Finding Discounts on Summer Vacations

Have you started planning your summer vacation yet? I know. It’s still April, but here in the Dallas area, school will be out in about a month. By then, the good deals may be taken. Even if you’re not planning to travel until the beginning of August or just planning a weekend getaway, now is the time to look for deals.

The Internet has a wealth of resources for finding great deals on just about anything. Travel sites are no exception. But how do you find them and how do you know which ones are reputable? Here are a few resources to get you started.

Social couponing websites often offer extreme discounts on travel destinations. These coupons are great if you are flexible on dates or don’t have a specific destination in mind. Simply choose a destination already on sale. If you have a specific destination in mind, go to these websites and sign up for e-mails for deals in specific regions. If you plan to vacation in Boston, sign up for entertainment and dining deals in Boston and start planning your trip around the daily deals you receive. Some good sites to start with are groupon.com and livingsocial.com/escapes.

Memberships can pay off. AAA offers last minute vacation deals as much as 70 percent off the regular price. To make the deal sweeter, AAA offers a low price guarantee. If you find a cheaper rate for the exact itinerary within 24 hours, AAA will match it.

Wholesale warehouses like Costco offer exclusive benefits on vacations around the world, cruises and more. They also offer great deals on rental cars.

If you still plan to wait until the last minute, there are lots of websites that cater to your needs. These sites often buy the last few seats on an airplane or the last few cabins on a cruise at a fraction of the regular cost and can sell them much cheaper than the airlines and cruise lines would. Check out some of these sites:

Travelzoo.com
Lastminute.com
Moments-notice.com
Laterooms.com

And, for last minute deals specific to Disney destinations, check out mousesavers.com.

Where do you turn for big discounts on vacations? Please post a comment and continue the conversation so all NCU members can benefit.

Reading Your Receipts Can Really Pay Off

Do you ever read the receipts you get after you buy something? I mean really read the stuff at the bottom of your receipt below the purchase total? Many stores used to use that space to print their return policies. These days, they are making it worth our while to read further down and are willing to reward us for giving our feedback about their products, services, food or whatever they sell.

I admit that I’m not a big survey taker, but I’m willing to give Starbucks a few minutes of my time for a guaranteed free beverage. I don’t go to Starbucks often, but three times in the last year I have been randomly selected to fill out an online survey in exchange for a free tall beverage. When I finished the survey, I received a validation code that I had to write on my previous receipt and bring back to Starbucks. Each time, my tall drink was upgraded to a grande free of charge.

I have friends who have received free cookies from Subway, free fries from various fast food establishments and more. Stores like Target, Home Depot and Wal-mart frequently have offers on their receipts for a chance to win thousands of dollars in store gift cards for completing an online survey. Obviously there’s no guarantee you’ll win, but one thing is for sure. You certainly  have no chance of winning if you don’t enter the sweepstakes, fill out the online survey or do whatever else they are asking you to do in exchange for a chance to earn something free. Is a possible $5,000 Target gift card worth a few minutes of your time? That’s like getting a year’s worth of groceries free. If you shop there often, that’s more opportunities to possibly win.

Here’s what I do. I have a basket by my computer where I keep my receipts. When I have a spare minute, I grab my stack of these kinds of receipts. Often, the survey will tell you upfront how long it should take you. If it’s just a minute or two, I’m usually in. If it’s five minutes or more, I generally shut the survey down and throw the receipt away. I am impatient by nature, and I lose interest in any survey much longer than that. You may be different, depending on what’s at stake.

Take a look at your receipt next time you buy something or eat out – anywhere -- and see if there’s an opportunity to earn something free. Just pay attention to the date. Many require that you leave feedback within a certain time frame. 

Friendships Can Save You Time and Money

I have a confession to make. I hate house cleaning. I hate it so much, that I rarely do it. Apparently, I’m not alone. On a recent Facebook post, I learned that several of my friends are in the same predicament. As we commented back and forth, one of my friends came up with a fabulous idea. Why not get together and help clean each other’s houses? If we had three or four people cleaning one house, it might not seem like such a chore. It also would save money, because we wouldn’t feel the need to hire a cleaning crew. We haven’t done this yet, but we are seriously considering it.

That got me to thinking about what else friends could do to save money while spending time together. Here are some ideas I came up with.

Dinner Club and Recipe Swap

Pick one or two recipes and either divide the ingredients among each person in the group or have each person chip in a small amount of money and let one person do the shopping. Gather at one person’s house once a week or however often is best for you, and cook the recipe together. Divide up the portions among each person, and your family has one or two meals to try for a very small amount of money and time.

Shoe/Clothing Swap

Tired of your wardrobe but don’t really want to fork out the money for something new? Gather your friends together for a shoe or clothing swap. Have everyone who plans to attend let you know in advance what sizes they will be bringing so those planning to attend know if it is worth their while to be there. Divide clothing by sizes and let everyone “shop” for free.

Toy Swap

This is similar to a clothing swap. Instead of sizes, you’ll want to know the age level and gender preference of toys people will be bringing,

These types of swap activities can be temporary or permanent. Perhaps you are tired of your wardrobe, but you have certain pieces you know you’ll want to wear again. In that case, set guidelines. Perhaps your group will meet every six weeks or two months to return the items to the original owner. Just know that not everyone takes care of your items the way you would. If it’s something you just cant’ part with, you may want to keep that one in your closet.

What are some things you do with friends to save time and money. Comment here so all NCU members can benefit from your ideas.

 

Don’t Skimp on Your Insurance – Any Kind of Insurance

The Dallas area experienced more than a dozen tornadoes in one day this week. For many families, the process of rebuilding their lives is about to begin. If you had no damage and weathered the storm without incident, first thank your lucky stars. Second, use this opportunity to revisit your insurance policies and ensure you are adequately covered for those unexpected situations.

Let’s be honest. Nobody expects to lose their home in a tornado. It’s supposed to happen to someone else. If it happens to you, is your homeowners insurance policy enough to rebuild? Many homeowners make a critical mistake when purchasing homeowners insurance. They insure their house based on what they paid for it, not on what it would cost to replace it. Spend the extra money to insure the replacement cost of your home. It adds almost nothing to the cost of your policy, but makes a huge difference if your home is destroyed by a storm, tornado or something else. If you have expensive jewelry, antiques, etc., insure them separately with riders or add-ons to your policy, to insure you get the full replacement value for them if they are lost, stolen or destroyed.

Renters insurance is often overlooked and is so important, especially to people renting apartments. A kitchen fire in one apartment spreads fast and can destroy an entire complex. Renters insurance costs very little and will replace all your belongings so you’re not out thousands of dollars of your own money for clothing, furniture, appliances, etc.

If you don’t have life insurance, consider getting some. Life insurance is a little different than others because you’re not insuring stuff. You are paying on a policy that will take care of your loved ones when you die – whether it is of old age or young and unexpectedly. Life insurance is a little more flexible than insuring stuff, because you can choose the amount of coverage you want. Choose enough to take care of your spouse and our children, and be sure they are listed as beneficiaries on your policy. If you can’t afford whole life insurance, opt for term life insurance.

Of course, most of us have auto insurance. If you don’t, you should, if for no other reason than to protect yourself from people who don’t. If someone with no insurance damages or totals your car, you are covered by your own policy. If your car is stolen, you are covered. If your car is new, get GAP insurance, too. That pays what your auto insurance policy doesn’t, so you can pay off your loan and still get another vehicle.

It is okay, in fact, it’s even wise to shop around for the best deal on any type of insurance. Just be sure you’re not skimping  to save buck. This is one of the few times when spending a few more dollars could make a big impact when you really need it.

Tips for Getting to the Next Paycheck Without Running out of Money

It’s not something we like to think about, let alone talk about, but let’s be honest. We all have times in our lives when it seems nearly impossible to get through a simple two-week pay period without borrowing, begging or over drafting our checking account. It’s not fun, but with a little discipline and a lot of determination, it is doable.

The first thing you should do is write down what you think all your expenses will be for the pay period – utility bills, loan payments, gas for your vehicle, groceries, etc. Add it all up and compare it to the amount you got paid. If your expenses are more than your income, it’s time to start being creative.

Food is usually an easy place to start. Figure out what you already have in your pantry, refrigerator and freezer. Spend about an hour or two planning meals for the next two weeks with what you already have on hand. Use the grocery store sale flyers to help you fill in the missing pieces and only buy what’s on sale. If you have to eat sandwiches for a few days, do it. Definitely do not eat out or even stop for a cup of coffee. Make it at home.

Figure out what bills you can put off a few days. While I certainly don’t advocate paying your bills late, I know that feeding your family and having enough gas in the tank to get to work sometimes takes precedence over your bills. My rule of thumb is to pay anything with an interest rate or a late fee on time, even if it’s just the minimum payment this one time. These are the items that will hurt your credit and your budget if you don’t pay them in a timely manner. My cell phone company, gas company and electric company do not charge monthly fees. Those are the ones I generally will put off if I have to, but I try not to make them wait more than a few days. I’ll pay them online on payday when necessary.

Condense your drive time as much as possible. With the price of gas so high, you need to rethink how much time you spend in the car. If possible, work from home a day or two. Carpool with a friend from work. Let your kids walk or ride their bikes to school. You might even see if you can go in early or stay late at work to avoid rush hour traffic. You burn more fuel when you sit in traffic.

Most importantly, remember that the adjustments you are making are for a small time frame. Even if you have to do this for a month, perhaps you can reward yourself with dinner or a movie the next time you get paid. You deserve it if you managed to avoid using your credit cards or dipping in to savings.

Being Seasonal Saves Money

It’s officially Spring, and that’s good news for those of us looking to save a few bucks. This is the time of year when living seasonal really pays off.

I went to pay my utility bills the other night and was pleasantly surprised. Combined, my gas, electric and water/trash bills were about $150. While I was happy to usher in Spring with the heavy down pour we had, I was even more excited when I remembered the ways we can all save some money for the next few months.

Start with utilities. If you have a sprinkler system, shut it off. If you have ceiling fans, turn them on. Throw open the windows and breathe in some fresh air. This is our rainy season, or as I like to call it, free water season. With as much rain as we had the other night, you shouldn’t need to water your grass for a while. Turn off the automatic timer on the sprinkler system and just turn it on manually when your grass look like it needs a drink.

Save your a/c for the summer. As warm as it has been this year, we may not even have a month left of crisp air before the heat wave starts. Turn off your a/c and open your windows. If it gets a little warm mid afternoon, turn up the speed on your ceiling fans. If it gets a little cool at bedtime, toss a light blanket on the bed. Your wallet will thank you.

Stock your kitchen with seasonal foods. I absolutely love when something other than oranges, apples and bananas come back in season. We have all of those in the house right now, but we also have fresh strawberries, blackberries, plums and pineapple. You can really save a lot on your grocery bill by cooking with/eating fresh herbs, fruits and vegetables that are in season, especially if they are grown locally. Don’t limit yourself to the grocery store. Shop your local farmers market, too. Or, plant your own garden. This is the perfect time to start.

Buy your summer wardrobe now. If someone in your house is going to need new clothes this summer, start shopping now. Retailers like Old Navy, Kohl’s and others are offering big markdowns on summer essentials like short sleeved tops, shorts and sandals. It seems a little earlier than in past years, which means by summer, your deals and your selection will be gone. Use the money you are saving on food and utilities to stock up on season clothing now.

Happy Spring and Happy savings!

 

Your Income Tax Refund is NOT Free Money

Are you one of those people who can’t wait for tax season to get here? Do you do your taxes early in anticipation of your big refund? Do you already know how you’ll spend it before you do your taxes?

If you get a tax refund every year, there is something you should know. Your refund is not free money. Well, it’s free to the government, but it’s actually costing you money. Everything penny you get in your refund check is money the government has been borrowing from you all year long without paying interest. Would you put your money in a Prize Savings Account if we didn’t pay you a dividend on your money? Of course not. Don’t the let the IRS do that either. Instead of taking the big refund, take bigger pay checks.

I am not a CPA, and legally, I cannot give you tax advice. I can, however, tell you what I would do, and you can take that information to a tax advisor to see if it works for you. The first thing I would do is adjust my W2 form at work. This is the form you use to tell your employer how many dependents you have. Your employer uses that information to calculate how much tax should come out of each paycheck. If you are getting a huge refund every year, you may need to claim more dependents. The more dependents you have, the less money they take out of your pay, and the more money you come home with on pay day.

Now, I know there are some people who use their refund as a savings account. My sister tells me every year that she would never save money if it wasn’t for her tax refund. Perhaps you feel the same way. If so, think about taking that extra money in your pay check and having it deposited automatically in a special savings account that penalizes you for withdrawing the money, like a Certificate of Deposit. These accounts generally pay a higher rate than a regular savings account, but they require you to keep the money in the account for a specific time period. If you withdraw it early, you lose money.

Another option is to have that money deposited automatically to a Christmas Club account. Many people use this account to save all year long for their holiday shopping, but you can use it to save for anything. In November, the credit union gives you all the money in a lump sum. It’s almost like getting a huge tax refund, only you’re earning interest on your money. Even with low savings rates, you’ll still make more than you would by letting the government use that money.

Remember, this is your money that you earn by working hard. Talk to a tax advisor about how you can put more of it in your pocket.

 

Take Advantage of Gas Rewards, but be Smart About it

The rising price of gas does not excite me. Gas rewards do. I got a pleasant surprise at the pump this morning. When I scanned my reward card and swiped my debit card, I learned that I had a fuel discount of $1 per gallon. If I opted to use that today, I would be spending only $2.59 per gallon and would save $16 on my gas bill. That’s huge.

What I liked even better was the choice I had to use it today or save if for another time. I chose to save it, because we are heading out of town in my husband’s truck this weekend. By using the fuel discount then, we will save even more, because he has a bigger tank than I do.

How did I get these rewards? I scan my reward card whenever I shop at Tom Thumb. I shop there for two primary reasons – prescriptions and sale items. I rarely buy anything full price there, but my rewards have added up quickly.

Right now, Tom Thumb is offering triple gas rewards. Instead of giving a $.10 cent per gallon fuel discount for each $100 spent, they are giving three fuel discounts, or $.30 cents per gallon. Prescriptions are included, and so are gift cards. That makes $100 pretty easy to reach while buying things you would normally buy anyway. Honestly, I’m even tempted to buy a Tom Thumb gift card at this point. I’ll use it there, anyway, on sale items and prescriptions, and that will give me even more fuel discounts. Even better, I can pay for gas however I want to.

Kroger has a similar fuel reward program. The benefits are not as good as Tom Thumb’s right now, but it’s still a fuel discount. If you shop at Kroger anyway, you will still save money on gas eventually. If you want an immediate fuel discount, you can save $.25 cents a gallon by paying for your gas with a special Kroger Visa credit card.

That’s a nice incentive to use their credit card, but be very careful. If you don’t pay your bill in full every month, you will be charged interest on the credit card, which will cost you a whole lot more than that fuel discount they gave you. This is why I don’t like reward programs tied to credit cards. It’s too easy for people to get caught up in the reward part and forget about how much they are really spending to get those rewards. The lowest interest rate on that card is 13.99% APR. The highest is $23.99%APR. If you keep buying gas with the card, but don’t pay the bill in full each month, you won’t be watching your rewards add up. You’ll be watching your debt pile up.

Take advantage of fuel rewards, but be smart about it. The last thing you need is a mountain of debt when you’re only trying to save money on gas.

 

How Will You Live if You Lose Your Job?

Have you ever thought about how you will live if you or a spouse loses a job? This is something most of us don’t like to think about because it’s either uncomfortable or it won’t happen to us. It can, though.

My husband sent me a text message on Friday that was short and to the point. It said, “I just got fired.” After I called him to see if he was okay, I spent the next 45 minutes staring into space, trying to figure out what to do next.

I knew I had certain things I needed to do immediately to protect us and our income as much as possible, like refilling our prescriptions before the insurance got cancelled. I also did the math in my head. How much would his final check be with overtime and vacation time added? How much money would he get from unemployment? How many months of emergency fund did we have until everything we had worked so hard for was gone? To say it was unsettling is an understatement.

It turns out we’ve been planning for this day, sort of. We never expected him to get fired, but we have been responsible with our money. I can pay the mortgage for so many months and cover our monthly expenses before we dip into savings. It wasn’t always this way. We’ve worked hard and did without many things to get to this point.

So how would you live if you or your spouse lost a job? Do you have any money in savings? Do you know how much unemployment you would be eligible to receive? Do you know how you would pay your bills? Do you even know what bills you have?

I highly encourage you to take the followings steps, even if you don’t think it will happen to you:

1. Make a list of all your monthly expenses – loan payments, utility bills, groceries, gas, extra curricular activities for your kids, church tithing, rent or mortgage, gym memberships, prescriptions, Starbucks, etc. Add it up to see how much you are spending every month.
2. Pinpoint which of these expenses are wants and which ones are needs. If you take a sudden loss of income, remove the wants first.
3. Figure out how much you have leftover every month and start putting some of that money into an account with the highest interest rate you can get.
4. If you have a job that pays you overtime, live on the amount you usually bring home, and put all of the overtime pay in savings. This requires discipline, but you’ll be thankful you did. My husband has been at this job for a year and a half and has worked more overtime than regular time. Unless we had an emergency expense like car repairs or hospital bills, I put every dime of overtime into our money market account. It adds up faster than you think.

Unemployment is barely enough to make rent of pay mortgage. Make a plan now so life isn’t so uncomfortable if you lose a job.

 

Free Entertainment in the Most Overlooked Spot

Captain America. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. Transformers: Dark of the Moon. The Help. Breaking Dawn.

Do any of these titles sound familiar to you? These were some of the hottest movies of 2011 and rent for as much as $5 a night, depending on where you get your videos. If I told you there was a place where you could “rent” them free, would you go there instead?

Go to your local library, a place that isn’t just for books anymore. But perhaps the best part about the library is that you can get these titles in video and books. Many libraries even have these titles in blu-ray, audio books and e-book formats. And, once you have a library card, you can order reserve these titles online, if you library offers that service. Mine does, and I live in a fairly small town in the Dallas/Fort Worth area, which only has one small library. I’m fairly certain that if my library has it, most libraries in the metroplex do.

Not sold yet? Let’s talk money and value. I’ll use myself as an example. My husband and son watch a super hero movie every Friday night (and sometimes another on Saturday or Sunday). We usually rent them from the local video store or through our Verizon FIOS TV. That means we spend anywhere from $1 to $5 a night, depending on the title and the location.

Last week, I went to the library and borrowed three DVDs from the X-Men series. My library lends movies for seven days, with another 7-day renewal option. Basically, I got three DVDs free for up to 14 days. Does your video store, cable, satellite or other provider offer anything that inexpensive? If they are out of the movie you want, will they let you reserve it online so you’re guaranteed to get it as soon as it is returned? What if you return your videos late? Are the late fees as cheap as $.25 cents? I currently have an overdue movie that will cost me less than a dollar. Had I rented it from the video store, my late fees easily would have been $3 or more. Also, what happens if you don’t watch the movie you rent? Do you get reimbursed?

Figure out how many times you rent movies, or if you have a service like Netflix, how much are you paying every month? If you really want to save money on entertainment, check your local library before you run to the video store for you next movie rental. You just can’t get better than free.