Best Credit Cards for Grocery

I don't know about you, but a big percentage of my monthly budget is allocated for grocery purchases.  If you have a larger family, then your budget might be skewed even more toward your local supermarket.  I tend to look for credit cards that afford me some benefit for my typical monthly purchases, and in the case of grocery and food, this fits.  While I don't live close to a Whole Foods or Trader Joe's, I do have a Windmill Farms location relatively close and I'm a short walk to my standard grocery store.  So...what cards make the most sense for supermarkets?  Sadly, my Chase Sapphire Preferred does not have a category bonus for grocery.  I must look elsewhere!

Here are my top choices:

Hilton Amex (no annual fee!)

Earn 7 points per $1 spent on eligible Hilton purchases

Earn 5 points per $1 spent on eligible gas, supermarket, and restaurant purchases

Earn 3 points per $1 spent on everything else

United Mileage Plus Select

Earn 3 miles per $1 spent on eligible United purchases

Earn 2 miles per $1 spent on eligible gas, home improvement purchases, groceries, dining and Star Alliance purchases.

British Airways Visa  

Earn 2.5 Avios for every $1 you spend on British Airways purchases.

Earn 1.25 Avios for every $1 you spend everywhere else.

I know what you're thinking - these aren't particularly great choices.  If you have an Amex Premier Rewards Gold card, that will also get you 2x points for grocery - I cancelled mine when the annual fee came due.  Too much $!  Another option might be the IHG card from Chase if you have it - it also has a double points option.

What card do you use for grocery purchases?

Miles for dining complete!

For the last number of weeks I've been working to complete the 10 dine requirement to achieve an extra 10,000 United miles - you wouldn't think that dining 10 times would be much of a challenge, but I actually do quite a bit of cooking at home to try and save $, so it wasn't easy.

I'm happy to report that I successfully completed the challenge and will be watching for the bonus miles to post.

Did anyone else have similar success? 

Unexpected triple points!

I love it when this happens - I go out to a place to eat, and without knowing it stumble upon a points bonanza. 

The most recent case of this was a trip I made up to Carlsbad for a Qatar group dinner - sad in many ways because one of my good friends is moving back to WI and so our group will be minus one for quite a while! 

I always go to Opentable to see what options are available, and in this case I found one at Fresco Trattoria - very good reviews, and I love Italian food, so what's not to like?  I made the reservation and the dinner overall went very well.  Payment was made with my Chase Sapphire Preferred card, so double points on the meal plus the Opentable...not bad.

But...I was surprised when I got a message this week from Chase Mileage Plus Dining...my meal at Fresco qualified for dining miles for United!  I never thought to check that site, since most times Opentable and the dining plans don't overlap.  But I'll take it in this case...triple!

It's a Chase Sapphire First Friday!

Just a quick reminder to all that it's the first Friday of the month - and if you have and use a Chase Sapphire Preferred card, you can score 3x points for any dining out tonight!

Best places to eat in San Diego

Zagat recently released and updated list of the top places to eat in San Diego.  I've only visited one on the list - have a few to go!

The list (rankings and average cost):

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Sushi Ota

Sushi • Pacific Beach

Food29 Decor16 Service21 Cost$49

MARKET Restaurant + Bar

Californian • Del Mar

Food28 Decor23 Service26 Cost$69

Tapenade

French • San Diego

Food28 Decor21 Service26 Cost$61

Pamplemousse Grille

French • Solana Beach

Food27 Decor22 Service26 Cost$71

Vincent's

French • Escondido

Food27 Decor23 Service24 Cost$49

Ruth's Chris Steak...

Steakhouse • Carmel Valley

Food27 Decor24 Service26 Cost$71

Ruth's Chris Steak...

Steakhouse • Downtown

Food27 Decor24 Service26 Cost$71

Carnitas' Snack Shack

American • North Park

Food27 Decor17 Service22 Cost$15

Snooze, an A.M. Eatery

• Hillcrest

Food27 Decor26 Service25 Cost$19

Donovan's San Diego...

Steakhouse • Gaslamp Quarter

Food27 Decor25 Service26 Cost$68

Donovan's Steak & Chop...

Steakhouse • University City

Food27 Decor25 Service26 Cost$6

Trademark on Parmesan??

When traveling internationally, one the things I enjoy doing is sampling cuisine.  Especially if it's in a new country or locale that I haven't had the chance to sample previously.

So when I read the following story...I literally laughed out loud.  Many thanks to the Wells Fargo Daily Advantage and Jason Ryan for putting this together:

Welcome to the latest international edition of "Sticks and stones will break my bones, but duly registered trademarks will never hurt me." The U.S. and the European Union have recently begun massive trade talks, and one of the E.U.'s opening salvos involves the naming of various products. By virtue of its longer history, Europe has a near-monopoly on many household food names: Champagne, bologna, prosciutto, parmesan, feta, Swiss, Muenster. The U.S., by contrast, has Philly cheesesteaks and Coney Island hot dogs, which don't seem to be in much demand in Europe, although they should be.

The sticking point is that the E.U. would like those names back, especially all the cheese names. According to the Associated Press, as part of the trade talks, the E.U. is insisting that cheese can only be called parmesan if it comes from Parma, Italy, and feta if it comes from Greece (there is no official feta region of Greece, although I suppose they could carve out a place next to the Greek Yogurt region). When American cheese makers use these names, the E.U. argues, they dilute the value of the names for their allegedly superior European counterparts. It's sort of like everyone using Kleenex to stand in for all facial tissue or, in some parts of the country, referring to all soda as Coke. I'm sure Kleenex is flattered, but the company would probably prefer that consumers use its name only to refer to its own products. Champagne is similar. Today, it's generally accepted—and protected by treaty—that only wine made from grapes grown in France's Champagne region can be called champagne. Anything else is sparkling wine.

The U.S. dairy and cheese industries, of course, reject the E.U.'s idea, as they argue that the names parmesan and feta have long since unmoored themselves from their specific locales and become more general styles of cheese making. In a rare show of bipartisanship, 55 U.S. senators agreed, signing a letter to the U.S. trade representative at the talks saying any such name-restricting provision should be rejected.

It's hard to imagine the linguistic hoops we'd have to jump through to fully satisfy the European demands. "Would you like some hard crumbly cheese bits or some soft crumbly cheese bits to go with your, let me check the order ticket … Hold on, did you order the salted, cured thinly sliced meat or the slightly less salted, slightly less cured, slightly less thinly sliced meat that rhymes with Maloney?"

A favorite dish when I travel

If there's one particular dish I search for when I'm traveling, I'm proud to say it's Mac n Cheese.  There are so many varieties out there that I can't help myself in trying new concoctions. Add some meat?  Sure!  Try a different cheese?  Why not!

Travel and Leisure is highlighting the best Mac and Cheese across America:

Best Mac!

I'm proud to say I've tried the Mac N Cheese at The Old Fashioned, and it was amazing...prepared just right, not overly cheesy, and with a lot of flavor.

What's the best you've had?