Archive for October, 2009

Posted on October 31, 2009 - by admin

Making some extra money - Part 1

Out of Gas Newsletter - Issue 59 October 31, 2009

Fall Savings for you.

++ News -

Good Saturday. Don’t forget to set your clocks back tonight. While you’re setting them back, make sure that you change the batteries in your smoke detectors (and test them).

Links you can Use

http://www.allyou.com

Earning Extra Money

There are may different ways to earn extra money. What we’ll do in the weeks ahead are to help you seperate myth from facts, and to keep you from wasting your hard earned money on something that won’t work.

The first thing you’ll want to do is start creating a plan.

1. How Much

How much money would you like to earn ‘extra’. Think about how much extra you would like to earn this year (or next year).
Then divide that amount by 52. That’s how much extra you want to earn a week.
Then divide that amount by 5. That’s how much extra you would like to know in a day.

So say we want to earn $5,000 extra a year (that sounds like a lot).
$5,000 a year turns into about $97 a week or about $20 a day. (all the math was rounded up).

$20 a day is much more manageable than think about $5000.

2. What do you like to do.

This week work on doing a self inventory. What you want to do is find out exactly what you like to do. You don’t want to be working on something that you don’t like to do (no matter how much money you’ll make).

a. Think about things you really like to do. List these.
b. Think about things you really hate to do. List these.
c. Some good advice on figuring out what you’re good at can be found here.
http://www.school-survival.net/wiki/Finding_out_what_you%27re_good_at

Have a wonderful weekend.

Posted on October 30, 2009 - by admin

Comparing Prices the Easy Way

This is some additional information on the posts we did about saving money for Christmas.

One of the ways you can save money on your gift is by comparing prices.

Here are a couple of places to get you started.

Price Comparison Sites

Froogle - http://www.google.com/products

CNet - http://shopper.cnet.com/

Just type what you’re looking for in their search box (try not to be too specific at first) and you’ll be presented with a list of offers.

Example - I did a search for Window’s 7 and found prices ranging from $270 to $320.00. A big difference.

Have a wonderful Day.

Posted on October 27, 2009 - by admin

Swine Flu Tips

By now the swine flu has probably hit someone that you know (my nephew had a mild case). I won’t talk about what happens, the vaccine, or how to prevent it, but below are some tips you can use now to put an action plan in place in case someone in your family gets it.

1. If you both work and your kid gets sick, what will you do?

a. Will one of you take off, if so figure out who is going to do it, and speak to your boss about it now.
b. Can someone else take care of your child, if so make arrangements with them now… what back up plan do you have if they (those who you plan on taking care of the child are sick).

2. What happens if you get sick.

a. Make plans for what happens to your child.
b. Who takes care of your responsibilities (going to the store, taking your children to school etc.)

3. What happens if everyone is sick (which happens sometimes).

4. What happens if your school gets called off (which happened to the school my daughter goes to this week).

Hopefully these will get you to thinking and help you to plan ahead.

Posted on October 24, 2009 - by admin

Five Ways to Save on Your Christmas Gifts

Out of Gas Newsletter - Issue 58 October 24, 2009

Fall Savings for you.

Five ways to save on your gifts for the holidays.

1. Use cash that you already have in rewards points from your credit cards.
2. If you have a big list - why not take a family picture (we talked about pictures on one of our recent posts) and give copies with a nice frame.
At Walgreens.com found a picture frame for less than 3 bucks. Amazon had one for less than 2 bucks.
Add a nice note  - or write a good ‘what happened in our family last year’note and you have an excellent gift.
Next year you can send them another picture and a note and they can use the same frame.
3. If you are crafty - then craft some of your gifts.
4. Buy a bunch of small items (from the Dollar Store). Make gift baskets or boxes. You can find some cheap boxes / bags here.
http://www.google.com/products?hl=en&q=cheap+baskets&scoring=p
5. Mutually decide not to buy / exhange gifts, or if there is a large group then exchange names (and set a reasonable price limit).

Have a wonderful weekend.

Next Issues -

Earning extra money - offline / online.

Posted on October 23, 2009 - by admin

Fun with Pumpkins

With Halloween just around the corner, a fun (cheap) activity to do this weekend would be to carve pumpkins.

Hopefully this will help you get started.

1. Carving Pumpkins - some great detail on the art of carving and taking care of pumpkins can be found here.

http://www.pumpkincarving101.com/pumpkin_carving_stencils.html

2. Stencils for pumpkins - don’t pay for them, there are a ton of places where you can find them for free…. and who doesn’t like free.

http://www.spookmaster.com/pumpkin-carving-patterns-freebies.htm

http://gonewengland.about.com/od/pumpkincarving/l/blpmpkinpattern.htm

Have a wonderful Friday.

Posted on October 20, 2009 - by admin

DIY Holiday Fun

I found a pretty cool site that can save you money and let you have a lot of un as well.

http://www.holidash.com/

Holidash is a site that focuses on holidays including several tips on saving you money. For example the site is now focused on Halloween. A good article on Halloween from there is about DIY costumes.

Have a wonderful Tuesday.

Posted on October 17, 2009 - by admin

Creating your Holiday List

Out of Gas Newsletter - Issue 56 October 10, 2009

Fall Savings for you.

++ News -

Apparently Amazon and Wal-Mart are battling it out on the price of books. Many bestsellers can be had for $9. I’m not sure how long it will last, so if you’ve got any book lovers on your list you may want to buy early.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/bestsellers/books

Links you can Use

A good site if you’re wanting to save some money.

http://www.walletpop.com/

Creating your list for the holidays.

Now that you’ve figured out about how much you want to spend for the holidays, now it is time to figure out who you’re buying for.
As you’re working on your list, here are some tips that will help you save money.

1. Realize that you don’t have to buy something for everyone.
2. If you want to buy a ‘big’ present for someone, then work on distributing the cost. My sisters and I have combined our resources for a nice gift for my Mom and Dad.
3. If things are down for you this year, speak to groups that you normally exchange gifts with and ask if you can have a get together instead of giving gifts.
4. If you’re good at something (like baking cookies) consider doing that for gifts for teachers, etc. We’ll talk more about some cheap presents next week.
5. Some of the regular folks you normally gift to you may have to skip this year, just realize that everyone is in a hard spot, just speak with them. They will understand.
6. When making the list, make sure you include about how much you are going to spend for each person.
7. Begin talking with your family now about the holidays. Again explain that you’re spending less this year. Ask them what they want (or a few different choices) for each person.

Have a wonderful weekend.

Next Issues -

Saving on your gifts
Earning extra money - offline / online.

Posted on October 16, 2009 - by admin

5 Things to do this weekend that won’t cost you a dime.

1. Go for a nature hike / walk (if it’s not bad weather).

2. It it is bad weather, take a trip down memory lane by pulling out the videos of your kids when they were small.

3. Break out the monopoly board.

4. Tons of football games on this weekend. Pick sides and cheer for your team.

5. Make a game out of doing some fall clean up around the house.

Most of all spend some time with your family. Some of your kids best memories will be of the time you spent with them ‘goofing off’.

Posted on October 13, 2009 - by admin

Saving Money on your Halloween Costumes

With Halloween in a couple of weeks here are some links to sites that will save you money on your Halloween costumes.

http://www.robinsfyi.com/holidays/halloween/costumes.htm

About 20 + good ideas there.

More can be found here -

http://parents.berkeley.edu/advice/holidays/halloween_costumes.html

Remember that it can be as fun to make the costume, as it is to go trick or treating.

Enjoy your Tuesday.

Posted on October 10, 2009 - by admin

Setting a Budget for the Holidays

Out of Gas Newsletter - Issue 56 October 10, 2009

Fall Savings for you.

++ News -

We want to wish a Happy Thanksgiving for all our Canadian readers (their Thanksgiving is on Monday).
As we move toward the holidays you need to start thinking now about several different things.
1. Your budget.
2. Your list.
3. Saving on your gifts.
4. Earning some extra money.
- Offline
-Online

We’ll work on each of those topics for the next 5 or 6 weeks.

Links you can Use

What are going to be the hot toys this year - you can use the following links to do a little research (and maybe buy early and save yourself a headache).

http://emol.org/emclub/?q=hotbest2008topholidaytoys

http://www.timetoplaymag.com/mostwanted/

Setting a budget for the holidays.

The first thing you want to do (now) for next year is to set aside some money / save for next year.

There a numerous ways that you can do that. You can start a Christmas club account at your bank (and earn a tiny bit of interest). You can also just set aside some money yourself, which is what I do.

Now for the hard part - setting a budget. If you’ve lost your job or been downsized or worried about your job, then I know this year you’ll be spending less than you did last year.

I would like for you to think about the gifts that you got your kids last year. Do they still use / play with them. If so what was the gift that you gave them.

When making your budget, think about points you could use for your gifts. We use an Amazon card in our business and those points can be used for certificates at Amazon. While I’m sure it won’t be very much $25 is still $25.00.

Here is a good printable spreadsheet to get your started. Next week we’ll use that as we make our list.

http://www.homeeverafter.com/christmas-shopping-list-planner-budget-spreadsheet-free-printable/

Have a wonderful weekend.

Next Issues -

Making a list for holiday gift season.
Saving on your gifts
Earning extra money - offline / online.

Enjoy your weekend.