The Save Money Blog

Archive for April, 2010

There are enough annoying commercials on tv advertising every kind of insurance you could ever imagine. It almost looks like they are giving it away. It probably wouldn't hurt to look at insurance online and maybe get a quote or two to compare what you are currently paying. I work with a person that did just that and she ended up saving some pretty good money in the long run. If you are looking online and getting quotes done make sure you research any company that you are thinking of doing business with. Search for the name of the company and look for complaint type websites to get as much information as possible. People are bound to write bad reports about companies more than they would good one so you have to decide for yourself if they are just complainers or if they have a legit complaint. Just make sure you do the research before you commit.

I had a few interesting conversations this week regarding money. There is that old saying, if a deal is to good to be true than it usually is.

A friend is looking to replace his set of golf clubs. I told him I had a really good website that I have ordered from that offers quality name brand clubs at a good price. We golf alot so you don't want to cheap out but we aren't going on tour either so there no sense in spending beyond our means on clubs. Another friend was telling him of a Chinese website where you get clubs worth hundreds of dollars for way under a hundred dollars. Hello red flag. If a company is making clubs in the US then why would you buy them from China? You get my point. Sometimes a deal that is too good isn't a deal at all.

Another friend was telling me about a soccer mom at his kids hockey game that was talking about her designer handbag and jacket that are normally hundreds of dollars that she bought at a flea market for $40 a piece. You aren't picking up marc jacobs handbags for $40 a piece.

I hate to burst a bubble. But they are no more authentic then the $7 Oakley Sunglasses for sale at the corner gas station. The point is that if you are spending your money on something that you are going to depend on or use alot, don't get sucked into wasting your money on something that is going to break or not last. Go the middle of the road of buy something that is durable and built to last. You don't need Phil Mickelson's Callaways in your bag but you don't need a pair of phony asian clubs either.

I was walking around the office last week and notice how many people had calenders on their desks. Not only do they have calenders on their desks they have smart phones with calenders and computers with calenders. I have to wonder why they were spending so much money on fancy calenders. I guess because they can or because they want to. But these days you don't really have to.

There are lots of solutions. As I already mentioned. You have all of your gadgets with calenders and notifiers on them already. So we are used to looking at big pretty pictures with the month on them. Well if you are a group at work or an organization you can always get a deal on promotional calenders. There are also a million places online where you can print off a basic calender and hang it up. You can also find free software online that will let you add your own pictures and print them off each month. There are lots of options.

We all know what it is like, you have kids that need computer hardware upgrades for school or college or you just need another machine or monitor around the house. If you are buying secondary computer hardware does it need to be top of the line? Not really. Here is my point.

I needed a second lcd monitor around the house. Do I need a top of the line model? Nope. I shopped around online at the box stores, looked through the free or trader websites and asked friends if they had anything laying around they wanted to get rid of. I found a pretty decent or new monitor with a ding in the top of the screen. You can't even notice it when the monitor is on but the owner wanted to get rid of it.

I went out looking for a mouse for use with my laptop. I bought a $60 cordless mouse. I took it back the next day and bought a $15 wired mouse. What do I care if it is plugged in or not as long as it does what I want it to.

You have to ask yourself. Do you need a top of the line Nasa powered computer system or can you get away with something less expensive that does what you want. Keep your money in the bank, pay off your credit card and settle for something in your price range and gets the job done.

I broke out the old lawnmower today and have to give the back lawn a cut. Pretty early for April but who can complain with the weather we have been having. The one thing I noticed is that I already have a good crop of weeds coming in. Especially in the gravel around the pool fence. We aren't allowed to use commercial pesticides any longer which means we have to rely on environmentally friendly alternatives.

Last year I purchased some eco friendly weed killer from the hardware store and was suprised when I looked at the ingredients. They are all household items that you can pull out from under the kitchen sink and make yourself. The three things that everyone has in their house that will kill weeds are vinegar, salt and liquid dish detergeant. I am not a fan of using salt because it will do damage to the surrounding soil. Whipping up a concuction of vinegar and liquid dish soap will do the trick. Just make sure you spray this on the weeds only as it will kill grass and other plants in your backyard. Also make sure you spray when it isn't windy and there is no sign of rain for at least two days.

The most common Homemade Weed Killer Recipe that I could find online is : 1 quart household vinegar and 2 teaspoons liquid dish detergent. Just make sure that you use a detergent that contains no bleach. Mix these two items together and spray on weeds. Volia, you have a cheap homemade and environmentally friends weed killer.

I was walking by a co-workers desk today and she had a calendar on her desk with eating healthy and living right tips. Some of those tips were about saving money. They were some of the usual tips about shopping smartly and turning down the heat but one stuck out in my mind. It stated that to save money you have to tackle one issue at a time.

At a quick glance I thought okay but the more I thought about it I think I disagree. Saving money is no easy task but by not facing a few or more of your challenges at once you are going to be throwing out bad money while trying to save money. So they are saying to you if you have bad credit card debt and shop poorly just to focus on one and not the other.

I would suggest writing down your main places that your money goes and try to improve each one at least a bit at a time so you can tackle your main expense. For example, lets say you have terrible credit card debt. I would focus on saving money at the grocery store by buying in bulk and buying no name products and put that savings into paying off your debt. At the same time work on how you can save on your daily transportation expenses and put that savings into getting your credit card debt paid down. You get the idea.

To say you have to work on one point is misleading. You can't pay off your credit cards if you don't work on saving money elsewhere first. It doesn't grow on trees.

I was at a friends houes last night watching hockey. He is a bachleor. I noticed a ton of little grey plastic bags all over his kitchen and I asked what he was buying that he would have so many bags. He told me they were from the corner store because that's where he does his shopping for bread and milk and whatever.

As one who is trying to save money I was beside myself. You don't get any deals by buying your groceries at the local corner store. I told him I have a Costco membership and can pick some things up for him but he wasn't interested. And then I thought some people complain about the price of things and how much things cost but then couldn't be interested in saving money. Crazy.

I could probably save my friend a hundred bucks or more a month with just a few quick changes to his spending habits but he isn't interested. I think he is probably just as happy gripping about the cost of things.