Save Money Buying Your Cell Phone Online
June 15, 2008 by Erik Folgate
Filed under Budgeting
I wrote an article a few days ago about the possibility of the FCC changing the way that cell phone companies rope you into contracts with exorbitant early termination fees. One of the ways that cell phone companies try to rope you into signing a new contract extension is by heavily subsidizing an upgrade to a new phone. Most people want to upgrade their phone after a year or two, so they sign the new 2 year contract extension, and get a phone for cheap. If you don’t want to sign a new contract and save money on a new or newer phone, try looking for a lightly used phone.
Websites Dedicated To Helping You Save Money At The Grocery Store
June 9, 2008 by Erik Folgate
Filed under Budgeting, Economy, Spending and Saving
The economy isn’t as bad as it could be, but it has definitely been flat. The rising cost of gas and food has pinched your pockets. The good thing is that it’s teaching people to be more frugal with their money without having to read tons of personal finance blogs. The bad thing is that most people only practice a frugal lifestyle when they need to. They don’t make it a way of life. My encouragement to you this week is to start developing frugal habits that last a lifetime. Obviously, your goal is to become independently wealthy, so you can enjoy some of the finer things in life and give back to others, but the only way to get there is to live a modest and frugal life on every day necessities.
The Best Ways To Find A Deal On An Airline Ticket
May 28, 2008 by Erik Folgate
Filed under Budgeting, Spending and Saving
I hate buying airline tickets. Why can’t there just be one standard pricing system across the board when it comes to buying a ticket. If an airline came into business that could charge set prices for a certain route and still make money, they’d be billionaires. My wife and I are going out to California this summer, and we started looking for tickets to go out there about a week ago. The tickets were in the $400 to $450 dollar range. This was not acceptable. We couldn’t afford to spend $900 on the tickets when we still need to pay for a hotel, rental car, food, and entertainment while we’re out there. So, we started scrounging through the depths of the internet to find any deal possible, and our hard work paid off last night. We found a ticket for $300 a piece, so the $900 we thought we were going to spend quickly turned into $600. Here are the seven things that I learned about how to find the best deals on the internet for airline tickets.
Ten Inexpensive Ways To Be Green on Earth Day
April 22, 2008 by Erik Folgate
Filed under Budgeting, Spending and Saving
So, I decided to do the obligatory environmentally conscious article for earth day. I’ll be honest with you, I haven’t jumped on the “going green” bandwagon. It’s not that I don’t like the environment, I am just skeptical about the hysteria that everyone thinks our planet is going melt soon. Having said that, whether your a tree hugger or not, there are many financial advantages to being more environmentally friendly. Most of it has to do with conserving energy. The less energy that you consume, the more money you’ll save over a lifetime.
Five Frugal Tips for Kitchen Remodeling
April 17, 2008 by Erik Folgate
Filed under Budgeting, Spending and Saving
We recently renovated a condo on a very tight budget. I started watching all of the HGTV shows to get ideas for ways to make the kitchen look good without spending a lot of money. I didn’t end up using many of the tips that I wrote down from asking friends, watching those TV shows, and reading books, but I thought that I would share them with you. Your kitchen is the most important room in your house. Selling your house hinges on the look and functionality of your kitchen. So, it’s in your best interest to start thinking about updating your kitchen if you ever think about selling the house or increasing its overall value.
An Easy Way to Save Money: Ask For a Discount
April 11, 2008 by Erik Folgate
Filed under Budgeting, Spending and Saving
I’m watching 20/20 right now on ABC, and they just had a segment about how to save a bunch of money while shopping. The formula was simple. Walk into the store, show interest in buying the item, and ask for a discount.
31 Ways to Be Frugal And Save Money
April 1, 2008 by Erik Folgate
Filed under Budgeting, Insurance, Spending and Saving
Lately, I’ve been hearing tips from friends about how they save money, reading articles about saving money, and trying to come up with ways to save some money around the house. So, I decided to put together a comprehensive list of ways that we save money around the house and in our daily lives. There are 31 suggestions, one for each day of the month.
- Buy and install a programmable thermostat. Set the thermostat higher when you are gone during the day and cooler when you are at home at night.
- Use Coupons wisely. Only clip coupons for items that you consume on a regular basis.
A Simplified Envelope Budgeting System That Works
March 14, 2008 by Erik Folgate
Filed under Budgeting
I’ve found that people who have tried the envelope system but ended up hating it, made one common mistake. They made too many envelope categories. The envelope system of budgeting is exactly how it sounds. You create budget categories and set aside a certain money in each category and put it in an envelope to be used for the month. My wife and I have been using the envelope system for the past two years, and we have refined it significantly. At first, we had nine categories for budgeting envelopes, but it seemed overwhelming and tedious to keep track of all those categories. Today, we now carry five envelopes full of money, and the rest of our money stays in our bank account to pay bills and transfer savings to our shor-term and long-term investing accounts. Here are our five envelope categories:
Setting Up Custom Categorization Rules In The Yodlee Personal Finance Application
March 14, 2008 by Erik Folgate
Filed under Budgeting
Yodlee has a powerful algorithm to categorize the transactions you make in your checking, savings, and credit card accounts. However, sometimes it puts something in the wrong category, or it doesn’t categorize a transaction at all. There is a way to categorize certain transactions you make throughout the month that Yodlee isn’t getting right. Follow these steps to set up custom categorization rules in your yodlee account.
What I’ve Learned About Saving Money On My Pet
March 7, 2008 by Erik Folgate
Filed under Budgeting, Consumer News, Spending and Saving
Many personal finance bloggers have written great articles about the cost of owning a pet and ways to save money when owning a pet. I didn’t realize how much it really does cost to own a medium-sized dog. For one thing, if you don’t have children, that pet becomes like your child, so you tend to spend a little bit more money on them than usual. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with spoiling a family pet if you can afford it. I thought that you might be interested in ways that we have saved money on our dog by using common sense and practicing good preventative care. Here are some ways that we feel we’ve saved money in the long run on pet care.
