To Cross This River, You Must Pay A Tax

It is interesting that with all the shortcomings in the economy today, cities are getting creative on how to make ends meet. For example...................I noticed the most interesting/creative tax this week. While in New Orleans, first of all you cannot get a hotel without paying 30% in taxes. My room rate was $89 and the tax tacked on was $24, which is not abnormal. The most interesting thing was this....................I valet parked my rental car, which turned out being $26 per night (yikes). On top of the valet rate, there was a city valet tax of $3 and a parrish valet tax of $2. Try asking a valet guy who is paid on tips to explain this to you.........it is pretty funny listening to the spin.

Now......for those of you who know me well, you know that I hate debt and actually have a phobia of it. Even if you offer me zero percent interest, I would rather pay cash than owe someone. Thus the reason I LOVE American Express. They make you pay in full at the end of every month so you can never push off a purchase on credit. This way, you should never have any credit card debt. I bring this up to say that this week I got my annual report from AmEx which is always cool to look at. Check out how my 2009 went:

I took 42 round trip Southwest flights.
I rented a car 26 times.
I stayed in 53 different hotels with multiple nights.
I went out to dinner 177 times in which I paid.
I purchased gas 146 times.
I paid $408 in tolls.......(tax)

I cannot wait to get the 2009 recap on Jaime's AmEx................just to see how many times we contributed to Starbucks bottom line. LOL.