The Save Money Blog

Archive for May, 2010

I was helping an old friend clean out his basement last week. He had quite a collection of garbage ready to be hauled off to the dump. Amazingly he had a few boxes of old books. Some of them novels and some of them text books from his old days as a student. I asked why he was throwing them out. He thought that they wouldn't be worth anything. After a brief discussion I convinced him to drop them off at the local used bookstore. He has to drive by it on the way to work most days.

He called a couple days later and thanked me for the tip. He didn't make enough to retire on but he said he made a few bucks. It's one way to get a bit of cash. You just have to sell books that you have laying around collecting dust. Never throw them out. You never know if some of your old text books are worth money. I went through my old boxes and found a few that I am going to sort through and trade in at the used book store myself.

For the past week or so I have been battling computer problems. At certain times I can't even get online. Other times my connection just seems to fade out. I called my ISP and everything is fine from their end and my computer is working fine. I have run a few virus and spyware checks and they have found nothing. My only next item that could have been causing problems was my Linksys router.

I was about to throw in the towel when I went online (when I was able to connect) and found a suggestion. Turn off the modem and reset my wireless settings by making a new network name and password. So far so good. Everything has been running smooth since I made the change.

The lesson? Save your money and don't jump into replacing things that don't need to be replaced. Go online and try to find a free solution. You never know when you are going to save some money.

I remember a few years back looking at putting solar panels on my shed roof to help heat the pool. I didn't go for it because they were just too expensive to purchase. These days with advances in the technology itself many people find that solar power systems and kits are much more affordable. Homes that have solar power systems can expect added market value and see a significant decrease in heating and electrical bills.

Prio to deciding to insstall a solar power kiit for your home, you first need to determire what your electrical needs are. Determine the kWh that your home consumes in a month and in a year. You can find such info on the monthly utility bill. Study the bills so that you will now which months have the greatest consumption and the months with the least consumption.

New homeowners can compute their electricity consumption by checking your electrical appliances. Just estimate the load based on your appliances, lights, and other things that consume electricity.

Electrically bills are showing a continuous upward trend and so many people are now complaining about their monthly bills. A very good answer is solar power. Where do you live? The place where the home or establishment is situated is a primary consideration. In the US, you can install the solar power system in any of the states. If you can find solar contractors locally, you can seek their help to determine the appropriate size of the system.

1-5 kW of solar power system is already enough to meet your home’s electricity needs. You don’t need to cut off your existing power supply in order to utilize solar power. You can simply use the photovoltaic systems as a supplement. This step alone can already reduce your monthly bills. Do you have enough space for the photovoltaic system? For every square foot, you can already yield 10 watts; you can start your computation from there.

Here’s how you can compute the total cost: the retail price of the system plus the cost of building permits, less federal tax credit of $2,000 and the local or state rebates/tax credit, less other incentives equals to your net investment. You can shop around for the best and most suitable solar power system in the market. If you live in California, it will be easier to find local sellers of solar power systems because many homes in the city are already solar powered. For those living in other places, it would be easier to shop online. There are lots of online stores that offer photovoltaic systems but try to stick with the reputable and established manufacturers that offer 10-15 years of warranty.

Instead of paying for expensive monthly utility bills, why not invest in solar power systems? The total cost will depend on the size of the system, your location, and other related factors. Inquire at a local agency about the incentives offered by your state so that you can also save money. It’s a wise decision to invest in photovoltaic systems because you’ll benefit greatly in the succeeding years. Shop around now and determine your available options.

One of the hardest things you can find yourself to get out of is credit card debt. For many this is a heavy cross to carry. Once you find yourself in credit card debt it is just enough to make the minimal payments and get hammered every month with a crazy interest charge. Many people find they have no other option but to turn to credit card debt relief programs.

If you have mounting credit card debts you can see many benefits from debt relief programs. There many different types of programs available, each of them have a specific goal in mind.  If you want to rid yourself of debt, then you must choose a debt relief program that suits your needs and financial goals.

Debt negotiation is one common debt relief program that offers benefits to the debtor. It saves money since you will get to pay a reduced amount from the original amount of debt you owe, it will save you time as professional debt negotiators will be the one discussing this debt reduction process on your behalf. If you are able to choose a reliable and sound debt relief program, most people with debts find themselves free of debt within two or three years.

While there are several legitimate debt relief companies available in the industry, there are a few others who are looking to take advantage of people's urgency to settle their debts. Like with legitimate debt relief companies, they offer debtors a promise of the opportunity to become debt-free. Sadly though, they most often target individuals who are desperate to find debt relief since they cannot afford to lose their money.

There are a few common tell-tale signs that the debt relief program you are dealing with is a scam. Hence, identifying them will help you recognize whom to trust and whom not to in terms of finding solution for your debt problems.

There are a few debt relief programs who offer their services of cleaning out your credit report and any errors with massive fees. This process is quite intricate, which is the reason why most people often opt to hire professionals to do it for them. However, you need to be extra careful with choosing since some of them can be outright deceptive. Another reason why such claims are considered scam is that you can fix credit report free of any charge. There are three credit bureaus from which you can acquire a free copy of your yearly credit report. When you have the copy, study it for any false information or suspicious transactions.

This particular scam technique affects debtors in two ways. First, you are charged for a loan that you are not even qualified for to begin with. Therefore, the money you spend trying to settle the loan is put to waste since you could have used that trying to settle off your previous credit card debts. Next, although your creditor makes claim that you have loaned out money, you never get to receive any money. Worse thing is, these scams do not provide you with a legitimate company name so they basically run away with your money while you are left with no way to trace them.

This is a sure sign that you are dealing with bogus credit repair companies. When they ask you to create a new credit identity to attain a high credit score, then you need to realize that this is a complete illegal move. Even if you are unfamiliar with legal laws, then everyone might be aware that creating false identity is a clear violation of law.

Therefore, make it a point to screen out the credit repair company you are dealing with before you decide to work with them. If you are serious about getting rid of any credit card debt you currently have, then opting for illegal means is not the best way to do it. Moreover, being subjected to scams would cause you money that could have been used to pay off your credit card debts.

We ventured out today to do a bit if shopping. We had to stop by the hardware store and the grocery store for a few items. The grocery store can be dangerous place to go when you are trying to save a few bucks. You have to go into the grocery store with blinders on and a list that you don't stray from.  It is so easy to get sucked in by those pop displays or those big sale displays at the end of the aisles. Most of the time they are items that you don't need and are a luxury type "treat" item. Just walk right by them, keep your blinders on and shop for what you need. If you stick to your list then you won't end up spending money you don't have.

We keep a pad of paper and pen on our microwave oven which is in the kitchen. When we run out of something we put it on the list. If it isn't on the list then we don't buy it. When I am looking for those chocolate ice cream bars during the week they aren't there because they weren't on the list.

I was contacted this week by a group that seeks to promote the saving of money on your energy bill. The exciting piece about their website is that they have a graphical explanation of where your energy goes in your house. You can begin to save energy unless you understand where it is going. By far your big uses are heating and cooling, washing and drying and hot water. Once you understand that you can begin to try and make positive adjustments such as using a clothes line or washing in cold water.

The infographic, supplied by Energy Authority, (www.energyauthority.net) an internet community specializing in providing the latest information on the efficient end-use of energy, speaks to both homeowners and renters with easy to do tips for cutting costs and saving money when it comes to utilities.  "Due to the current economic climate, a growing trend that continues to remain in effect is to become more eco-friendly, while at the same time, providing efficient ways to be financially secure," says Energy Authority Spokesperson.

Visit their website to see the Lower Electric Bills Graphic.

Is an extended service plan a good idea? That is a tough question. I guess it would depend on what you are buying. Some stores you go into try to sell you an extended plan when you buy a pen and pencil. It's because their sales staff make extra coin on the transaction. I have purchased a few and got stung on the deal and it didn't end up saving me any money.

Case in point was my XBox 360. The Future Shop girl told me that they were basically garbage and that I need an extended warranty. So I knew they had problems and bought one. As it turns out she was right and mine broke. When trying to use my warranty I was told that MS covered all red rings of death and Future Shop would not help me. I ended up sending four or five back before I bought a PS3. If Future Shop would have honoured their deal, given me a new one and dealt with MS I would still be playing Halo3. It was big waste of money.

If you are purchasing a big ticket item I would research on the Internet before shelling out on an extended warranty. Find out how often your item breaks and what about they breaks. See if the store warranty covers their major problems and ask what more value added you are getting out of an extended warranty. Finally, google you item and warranty see what others have to say. You will be surprised on what you can learn.

This a story that is starting to heat up. I heard about it on the news a couple of weeks ago and now I see there is an article on CNN. The idea behind it is that enough people agree to purchase an item and there is enough of them then they should or will get a really good price and save tons of money. It's the old buy in bulk and save adage.

"Today's deal for those in New York: Save 50 percent on a $20 purchase of cupcakes from "ChikaLicious Dessert Club." If 450 people agree to the deal, everyone saves money. If that critical number is not reached, however, the deal is a dud. The site offers one deal per day in the cities it covers, and the number of cities in the network is growing fast."

The website is called Groupon. I just joined to see what the deal in Toronto is. You get some nice savings on a cruise around the Toronto Waterfront. Okay, so I don't need it but if I was thinking of doing something touristry in the summer it would be a good deal.

See what is going on in your city.

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