Get Coupons Loaded to Your Cell Phone or Shopper Card

If you enjoy the savings you can get with coupons but dread the thought of taking the time to clip them, there’s a new digital solution that may work for you. Cellfire is a free services that gives you valuable savings on groceries, shopping, restaurants, and entertainment, and there are no scissors required. Access the savings from your computer or web-enabled cell phone.

Entertainment

Cellfire has an app for just about any web-enabled phone on the market. Simply access Cellfire from your phone, download the app, and start saving on entertainment and groceries. Cellfire has an All Offers list for all available discounts, and for every offer out there, you have the option to use it immediately, save it in your Saved Offers list or share the offer with a friend. Offers saved to the Saved Offers list are stored there until they are either used or expired. When you are ready to use an offer, simply show your cell phone to the cashier or waiter to receive your discount.

Groceries

The grocery coupons you get from Cellfire are saved to your shopper card. Simply use your grocery card like you usually do, and the savings will be applied. Your grocery coupons will appear in your Saved Offers list on Cellfire so you can see what’s still available, but you’ll need to link them to a shopping card through Cellfire, which is a one-time process. In Dallas, you can save offers to your Kroger card and Tom Thumb card.

How many times have you arrived at the grocery store only to realize you left your coupons at home? How many times have you wished you had the time to clip coupons? How many times have you searched the web for a discount code to a restaurant or movie theater? Cellfire eliminates all of that and puts all the savings in one virtual location.

Halloween Costumes that Don’t Cost a Fortune

If you’ve ever purchased a Halloween costume from a store, you know it’s not cheap. A popular kids costume could easily run $40 or more when add the accessories that are sold separately. Even discount stores likes Target and Wal-Mart are selling costumes for $25 and $30. Adult costumes are even more expensive. Depending on where you find what you’re looking for, it could end up costing you $80 or even $100.

You don’t have to pay that much, especially if you don’t wait until the day before Halloween to shop. Here are some tips for finding affordable costumes.


Costume Swap

Invite friends to all meet at your house and bring their old costumes. Everyone who brings a costume gets to “shop” for something different.


Ebay

You can find new and gently used costumes on Ebay for a fraction of their retail cost, and let’s be honest. Most people only wear their Halloween costumes once or twice. Gently used at a low price is a steal. There are thousands of kid costumes on Ebay with bidding that starts at $.99 cents. That includes popular costumes like super heroes, Toy Story, Star Wars, Hannah Montana, Disney princesses and hundreds of others. Start bidding now. You may need to bid on several auctions before you get the costume you want, and you’ll want to allow time for shipping.


CostumeSuperCenter.com

This online retailer has sales all year long, and there’s almost always a special code on the home page for some type of discount. Today, the special is for 10 percent of $30 or more. To get even better deals, sign up for e-mails. Two weeks ago, the offer was 25 percent off a purchase of $25 or more, plus free shipping. These sales almost always include clearance items, and this website has a huge clearance section with popular costumes that sell for as low as $9.99. Many are just $14.99. That’s a deal all by itself, but if you’re buying more than one costume, you can also get the discount and free shipping.


Make Your Own

You can make a lot of costumes with the clothes and accessories already in your home – even popular characters like Woody and Jessie from Toy Story. FamilyFun.com has an entire section on its website with dozens of homemade costume ideas for kids and adults, with step-by-step directions for making each one – now sewing required. Before you start making a costume, however, put pen to paper and be sure it really is cheaper to make the costume yourself. Sometimes projects get more involved than you expect them to, and it’s cheaper to buy the costume.

The key with affordable Halloween costumes is to start early. That is when you find the best deals. Also, the day after Halloween, shop clearance sales and buy costumes for next year. Clearance costumes also make great Christmas and birthday presents for kids, all year long.

North Texas is in a Milk Price War – Cash In Now!

Have you been to the grocery store in the past four days? If not, you may be pleasantly surprised the next time you go to buy milk. Some grocery stores in North Texas are selling gallons of milk for under $1. A gallon of milk hasn’t been that cheap since the early 1960s. According to WFAA.com, today’s average national price for a gallon of milk is $3.31. If your family drinks a lot of milk, now is the time to cash in.

The Aldi grocery chain started the price war this past weekend by reducing its already low price of $1.29 to $.99 cents. The reduction in price was an attempt to get more people into Aldi stores to so they could realize the savings on other items. But it didn’t take long for competing grocery stores to follow suit.

On Monday, area Albertsons and Tom Thumb stores lowered their prices to $1.68. Kroger, Target and Wal-Mart matched the Aldi price. Aldi responded by lowering milk prices again to $.90 cents per gallon. You can barely get one cup of plain coffee for that price anymore, let alone an entire gallon of milk.

Here’s something else most people don’t know about Aldi milk. It has a store brand label on it, but it’s really Borden milk being sold under the Aldi name. That makes the value even better, because Borden milk is one of the most expensive brands of milk on the shelf.

Aldi plans to leave its milk prices below $1 for at least a few weeks, so you have a little bit of time to cash in on this great deal. Keep in mind, though, that many others will be cashing in as well, and supply may not always meet the high demand.

If you family drinks several gallons of milk a week, buy them all at one time. Just be aware of the expiration dates. Aldi, like most grocery stores, puts its gallons of milk with the longest expiration period at the back of the shelf. If you can’t reach the gallon you want, ask the employees to reach it for you. That’s their job, and this deal is too good to pass up. 

Now is a Great Time to Buy a Used Hybrid

About year or so ago, when gas prices were through the roof, hybrid vehicles were all the rave. They are still a great option for reducing emissions and greenhouse gases, but if you’re only buying one to save at the pump, Kelley Blue Book advises you to buy used.

Kelley Blue Book is the leading provider of used car information. In its Blue Book Market Report for September 2010, Kelley indicates that values for new hybrids are dropping off, because demand is not as high as it was a year ago. Fewer people are buying hybrids, because gas prices have remained steady for so long.

According to Kelley Blue Book, it takes 16 years to recover the cost of a new hybrid, versus the five years it takes to break even when purchasing a used hybrid. If you’re intent on owning a hybrid, Kelley recommends purchasing used hybrids with around 60,000 miles. That gives you the best hybrid value, as well as a greener alternative.

Kelley Blue book is also reporting that more people are buying used hybrid SUVs than any other model of hybrid - particularly 2008 models. Many of the top 10 vehicles experienced a redesign or launch for that model year, and they are proving to be a better deal than new hybrid SUVs.

Neighborhood Credit Union makes it even more affordable to buy a used hybrid or any other used car for that matter, because our rates for new and used vehicles are the same. Right now, our rates on new and used vehicles are as low as 3.49% APR. Plus, if you have a vehicle financed with another lender, we’ll pay you $200 to refinance it with us.

More information about this special offer is available here.

Also, don’t forget to use our FREE Car Buying Service. Once you’re pre-approved for your Neighborhood Auto Loan, our vehicle locator specialist will do research vehicles for you, find the car you are looking for in the price range you can afford, and take care of the paperwork. All you have to do is sign and drive.

Earn Money for Refinancing Your Vehicle Loan

In the previous blog post, we told you how refinancing your vehicle at a lower interest rate could save you hundreds of dollars and lower your monthly payments. Now, we’re going to tell you how refinancing your vehicle could actually earn you money.

It’s really quite simple. When you refinance you auto loan from another lender with Neighborhood Credit Union, we’ll give you $200. What’s the catch? The loan must be at least $10,000, and the loan you are refinancing must be from another lender. You cannot refinance a loan which originated at Neighborhood Credit Union. Meet those two requirements, and our regular credit criteria, and you’ll be $200 richer. This offer starts Friday, September 17 and will last through October.

During our fall auto loan promotion, we’re offering rates as low as 3.49% ARP for up to 72 months, with no payments until 2011. And remember, dealers are lowering prices now to make room for new inventory on their lots. If you stack our low rate on top of dealer clearance prices, you probably can find a new vehicle with payments that fit into your monthly budget.

One of the key things to remember when you’re shopping for anything is the cycle of savings. Every product, from what you buy at the grocery store, to what you buy at a dealership, has a cycle of savings. The price is highest when it first hits the marketplace and eventually goes down in price. Fall is by far the best time to save on a new vehicle. Prices on this year’s models go down, because next year’s models are hitting the lots.

Shopping gurus are always advising us to buy something when it’s on sale. Don’t wait until you need it, because the price may be higher. The same principal applies here. If you feel like you’re current vehicle is on its way out, don’t wait until you’re stuck on the side of the road. If it fits in your budget now, take advantage of these great fall deals while they are here. It may save hundreds or even thousands of dollars.

Lower Rates Can Reduce Your Current Debt

As consumers, when we hear that interest rates are historically low, we’re somehow conditioned to think about spending money we don’t have. That’s not always a bad thing, especially if you truly need a house or a car. But lower rates aren’t just for new debt. They can also help make your current debt cheaper.

When you refinance your auto loan at a lower rate, you can lower your monthly payments, which also adds wiggle room to your monthly budget. Another option is to continue making your same payment on a lower interest loan and possibly pay off your loan earlier than anticipated. That saves you money down the road.

What about credit card debt? Is the interest rate on your credit cards higher than 10 percent? Consolidating all of your cards into one low interest loan can save hundreds or even thousands of dollars in interest payments and help you pay off those cards so much faster.

Let’s put this in perspective. If you have $10,000 in credit card debt with an interest rate of 18.99% APR, and you’re making the minimum monthly payment of $200, it will take you 100 months – more than 8 years – to pay off that debt. You’ll also pay almost $10,000 in interest before the loan is paid off.

If you take that $10,000 debt and put it into a low interest loan like a home equity loan, with an interest rate of 5.99% APR, you can pay off that debt in 5 years with a monthly payment of about $193. If you pay an extra $100 a month, you can pay off the loan in about 3 years and save yourself the thousands of dollars in interest you’d be paying over 8 years on those credit cards.

Everyone’s financial situation is different. Some people would rather increase their monthly payments and get the debt paid off faster. Others just need to make more room in their monthly budgets. Both are usually possible when you can take your current debt and refinance it into some form of lower interest loan.

Should I Refinance My Mortgage?

Mortgage rates are at historical lows. A few years ago, it was unheard of to get a mortgage rate at or below 5.0% APR. Today, that’s the norm, which makes it tempting to refinance a mortgage with a higher rate. Is now the right time for you?

Refinancing your mortgage could lower your monthly mortgage payment considerably. It could also cost you a lot of extra money and prolong the life of your mortgage loan, if you’re not careful. The cost to close a mortgage loan averages from 1 percent to 3 percent of your loan balance. You also have to take into consideration any down payment that may be required, as well as appraisal fees, title insurance fees, etc. For a $150,000 home, you’re looking at somewhere between $3,000 and $6,000 in closing costs and fees. If your monthly payments go down by $100 a month, it will take about two and a half years to recover $3,000 and five years to recover $6,000.

Using this specific scenario, it would most likely make sense to refinance your mortgage if you plan to be in your house at least five more years and you can keep closing costs/fees at or near $3,000. It also may make sense to refinance if you currently have an Adjustable Rate Mortgage (ARM), and you refinance to a fixed rate mortgage.

Generally speaking, it is NOT a good idea to refinance your mortgage if:

· Your property value has gone down

· You have been paying on your current mortgage for a long time or only have a few years left on your loan

· You have already reduced your equity with a second mortgage or home equity loan 

Mortgages can be complex, and there are so many different scenarios to consider, including credit scores, loan terms, equity and more. If you’re considering refinancing your home, we suggest starting with our online mortgage calculator. By plugging in how much you want to refinance and how much your property is worth, you will get an estimate of what your monthly payments will be (not including escrow for property taxes and other fees) and an estimate on closing costs and fees, for just about every mortgage loan type and term we offer.

You can also e-mail one of our mortgage professionals or call them at 972.629.7897. They’ll help you determine if it makes sense to refinance your mortgage.

 

Labor Day Weekend is Known for its Deep Discounts

Labor Day generally marks the end of summer in most people’s minds. For savvy shoppers, it’s also the weekend to get deep discounts on anything from furniture, to computers, to basic school supplies. Major retailers are already getting ready for the holiday shopping season. To make room on their shelves for more inventory, they often have huge markdowns throughout their stores and online. If you’ve been putting off a major purchase, or you want to get a head start on holiday shopping, Labor Day is your weekend to save BIG!

Here’s a look at some of the sales you can take advantage of this weekend!

Furniture
Save 50% on JCPenney’s entire stock of furniture and mattresses. Make your purchase with a JCPenny credit card, and pay zero interest until January, 2012.

Get 50% off all mattresses at Sears, plus free delivery.

Electronics
Newegg.com is having a blowout sale on components, electronics, peripherals and more. Save up to 60%, plus free shipping on many items.

All televisions are on sale through Sears online only. Get free shipping/delivery and pay not interest on electronics priced $399 or higher, if the entire purchase is paid in full with a Sears card in 12 months.

Appliances
Get 20% off select Whirlpool, Maytag or Samsung brand appliances and 10% off other brand appliances at Lowes – plus free next day delivery and haul away.

Get 10% off all appliances that cost $398 or more, and get 25% off certain specialty appliances at Home Depot.

Get 15% off all appliances at Sears. Pay with a Sears card and get an additional 10% off.

Travel
Save up to 35% on last minute travel deals and 30% on hotels through Expedia.

Southwest Airlines is offering a 30% savings on hotels, through Labor Day.

This is just a sample of what’s out there this weekend. If you’re in the market for something specific, this is the weekend to shop for a bargain.