmember said in How will the new tax bill affect your taxes?:

@cpaynter said in How will the new tax bill affect your taxes?:

@principalmember said in How will the new tax bill affect your taxes?:

No, married filing jointly. Our itemized deductions total up to about $44k, SALT is only $14k of that. Even with the $10k SALT limitation, we’ll still be at around $40k in deductions, so much higher than the $24k standard deduction for MFJ.

Chris.

Sorry not understanding. So if SALT caps you at 10K and you have a 120K house, how do yo get 44K in deduction?

Charitable contributions.

So you contribute about 30K in charitable contribution and you are complaining about tax increase? Think of it as another charitable contribution - just distributed to every US tax payer. You have my thanks!

LOL. Not quite that generous.

Prop tax 9200
State tax 4600
Mortgage interest about 6k (refi’d to lower interest rate at end of year and paid down points)
Charitable about 24k

Also, I execute due diligence and research potential recipient organizations. I look for organizations that are engaged in empowering under-resourced communities around the world and propelling them toward long-term prosperity. I look for organizations which are well-run, efficient at using contributions, have low overhead and reasonable executive pay and are laser-focused on their mission. Sorry, but the US government falls so so short.

Been faithfully using this every day since the start of July, but as of this morning, my deal now reads 1x per week. 😮😯😕. Party over for anyone else?

Chris.

Sadly, it appears this deal is not for me. There are 10 Burger Kings within 9 miles of my work. Not a single one of them supports mobile ordering. Similarly, there are a dozen Burger King locations within 9 miles of my house. Not a single one of them supports mobile ordering. 😥

I live in the northwest Chicago suburbs, fwiw. Does BK marketing consider that having promos like this with such a pathetic coverage for mobile ordering actually drives business away from them to the competition?

@dionaea said in How will the new tax bill affect your taxes?:

Is there a site you can do the comparison - enter last year’s tax return figures and this year’s tax return figures based on the new tax bill boondoggle? I’m not sure we’ll be affected as we’re both retired and on SS with Medicare, prescription insurance and supplemental insurance plans, income of about $28,800/year, standard deductions. However, I know a lot of working people who itemize and who will be negatively affected by this, either now or in a few years when the small breaks given to ordinary taxpayers will expire.

There are several and most of them suck. Here’s one that’s good: New tax calculator

I actually rolled my own using a spreadsheet and the information (brackets and deduction info) I could glean from news articles. Then I double-checked against this calculator and it matched.

Running through what you’ve disclosed, I calculate you’d owe abut $480 in taxes, which I’ll bet is a lot less than what you’ve been paying. Lucky you.

Chris.

@principalmember said in How will the new tax bill affect your taxes?:

There has been a lot of crying about the property tax/state income taxes being limited to 10K (effectively can’t even do it since you need a big mortgage to overcome the 24K std deduction). But personally, for the high earners, not being able to deduct state income tax may be wash since the new rates are lower at the higher end.

Sure, for the high earners it’s great. But for those of us <$160k AGI, we’re seeing our taxes increased. I thought this was supposed to be a tax break for the middle class? What’s middle class now, a minimum of $200k?

@gwraigty said in How will the new tax bill affect your taxes?:

@cpaynter said in How will the new tax bill affect your taxes?:

But for those of us <$160k AGI, we’re seeing our taxes increased.

No, not everyone. Our AGI is <$160K and - as I said above - our taxes are going to be $2,300 less than under current law.

YMMV if you are losing itemized deductions and usually claim more than 4 personal exemptions. Neither is the case for our family.

Making generalized statements without delving into the details helps no one.

Point taken, but my response wasn’t general, it was specifically to principalmember’s comment that the $10k SALT limitation wasn’t a big deal because high earners will reap the benefits of lower rates at the higher brackets. My answer to that is that sure, for high earners those lower rates do help. But for us lower earners who are subject to the $10k limitation, we feel the brunt of it because the brackets don’t help us at our income level (and it only gets worse as your income goes further down).

I also neglected to comment on principalmember’s remark that you “need a big mortgage to overcome the $24k standard deduction”. I have a $170k mortgage, which I don’t think is that big. My total itemized deductions are $44k. If all I had was local taxes and mortgage interest, then I’d do great under the new law, because my itemized deductions would be under $24k and I’d claim the $24k standard deduction which would help me.

As for personal exemptions, we only have two; one for me and one for DW. The loss of those raises our taxable income $8,100 which is huge.

Chris.

Hoping this doesn’t devolve into political haranguing and sticks to dollars and cents.

I’m frustrated that my personal taxes will be going up over $250 a year with this tax “cut.”

I scored the version that passed last month and determined it would barely affect me; about a $20 savings per year for me.

But the revisions to the bill since then have reversed that by about $270, so a tax increase of about $250 versus current tax law.

Anyone else scored their taxes with the bill about to be passed and willing to share their results?

Chris.

Thanks for the heads up. Went yesterday, bought a small frosty for $.50, got a free single, which was great, BTW. Will alternate this with the McDonald’s app offer. Apologize to my arteries later. Does this offer have a set end date?

Chris.

No go for me on combining RMN999 and PIZZA15. “OOPS. The promo code you entered cannot be applied with the existing promo in your cart.” 😥

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Regarding Your Recent Order
Dear cpaynter,

You recently ordered a Fresh Breath Experience Kit from TheraBreath.com. Unfortunately, that kit was an exclusive offer only to customers of specific, authorized websites. You ordered via an unauthorized “deal” website and so, we cannot honor your purchase.

Your credit card has not been charged and your order has been voided. Any funds authorization made on your credit card will automatically drop off within three business days depending on your bank’s policies. We are sorry for any inconvenience.

Thank you,

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