Category — Savings
Practical ways to plug your leaking Money
Online Banking and Billpay
Online billpay is one of the coolest moneysavers of the 21st Century. It still amazes me when people spend the time and energy walking to brick-and-mortar banks to carry out banking transactions which they can execute from the comforts of their homes or offices. It is even so cool now that every other smart phone can do it.
Online Banking is so cool, even a smartphone can do it
Everytime we struggle to pay our bills, or cut back to meet one obligation or the other, it is important that we look withing us and almost always, we can find some obscure leak that saves 10, 20 or even 50 dollars for us. Skipping the post office, the stamp, the envelope and the walk can save you money, believe me.
Home Lighting
Another leak that we often are too preoccupied to acknowledge is low watt energy-saving lightbulbs. When I was renting, on moving into the apartment, I switched all the regular lightbulbs to energyefficient lights. I must have removed up to 60 lightbulbs. I safely tucked them away for my Landlord. The low watt bulbs cost me under 100 dollars, but in the long run over a two year period it probably saved me $700 to $1200 in electricity bills.
In the same light, we should know when Christmas is over and pull the plugs on our dearly beloved Christmas lights (pun intended). We all do not want the holidays to be over, but honey, wake up it is over. Getting those lights down in time can save you some more money on electric bills.
Intelligent Driving
Intelligent driving is to drive with concentration. Driving intelligently requires you to think as you drive and not to let your driving fall fully into the control of the sub-concious. At least do this until you have learned a new way of driving.
The three don’ts of driving:
- Don’t accelerate to a red light
- Don’t race the amber light
- Don’t race the green light
These three rules are some of the commonsense ones that I see people breaking everyday.
If you accelerate to a stop, you have to spend even more energy to brake, wasting gas as you do that. If you accelerate to beat a red light by going through amber, you also end up burning more gas than you would ordinarily burn with regular driving. Third, if you race green light because you have been waiting at a red light for a while, or because you do not want it to change on you, you have done the same dumb thing,burned more gas than is needed. Accelerating as sparingly as possible is one sure-fire way of saving on gas and the bucks add up. You save on so many other things like tire wear and tear as well as the risk of getting a ticket, hitting someone or looking like a jerk!
There are many other tips and you can find these ten economical driving tips here.
Free Samples
When I was a kid, my Dad used to get free samples of many canned foods and products. He used them for marketing the products, so they almost never got to our kitchen before they were off! I still remember some that were so long off that the cans would start swelling and soon start leaking stuff and then we will have to discard it.
These days, free samples are given away as a means of advertisement. They could really help you save on those groceries or other home supplies. It is also an easy way to try out a new product. The popular “try before you buy” cliche is resounding, isn’t it. One of the websites where you can find most free sample coupons is Common Sense With Money. The free coupons section has tons of coupons for you to take advantage of. This is certainly a stopping point for anyone who wants to stop a leak.
It may seem like this is not a leak, but when you think about it why pay for it if it is being given away for free?
May 4, 2010 No Comments
The Way To Save Using your Credit Card
The Wrong Way To Use Your Credit Card
The Credit Card companies have acquired a bad name in modern society today. Unfortunately I have to be frank with you and say that it is not the card companies alone that are to blame, but also the users. If you use your credit card the wrong way, you will most likely get stuck with huge bills that are not only persistent, but are actually self-inflating. In other words, the bill simply grows.
There are numerous credit card utilization advice on the radio, cable networks and the internet. All you have to do is pull any search engine and search for “Credit Card Utilization Advice” . There are at least 10 very good results just on the first page of returned results on Google. However amidst all the tons of information, 49 million results on the big G, there lies one simple principle. This principle is what makes the Government allow the credit card companies to do business in America.
“Do not incur expenses that you can not pay for”.
If you do, then you will have to pay interest after 56 days and that is how the companies make their money. The one way not to use credit cards is not to carry a balance that you have to pay interest on. The interests can be hefty, usually starting at low teens and easily creeping up into the 20s and 30s. Granted with the new Credit Card Laws things will change, but the smartest people work for credit card companies so users beware.
Purchase Protection Giveaways
In 2008, I started using American Express Credit Card. This was one of the lower cadre rewards cards, Blue Cash. It has no fees and it came with a 0% for 12 months promotion as well as an 8.9% APR. The APR has since changed to 10.98%. It was really useful at different times during that promotional period when I carried balances that ranged from $1000 to $3000. However to ensure that I did not have to pay any finance charges, I made sure the card balance was a resounding ZERO for a full six weeks before the anniversary date in November 2009. That way I escaped any fast ones being pulled off by the company and saved myself a few hundred bucks in charges.
This card comes with some perks and one of them is the Purchase Protection Perk. It is explained in good detail by Jim Wang over at Bagaineering.com. According to the post:
Use your AMEX card when you pay and you get 90 days of protection against accidental damage or theft. You file a claim and the protection replaces the item or reimburses you up to the amount of the purchase price. There’s a limit of $1,000 per occurrence and up to $50,000 per cardmember account per year.
This is cool because it gives you that peace of mind that yes indeed if anything (well almost anything) happened to your purchase, you are covered. I have never had to use this perk, but it is sure a free insurance going on there, maybe “purchase insurance’. Some of the commenters on the post like Pop of Popeconomics.com say it is also available from all cards with VISA. So do not go rushing to get a new AMEX just yet. Do your groundwork and use your VISA!
April 19, 2010 No Comments
A Very Wrong Piece of Personal Finance Advice
It is really shocking that this post was published as a way to save money. These are the types of articles that decieve Americans and lead them much into temptation! However, I beg to ask a few questions here.
1.Quote: “I dont use coupons because they are all brand names and overpriced”
Coupons are not ALL for Brand name items. The reason why many brand name items are leaders is that they spen money on R & D and come out with very good products, usually leading in the class. So if you have a coupon that makes the prices of their products come down to a similar level as other lower quality brands, you are saving a ton. [hidepost=0]
2. Quote: “I don’t use a Monthly Average Billing Plan for Utilities because it does not make sense to me”
Monthly averaging means you pay same thing irrespective of what the bill is. That way in months when the bill is more you pay less because you would have some extra from the months when the bill is less. It makes it very easy to budget and that is the essence of the move. I am guessing your salary does not fluctuate like utility bills, does it?
3. Quote:”My husband never turns off lights and I am okay with it since I have low energy bulbs”
Turning lights off is a no brainer, “Even a Caveman Can Do It”. The low energy lights save you money, but keeping the lights off and unplugging saves you even more.
4. Quote: “We eat out regularly and it is cheaper than cooking”
Eating out saves you money? That is simply an illusion that people who are too lazy to cook or simply can not cook have. No it is cheaper to make your own food. To read the article, follow the link below.
Ways I Don’t Follow Common Financial Advice and Still Save Money – Personal Finance Advice [/hidepost]
March 15, 2010 No Comments
