(TNS) — The group leading the push for money to re-establish a passenger train between Scranton and New York City hopes to hire a consultant later this year as a guide to getting the project done. The train would stop in Monroe County. The Northeastern Pennsylvania Alliance, which signed on as the lead agency in November, will seek federal and state money to pay the consultant, said Alan Baranski, the alliance vice president for transportation planning.This [...]
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الثلاثاء، 19 أبريل 2016
Heres an Easy Way to Score a Free $20 to Spend at Dicks Sporting Goods
If you or your kids are the sporty type, you may have heard Sports Authority isn’t on top of its game right now.
The struggling chain filed for bankruptcy last week, and is slated to close more than 140 storefronts across the nation.
While this might mean some super sales in the short term, you could be missing a supplier for your future sporting equipment needs. Some things — like running shoes — are not best purchased online.
Luckily, Dick’s Sporting Goods is swooping in to steal the play.
(Mixed sports metaphor? Probably. The closest I’ve ever gotten to competitive athletics was getting picked last for dodgeball in seventh grade. They actually fought over who would have to take me, now that I think about it…)
Get a Free $20 to Spend at Dick’s Sporting Goods
In what seems at first like a low-blow promotion (Look how good I am at sports metaphors! I’m doing it, right?), Dick’s is offering customers a $20 reward when they trade in their Sports Authority “League” loyalty membership card for a Dick’s “ScoreCard.”
Since Sports Authority is already struggling, it’s fair to say any business Dick’s drains from it will hurt like a football to the face.
But it’s great news if your local Sports Authority is closing and you still need a place to buy sporting goods.
The ScoreCard is a pretty sweet deal in its own right: You get a point for every dollar you spend, and when you rack up 300 points, you get $10 to spend at Dick’s.
You’ll also be the kind of VIP who gets access to exclusive coupons and sales events.
And while the free $20 reward probably won’t even cover a new pair of shorts, every little bit helps. Workout gear is expensive!
Get in the Game
Not a Sports Authority League member?
Even though you’ll miss this deal, it’s still free to sign up for the Dick’s ScoreCard.
Then, do yourself one better by paying for your purchases with a cash-back credit card or a discounted gift card to stack your savings.
That’s how we Penny Hoarders play the game.
#winning.
Jamie Cattanach (@jamiecattanach) is a staff writer at The Penny Hoarder. She understands sports really really well. Seriously.
The post Here’s an Easy Way to Score a Free $20 to Spend at Dick’s Sporting Goods appeared first on The Penny Hoarder.
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Ready for $1 Subs at Jimmy Johns? Heres What You Need to Know
Want a great deal on lunch this week?
Go to Jimmy John’s Thursday, April 21, to get a sub for just $1.
The sandwich shop is bringing back this popular promotion in celebration of its annual Customer Appreciation Day.
How to Get a $1 Sub
The promotion is good for in-store orders only.
Go to participating Jimmy John’s between 11 a.m. and 3 p.m. this Thursday, and you can get sandwiches #1-6 — ham, roast beef, tuna, turkey, Italian or veggie — plus the J.J.B.L.T. for $1 (plus tax).
If you’re counting calories or carbs, don’t worry — Slims and the Unwich lettuce wrap are included in the promotion. But you might pay extra for wheat bread at some locations.
Subs are limited to “one per person,” but according to the official rules, “If you would like more than one $1 sub, you can go through the line as many times as you like.”
Personal experience tells us those lines are pretty unruly, though, so you might want to cancel your afternoon meetings to get the most out of this deal.
We’re already blocking off a few hours in our calendars.
Pick-up, online and delivery orders will be full price, and the drive-thru will be closed. But don’t worry — Jimmy John’s employees make delightful conversation, and they’ll whip up your sandwich at a disconcerting speed.
Your Turn: What’s your favorite sandwich at Jimmy John’s?
Dana Sitar (@danasitar) is a staff writer at The Penny Hoarder. She’s written for Huffington Post, Entrepreneur.com, Writer’s Digest and more, attempting humor wherever it’s allowed (and sometimes where it’s not).
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Twenty Key Strategies for Finding Incremental Savings in Your Life
One of my favorite personal finance tactics is to find “incremental savings” in my life and do what it takes to implement them.
So what exactly does “incremental savings” mean? Incremental savings simply refers to the reduction or elimination of the cost of a recurring expense. Typically, incremental savings require only a one-time action up front or a substitution of one action for another so that there’s no change in your time investment. If you find a way to trim your energy bill, then that’s incremental savings. If you find a way to trim your grocery bill that’s repeatable, then that’s incremental savings.
The benefits of incremental savings are obvious. It means smaller bills, so that means you’re going to have more money left behind for other things in life. That usually means lower stress in life and far fewer money worries. More importantly, because they cost very little time – it’s just one up-front task that doesn’t have to be repeated or a substitution of tasks that doesn’t add any additional time – they have very little opportunity cost associated with them. You’re not going to miss out on other things because you’re devoting time to these projects, because they’re either one-shot things you can do in your downtime or substitutions for the things you already do.
Here are twenty of my favorite incremental savings strategies. Hopefully, you’re already doing most of these things. If not, you have a great avenue for easy savings.
Trim your energy bill by replacing light bulbs with LEDs. Many American homes are still lit by incandescent bulbs and CFLs, each of which have their own problems. Incandescent bulbs are very cheap up front, but they have a pretty short lifespan and they gobble energy like there’s no tomorrow. CFLs are better in terms of energy use and have a longer lifespan, but they take a while to warm up and are more expensive than incandescents.
LEDs, on the other hand, light up instantly, have an incredibly long lifespan, use less energy than even CFLs do, and the newer ones offer full spectrum lighting that’s indistinguishable from a normal incandescent. The only drawback is the up front cost, but that’s recouped by the fact that you won’t have to replace one for many years.
The solution is easy: as the bulbs in your home burn out, start replacing them with LED bulbs, one at a time. You’ll find that, before long, light bulbs become a pretty rare purchase and your energy bill will slowly decline, too.
Trim your energy bill by air sealing your home. Air sealing your home simply means looking for places where air freely flows in and out of your home when you don’t want it to happen, such as through window edges, under doors, and through the attic. Doing some basic air sealing can cut down on that air transfer, meaning you keep cool air inside in the summer and warm air inside during the winter. That means that your air conditioning runs less in the summer and your furnace runs less in the winter, which means lower energy bills for you.
Air sealing your home really isn’t that hard, either. It’s mostly just a bunch of very small home improvement projects, such as applying caulk to windows, installing a weather strip on the bottoms of doors, and adding insulation where needed (especially in the attic).
You can find a great free guide for air sealing your home at the Department of Energy’s air sealing website.
Trim your energy bill by opening windows instead of using climate control. During the hottest days of summer and coldest nights of winter, you’re going to want to close your windows tight and turn on the air conditioning or the furnace, depending on the season. However, the reality is that most days and most seasons don’t reach those extremes. Often, the temperature outside isn’t incredibly different than it is inside.
During the nicer winter and summer days and most spring and fall days, consider turning off your heating or cooling system and just opening the windows. You might not have the exact temperature that you want in your home if you do this – the temperature can vary a lot when the windows are open – but it will be in a range where you’ll still be comfortable and, best of all, you won’t be paying the energy bills for heating and cooling.
It’s easy enough. Whenever the temperature outside is within twenty degrees of what you ideally want inside, turn off your air conditioner or furnace and open up some windows. You’ll find that your energy bill goes down and your home still feels wonderful.
Trim your energy bill by running ceiling fans correctly based on the season. A ceiling fan in a room can go a long way toward making it comfortable by encouraging air flow, circulating the air throughout the room. During the summer, you simply want air motion to create the cooling effect that you feel on your skin. During the summer, you’re more interested in having the warm air that collects near the ceiling move toward the middle of the room and the floor where people can feel it. If a ceiling fan is doing its job, it enables you to turn off your furnace or air conditioning at a wider variety of temperatures, saving on your energy bill.
How do you achieve that? Ceiling fans have a little switch on them that changes the direction of the blades. Stand directly underneath the fan with the fan running. If you feel air blowing down on you, then the blades are moving in the right direction for the summer months. Otherwise, if you barely feel air moving at all, the blades are moving in the right direction for the winter months. If the blades are moving in the wrong direction for the season, turn off the fan and flip the switch that controls the direction of the blades and you’re good to go for the next six months or so.
We tend to leave the ceiling fans in our house running most of the time with the blades in the correct seasonal direction. This enables us to rarely turn on our central air or furnace, which cuts down on our energy bill overall since the fans use very little energy.
Trim your cable bill by eliminating premium channels that you don’t watch. Take a look at your most recent cable or satellite bill. What packages are you subscribed to? Do you have a channel package that’s much larger than the “basic” package that’s offered? Do you have any premium channel packages added onto that, like HBO or Starz?
Now, ask yourself how often you actually watch those channels. Do you really watch anything on there with any frequency? Maybe you subscribe to HBO just to watch Game of Thrones, in which case you’re paying somewhere around $180 a year just to watch one television program. Maybe you have a big extended package, but you really only watch two channels 99% of the time and they’re in the most basic package.
The key here is to remember that it’s only worth paying for channels you actually watch. It is never worth paying for channels that you rarely or never watch. Watching a channel for one or two hours a month does not justify an additional $10 or $15 on your cable bill. Focus on keeping the 20% of channels that make up 80% of your viewing and drop the rest.
Trim your cable bill by shopping around for a better cable or satellite service. If you’re not under any sort of contract for your cable or satellite service, you’re a free agent. It’s time to start shopping around for a better offer.
My recommendation is to do as suggested in the previous tip and figure out which channels make up 80% of your television viewing, then start examining packages from various companies which will provide those channels at the lowest possible price. Make sure that you’re factoring in the “teaser” prices that companies offer, as many companies will give you a great rate for the first year of a cable contract, but the prices inflate during the second year. Average the “teaser” and regular prices in that situation.
For starters, the satellite providers (Dish Network and Directv) are available almost everywhere in the United States. Many towns also have a cable provider or two (Mediacom or Time Warner or someone else) and some towns have their own local provider as well. Do your homework and compare all the options, then switch to the one that will save you a bundle each month.
Trim your cable bill by cutting the cord. Another option for cutting your cable bill down to size is simply eliminating that bill and using over-the-air free television signals along with your internet plan and the streaming video services that the internet provides to provide all of the television viewing options you need.
Getting over-the-air television signals is easy and extremely cheap. Just buy a digital antenna at your local electronics store or at Amazon and install it by mounting it on a wall and attaching it to your television. The internal tuner in your television will take care of the rest.
For additional programming, services like Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon Instant Video add a ton of additional programming to your television for $10 a month (or less) via your internet connection. Combine that with sports services like MLB.tv and you can easily replace most of what you enjoy from cable for a much lower price.
Trim your credit card bills by negotiating lower interest rates. If you carry a balance on your credit card and face a minimum monthly payment each month, you’ll quickly realize that most of that monthly payment is made up of interest. Rather than repaying what you borrow, most of that check you send in just goes to the company, with only a small fraction actually going to reduce your debt.
If you want to lower your monthly payment, the most effective thing you can do (besides paying it off, of course) is to negotiate a lower rate. Simply call up your credit card company and tell them that you’re struggling to cover the bills and may not be able to do so in the future. Ask for a reduction in interest rate and, if the person you’re talking to can’t do that, ask to speak to that person’s supervisor and ask that person for a lower rate. Remain calm and positive throughout the call.
It’s worth noting here that sometimes credit card issuers will close your account (leaving you still with a bill) or reduce your credit limit if you do this, so be aware that this is a potential outcome. Don’t negotiate your rate on a card that you need.
Trim your credit card bills by using balance transfers. Another approach for reducing your credit card bills is to transfer high interest balances to other credit cards that offer a lower interest rate. Many credit cards offer a zero interest rate on balance transfers, which means every dollar you send in directly pays off the balance.
Many credit cards offer reduced interest balance transfer offers, particularly cards that offer this as a bonus for signing up. They essentially issue a payment on your behalf to your other credit card and then add that payment amount to your new card, where that amount earns zero interest for an extended period of time.
While this doesn’t mean that you can just ignore that transferred amount, as it will eventually have an interest rate again, you often can get away with a reduced payment here for the time being. You can also take advantage of that zero interest rate and make larger payments to get rid of that debt completely before the interest rate comes back. In either case, you’re going to wind up with lower bills, whether now or later.
Trim your credit card bills by switching to another card for primary usage. Different cards have different features. For people who carry a balance, interest rates are a very important part of the equation. For others, the bonus program associated with the card can make a big difference, too, and can save you money in other ways.
First of all, let’s look at the situation where you carry a balance from month to month. In those situations, you should shop around for a card with a lower interest rate and, ideally, one with an introductory balance transfer program so you can move the balance from your higher interest card.
If you don’t carry a balance, you may want to look at a credit card that has a better bonus that comes along with using the card. Cards offer rewards up to as high as 5% cash back or a 5% discount at specific retailers, so if you get a Mastercard or Visa associated with the retailer you shop at most frequently, that can be a sweet deal.
If you’re looking for a better card, you can start looking at The Simple Dollar’s list of the best credit card offers we’ve found.
Trim your student loans by consolidating them. Student loans can be a real burden for anyone who’s freshly graduated from an institution of higher learning.
In general, there’s not much benefit to consolidating federal student loans acquired after 2006, as they have a fixed interest rate. If you do consolidate them to get a longer repayment term, you’ll lower your bills for the moment but you’ll be in repayment for much longer and that will cost you more money in the long run.
The real savings comes from consolidating private loans, which allows you to easily shop around among lenders to find the best deal for consolidating your private student loans. You can drastically reduce both your monthly payment and your interest rate by doing this.
The Simple Dollar has a great guide for student loan consolidation if this is an option that’s useful for you.
Trim your grocery bill by switching to the most cost-effective grocery store in your area. Most people get into a routine of shopping at the same grocery store or two all of the time and don’t even consider changing it. However, it’s very likely that the store you use regularly isn’t actually the best store for your dollar.
I recommend trying to shop at a bunch of different stores over the course of a month or two, buying many of the staples that you usually buy at each different store – buy milk, cheese, bread, vegetables, and so on according to what you normally buy.
Keep track of the receipts and then compare them when you’re done checking out a lot of stores. The store you should be shopping at is the one that offers the best prices on the items you buy regularly. If you do this, your grocery bill will naturally shrink from here forward.
Trim your grocery bill by buying more store brand items and fewer name brand items. Many people gravitate toward name brands due to familiarity and, to a smaller extent, attractive packaging. Yet, when you do this, you’re paying extra for advertising and for a pretty picture on the box. It has virtually no impact on what’s inside the box.
My recommendation for anyone is to try out some generic or store brand versions of the items that normally fill up your grocery list. Try out things like store brand bread, store brand cereal, store brand dish soap, store brand canned tomatoes, store brand frozen vegetables, and so on.
What you’ll find is that most of the time you’ll not even notice a difference between the two except that the store brand costs less, which means that you have more money left in your pocket. Try out store brands, stick with the ones that click for you, and enjoy a lower average grocery bill.
Trim your medication bill by trying generic versions of the medications that you use. If you’re a regular user of prescription medications and your medical insurance isn’t top notch, it’s very likely that there’s a significant price difference for you between the regular version and the generic version of the medication. If the generic version can save you a bundle, it’s worth considering.
Your first step is to talk to your doctor about it. Will the generic medication take care of your problem? Many generics are identical to the name brand medication, but in some cases, they’re not. Your doctor will know whether a generic version is right for you.
If your doctor approves and writes a prescription, go to your pharmacy and give it a try! If it works exactly the same, your prescription expenses will drop through the floor, which can make an enormous difference in your monthly expenses.
Trim your banking bill by switching to a bank without fees for the services that you use. If you use a bank that charges you for having a checking account or constantly dings you with ATM fees, you need a new bank. Those are expenses you really don’t need in your life, especially since there are many banks that don’t charge such fees and competition is heavier than ever in the banking space.
You should look at the multitude of banks and credit unions in your area to see what they offer in terms of interest rates and fees for the services that you use. You should also compare those offerings with what’s available in terms of online only banks, such as Ally Bank and SmartyPig.
If you switch to a bank that eliminates your banking fees and earns you a little more interest, you’ll see your expenses drop naturally and also see a bit more earnings as well without any real effort from you.
Trim your life insurance bill by switching to a term policy (with a few caveats). If you have a fairly recently established universal or whole life insurance policy (within the last year or two), it’s probably going to make short term and long term financial sense to cancel that policy and replace it with a term policy.
The reality is that the “investment” portion of many life insurance policies isn’t that good until you’ve dumped money in it for years and years. If you’ve reached the five year mark or so on such a policy, it actually can become a fairly solid investment, but in the early years, it’s really not very good and you never really fully earn back those years.
If you don’t have a life insurance policy and have any dependents, you should strongly consider getting one, and I recommend a term policy for the biggest benefit you can afford.
Trim your cell phone bill by shopping around for a better plan. Much as with your cable bill, if you’re in a situation where you’re not tied to a cell contract, it makes a ton of financial sense for you to shop around and look at other providers because they often offer great deals for new customers who switch to them (and sometimes you can get the “new customer” deals from your current provider if you mention that you’re considering switching).
Check out the wide array of cell phone providers in your area, including both the big ones like Verizon and Sprint and smaller ones like US Cellular. Figure out which company offers the best deal for you as a new customer on the services that you actually use and then make the big switch.
For the most part, switching cell companies is pretty painless. You keep your same number and the only real difference is that you’re paying a much lower bill to a different provider.
Trim your cell phone bill by considering pay-as-you-go providers, especially if you’re a relatively low intensity user. Many pay-as-you-go companies (like my personal favorite, Ting) actually offer a very good deal for people who aren’t heavy users of cell phones.
Usually, such pay-as-you-go companies offer a la carte offerings where you can pick and choose which services you want. Do you want unlimited texting for a certain dollar amount each month? Or what about a capped number of texts for a lower amount? Unlimited voice, or a certain number of minutes? How much data each month?
Take a hard look at what you actually use. You’ll probably find that you use far less than you’re actually paying for with your provider. If you’re already using a low-end plan, take a hard look at what pay-as-you-go companies can give you. You can save a lot of money each month.
Trim your membership bills by downgrading or eliminating services that you rarely use. Do you really use Netflix all that often? What about your gym membership? What about any other online services that you subscribe to, whether it’s a software subscription or anything else?
My rule of thumb is this: if I’m not using a subscription service enough to drop the price down to a dollar or two per hour of usage, it’s not worth my money. Anything that costs me more than that per hour better be giving me a lot of benefit.
Walk through your credit card and bank statements and figure out what services you’re paying for each month. If those services aren’t providing significant value for you, cancel them! Those savings can really add up!
Trim your entertainment bills by renting entertainment first instead of buying it. This one’s real easy.
If you buy a lot of books, start going to the library first instead of the bookstore. If you buy a lot of movies, start going to the library first and, if that doesn’t work, check out Redbox or other video rental kiosks and, if that doesn’t work, rent them online from sites like Amazon.
The truth is that most books we buy never get read multiple times, and most movies we buy never get watched more than once. Don’t buy either until you’re sure it’s going to see multiple viewings.
If you take a serious approach to trimming your spending, incremental savings can help a ton in terms of lowering your expenses without adding even more time commitments to your life. If you can take action on even five of these twenty tips, you’re going to be saving real money on all of your regular expenses from here on out.
Good luck!
The post Twenty Key Strategies for Finding Incremental Savings in Your Life appeared first on The Simple Dollar.
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Age UK urged to consider involvement in energy market
Age UK has today been urged by the Charity Commission to consider its involvement in the energy market.
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Why You Should Worship Your Paid-Off Car
As spring warms up, car dealerships are rolling out the red carpet to lure you in. In addition to special sales and dealer incentives, they’ve got new models to hawk and an array of tricks up their sleeves. If you’re not careful, a quick look around the lot can lead to a signed sales contract and a several year’s worth of car payments in a hurry.
Obviously, the best way to avoid this mess is to dodge the dealership altogether. In the meantime, it also helps to find ways to appreciate the car you already have – especially if it’s paid off. Sure, she might have a few dings and scratches, a slight rattle, or maybe a cup of crunched up Cheerios in the back. But she’s all yours, and she’s free.
Five Reasons to Love Your Paid-Off Car
Got a paid-off car you merely tolerate? Before you hit the dealership in search of something new, consider these reasons you might want to fall back in love with your old, paid-off car instead.
Reason No. 1: You might retire with a lot more money socked away.
The average monthly payment on a new car surged to $493 during the last quarter of 2015, according to a report by the credit agency Experian. That works out to a cool $5,916 per year, or $33,031 over the average length of a car loan, which is now 67 months.
If you forgo the new car and stash that money away in your retirement account instead, you could easily get a whole lot richer over time. Even if you spent $1,000 a year on car repairs to keep your old clunker on the road — meaning you only stashed away $4,916 a year — you’d have an extra $29,375 saved up after five years, assuming a modest 6% return per year.
And after that even if you stopped adding to the balance and simply let it grow for another 25 years, you’d retire with an additional $126,072, assuming 6% growth. That’s worth stretching a few more years out of your old ride, wouldn’t you say?
Reason No. 2: Save extra $$$ in your emergency fund.
If you’re already on track for retirement — or too overwhelmed by it — consider how your life might change if you opted out of a new car payment and simply saved that money instead.
Let’s say you held onto your old car and saved the $300 a month that you would have spent on a new one. After one year of saving, you’d have $3,600, not including any interest. And after five years, you’d be sitting on $18,000!
Whether or not you end up needing that money for an emergency along the way, that’s a lot of cash — enough to pay for nearly anything life throws your way. And trust us, you’ll need it eventually.
What’s more, that’s also enough to buy a decent new or good used car in cash. Keep it up, and you may never have to make a car payment again.
Photo: awfulshot
Reason No. 3: When it gets hit with a shopping cart, you don’t have to care.
Money aside, the best part about driving an old, paid-off car is that you don’t have to care when something minor happens to it. Let’s face it; birds can and do use your car as a bathroom at times, and careless people will scratch and ding your car without thinking much of it at all.
When you still owe money on your car, it’s tempting to freak out over every nick and bump. But when it’s paid off, sheesh… who cares?
We can do our best to take care of our vehicles, but there is little we can do about bad drivers, careless parallel parkers, and birds that need to do their business. With a paid-off car, you can shrug your shoulders and move on with your day knowing that it doesn’t matter – and that you owe zilch on your car anyway.
Reason No. 4: Sleep well at night knowing you can live on less.
When the economy is good and you’re earning a steady income, that car payment might be a piece of cake. But, what happens when you lose your job, your income tanks, or other surprise expenses or bills push your finances out of whack?
No matter what, there is something to be said about living well below your means. When your income far surpasses your monthly bills, you can save for the future, take care of unexpected expenses and bills, and avoid debt like the plague. But when you live at the edge of your means, any emergency — like a job loss or health scare — can cause you to fall behind.
Without a car payment, you can sleep easy at night knowing that you don’t owe a single cent for the car you need to get to work and take care of your responsibilities. I don’t know about you, but nothing lulls me to sleep at night quite as much as the relief I feel from no longer being in debt, or carrying around the stress that comes with it.
Reason No. 5: Insurance on older cars is generally cheaper.
As a newer car ages, the cost of insuring it goes down considerably. That’s especially true once you’re able to drop collision coverage and switch to liability coverage only – that is, if you want to.
- Related: Best Cheap Car Insurance in 2016
And depending on your home state and its insurance requirements, you could save a lot of money on your plates and tags by driving used as well. In my state of Indiana, for example, our vehicle registration process is based on a sliding scale with pricing based on vehicle value and age. The older your car, the cheaper your license plate renewal and registration will be. The same goes for local excise taxes, where applicable.
The Bottom Line
Your paid-off car may no longer have that new car smell, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t worth keeping. The longer you drive it – and the longer you can avoid trading it in – the richer you’ll become.
Do you love your paid-off car? Why or why not?
Related Articles:
- Should You Always Buy a Used Car?
- Five Things You Could Afford If You Didn’t Buy a New Car
- Why No One Should Get an 84-Month Car Loan (Ever)
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Are You Guilty of These 6 Frugal Fails?
Do you feel like you spend time and effort saving money… only to find your bank balance stagnating?
You might be faux frugal.
This serious condition affects even the most well-meaning Penny Hoarders.
Here are the most common symptoms — and the necessary treatments to get you back on track to meet your savings goals and get smart with your money.
1. Shopping the Clearance Rack for Items You Don’t Really Want
At first glance, a pair of shoes marked down from $50 to $24 seems like a great deal. You’ll save more than 50%!
But ask yourself, do you like those shoes enough to pay $50 for them? Or were you more excited about the deal?
Sometimes the thrill of the hunt influences how much we actually like (and will use) an item.
Recent news stories also call into question the trustworthiness of these markdowns. There’s a good chance those shoes were never sold for $50 and the so-called markdown is just to trick customers into thinking they’ve found a deal.
The treatment: No, you don’t have to completely swear off the clearance rack. But try to remove the deal mentality from your decision-making process.
Ask yourself: Is the item worth the amount you’re paying, independent of the original price? Will you use it enough to justify the price?
2. Spending a Fortune on Dinner Ingredients
There’s no denying that cooking at home can save you serious money.
But the quickest way to sabotage your food budget is to choose recipes that call for obscure or expensive ingredients.
Paella is delicious, but your Wednesday night dinner isn’t saving you pennies if you’re paying $12 for a few pinches of saffron (which I’ve done, unfortunately).
You’ll also want to stay away from ingredients you won’t be able to use in other dishes. While $4 for a bottle of chili-garlic sauce doesn’t seem like a lot, if you’re only using two tablespoons on one dish, that’s not exactly cost-effective.
The treatment: Stick with recipes that use inexpensive ingredients and items you know you’ll use again. Save the splurges and specialty items for special occasions.
3. Buying Deal Coupons You Won’t Use
Just like finding deals on merchandise can tank your budget, it’s easy to waste money on deal coupons simply because you love the idea of a bargain.
But if you’re anything like me, sometimes the hard part is actually using the vouchers. I have a voucher for Bikram yoga I’ve been trying to convince myself to use for about eight months.
The treatment: Don’t swear off Groupon altogether. Sometimes you’ll find legit deals on there! But don’t go all “Supermarket Sweep” on it, either.
Before you hit “buy,” ask yourself one question: Am I excited enough about this deal to use it in the next four weeks?
If the answer is yes, chances are it’s a deal worth grabbing.
4. Signing Up for Credit Cards to Get the Rewards
Credit cards offer some pretty sweet deals. Maybe you’ll get a few thousand bonus air miles, or a certain percentage of cash back.
I’m ashamed to admit I signed up for a credit card in college just to get a free beanie. That seems like the lamest reward possible, but at the time I was excited about it.
However, these rewards often come with annual fees, high interest rates and other fine print.
You also want to keep on eye on how your number of credit cards is affecting your credit. And be careful about opening new cards if you’re planning to apply for a loan in the near future.
The treatment: Proceed with caution when it comes to rewards cards. Read the fine print to be sure you’ll be getting your money’s worth.
Does the reward outweigh the annual fee? Will you remember to use that card enough to benefit from the cash-back percentage?
5. Getting Carried Away at the Craft Store
Pinterest has brainwashed us all into believing we can handcraft any home decor item our heart desires (and for a fraction of the cost!). And sometimes we can.
But too often I find myself spending a small fortune at Michaels.
Sure, it’s $10 less than it would cost to buy a similar item, but I’m a terrible crafter; I end up with a wonky finished product. That, or I never actually make the craft and I end up donating the supplies years later.
The treatment: Be honest with yourself about your crafting abilities and the likelihood of actually completing the project.
Before you check out at the craft store, add up the cost of your items and decide if it’s still a good deal.
And don’t forget to factor in enjoyment. If you’re actually going to have a good time making the project, that matters. If you’re going to stress out, think about that, too.
6. Opening Store Credit Cards
We’ve all been there: As you’re checking out, the cashier asks, “Do you want to open a store card to save 15%?”
Sometimes I find this question hilarious. Like, when I’m spending $26 total, so my savings would be around $2.50.
But on slightly larger purchases, it can be tempting to open a card and save some money right then and there.
The trouble is, it’s easy to wind up carrying a balance on store cards, and interest rates tend to be quite high. While you may save a few dollars when you open the card, you’re more likely to pay back the rewards in interest over the long run.
The treatment: Avoid store cards unless the initial savings are significant (think, big-ticket purchases like furniture or appliances) and you can pay off the balance before you’re charged interest.
Your Turn: What pitfalls have you encountered in trying to be frugal?
Lyndsee Simpson is a writer and editor living in Washington, D.C., trying to save her pennies and avoid making bad money choices for good reasons.
The post Are You Guilty of These 6 Frugal Fails? appeared first on The Penny Hoarder.
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The Adventurous Way This Father of 3 Saves $300 a Month on Groceries
Are your grocery bills getting too high, and coupons getting a bit too scarce?
If you’ve already tried these 22 ways to lower your food bill, and you don’t want to get too extreme and start dumpster diving, then what’s a person to do?
Look around you! There’s plenty of food right under your feet, and it’s all free.
I’m talking about foraging: Gathering wild food that grows nearby, maybe even in your backyard.
You can save hundreds of dollars each month just by taking a walk in the woods. Foraging is gaining popularity, and you don’t have to be a sandal-wearing tree hugger to get into the game.
How I Started Foraging
I’ve been foraging for most of my life — I just didn’t know it.
When I was a little kid, my grandfather would take my brothers and me into the woods and teach us all about the wild things we could eat.
My brothers and I thought foraging was simply something you did when you got hungry playing in the woods all day. I never thought about it as a way to supplement my daily groceries.
But one day my wife and I were out for a stroll through our neighborhood. One of our neighbors was busily raking up nuts from the tree in his front yard and throwing them into a trash can.
When we asked what kind of nuts they were, he explained the English walnuts were edible, but he had so many that he was sick of them and just wanted them gone! We gathered up as many as we could.
After the English walnut revelation, my wife and I began to notice other discarded or unwanted fruits and edibles all around our neighborhood. We found an apple tree, whose owner was sick of apples. We found raspberries along a walking trail, and much more!
Some foods were literally right next door!
My wife and I enjoyed homemade applesauce, fresh fruit, walnut breads and delicious salad greens, all compliments of our neighbors.
How Foraging Helps Us Save Money
We managed to save a couple hundred dollars off our grocery bill that summer — while barely trying.
This got my wife and me excited about the possibility of finding our groceries, instead of buying them.
During peak months, foraging helps me cut my grocery bills by about a third. I usually spend $400 on food every two weeks, but at the height of the summer, I’ll only spend $250 or so. That means I save about $300 a month.
Foraging is a seasonal activity, especially in a northern climate like ours, in Ohio — so you have to eat seasonally. (In some warmer climates, you can find wild things to eat year-round.)
Plus, it’s also a cool way to eat foods I wouldn’t be able to find in a grocery store, like pawpaw, or that wouldn’t fit in my normal food budget.
For example, a pound of black walnuts costs around $14 — a bit pricy for my grocery budget. But there’s a black walnut tree in a park near where I work, and no one but me seems to know they’re edible.
It’s not uncommon for me to be able to gather a bushel (about 40 pounds) or more of apples off one tree. Apples usually go for around $2 a pound, so I can save $80 right off the bat.
If I make some of those apples into applesauce, I’ll increase my savings, and if I can the fruit or applesauce in jars, I can enjoy it year-round.
A pint of blackberries can go for as much as $6. You can easily get a pint a week from a wild blackberry bush.
Some of the other options I find around my home are ramps, persimmons, elderberries, wild mushrooms, black cherries, acorns, cat tail, hickory nuts, pawpaw, grapes, pears, apricots and maple trees.
I find these both wild and in the yards of people who don’t want to bother with the fruit anymore.
From these, I make salads, breads, pies, jellies and jams, dried fruit strips, puddings — or just eat them raw. The possibilities are limited only by your creativity!
I’ve found two great benefits about eating foraged foods: I save a lot of money, and I lose a lot of weight during the summertime.
How to Know What’s Edible
How much money you can save really depends on how familiar you are with your surroundings — and obviously, you don’t want to eat anything you aren’t sure is safe and edible.
The more foods you can positively identify, the more options you have available.
I try to become familiar with one new edible plant species every few months. It’s like expanding my own personal grocery store, one item at a time.
Don’t worry if you don’t know much about foraging — there’s lots of help out there to get you started.
Falling Fruit
One of my favorite resources is fallingfruit.org.
The site compiles data from volunteers all over the globe and loads it into a detailed, interactive map, so you can easily find your nearest apple tree or vines of wild grapes.
I was surprised to find two apple trees on the map within a quarter-mile of my house. There were even reviews of the apples from people who had already picked some!
This site is also helped me discover I’m a big fan of mulberries.
Peterson’s “Field Guide to Edible Wild Plants”
This book is a good starting resource for foragers.
It has plant descriptions, pictures, advice on where to find them and simple ways to enjoy them. The author also includes warnings for plants you want to avoid.
Foraging Groups
If you don’t want to go it alone, there’s an entire community out there dedicated to the art of finding your dinner.
People from all walks of life get together and share their love and knowledge of foraging.
For example, The Wild Foodies of Philly like to get together and discover wild edibles around the Philadelphia area.
It usually costs nothing but your time to meet up with one of these groups. A quick internet search of most cities will reveal the foraging foodies in your area.
If one-on-one help is more your style, take advantage of a regional class. For $50, Pascal Baudar will take you out into the California wilderness and teach you what’s edible, what you need to avoid and what can be used as medicine.
You can probably find people willing to explain foraging one-on-one through a local foraging group.
Will You Try Foraging?
My advice is to start simple, looking for fruits and vegetables you easily recognize from your supermarket.
Then, if you want to branch out, get someone to help expand your knowledge of your natural edible surroundings.
And always remember: If you’re unsure, don’t eat it.
Finally, when you learn about the wild edibles nature provides, pass your knowledge on to others.
I’ve started taking my four-year-old son with me when I go foraging, using the time to teach him about the wild, much like my grandfather did with me.
My son loves our walks in the woods, and he enjoys the best classroom setting nature can provide. When my other two children get a little older, I’ll definitely take them out with me, too.
At the very worst, we enjoy a walk in the woods. At best, we come home with dinner!
So now that you know there’s food out there for the taking, there’s no reason you should pay for fruits and vegetables you can find near your home… for free!
Your Turn: Have you ever tried foraging to save money on groceries?
Disclosure: This post includes affiliate links. Adding these links helps us keep the lights on in The Penny Hoarder HQ, which makes it a lot easier to play shuffleboard after a long day of deal-seeking!
Michael Beck is a penny-pinching novice forager from Cleveland, Ohio. He is a father of three picky children who will eat nothing he puts on their plate, no matter where it came from.
The post The Adventurous Way This Father of 3 Saves $300 a Month on Groceries appeared first on The Penny Hoarder.
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Energy providers owe households 1.5bn: reclaim now
Over 11 million British households (42% of all homes) are collectively owed almost £1.5 billion from energy suppliers following the UK’s third warmest winter since records began, according to a new survey.
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The Home Party Plan is All About the Show Experience
By Deb Bixler Some say the party plan business model is dying, that virtual businesses are the wave of the future. But I disagree, this business model is all about the experience! Keep that in mind and you will realize that this type of business will go on forever. Think About This Scenario. Your friend invites […]
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Investment Association to overhaul UK equity income sector definition
The Investment Association (IA) has paved the way for an overhaul of the UK equity income fund sector by launching a consultation on its controversial yield requirements.
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