frugal underground

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You might be throwing away things that you could use again. There are plenty of created ways to make treasure out of your trash. Here are a few ideas:

Use your old mustard or ketchup squeeze bottles as a cake decorating tube.

Use a cardboard box and manila folders for a filing system.

Give the stuffing paper from purses, book-bags or shoes to the kids for drawing paper.

Photo by HagitR

You can use a shoe box as a place to keep your incoming mail.

Keep old book bags, as long as they don’t have holes. You can use them for day trips, or a flight carry-on.

Use paper and plastic bags from the grocery store as garbage bags. You can also reuse the bags to carry new groceries. (Some stores will give you a $0.02 credit for each reused bag.)

Use the Styrofoam from packages to create a model size snow town for your kids’ little toy characters.

The possibilities are endless! Be creative!

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Drowning in credit card debt is a burden for many people. Sometimes you don’t know where to begin, or it seems like your debt is so large you’ll never escape. The following are ten simple ways to help you move towards debt-freedom.

1. Pay your highest interest rate cards off first.
This is considered common knowledge these days, but it’s easy to confuse paying off your highest interest credit cards with paying down your highest balance. Even if you owe only $150 on a 28% department store card and $5,000 on an 18.5% credit card, pay your minimum monthly payment on your higher balance, and use as much as is left over to get that monster-rate balance clear. (Then forget about using that card again until your other debts are down!)

Photo by wackocatho

2. Double up on payments
Paying your minimum payments twice a month (every 2 weeks or every paycheck) will get your debt down to zero in less than half the time of paying once! If you can manage, doubling up at the beginning of the month will save you even more. Lenders make more interest the longer you wait to pay.

3. Don’t wait to pay
The day your bill arrives, it’s a good time to make your payment. Don’t let the grace period trick you into thinking you’re saving interest charges on anything but your most recent purchases.

4. Pay online
Using online banking cuts out a few days worth of snail mail travel time (and thus, interest charges), and saves you the cost of the check. Plus you’re less likely to risk late payment penalties due to a problem with the mail. Remember, however, that online payments may take a couple days to clear depending on your bank, so plan your payment a few days before it’s due.

5. No more notes
If you do send in checks each month, avoid writing notes as your credit card company is allowed to route your note with the bills and checks attached to them to different departments for up to five days which could cause you to miss your payment due date. The same goes for memos.

6. Write clearly
Your check may also be passed around for five days if your handwriting is difficult to decipher. So print nicely to avoid late fees.

7. Don’t be charmed by pre-approved credit cards
If you’re already approved (and you have poor credit) there are a couple reasons why you should run from such offers. Credit card companies are banking that you will rack up more debt (this is how you got in your situation to begin with), and to match your risk comes a high interest rate.

8. Read the fine print on 0% balance transfers
Balance transfers sound like they are buying you time, but remember that there is often a fee (2% or so of your balance to be transferred) just to make the transfer. And your low APR won’t last forever and will rebound to a much higher rate after as little as three months. Your interest rate on purchases or cash advances is also something to watch for. These can be even higher and usually there is no grace period. Unless you’re confident you can pay off your debt and not make any new purchases while your 0% period lasts, you may end up worse off than when you transferred.

9. If you’re really in trouble…
When your debt is so large that you’re considering bankruptcy, here’s a little known tip. Credit card lenders would rather get something out of you than nothing. So call your credit card companies and explain truthfully your situation. Ask for at least a two month stay on your debt with no payments required so you can work on resolving your bad credit. Request that they note this in your file and make note of the supervisor or agent you spoke with. Your credit card company may be willing to either forgive part of your outstanding debt, rework your monthly payment schedule/requirements or eliminate your interest payments over the long-term. It may seem tempting just to declare bankruptcy and forget about the debt completely, but remember that bankruptcy carries its own consequences that greatly affect your future credit options.

10. Flee annual fees
You probably didn’t know that you could ask your credit card company to waive your annual fee. Call your credit card company and mention that you are considering switching to a different company’s offer but you would consider staying with your current card should your annual fee be waived. You’ll probably get it.

If you’re disciplined enough to never carry a credit card balance, don’t even bother getting any card with an annual fee. The main reason for annual fees is for the credit card company to be able to offer rewards or lower interest rates and charge a bit extra for the privilege. If you essentially don’t pay any interest anyway, you don’t care whether your card is 9.99% interest or 19.5%.

About the guest blogger: Linda Bustos is the Marketing Director for Creditorweb.com, where you can learn about credit cards and compare credit card ratings and reviews. And check out how close you are to debt freedom with the credit card payoff calculator.

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Here are some quick penny-pinching ideas:

Serve and eat smaller portions. You will probably lose weight, too.

Photo by KJKing

Share the meal when eating out. Many diners and other restaurants will give oversized portions. Share a dish between two people. You can also do this with dessert.

In the summer, only use the air conditioner during the hottest part of the day (noon to 5 pm). After that drink water, have an ice pop, and take it easy. Fans take less energy as well.

Use florescent light bulbs, in the summer. They use less heat and electricity.

Put a portion of your paycheck into an interest-bearing savings account every time. Don’t touch the money unless you can’t cover a bill. Even if it is just $5, it will add up in time.

Every time you break a dollar, put all of your loose change in a jar. Don’t touch the money until the end of the year.

Make your lunch instead of buying out everyday.

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If you’ve decided that you’re interested in attending a Trendwest presentation, you can sign up online to go. (You can also get an attending friend to refer you, or sign up for one of their drawings—in my area, there are almost always car giveaways in the mall sponsored by Trendwest.)

Here are some tips for attending the presentation.

• Negotiate on your incentive. We didn’t really know you could do this, but the last time we were invited, Daniel told the scheduler that we just weren’t interested in the standard “vacation package” they were offering. (We have heard horror stories about the vacation from friends… suffice it to say, you’re NOT staying at a Trendwest resort…)

  Then Daniel asked if they were offering any gift certificates to local businesses instead (we’d been offered that on a previous visit). Turns out, they were willing to give us a $50 gift certificate to Home Depot, and $20 at Tony Roma’s. Of course, no guarantees, but you’ll never know if you don’t ask, and you could get something significantly more useful than their initial offer.

• Do your homework. Ask yourself the questions about Trendwest’s value to you personally. Have a good idea before you go in about what you actually spend on lodging yearly. This will give you the information you need to evaluate the offer that will be made to you.
• Be prepared for high-pressure tactics. Though every sales person is different, in my experience, Trendwest sales associates play hardball. They won’t hesitate to constantly put down your values if they get in the way of a sale. They have suggested financing a Trendwest purchase by rolling it into our mortgage. They told my husband he deserved a poke in the eye with a sharp stick. They tell you that you only get one chance at the deal (clearly not true since we’ve been four times, each time at their invitation). They will do everything they can to make you decide right then and there, and not give you a chance to think it through. This is why it’s so important to come prepared.
• Consider alternative options. Take a look at what Trendwest points are going for on eBay. In general, it’s about half the price per point, compared to what they offer at the presentations. If you buy via eBay, you miss out on some of the perks that go with points sold directly from Trendwest. If you bring it up, your salesperson will certainly tell you what you’ll miss. Typically, these perks are things like Bonus Time and classes. Be cautious, though… they don’t usually react well to bringing up the eBay alternative. We’ve been told it’s not safe, despite the fact that the sellers are reputable and provide mountains of documentation, which suggests more about the salesperson’s fear than anything else.

  The point is, though, that you should know how the market values Trendwest points. You’ll have to decide first if Trendwest makes sense for your family, and then whether the perks are worth the extra money. Due diligence is key.

• Bring a list of contacts who won’t mind being called by Trendwest. As you’re getting ready to leave (you think!), a salesperson will give you a sheet of paper and ask you to fill it with the names and contact info for people you know. Usually they will offer a modest incentive (like an entry in a drawing) if you provide ten names or more. The attitude I’ve felt here is clearly, “You are a waste of my time but I may forgive you if you provide me with leads.” I find this extremely irritating, but this is the point at which you can get your friends invited if they want to partake of the attendance incentives. Be aware, though, that typically only couples with $35k+ incomes will actually be invited.

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A month or two ago, I received an email from someone who had seen this blog and wanted to tell me about his own frugal site. I get a few of these emails each month, but this one hit me at a crazy busy time, and I didn’t take the time to look at his site until now.

Because the gentleman was kind enough to include a summary of what the site does, I’m copying it here:

DealMine.com is aggregating member discounts and rewards from loyalty programs, credit cards, associations (AAA, AARP), unions, etc and matching them up to comparison shopping technology. The idea from a consumer perspective is that as popular as comparison shopping is, the information they provide is limited to price, tax and shipping info and that does not provide all the information and consumer needs to make a purchasing decision. For example, the average consumer has nine credit cards, belongs to four rewards programs and at least one association or club (sources: FairIssac and Colloquy) all of which have member benefits and have not been aggregated anywhere before in a way that makes them easy to use. We help consumers discover deals they didnt even know they had available like 10% off at Target.com with AAA or $15 off at Bluefly with Visa cards…

The site features two types of searches. The first is into the directory to compare discounts or rewards like this one for car rentals currently featuring over 100 deals: http://www.dealmine.com/deal-directory/Travel-discounts/Car-Rentals/49

The other search on the site is actual comparison shopping where prices at various stores are matched up to affinity/membership discounts and benefits. See below for an example of a “Compare Prices” search on jeans: http://www.dealmine.com/compare-prices.php?s=jeans

The site currently features discounts and rewards from 29 member programs and is growing quickly.

I was impressed at the concept when I read the email. It seems like a tool that could help a certain market segment (namely, us, “the cheapskates”). And goodness knows I’m part of way too many rewards programs, and don’t keep track of them nearly as well as I ought to.

I tried out the site to see what I thought. My impression: a touch clunky, but extremely useful. The registration process includes a spot where you tell DealMine what rewards programs you’re part of, and then future searches are customized to your actual memberships.

I was impressed at the options for filtering and sorting on a product search. For instance, I did the example jeans search, and found loads of bargains on pants. But then I saw I could filter to show only five-pocket jeans, or bootcuts, and limit it to deals under $20. That’s handy.

I went on to find a lovely pair of bootcut jeans at Sierra Trading post that were under $20 shipped, and would net me 4 hotel rewards points per dollar. I didn’t buy them (that’s still a lot of money for jeans, in my opinion, and I don’t need any right now), but it was a good exercise in seeing the potential benefit of this site.

My biggest concern? Whether I will remember to use the site. I’d like to see them offer a search plugin to the Search Bar in . That would make it much more likely that I’ll return when it’s time to buy.

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I’ve enjoyed reading the little saving tips that Budget Savvy sends out from time to time (by request, of course). I’ve been too cheap (of course!) to subscribe to the magazine sight unseen, though.

I was pleased to check my email this morning and find the announcement that they’re taking the magazine online (and I believe this will be online only), and not only that, they’ll be offering it for free. They are separating the articles out by “applicable area” (e.g. “living room”, “board room”, “pantry”), which has potential for interesting browsing. Beyond the articles, there’s also what appears to be a blog (though oddly, no way to leave comments that I can see).

It looks like they still have a little tweaking to do, but this new site has great promise and I’ll definitely be checking it out on a regular basis.

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Have credit card debt?  Almost everyone does.  The Credit Card Blog has a great list of 33 Tips to Dig Yourself Out of Credit Card Debt (some of them are obvious, but honestly, this would be ideal as a checklist—seriously, print it out and cross off items).

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PC Advisor has some good product recommendations to help you get more value from your CD burner and printer. It’s worth reading the post, but if you just want a quick summary, get the free program SizeMe to reduce wasted space on your CDs (or Picasa for images) and use a Rubber Roller Rejuvenator to give new life to a paper-jamming printer.

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There are lots of reasons why it’s good to have some short term savings, a kind of cushion, if you will. Chief among them is that you won’t be overdrawing your checking account should your timing be a little off. But there are some other less-obvious advantages that can save you money.

The main one is that by having money in reserve, you can afford to “go without” some money in the short term to save money. A prime example of this is the various tax-free health savings accounts. By considering what your expenses are likely to be, and committing to cover them before they happen, you can save a significant chunk of change, depending on your tax bracket. This is the same idea behind various retirement options, too. Pay now to save later.

In our household, we’ve been using this idea to save money on recreation. One example is the health club. My husband is a semi-serious cyclist and wanted to keep in shape during the cold winter months, so we looked for a health club that offered cycling classes in addition to the weights that we should be using year-round. When we found the club we wanted to join, they quoted several different prices based on the term of the contract and the method of payment. Because we were willing to pay upfront for two years in advance, we are paying about half of the standard cost. Obviously this is only a good idea on something you will definitely use (we’re 6 months in and still going to the gym several times a week).

Here’s one that we’re planning on doing. Every year, our local ski hill sells season passes at an extremely low $199 per pass… but they only sell them at that price for one weekend. We just bought our passes for the 2006/2007 season, but we’re already thinking of 2007/2008. Here’s why: the ski hill runs a “cash card” sale just before they open (usually Novemberish, I think) where they sell these cash cards at 75% of their face value. Basically, get a $100 cash card for $75. These cards are accepted anywhere on the mountain and can be used to pay for lift tickets, lessons, whatever. What we’re focused on is that they can be used to pay for passes.

So come this November, we’re going to figure out what we will be spending in the full next year ($199 pass for me, $199 pass for Daniel, $120 for the lessons I intend to take, plus a little for food on the mountain) and we will buy a cash card with that full amount on it. In the end, we’ll be buying our passes for $150 each, my lessons for $90, and the overpriced food on the mountain for an amount that resembles a fair price. Sure, we have to plunk down $450 upfront, but we save a full $150 just by planning ahead.

The moral of this story? Whether you’re talking health care or retirement or recreation, you can often save a lot by paying upfront—so make it a priority to have the necessary short-term savings available.

Related Link: cash advance quick payday loan applications

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CiN Weekly has a short article on “Frugal & fresh” weddings. Frankly, I think they have a different idea of frugal than I do (they highlight a dress by a “lesser-known designer” for $875 retail; that’s a large chunk of the entire cost of my wedding). But they have some ideas that might be helpful, especially those who think that a wedding has to be expensive. I think the best aspect of the article is that it will hopefully inspire some creative, out-of-the-box kind of thinking—the kind of thinking that can save a bundle.

Related Link: wedding invitation, ribbon, satin ribbon, organza ribbon, sheer ribbon, grosgrain ribbon, tulle, wedding tulle, all on Sale! Huge Selection. Wholesale Price Available after registration.

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I’ve posted before on the benefits of meal planning and I hope that you’ve found the value in it. Here’s a simple, quick tool to help the process along: a list of your family’s favorite meals. Yeah, it’s kind of obvious and I felt silly for not coming up with it earlier, but a comprehensive list of favorites can really take the pressure off.

You don’t have to agonize over what to make, where to find a good new recipe (and where to find the time to find it!), and what to do with the leftovers when the family isn’t wild about it. Sure, it’s fun to try new things from time to time, but most families would rather stick with maybe fifteen or twenty “tried-and-true” favorites than constantly be trying “experiments.”

It’s super easy to implement this tip. Just take a piece of notebook paper (or a blank file in your word processor) and start writing down the family’s most requested meals. If you are stuck, go ask your spouse and the kids. My husband was more than glad to register his vote for “normal things” (his words) like spaghetti and tuna sandwiches.

Then just put the list somewhere you can see it when you’re meal planning and also easily add to it. For me, that’s right here. I figure if I try one new dinner meal in a week and pull the rest from the list, that will keep the family happy and still let me experiment. My list is still evolving, and will be for some time, but hopefully you can use this advice to save time as well as money.

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