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Old Aug 23, 2013, 2:58 pm
  #76  
rdover1
 
Join Date: Aug 2011
Location: SFO/SJC
Programs: MR,UR, UA, BA, AA, Hotels
Posts: 581
Originally Posted by iminsandiego
I forgot to add that I count TCB cash back as income to the Miles Fees category and all credit card annual fees as expenses to Miles Fees.

This information is incredibly valuable since I can run a report on the category Miles Fees and see my net spend for Miles. For example, in the last 12 months I had a net spend of about $1100 in order to acquire over 2M miles. Granted, a large number of those miles are from sign up bonuses. But with this information I'm able to easily explain to my wife the value of stopping at Walmart on the way to visit her parents or why she needs to make a VR run at CVS with her new SPG card. She also understands the value when we fly in biz class across the Pacific or Atlantic for just the cost of taxes and fees on the awards.
I do exactly the same but use Mint.com. It synchs to most of the MS cards (Target, BB, Campus, MVD) just not GB.
I also use excel to track total card spend (for data to negotiate on card renewal and to make sure I'm not going too crazy on any 1 card) and to track reload dates for things that have a roll-over date (Chase GC, PP, Target etc.)
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