After yet another trip to a Super Walmart that’s about a 15 min drive away to stock up on things like papertowels and to buy a few toys and household items (I needed a new stock pot and some plastic cups), it hit me how much these occasional trips cost me in gas.

I thought it might be worth my while to see how much it would cost me to buy the same items online and have them shipped. Low and behold… I could have ordered the same items, for the same price and had them shipped free to my home. What an eyeopening experience.

My point is this… Consider the possibility of ordering what you need online and have it shipped to your home. With today’s gas prices, it may end up being cheaper and well worth having to wait a few days to receive the items.  All it takes is a little bit of research online to find the best price. Don’t forget to look for free shipping offers and coupon codes for an even better deal.

You can tell that a particular topic is on our mind quite a bit when we invent a new word for it. That’s what happened with our constant concern these days about the cost of fuel and how it affects us every single day because we put the stuff in our cars to get us from point A to B.

That new word is “Hypermiling” and refers to various tactics and techniques that allow you to improve your vehicles fuel economy. This can be as simple as driving slower, avoiding fast acceleration and hard braking, but can become more technical including adjusting air tire pressure, drafting and choosing routes that will use less fuel.

While many of the advanced techniques are hard to grasp and may not be very safe for the average driver (i.e. drafting), there’s quite a bit you can do to hypermile your car and save gas. In fact, we have an entire section on saving money on gas. It’s packed with hands on, easy to implement tips that will get you further on that same gallon of gas. Take a moment to browse through the articles and implement a few of the tips provided. You’ll be surprised how easy yet effective they are.

http://www.ourfamilybudget.com/how-to-save-money-on-car-gas.html 

When it comes to money, there is one number that’s more important than just about anything else - your credit score. This little number determines how much credit you get and what kind of interest rate you pay on that credit. In other words, it determines how big of a house or how nice of a car you can buy and how much it will cost you including interest. A better credit score can result in a lower interest rate that can literally save you thousands of dollars over the term of your loan.

Ready to learn more about this all important credit score, how it is calculated and how you can check yours? I put oodles of information about it in a special report that you can download right here:

http://www.ourfamilybudget.com/creditscore.pdf

This is a pdf file. To save the report to your computer, right click the link above and choose “Save Target As” or “Save File As”. You will need a pdf reader to view the report. Most computers already have one installed, if yours doesn’t, you can download the adobe reader free at adobe.com

Let me know what you think about the report. By the way.. you are welcome to share this report.

Susanne

A few weeks ago, we talked about 5 easy ways to save an extra $100 , now let’s look at this from a different angle and see how you could make an extra $100 a month. Not all of these will work for you, but even if you can find just one that might work for you, those $100 a month can start to make a difference.

1. Ask For A Raise
   Ask your employer for a raise, or if you are self employed raise your rate a bit. If you are working the average 40 hour work week, just making an extra 60 cents an hour will increase your monthly income by over $100.
2. Sell Your Used Stuff
   We all have a bunch of “stuff” laying around the house that we no longer need. This includes old clothes, toys and clothing that our kids have outgrown, CDs, DVDs, and even computers, TVs and other electronics. Then there’s furniture, cars etc.
   Take a few moments to walk through your house and “declutter”… then either have a yard sale, take the stuff to a consignment shop, or put it on craigslist or ebay. You can easily make a $100 that way.
   
   
3. Get A Little Side “Job”
   There are all kinds of things you can do to earn a little money on the side… offer to babysit, or watch one of your kid’s friends afterschool a few hours. You can also mow the neighbors lawn, start tutoring kids and the likes. Think about what you like to do and how to monetize it. Are you a good sewer? Offer to hem pants, skirts and dresses. Do you have an older neighbor? Offer to run her errands or get her groceries.
4. Put Your Savings and Credit Cards To Work For You
   Put some money into a high yielding savings account and collect the interest instead of having it hang around your checking account. If you don’t have any credit card debt and are getting offers for let’s say $2000 with no interest for 15 months, take them up on the offer and put the money in a savings account for the 15 months. Just make sure you can get it out in time to pay off the credit card balance when it’s due.
5. Get A Website or Blog
   I’m making a nice little extra income with this website and so can you. Just get up a website or blog on a topic you care about and just add some new info to it on a regular basis. Here is a great example… this is a simple blog with nothing but free recipes. The blog makes money through google adsense ads (
   ) and by recommending products (like the meal planning service) and getting a commission for each sale referred. All you need are a domain name (about $8 per year) and website hosting (I recommend momwebs for $15 per quarter) and you’re ready to go.

Got any other ideas? Please feel free to share them as a comment.

This year’s tax rebates are slowly trickling in. If you selected to have the money direct deposited, it may already be in your account, otherwise you should be getting a check from the IRS in the next few weeks. This of course brings up the question… how do you spend that money?

I’ve put together a little list of priorities for you that may help guide you if you’re undecided on how to spend this extra cash.

Bills Due and/or Food
If you’ve been really strapped for cash and have outstanding bills, or need to put some food on the table, by all means use your tax money to do so.

1. Necessary Repairs 
   Does your Car need new brakes or your fridge is about to die? Use the extra cash to make those repairs, so you don’t have to end up charging your credit card later.
2. Pay Off Consumer Debt
   If you don’t need the money for the cases stated above, and you have some credit cards or other consumer debt (other than house or car payments), put the money toward your outstanding balance. It will get you a huge step closer towards a debt free future and will save you quite a bit in interest that you don’t have to pay down the road.
3. Put It into Emergency Savings
   We should all have some sort of emergency savings account. I try to have at least 3 months of living expenses in that account. It earns a little interest, but my main concern is to have the money readily available when we need it.
4. Investments
   Here you have to do a little math… what will be more beneficial to you? Paying  the amount toward the principal of your car or home loan, or can you earn more interest with a high yielding savings  or money market account or the likes. You may also consider putting the money into a roth ira or a college fund for your kids. Seek the advice of a financial planner to help you crunch the numbers if you’re at this stage.

Recommended Reading
Debt Free In Three

Thanks to this guide complete with worksheet and personal coaching, my family and I will be complete debt free in 42 months (including paying our house mortgage in full). The principles taught in this program are simple, yet incredibly powerful. See for yourself. Click here to get Debt Free in 3 to 5 years.

Basic grocery prices have gone up in recent months anywhere from 10 to 25%. We end up paying more for everything from milk and eggs to flour and pasta. Unfortunately most of us still live on the same salary as before… so how do you do it? I thought we could all share some tips on how we each deal with the increased cost of food. I’ll start

1) I’ve cut out any “luxurious” items that we occasionally indulge in like fancy  salad dressings, tuna steaks, the occasional bottle of wine, fancy snacks (like smoked almonds, character snacks) or juice drinks like sunkist for the kids.

2) I always pre-plan my meals now and shop with a list. Unless it is something crucially important (like say toilet paper), if it’s not on the list, I’m not buying it.

3) I’ve been getting as much as possible at our local Aldi store. You can get anything from milk and eggs to coffee, chips and paper plates quite a bit cheaper than at your regular grocery store.

4) I’ve cut meat out of quite a few of our meals. I’m substituting with eggs and beans.

5) Water is now the preferred drink at our house.  Juice, soda and the likes are treats, not what you quench your thirst with.

6) I try to put off going to the grocery store as long as possible, which forces us to eat what we already have. Before I would run to the store as soon as we were out of something… always buying more than we needed and would end up throwing food out.

7) I keep an eye out for sales on things like chicken breast, hamburger meat or even milk and eggs. I stock up on the meat when it is on sale and freeze most of it.

How about you? What have you done to make your food dollars stretch further?

If you’ve been thinking about doing some remodeling and using your home equity line of credit to do so, or even if you just count on having that money available for an emergency (job loss, injury etc.) - DON’T…

Quite a few banks, including Bank Of America, Citibank and Countrywide Financial have started to either reduce or completely freeze home equity lines of credit due to the declining values of homes. I’m sure more banks will follow suit.

What can you do….

• If you’ve been thinking about using your Home Equity Credit to make home improvements, make sure all the money is still at your disposal before you start signing contracts or buying materials.
• If you rely on being able to quickly tap into this money in case of an emergency, readjust your strategy and beef up your savings account or get some information on how long it would take to cash into some long term investments. Unfortunately job loss has become a lot more common in today’s economy, so make sure you have a financial cushion to fall back on other than your home equity.
• If your home equity line of credit has been adjusted by the bank or has been frozen, you may have a chance to appeal this decision, if you can prove that your home has not declined in value. This is usually done through an appraisal which you unfortunately have to pay for yourself regardless of the outcome of the bank’s decision regarding your home equity line of credit.

Happy Earth Day!  Today I have some great tips on how going green can actually save you some cash.

Perhaps many people don’t initially make the switch to greener living because they are concerned about the environment. It may be that many are actually seeking to live a more simplistic and frugal life because they have limited resources and a limited budget. Or perhaps they always knew that going green and living frugal were practically synonymous. Either way going green can really save you some green in the long run. Being kinder to the planet can also mean being kinder to your wallet and who wouldn’t want that?!

So how exactly can green living equate to cost savings? Here are some of the many ways:

Grow Your Own Food

To avoid pesticides and to eat locally many green living enthusiasts have turned to growing their own food. Our economy at the moment is not looking so good and food prices are going through the roof. Eating food from your own garden will go along way towards easing your budget woes.

Reusing Means You Don’t Have To Buy New

Green people everywhere know that landfill waste is a serious problem so they seek to use reusable and recycled or recyclable items. This means they might use their stainless steel water bottles and filtered tap water instead of expensive bottled waters. They might also shop at yard sales and thrift stores to buy second hand items instead of buying brand new. They often like to use book swap services and clothing swap services too. These activities reduce their contributions to wasteful consumerism and they save a lot of money in the process.

Driving Less Means Money Saved

Eco minded people are rightfully concerned about the carbon emissions and other car pollutants that enter our atmosphere when we drive. Many of them have opted to buy energy efficient cars that have better gas mileage. Others drive cars that run on biofuel or waste vegetable oil. Some carpool, use mass transit, ride their bike more often or walk wherever they need to go. All of these choices result in cost savings.

Energy Saved is Money in the Bank

One of the first eco-tips you usually hear is too turn lights off when you leave a room and conserve energy. Well, they usually go beyond that. Too conserve energy, environmentally minded people will turn off lights, switch out inefficient light bulbs, insulate their hot water heaters, wash their clothes in cold water, and much more. All of these practices result in energy savings which any frugal person can see also means a cost savings.

Green Cleaning Saves Money

All of those conventional cleaning products on the market can be pretty pricey but environmentalists know that you can clean your home effectively with natural and relatively cheap products like baking soda, vinegar, borax, lemons, and olive oil. It is much more cost efficient to use theses ingredients and make your own cleaners then to buy the one sat the supermarket. Even soaps and detergents can be made at low cost, at home.

Less Meat Means Less Money

Many environmentalists are vegetarians or vegans. Others have greatly reduced their meat consumption because raising animals for meat puts an immense strain on the planet. Generally veggies, rice, and beans (the staples of vegetarian diets) cost much less than meat products. In this economy as fuel prices and food prices rise we can expect meat to become an expensive habit. Reduce your meat consumption and save a little.

There are many similarities between green living and frugal living and both can be practiced together for monetary benefit and the benefit of the planet.

Getting out of debt starts with saving some money each month to stop acquiring more debt and to pay off your existing debt. Here are five ways to help you come up with an extra $100 a month that you can then put toward your credit card. It’s a great way to start getting your expenses under control and work toward a debt free future.

1. Plan Your Meals
   How much food do you end up throwing away each month, and how many things do you buy on impulse at the grocery store? It adds up quickly and planning your meals before you go to the store can help reduce the amount of money you spend on groceries each month. Save even more by planning your meals around what’s on sale that week.
2. Kick The Habit
   Whether it’s smocking, getting your Starbuck’s fix or going out to lunch (almost) every day, or that night out at the bars every weekend, if you can kick just one of those habits, you can easily save $100 or more each month. Even just cutting back or finding less expensive alternatives (like brewing your own gourmet coffee) can really add up over the course of a month.
3. Shop Smart
   Most months you’ll end up buying something outside of groceries and toiletries. This could be anything from a new pair of shoes to a new TV or even a car. Do your research and make sure you get the best deal possible. Buy clothes when they go on sale (i.e. buy new summer clothes in the fall), look for coupons, rebates and the likes. On bigger ticket items this can easily save you several hundred dollars.
4. Reevaluate Your Monthly Bills
   Take a moment this week to go over all regular bills you pay from your cell phone plan to the cable bill and see if you can’t live with a less expensive plan or get rid of things like magazine subscriptions all together. Cut down on your electric bill by using energy saving appliances and light bulbs, turning off the lights when you’re not in the room and the likes.
5. Save On Gas
   With gas over $3 a gallon, making small savings can quickly add up. Walk where you can, combine trips when possible and look into car pooling. Other ways to save are using public transportation or buying a car that gets better gas mileage (provided that investment makes financial sense for you).

I don’t know about you, but we have a bad habit of spending the money we have. With it sitting in our regular checking account, it’s just too easy to go ahead and buy that new TV, go on a weekend vacation or even just buy a few “fancy foods” or go out to eat. So, I came up with a solution that works well for our family….

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