Fall Savings

Autumn is here! I love this season. There is nothing than better than crisp air, scarves and homes smelling like apples and cinnamon. What a great season for a resolution to save money! You don’t need January to roll around to make some changes, start this Fall! 

1. Keep the heat low. Obviously it does not make since to sit around your home in a coat and boots, but sitting around in shorts is a little too much as well. Put on a sweater and find a happy ‘lower’ medium than you have in the past. The savings will be great!
2. Take a look at how you spend your money this summer and see if there should be any changes. Summer can add a lot of additional expenses such as vacations and amusement parks, this Fall may be a great way to build that savings account back up.
3. Bring out the winter clothes and evaluate what you need. It’s easy to forget what you have boxed up between seasons, make sure you take a look before running to the store!
4. Exercise is important during the colder months as well as the summer. Instead of a gym membership, try investing in some home gym equipment or seeing what free classes or indoor track is available in your town! 
5.  Start looking for Christmas gifts now! Sales are happening all the time, keep your eyes open.

Money Saving 101: Coupon Corner!

Coupon Corner

…a fun way to share your unwanted coupons.

     A few weeks ago was at a community fair with my family and I came upon a table that looked as if it was full of scrap paper but there were at least 30 people getting into position around the stand for something that I thought looked pointless.  What was it?...It was 2 women with baskets full of coupons they had cut out and were sharing with anyone who wanted to look at them or take some.  There were even people who brought coupons to the fair or had their coupons with them and were exchanging for others at the table.  It was a mad house around this table.  Maybe this is something you have seen before but this is the first time that I’ve seen something like this at a fair.  But after a few moments of watching my wife dig in, I thought “What a brilliant idea!”…coupon sharing!!

     Now fast forward to today and another way I have seen people share coupons.  In my office there is a spot that has been designated the Coupon Corner.  This is a place where any of the employees can come and look for coupons they may need.  The sharing part comes in when one of the employees adds a coupon to the mix.  There are a lot of different sections to this coupon sharing idea.  Some of them are pet supplies, dairy, cereal, medicine/vitamins and condiments.  There are about 20 different envelopes holding coupons for each category.  Who would have guessed that if I needed a coupon for deodorant, I can come to work and possibly find a coupon for it.  I don’t work in a big office and everyone kind of knows who everyone is, but there could be a tornado outside, but if you get people talking and looking at coupons, there is no distracting them. It is sort of fun for the people in the office to share their money saving coupons with one another and it doesn’t matter who you know.  That is what I have witnessed at the fair and at work.

     But the part I like the most? Coupons, Coupons, Coupons!  I’m not really sure if there is a better way to watch what you spend than using coupons.  Some places double them and other places may honor a competitor’s coupon.  In other words, they are still a great way to help keep you to your budget.  While you’re at it, why not have fun with it and share some of the unwanted, unused coupons you may have and take a look and some of your friend’s coupons and see if they work for you?   A coupon corner may just be the place for you.

Here little Viggle, Viggle!...Getting Paid for Watching TV

Author: Derron

     If you haven’t caught onto the new craze in the App world, I believe that it’s Viggle.  Viggle is an interesting App for coupon hunters, gift card users and everyday shoppers.  And if you like watching TV and shopping, this may be the best thing to come around for you in years.

    

Viggle is a downloadable App for users of Android and Apple phones and tablets.  Once you download the App (which is free) you can then start watching TV and build up points to redeem gift cards/certificates to some of your favorite places to shop.  Here is how it works.  After the download and some basic information you provide such as your email, you can start picking TV shows to watch and earning points for just turning on your TV.  Your Android or Apple device then listens to your TV and picks up on what you are watching.   For instance, if you are watching your favorite 2 hour program, you earn 120 points.  For a half hour show, you would earn 30 points.  Some programs are special such as season premiers, special episodes and live TV can earn you extra Viggle points towards your total.  Once you have earned enough points, you can start redeeming them for coupon and gift cards.  And, oh yea, for the football fan in your life, if you tune into a nationally televised game, you can play along by picking players or team and earn extra points as you are earning points for only watching the program.  There are also little games and trivia for certain shows that can earn you extra points as well.  There are a few other little tricks out there for earning points, but I’ll let you figure them out on your own.

     There is an online process for receiving the gift card but this is where your email comes in.  Once you confirm, basically selling your points for the gift card, you will receive and email with the gift card you can then print out and use it whenever you want.  Gift cards that I have seen have ranged from Old Navy, Lowe’s, Best Buy, CVS Pharmacy and Groupon.  Now these are just a few of the places that you can redeem points for gift cards  and I will tell you, they rotate their gift cards quite frequently so a gift card that may be there today might not be there tomorrow.  So I recommend saving up your points and wait until you have enough to use your points on a card of your choosing. 

     So that’s it in a nut shell, earning points or getting paid for watching TV (however you want to look at it) and cashing in with coupons and gift certificates.  Sounds good to me!!

Money Saving 101: Insurance

Author: Lindsey B.

Insurance can be very important! There are all kinds: some you need, some you want and some you have to have, like car insurance. Unfortunately, a lot of us feel that looking for insurance isn’t very fun. After lots of phone calls, meetings and research, when you finally do settle on a policy or plan, the thought of going through all that again is not very exciting. It is important, however, to look at the plans you have in place once and awhile and make sure it still makes since for you and your family.

Let’s take car insurance as an example. Your coverage and needs can change – when you have an older car, getting full coverage might not be as important to you but if you get a new car, you are going to want to make sure you have more coverage! 

Moving, marriage, additional cars – all these and more are reasons to re-look at your coverage. Look into ‘bundling’ your insurance. Try seeing if you can save money by putting your car and renters insurance into one or if perhaps changing companies all together will save you money! 

Although it can be a little time consuming, pick up the phone or jump online and see how you can save money on those things you have to spend money on!

Money Saving 101: The Emergency Fund

Let’s be honest, who wants a rainy day? Can I be even more honest? Whether you want it or not, it’s going to happen. Sure you can try staying in your house or apartment and avoid every situation that could lead to a ‘financial emergency’ but I guarantee you, eventually your stove will break or your jeans will rip. One way or another, we all will find ourselves in that moment where we need cash and we “need it now” (as the commercials like to say).

So the question becomes, what do you do when there is an emergency? You can sell stuff, borrow money, do odd jobs, but the No.1 thing you could do is to borrow the money from yourself – use your emergency fund!! 

I cannot stress the importance of an emergency fund. Ideally they say you should have at least 6 months of income saved. But for most of us, that seems like a tall order! So, realistically, aim to save around $1,000. This doesn’t happen over night of course, it is slow and steady savings. If you can only put away $10 away a paycheck than do it! (I guarantee you spend that much at least on things like McDonalds stops or Target sales!) That is $10 that is going to be available to you when the rainy day comes. By having that extra money, no matter what amount, you will help reduce stress and fill more in control of your life and your expenses. 

There are so many creative ways to save money, what are some of the ways you save and why?