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Budget Ideas-Grocery Coupons

September 24th, 2009

Grocery coupons are a great way to save money on groceries. However, it is the combination of grocery coupons and sales that will make the biggest difference at the checkout. By combining grocery coupons and store sales you can increase your saving up to 100-percent. Yes, you read that right. When combining the manufacturer coupon with the already discounted sales items, it is completely possible to get free groceries.

Collecting the grocery coupons is the first step to saving. You will also want to keep the coupons you may not think you will use. Start collecting your grocery coupons and keep them in two separate areas. The first should be the coupons you know you will use. The second is for the grocery coupon that may not get used. If you try keeping the coupons together the process can get overwhelming and seem to be more difficult than it really is.

Your next step is to collect the local sales flyers from your area to match up with your grocery coupons. Generally the easiest way to do this is to go through each ad and write down the product that is on sale and the price it is on sale for. You may also want to put a star or check mark next to the item so you know you have a coupon for it.

In order to make the most of your grocery coupons, you need to understand the coupon policies of each store. Do they have a limit on the number of like coupons you can use per transaction? Do they double or triple coupons? Can you combine their store coupon with a manufacturer coupon? One store may have an item cheaper, but if a different store will double or triple your coupon that could be a better savings.

Another step in utilizing your grocery coupon is to think outside the box. Not all your groceries have to be purchased at the grocery store. In fact, many items may be cheaper at a discount store such as Wal-Mart or Target. You may be able to find better deals at Walgreens or CVS, both of which carry a small selection if groceries. They often have great deals on cleaners or toiletries as well.

To save the most money with your grocery coupons, it does take a little more than the one stop shopping trip. However, a well planned shopping trip can ease your budget and keep your bank account happy.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Alexis_Paige

Home Budget your Phone Bill

September 9th, 2009

While local telephone service can be affordable for most of us, it can quickly get expensive if you add all of the options offered by the telephone companies. Asking yourself a few simple questions and making very little sacrifice, you can make some significant savings and pinch pennies.

1. Common services that are added to your phone bill. Determine if you really need all of these features. Each one you eliminate will pinch pennies and save you on your monthly bill.

Avoid using the directory assistance. This service is added to your phone bill each time you use the service. Many times the charge is overlooked because it is not an obvious charge on your bill. Look the number up online at WhitePages.com or use your telephone book and do it the old fashion way.
Call waiting is another service that is not really necessary. In the typical household, how many many of your calls must be answered immediately? Plus, most people have a cell phone. If the call was that important, chances are that person has your cell phone number and could reach you on it in an emergency.
Call forwarding is yet other feature that the phone company often bundles. I had this feature on my phone and I can not remember ever using it. You may be paying for this feature and not even realize it if you bought a bundled plan. The same goes for 3-party conference calling and last number called service.
Voicemail – You can drop the voicemail monthly service and buy a phone that has an answering machine included. The price of the phone will pay for itself quickly and you can check your messages from anywhere with a traditional answering machine by simply calling your number and entering a code you set up.

2. Long Distance Telephone Service

Long distance providers is a very competitive market. Shopping around with the different providers for your area can lead to some really great savings.
Long distance service through your local provider is typically much more expensive than going through one of the competitors. While it may be tempting to take one of their “bundle plans”, avoid these because they typically have hidden costs associated with them.
Determine how much long distance calling you do. If you do a lot of long distance calling, you will most likely want to go with a fixed rate plan. Some carriers offer unlimited long distance calling for a set price that is a great deal if you do a lot of long distance calling. On the other hand, if you do not do a great deal of long distance calling, look into the pay per minute plans. While these are more expensive than a fixed rate plan, if you do very little long distance calling they will save you money on your monthly bill.

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Tags: home budet monthly bills phone bill

How to Save Money at Home-Home Budget

August 31st, 2009

Supermarket Comparison
The first thing you have to do is to do your research. Visit your local super market and make a note of all the basics such as bread, milk, butter etc. These are you basic products and they give you an idea of how expensive your supermarket will fair compared to another one. I would also recommend making a note of the food and drink items you personally value. For example, I personally like to drink wine and I eat a lot of chicken. Having made a note of these products visit the other nearest supermarket and compare prices.

Go local
Shopping at the big stores can be expensive. These supermarkets tend to dominate the surrounding area and push out local competition. For example, Tesco allegedly has a policy of buying up all the old land in local town centres to prevent other competitors from squeezing its margins.

Fortunately some local shops still survive. The local butcher and grocers are a must if you intend to find bargains. Don’t expect to find lovely straight carrots or perfectly shaped bananas. Instead you will find cheap, honest food, sourced from the local area. Not only is this produce fresh but it also puts money back into the community.

Take it online
Everyone loves a bargain but unfortunately you are never guaranteed one in the shops. There are certain times of the year, such as at Christmas, when you can expect many products to be discounted. However, if you need a bargain here and now why not try online. This becomes even more relevant when you consider the cost of petrol these days.

One of the most obvious stops is the money comparison sites. These sites compare products and services across the range. Be warned as not all of these sites offer any real discount. For example, there are many cases where you can get cheaper insurance by going direct to the seller.
The savvy surfers can also save themselves money by checking online vouchers or discounts for their normal high street shops. Often a store will highlight any in-store promotions online. This is useful to know as the spotty teenager serving you in the store is highly unlikely to be aware of any particular promotions.

Price Wars
Always keep an eye on the news for a bargain. It seems like every winter all the gas and electric companies are fighting for our money. You may not have realised when you think back at all the prices increases. Nevertheless, over time these companies start to reduce their prices in competition between each other. Go to an energy comparison site and see which energy company can beat your existing bill.

Back In The Home
There are literally thousands of small tips and tricks that our grand mothers’ could teach us in order to save money. I don’t really want to go through a lot of these but simply want to draw focus to the obvious. Don’t waste food! It might seem so simple but things like not throwing items out of your fridge once they have reached the “Best before date” will save you an absolute fortune. You should however bin everything that has passed the “Use by date” as this is an official government warning. Nevertheless, items such as pasta are edible far beyond the use by date so just use common sense.

Go Back To Basics
Something else that can save money is to grow your own vegetables. This might not be for everyone as not all of us have gardens. Nevertheless, you can grow your own veg in pots. So no excuses! At the time of writing it was August, so this is not the planting season. This is however a good time to plan your garden for next year. You can plant some seeds as early as February. In the mean time you can prepare the ground. Don’t forget you can also grow herbs in doors throughout the year.

Paul Tom works for Getmetopayday.co.uk which promotes Payday Loans. These are short-term loans that give you a cash advance when you are short of cash.

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Tags: home budget how to save money

Create a Home Budget

August 28th, 2009

Creating an effective budget is vital for saving money, getting out of debt and creating a sound financial future. Here are a few helpful pointers to get you started.

First you need to set adequate time aside to devote to creating a budget. The process takes some time, but it is worth it so hang in there. Then you need to gather all of your important financials: paycheck stubs, last year’s tax return, bills and your credit report. These items give you a full view of your complete financial picture. Last year’s tax return allows you to compare what you were making last year to this year and anticipate how much money you will owe or get back this year so you can include that in your budget plan.

Your credit report will alert you to where you stand with debt and credit so you can better calculate how much you owe on all of your accounts and how long it will take you to pay them off. Your credit report can also give you insight as to what types of new loans you may qualify for so if you are preparing for an upcoming car or home purchase you can go into it with more information.

Keep record of what your expenses are for one month detailing everything. This gives you a realistic picture of how you spend. If you go the movies and out to dinner once a week with your significant other only allotting yourself $100 for a monthly entertainment budget might not be realistic. You need to be honest with yourself when budgeting. Either you need to stick to the guidelines you set for yourself of budget for your monthly ‘splurges’.

Try out your new budget. If it doesn’t work out well don’t just scrap it. Make adjustments where necessary and keep saving.

See your credit score for free, and find out what kind of loan you qualify to receive. See where you stand on the credit score scale and how you compare to the national average.

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Tags: budget credit score home budget

Save Money at Home-Home Budgeting

August 15th, 2009

Pull the fridge forward an inch or two.
In many kitchens, refrigerators are pushed back as close to the wall as possible in order to eke out a few more inches of floor space. Those few inches are really expensive.

If your refrigerator is pushed back as far as possible, pulling it forward one inch can reduce the energy usage of the refrigerator by as much as 40%, and you’ll barely notice the difference in your floor usage. Subsequent inches help, but aren’t quite that effective.

Stick a thermometer in your fridge.
Ideally, the temperature in your refrigerator holds pretty steady around 37 to 40 degrees Fahrenheit (3-5 C). We keep ours at almost exactly 38, and it’s almost perfect for us.

If you keep it below 37 degrees, you’re pushing up against the freezing point of water, which can affect food quality and burns a lot of extra energy. If you keep it above 40 degrees, it can affect food quality in a different way, leading towards spoilage. The range between the two is optimal – and it’s also optimal for refrigerator efficiency, since devices are designed to run in this range.

How can you be sure you’re hitting that sweet spot? Get out a thermometer, put it in a glass of water, then put that cup in your refrigerator for 24 hours. Check the temperature afterward – that’s the true temperature of your fridge. Adjust upward and downward as needed – you might be surprised how much your temperature is off.

A freezer has a different optimum temperature – 0 to 5 F (-18 to -15 C). You can get this temperature by putting your thermometer between two frozen items for 24 hours.

Chuck your refrigerated leftovers.
Ah, the refrigerated leftover. Inevitably, some of those items wind up getting pushed to the back and forgotten, left there to slowly decompose, become a potential breeding place for yeasts and molds, and potentially contaminate other foods.

So chuck ‘em. One easy way to do this is to have a handful of washable markers near your fridge. Doodle on any new item with a color for each day – say, purple for Monday, red for Tuesday, etc. Then, when you’re glancing in the fridge on Sunday, you know you can chuck anything with a red or purple mark on it without thinking at all.

Just mark on the Saran wrap, aluminum foil – even on the rim of a plate. Once you get into the routine, it works really well, makes leftover cleanup really easy, and keeps nasty things from growing in your fridge.

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Tags: budget money saving tipe refrigerator

Make Your Own Laundry Detergent-Home Budget Ideas

August 14th, 2009

I have been wanting to make my own laundry detergent for some time now,but didn’t know where to start. I found this great recipe. I will have to try it and when I do I will post about how it went. If you have a recipe, would you share it with us and your experience with making it ? And how using it stacks up to name brand kinds.

Here’s what you need:
- 1 bar of soap (whatever kind you like;
- 1 box of washing soda (look for it in the laundry detergent aisle at your local department store – it comes in an Arm & Hammer box and will contain enough for six batches of this stuff)
- 1 box of borax (this is not necessary, but I’ve found it really kicks the cleaning up a notch – one box of borax will contain more than enough for tons of batches of this homemade detergent – if you decide to use this, be careful)
- A five gallon bucket with a lid
- Three gallons of tap water
- A big spoon to stir the mixture with
- A measuring cup
- A knife

Step One: Put about four cups of water into a pan on your stove and turn the heat up on high until it’s almost boiling. While you’re waiting, whip out a knife and start shaving strips off of the bar of soap into the water, whittling it down. Keep the heat below a boil and keep shaving the soap. Eventually, you’ll shave up the whole bar, then stir the hot water until the soap is dissolved and you have some highly soapy water.

Step Two: Put three gallons of hot water (11 liters or so) into the five gallon bucket – the easiest way is to fill up three gallon milk jugs worth of it. Then mix in the hot soapy water from step one, stir it for a while, then add a cup of the washing soda. Keep stirring it for another minute or two, then add a half cup of borax if you are using borax. Stir for another couple of minutes, then let the stuff sit overnight to cool.

And you’re done. When you wake up in the morning, you’ll have a bucket of gelatinous slime that’s a paler shade of the soap that you used. One measuring cup full of this slime will be roughly what you need to do a load of laundry – and the ingredients are basically the same as laundry detergent. Thus, out of three gallons, you’ll get about 48 loads of laundry. If you do this six times, you’ll have used six bars of soap ($0.99 each), one box of washing soda ($2.49 at our store), and about half a box of borax ($2.49 at our store, so $1.25) and make 288 loads of laundry. This comes up to a cost of right around three cents a gallon, or a savings of $70.

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Budget Ideas

August 10th, 2009

I have lived through times when I woke up every morning saying to myself “I need money quick”. The problem with my situation was that I did not really need that money, I needed to stop spending so much. When you learn how, you can live with a lot less than you are living with right now.

It seems to be a common way to try to finance your debt by taking loans that will eventually just cause you to be deeper in debt. There are a lot of people who are using payday loans and other instant bad credit loans to pay their bills for this month, only to realize that next month they have the same bills and the bills from the loan. Trying to get rid of debt by taking a loan will not be the answer ever

The best thing you can do to get rid of debt is to find out what you can do to spend less money on your living expenses. If that means that you will have to live without television for a period of six months to be able to live a debt free life once again, then you should do it. Many of us are paying way too much on cable and other channels that we rarely even use.

Besides just saving money on cable you should try to prepare all your food on your own. When you are not eating out or ordering in you are saving big amounts of money. People are having bad credit and need quick money because they have been using all their money to pay people to give them services that they could be doing themselves in the first place.

Do you wake up every morning saying I need money quick? It is not uncommon to think that it is your income that is the problem. Don’t fall in to bad credit because of poor planning. People with bad credit need money just like everyone else, and that is why you should avoid taking too many loans and stored credits. To find out more about frugal living and managing your finances look in to Peter’s websites.

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Tags: dept expenses finance

Budget Ideas for the Upcoming Holidays

August 9th, 2009

Ahh yes, the eternal conundrum. We all want to travel, but travel costs money, now doesn’t it? Whether travel must necessarily be a huge drain on the ol’ bank account is a theme for another article, but I’m certainly ready with a few ideas for how to save up a few extra quid (or bucks, if you will).

1) Those things at the bottom of your legs? They’re called feet.

Rediscover them. Ditching the car can save you an absolute fortune. Clearly, most people are not in a position to go without wheels totally, but it’s worth asking yourself whether you really need it for that nip to the corner ship or taking your kids to school. Walking’s in my blood. I used to walk home 5km home from school each day and then in Vienna 7km to work and back. I loved it. It’s certainly a lot less frustrating than sitting in a traffic jam or cursing when the traffic lights turn red. If you’re in the position to try a less auto-filled life, give it a go.

2) Brown bag it.

Do you remember your school lunchbox fondly? I do! So revive it. Pack yourself a little picnic for lunch each day and you could save several pounds each meal. If you’re more of a hot meals for lunch kind of person, this requires more organisation, but it’s relatively easy to whip up a huge batch of chilli and take it to work a few days in a row or freeze it for later use. Sandwiches made at home tend not only to be healthier if you skimp on the mayo, but much cheaper than the store-bought variety. Additionally, with all these new cooking skills, you can impress your date or partner without forking out for restaurant food!

3) Make staying home the new black.

For all you social butterflies meeting your friends at fancy bars and restaurants several times a week: reconsider. It’s great fun, but incredibly expensive. Why not throw a dinner party and get your friends to reciprocate? Have a cheese and wine evening or stay in with some friends, pop some popcorn and watch a movie. Obviously don’t become a recluse – but start thinking about cheaper alternatives to activites you enjoy.

4) Save automatically

If possible, arrange with your employer that a cut of your paycheck is deposited automatically into your savings account. If this isn’t possible, try to be disciplined and do the same yourself with online banking. Even if you don’t manage it every month, it’s better than nothing. At home, try keeping a piggy bank around. At the end of each week, empty all your spare change into it. Nice and easy – you won’t even miss it!

5) Get a second job

Think you can spare an evening or two a week – maybe a day at weekends? Then this option may be for you. Jobs for students in particular are easy to come by: bar work, restaurant work, call centres, fast food gigs, even tutoring, so there’s no excuse. If you’re already in fulltime work, things are more tricky, but depending on the time you’re willing to invest, it is possible. Many restaurants and bars will take on staff for just a few shifts a week, particularly for awkward shifts other employees like to avoid. If your hours are more flexible, try joining an agency to pick up odd shifts here and there.

6) Do odd jobs

Babysitting, dog walking, lawn mowing? The world is your oyster. Ask around your circle of friends, post flyers in your neighbourhood, talk to your local parish, whatever you like. If you have additional talents, why not offer those out as well? Trained as an electrician? Quick and easy fixes. Studied history? Tutor some struggling students. Know a second language? Try teaching someone else. Make sure your prices are fair and people will pick up on it.

7) Keep your eye on the goal

It always helps to keep a close eye on your finances, particularly when you’re saving for a particular goal. If you don’t watch out, you can easily fall behind or fall totally off the wagon – this is not good! Make sure to check your bank statements regularly (internet banking is a godsend), keep your receipts together and try keeping a spreadsheet of your expenses so you can identify where your money’s going. You might discover some seriously big drains this was that you’d never noticed before.

Kathryn Castle writes on a range of subjects for HolidayCheck, including how to look your best on holiday or while traveling!

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Home Mortgage Calculator – IPhone Web App

April 14th, 2009

I just launched a new IPhone web App. It is a home mortgage calculator designed to play nicely on the Iphone. Don’t have an Iphone? Don’t worry, you can still use the calculator here–> Mortgage Calculator. I found a great, free PHP script that powers this mortgage calculator. I had to tweak the code and change the design to fit nicely on an IPhone. The sad thing is, I still don’t have an Iphone… my contract is almost up though and I plan to get one soon.

I tested this via an IPhone emulutor. Enjoy-

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Tags: home budget Home Mortgage Mortgage Calculator

Money Management Tips-Budget Ideas

September 8th, 2010

The first step before any actual math comes into the picture is to step back and think about the goals you want your money to accomplish. If your dream is to own a house, you may want to start saving early before it’s time to actually go house hunting. If retirement is more a goal for you, you will want to check into what retirement options are available to you. Many employers have retirement programs where they match a certain percentage of what you contribute – that’s free money right there. Saving has long been considered “paying yourself first”, but many people find it’s difficult to do in light of all the other expenses they have to pay. Building your future should be the first goal before everything else – you only get one future ahead of you, why not make it as pleasant as possible?

Having a sure goal is the best way to actually build a budget that works. There will be challenges to face, and knowing what the end goal is makes it easier to make the right decisions, instead of what’s convenient right here and now. After all, do you really want those designer shoes or would you rather be one step closer to your dream home? Little amounts add up to very big amounts over time — so pay yourself first!

Track Where Your Money Goes

The quick way is to build a simple spreadsheet, with all income sources in one column, and all expenses in another column. If there’s a short term expense in one month, such as renewing license plates or car repairs, you can add it in for just that one month.

Automation also comes into play here – there is plenty of software on the market to help you keep track of where your money is going, along with how much money you have coming in. Price ranges based on how complex the software is. There are plenty of software programs out there that let you keep a simple log of what’s coming in and out that cost less than a trip to the movie theater.

The time and effort you spend on building a proper budget from the get go will be paid back to you many times over. With a good budget, achieving financial goals becomes very easy – who doesn’t want a nice car, a nice home, a nice vacation (or two!) a year, and the freedom to get more accomplished with their money than ever before? It doesn’t have to be a dream on paper anyone – if you take these five steps into consideration, you’ll be well on your way to making your ideal life a reality!

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