Archive for January, 2010

Posted on January 30, 2010 - by admin

Finding something to sled in the snow

Out of Gas Newsletter - Issue 70 January 30, 2010

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We got about six inches of snow today. It’s not very good to make snowballs with, but it is very nice to sleigh ride on. Today’s update is a little
short, because we’ll be out playing in the snow.

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If you get in a bind and don’t happen to have a sled, here are some ideas you can use to sleigh ride (and they’re all things you can find at your house).

1. The good ole plastic bag. The black garbage bags (like hefty) work best.  Just sit on top of them (not in them). You may need a couple of runs to work
the kinks out but this works really well.
2. A rug - just don’t get one of those skid proof ones.
3. A garbage can lid - the bigger the better. The curved ones work the best, as well as ones that don’t have a handle / grip in the middle / top of the
lid.

If you’re thinking of buying a sled - the best time to do this is at the end of the winter season.

Have a wonderful time this weekend, we will.

Posted on January 26, 2010 - by admin

Be Careful When you Sell your Cash for Gold

There has been a lot of news coverage lately on people that are using the cash for gold services (you know the ones that are advertised all over on television). They are sometimes giving you a ridiculously low price for your gold. Sometimes you are getting pennies on the dollar for your hard earned trinkets. We’ll give you some links later on to find some further information. Here are some things to keep in mind.

1. Try local dealers first - believe it or not pawn shops will give you a good rate for your gold. The benefit of doing things local is that you will not have to send your gold in an envelope and find out what they will offer you for it. You will immediately find out what they will give for your gold.

2. Don’t accept the first offer, just like you should do when your buying a car, shop around for the best deal. It also doesn’t hurt to pit the potential gold buyers against each other. You could say, “Well that’s a pretty good offer but the shop down the road offered me this much for it… can you beat that price.”

3. Gold prices aren’t steady but they fluctuate. The price you’ll get for your gold is based on that price. You can find the latest gold prices here. If things are trending down, then it may be a good idea to wait until they are starting to trend up. The trick of course is to sell it when it is at a peak.

Here are some links to the news coverage we were talking about.

http://consumerist.com/cgi-bin/mt/mt-search.cgi?blog_id=1&tag=cash4gold&limit=20

Enjoy your day.

Posted on January 23, 2010 - by admin

Saving money on Birthday Parties

Out of Gas Newsletter - Issue 69 January 23, 2010

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Today is our anniversary.. Lisa has put up with me for 19 years and I can’t believe it. It is pretty funny but I still feel like I’m on my honeymoon. My daughters birthday is coming up and today we talk about saving money on your birthday party.

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Saving Money on Birthday parties

There are really three types of parties -

a) The intimate party - this is probably the cheapest of them all. You invite a few close friends for a sleepover or an afternoon at your house. This type of party could also include a trip to a movie or some other fun place.
b) The party at your house. This involves all the normal birthday festivities at your house.
c) The party outside of your house. This could be at the pool, chucky cheese, a skating rink etc. This birthday party is usually the most expensive. This is the party we’ll be talking about.

1. Invitations - You can save a lot of money by printing your own invitations. They don’t have to cover the whole page, in fact it is pretty easy to get 6 or so on a page. You can find some word birthday templates here - http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/templates/CT101447601033.aspx
2. Food and Drink - If you’re having a big crowd probably the cheapest way to go is pizza. Everyone loves pizza and if you call around I’m sure that you can find them for 5 or 6 bucks each. Ask about quantity discounts.
3. The venue - the best way to save money on the skating rink or whereever you’re going to have your party is to find someone to share the costs. We have my daughter and nieces party every year together, that way we and my wife’s sister splits all the costs. In fact we’ll be having Haley’s birthday party on Sunday.
4. Party gifts - you know the little bag of things that you give the people that come to the birthday party. Believe it or not their are kids that go to the parties with the ‘best’ goody bag.

One thing to remember to is if you don’t go to the other kiddy parties, then not many people will come to yours.

Posted on January 19, 2010 - by admin

Sell Your Gadgets for Cash

My wife found this site during some of her web wanderings.

Gazelle is a site that allows you to sell your old gadgets for cash. http://www.gazelle.com/

It’s pretty simple to use. You can search for the item you’re trying to sell or you can use their gadgets we buy tool… and they do buy a lot of different gadgets. Lets say that I have an old I-pod touch that I want to sell.

You would put I-pod touch in the search bar. Next you would click on which generation it is and highlight how many gigs it has.

You would then answer a few questions, highlight items that you have (or don’t have) like cables / instructions etc. and then click calculate.

You then add it to the box and checkout. One note even if they won’t offer you any money they will recycle it for you.

Enjoy your Tuesday.

Posted on January 16, 2010 - by admin

Some things to do during the Winter Warmup

Out of Gas Newsletter - Issue 68 January 16, 2010

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Our thoughts and prayers go out to those affected by the tragedy in Haiti.

Links you can Use

A great site for getting some money advice. http://themoneycoach.net/

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Much of the country has warmed up a bit after the big cool down. Never fear though winter will come back with a vengeance. We thought we would give you five ideas for things you can do today, to help save on your energy bill and just some smart things to do.

1. Make sure that if you use your hose this weekend that you turn it off. After you turn it off make sure to unplug the hose from the faucet. You may also want to insulate the faucet.
2. Wash your car (if it’s above 32). If it is going to go below freezing during the evening you’ll want to make sure that you dry your car. Especially pay attention to the car doors (otherwise they will freeze and it will be hard to open), and the gas cap.
3. If your heater has been running overtime take some time to change the filter / vaccum around the furnace area. If you use fuel for the furnace make sure you have enough to last you the rest of the winter.
4. You may have noticed some drafts during the cold snap. Now is the time to plug any of those holes with caulk.
5. Air out those areas that you had closed off to save on the heating bill.

Enjoy your weekend.

Posted on January 15, 2010 - by admin

Saving Money Tips - Start saving by making a goal

If you’re working on saving money then you need to check out Smarty Pig.

It works by giving you input on how to save for specific Saving’s Goals.

You create an account, setup goals and then start saving. The really neat thing comes along when you you set things up. It allows your friends and family help you to achieve those goals.

Example: Say that you are wanting to save up money to send your kids to school. Now you can get your grandparents and other relatives involved into making that plan a reality.

Have a great Friday and a wonderful weekend.

Posted on January 11, 2010 - by admin

Last Minute Cold Weather Savings Tips

With Florida hitting record lows last night, here are some last minute tips to save you some money on your heating bill (especially for those people that aren’t used to it).

1. Instead of turning the heat higher, put on a sweater.
2. Make sure that your registers are not blocked with anything. Any rooms that you don’t use, shut the doors and close the vents.
3. If you have a ceiling fan, you can use them, just make sure to reverse them ( so that it blows down). Heat rises so this helps to recirculate some of the heat near your ceiling.
4. At night turn the heat down a little and throw on an extra blanket.
5. Use exhaust fans sparingly.
6. A lot of heat can be lost around windows. Heavy curtains work best, but if you don’t have them you can use a light blanket.
7. Keep safe. Make sure that you have smoke detectors and carbon monoxide detectors and make sure that you have fresh batteries in them.

The good news is that winter won’t last forever and spring is just around the corner.

Posted on January 9, 2010 - by admin

How to improve your Credit Scores

Out of Gas Newsletter - Issue 67 January 9, 2010

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We hope you and your family had a wonderful Christmas and a festive New Year. Today we’ll be continuing our series on Credit Reports.

We’ve covered how to get your free credit report as well as How to read your credit report. Today we’ll be talking about how to improve your credit report.

Links you can Use

Not getting enough from your checking account - try this site to search for the best checking account for you.

https://www.checkingfinder.com/

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How to Improve your Credit score / Credit Report

These tips fall into categories -

1. Payment History

- Pay your bills on time.
- If you have gotten behind before make it a goal to pay them on time.

With online bill paying, paying your bills ontime is a no brainer. If you don’t use online bill paying then try to pay the bill a week early.

2. Amounts owed - your score includes the amount you owe, plus the amount of available credit you have.

- keep your balances as low as possible
- don’t move your debt around, try to pay it off
- don’t open new accounts, and don’t close accounts you already have

3. New credit -

- don’t open too many new accounts at once, build slowly

4. Other things -
- If you have a credit card you’ve had for a long time, but don’t use. Use it once in a while to make a purchase.

Make sure to report any things that aren’t correct on your credit report.

Enjoy your weekend.

Posted on January 8, 2010 - by admin

How to Read your Credit Report

How to Read your credit report.

Your credit report is broken down into sections, some of the information is self explanatory ( and some isn’t).

I.D. Section - this section includes information about you - make sure things are correct, especially the address.

The ID section includes your:
name
current address
social security number
date of birth
spouse’s name (if applicable)

Credit History Section

The history section includes just that - your open accounts (things you owe) and things you’ve paid. Along with any late payments.
Make SURE that each account is accurate.

Here is the format:

Company Name
Account Number
Whose Account - the abbreviations sometimes vary - here are some common ones.
I - Individual
U - Undesignated
J - Joint
A - Authorized User
T - Terminated
C - Co-maker/Co-signer
S - Shared

Date Opened
Months Reviewed - number of months in your history with the account
Last Activity - this could be a charge or a payment
High Credit - your credit limit - for loans this is the initial amount of the loan.
Terms - Usually the number of installments for a loan.
Balance
Past Due - shows any amounts that you are late on (past due)
Status - This indicates timeliness for payments.
Type of account -
O - Open
R - Revolving
I - Installment
These letters will vary - the next is a number that indicates how well you pay 0-9 - 0 is perfect - 9 is really bad.
Date Reported - Indicates the last time information on this account was updated by your creditor.

Collection Accounts Section - if you’ve ever heard from the dreaded collection agency, here is where they’ll be listed (for 7 years).

Courthouse Records Section - just what it sounds like. Public records include things like: Bankruptcy records,Tax liens, Judgments, Collection accounts, Overdue child support (in some states).

Additional Information

Things like former addresses, employers you’ll find here.

Inquiry Section

A list of folks that have requested your account information.

If you find out that things are not accurate then you will need to dispute the information.
The ftc includes some guidelines that are helpful - you can find that information here.

Posted on January 6, 2010 - by admin

Gas Prices are Higher

Oil prices have spiked over the recent days. This is an alert that if you’re low on gas, then fill your tank up now.

A few different reasons for this.

1. The cold snap. The cold weather means that more people are using energy. This reduces the supply. Also weather can cause local supply disruptions… trucks can’t make their deliveries.

2. Reduced inventory.

I hate to be the bearer of bad news but I think that $3.00 gallon is again possible.