Save Money on Bills

In previous blogs I pointed out some ideas that will help families save money with their grocery bills, entertainment and dining out bills, and much more. Today I am going to focus on the “fixed bills” – the ones you can not get rid of such as utilities and more. If you missed the previous posts please take some time and read them here.

How to Save Money on Your Phone Bill…

1. First thing you need to do is decide if your household needs both traditional and cellular phones.  Many modern households have done away with landlines and have gone strictly mobile, unless you absolutely have to ditch the land line.
2. If you do want separate mobile and house phones consider the Magic Jack.  I know the thing looks like a TV gimmick but it’s really a VOIP that uses your internet connection to place calls and can save you tons of money on your phone bill.  You can replace your phone bill and pay less than $30 a year.
3. Monitor your cell phone usage to fit your needs, for instance as much as I tried I could not limit my text messages so instead of consistently paying overage fees I opted for a larger plan.  Yes it was more money but at the same time I now don’t pay any fees so overall I’m still saving.
4. Try using Skype for some of your needs if not all. While not as pretty packaged as Magic Jack, Skype is a free software that will turn your computer into a phone. More over, Skype which is owned by eBay, sells phones that will piggy back on any wireless connection and make phones local as well as international. Imagine taking your Skype phone (with your phone number registered to it) to a Starbucks and still be able to answer calls made to your house number. With increase Wifi and WiMax coverage in many areas, those wireless phones are virtually always on an internet connection. A monthly membership is just $5.99 and it comes with all the features – voice mail, caller id, dedicated number and numbers in different area codes to make it easy and cheap for your family to call you.

How to Save Money on Cable Bills…

1. If you don’t mind losing your premium channels you can get rid of your cable provider and watch everything you need online for free.  Check out this list of Free TV on PC websites.

How to Save Money on Energy Costs…

Even though winter is coming to an end there are many things that you can do to save money on energy costs year round.

1. Whenever buying new appliances look for the energy star rating for low electricity using items.
2. When running Air Conditioning or Heat make sure your windows and doors aren’t seeping air.
3. Save money by unplugging your most energy consuming appliances when not in use.  Not sure what each appliance takes up even when not plugged in, find out what each appliance uses and at least unplug the worst offenders.

A great overall tip when it comes to saving money on bills is to not be scared or ashamed and simply ask for deals from each service provider.  For instance if you hear about a new promotion only available to new customers, no problem, call customer service and have them apply it to your account under threat of switching services.

Family Summer Fun

To continue our coverage of the 8 simple ways to revamp your home budget and save money in 2010, this post will cover savings on your Travel, Vacation and Entertainment category. If you have missed our previous posts about saving money in 2010 please read our previous entry (part 2) here.

Spring is here and summer will come around the corner in no time. Most American families will soon start planning for their yearly summer vacation and I think this post will really be helpful with this planning as far as saving some money. So without further delay here are some of the most important and effective ways to save money on your next summer vacation.

How to save money on your Vacation:

1. Vacations are a necessary part of a balanced and sane life but they can be expensive. You can cut the cost of a vacation significantly by planning and booking ahead of time. Bookmark travel sites for finding inexpensive airfare, hotels, rentals and so on.  If you know your schedule try to book months in advance to save money.
2. Look online for sales and discounts before making a purchase. For example, use travel deal sites like Priceline, Expedia, Travelocity, and Hotels.com before booking so that you can make some comparisons.
3. One unique way to save money on travel is to stay in hostels instead of hotels, they offer much cheaper rooms and a more lively experience.  This is a great solution for younger people, families with children should check ahead to see if private rooms are available.

If you enjoyed this list of ways to save money please share it with others and I know that saving money is a vast topic with tons of info so feel free to add any of your own additional methods in the comments below.

How to Save Money On Your Entertainment:

1. This is another situation where the entertainment book is crucial to your savings.  The closest theater to my house is a Regal Cinemas which charges a whopping $10.00 per adult ticket, the entertainment book contains 12 coupons which let you purchase 2 adult tickets at $7.00 a piece.  That’s a 30% savings and comes out to $6 saved per movie trip.  If you and a friend see just 3 movies this year these savings alone will cover the cost of the book.
   
2. The other option is to see movies in matinee show times, which around here will save you $2 of the ticket price.  This is a good strategy but difficult to pull off on date nights and weekends.

Save Money at the Grocery Store

A few days back I started a series of posts highlighting ways to save money in the new year. It is a more of a family guide to savings more than a list of unrelated and irrelevant corner cutting techniques.

In the first post I have talked about saving money in your commute/ automobile budget area and if you missed it you can read that post here.

Today I’m gonna cover one of the largest expense that a family budget has – food.

Saving Money on Food

Saving on Groceries:

• Never go to the grocery store without a list. This is the best way to control impulse buying, buying unnecessary things, things you already have or even worst not getting what your family needs.
• Coupons, Coupons and More Coupons. Having a list also allows you to look in the paper for coupons you will needs. Group them together with your list and it will make using coupons and saving money a breeze.  Don’t just settle for the coupons you get in your bulk mail, do a search online or visit manufacturer’s websites and see what they have. There is not one time that I have went to Goya’s website (a specialty food manufacturer I tend to buy a lot) and not find a good recipe or a great coupon.
• Look at the price. The most profitable marketing and packaging technique is the price per item rather than per unit. Manufacturers will make a slightly smaller package that their competitor and charge you the same or even more for it. So don’t fall victim of this marketing trick. Look at the price tag on the shelve and look for the unit price. That will let you compare apples to apples when looking for a bargain among manufacturers.
• Buy Generics. Unless you are shopping for dieting items or you have certain medical conditions or you are purchasing organic produce, always go for the generics. Most of the time the generic store brand is made by the same manufacturer as the leading brands just packaged differently and sold in bulk to grocery stores which in turn sell them at a discount. You will be saving a bundle and still enjoy the same taste and quality.
• Buy in non-perishable items in bulk. Sam’s Club and Cosco are great shopping trips for a family. They have everything under the sun under one roof – even couches to sit one while your spouse is browsing the warehouse . Buy non-perishable items in bulk from those places as the quantity discount you get here will add up to a few hundred dollars a year in savings which largely offsets the membership cost. Also gas is cheaper usually at these places so use this opportunity to gas up.

Saving on Dining Out:

• Cut out Lunching Out if possible. Dining out during lunch is one of the easiest things to cut out of your budget and free up that cash. If you dine out every lunch break you are looking at an expense around $1800.00 a year which is pretty much a family vacation. So get in the habit of bringing to work a doggy bag with leftovers from last night’s dinner or a sandwich you made in the morning. You will not only save money but you will enjoy a healthier diet and lose some weight.
• Do Not Touch That Snack Machine. We all know that vending machines offer unhealthy snacks at on overpriced cost. So why do you use it? Bring from home some carrot sticks or celery or whatever it is you want to snack on and stay away from the vending machine. If unhealthy snacks is what you are craving, bring that from home too and buy it in bulk from Cosco or Sam’s.
• Eat Dinner At Home. Eating dinner at home has many advantages other than saving a good chunk of cash. It allows you to reunite as a family after a day of work and enjoy the bond you have. It also allows for a more nutritious and healthier dinner that what you will get from even the best restaurant.  Also you will have something to take to work next day for lunch. Try to eat out only a couple times a week and look for the specials of that day.
• Enough with the bottled water. The use of bottled water has become insanity and there is absolutely a gigantic volume of scientific work showing that bottled water in large is worst that tap water. So quit blowing your money on bottled water and get you a Brita Filter at home. Fill it up with tap water wait for it to filter (about 10 minutes) and fill up a bottle of water or two or ten. Nowadays most refrigerators come with a charcoal filtration system which far exceeds the filtration system used by branded bottled water. Gosh $1.99 for something I can get for free? Crazy…

I hope this guide was useful to many and if you have other money saving ideas please add them to this list. In the next post I will go over ways to save money on Travel and Entertainment and hopefully you will find good information in those posts to help yo with this year summer vacation.

Saving Money in 2010

A sluggish economy, even worst employment market and an escalating national debt all add up to one thing – it’s time we all find ways to save money. Personal finance is at the forefront of everyone’s mind these days and saving money is probably the most important topic at the family dinner table.
Most find it impossible to cut down spending but that is only because they are looking in the wrong places. Nowadays it is time to be creative when it comes to saving money, it’s time to be informed and well educated about the choices you have.

As a rule of thumb each and every household should have a budget. It’s how fortune 500 companies operate and it’s how your family should too. Get a list of your bills and expenses for each month ( in the business world those are your liabilities). Also put together a list of your salary and all other revenue sources (much like a company has an income chart). This will be able to paint a pretty good picture of where you are financially and what you have to work with.
As soon as you get this items done you will be pleasantly surprised how some things will just pop at you and tell you where you can save money. One example would be the phone bill – why pay for house phone and cell phone?

But let’s get into the meat of things and set out some of the easy ways that families can save money in 2010 – some new and creative ways some just common sense traditional methods. In the next few days I will cover 7 categories of your lifestyle, like commute, food, entertainment, travel etc. and offer you money saving tips and tricks to help cut down your expenses and increase your retained earnings.

I’ll start today with your daily commute to and from work and your number one tool – your automobile.

How to Save Money on your daily commute & automobile:

• Carpool. One of the oldest and most well known of ways to save on all sorts of commuting bills is to carpool. Fine some work buddies that live close by and ask them is interested. Tell them that just by each of you using your car just twice a day you save mileage (valued at $.55 a mile), you save gas, you save on insurance (call your insurance agent and tell him your car only drives to and from work 2 times a week as part of carpool program) and most of all you save on time  (carpool lane).
• Stay with the speed limit and avoid a lot of stop and go. A car uses dramatically more gas when it runs over 55 mph or when it takes off. You can improve your gas mileage thus save money. Also a lot of stop and go will wear your motor and related parts a lot faster than continuous drive thus adding more expenses to your family budget down the road. Should I even mention what a speeding ticket will do to your budget God forbid you get one?
• Get regular maintenance done on your car. It cost a lot less to change your oil every 3000 miles than buying a new motor when you engine block is going to crack. Recently some manufacturers are offering regular maintenance free as part of purchasing their vehicle. Look for deals like that and save even more (see Kia, Hyundai, Audi and BMW).
• Use synthetic oil. Synthetic oil has a guaranteed life of about 5000 miles between changes. Considering you put the average 12,000 miles a year that means only 2 oil changes rather than 4 oil changes with regular oil. The price difference between synthetic and regular is marginal and well worth it. Not to mention the many other benefits of synthetic oil such as longer life time, higher boiling point, increased viscosity and others that will better protect your motor.
• Shop around for insurance. If you are a good driver check with several local and nationwide insurance companies and price them against each other. Even tell them that so and so insurance company offered you this quote and put them on the spot. Also keep in mind that an online only insurance company has a lot better rates than the brick and mortar stores – for obvious overhead reasons. Check with esurance.com for example.
• Buy a slightly used vehicle over a new one. Many dealerships have what is called program cars – cars that have been driven as advertising or by managers and owners. They generally have under 10,000 miles and have full warranties on it but are sold at used car prices even if it is the same year model. New cars will lose a big chunk of their value the moment you drive it off the car lot and NEVER NEVER lease a car unless you are rich and money is not an issue.
• Ride a bicycle or walk to short distances. If you have to run down to the corner store to get a gallon of milk, consider walking there or riding a bicycle. It will not only save you money on gas and wear and tear of your car (again valued at $.55 a mile) but it will also benefit you physically.
• Try to fix it yourself. If you ever have problems with your car try to fix it yourself first. Go to a discount auto parts store like Napa and ask them what they think the problem is. Most of the guys there (and for sure the manager) are licensed car mechanics or have been. They will be able to diagnose the problem and advise you what part to get and how to change it. If it sounds like too involved and complicated then you may chose to shop your local mechanic shops. If however you decide to attempt it you will see how much you will save. About 70% of a mechanic bill is labor not parts. You will be saving all of that.

I hope that the money tips above are helpful and you will be able to incorporate some of them when looking to save money in this category. At least it may spark your imagination and you may come up with money saving tricks of your own.

In the next post I will cover one of the largest expense category of our families: FOOD. So check back tomorrow or sign up for our newsfeed and get some of the best money saving tricks and tips related to grocery shopping, dining out and all FOOD related expenses.

If you can think of anything else please feel free to add it to the comment are and I will make sure to give you credit for it.

International Stocks

A recent poll on stockweb.com has returned some amaizing but all expected results regarding the best investments for 2010.

The poll asked a simple question ” What are the best investments vehicles for 2010?” and this is how the answeres totaled up:

• International Stocks 50%
• Energy Commodities 35%
• Precious metals 35%
• US stocks 28%
• Soft commodities 17%
• Bonds 14%

According to this numbers there is a feeling of optimism transpiring and validates a solid faith in an economic rebound. However it is interesting to see that 50% of participants indicated International Stocks as their best approach to investing in 2010. It’s interesting because not longer than 5 years ago when I was running a hedge fund, this particular investments were labeled as above normal risk and many investors steered clear of emerging markets such as Brazil and Argentina to name a few.

Today, partly due to a much more cohesive and fluid world stock market, these investments are more and more appealing and one does not have to buy shares in a mutual fund dedicated to international stocks but can rather personally place a buy or sell order on the Moscow stock exchange or Buenos Aires or other. Back in 2005 Charles Schwab through their institutional accounts branch would charge me up to $1350 one way – either buy or sell – for a trade. Today E*Trade and other major brokerage firms will charge as little as $21 for trades in Germany and France.

Before you get the fireworks out and start celebrating make note that “Emerging Markets” are still subject to high commissions and trade fees not to mention that are still considered a very risky investment tool. If you can;t afford to loose the money – don’t place the trade!

If it was for my money, I would go – like always did – with Fidelity Investments (preferably the institutional desk if you can) or American Express Advisers (if your net assets allow you access to them).

Online Businesses for Moms

“Finding your legitimate online business is becoming one of the best ways to earn an extra income. Many moms are turning to this popular alternative in order to bring in a paycheck and spend more time with their children.” – is the introductory line of this website owned and managed by former radio personality Kelly Land.

Sounds awesome but with the rampant growth of “make money at home” scams is this site viable or just another one of those fly by night, leave your morals at the doors and hand me your credit card website?

I looked more deeply into it and I can say with full honesty that it is hard to call Kelly Land another scam. Is the website going to provide you with a paycheck each week? Hardly!

Moneymakingmommy.com is really just a review site. Mrs Land goes out and explores various make money at home opportunities and recommends some over others. To fully understand those jobs you have to keep in mind that Mrs Land gets paid a commission for each website visitor that ends up signing up for a recommended business oportunity. She is an affiliate and there is nothing wrong with that. Many people do it and for some is a very profitable business.

Most of the time this affiliate model is what she recommends anyhow so again it is hardly something one would call a scam. However it is not really the most balanced and unbiased review of its kind due to Mrs. Land financial gain off of some of the recommended opportunities. However she is really good about filtering out the obvious scams and when one of her recommended businesses turn out to be a horror story she makes sure to remove it from the site and protect future visitors.

And if the affiliate market is what you are looking for check out mega sites like commissionjunction.com or clickbank.com and save yourself commission and entry fees. The above mentioned websites are free to sign up and offer you millions of products you can market to others for a cut of the sales.

So I guess word to the wise is go check out the offerings at moneymakingmommy.com and see if any or which fit your skills and your taste. If the opportunities there sound more and more like you needing to sell some products for a cut, remember that sites like commissionjunction and clickbank (and those are just the major ones other are all over the net) charge no membership fee or start up cost for the same deal.

Oh yeah and the final though is that an online business is different than a job – it’s a business. By that understand that an online business is much of how YOU do it and what YOU do and the results are directly YOURS. Don’t expect to get a paycheck the first week or make money in the first month doing nothing. If you are looking for a steady paycheck than you are looking for a JOB not an online business.

Small Business Unemployment on the Rise

With unemployment at a 26 year high at 10.2%, its no wonder that DC movers and shakers are starting to focus more attention on small business owners.

Statistics supplied by ADP (and reported by CNN) show that small businesses (businesses with less than 50 employees) cut 68,000 jobs in the last quarter of 2oo9. A huge portion of the total 5.3 million jobs lost this year alone was due to the 2 million jobs lost in small business.

With challenges such as small business loans drying up, SBA subsidies running out, and other small business financial institutions going bankrupt, it will be harder to recover those lost jobs. In fact, large banks have axed close to $10 billion dollars in small business lending.

I guess it takes staggering numbers like those to attract the attention of the powers at be. President Obama has finally addressed the issue in a statement implying that “If you are a big corporation right now, the credit market is really working for you and the low interest rate can help you retain jobs.” However if your name is “Small Business USA” you have to do a lot better to get a loan. It is nothing short of writing off your first born in order to get a business loan from most major banks, and a miracle at least if you deal with small local banks – my choice anyhow for what is worth it.

I tend to believe that the banks of America as well as the well dressed crowd on Capitol Hill need to be reminded again that the backbone of this country is still the Small Businesses. Their growth is the growth of our economy as we together hire more than any of the fortune 500 companies, pay more taxes than they do and create a much bigger demand than they do. Without growth in this sector the burden of employment gets put solely on the large corporation which as is are inefficient, poor managed and too large to handle quick economic downturns.

Assume that the Small Business sector is flourishing and that each business hires in average 20-30 people. A company this size can swiftly adapt to market conditions, demand and supply shifts, taxation and legislation. So it makes all the sense in the world that to control unemployment is to nourish the small entrepreneur – which in most cases has a more humane work schedule and compensation package.

Even Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner has acknowledged that without credit for small businesses, they simply can not grow. CNN quotes him as saying, “No jobs without growth. No growth without credit.”

So here’s another wake up call Mr. Washington DC, stop messing with bills of minimal importance – such as the newly approved airport in some 3000 people town of Tennessee costing us 1.3 billion dollars and bringing 10 jobs – and address the real elephant in the room! The state of our Small Businesses.

Yeah Another Scam-er

Wow there is another small business millionaire over night guy out there that has reached national recognition. His name is Ivan Fienney, so claimed father of two and an ex-school teacher than now makes $8000 a month. He is the latest of the Google Kit make money at home scam superstars that will sit and tell you that you will get paid for posting links on Google!

We covered the Google Kit scam before but since this guy has reached somewhat of a national recognition it only seams fair that we dissect his program and reveal the truth.

First of all he has no program of his own which to the untrained eye looks like a credible source. He is riding Robert Allen’s program that he claims he made millions off of, enough money to make him quit being a school teacher and dedicate his attention to online business opportunities. However while credible at first this guy fits all the tell tell signs of a scam-er and indeed he is one.

His website found at ivanblogecrets.com is just a big oh scam that follows all the patterns that we highlighted in earlier blogs. You will see his national accreditation images… pictures of the daily show, logo of CNBC and many other national credible media outlets. However when one clicks on those images it will return a blank document as such media coverage never existed.

Let me tell you one thing for sure, as a veteran of 20 some years of internet marketing and creator of many top ranked websites on the internet – NO ONE PAYS YOU TO POST LINKS ON GOOGLE! If that was not capitalized enough for you then I have a bridge for sale in Brooklyn NY. There are several kinds of links you see on google.com: – 1. the sponsored links aka someone paid for it, the organic links aka your site is really important and the cross advertiser links aka yet again someone paid for it! Where in that equation can you spot a place for you to post links on Google for free, not sell anything and make 8K a month? Yeah its a myth but a well written myth courtesy of the most brilliant mind Mr. Robert Allen, the pioneer of online membership sites!

So please if you really value you hard earned money please do not sign up for this scam, you will only hate yourself 1 month into it. I don’t care who you are but if you promise millions over night without any work and you charge me for your secret to do it you are a scam-er! More over if you gonna use fake media logos to build your credibility I know you are desperate and if you claim you can post links on Google for free you are completely out of your mind. Just the thought the Google.com a multi-billion dollar organization will allow you to do that is beyond comprehension.

Since we try to steer people away from falling victims to those fly by night make money at home programs, we are compelled to expose this guy. It’s a scam. it will never work and it is not real. So while you are shedding a tear for his tough background – two kids and an elementary school teacher job paying nothing – remember this one thing HE IS A MADE UP PERSON WITH A GOOD ENOUGH BACKGROUND TO SQUEEZE MONEY FROM YOU AND A TEAR ON TOP OF IT!

If you still have doubts go to http://todaysmorningnews.com/ and try to click on any of the media coverage images he boasts to be covered by! That’s right they are all fake advertising insets. He took a picture of their logo and with a little help from Photoshop he claims his scam is legit and endorsed by these large media corporations. The links go nowhere.

New Credit Card Regulation

Yesterday we talked about the new changes that the CARD has brought to the wild wild west of credit card issuers world. Today we will cover even more dramatic changes and how they will affect people from all walks of life. Having said that let’s disect the new regulations and find out who it really benefits and why is AGAIN just another half baked idea.

So credit card companies are no longer allowed to sit on college campuses and sign students up offering a slice of pizza. Nor can they jack up our interest rates without prior – 45 days – notice. They no longer can increase your rate by scavenging through your financial records – unless off course you are late on your payment 60 days or more. That sounds all so awesome and overdue but what about he loopholes and how is this gonna benefit the masses?

As always simple mass will lead you to the answer. Looking at the law again I noticed that while credit card companies have all those new restrictions mentioned above, there is no law or regulation prohibiting them from charging monthly fees or yearly fees on your account. Regardless if you are paying your bill in time or not, banks like CitiGroup will charge a monthly fee if you do not spend more than $2400 a year on their card. Others like American Express and Bank of America are starting to charge a yearly service fee (call it membership fee) that really will bring no value to you as the card holder. Ohio based Fifth Third bank is charging $15.00 a month if no transaction was made on the card during that billing cycle.

All those fees are the credit card companies reaction to the fact that they now can no longer sign up “sucker” memebers that they know for sure will end up paying years of interest on their debt.

But this fees will be passed on to all of us. Whether you are a good account or not those fees will apply so how is the government regulatory legislation really help you? Well it doesn’t. It only helps those who have habitually been late on their credit card bill, those who have not been able to manage their open debt and the likes. But you the good, honest credit card consumer is about to take a penalty for something the other guy did.

If the government really wanted to do something they should have set out to ban all those fees and other charges we are all about to see. College students can not get a credit card without a co-signer or proof of sustainable income. Good payers will end up having their credit card benefits like miles and such being cut off in the name of saving to cover other assets, not to mention that all on time payers will still get a fee and an interest rate increase. Looking t statistics for the last 12 month, the median interest rate credit card companies were charging in 2008 was 12%, that is 4% lower than what we are all set to receive in 2010 and 2% lower than the media for 2009.

Banks adjust to government regulation and so should you, and unless we all learn what credit card debt and open credit line means we will never have the upper hand on the BIG BANK company. Again like I mentioned in a blog yesterday, it all starts with educating the people and the future consumers. A person well aware of how recurring debt works will never end up in the shoes of Sarah Miller, a student from Ohio, that is now 40K in debt after receiving a no limit American Express when she was 20 years old.

Under 21? No Cards For You!

This is the latest headline CNNMoney.com boast on their credit section of their website. Together with high resolution graphics and examples of students in different credit scenarios, CNN informs the public of the latest government attempt to help people.

But let not stray away from what the real issue here is. Yes there are bad practices in the credit card issuers world, yes there are tons of students that are in debt over their head and yes there are a lot of people that are managing just fine.That has never really been a major topic as everyone agrees on it. But will a new government half baked plan to correct the problem really work?

I vote no. One of my friends posted on Facebook a brilliant idea on this topic. Is not as much that people ar irresponsible or banks are too greedy but rather the issue can be found in our educational fabric.

As kids we are told to save and have a piggy bank, spend wisely and look for the bargains. At no point do parents tell us the principle of credit how it works and how to manage recurring debt or a revolving credit. We are taught basic financial skills and sent into the wild where we can get a credit card, a pizza and a teddy bear at any college campus if we stop between classes and apply at one of those improvised stands.

So rather than addressing the underlying issue here, the government sets out to spend more money on regulating how a credit company approaches students and persons under 21. Is as if only persons under 21 have a credit card debt or are buried under a mountain of credit card debt. It is again at best a mediocre attempt to solve a problem and will do noting more than change ever so little the big banks approach to making you a credit customer.

The real solution is in education. And here is where I go back to my friends idea: Everyone should be taught in high school a little course on debt, credit cards and managing such issues. Every up and coming college student should at least know how credit cards work and how they are not just a source of income but rather a much more complex financial instrument. Like he said, unless you graduated one of those course you should probably not be allowed to have a credit card. I twill save taxpayers money, it will save your parents a ton of cash and it will help you a lot when it comes to your life after crazy college years.

Again America, education is the best tool to prevent or solve problems not another government regulatory agency that will do nothing more than increase our budget deficit and obtain under par results. Wake up, demand to be educated and demand understanding of what is given to you.