Archive for category Savings
Saving money using Amazon Prime
Posted by WoB in Savings, Spending Money on June 23, 2009
This post isn’t for everyone, and if you are in New York, it’s not for you. If you enjoy going to the mall to wander around and shop, then check this post out instead.
Alright, let’s get to it then, now that we’ve excluded just about everyone. Amazon Prime is a service that Amazon provides that allows Free 2 day shipping for everything sold by Amazon. It costs about $80 per year and UPS delivers your items. For some of you, that might sound like a high price to pay for shipping.
You might be right if you buy 3 things online, but if you make more purchases, it could really be worth it. Here is the way you can save money using it. Anything that you buy online, you don’t have to pay taxes on (NY excluded, and probably more to come). If you’re like me, you don’t want to buy something and wait a week for it, so buying things online becomes more expensive if you have to pay for faster shipping.
Here is an example of how I saved money. It was a Wednesday, and I needed an air compressor for a renovation project I was starting that weekend. I shopped around online to see where I could buy one for a decent price and I found the one I wanted at Lowes. It was $160 so I was planning on making the trip that afternoon. I needed it by Saturday, so I didn’t want to buy I online and pay for 2 day shipping, and then I found it on Amazon. It was also $160 so I did a little research and saw that I could have it arrive on Friday if I signed up for Amazon Prime. I signed up and made the purchase, and it was sitting on my step when I came home for lunch on that Friday.
I saved money, by not having to pay taxes on the item, and I saved the time and money it would have cost me to drive to Lowes to get it. I figured that the taxes would have been $11.20, it would have cost a few dollars in gas, and it would have taken me an hour to get it to my house. Seeing that I view an hour of my free time at about $25 or so, this purchase paid for about half of the cost of the annual fee for the service. If I make just two more of these types of purchases within a year, I will have saved money. Since I make all types of purchases online, and always find things to be cheaper there, I will have no problem making it worth it.
You can save even more money if you don’t mind waiting for their normal free shipping too. For me, it’s all about timing. A week is just too long once I have made up my mind to purchase something.
Go on, give it a try next time; Amazon will give you a free 15 day trial of the Prime service, so you have nothing to lose. www.amazon.com
Saving money with a garden
Posted by WoB in Savings, Spending Money on June 19, 2009
Wouldn’t it be great to have a near endless supply of fresh vegetables at your fingertips all summer long. It’d be easy, quick and inexpensive to get started. Your investment wouldn’t be more than $30 and you need is a shovel and some usable land or some pots and a sunlit area to put them. Dig up a small area and head down to your local nursery or home improvement store and buy some plants and maybe topsoil. You may also want to buy some Miracle Grow; that stuff is awesome!
Some good choices are tomatoes, salad greens, zucchini, basil, or peppers. You could choose anything you like, but do some research to see if what you choose will grow in your area and when the best time to plant your choices. Ask the staff what will grow the best in your garden; be sure to let them know how much sunlight it gets. They usually will not stock plants that don’t grow well locally, so this might limit your choices, but maximize your results.
Put them in the ground and water them as necessary, and then enjoy them. If your crops take off, you may have extras to share. Your coworkers or neighbors always love getting them. You could send me some too.
Fresh locally grown produce always tastes better than the stuff you can buy at your local grocery store. Another benefit of spending an hour doing this is you will eat healthier having all of these vegetables around.
Two years ago we harvested at least a hundred perfect tomatoes from 4 plants. We also picked 30 zucchini. If we had bought that many, it would have cost well over $300, but these were basically free. Not to mention that almost all of the produce in your supermarket is trucked in from hundreds of miles away, and this is bad for the environment. You can do your part to help.
I almost find it therapeutic tending to my garden. All I really have to do is water occasionally, pick off a few dead leaves, and pick the vegetables when they are ready. It doesn’t take a green thumb or anything like that. If you want to get started, check this site out.
Saving money by being handy
Odd jobs around the house can really pile up if you let them. If you are able to keep ahead of maintenance yourself, you may avoid having them turn into larger projects. Even if you are not a handy person, online you can find solutions and directions that you can do yourself for just about any project.
Make sure that you stay ahead of painting your house. If you put on another coat before any peeling begins, you will have cut down the time it takes to complete the project.
Water is really dangerous for every element of your house. If it’s not in pipes, it needs to be fixed fast. If you let a little water problem go without being fixed, it’ll surely cause the problem to expand.
Pest problems also can cause major damage if left untreated. Most of this should go without saying, but at the first sign of damage, make sure to take the necessary steps to solve it.
Take an inventory of projects that you have to tackle around the house. This can include any projects, not just ones that might allow for more damage to be done. Once you have this list, you may want to give them a rating as to their importance. This list should include routine maintenance as well as the big jobs that you have been dreading for a while.
This list will allow you to best use your time, because you will need to use some of the tools from one job on another. You can group similar tasks together to save time and aggravation. It is much easier to stay motivated than to become motivated, so be sure keep going. If you are able to spend a few hours, knocking off project after project you will get much more done. If you have some things on your list that you aren’t sure how to manage, look them up online and print it out or grab a book from a bookstore, hardware store, or even your local library.
It might also help you identify a few items that you’d feel more comfortable hiring someone to do. You’ll save money if you are having multiple jobs done all at one time, while shortening your list more quickly in the process.
Keep this list updated. As new things come up, put them on the list and give them a rating. Here is a list that will help give you a jumpstart.
Pay your bills online
Can you come up with a reason not to use online bill pay? Maybe you enjoy sticking your return address label onto the envelope they provided to you. Or you like to hide with a stamp the little due date that you wrote in pencil. These are great reasons, but…
Here are my three reasons for using online bill pay: it’s free, simple to use, and way easier than mailing checks by hand. I’m not a fan of buying stamps in the first place, so any time I can minimize my usage of them, I’ll do it. For me now, stamps are reserved for sending Hallmark™ cards to people who I don’t see often.
If you haven’t started paying your bills online, this is the technique. Sign into your banking website, if you haven’t set this up yet, please do. Call your bank and make sure that the bill pay feature will be free. It usually is. If not, switch banks here. Once you have signed in to the site, find the bill pay area. Find out how to add a payee. As each of your bills comes in during the month, log them in with their address and your account numbers. You could do this all at once if you’re motivated. With each new bill that comes in, you should evaluate if the amount you pay changes from month to month. If it doesn’t, make it a recurring payment. Then all you have to do is check the bill when it comes in to see if the amount changed for any reason.
Your bank will do one of two things on your behalf. They will pay the bill online if the other company has this set up, or they will mail off a check to them with your name and account number on it. This is all free. Once you have all of your payees in the system, all you have to do is pile up a few bills and enter the pay date and amount due and let it run. It is much easier than hand writing a check, licking the envelope, sticking $0.44 on it and putting the flag up on your mailbox.
Even better than that is you can count on the system to pay them on time. You can go from the mailbox to your computer, open your bills, enter then with a delayed send date and you’re done. You don’t have to then remember to mail it 5 days before it’s due.
If you really get motivated, online banking, online bill pay and this budget go hand in hand. They will make you much more efficient at managing your finances. I can (almost) guarantee that you will never pay another late fee or overdraft fee again.
Spend less than you earn
Posted by WoB in Introduction to finance, Savings on June 1, 2009
There is a concept that used to be obvious to everyone that has now been lost by many. This is a self explanatory, common sense, and obvious concept. If you are able to embrace it, you will always be headed in the right direction. If you fail to, month after month, you will find that it is a slippery slope.
If you are not making ends meet, you need to adjust your ends. It’s hard to break old habits. Deciding what to sacrifice is the most difficult part of the process. Here are some areas where you might be able to cut back.
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Eating out
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Cable bill
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Fast internet
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Hobbies
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Groceries
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Expensive vacations
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Car payments
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Electronics
This list could go on, and I know that you can think of many more.
If you’ve made as many cuts as you can and still find yourself unable to stay above water, you need to track spending. When you first start tracking spending, you are almost always amazed on how much you spend on the little things. These are the next things that should be reined in. I’d recommend it for almost anyone and I have created a simple budget spreadsheet in excel that really helps. Download it here. Check out a few tips to help you use it here.