Save money on your car
1. Car Insurance (Don’t skip this)
Believe me, if you haven’t shopped around for car insurance in a couple years - it is worth your while. I really was sure that I had the lowest rates I could get, but then I checked out Geico and found that I could save $330 a year for the same coverage. I was so blown away that they could save me $330 that I didn’t shop anywhere else.
Six months later my old insurance broker called trying to get me back and she had found another insurance company (America First) who was $250 cheaper than Geico. And again it was for the same coverage. So just to repeat - I thought I was paying a good rate, but by shopping around I was able to knock almost $600 off my car insurance bill.
2. Save money on gas
While everyone wants gas prices to go down, you can cut your monthly gas bill by taking some pro-active steps. Checkout these 75 gas saving tips and grab a few of them and start working them into your driving. And for some more advanced techniques you can learn how to hypermile as well.
Save money on your phones
3. Cell Phones
Grab your most recent cell phone bills and look at them to see what you are actually paying for.
- Are you paying for internet service that you are not using?
- Are you paying for 1000 minutes a month, when you are only averaging about 350?
- Are you paying for text messages that you are not using?
Before you call your cell phone company check other Cellular companies to see how their rates compare. If it is still worth your while to stay with your current provider, then call them up and talk to them about the changes that you can make.
4. Home phone lines
Ask yourself a tough question, “Do I really need a land line? Would it be possible to use my cell phone for all calls?”
If the answer is no, you may want to look into Vonage. I haven’t used them, but I know they are saving some people lots of money each month. (They currently have a plan for $14.99 a month that gives you local and long distance.)
If you are have a land line solely for the purpose of having a DSL internet connection, I would recommend calling the phone company to adjust your phone plan. I was not using my land line at all and was paying $25 for it. I called them and got the plan lowered to a pay-per-call plan which only costs me $7 a month.
If you can get by without a land line, call and cancel it. This will probably save you $20 or more a month just by making a phone call.
5. Save on the Internet
I am not suggesting that you get dial-up. That is just cruel and unusual punishment 
. But, if you are paying for the premium package you should consider one of the slower packages. Many people won’t notice a difference in how fast the web pages load.
Again, it may be worthwhile looking at the options available for high-speed internet service. I saved about $20 a month switching from one company to another.
Save money on Food
This is one of the easiest fixes for most people. I know I am saving hundreds of dollars a month by not doing what I used to do with my food purchases.
6. Make going out to dinner something special
Not only will you save yourself a lot of money, but it will be more fun when you do go out. Have you noticed that when you do something all the time, it just isn’t as fun anymore? This is a great way to “add fun” and save money.
A couple going out to dinner just two times in a week could easily spend $300 a month. If they knock it down to just one time a week that is $150 savings.
7. Make it yourself
You really can cook. I don’t care if people told you that you were a bad cook, don’t listen to them. You aren’t bad and it is not that hard. There are tons of meals that you can make that require little more than an ability to set a timer and read directions. Start at Allrecipies.com, they have lots of cool features that I won’t get into here - just check it out.
8. Bring your lunch
This is one of those rubber-meets-the-road sacrifices. But it pays off handsomely. If you are paying $10 for lunch to go out each day, you are spending $200 a month. If you bring your lunch 3 days a week, you should easily be able to save $100 a month.
9. Eat what you have
Buy food that you are going to eat and eat what you have. I cut my grocery bill by 50% from my wasteful years by eating the food I had and not wasting any. I could not believe how much money I was wasting by letting food spoil. Just putting a little bit of thought into your grocery list each week will be an easy way to save money.
10. Clip coupons
Most of the food we buy doesn’t have coupons, so this has never been too much help for me. But, there are some people who take pride in buying a grocery cart full of food for $25 and 100 coupons. Even if you aren’t a pro, beginners can save $50 a month without much difficulty.
11. Drink water
I saved myself $30 a month just by quitting my Pepsi addiction. A Starbucks addict could probably save $100 a month by switching to water.
12. Save on your energy bills
A lot of energy saving tips require you to buy something in order to save money in the long run. While I am all for that, the purpose of these tips is to give you more cash in your hand now so that you can pay down your debt.
That being said you can check out these 10 ways to conserve energy and save money and these winter energy saving tips.
13. Pay your bills on time!
This is obvious, but some people (like myself) need the obvious restated sometimes Late bills often incur a fee that is nothing but a waste of your precious money.
If you find yourself forgetting to pay your bills on time, set up a free Google calendar and you can put reminders of when each bill needs to be paid. You can even set it up to email you to remind you to pay it on the correct date. While this is a shorter term fix, I prefer to set up a schedule of bill payments in order to make bill paying easier.
14. Save at the bank
Grab your recent bank statements and examine them for ambiguous fees. If you see any and don’t know what they are, call your bank and ask them to explain it. I worked at a bank for years and I know how good they can be at coming up with creative names for their fees.
Years ago, after figuring out some of the advantages to banking with a credit union I made the switch. I still bank at one of the best Credit Unions in town and use ING as my online bank.
If you find out that you are paying fees for your basic banking needs, I recommend switching. There is no reason you should be paying fees for falling below a minimum balance or anything else. It is your money. Take it somewhere where you have control over the money, not the bank.
Most credit unions will not have many (or all) of the fees that bigger banks may have. ING also has a great checking account that I use and love.
15. Save on purchases
If you are working on getting out of debt, you should be thinking long and hard about any sizeable purchases. But, if you must, then make sure you are getting the best price in the world on the item. The internet has taken comparison shopping to a whole new level.
Yea, there are a million places you can buy things online, but I have found that I almost always find the best price at one of these three places:
Microsoft’s Live Cashback search is another good tool to find the best price, but it hasn’t beat out the other three on any occasions yet. Craigslist and FreeCycle.org are also good tools for finding some bargains on used items.
Other tips to cut your expenses
- Buy greeting cards in bulk at the Dollar store or the party store. This will help you to save a lot of money and you won’t have to make an extra trip every time you need one.
- If you are an avid reader and spend a lot on books trying using the library again. Remember the library? Another option is to buy them from Amazon used. I have a couple books on my Amazon wish list that cost less than a nickel for a used copy. And here are 5 ways to save money on books.
- If you have an emergency fund built up, you may want to look at increasing your deductibles to save money.
- If clothing purchases are needed, at least look at these 6 tips to save money on your clothing expenses.
Please share some of the ways you have cut your expenses in the comments below!
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Just in case you haven’t heard, all TV channels are going to Digital early next year. February 17, 2009 to be exact. So, if you have an older TV, “that is not connected to cable, satellite or other pay TV service,” you will need to take some kind of action to be able to watch TV on February
18, 2009 and beyond. Click here to read more about the benefits and reasons for the switch.
I previously wrote about fix for this problem with my HDTV tuner for my computer which allows me to watch HD television on my computer. But, we aren’t going to through our regular television away, so I signed up for the coupon as well.
This from the government site about it…
“if you currently watch TV on an analog TV set If you own a television with a digital tuner or subscribe to a pay TV service, you will likely continue to receive TV programming as usual after the transition.”
If you are not sure, they actually have a handy little page on their site that asks you a series of questions to help you verify whether or not you need to upgrade.
The converter box coupon
If you will need the converter box you can click here to fill out an online form to get the coupon (or two) sent to you.
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First, my pet history…
Brandy Jean 1979-1996
Poodle/mutt
My family dog from before I was born until I was about 12 years old - put to sleep after 17 (119 dog) years of life
Lady 1992-1994
German Shepard/Wolf/Mutt
Adopted off the side of the road because we felt so bad that her owners had abandoned her - taken to a “better place where she could play with other dogs” by my parents after she displayed just a little bit too much wolf-like behavior
Gizmo 1994-?
Tibetan Spaniel
Given to me on my 13th birthday, but left at my parent’s house when I moved out only to become one of the most pampered dogs around.
Petey 1996-2006
Yorkie/Mutt
“Poor Petey” was the most common phrase used when referring to his life. He had a tough one: diabetes (requiring two shots a day), blindness, and a bunch of other ailments that led to his demise.
Rabbits, fish, hermit crabs, turtle, and other various animals ?-?
I don’t remember their names, how long I had them, or much else about them.
Budgeting for a Pet
Everything above was financed by my parents in a time when a pet was, “just a pet.” But now pets have moved up in the world. I mean pet spas and refrigerated dog food was something you would see in a Saturday Night Live skit 15 years ago, but now it is reality.
I never thought about how much pets actually cost, and even if I had, it would still be drastically more now than it was 15 years ago. Since I have moved out on my own I have bought some of the cheaper pets that I could - i.e. Fish, fiddler crabs, and African dwarf frogs. Many have passed away (some just in time for me to still get my refund from the pet-store) but as I approximate the costs of all the stuff I purchased for the tank, it is a little bit frightening . And this is a fresh-water tank, I wouldn’t even want to imagine if it had been a saltwater tank.
Is a pet worth the money?
My wife has wanted a mini-dog of some sort. You know, a dog that is smaller than a large rabbit that Paris Hilton would tote around in a Gucci handbag.
I actually am interested in getting another dog, but honestly I don’t want to try to budget for all the expenses are possible with pets these days. I know we will get one eventually, but I just don’t know that I want to make the financial sacrifice at this point in our lives.
So, I am looking for a little help from the readers on this one… What do you think about rising pet expenses? Is it still worth having one? Does anyone have a ball-park figure of what they spend per year on their pet?
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I have been a huge fan of Craigslist over the years. The site is about the most boring looking site out there, but is also about the best place to buy or sell used local items. I still sell most goods with eBay when I need a little quick cash, but for the larger items Craigslist has been the way to go.
Can Walmart beat Craigslist at their own game?
Enter Walmart. The giant that has gotten just a little bit too big has launched a similar classified service.
Quick side note: My grandpa has owned a small appliance store for most of his life that was passed down from his father. A few years back when Walmart decided to start selling appliances, my grandpa told me that Walmart was selling them (to customers) for less than he could buy them from his dealer. Quick business lesson - Since Walmart was purchasing the appliances in such a huge quantity, the dealers gave them a much greater discounted price than they gave my grandpa.
While I know, “it’s just business,” I am not a fan of super-corporations running the little guys out of town. The story ends well: my 84 year old grandpa still goes into work everyday, his business made it through it, and I think Walmart has left the appliance business to find more profitable opportunities.
Back to the topic: Walmart’s new classifieds offer a few conveniences that craigslist doesn’t:
- Pictures on the results page - so you don’t have to actually click the item to see the picture
- Prices on the results page and in the same location - it makes it quick to scan prices for bargains
- The ability to refine your search by various criteria - this saves a lot of time if you have something very specific in mind
Even with Walmart’s size it is going to take them a while to get the users that Craigslist has gotten. If you check it out don’t expect much right now - I browsed through the electronics category for my town and there really isn’t much yet. It will get there. I am sure. It’s Walmart.
Do you use online classifieds? Do you think Walmart will run Craigslist out too?
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I just found out about a couple cool tools to make some cash when shopping online. The first of which is Ebates. I will write about the other one soon.
Basically, merchants pay Ebates to refer customers to them. Ebates then pays a chunk of that back to the shoppers themselves. Win, win, win.
Here is how Ebates describes the process:
A few things worth mentioning about Ebates
- The payout percentages vary from 1% to about 25%
- They have a ton of merchants - many well known stores: Best Buy, Walmart, Staples, and really about anything you can imagine
- Some merchants offer cash bonuses for signing up
- Ebates also offers referral bonuses for friends that sign up
- Payment options include Paypal or a paper check
- They also have a toolbar that will tell you if you are on a site that offers a cashback bonus
I recently signed up for Ebates and am planning to add them to my online shopping arsenal. But, since I am so new to Ebates I don’t have too much experience with them. Has anyone had good or bad experiences with them?
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Financial advice for college grads
The most recent Money Magazine had a few interesting articles worth commenting about. The first of which was one that contain advice from the pros for new college grads.
Clean up MySpace and Facebook pages
“. . . because potential employers will check them. One test: Make sure there’s nothing up there you wouldn’t want your grandmother to see.”
I think that is good advice for job-seekers and anyone really. Also, you may want to Google your name once in a while just to see what is showing up. Googling someone is the new form of background check that can provide a lot of detailed information. We are transitioning to a transparent society where not much can be hidden any longer - so do your best to watch what you type - no matter where you are online (and make sure you add me as a friend on Facebook).
Spending less than you earn
“Make it a habit to have more money coming in than going out. You may need to drive the clunker a bit longer or postpone that trip to Europe.”
Good advice. It is the simple 3rd grade math problem that is the ONLY way to wealth. If you can start the habit now, you will be in great shape for the rest of your life. If you don’t, you will have to face the music sometime and the longer you wait the more difficult it becomes.
Saving Money
“Sign up for your 401(k) the first day on the job; and put $25 a month in an ING Direct savings account as a cash cushion. Don’t let credit cards or Mom and Dad be your emergency fund.”
It is amazing how simple it can be to retire well off, if you start young.
Following this advice will pay huge dividends over the course of your life. Don’t be like so many who get into their 40’s and start wishing that they had started 20 years earlier. Take action now! You will thank yourself later.
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This is a guest post from Chad over at GoingGazelle. Chad is a volunteer Financial Peace University coordinator and a volunteer Crown Money Map Coach.
IIAS Flexible Spending Accounts: Swipe Twice & Reduce Your Taxes!
A lesson in Personal Finance from a Wal-Mart Cashier
I wish I could tell you my vast knowledge of Personal Finance led me to discover and write this tip. However, this post was driven by a lesson from a Wal-Mart cashier. My wife accidentally used her FSA debit card to pay for some purchases instead of our normal debit card. We had some Tums and Dora the Explorer Band-aids in the cart. The Wal-Mart register recognized those two items were approved for FSA and debited them from the FSA account. The rest of the materials we had to pay for by swiping a normal debit card or pay cash.
The cashier then explained that their register system was “smart” enough to allow us to pay for FSA reimbursable materials with some types of FSA debit cards. Because the approval took place at the point of sale, we no longer had to submit receipts for items purchased at Wal-Mart. I didn’t even realize that either item would be approved as an FSA expense.
The original FSA programs work like this. Your employer deducts money from your pay check tax free and put into a savings account with an FSA vendor. You would go out buy items, track all of your receipts, mail or fax them in and wait for approval. The FSA company would manually look through your receipts, if the expenses were allowed, they would mail you back a refund check. In essence, any approved health care expenses were paid for with tax free income. It is small bit of a paperwork, but worth the hassle in my opinion.
Then FSA vendors improved their services by issuing Visa or Mastercard branded debit cards which you could pay for health care services. Instead of paying out of pocket and seeking reimbursement, you can use the FSA debit card at the merchant to pay for the item. No cash out of pocket. You only had to mail in or fax back the receipt. Every transaction on the debit card had to be supported by mailing in paperwork. Again the FSA vendor would manually review the paperwork and approve each transaction. If you used the debit card for an unapproved expense you had to mail them a check for that amount of money.
Welcome to the new standard: Inventory Inventory Approval System - IIAS
Now the FSA vendors have worked out a point-of-sale approval system with major retailers such as Wal-Mart, CVS Pharmacy and Walgreens. Every item in the store is evaluated to see if it meets federal FSA reimbursement guidelines. The register system now knows which items are approved by the government for FSA account purchases.
When you use an IIAS debit card at Wal-Mart, it only allows you to pay for the items approved by the Federal government. By automating the approval at the Point-of-Sale, the consumer does NOT have to fill out forms and submit paperwork any more. The FSA vendor does not have to manually verify that paperwork. This makes life easier on the consumer and the FSA vendor. (Its always a good idea to keep receipts just in case).
The IIAS system went into effect on January 1st, 2008. The list of IIAS approved FSA administrators and merchants is growing. The next time open enrollment comes around. Check out your employer’s FSA options. Tax reductions are getting hard and harder to come by.
If you are lucky enough to have an IIAS administrator of your FSA, when shopping at Wal-Mart or any other IIAS merchant, swipe the FSA card first and see what happens to be in your basket that the government will let you purchase with tax free income. Our family has been doing this for about a month. We’re amazed at how many items we normally purchase quality for this tax reduction measure.
Click for more information about IIAS FSAs
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I just picked up the recent issue of Consumer Reports magazine and the issue is dedicated to cars: quality, reliability, performance, and safety.
Honda and Toyota are the best cars
It is little surprise to find out that Honda is number one on the list and Toyota is number two. These Japanese car companies have come to be synonymous with reliability. CR’s (Consumer Reports) rating was based on performance and reliability. They took each company’s score in these two categories to come up with the overall score. Here is how they all stacked up:
- 78 - Honda
- 75 - Toyota
- 72 - Subaru
- 71 - BMW
- 71 - Nissan
- 71 - VW
- 71 - Mazda
- 67 - Mercedes-Benz
- 66 - Hyundai
- 64 - Volvo
- 63 - Mitsubishi
- 61 - Ford
- 54 - GM
- 49 - Suzuki
- 49 - Chrysler
“Honda earned the top score in our analysis because it builds very reliable cars that perform very well.”
GM and Ford have improved
GM and Ford are still towards the bottom of the list, but have seen significant improvements over the last model year. I have owned a few Fords and am glad to see that they are taking it up a notch.
Japan is still making the best cars
A few points worth noting about Japanese cars:
- Only Honda and Subaru earned the distinction of having all of the models tested make it on the CR recommended list.
- Honda is the only automaker whose entire model lineup is currently recommended by CR.
- Seven-year-old vehicles from Toyota and Honda have roughly the same number of problems as three-year-old vehicles from most other car companies.
My personal choice
I have owned American cars all of my life until our purchase of our Honda Fit last year. I have been frustrated with the lack of reliability in all of the cars that I have owned. I have been diligent with the maintenance and have taken care of them, yet they still seem to have quite a few problems.
Meanwhile, I have had friends with old Toyotas or Hondas who do almost no maintenance and the cars go for 250,000 miles. That’s what caused me to go with Honda. So far, so good with the Fit. I will keep you updated if anything changes.
Technorati Tags: best cars, Honda, Toyota
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How does Virtual Bank compare with ING Direct?
I decided to open a Virtual Bank savings account. They gave me $20 for opening it, so I figured I don’t have much to lose. To me ING has clearly been the best online savings account in terms of features, interface, and overall user experience, but I am trying to keep an eye out for other up and coming great online banks, so I decided to check out Virtual Bank.
ING Direct and Virtual Bank Features
|
ING Direct |
Virtual Bank |
|
| Minimum Balance |
$0 |
$100 |
| Minimum to open |
$1 * |
$100 |
| Interest Rate |
3.4% |
3.0% - 4.0% |
| Monthly Fees |
No |
No |
| FDIC Insured |
Yes |
Yes |
*$250 to get the $25 referral bonus
Refer a Friend program
- ING Direct’s refer a friend program pays $10 to the referrer and $25 to the person opening the account (if the new account is opened with at least $250).
- Virtual Bank pays $20 to both the referrer and the new account holder (if the account is opened with at least $100).
Security
As far as security goes, both of these sites are top-notch in the level of security they offer. I would almost say that both of them could be considered frustrating if you are used to having your browser log you in to web sites automatically. There are a few steps to log in for both ING and Virtual Bank. That said, if you are concerned with keeping your account safe, you can’t go wrong with either ING or Virtual Bank.
User Interface
For the user interface and overall web site, I have to give it to ING Direct. Virtual Bank’s layout and web site isn’t bad and it is actually easy to navigate from one place to the next. ING’s is just better. This is one of the area’s that makes ING stand out from the others. They have worked very hard to create a great user experience with their web site and they have been successful. ING’s interface is very user friendly, intuitive, simple, and well organized.
Virtual Bank interface
ING Direct Interface
Customer Service
I have had very good experiences with ING’s customer service thus far. I have called them 3 times and each time I got my problem resolved or question answered quickly and from a friendly person the line. I have heard from others that not all calls to ING go as well as mine did.
My first call to Virtual Bank did not go so well. After being on hold for 28 minutes, all of a sudden their hold music stopped and I was hung up on. Possibly in their defense, I looked at their hours of operation and it appears as if I called right after closing time. It just would have been nice if they would have had a message that said to call back later. It is never any fun to wait on hold for a half an hour.
Conclusion: ING Direct vs. Virtual Bank
After all is said and done, I think I am still in the same place as I was before my Virtual Bank experiment: ING is still the winner. If I had $100,000 to put in savings, I would probably put it in Virtual Bank to get the 4.0% return rather than ING’s 3.4%. But, for smaller amounts I am sticking with ING Direct.
If you are interested in opening either (or both) of these accounts - contact me so you can get the referral bonus cash!!
Technorati Tags: ING Direct, Virtual Bank
Also, if you have used either or both of these banks, I would love to hear your opinions about them…
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My local gas company had a list of 30 Hot tips to use energy wisely. Below are my favorites from the bunch…
Save energy and money in your home
- Attic insulation is a great investment. It lowers the cost of both heating and cooling.
- Keep your thermostat low. Each extra degree adds about 4% to 5% to your heating bill. When you leave for the day or over the weekend, lower the setting about 5°. For longer absences, lower the thermostat to 55° (but don’t set it lower because your pipes may freeze).
- A programmable thermostat is a wise investment because it helps keep the temperature lower automatically while you are sleeping or gone for the day.
- Don’t place furniture in front of or on top of heating registers.
- If your radiator is near a cold wall, place aluminum or aluminum foil between walls and radiators to reflect heat back into the room.
- Open blinds on sunny days to allow sunlight to help heat your home. Close them at night to help keep out the cold.
Save energy cooking
- Water boils faster in covered pans.
- Cook vegetables in small amounts of water. Avoid overcooking, which reduces nutritional value.
- If the burner flame is yellowish instead of blue, clean the burner with soap and water. A blue flame is more efficient than a yellow one.
Hot water energy savings
- A water heater setting of "Normal" or "Low" is usually sufficient.
- Use the right-size water heater; heating an oversized tank of water wastes gas. Heating water is the second-largest use of energy next to heating a house. Financial savings on hot water can be significant.
Save money drying clothes
- Always clean your lint trap before each load to improve dryer efficiency.
- Consider line-drying clothing inside during the wintertime. You will add humidity to your home, which can make you more comfortable, and use less energy.
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