Category Archives for Saving Money & Frugal Living
Is It Cheaper To Be a Man or a Woman (or Girl/Guy, Depending on Your Age)?
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I’ve got a couple of questions for you all today, folks. Is it cheaper to be a girl or a guy in today’s society? Is it cheaper to raise a guy or a girl?
I recently told my girlfriend my idea for this post, and she immediately said, “It’s loads more expensive to be/raise a girl! Are you nuts? How is that even a question?”
So, even though the answer to this question may seem apparent to some, let’s do our due-diligence and find out once and for all if it’s cheaper to be guy or a girl.
In doing some quick research, I couldn’t find any definitive studies on this subject. However, there was some good general guidance out there about the types of things that guys/girls have to spend money on.
Let’s take a look at some of these to see if we can find a concrete answer!
- Cars/Car Insurance
- It’s a well known fact that girls have cheaper car insurance than guys. I think this is because girls tend to get in to smaller, more frequent accidents, but when guys get in to accidents, they are more likely to be making a HUGE error and total the car.
- Winner = Cheaper to be a girl.
- Clothes/Shoes
- There is no question in my mind that girls spend more on clothes and shoes. Guys wear the same clothes for years and have 4 pairs of shoes (brown, black, sandals, and running shoes). Girls have 10^100000 pairs of shoes. One for every outfit.
- Winner = Cheaper to be a guy.
- Dating
- The generally accepted practice in today’s dating culture is for the guy to pay for the date. Both guys and girls probably buy about the same amount on birthday/Xmas presents. However, guys also have to pay for Valentine’s Day ideas and other random gifts/flowers (even if you get them discounted like I do from 1-800-Flowers.com) that cause the overall cost to go up.
- Winner = Cheaper to be a girl.
- Marriage
- The guy has to buy the engagement ring. Sadly, the generally accepted practice for this is to spend about 1 month’s salary on this (if you make $60,000 a year, this amounts to $5000). So, this causes the price of being a guy to go up.
- When it comes to the actual wedding, the girl’s parents usually pay twice as much as the guy’s parents.
- Winner = Tie. Cheaper to have a guy as a child, but cheaper to be the girl getting married.
- Food/Drink
- Guys definitely eat more. However, I feel like girls tend to eat higher quality/expensive food. But, I think that guys tend to eat out more often, driving the cost up.
- In addition, guys tend to be the “providers/buyers” of drinks at parties and bars. This also drives up the cost of being a guy.
- Winner = Cheaper to be a girl.
- Hygiene
- Since girls wear makeup, I believe that this drives the comparative costs up.
- Winner = Cheaper to be a guy.
- Sports
- This category is a tough call, as I think that for the most part, it is equal between boys and girls.
- However, I think that our culture places more importance on guys playing sports (for better or for worse). Therefore, guys are more apt to be involved in multiple sports.
- Winner = Cheaper to be a girl.
- Personal note – It was probably my sports of baseball and cycling that made me slightly more expensive to raise than my sister growing up. This was due to the fact that competitive cycling required a lot of expensive equipment (think multiple thousand Dollar bikes, shoes, wheels, etc) and the traveling that was involved.
How about you all? What do you think? Is it more expensive to raise a boy or a girl? Is it more expensive to be a girl or a guy? Did I leave out any big categories of spending?
Share your experiences by commenting below!
***Photo courtesy of http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4137/4915591835_721ab43540.jpg
Carnival of Financial Planning #184 – May 13th, 2011 Edition
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Budgeting and Economics
BIFS presents We Went Over Our Budget | Budgeting In the Fun Stuff posted at Budgeting In the Fun Stuff, saying, “My husband and I have gotten a little lazy with our money. We haven’t gone hog wild, but we’ve definitely loosened the reigns. See what we did right and what we did wrong.”
Judy Blackburn presents Is having an emergency fund essential? posted at Debt Consolidation, saying, “Having an emergency fund is very important in these uncertain times in case of unforeseen issue that might arise.”
Big Cajun Man presents Alcohol + Money = Nothing Good posted at Canadian Personal Finance Blog, saying, “There is a reason that most banks don’t serve liquor, so why do bars have ATM machines?”
Financial Planning
Judy Blackburn presents What You Should Know About Bankruptcy Attorneys posted at Debt Consolidation, saying, “Helping a bankruptcy attorney represent you is the best way to achieve the bankruptcy that you need.”
Frank Knight presents Portfolio Asset Allocation posted at Best Personal Financial Planning Software, saying, “When you are already there and invested in an asset class, you are following a passive asset allocation strategy. Tactical asset allocation strategy advocates suggest that you can anticipate the crowd, but flow-of-funds studies show that almost all tactical asset allocation fund flows are late money flows that chase performance after valuations have already moved.”
Financing a Home
FMF presents The Three Worst Reasons for Buying a Home posted at Free Money Finance, saying, “Do not buy a home if any of these three are your reasons for doing so.”
Nathan Richardson presents What Is a Good Credit Score for a Mortgage? posted at Deals & Tips, saying, “Financing a Home in today’s market is tough, especially if your credit score is low. Learn what lenders look for in a mortgage applicant.”
Financing Education
Hussein Sumar presents What is a Federal Pell Grant & How to Apply for Pell Grants? posted at Pell Grant, saying, “The Federal Pell Grant program provides financial aid to low-income & need-based undergraduate and certain post-baccalaureate students to pay for college expenses. Awards from Federal Pell grants can be used at approximately 5,400 post secondary institutions across America. The Pell grant, unlike student loans, does NOT have to be repaid.”
David Leeman presents How to Afford College, Affording College with Limited Savings posted at Financial Freedom Advantage, saying, “Many families with meager college savings funds are wondering how to afford college for their children. Fortunately, there are creative ways of financing college without breaking the bank.”
Income
The Financial Blogger presents Should I Do A MBA? posted at Experiments in Finance, saying, “Will an MBA increase your income?”
The Financial Blogger presents April Monthly Blog Income Report posted at The Financial Blogger, saying, “A look at the income picture from the last month.”
Mike @ DNW presents 3 Reasons to Keep Working posted at Do Not Wait, saying, “Why you might need an income in your retirement years.”
Investing
Consumer Boomer presents Is Commodities Investing Safe? posted at Consumer Boomer, saying, “Commodities trading is another way to add to ones investing portfolio but, is it safe?”
Tyler presents Dividend Growth Model posted at Dividend Money, saying, “An explanation of how to use the Dividend Growth Model to evaluate stocks and find the right purchase price for those dividend stocks on your watchlist.”
Ken Faulkenberry presents Benefits of Risk Management in Stock Market posted at Arbor Asset Allocation Model Portfolio (AAAMP) Blog, saying, “Risk management in the stock market is an essential part of successful investment management.”
Hussein Sumar presents S&P 500 Dividend Aristocrats of 2011 posted at Best Dividend Stocks, saying, “The S&P 500 Dividend Aristocrats Index is the most honorable list of dividend paying stocks as measured by the S&P 500 Index that have consistently increased their dividends for the past 25 years, without missing a single dividend payment. The index measures the performance of large cap, blue-chip companies within the S&P 500 that have a market capitalization of at least $3 billion.”
Alexander presents Use Dividend Funds to Build Your Portfolio posted at Dividend Stocks, saying, “Dividend funds are composed of investments that offer regular payouts. There are high dividend funds, funds comprising dividend aristocrats, and other specializations.”
The Skilled Investor presents Market Timing posted at Personal Investment Management, saying, “Always stay invested to earn risk premiums. You must have your money invested and at risk to get risk premium returns. Jumping out and in or “timing the markets” doesn’t work.”
Intelligent Speculator presents Can you go wrong shorting Research in Motion (RIMM) against Apple (AAPL)? posted at Intelligent Speculator, saying, “We examine two financial moves.”
DGB presents Why Your Portfolio Needs a Few Heroes posted at The Dividend Guy Blog, saying, “What’s missing in your portfolio.”
Mike @ DNW presents Women Decide to Retire posted at Do Not Wait, saying, “How do women retire compared to men?”
Frank Vertin presents Top Index Funds posted at Index Mutual Funds, saying, “Top ten no load index funds that track the Standard and Poors 500 composite index in terms of lowest costs.”
Sun presents Buy and Sell ETFs for Free [Review] posted at The Sun’s Financial Diary.
Intelligent Speculator presents Feels like everyone is investing in Facebook…except me posted at Intelligent Speculator, saying, “Are you investing in Facebook?”
DGB presents AT&T Stock Analysis posted at The Dividend Guy Blog, saying, “We analyze this popular stock.”
Dividends4Life presents 18 Stocks Meeting The Goal Of Higher Dividends posted at Dividend Growth Stocks, saying, “I have stated many times that my goal is to create an ever growing income stream from dividend growth stocks. Secondarily, it is my desire to beat the S&P 500 over time. With that said, I rarely look at the capital performance of individual stocks. What I do watch is the ability of the stocks I own to sustain their dividend growth.”
Pasadena Financial Planner presents Vanguard Funds posted at Top Mutual Funds, saying, “Compares Vanguard’s actively managed mutual funds and Vanguard’s passively managed index mutual funds. Vanguard investors should read and understand this study.”
Mike Piper presents Assessing Your Risk Tolerance: Need and Ability posted at The Oblivious Investor, saying, “The first step in creating an investment portfolio is to assess your risk tolerance.”
Managing Credit and Debt
Tim Chen presents First Premier Bank Aventium and Centennial: Cards to Avoid posted at NerdWallet Blog – Credit Card Watch, saying, “The Aventium and Centennial credit cards, offered by First Premier Bank, are among the few credit cards offered to those with bad credit and may seem attractive to people who don’t qualify for any other card. However, the cards come with a low credit limit, unreasonably high fees, and a number of “gotcha” charges.”
Hussein Sumar presents What Can Bankruptcy do for you and what can it Not do? posted at Chapter 7 bankruptcy, saying, “Bankruptcy is an effective tool for thousands of Americans who are struggling with all kinds of debts. However, it is important to know what type of debts bankruptcy can discharge you from (in other words what types of debts it can ‘free’ you from) and what type of debts are NOT discharged through bankruptcy.”
Steve presents Small Banks Vs. Big Banks: Which is Better for my Business posted at FastSwings, saying, “Going with the big banks was the ideal solution for small business prior to the recent financial crisis.”
Miscellaneous
Mike @ Green Panda presents Free Money Tools for Young Adults posted at Green Panda Treehouse, saying, “Some cool free money tools.”
Gal Josefsberg presents Retired At 31, A Lesson In Purposeful Living posted at Equally Happy, saying, “I thought I would show people a lesson in what it means to live with a purpose, especially when it came to retirement. Too often we live our lives without consciously deciding what it is we want to do and how we will get there. So I wanted to inspire people to think otherwise.”
Walter W. Fouse presents Large Cap Funds posted at Best Mutual Fund, saying, “This table of low cost top 10 S&P 500 mutual funds has been organized with the lowest cost index fund first. Nevertheless, each of these S & P 500 index funds is among the least costly on the market.”
Retirement Planning
Dana J. presents Three Tips For Optimizing Your Retirement Plan posted at Not Made Of Money, saying, “It doesn’t matter if you are 25 or 55, you should be actively involved in the retirement planning process. This means selecting a good retirement plan that will make you money while reducing your taxes at the same time.”
Jareth presents Retirement Calculator posted at Retirement Software, saying, “Retirement investment calculator software automatically acts as a comprehensive compound investment calculator that applies historical investment return growth rates to your cash, bond, and stock assets.”
Mike @ Green Panda presents What Are Your Retirement Needs? posted at Green Panda Treehouse, saying, “What do you expect in retirement?”
FMF presents Health Insurance for Those Retiring Early posted at Free Money Finance, saying, “One issue early retirees face is what to do about healthcare. This post offers some suggestions for covering this major expense.”
Jim Wilkerson presents No Load Mutual Funds posted at Best No Load Funds, saying, “Very young stock and bond mutual funds are more likely to put you into the position of being an experimental guinea pig of mutual fund companies and the ETF industry.”
Risk Management and Insurance
Consumer Boomer presents New Health Insurance Law and How It Affects You posted at Consumer Boomer, saying, “With the new health care law, it can be a confusing subject with varying opinions. Here are some helpful facts about that new law.”
Moneyedup presents Self Employed Medical Insurance posted at MoneyedUP, saying, “For reasons not expected nor welcomed by some, the ranks of the self employed have swelled in the last few years.”
Susan Howe presents Are Mom’s Really Worth $61,436 a Year? posted at Insure, saying, “Flowers and cards can never quite repay mom for all she’s done, but have you ever thought about how much she’s really worth?”
Jeff Rose, CFP presents Why Bundling Your Insurance Policies is a Good Idea posted at Consumer Boomer, saying, “Have you wondered whether bundling your insurance policies can benefit you? Here are a few good reasons to make the switch.”
Savings
Sustainable PF presents Don’t lighten your wallet with inefficient bulbs posted at Sustainable Personal Finance, saying, “As part of our ecoEnergy Retrofit we will replace all of the incandescent lightbulbs the previous owners had installed. Upgrading light bulbs is not covered by the ecoEnergy Retrofit program, however, we recognize that upgrading to compact fluorescent lights (CFL) or even LED (light-emitting diode) ligh bulbs will save us money.”
The Financial Blogger presents Where Are You Keeping Your Money? posted at The Financial Blogger, saying, “Where do you save your money?”
Taxes
Financial Freedom presents IRA Contributions, posted at Retirement Worksheet, saying, “The Roth tax optimization puzzle for asset conversions, as well as for annual Roth contributions during working years, is one of the most complex decisions that the ridiculously complex US taxation and retirement planning system forces upon individuals.”
That concludes this edition. Submit your blog article to the next edition of Carnival of Financial Planning using our carnival submission form. Past posts and future hosts can be found on our blog carnival index page.
***Photo courtesy of http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4124/5099605109_bd04b3c786.jpg
Hiring/Renting a Car For The Whole Family
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All you need to do to get to mainland Europe is to pick up a car, drive to your nearest port, and board the ferry. Once you’re on the other side, you can make your way to your destination. Your hired car will provide a veritable home-from-home on wheels, while you’ll be afforded the freedom to travel where you want, exactly when you want to.
- Where will you be travelling to?
- What types of roads will you be driving on? Gravel, rocky, or paved? For more rugged terrain, you’ll probably need a truck or Sport Utility Vehicle. Also, consider if you will need 4-wheel drive or not.
- How long will it take?
- If you have an incredibly long journey ahead of you, it’s most likely best to get a more comfortable/larger car. This will enable every one to feel relaxed and happy when you reach your destination.
- How many passengers will be travelling?
- Does anyone in the party have any problems with travelling or any special requirements?
- Note from Jacob: For my family, one thing that is a requirement is that the car has to have working/functioning seat belts. While one might think that this would be a given, in some countries, seat belts are still not required in all cars (especially in the backseat).
Make a comprehensive list of all these aspects of the holiday and read up about car hire and car journeys online.
How about you all? What considerations do you think about when renting/hiring a car? What techniques do you use to save money? Do you have any entertaining car renting “horror” stories?!
Share your experiences by commenting below!
Jacob’s Thoughts – Listed below are my random thoughts as I was reading this article.
- @Taking a ferry to get from the UK to mainland Europe – How long does the ferry trip take? It seems like a fun trip! I wish we could do that sort of thing here in the USA!
- @ A cheap trip idea being to rent a car and go camping in the South of France – I am incredibly jealous of this. If only it was considered a cheap trip for me to go from Virginia to camp in Southern France…I went to Southern France in the summer of 2008 after studying abroad and absolutely loved it. I want to go back!
- @ The cost of renting a car –
- One thing that you can do to save money on renting a car is to avoid renting the car at an airport. Generally, prices for rental cars at airports are approximately 30% than it would be to rent the same car in town.
- Additionally, you can save money by returning the car to the same location from which you rented it.
- Lastly, when evaluating whether or not to rent a car, you should compare the price of renting a car to other transportation options. For example, when my family goes skiing in Colorado in the United States, renting a car costs the same amount of money as getting a shuttle directly from the airport. However, because we simply don’t need the car the entire time we’re at the ski resort, we opt for taking the shuttle.
- @ Added stress of driving a rental car – While driving a rental car in the countryside of the USA or Europe is fairly easy, you should also consider if driving a rental car in a foreign country will induce added stress. This can be caused by differences in traffic etiquette in other countries. You want to make sure that the added convenience of having your own rental car is not outweighed by the stress of driving in congested, dangerous, traffic situations.
***Photo courtesy of http://www.flickr.com/photos/nuttinbutlove/3495518365/sizes/m/in/photostream/
Cheapskate Jake’s Frugal Ramblin’s # 3 – Ultimate Cheapskate Meal Idea!
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Cheapskate Jake here with ya today. Jacob finally let me fill in for him because he was takin’ some kind of mass transfer test for his graduate schoolin’. I ain’t totally sure, but I think that there class has somethin’ to do with learning how to move furniture. Don’t know how that really pertains to whatever field of engineering he’s doin’, but all I do know is that I’d rather have about a double dose of the clap than to have to take a class by that name.
Anyway, if you missed the introductory postin’ about my series, you can click here to read all abouts it.
First, one thing you gotta know about me is that I don’t have a real steady job. I try to keep ole LaTisha, Raymond, and Inez fed through any type of odd-job I can get aholt of. Recently, I came up with the idea to polish river rocks and make concho belts out of them and stand up at the Little Rock University campus and sell them to the students passin’ by.
And, while I was there this past week, I came up with a fine-dining full proof cheap lunch idea! Read all about it below.
Cheapskate Jake’s Meal Idea
- I bring a loaf of bread to work and stick that thing in the frigermerator.
- Come lunch time, I mosey on down to the cafeteria and grab myself about 4-5 of the free containers of peanut butter and jelly put out for the people to spread on the bagels they buy.
- Next, I grab about 5-6 free lemons and some sugar packets (or Splenda if I’m feelin’ like a real high class bloke), along with a cup of ice water.
- I come on back to my desk and make myself a great big ole’ PB&J and a cup lemonade with my free fixins!’
Boy howdy! It’s finger lickin’ good!
How about you all? Got any good high class meal ideas like mine you use?
Share your experiences by commenting below!
Disclaimer Jacob made me put up: This post is not a recommendation for you to engage in this activity, and is intended for entertainment purposes only.
***Photo courtesy of http://www.flickr.com/photos/trekkyandy/354487609/sizes/m/in/photostream/
Are Coupons Right For You?
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A little over a week ago, I published a post about how online coupons can be used to actually save money on things you want to buy. This is in contrast to print coupons which, in my opinion (for the most part), just make you spend money on things you probably don’t need at stores you don’t need to be in.
For example, let’s say you are a consultant and need to meet face-to-face with clients in another country. However, you don’t want to pay for the plane ticket every time you need to meet. So, you decide you want to buy computer meeting/desktop sharing software. Indeed, you could easily go online and search for “GoToMeeting coupon” and find promo codes that could make this acquisition a little less burdensome on your wallet/business cash position.
Of course, this is all well and good. However, another important consideration to think about is whether or not coupons are a good fit for you/your situation in the first place.
To start out, let’s take a look at when, in my opinion, everyone can benefit from the use of coupons.
When Can Everyone Benefit From Using Coupons? – Larger, Infrequent Purchases
Even in the case of my stingy, Great Value generic-brand-buying self, I honestly believe there is an important place in everyone’s life for coupons.
What is this place? Easy! I believe that everyone can benefit from the use of coupons/deals on “one-off,” larger, infrequent purchases such as laptops, iPods, cars, kitchen appliances, etc. These are the purchases that are typically planned out in advance, and one can easily find the time to search for any deals that are on offer at the time.
However, in the case of everyday purchases, the answer to this question becomes slightly more complex.
When Does The Advantageousness of Using Coupons Become Situation Specific? – Everyday Purchases
For me personally, when I go to Wal-Mart once a month to purchase mass quantities of food (most of which is Great Value brand) for my $2 per meal or less consumption, the last thing on my mind is coupons. Buying Great Value is a coupon! 🙂
When it comes to every day purchases, the question of whether or not to use coupons becomes very situation-specific. Because of this, I’ve tried to summarize some of these situations/considerations below.
- Do you buy generic items?
- In my experience, the majority (if not all) of the coupons I have seen were for brand name items. Has anyone ever seen a coupon for Kroger brand corn or Great Value brand green beans?
- Because of this, if you tend to buy a lot of generic items, it most likely won’t be all that advantageous to cut/clip coupons.
- However, if you and your family likes brand name items (for example, my mom absolutely will not buy anything but brand name items for special dinners at Thanksgiving and Christmas), clipping coupons can save you hundreds of Dollars throughout the year!
- Where do you shop?
- Being honest with yourself about where you typically shop is important as well.
- If you do most of your shopping at places like Wal-Mart, Sam’s Club, and Costco, you are probably saving quite a bit of money just from the mere act of shopping there, so coupons will probably be less crucial to save you money.
- However, if you do a lot of shopping at smaller, boutique stores (natural food stores, vitamin shops, etc), the prices can be much higher. And, it becomes very advantageous to plan out what to buy there in advance and obtain coupons for your purchases.
- Do you enjoy clipping coupons?
- Personally, I obtain no pleasure whatsoever from clipping coupons, since most of what I buy is generic brands. Also, I’d much rather be doing other things like learning more about index investing, asset allocation, or blogging.
- However, I have a lot of friends who really enjoy sitting down with a magazine or newspaper on the weekends and finding deals. If this is the case for you, clip those coupons and enjoy it! It’s probably one of the cheapest forms of entertainment you can do!
- What’s your time worth to you (or to your family)?
- The last consideration relates to the economic shape/state of you (or your family).
- If your family has a high net worth and both of the “breadwinners” of the family make $50-$100 per hour, it probably isn’t necessary to clip coupons. However, if you all enjoy clipping coupons, go for it!
- On the other hand, if your family is in a more modest economic situation, you need to be looking for every little way to save money.
So, those are the main considerations I could think of in order to help you determine if coupons have a place in your life. I hope you got some value out of this post!
How about you all? Do you use coupons? If so, when do you use them? Do you know any one that uses coupons for everyday purchases?
Share your experiences by commenting below!
***Photo courtesy of http://www.flickr.com/photos/24218656@N03/4589929510/sizes/m/in/photostream/
What Is Your Best Day-to-Day Money Saving Tip?
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Welcome to My Personal Finance Journey! If you are new here, please read the “About” or “First-Time Visitor” pages to find out more about us. If you would like to receive free updates on articles like this by email, then sign up here or you can subscribe to the RSS feed. Also, check us out on Twitter or Facebook. Thanks for visiting! Keep on learning!
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This post was originally posted as a guest post on Happy Simple Living on February 4th, as part of the Yakezie Personal Finance Blog Network “post swap” event. In this initiative, Yakezie participants are paired up to exchange guest posts on each other’s sites on a common topic each month. Enjoy!
When I was informed that the topic of the 2nd Yakezie blog swap would be to share our most effective money saving tip we employ on a daily basis, I immediately knew what my answer would be.
The answer is simple. I save big money on food and even bigger money on drinks! How do I do this and how much do I save, you ask? These ideas will be the topic of this post!
Before we get started on sharing my tips on how to save money on food and beverages, I want to address the question about just how much you can save by reducing the amount of eating/drinking out you do.
Up Against The Averages
The average cost per meal (included tax and tip) for one person eating out is $17. Obviously, this varies depending on where you live. But for now, we’ll use that as the average for our analysis.
How Do The Totals Look?
According to UCSD Nutrition Link, Americans eat out an average of 4-5 times per week. Assuming the frequency value of 4 times per week, this equates to $68 per week, or $272 per month. This is incredible!
According to a report from the USDA in 2007, the average monthly per person cost on groceries is $112.
In looking at these numbers, it occurred to me that I am clearly spending more on groceries every month ($200 is my average grocery bill per month), but since I am only averaging eating out once per week (total eating out bill of $68 per month), my overall food cost is greatly decreased.
Let’s put this in to plain English, shall we? My monthly savings over the spending schedule above would be $272+$112-$200-$68 = $116. This equates to saving $1,392 per year!
If instead of spending that extra $116 each month on food, I invested it in my Roth IRA in an index mutual fund averaging 10% return from now (at age 25) until the age I retire (age 67), it would be worth $748,000 due to the miracle of compounding interest.
As you can see from this example, it is clear that there is a lot of potential for accumulating wealth with this money saving tip alone.
So, let’s take a look at some of the things I do to save money on food and beverages.
Money-Saving Strategies for Food and Beverage Purchases
1) Purchasing $3 Bottles of Wine
This potent strategy works wonders on relieving the strain on your pocket book. Every two months or so, while I am at the grocery store (I shop at either Kroger or Wal-Mart), I stock up on approximately 8-12 bottles of $3 wine. At Kroger, the brand I buy is Bay Bridge, and at Wal-Mart, the brand is Oak Leaf.
This is the type of wine that I drink when having larger get-togethers or am just eating dinner at home by myself and feel like a glass of wine.
For special occasions (one when I can really appreciate the wine), I have several “nicer” bottles of $10-$20 per bottle local Virginia wines that I drink. By employing this one method, I save most likely several hundreds of Dollars per year.
2) Only Purchase Wine at Restaurants on Special Occasions
At a restaurant recently, a bottle of local Virginia wine was listed on the menu for $45. The price to buy this same wine at the grocery store or at the winery was $15. This represents a 3X markup! Wow! Now that’s profit!
As it turns out, the average markup for bottles of wine at restaurants is 2.5-4 times the normal retail cost. Personally (maybe I am just plain weird), but I find it very hard to actually enjoy the taste of something when I know it is ripping me off from the inside out.
Therefore, unless it is special occasion and I have planned for it financially, I personally don’t buy wine at restaurants!
3) Never Go Out to Eat Alone
This is one of my favorite money-saving strategies, and it is so simple. Only go out to eat when you are going out with friends!
Think about it. If you’re like me, you probably eat 80% of your meals by yourself (including breakfast and lunches). By simply eating at home or bringing lunch to work with you, you can save tons of money if you just make it a policy to avoid restaurants/fast-food if you are by yourself.
After all, who wants to eat out alone at a restaurant anyway?!
4) Buy in Bulk and Buy Generic
At least once a month, I make it a policy to go to the local Wal-Mart to stock up on the bulk of my groceries.
Why? Simply put – no one can beat Wal-Mart’s prices when it comes to their generic Great Value brand. And, I bet you “name-brand” loyal shoppers out there would be surprised how good the quality of a lot of their items is.
While I am at Wal-Mart, I try to buy as much as possible of items that won’t go bad. Examples of these items include bagged cereal, oatmeal, pasta, canned beans, salsa, tortilla shells (I love burritos!), frozen fruit, etc.
5) Buy Frozen Foods and Canned Foods
The last money saving tip of today’s post may also be one of the most effective; I save big money by buying canned and frozen foods.
Even though canned and frozen foods do not taste quite as good as fresh foods, they keep for longer, can be bought in bulk, and are much much cheaper.
Furthermore, recent studies have shown that since frozen vegetables and fruits are picked and flash-frozen at the peak of ripeness (instead of when they are green so that they ripen while being shipped from Chile to California over a 2 month period), they contain a much higher level of nutrients.
Well – those 5 tips are the main ways I save money on a daily basis. Thanks to everyone for reading my guest post. I hope you can use some of these tips in your daily life to save money for your future.
How about you all? What strategies do you use to save big money on a day-to-day basis?
***Photo courtesy of http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1217/5125464384_9182d3426f.jpg
How You Can Actually Save Money By Using Online Coupons (The Non-Annoying Variety)
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One of my many financial pet peeves is the copious amount of books or magazines of coupons I receive each week.
Why is this one of my pet peeves?
Essentially, the coupon system in the USA is out of control. Coupons have become more of a way of getting us to spend more money that we don’t have at stores we would never step foot in (or be on their webpage), as opposed to what they should be – a way to save money on things we already need to buy and for stores to reward customers. On top of this, all of the different coupon packets sent to me each week (Red Plum and Valpak, just to name a few) go directly in the garbage and fill up our landfills.
Let me give you all a quick example of the uselessness of the current system.
Today, I received a Hometown Magazine booklet of coupons. I just flipped through the booklet cover to cover, and I did not see one coupon for something that I already needed to buy this coming week. However, there were plenty of good looking deals to get me to spend more money on things I don’t need, like going out to eat at the China King Buffet and getting $2 off, getting 5% off car repair work if the repair job is over $350, or getting a discount price on a golf club membership for $1799 per year.
Clearly, this type of coupon system is not working. What is a needed in today’s shopping environment is a searchable interface where you can actually find deals for things you are looking for.
But, There is a Promising Solution!
Online coupons providers are becoming a very promising resource for consumers to “strike back” and save some real money. One of these resources that I was recently exposed to was PromotionCode.org.
This system allows you to search for the specific store you normally shop at (whether it be Target, Amazon, Wal-Mart, Kroger, etc) and find coupons on the actual items you normally buy. There is also a cool feature that allows you to sign up to receive new coupons via email when they are posted or get coupons that specifically offer free shipping on online orders.
An example of how this system can be used is as follows:
As you all know, my favorite place to buy cheap, used financial books is through Amazon.com. And, one of the books that I already know I want to buy is The Power of Passive Investing
by Rick Ferri. By simply searching for Amazon, PromotionCode.org’s system directs me to the Amazon coupon codes page. Listed on this page are several 5% off promo codes that can be used to reduce the cost of buying this book. It also lists the success rate that other users have had with the codes, as well as a system that allows you to report faulty or expired deals.
This is definitely something that would never be possible to obtain from a ValPak booklet.
How about you all? Do you ever use the coupons that you receive in the mail? Have you had good luck with online coupons recently? What resources do you use?
Share your experiences by commenting below!
***Photo courtesy of http://www.flickr.com/photos/24218656@N03/4587200719/sizes/m/in/photostream/
FREE Netflix For All For 1 Month!
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Welcome to My Personal Finance Journey! If you are new here, please read the “About” or “First-Time Visitor” pages to find out more about us. If you would like to receive free updates on articles like this by email, then sign up here or you can subscribe to the RSS feed. Also, check us out on Twitter or Facebook. Thanks for visiting! Keep on learning!
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Click here to enter my free giveaway for 2 copies of H&R Block At Home Premium Edition
- Go to Netflix.com/tellafriend
- Enter one of the four priority codes listed below before June 15th, 2011.
- M829180488735
- M869110488775
- M513995667115
- M899120488725
- When you use one of the codes above, do your fellow readers a favor and post a quick comment below letting them know which code you took out of the running. Thanks!
How about you all? Do you currently use Netflix to save money on your monthly cable bill? If not, how much do you pay for your TV channels?
Share your experiences by commenting below!
***Photo courtesy of http://www.consumerqueen.com/consumerqueenwp/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/netflix.gif
The Journey After Bankruptcy
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Click here to enter my free giveaway for 2 copies of H&R Block At Home Premium Edition
Today’s guest post comes to us from Chris Mullen.
In 2004, the laws regarding bankruptcy began to change. A bill was passed for how bankruptcy would be handled, which came into effect in 2005. Part of this financial bill was to make sure anyone submitting for bankruptcy would first take a debt management course. This was inputted into the bill to lower the frequency with which some were filing for bankruptcy. Given the high rate of bankruptcies filed, the government felt a need to make some changes.
For those that filed seven years, ago their journey may be completed or at least closer to the right path. Once a bankruptcy is filed and the debts discharged, one’s credit is highly affected. First, the credit scores are already low given the need for bankruptcy, and they will remain low.
During this time, a person has to consider what debts they should take on and what they should stay away from. For example, credit cards can help improve one’s credit scores over time, but they can also create a new debt situation. A bankruptcy on record also means high interest rates on credit cards, loans, and mortgages. The only type of loan that may not be affected by the bankruptcy are the pay loans with no credit check. The rates would be the same for any borrower, which is often quite high to begin with.
It is best for someone that has filed for bankruptcy to take the seven years the bankruptcy is on their credit record to improve their credit with rise money lending practices. In this case, one should have a prepaid credit card that will report to the credit bureaus. They should also make regular payments on a mortgage or car loan.
It is essential to have companies reporting good things about one’s outstanding credit. No reporting is just as bad as the scores will not increase, but often remain the same. Once it has been seven years, the bankruptcy can no longer be used against a person for credit, meaning interest rates can be comparable to the repaired credit amount one has in their financial reports over what it was nearer the bankruptcy.
How about you all? Have you or any one you know ever filed for bankruptcy? If so, was it Chapter 7 or 13? Share your experiences by commenting below!
Jacob’s Thoughts – Listed below are my random thoughts as I was reading this article.
- @ The debt management class requirement for those filing for bankruptcy – I actually had no idea that this was required! Did everyone else know that this was necessary in order to file bankruptcy? I’m also curious as to whether the government pays for this or whether the payment for it gets lumped in to your debt that will be erased with the filing.
- @ The concept of bankruptcy in general – To me (maybe it is just me that feels this way), bankruptcy, at times, almost seems too good to be true. The concept that your debts can be totally wiped clean after getting in way over your head is simply amazing! And, your credit report only suffers for 7 years? This seems too good to be true. OK, I know it can be argued that the people that experience bankruptcy won’t be able to get favorable financing in order to own their own home or start new businesses. However, in my opinion, it seems that the majority of people reaching bankruptcy probably weren’t on track to one of these goals in the first place.
- So, I’ll leave you all with one question I have – are the penalties for bankruptcy severe enough currently? Or, do you think they need to be tightened to deter it was occurring?
***Photo courtesy of http://www.eurodebt.com/images/bankruptcy_images/bankruptcy_service_300.jpg
The Psychology of Shopping
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The following is a guest post by Louise Tillotson. Enjoy!
Note from Jacob: For those of you reading from the USA, this = $2.30 USD per liter, or $9 per gallon. This is currently much more than the $3.60 per gallon we are paying! It sort of makes sense why Europeans use public transportation much more than we do! I sure don’t think I would be able to afford driving 40 miles to and from work every day if this was the price of gas!
It’s been found that stores generally place the higher-priced goods on eye-level shelves as this seems to be where shoppers look first, and therefore buy more from. It sort of makes you wonder how this was first discovered. I wonder if this was the result of paid market research that has been done?
How about you all? What tricks have you seen or noticed that stores employ to get you to buy more?
Share your experiences by commenting below!
Jacob’s Thoughts – Listed below are my random thoughts as I was reading this article.
- @ Placement of good on shelves in a supermarket – In my hometown in Arkansas, Wal-Mart is very popular because the home-office is fairly close by. And, I know for a fact that shelf placement is a very competitive issue between the vendors at Wal-Mart. One of my friends growing up told me that Pringles has a full time analyst whose one job is to negotiate placement of Pringles chips in optimal locations throughout Wal-Marts worldwide! Amazing!
- @ Placing the fruits and veggies in the front of the store – This is definitely true in all of the grocery stores in my town! It’s very genius! I think it works because no matter what you are wanting to buy in the store, seeing all of the fresh fruit and vegetables makes you think that the store is VERY health conscious!
- Another interesting little ploy that stores use is to place the milk in the back corner of the store. This way, you have to walk through ALL of the other products in order to get to the milk that everyone needs when they go shopping!
- @ Direction of browsing – I am definitely guilty of being an American-counterclockwise shopper! That is crazy how instinctual that is! What direction do you shop in?
- Several other grocery store tactics – Listed below are several other tactics I have seen in stores.
- Placing expensive items on the left side of shelves.
- As you go down a row of shelves next time you’re at the supermarket, notice how the name-brand, expensive items are located on the left side of the row, and the cheaper, generic products are further down on the right side of the row. I think that this is catering to the way humans read from left to right. The higher priced items are placed to grab your attention first.
- The floor texture
- One of my marketing teachers once told me that the texture of floor is an important factor in influencing people to buy more. The floor at stores is almost always hard (no carpet). One of the reasons for this is that when women hear the tapping of their shoes/heels on the ground, it makes them feel more empowered, more confident, and thus more opt to buy stuff! Pretty wild, uh?!
- Another tactic used by stores is to make the floor tiled. Apparently, having the floor tiled causes the grocery cart to be pushed slower by shoppers, giving them more time to see items to buy! Genius, right?!
***Photo courtesy of http://www.betterretailing.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/brain-psychology-shoppers.jpg