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Posted
May 10 2008, 05:38 PM
by
Karen Datko
Rating:
Did you know that you can learn a lot about personal finance from the Rolling Stones? They said, "You Can't Always Get What You Want." "They didn't say, 'Put it on a credit card,'" writes Debbie Dragon at Destroy Debt. Debbie identifies 28 songs that contain lessons about money management. Here are some of our favorites:
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Posted
May 08 2008, 08:32 PM
by
Karen Datko
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The cost of a first-class stamp is going up yet again on May 12, by one penny to be exact. The smart shopper will lock in the soon-to-be-departed 41-cent rate for a standard letter  by stocking up on the forever stamp. The U.S. Postal Service introduced the stamp about a year ago so people can avoid having to buy those annoying 1- or 2-cent stamps every time the rates go up. The forever stamps you buy now for 41 cents will cover the postage for a letter weighing no more than an ounce no matter how high the first-class rate climbs. Love may not be forever, but this stamp is.
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Posted
May 08 2008, 04:21 PM
by
Karen Datko
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Who has the best tips for saving money on gasoline and diesel? Trucking companies, that's who. So we decided to check out how those companies are adjusting operations to reduce the financial blow of rising fuel prices. A very good article in USA Today notes that "every efficiency is a brake on rapidly rising fuel costs, up 22% for gasoline since last year and up 46% for diesel," and shares some professionals tips that you can easily incorporate into your own driving habits.
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Posted
May 07 2008, 02:04 PM
by
Karen Datko
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Little is wasted in the home of reader "smartlane," and much money is saved. Why? Because she controls portions of everything from snacks to condiments to shampoo. She writes: I plan meals ahead, leave out snacks in portioned amounts for the kids, and fix plates for everyone to balance portions, and discourage overeating. I leave ketchup, parmesan cheese, salt, and pepper off table, and butter rolls and potatoes ahead of serving. I put out small bowls of condiments for individual family members. I also put measuring cups in cereal containers to discourage half-eaten bowls from being thrown out. (Smaller bowls have helped here too).
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Posted
May 07 2008, 12:07 PM
by
Karen Datko
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This tip from reader "kara17" is a good one, but only if you have unwavering discipline: We put absolutely everything on credit cards with cashback rewards. (Warning: This obviously doesn't work if you don't pay your full balance every month. If you're paying 15% interest, a 5% cashback reward isn't doing much good.) We both have cards (from different companies -- one from Discover and one from Citi) with 5% cash back on gas, 3% cash back on groceries, and 1% cash back on all other purchases. There is a limit on how much you can get 5% cash back on (I think ours is $2,000 a year), so once we hit that limit, we switch to using the other card we have. These percentages may not seem high, but if you put everything on the cards, the cashback savings really add up.
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Posted
May 07 2008, 11:17 AM
by
Karen Datko
It's a lot easier to stay interested in a game when you know the score. Poster sgtrock17 suggests looking for a car that has an instant readout of mileage.
"My last two GM vehicles have an instantaneous gas mileage feature. I use this as a scorekeeper. Me vs.them (Big Oil, speculators, foreign oil, etc.). This has changed my drivng style."
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Posted
May 07 2008, 11:02 AM
by
Donna Freedman
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"Dividend" has been using the snowball approach to debt reduction. To do so, the reader treats debt reduction payments as a monthly bill, "as necessary and unavoidable as paying rent."
Dividend started by creating a minimalist yet realistic budget to live on. This includes predictable expenses such as car insurance, gift-giving and "a little bit of play money." Everything left over is officially invisible. "I treat that money like it doesn't exist until the end of the month. Then, out of that, I pay minimums on everything first, and then the remainder gets paid to the next item in the snowball."
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Posted
May 07 2008, 10:38 AM
by
Karen Datko
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What's the point in everyone in the neighborhood paying for way more broadband than they can use?
Poster East Coaster Now in CO says he's begun piggybacking on his neighbors' wireless signals.
"Once in a while I can't get a signal, but 98% of the time I want to get online I can. That saves me about $30 a month."
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Posted
May 06 2008, 11:03 AM
by
Karen Datko
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Cathy at Chief Family Officer was very excited the other day. That tax rebate check showed up in her checking account. She's using it to pay off the balance owed on her car loan. "That's right! Our car loan will be paid off in less than two months! I feel like I pretty much met my goal of paying cash for a car this year," she writes. Lots of bloggers have received their checks and are sharing their plans for the money. Not a spendthrift group, this bunch. So much for the government's economic-stimulus plan.
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Posted
May 06 2008, 07:06 AM
by
Karen Datko
Rating:
This post comes from partner blog Blueprint for Financial Prosperity. Having grown up on Long Island, I didn't have many opportunities to watch NASCAR on television, so I never truly understood the intricacies of the sport. Since college, I've come to appreciate the difficulty of NASCAR and the skill it requires. Last weekend I was watching a few laps of the Goody's Cool Orange 500 at Martinsville Speedway, and I finally understood why NASCAR fans love the sport.
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