Archive for the ‘Saving Money’ Category
Posted on June 30, 2009 - by admin
Don’t forget about your credit card rewards.
We just got back from our vacation - we worked for the first week and then visited friends and family the second week. We all know that vacations can cost quite a bit of money. We paid for most of our hotel room bill by using points. Yes we had nearly forgotten about them (and possibly you have forgotten about them as well).
Put it on your to do list to check your credit cards and track the rewards that you have. Make some notes also about when they expire (because they will if you don’t use them). Check out the things that you can get with the points. Some of it is junk, but some things I’m sure you will be able to use, like gas, hotel rooms, flights, and gifts (remember that Christmas is only about six months away). Just remember to use them on things that you actually need. We’ll be resuming our usual posting schedule as well.
Have a wonderful Tuesday.
Posted on June 13, 2009 - by admin
Saving Money on your Printer / Ink Costs OOG44
Out of Gas Newsletter - Issue 44 June 13, 2009
Summer Savings for you.
This issue brought to you by
Packaging materials and Supplies
++ News -
We’ll be out of the loop for the next couple of weeks as we work on completing a project. Our next issue should be the first or second week of July.
Super Savings Site
Here’s a great place to plunder around in for a while. I really like the credit card repayment calculator.
++ Savings Tip of the Week
We’ll start the paying off your bills in our July issues. We’ll start out with an overview - then we’ll dig in.
I read an article this week about ink and how much we spend on it. Did you know that if you’re a ‘normal’ computer user then you’ll spend 3 or 4 times the amount you paid for your printer on ink. Some ink cartridges will cost you $66.
Here is a good calculator to find out how much your spending.
http://www.consumercalculator.org/printer_calculator.php
Here is an excellent article that discusses how to figure out the costs (and which printer costs less).
Our Next Issues
Pay your bill off plan.
Posted on June 10, 2009 - by admin
More ways to Save Money
Quick note we will be working on a large project over the next couple of weeks so postings will be a little sparse, hopefully we’ll have it completed the first part of July. There will be an Out of Gas Newsletter this weekend, then we’ll resume in July (probably the 5th but it may be the 12th).
Here is a link we stumbled on today - 66 ways to save money.
http://www.pueblo.gsa.gov/cic_text/money/66ways/
Enjoy your day and we’ll talk with you again on Saturday.
Posted on June 6, 2009 - by admin
10 ways to Save Money this Summer.
Out of Gas Newsletter - Issue 43 June 6, 2009
Summer Savings for you.
This issue brought to you by
10 ways to save money this Summer.
Here are 10 ways you can save money this summer.
1. Clean the air filter in your air conditioner. Do it now and then do it at least every 30 days.
2. If you have an outside unit for your air condtioner make sure that there is no dirt / leaves / debris around it.
3. Turn your thermostat up a couple of degrees. Once your body gets used to that temperature turn it up a degree after a week.
4. Skip one trip out per month.
5. While your air conditioner is on feel around your windows and doors for any air coming in. If you find any buy some caulk and caulk the windows. Some more information can be found here.
6. Make a plan to pay your bills off. We’ll work on helping you do that in some later issues.
7. You can start by paying an extra 10% on the bill with the highest interest rate.
8. Take a look at your grocery bill each month. Whatever you’re spending the most on, decide today to cut that expense by 10%.
9. If you take any short trips by car, try to walk to do them.
10. Start saving $1 / day. By the start of next Summer you’ll have $365.00.
Our Next Issues
Pay your bills off plan.
Posted on May 30, 2009 - by admin
Saving Money When you go out on the town.
Out of Gas Newsletter - Issue 42 May 27, 2009
Saving Money when you go out on the town.
This issue brought to you by
++ News -
I heard a report yesterday that gas prices had nearly doubled over the last few months. The good news is that it is still less than the record prices from last year.
++ Savings Tip of the Week
If you’re thinking about buying a new home, maybe now is the time to buy. Hud recently announced that you can get an ‘advance’ on the 8k tax credit. You can find some details about that here.
Saving Money when you go out on the town.
1. Drinks are expensive - if possible limit your drinks at a club or restauraunt to one or two.
2. Check out your local paper (or local websites) for deals.
3. Call the places you’re thinking about going and ask for deals.
4. Go during happy hour.
5. Ask friends / neighbors for any good tips / deals they may have.
6. Instead of going out - why not have a party at home?
We hope you have a wonderful weekend.
Posted on May 23, 2009 - by admin
Saving Money on Movies - OOG 41
Out of Gas Newsletter - Issue 41 May 23, 2009
Saving Money at the Movies
This issue brought to you by
++ News -
We hope you and your family have a wonderful Holiday weekend.
++ Savings Tip of the Week
Here are some money saving tips on grilling.
http://frugal.families.com/blog/frugal-barbecue-grill
Saving Money The Nitty Gritty - How to Save Money on Movies and Video
The average movie ticket price for 2008 was $7.18. So for a family of four the price (without popcorn) would run you $28.72.
The first thing you’ll need to figure out is how long can you wait to see hit movies.
We have talked some about how you can save some money when going to the theater .
We also talked about some ways to get tv for free - those links would also help you find movies for nothing.
DVD prices again have a broad range - again this is usually based on how long the dvd has been out. The longer it’s been out the cheaper it is. Taking a look at Amazon the price of a recent Blu-Ray movie is about $25.00.
“Normal” DVDs have a price of around $16.00.
It doesn’t matter to me exactly when I see a movie. With our cable service we subscribe to all the movie channels. That means I get to watch movies about 6 months or so after they’ve been in the theaters. But the thing to remember is that the movie is ‘new’ to me… so when it came out doesn’t really matter.
The key here is to make a budget and stick to it.
Posted on May 19, 2009 - by admin
Saving Money on Entertainment
We’ll be talking about saving money on Entertainment over the next few weeks. The first thing you should do is to do an audit. Starting today keep track of every dime that you spend on entertainment. This could be for movies / restauraunts / books / magazines / bar hopping / anything you do for entertainment.
You should be keeping track of how you’re spending any money that you spend, but if you’re not for the next couple of weeks you’ll want to do that.
This weekend we’ll talk about saving Money at the movies.
Till then I found this link that may have some ways of saving money that you haven’t thought about (in fact 25 ways.)
http://www.mytwodollars.com/2006/11/30/sometimes-the-simple-things-can-save-the-most-money/
Posted on May 16, 2009 - by admin
Saving Money on Car Maintenance OOG 40
Out of Gas Newsletter - Issue 40 May 16, 2009
Saving Money on Car Maintenance
This issue brought to you by
++ News -
Gas prices have been risen about 12% in the past few weeks. Details on that can be found here.
Saving Money The Nitty Gritty - How to Save Money on your Car Maintenance
If you’re trying to save money by not buying a new car and/or working on your gas mileage then you will definitely want to do some car maintenace.
You can either do the maintenance yourself or you can hire a mechanic to do it.
1. Doing it yourself.
If you’re mechanically inclined and have no problem with your car maintenance then I applaud you.
There are a few different ways you can learn how.
If you want to do something specific then do a search online.
You can also learn quite a bit from books, many local community colleges and tech schools have courses that you can take.
Hang around a garage, get with someone that knows what they are doing and you can get some hands on experience.
2. Hire someone to do it.
Get references from friends / family and your neighbors.
Call around to get prices on things that need to be done.
Ask how much parts are going to be if it’s a big job and ask can you buy the parts yourself (you may get off cheaper that way).
Next Issues and what’s up:
Entertainment -
An Overview
Doing the Audit
Entertainment alternatives
Posted on May 15, 2009 - by admin
Saving Money on a night out
Here is an interesting way to save on a night out on the town (on the food bill anyway).
1. Go to http://www.restaurant.com
2. Enter your zip code
You should now see a list of restaurants in your area. You can either buy a $10 gift certificate for $3.00 or a $25 certificate for $10. Print out the certificate and enjoy your discounted meal.
Note: Be careful to read the fine print when you’re choosing the place you want to eat at. There may be a minimum amount, there could be a tip automatically added, a restriction on when you can eat (or what you can eat). Just make sure to read it.
A good example would be this:
For “Clouds cooking” I can get a $25 certificate for $10 bucks.
I will need to spend $35 and dine in only. My $35 meal costs me $25… so I saved 10 bucks.
Enjoy your Friday!
Posted on May 12, 2009 - by admin
Are you sure about your insurance coverage
It’s been crazy around here the last couple of weeks.
Almost two weeks ago my sister was in a car accident and broke her hip. This past Friday another sister’s house was flooded (and she lives about a mile away from a creek).
If you don’t do anything else this week, maybe you should check out to make sure you have insurance coverage that works for you.
Health Insurance Checkup
Here is an excellent primer / guide to get you started.
http://www.ahrq.gov/consumer/insuranceqa/
I would just like to add that many times you get what you pay for. Ask friends / relatives / neighbors if they have a particular policy that they would recommend (that pays for things you will need). In my sisters case they will not allow her to have any kind of physical therapy….
Homeowners insurance
1. Make sure you have flood insurance even if you live on the side of a cliff. Flash floods (which is what happened in my sister’s case) doesn’t have to have a stream, or river to impact you. Rates for flood insurance vary by where you live but the most expensive is around $2500 for a 125k home and 40k contents. Remember that your homeowners insurance WILL NOT cover you for a flood. Lots of details / tools / etc. can be found here.
http://www.floodsmart.gov/floodsmart/
2. Make sure that your policy covers what you actually have. If you bought it ten years ago, you have probably at least doubled the value of the contents of your house… check your policies to make sure that you have adequate coverage.
Make sure you know where your insurance policies are, review them and keep them in a safe place.
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Popular News
- Don’t forget about your credit card rewards. by admin on June 30, 2009
- Saving Money on your Printer / Ink Costs OOG44 by admin on June 13, 2009
- More ways to Save Money by admin on June 10, 2009
- 10 ways to Save Money this Summer. by admin on June 6, 2009
- A good site for helping you save Money by admin on June 2, 2009
