This Company Will Pay You Up to $18/Hour to Watch Videos on Your Couch

Do you have a good eye for music and pop culture? Want to make money watching videos at home?

We found a legit work-from-home opportunity you might like — and it pays up to $18 per hour.

Crawford Media is hiring contractors for a long-term project through its Metaforce platform.

Job Details

Crawford works with media companies on a variety of projects. Its IMDB lists some impressive titles, including “The Walking Dead,” “Empire,” “Vinyl” and more.

The company’s hiring for projects related to pop culture and automotives, so you should have a good eye and be able to identify these easily in images and videos.

Your job will be to watch and listen to videos and note important details for catalog descriptions and metadata tagging.

Depending which projects you work on, you’ll have to identify details in videos such as musical performers, celebrities, events, politicians, cities, architecture, cars, fashion, animals and interior design choices.

Pay depends on an evaluation of your work during training and ranges from $10 to $18 per hour. Hours vary depending on your availability and your work during training.

Requirements

You can get this job without a college degree — it just requires a high school diploma or equivalent.

You’ll be at an advantage if you have a Library Science or Archives background, or a background in journalism or related field.

You should also have good writing and spelling skills. Experience writing catalog descriptions will be helpful.

Because the job requires watching videos, the company notes “DO NOT plan to do this on a tablet,” and lists these requirements for your computer and internet connection:

• 8GB RAM (standard for recent computers)

• 64-bit operating system (recent versions of OSX and Windows)

• Connection: 50/50 (download/upload speeds. Test yours here.)

To Apply

Crawford does not accept applications or resumes. To apply, read the FAQs and take the quiz here.

After the quiz, you’ll attend a paid live, online training session. You’ll set your ongoing pay and hours once you complete training.

Your Turn: What are the best work-from-home opportunities you’ve found lately?

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).

The post This Company Will Pay You Up to $18/Hour to Watch Videos on Your Couch appeared first on The Penny Hoarder.

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BHS goes into administration: How it affects you

Helen Knapman

BHS-logo.png

Clothing and furniture retailer British Home Stores (BHS) has today gone into administration. Moneywise explains what this means for you.

Clothing and furniture retailer British Home Stores (BHS) has today gone into administration. Moneywise explains what this means for you.

What’s happened?

BHS has today gone into administration, which will be handled by the managing directors of valuation and corporate financial advisors Duff & Phelps.

read more

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Hundreds of thousands of homeowners trapped in negative equity

Hannah Nemeth

housetrap.png

Hundreds of thousands of homeowners across England and Wales who bought properties at peak prices in 2007 – just before the recession – are now in negative equity, according to new research.

Hundreds of thousands of homeowners across England and Wales who bought properties at peak prices in 2007 – just before the recession – are now in negative equity, according to new research.

Average property prices in 53% of towns and cities across the UK are still below average prices in 2007, data from online estate agent HouseSimple.com has revealed.

read more

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Here’s How to Get Mom a Full Bouquet of Flowers for Half the Price

Mother’s Day is coming up fast.

Do you know what you’re getting mom this year?

Even if you don’t have a lot of cash, Mother’s Day is one time you do not want your gift to look cheap.

The woman gave birth to you, changed your diapers for years and dealt with your teenage goth phase. You need to get her something nice.

So we were thrilled to find out about this great deal on flowers from The Bouqs Company. You’ll pay less, and still give mom something lovely.

Mother’s Day Flowers at The Bouqs Company

Right now on LivingSocial, you can get $30 or $40 vouchers to spend at Bouqs for half off — $15 for a $30 voucher, and $20 for a $40 voucher.

Shipping is free, and the flowers come to you and mom fresh from farms in South America, where they support a sustainable agricultural community.

Bouq’s farms “provide living wages, childcare, healthcare and adult education” to their growers — so you’re being generous to more than just mom.

Your flowers will be delivered super-fresh (two to four days after cutting), so mom will enjoy them for quite some time.

Head over to LivingSocial to check it out.

Our suggestion? Go with the $40 deal — it completely covers the cost of many “original”-sized bouquets, like these gorgeous orange roses.

Plus, it’ll save you money when you (inevitably) upgrade. I mean, come on, she’s your mother!

Your Turn: Happy Mother’s Day! Will you take advantage of this awesome deal on flowers?

Jamie Cattanach (@jamiecattanach) is a staff writer at The Penny Hoarder. Her creative writing has been featured in DMQ Review, Sweet: A Literary Confection and elsewhere.

The post Here’s How to Get Mom a Full Bouquet of Flowers for Half the Price appeared first on The Penny Hoarder.

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Sunday Marks Day Americans Can Cover US Tax Debt

Sunday Marks Day Americans Can Cover US Tax Debt

Source CBN.com - CBN News http://ift.tt/1Nttmmb

Sunday Marks Day Americans Can Cover US Tax Debt

Sunday Marks Day Americans Can Cover US Tax Debt

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The Complete Guide to the Google Analytics Add-on for Google Sheets

SEOs and marketers always have a lot on their plates.

That’s why we care so much about tools that save us time.

Any chance you get to automate some of your work is one that you should take.

That’s why when I first came across the Google Analytics add-on for Google Sheets, I knew I had to share it with you in a post.

What exactly is this add-on, and why is it useful? I’m going to assume you know what Google Analytics is.

But you may not know what Google Sheets is. It’s essentially the free spreadsheet competitor to Excel that Google has developed over the years.

The best part is your spreadsheets can live in the cloud and be worked on by multiple people at the same time.

The add-on I’ll show you how to use allows you to pull data from your Google Analytics account using the API and create reports with it.

Not only that, you can re-run these reports at any time.

That’s really powerful because once you create a report, you don’t have to spend time remaking it.

Whether you work for clients or do marketing for an internal team, you can generate these reports on a regular basis for your meetings and progress reviews.

Why would you want this? If it’s not clear yet, it will be soon. Playing with data in Google Analytics is fine, but it’s not the most usable interface.

Compare that to a spreadsheet, where you can use a ton of different functions (like filtering, custom graphing, etc.) on the data you retrieve.

Additionally, it’s really easy to generate those reports on a regular basis and make improvements whenever you’d like.

At this point, you should know if this add-on is going to make your life easier or not. If you know it will, keep reading on, and I’ll show you the ins and outs of it. 

Step 1: Install the add-on

Installing the add-on is easy.

Start by opening a new Google Sheet.

Then, click on the “add-ons” menu option at the top, and choose “get add-ons.”

A new window will pop up. Type in “Google analytics” into the search box at the top right side, then press “Enter.”

There should be one obvious add-on with the Google Analytics name and symbol. Click it, then press the “+free” button on the next window to install it.

The add-on should now be installed for use with all your future sheets.

Click on the “add-ons” menu again, and you should see a new listing for “Google Analytics.”

If you don’t see it there, you may have to refresh the page.

Finally, you should get a pop-up at some point, telling you the link to the support forum, but if you didn’t get it, here’s the link. If the add-on is not working correctly, that’s where you should post your questions.

Step 2: Create your first report

This add-on, while it should simplify your life, can actually be a little overwhelming if you dive right in.

In this section, we’ll create an example report and go over the basic settings and options you have.

Start by going back to the Google Analytics option in the “add-ons” menu, and this time, click on “Create new report.”

Once you do that, a menu like the one below should show up on the right hand side of your screen:

In order for this to work, you need to be signed in (in Sheets) to the same Google account that you use for Google Analytics.

The first few settings are obvious: give your report a title, and choose the website (property) that you want to analyze.

The metrics and dimensions are where things get interesting.

Metrics, or key performance indicators (KPIs), are the heart of most marketing reports. I wrote a detailed post on the 14 most common metrics for SEOs that you might want to refer to now.

Many of those metrics can be found in Google Analytics:

• Traffic
• Average time on page
• Pages per visitor
• Bounce rate

When you click on the “metrics” field, a list will appear with a huge variety of metrics. You can choose any metric you’d like for now, but I’m going to start with “users.”

While you’ll probably want to choose more than one metric for your actual reports later on, one is fine for now.

The last field is the dimension field. In Google Analytics, you can filter data based on things like source, referral path, keyword, and so on. That’s what dimensions are here—they allow you to segment your reported data.

For our example, pick any dimension you want, or leave it blank.

Then, finish off by clicking “create report.”

After a few seconds, you should see something like this:

Here’s the confusing part: This didn’t actually create the report that most people would expect. Instead, it just created the instructions that the add-on needs to run the report and pull data from your Analytics account.

Let’s actually run the report: Now go back to the “add-ons” menu, but this time, click on “run reports.”

This will run all the reports you set up in the active spreadsheet, but since we only have one for now, it’ll do just that one.

A few seconds later, you’ll get a confirmation box, saying the report was run. And at the bottom, a new tab will appear:

Click the tab, and you should see the data in the report, as expected:

This will match your Google Analytics data, but feel free to double check.

You can create as many reports as you’d like. The settings will all be stored in the main tab. When you run your reports, you’ll get a tab for each report (you won’t get a new tab if the report has already been run before).

Editing reports: On the original “report configuration” tab, your report settings will always be available to be edited.

You can change dates, add and remove metrics or dimensions, and even add things like filters, which I’ll go into next.

To add more than one metric to a report, you’ll need to select the metric box, put the cursor at the end, and then press “alt + enter” to create a new line. Then type in the new metric as usual.

Step 3: Understand all the different options

Congratulations, you’ve run your first report!

But that’s just the tip of the iceberg because there are a ton of different combinations and options in this add-on that you should be aware of.

Let’s go through all the fields in the main report configuration tab, one by one. You need to know what each of them does and how you can use them:

• Report name – Just a quick note: if you delete the name in this cell, the report will not be run when you run your reports. This name will show up at the top of each report, but it will also be the label of the report sheet at the bottom of your spreadsheet.
• View (profile) ID - That’s the ID of your Analytics property that data is being pulled from. It will be pulled automatically when you create the report. However, you could duplicate reports for multiple sites by copy/pasting the rest of the cells and changing this value.
• Start date/End date – You can specify the date range that the data is pulled from.
• Last N days - You can also specify to just pull data from the last “N” number of days, where N is any number you input into the cell. Note that you can use either this option or the start/end date option—not both.
• Metrics – You can add multiple metrics for each report. You can get a full list of the different metric labels here so that you can just edit the configuration instead of creating a new report every single time.
• Dimensions – You use these to segment your traffic to get metrics separated for each type of user. However, dimensions need to be compatible with the metrics in your report; otherwise, they won’t work. If you’re just typing in dimensions, go to that list of metrics, and select either a dimension or metric to see which ones are compatible.

• Sort - You can set up the report to automatically sort the results if you find yourself wasting time doing that manually. You’ll have to manually input the metric or dimension here that you want to sort by (e.g., “ga:sessions”). You can sort in reverse by putting a minus sign in front (e.g., “-ga:sessions”).
• Filters – You can use filters to remove certain parts of your traffic that you don’t want to see. For example, if you didn’t want to include referral traffic in your report, you’d enter “ga:medium%3D%3Dreferral” in this box. Refer to the “filter syntax” and “filter operators” on this page to see what’s available.
• Segment – This is true segmenting, allowing you to look at a specific section of data. To use this field, you’ll need to enter a value like “sessions::condition::ga:medium%3D%3Dreferral.” You can find more examples here.
• Sampling level – There are three acceptable values here: “DEFAULT,” “FASTER,” or “HIGHER_PRECISION.” For most metrics, the default value (of “DEFAULT”) is fine. If the report is taking too long, choose “FASTER” to sacrifice accuracy for speed.
• Start index – If for some reason you want to ignore the first “X” results, you can do so by specifying a start index. For example, if you type in 5 here, the first 4 results will not be shown.
• Max results – You can choose the number of results to be returned in your reports, up to 10,000. By default, you’ll get 1,000.
• Spreadsheet URL - If you want your report data to be sent to a different spreadsheet for any reason (e.g., if you have a sheet for a specific client already), you can just enter the URL of the file where the report should go.

I know that was a lot, but struggle through it, and you’ll have everything you need to get going.

When you consider all these different fields, you can create just about any custom report you want. Be prepared for reports to fail if you’re adding many values to them. Just add them one at a time, and tweak them until they work (test each time you add one).

Step 4: Create reports that are actually useful

At this point, you have a pretty solid understanding of what the add-on is all about and how to use it.

It’s time to create reports that you’ll actually use on a regular basis—that’s the whole purpose of this exercise.

Although you might be good from here, let’s outline the general steps:

1. Decide which metrics you want to measure
2. Decide which segments you want to analyze
3. Create the report
4. *Run the report periodically
5. Manipulate the results (sort, filter, graph) as needed

I put a star by #4 because there’s an alternative. If you haven’t noticed yet, you have a third option when you go to the add-on in the menu called “Schedule reports.”

With the scheduling feature, you can have reports run automatically every hour, day, month, etc.—basically, whenever you want.

Conclusion

Saving time and being able to create consistent reports from your analytics data are both important things for marketers.

If you create reports from Google Analytics on a regular basis, you’ll likely benefit from giving this add-on for Google Sheets a try.

Once you’ve created a report, you can then make charts from the data or share the data directly with your client (if you don’t want them messing around in Google Analytics).

If you have any questions about this add-on or tips on using it more effectively, please share them in the comment section below.

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This SAHM of 4 Reveals Her Exact Budget for Living Richly on $36,000 a Year

Here at The Penny Hoarder, we do our best to both inform and inspire our readers.

But oftentimes, it’s you who inspire us.

Such is the case with Melissa Palmer, a Penny Hoarder reader who left this comment on one of our Facebook posts:

We raise three kids (with a fourth on the way) on my husband’s $36,000 a year salary. We sacrifice a lot, but yet we never feel poor. And all the things we ‘sacrifice,’ we don’t actually care about… We feel so very, very rich and blessed. We are not lucky. We CHOSE this. And I believe most families can as well, but choose not to.

Intrigued and impressed, we had to know more. So we asked her to share her story.

Melissa’s situation won’t apply to everyone. She and her husband, for example, made a smart real estate investment early on, and pay less rent by living on his parents’ property, which isn’t possible for everyone.

But no matter who you are, we’re confident her budgeting tips and frugal outlook will help and inspire you.

Take it away, Melissa!

Thanks so much for chatting with us. To start, can you walk us through your financial history up until now?

Several years ago in Tuscon, we bought a house off Auction.com for $53,000. It was an absolute miracle.

The house was completely livable, and with our two incomes at the time (we made about $50,000, which now I can’t believe we made that much!), we got through the mortgage, flipped the house and sold it three years later for $134,000.

We got a big fat check for a little over $68,000, so we paid off our $25,000 in student debt and moved to Spokane with our two kids, into a 1,200 square-foot apartment on Cole’s parents’ property (where we currently live).

We’ve been in this apartment for almost two years, and last August, we used another chunk of change from the house flip to purchase five acres nearby for $25,000. We’re in the process of preparing the land and purchasing a new 1,800 square-foot manufactured home to put on it.

Great. Can you break down your budget in detail?  

Cole works full time as a delivery driver and chimney sweep. Our income is about $2,800 per month (full time at $18 per hour, plus time-and-a-half overtime pay).

Here are our monthly expenses:

Car insurance: $137 (for two cars)

Gas: $150

Rent: $500

Cell phones: Under $30 with Republic Wireless (as low as $26, depending on how much data we use)

Groceries: $480 (includes household items like dog food, diapers, soap, etc)

Restaurants: $60 (date night)

Additional food: $60 (snacks, coffees, takeout pizza)

Church tithes: $280

Extra giving: $50

Everything else: $500

Savings: $550

Anything else we should know about your budget? How will things change when you move?

With our tax return, we tithe 10%, pay our life insurance for the year (about $500) and save the rest.

Once we have our own house and property, our mortgage will be about $120,000, which means our payment will be about $800-$900 each month. We’ll then also use our tax return to pay our power bill for the year (we’ll have well [water] and septic, so no monthly bills there).

We won’t be able to save very much then — besides our tax return — but we’re OK with that. Even after moving to our property, we’ll keep $7,000 in savings as an emergency fund.

How do you track your spending? How has it made a difference?

I record every single purchase; every penny is accounted for. I just use an Excel spreadsheet  and keep receipts for the month.

[Author’s note: You can also use Google Sheets like this family, or a free budgeting app like Mint.]

Every day, I take 30 seconds and type in what we spent that day. Super easy, and eye-opening at the end of the month to see what we spent money on.

Each month, I make a new tab in the spreadsheet to keep track of that month’s expenses. Highlighted numbers are debit/credit transactions, and white numbers are cash (so I can reconcile it at the end of the month).

To the right, the numbers under “Checking” and “Cash” are the starting balances for that month, and at the end of the month, I’ll put the ending balances after reconciling underneath them. I keep receipts — so that at the end of the month, if numbers don’t match up, I can go back and see what I missed.

Then I put these numbers into our “big picture” finances tab, which looks like this:

The actual amounts spent on groceries, gas, etc, are put in at the end of the month to see how we did and what our savings are for that month. I then gray out that column and move on to the next month! If I scroll to the left, you’d see all the previous months.

I started this in January 2015, and it has made a huge difference for us, allowing us to see exactly what we are spending our money on.

And when you need to RECORD and be held ACCOUNTABLE for each penny spent, we’ve found you spend it more carefully.

Can you share some of your budgeting tips and strategies?

We rarely buy things we don’t need, and I buy almost everything secondhand, from clothes to toys and home decor, etc.

I also sell stuff on Craigslist and look for restaurant coupons before date nights.

Get Cash Back

I use our cash-back credit card for almost all purchases.

I never keep a balance on it — I just use it for the cash back. I pay it off immediately after spending the money.

Use Savings Catcher

I do almost all of my grocery and household shopping (except produce, [which is] cheaper at Winco) at Walmart, so I use the Savings Catcher app.

All you have to do is scan the code at the bottom of each receipt — and if the app finds out there are cheaper deals at other stores for things you purchased, it gives you the difference (which you can get as a Walmart gift card).

Download Media Insiders

I have Media Insiders on my phone and PC, which just runs in the background and logs which TV shows and movies I watch.

Again, it’s not much, but this one earns about $50 every three months. It’s just a “set it and forget it” thing, and every few months I’ll pull out enough for a nice little date night for Cole and me.

Cook at Home

I think this is one of the biggest savings. I find if I do at least a weekly menu, based on what produce was on sale, it’s less stressful and I don’t waste as much.

We buy our meat from GoDirect Foods, which has super cheap and high-quality meats.

Start a Side Business

I also have a VERY small side business at home where I make bow ties for little baby boys. I give more away as gifts than I actually sell, but it’s still fun for me.

Those are awesome tips! How do you maintain such a frugal perspective?

One summer when we lived in Tucson, Cole worked for $10 an hour splitting firewood… outside in the 110-degree summer heat. It was absolutely dreadful work for him.

When I would pass a Starbucks and want to stop and get a latte, I’d think, “That’s half an hour of Cole splitting firewood outside.”

Since then, I’ll consider “unnecessary” purchases through either the lens of how much work Cole is doing for that item, or how it compares to a “necessity” item like milk (this item costs two gallons of milk — is it worth it?).

I’m not saying we never splurge on unnecessary items, but shifting your perspective to look at the time and energy required to purchase the item, or what other items you could purchase instead, helps you realize what you really need.

You said you “never feel poor.” How do you enrich your life on a limited budget?

Really, I think it comes down to simply living within your means. Analyzing what your family actually NEEDS versus WANTS, and shifting your perspective accordingly.

If I felt like I needed a huge 2,000 square-foot home, then I’d always feel discontent in a smaller home. I think realizing how much you really have causes you to be grateful and content.

Also, I’ve found the more generous you are, the more God blesses you.

Even if you consider yourself to have a “little” or to be “in need,” you still have more than enough to give to those who are in greater need. Even small gestures — like picking up a cup of coffee for a mom you know is having a hard day — go a long way, and make life so much fuller.

Our life is very rich, and very full.

We make quality family time a priority, and we almost always have family dinners together (at our dining table, not in front of the TV).

Cole and I make time for each other with date nights (exchanging babysitting with other couples with kids), as well as time in the evening together after the kids are in bed.

Really, I think living a simpler life (with fewer expectations of what life “owes” you, or what you need to have to enjoy life) leads to a more joy-filled and enriched life.

What would you say to someone who wants to stay home, but doesn’t think they can do so financially?

Honestly, I would ask, “Are you willing to change your lifestyle to stay home?” If so, then you probably can.

If your current lifestyle doesn’t work financially for you to stay home, then downsize.

Sell the house and buy a cheaper house. Sell the cars and buy cheaper cars. Cut out monthly bills where possible. Don’t spend money you don’t have. Sell stuff (you probably have a lot of stuff you don’t use or need anyways).

If drastic measures need to be taken — like you live in a super expensive city and would need to move either to the outskirts, or quite a bit further — if you’re really serious, then do it.

Trust me, it’s worth it. What you gain far outweighs what you “sacrifice.”

What’s one misconception of stay-at-home parents you’d like to clear up?

That it’s by “luck” or “chance” or because “your husband must make a lot of money” that I GET to stay home. Not at all true.

It’s a huge decision every parenting couple (because obviously single parents aren’t in the same boat) makes.

Whichever way they choose — to live off one income or two — they’re indeed CHOOSING it. It’s not a decision they’re forced into, one way or another.

Are you happy with your decision to stay home? Do you have any regrets?

I wouldn’t change anything. I can’t imagine I’ll look back at the end of my life and wish I would’ve been at work instead of raising our children.

I really don’t feel like we’ve sacrificed anything — at least not anything we really cared about.

The only “plus” to not staying at home would be more money, and I’m not convinced at all that more money equals more happiness.

We don’t feel like we’re simply “surviving”; we really do feel so very rich and blessed with our life.

Your Turn: Do you want to stay home with your kids? What’s your favorite tip Melissa shared?

Susan Shain, senior writer for The Penny Hoarder, is always seeking adventure on a budget. Visit her blog at susanshain.com, or say hi on Twitter @susan_shain.

The post This SAHM of 4 Reveals Her Exact Budget for Living Richly on $36,000 a Year appeared first on The Penny Hoarder.

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Questions About Credit Reports, Parenting, Surgery Payments, and More!

What’s inside? Here are the questions answered in today’s reader mailbag, boiled down to summaries of five or fewer words. Click on the number to jump straight down to the question.
1. Credit report and mortgage payoff
2. Surgery payment options
3. Selling a car with lien
4. Selling pet insurance from home?
5. Basics of investing
6. Why emergency fund?
7. Other investment options
8. Consolidating debt
9. Social Security estimate
10. Changing financial advisors
11. Electric versus gas mowers
12. Parenting book

The weather this past weekend was glorious and, as a result, I spent a lot of the weekend outside. I went to my oldest son’s soccer game. I played a ton of games with our children in the backyard. We got our fire pit out of storage and had a campfire. We spent a significant part of a day at a nearby state park (Big Creek State Park just north of Des Moines, Iowa, to be specific). Sarah and I spent some time dethatching our yard, too, in order to try to make it look a little better as we fertilize it ourselves and don’t hire any services to take care of it.

What I always notice is that, after that first weekend of spending a ton of time outside in the spring, I sleep like a corpse that Sunday night. The combination of physical exertion and fresh air didn’t leave me feeling tired, but it did leave me in such a deep state of sleep that I actually slept right through my alarm. I didn’t even hear it for a long time.

The thing is, I usually don’t even need to set an alarm. I wake up like clockwork at around 5:30 AM each day. However, I knew from past years that after getting tons of fresh air and exercise, I’m going to sleep like a brick so I actually set my alarm. I ended up sleeping through roughly an hour of the noise. (I assume I hit the “snooze” button a few times, but I honestly don’t recall it.)

I feel refreshed. I feel alive. I actually want to go back to that park and explore the trails some more (that’s what this upcoming weekend is for).

Today is a beautiful day as well. Part of me just wants to drop everything and go outside and wander around doing something. I have a bad, bad case of the spring “stir crazies.”

Let’s do this.

Q1: Credit report and mortgage payoff

My husband and I are considering paying off our mortgage. What would be the effect on our credit rating? Would it actually decrease because we’d no longer be making regular loan payments?
– Anna

Assuming that you have a credit card that’s at least a couple of years old, your credit report won’t take much of a hit at all. The impact should be pretty small and your credit score will continue to be fine.

Now, I can’t say down to the exact point on your credit score what will happen, because the exact formula for calculating your credit score is actually a trade secret held by the Fair Isaac Corporation (FICO). All I know is that paying off your mortgage really only affects a few components of what makes up your credit score, and if you have a credit card with a decent history, your credit score won’t be impacted very much.

So, assuming you do have a long-lasting card, pay off your mortgage without worry. Your credit score won’t tank.

Q2: Surgery payment options

I’d like to know your thoughts on how you would pay for this: I have minor knee surgery coming up. I have a high deductible health plan with a $2500 deductible and an HSA that I fund to the max annually, but this is only my second year having the HSA. I do not have a 401k provided by my employer, so my HSA is my only tax sheltered account and I try to keep a high balance and I invest the funds within the HSA. I do not have the exact amount I will owe for my surgery, but for this purpose I’ll estimate that I may pay ~$3000 total between deductible, prescriptions, co pays. Would you pay this from the HSA and take a significant amount of that balance out? Or would you put it on a credit card to redeem a 1% cash back and them pay that balance off in full with cash from a money market account? I’m not sure which would payoff more in the long run.
– Mary

You’re actually talking about several issues at once, so let’s break them down.

Essentially, you’re trying to decide if it’s “worth it” to use the money from your HSA versus paying off the medical bill out of pocket. I’m assuming from the way you wrote your question that you have enough cash outside of the HSA to easily pay off the bill. Right now, you have a $2,500 deductible, which means either way you’re going to be spending $2,500, whether it comes from the HSA or out of your pocket. That’s going to happen in the case of future medical concerns, too.

So what you’re really trying to figure out is whether it’s better to have a bigger return on your money (but with the restrictions that come with money in a HSA) by leaving money in the HSA and paying with your savings, or whether it’s better to have the flexibility of leaving money in your savings account and paying with the HSA instead.

My reaction would be to look at how tight your financial situation becomes if you pay out of pocket. If this just makes a small dent in your emergency fund, then I’d probably pay out of pocket and keep the HSA around for a big crisis. If it eats all of your emergency fund and leaves you walking a tightrope for a while, I’d pay out of the HSA.

Now, assuming you pay out of pocket, should you use your credit card as a “middleman” to get the rewards bonus from that card? My answer is absolutely. Assuming you get a 1% bonus from doing this, that’s $25 for what adds up to a handful of online banking mouse clicks, so you should definitely take advantage of doing this.

Q3: Selling a car with lien

My friend bought a used Honda Civic. They had a car loan while living in Texas. They owe $24,000 on that loan. The price for the used car is $7,000. Neither one has a great credit score. Now they want to get rid of the more expensive car. How can they do this?
– Max

So, here’s the deal with owning a car with a car loan still on it. That car is considered to have a lien on it, and that means you can’t sell it until that lien is cleared. You can clear that lien on the day of sale with the aid of a bank or you can use some kind of escrow situation, but the sale can’t be completed until that lien is cleared.

In 2009, we did this when purchasing our Honda Pilot privately. We met the buyers at their bank and made the payment directly to the bank. Their notary then handled all of the paperwork and we left with the vehicle’s title and the vehicle itself.

Given that the loan might not be with a local bank, you will want to directly contact the lending institution. They’ll be able to help you step by step through what needs to happen to sell the car. What will likely happen is that you’ll generate a bill of sale, you’ll take that to the DMV and get a temporary operating permit for the buyer, and then once the lien is paid off you can send the signed title to the new owner. This is usually handled through an escrow service to make sure everyone fulfills their ends of the bargain – they’ll tell each side what they need to provide to make this work and handle all of it, for a fee.

If you’re selling to a dealer, they’ll walk you through all of this and make it pretty easy.

Q4: Selling pet insurance from home?

Hello, I am in New York State and am interested in selling pet insurance from my home as a business. I don’t know where to begin to find out the info I need.
– Diana

Your biggest step will be to figure out which insurance company you’re going to be an agent for. There are a lot of companies out there, so you need to figure out which one you’re going to do business with.

Once you figure that out, you then contact that company and they’ll walk you through what needs to be done to become a pet insurance salesperson. They’ll make it nice and easy for you.

So, your starting step should be to simply figure out which pet insurance companies you’re interested in and select one that you wish to represent. I’ll leave that part to you!

Q5: Basics of investing

I’ve been following your website for a couple of years, you’ve been a great help to getting me out of debt. I’ll be 26 years old in June but I know absolutely nothing about investing money. Math was never my best subject. Any tips on what to read to help me understand?
– Monica

A few years ago, I wrote an article addressing your very question. Here’s my collection of useful resources for learning about the basics of investing. A few key quotes:

If you’re a complete beginner, Investing for Dummies by Eric Tyson is a strong choice.

and

The single best all-around book I’ve found is The Boglehead’s Guide to Investing by Taylor Larimore, Michael LeBoeuf, and Mel Lindauer.

and

The best online resource for learning about investing that I’ve found thus far is Investopedia’s Investing 101. It does a great job of briefly and clearly walking you through the basics of investing. If you wish, you can also download the whole thing in PDF format.

Those things will help a ton. Most libraries will have the two books I’ve mentioned, so start there.

Monica has another question.

Q6: Why emergency fund?

I’ve been following Dave Ramsey’s debt snowball but I skipped the step of saving $1000 first. I just felt like if I have a $1000 sitting around, it could be a payment on a debt. Should I stop my snowball and work on saving that $1000 first?
– Monica

Yes, absolutely. Having that emergency fund can be a lifesaver in a real pinch.

Many people in your situation rely on their credit cards if they ever face a serious emergency like a job loss or a car breakdown. Their credit card functions as their emergency fund.

However, a credit card is not a failsafe emergency fund. It won’t help in the event of identity theft. It won’t help if your credit card is stolen. It won’t help if you’re having a credit problem and your credit card is cancelled or has a reduced credit limit.

It also has the problem of actually increasing your debt again and working against your debt snowball. It slows down your progress.

What I actually suggest is rather than saving rapidly to $1,000 and then stopping and going back to the snowball is to start what I call a perpetual emergency fund. Basically, what you do is start an online savings account or another savings account you can’t easily touch (maybe at another local bank) and then set up an automatic transfer each week from your checking account to this new savings account – maybe $20 a week or $40 a week or whatever. Then walk away and forget about it. Let that savings account balance build up and don’t touch it unless you have an emergency. Provided the emergency doesn’t happen in the first few months, it’s likely that your emergency fund will take care of the problem for you.

Monica actually has a third question as well.

Q7: Other investment options

My credit union has money market accounts, CDs and such. They all sound interesting. What exactly are they?
– Monica

A money market account is a lot like a savings account. In fact, for you as the user of the account, it’s basically identical to a savings account. Both accounts have FDIC insurance. Both are accounts where you can easily deposit and withdraw money. The difference comes when you look at what the bank can do with your money when they’re holding it for you. With a normal savings account, they’re very restricted and can mostly only lend that money out in the form of mortgages and car loans (this is really, really, really safe and your money is insured anyway), while a money market account has looser restrictions and allows the bank to invest that money in United States treasury notes (basically taking on a piece of the national debt), CDs, and other things. Your reward for this is usually a slightly higher interest rate, but that interest rate tends to vary more than normal savings account interest.

A CD is basically a restricted savings account. You basically agree not to touch the money for a certain amount of time and in exchange for that the bank pays you a better interest rate. So, your bank might offer a 0.25% interest rate on savings accounts but offers a 0.75% rate on a one year CD. Basically, if you agree to not touch the balance on that amount for a year, you get 0.75% instead of 0.25%. Now, you can still get the money in an emergency, but you usually lose most or all of the interest and pay a fee.

Honestly, if you see a bank’s offering and find yourself interest, ask about it. Ask the teller to explain it in simple terms and if you’re still not sure, ask for a brochure and take it home and study it on your own time.

Q8: Consolidating debt

I would like to ask what is your opinion On the best way to consolidate debt. I would like to get everything I owe besides my house and vehicle on one loan and payment. Is there a way to get around 75,000 unsecured. I have a good income and credit is around 700.
– Daniel

With that credit score and that desired amount in an unsecured fashion, if you’re even able to get a loan like that, the interest rate is going to be painful. That’s because unsecured loans are pretty risky; if you decide not to pay it back, the lender doesn’t really have any collateral to reclaim.

If you want to try, you can go to local credit unions and talk to them about personal loans, but I would expect to see either high interest rates or outright refusals.

Now, if you’re willing to consolidate with collateral, you can always refinance your mortgage to consolidate some of that debt into your mortgage. This can end up saving you a ton of money over time due to lower interest rates, but it will probably mean a higher mortgage payment for a while.

Q9: Social Security estimate

I am trying to find out how much my Social Security would be at retirement. I have 40 quarters of employment, but most of my life I have been self employed and earned “unearned” income through royalties. This means I have not paid a lot in (but I did work part time at Starbucks for ten years) I would also like to know what my husband’s estimate would be. He has never worked outside of our ‘unearned income’ royalties work except for a few ‘for hire’ jobs where he did pay social security taxes. Before we retire I would like to know if its worth trying to ‘catch him up’ to the 40 quarters of work, or if he can earn Social Security because I am his spouse.
– Naomi

Well, every five years, the Social Security Administration mails out a summary statement to each person outlining what their benefits will look like upon retirement.

The SSA also offers an online portal, called my Social Security, where you can go and check what your benefits will look like. As with many federal services like this, it’s a bit of a challenge to gain access as they’re rightfully worried about identity theft issues, but once you’re in, it’ll answer your questions.

Once you both have access to such benefit statements, you’ll be able to figure out what the best path forward is for the two of you.

Q10: Changing financial advisors

We have a financial advisor that we have been using for ~10 years who works for a large financial advisor firm. We didn’t originally choose her but she took over her father’s clients after he passed away. We are not thrilled with the service, and recently she has been requesting more information about our other accounts that we don’t have with the firm (bank accounts, other investments not associated with the firm) and we are not comfortable with sharing this. Also her fee is based on a percentage, not a fixed fee, so we think that this could be costing us a lot especially in terms of retirement plans. Currently with this firm we have multiple accounts (529s, retirement accounts, life insurance, mutual funds). What’s the best way to “let go” of your financial advisor? We are kind of apprehensive about having a potentially very awkward conversation. Also, if we decide not to stick with this firm, what happens to all of the accounts? Is it possible to still have the accounts but not a financial advisor associated with them?
– Mindy

You don’t need to have that awkward conversation. All you have to do is start shopping around with a new firm to work with and when you find one that you’re happy with, transfer your accounts. Since I don’t know exactly what all you have here, you’ll have to rely on the new company to help you figure out any tax implications or other materials, but it shouldn’t be a problem. They’ll be able to handle all of the transfers for you.

As you do this, your old advisor may call you, but you don’t have any reason to say anything to this pushy person. You can politely inform them of exactly what made you uncomfortable, but you don’t have to listen to their pleas to retain your business.

As for not having an advisor, you can always manage investments yourself. It might be tricky to pull yourself out of this company, however, as they’re going to want to retain your business and have a firm grip on your investments. It will take time, lots of phone calls, and you’ll probably end up with an uncomfortable call or two with the advisor you have.

Q11: Electric versus gas mowers

I saw your post (http://ift.tt/1rumHPp) & I was wondering if the math was off on that? I was speaking with someone today who said it cost .04 to charge an electric mower battery and given your number was .38 cents I’m wondering if the decimal is off? I guess where did you get that it takes 3.5 kilowatts to charge the battery?
– Anastasia

The charging of a mower battery varies widely depending on the type of mower and the type of battery that you’re charging.

My estimate of a charge like that is from a larger battery that you would need to mow most of or an entire acre off of a single charge. We have a large yard and to mow the whole thing without stopping in the middle for multiple charges, we need a large battery. We also need a large mower or else we’d multiply the time needed to mow the yard.

I’d estimate, on the back of the envelope, that your charging cost would be somewhere around a cent and a half on average to charge a mower battery enough to mow 1,000 square feet. This varies a lot depending on battery type. My guess is that the mower you looked at would charge enough to mow 3,000 square feet or so, which might be enough for your yard. That’s enough to mow a very modest yard in a city, after all.

Q12: Parenting book

I’m sure other people have brought this up… but would consider writing a parenting book? I really enjoy your philosophy on parenting and would love to read a consolidated version especially now that my husband and I are about to become new parents.
– Carmen

I’m not sure I would qualify as a “parenting expert” in any way. All I really have is my own experience, built on top of reading piles of parenting books. I haven’t studied child psychology or anything like that.

If I were to write a book about parenting, it would definitely be more in the “memoir” style than in the “advice” style. I would definitely write it in a way where you can clearly see the “skeleton” of what works and what doesn’t.

It would be much more likely for me to discuss parenting on a long one-off post here on The Simple Dollar. I tend to sometimes stray away from strictly financial topics with some of my Saturday posts, so that might be a slot where I would write an “advice for new parents” guide.

Got any questions? The best way to ask is to follow me on Facebook and ask questions directly there. I’ll attempt to answer them in a future mailbag (which, by way of full disclosure, may also get re-posted on other websites that pick up my blog). However, I do receive many, many questions per week, so I may not necessarily be able to answer yours.

The post Questions About Credit Reports, Parenting, Surgery Payments, and More! appeared first on The Simple Dollar.

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Google Alert: The Government Is After You

Google Alert: The Government Is After You

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Crossing the Line From Frugal to Cheap

When I was playing professional basketball in Israel, I would go to the grocery store every Wednesday after practice. I liked going to the huge, Costco-like store. It was one of the only places in the country I could get a particular brand of dark chocolate that I loved.

The chocolate was so good, it must have had an addictive substance in it (besides caffeine and sugar). I couldn’t read the packaging, so I never confirmed this wasn’t the case; the original Coca-Cola did have cocaine in it, after all.

The point is, these chocolate bars were delicious. Unfortunately, they were also quite expensive. 

I’ve always been a frugal person. I knew I didn’t want to spend upwards of 100 bucks a month on candy bars. But, I also really wanted them.

One day I was standing in the store, hungry after a long practice, and contemplating my dilemma. So, what does any rational person do when they’re stressed and facing a tough decision? They stuff their face with chocolate.

I decided to eat one of the candy bars in the store while I pondered what to do. I thought I’d just hang on to the wrapper and include it when I checked out.

Maybe I could cut out meat and eggs, and put that money toward chocolate? Probably not the best idea for someone playing roughly four hours of basketball per day. Maybe I could sell my video game system? Nope. Too important for my social life.

Paralyzed by indecision, I ultimately gave up and did something that would have made my mother, my former teachers, and the leaders of all world religions shake their heads disapprovingly: I discarded the wrapper in the garbage can and quickly walked to a different aisle. 

For a second, I panicked. “What if that employee over there saw me? What if those wrappers had some kind of tracking mechanism? This is Israel — they invented a radar technology that can see through walls! You’re done for!”

Then I calmed down and realized I wasn’t the star of a heist film. No one saw. There were no exploding ink packs that would expose my shameful act. Everyone was going about their business. The Mossad had more important things to worry about.

My fear slowly transitioned to a strange sort of satisfaction. There might not be such a thing as a free lunch, but I’d just found a way to free chocolate — which is the best part of any lunch as far as I’m concerned.

Emboldened by my success, this theft became a part of my routine. Whenever I went to this store, I would eat a chocolate bar that I didn’t pay for.

It’s alarming how quickly I went from worried to casual. Within a week I was telling my buddies they were silly for not taking advantage of this free candy opportunity. “It’s not like I’m swiping these from some woman’s purse,” I’d say. “This company is run by some fat-cat millionaire who is kind of stealing from us by using his fancy accountants to find tax loopholes, thus increasing the tax burden on everyone else. They owe us.”

The book “Mistakes Were Made, But Not By Me” by Carol Tavris and Elliot Aronson does a great job of outlining how easy it is to slide down this path of self-justification. The self-justification is rooted in cognitive dissonance. That is the term used when the mind is trying to hold two conflicting world views at the same time, which causes great stress.

“I am a good, moral person who always follows the rules,” does not jibe well with, “But you steal a lot of candy bars, dude.” The brain does not like to feel conflicted, so it acts quickly to remedy the situation.

That’s when the self-justification starts. Everyone wants to inherently believe they are good, so they will say anything they need to say to themselves to be able to sleep at night. You convince yourself it’s not a big deal. The scary part is, once you have actually convinced yourself of your own lie, it’s really hard to reverse course.

I went from being a person who didn’t steal to one who did, just like that. While I didn’t become a kleptomaniac, I do believe that my stint as candy thief was when I crossed a line from frugal to cheap.

And while I might have saved a few hundred shekels, I lost a bit of my soul. I had always been a person of strong morals. It’s hard to calculate in dollars and cents what this erosion of principles costs. It’s like when judges have to determine how much an insurance company should pay out when someone dies on the job. No matter what figure they come up with, it never feels truly representative of the loss. Some things are more important than money, and ultimately they can’t be compensated for.

This is where I differ from the self-justification purists. I think that most people who do something immoral, no matter how much they justify it to themselves, always have some nagging sense of wrongness. It might only arise once a day for a fleeting moment, but it’s there. It’s like that injury from college intramurals that you never saw a doctor about, making your ankle click when you walk. It’s not debilitating, but it’s always there until you fix it the right way. 

Then the question becomes whether or not you tolerate that clicking. I did, for a time, and I started to become cheap in other areas of my life. Under-tipping became a problem area for me. Same with telling friends I would split the cost of a cab ride, but then conveniently forgetting about it the next day.

This might save you some money in the short term, but it comes at the cost of human relationships and heightened stress as you wonder whether people notice how cheap you’re being. This kind of chronic stress can add up to real medical costs, even taking a toll on the workforce. 

There is also good old guilt. I believe we’ve evolved the emotion for a reason. When you feel bad in the pit of your stomach whenever you think about a behavior you often do, your body is trying to tell you something. It’s no fun to live like that.

Thankfully, this dalliance with the cheap life was short-lived on my part. I think it had a lot to do with meeting my girlfriend, who works in the service industry. Realizing how miserable undertipping made her feel was a real eye-opener. I cut out that practice right away.

Once I cleaned that up, the stealing felt even dirtier. Sure, huge corporations might be corrupt, but that didn’t make it okay for me to steal from them – that was just the self-justification talking. I could give my dollars to a local business I trust instead.

As I transitioned back into simple frugality, I had a new-found appreciation for its virtues. Frugality opens up possibilities and sets you up for a rich life. Cheapness, meanwhile, tears you apart from the inside while also hurting others. And stealing, of course, is just plain wrong.

I learned the hard way that it’s not right to take what I want just because I convinced myself no one was getting hurt. Cue the previously-mentioned parents, teachers, and religious leaders letting out a collective, “Duh.”

Related Articles

• The Frugal Spectrum
• Five Reasons People Fear Frugality – and Why Those Reasons Are Wrong
• Here’s What Living Cheaply in Another Country Looks Like

The post Crossing the Line From Frugal to Cheap appeared first on The Simple Dollar.

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Love Pizza? Shop Online? Here’s How to Score Free Papa John’s

Have you heard of MyPoints?

It’s a cash-back site that pays you to print coupons and shop online. We love it around here — it’s an instant way to save on everything you buy.

Next time you plan to shop online, use MyPoints to get this tasty deal: Spend $20, and get a free $10 gift card for Papa John’s!

Here’s how it works:

1. Sign up for MyPoints here (you just need to give them a name and email address).

2. Mypoints instantly sends an email to confirm your email address you’ll need to click to get the free gift card.

3. Lastly, you’ll need to purchase $20 worth of products online through the MyPoints shopping portal. Mypoints will reward you with 1,750 bonus points, which you can then redeem for a $10 Papa John’s gift card.

Bonus Tip: How to Save Money on Everything You Buy

Because almost any shopping qualifies for this offer and you can choose your reward, use MyPoints to save on just about anything next time you shop online.

For example, let’s look at how you can use MyPoints to save 45% on Amazon:

1. Sign up for MyPoints with your email or Facebook account.

2. Buy $20 in items at Amazon through MyPoints.

3. Earn rewards points for your purchase. MyPoints offers five points per dollar at Amazon — equal to 3.4% cash back.

4. Claim your $10 gift card to use on your next purchase.

5. Pay with your cash-back credit card, like the Barclaycard CashForward World Mastercard, which will earn you another 1.5% in cash rewards.

That’s $20 at Amazon for a final cost of $9.02. If possible, find coupon codes for the items you’re purchasing — you could save even more!

The Fine Print

This offer is available to all new members.

You need to join MyPoints now and spend $20 on any shopping or travel within 30 days. You’ll be awarded 1,750 points, redeemable for a $10 gift card of your choice.

After shopping, rewards points will appear in your account within 30 days, but it usually takes less than five business days.

If you request a physical gift card, it should arrive in the mail within two weeks — and e-gift cards show up in your inbox within 30 minutes.

Your Turn: What are your favorite tips for scoring free food?

Advertiser Disclosure: Many of the credit card offers that appear on this site are from credit card companies from which ThePennyHoarder.com receives compensation. This compensation may impact how and where products appear on this site (including, for example, the order in which they appear). We do not feature all available credit card offers or all credit card issuers.

The post Love Pizza? Shop Online? Here’s How to Score Free Papa John’s appeared first on The Penny Hoarder.

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Virgin Media prices to rise by up to 13% for those with Sky Sports and Movies

Helen Knapman

virgin-logo.jpg

Nearly 1 million Virgin Media customers with Sky Sports and/or Sky Movies will be hit with price hikes of up to 13% from 1 June.

Nearly 1 million Virgin Media customers with Sky Sports and/or Sky Movies will be hit with price hikes of up to 13% from 1 June. 

The move will see 876,000 customers pay an additional £12 to £30 a year depending on their package.

Affected customers began to be notified of the move by letter last week.

read more

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Why I Spent $3,975 on Laser Eye Surgery

I didn’t get laser eye surgery to save money.

But in the long run — years from now — I will come out on top financially.

I no longer need to shell out hundreds of dollars for pricey rigid gas permeables. I’m free of the obscene costs of lens solutions, cleaners and protein deposit removers.

My wallet is spared the expenses my clumsy fingers rack up when carelessly dropping a contact down the drain or on the floor (and then stepping on it because I can’t see it).

I don’t need to purchase multiple pairs of glasses just to have one on-hand as backup.

With the costs of contacts, glasses, annual eye appointments, lens cleaners and the enhanced vision insurance plan I needed to keep those expenses manageable, my pre-surgery eyes cost me roughly $300 a year. Just over 13 years of those expenses would pay for the surgery.

I thought of all of these things before signing up for laser eye surgery. But that’s not why I did it.

Why I Got Laser Eye Surgery

I was sick of wearing contact lenses.

In my late 20s, my eyes had become noticeably drier than when I’d first started wearing them in the sixth grade. I was constantly rubbing my eyes, rinsing off my lenses and cursing them under my breath.

I popped them out the second I got home from work each day and was subsequently annoyed by the headache of having clear and fuzzy areas of my vision while wearing glasses.

I was tired of waking up in the mornings to decidedly less-than-crisp sights and irritated by my semi-blindness at pools and the beach.

I chose to spend almost $4,000 on a surgery I didn’t really need to enhance the quality of my life.

And I would do it again in a heartbeat.

Still, I kept my Penny Hoarding wits about me. Here are six ways I saved on the procedure, and how you can too.

1. Do Your Research

Elective surgeries like laser eye surgery typically aren’t covered by health insurance.

However, my insurer did have a network of eye surgeons who had agreed to cap their fees at a certain amount. The doctor I chose actually had a deal that dropped the price even further.

Lesson learned: See what deals you can get through your insurer or directly from the surgeon.

2. Don’t Skimp on Quality

The procedure is super-fast and pain-free, but still… someone was cutting into my eyes.

There was no way I would risk my health by latching onto the lowest-priced physician who would do the job.

Rather, I found a reputable doctor with a long history of excellent results. Plus, he offered me lifetime, no-fee laser enhancement procedures, should I need them.

That gave me confidence in his skills and the comfort that I wouldn’t need to shell out more money in the future.

Lesson learned: Prioritize your health and your finances.

3. Plan Your Finances Ahead of the Surgery

As with any non-essential, major purchase, I made sure I had my financial ducks in a row before signing up for laser eye surgery.

My husband and I were both secure in our jobs, and we had a nice emergency fund in place.

We truly could afford to spend the money on the procedure without digging ourselves into a financial ditch.

Lesson learned: Only spend money you’re not going to miss.

4. Land a Package Deal

The nearly $4,000 sum I spent on my surgery included more than just the procedure itself.

Wrapped up in that fee were a handful of pre-op appointments with the surgeon, several post-op visits with my regular optometrist and all of the post-surgery swag I needed — like super-stylish grandma sunglasses and plastic eye shields.

Lesson learned: Know what you’re getting for the price and seek out a comprehensive package.

5. Look into Government Spending Accounts

My procedure wasn’t covered by insurance, but laser eye surgery is an eligible medical expense for Flexible Spending Account (FSA) and Health Spending Account (HSA) funds.

By stashing cash in my FSA for the year of my surgery, I was able to skip paying taxes on the money I used to pay my bill.

I also learned I didn’t have to delay my surgery until I had contributed the whole $3,975 to my FSA.

Under the uniform coverage rule, you can be reimbursed up to the amount you plan to contribute for the whole year before you actually finish paying into your FSA.

I didn’t have to wait until December 2012, when my FSA would contain the full $3,975; I scheduled my surgery for the second week of January that year!

Lesson learned: Save big bucks by paying the bill from an FSA or HSA.

6. Ask for Free Samples and Coupons

The thrifty girl in me lapped this up.

You’re prescribed some seriously pricy medications for the weeks following surgery to ensure you ward off infection and keep your eyes properly moist.

For instance, I was required to take Restasis — easily $100-$200 a month — for several weeks before my surgery and a whopping three to six months after as my eyes healed.

Never one to pay retail and knowing that my doctors got all sorts of goodies from pharmaceutical companies, I shamelessly asked them — at every appointment — to hand over some Restasis samples. I also acquired some truly awesome coupons from both my doctors and a little Googling.

Those freebies and coupons reduced my final medication expenses by hundreds of dollars.

Lesson learned: Look for ways to sweeten the deal.

Your Turn: Have you had laser eye surgery? Were you able to save money on any expenses?

Megan Nye is a freelance writer and blogger with perfect vision and an eye for savings. She offers practical advice on seizing control of your time, making smart money choices and saving your home from the brink of chaos on her blog, Prioritized Living.

The post Why I Spent $3,975 on Laser Eye Surgery appeared first on The Penny Hoarder.

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How This Blogger Organically Grew Her Facebook Page to 100K in Five Short Months

Tell us a little bit about yourself and your blogging journey. Way back in October 2013, a good friend of mine started a little blog on Blogger. I knew nothing at all about blogging, but I was a SAHM at the time and thought “That looks fun! I should make a blog too!” Little did […]

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