The Points Mom

About Me

Family photo prior to our seaplane flight in Whistler, BC.
Family photo prior to our seaplane flight in Whistler, BC.

My name is Cindy. I am a mom with three kids and I love to travel. I am a former lawyer & CPA but my focus now is on my family. I love traveling with my family. I also love taking advantage of great credit card offers and using these cards to earn LOTS of miles and points. I then use these miles and points to pay for family vacations.

I have been married for twenty one years and my three kids are now almost eighteen, sixteen and sixteen (really?) and we have traveled A LOT, very rarely paying for airline flights and hotel rooms!

Whitewater rafting on the Colorado River
Whitewater rafting on the Colorado River

I think I have instilled a love of travel in my children and even in Rob, my reluctant husband. We talk together about the places that we want to travel in the future. Each kid has a list, as do I. (Rob does not have a list…yet). My goal is to get us there as inexpensively as possible, with FREE being the ultimate goal.

 

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Tower Bridge, London

Our free vacations have ranged from local trips to places like Hershey Park, NYC and Boston to more adventurous destinations like London, Costa Rica, Israel, Hawaii, British Columbia, Paris/Amsterdam, Morocco, and Singapore. Click here to read about our free travel, you can see how much we saved. On rare occasions, we do reluctantly pay for travel. For those trips that we paid for, you can read about which credit card we paid with and why.

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Before our river tubing adventure in Kauai
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An excursion to the Hoover Dam on our recent trip to Vegas

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In fact, every time I make any sort of purchase, I have a method to which credit card to use for that purchase. It all depends upon where our possible future destinations will be.  Click here to read about all of my credit cards, why I got them, how I use them, and why I may no longer have them.

 Why Did I Start This Site?

One summer, I had lunch with two old college friends. The bill with tip came to $105. Each friend took out their wallets and put in $35. I took out my wallet and took out my Chase Sapphire Preferred Visa.

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Camel ride in Israel

I did not say anything at the time and offered to pay the entire bill on my Sapphire card and pocket the cash. As we sat there talking about our lives, kids, etc, the conversation turned to family vacations and one of my friends looked at me and said ” you and your family travel A LOT “. When I told her that the reason we travel so much is because most of the time 50-75% and sometimes even 100% of our trips are free, she did not believe me. I then proceeded to go into a whole “speech” about why my family is able to do this and turned to the lunch bill as my prime example. Why would you ever use cash if you did not need to???

Our big catch in Clearwater, Fla

Many people, find my “speech” overwhelming. Having many credit cards, knowing which credit cards to use and when, finding good sign up bonuses, being aware of minimum spend thresholds and when they expire, and paying off bills, etc. is all very daunting. I am not saying it is not difficult. You need to have good credit to start, be organized and have the time to figure out which credit cards to apply for and then which to use for your spending habits and travel goals.

My friends are impressed about how much we travel. They constantly ask for advice. Hence…my website was born!