Hi! I am Irtiza.
I create content about Programming and Credit Cards.
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February 19, 2025
Credit Cards Saved Me $15,000 Travel Expenses in 2024
Saved $15K on 2024 travel with ~1M credit card points. From staying in Times Square NYC to flying Turkish Airlines business class flights — find out how I did it!
February 16, 2025
Best Credit Card for Software and Tech Startups
Discover why the Amex Business Gold is the best credit card for software, cloud expenses, and digital ads, earning you up to 4X points on key business spend. 🚀💳
February 11, 2025
Top Credit Cards For Remote Workers Working From Cafes
How I get between $180 and $270 travel value while checking out local cafes.
February 9, 2025
How I Got a Free 4-Night Stay at InterContinental Boston Using Credit Card Points
Learn how I redeemed IHG points for a free 4-night stay at InterContinental Boston using the Chase IHG Premier credit card.
February 5, 2025
5 Nights in New York City Times Square For FREE
Learn how I booked a 5-night, $9,000 stay in NYC’s Times Square for free using Hilton Honors points and credit card rewards. In this guide, I break down step-by-step strategies you can use to unlock luxury stays at no cost!
February 2, 2025
5 Best Credit Cards for Stress-Free International Travel (No Foreign Transaction Fee)
Discover the top 5 credit cards with no foreign transaction fees for international travel. Maximize your rewards and avoid extra charges.
January 27, 2025
The Best 3 Card Beginner Credit Card Setup
Discover why Citi's 3-card setup is the best for beginners, offering low annual fees, easy point accumulation, and cashback or travel reward options.
January 26, 2025
5 Best Credit Cards for Software Engineers
Discover the 5 best credit cards for software engineers in 2025. Maximize rewards on cloud computing, gadgets, dining, and more. Find the perfect card for your spending habits today.
October 21, 2024
Measure Business Value, Not Number of Tickets Closed
Measuring developer productivity.
September 15, 2024
5 Engineering Management Philosophies I Have Found Helpful
A challenging, but rewarding start to management.
August 13, 2024
Making a Childhood Dream Come True with Credit Card Points
Staying in South Carolina and watching Manchester United — Liverpool for FREE!
August 6, 2024
How I Stopped Overspending on Credit Cards
Earn rewards without paying interest and late fee.
August 4, 2024
Half Year Spending Check-in 2024
A deep dive into where I spent my money so far this year.
July 11, 2024
What’s in My Wallet For Q3 2024
Getting $3,000 of value in Sign-Up Bonuses!
July 2, 2024
$3,712 of Free Travel in 2024 Using Credit Card Points
5 Cities. Business Class Flights. Free Hotel Nights.
June 19, 2024
I Turned My Blog Into an RSSÂ Feed
Instead of relying on algorithms to push your content, use old-school RSS feeds to notify your followers whenever you post.
June 15, 2024
Creating an Audio Blog Using OpenAI and PyDub
Grow your audience by appealing to people who enjoy audiobooks and podcasts.
June 11, 2024
I Created A Comprehensive Self-Hosted Digital Identity for $12/month
Smart search, blog, newsletter, analytics, affiliate marketing, RSS feed — everything self-hosted and FREE!
June 4, 2024
I Built a Realtime Smart Search Pipeline
Making all my blog posts and YouTube videos searchable in real-time.
June 1, 2024
Building an AI Search Feature With OpenAI Embeddings & Postgres Vectors
Helping visitors search across all my blogs and YouTube videos with some OpenAI magic.
May 27, 2024
Protecting Against Bot Attacks Using Nginx Rate Limits
Implement custom rate limits per API endpoint.
May 4, 2024
A Powerful Private Open Source Alternative to Google Analytics
Custom events, reports, and conversion funnels - all with more privacy baked in.
April 28, 2024
Self-Hosting a Free Private Google Analytics Alternative
All the web analytics you need, without the surveillance-like tracking.
April 21, 2024
Finally Making Sense of Responsive Screens
How I made my NextJS website responsive without learning about HTML and CSS.
April 14, 2024
I Pay $0 for a 10,000 Subscriber Self-Hosted Email Newsletter System
I saved >$100/month by migrating to a self-hosted newsletter and mailing list manager to run my small business.
April 7, 2024
Hosting Multiple Web Apps and APIs with Nginx Reverse Proxies
Deploy all your frontend apps, backend APIs, and other services using one server and one domain.
April 2, 2024
How I Set Up My Private Cloud Server for Development
Replicating my perfect local development workflow in a cloud server to code and deploy from anywhere in the world.
March 10, 2024
I Finally Figured out Nginx Reverse Proxy
How I exposed my NextJS and FastAPI powered website to the public internet using Nginx web server on a Linux server.
March 5, 2024
I Bought a Cloud Server for $12/month
How I saved more than $100 by self-hosting instead of using cloud-based SASS products.
January 4, 2024
My 2024 Credit Card Strategy
Core setup, new cards, travel redemptions, and hotel, flight, and car rental elite statuses.
January 2, 2024
How Much Money I Made From Credit Cards in 2023
I earned 630,000 credit card points which equates to around $8,500 USD.
December 28, 2023
Flying 10,000 Miles in Turkish Airlines Business Class
First international business class experience with FREE upgrade using credit card points!
December 10, 2023
Travel Hacking San Francisco
How I paid $0 instead of $2,543 with credit card points.
October 20, 2023
I Spent $0 Instead of $4,000 on Travel in 2023
How I funded all my 2023 travel using credit card points, such as Membership Reward points and Capital One miles.
July 21, 2023
15 Stress-free Travel Hacks
Preparation is the key to any good travel experience.
June 12, 2023
How I Travel the World for Free Using Credit Card Points
A simple 3-step process that earned me trips to Chicago, Boston, Atlanta, Dallas, San Francisco, and Toronto for free!