First -- here's something you have to do by this coming Thursday if you want to take advantage of it. Download Suze Orman's 2009 Action Plan for free, thanks to Oprah. I did so last night and am sufficiently freaked out enough by the first few pages to keep reading. Even if there's only one or two things in there that help us get financially organized, I think it's worth a read. Heck, it's a free download, so you can't go wrong.
Second, there's a way to get restaurant gift certificates for half price. It's kinda hit and miss, but it's easy to check out online. This is quite a discovery for us, because Michael loves to go out to eat and I'm too much of a cheapskate these days to spring for a restaurant meal. I'll leave the explanation as to why these deals are available to the Wise Bread post where I found this little secret, but to save you time, here's what you do. Copy and paste this -- idaho site:incentrev.com -- into Google. (The way you type it in does make a difference, so pay attention to the spacing and the colon. If you're in another state, you replace your state's name with Idaho.) I will say most of the deals that will pop up right now in Idaho are sold out. However, if you do this little search every once in a while, you could end up with some deals. The typical arrangement is a $50 restaurant gift card/certificate for $25. Not bad. A deal that IS active right now is $50 at the Wood River Cellars (a winery outside of Eagle) for $25. I don't know all the details, but you could use that to buy food/wine at one of their many events, or maybe even use it to buy 50 bucks' worth of wine at their wine shop. That would be pretty sweet.
One money-saving idea I'm intrigued by right now is Ebates. Have you heard of this? You get cash back by shopping through the Ebates site. Gobs of stores have partnerships with Ebates, including Target, Apple iTunes, and Overstock. In a nutshell, you install special software from Ebates, which tracks your purchases. With each purchase you make, you rack up a cash back bonus, then get a check every month or so. The catch is, you sign away your basic information by doing this. You know....your age, which stores you like to shop at, etc. Ebates says that info helps them know which stores it should partner with, and allows them to send you email on certain special deals. I'm weighing whether the cash back would be worth signing away my life in this fashion. I'm interested to hear whether anyone else has used Ebates...
And finally, a free website that I'm loving these days -- mint.com. It's a little nerve wracking when you first sign up, because you lay out your entire financial life to Mint. You input all your account information -- bank account, mortgage payments, credit cards -- but instead of me logging on individually to access all these accounts, Mint does it for me all at once. And the payoff is worth it. Once you do all the inputting (and once Mint can access all the information) you get your entire financial picture at a glance. You see exactly how much money you owe -- including your mortgage -- compared with your assets. Then it boils it all down to your net worth. On a practical basis, it allows you to track every purchase, so you can see exactly how much you throw down every month on things like groceries, gas/transportation, utilities....even haircare. Yes, haircare! You can also set up budgets, and Mint will email you whenever you exceed a particular budget. I have one set up for grocery expenses.
Mint makes money by analyzing your accounts, and offering you "deals". For example, it will find you checking account offers that perhaps have no minimum balance requirements, saving you X amount of money a year. These offers are by no means irritating. You see them on your Mint page, but you don't have to do anything about them. Or you can click on them if you want.
So there you have it. A few ways I'm trying to streamline the finances in our family. Just thought I'd share the love.
Just curious if you were nervous giving Mint.com all of your financial info?
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing the ideas - I am going to check it out.
Adam said Ebates is spyware, you have to be careful of them being able to view information from your computer.
ReplyDeleteMint.com sounds like everything we do in Quicken, only you're not putting your information on the internet. With the amount of hacking and identity theft going on, we all need to be careful of that.
I use mypoints.com. They send me e-mails on online deals from companies like ebay, target, etc. Just for viewing each one, I get points. I earn more points if I order something from their online partners. With the points you can trade them in for gift cards to restaurants and stores like Target, Old Navy, Chiles, etc. Adam hates it because he considers it spam, and he doesn't like it when I use their coupon printer (or any online coupon printer) because they are spyware too. So we compromise and I avoid the online coupons and he tolerates my spam.
You could try a site like thegrocerygame.com or pinchingyourpennies.com. I like these sites because they will give me a list of everything on sale at Albertson's for the week. I hate clipping coupons because when I do it I have to devote my life to it, but Albersons has great deals if you watch their sales. If you stock up when things are on sale, you're always buying at the cheapest price. Grocery game is $5 a month, the other is free. You get all the sales in a shopping list. I've saved alot of money this way. Our grocery budget is severely out of control with a teenager and all his friends constantly grazing in my kitchen, so this helps me so much.
Look into whether refinancing your mortgage would be a smart idea. The interest rate is near 5% for a fixed 30 year. If you can just get your interest down each month, but not take out more equity (not usually a good idea) you could drop your payment. Then you could increase your principal amount each month and pay your house off sooner if you want.
Just some techie info from a techie's wife. Good luck, I'm right there with you.
Ooh, good comments. Thanks ladies.
ReplyDeleteTo answer Danielle's question, yes. I was nervous about signing up with Mint. I analyzed their security policies and that made me feel better. I also look at it this way -- if I'm checking all those accounts online anyway, why not use a service to do it for me in one fell swoop? Yes, it means Mint has my passwords and account numbers, but that's what their security measures are for. I am trusting that the possibility of my info getting hacked -- on Mint or anywhere else -- is fairly slim, and the trade off I get is that I am more informed about my money. I'd rather know exactly what my 401K, IRAs and other investments are doing day-to-day because I think it's more dangerous for me to NOT know. Know what I mean?
I've dabbled a bit in those grocery coupon sites, but always had trouble printing them. Now that we have a new printer, maybe I can make it work!
Again, thanks for the comments!!
Thanks for the hints Shannon! I'm a little freaked out too! And the thought of buying a house like a grown up scares me too, but the prices are finally right here in Seattle! I'm just keeping my fingers crossed and hoping for a tax refund!
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