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So you are planning a vacation, and you have decided to drive there, not a problem. Here are some quick tips that we have used in our recent trip to North Carolina.
1) Plan ahead, pack your lunch and dinner and put it in a cooler. Make sure to purchase some snacks to eat along the way, so you don’t stop and eat out. This will easily save you some cash.
2) Hotels - If you need to stay at a hotel, stop by the rest areas and find hotel coupons. Nice hotels will put discount rates to fill rooms with those coupons. BEAWARE: You might also want to shop online and book ahead of time if it is during a holiday.
3) To Roll down the windows or use the A/C? It has been proven that if you are on the highway to use your A/C! Because with the windows down it produces drag on your car and reduces the miles per gallon. In town however, roll down your windows.
4) Plan ahead activities. Find a hotel with a pool to go to and use it! (You already paid for it!) Research fun activities that do not cost too much. A little bit of research on the internet could find you great discount deals!
What are your tips? POST A COMMENT!
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With gas prices sky rocketing now a days we need to find other ways to save money. Are you sure you are getting the best deal on your auto insurance? Here are a few tips to get the most discounts that you would never think about:
1) Additional driving classes, take a short defensive driving classes and get a certificate that is good for 3 years, this could save you up to 10% per year on you insurance! There are also online course you can take.
2) The martial status question, if you are ever asked what your martial status is and you are divorsed, widowed, or legal seperated, make sure you say so, it is cheaper on your auto insurance to be any of these than if you are single!
3) Have kids and want them on their own policy to pay on their own while they live with you. If they live with you, make sure to put a policy in your name and include them on it even if you will never drive their car! This can save your child up to 80%!
4) Use comparision web sites like insurance.com where they will instantly compare and you can actually purchase the policy online through their site. They will search 15 insurance companies for you and get back the 4 lowest rates. I have been very impressed with their web site and the awards they have been winning. And they have very friendly licensed agents ready to help ( I had a question because I couldn’t believe how much money they saved me and I just called up to make sure and they helped me the rest of the way through the process and sent me my insurance information right away).
5) Try to avoid sites that sell your information like insureme.com and netquote.com as you will receive many phone calls even though you might think it will all be online.
6) Get the multi-car / multi-person discount if you have more than one car or driver.
7) The higher the coverages you carry now, the less expensive it will be in the future to carry the same amount or upgrade.
8) Watch using the “Road Side Assistant and Towing” every time you call, most insurance companies count this as a claim and will up your rate at renewal and future insurance! If you feel you might need this a lot, try companies like AAA.
9) Don’t be suprised when they say they are running a credit check! Most insurance companies are using your payment history (not too much your credit score) to figure in what kind of “risk rating” you fall into. In research insurance companies have found that is most cases the worse your credit ranking the more claims you will submit and vise-versa. This is not always true, but in the bell-shaped curve is has been proven.
10) Shop about 15 - 30 days before you policy is suppose to expire and buy then! Do not wait until the day before. The futher out you buy your policy the lower the prices might be.
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The NFL is getting ready to start up here soon, with the schedule just recently being posted and some people getting their betting strategies going. You can find free nfl picks online to help your season out and find which teams are the favorites and which team you really should put your money on. I am so excited for the football season to finally start back up again as it should be a very exciting season to watch with many great teams.
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How many times have you gone out and need a business phone number, or want to check the movie times and need to call 411? Check your phone bill! by dialing those easy to remember numbers 4..1..1 Its going to cost you anywhere from $0.75 to $7.50 a call! There is an alernate source for information. Make sure to write it down or program it into your phone.
1-800-CALL-411
OR
1-800-225-5411
Google Labs has also came up with a 411 phone service called Goog411. Dial 1-800-GOOG-411 . Click Here for More Information
How much has your 411 calls cost you? Post a comment and let us know!
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There are a few ways that married couples can get discounted rates on their Car Insurance and save some money. Any money you can save, even a dollar, is one more dollar you can put to something else. Not all policies are the same, so you can not just go by the quote, make sure your policy includes everything you want, such as a rental car if you have an accident, ect (Which a rental might not be important if you have more than 1 car). Here are some great tips to getting the lowest rate possible.
Tip 1. Get several quotes from multiple insurance companies online. Some insurance companies even represent more than 1 insurance company, so with one call you can get multiple quotes at one time. Make sure to find out if there is a married couple discount. If you have multiple cars ask if you can get a multiple car discount.
Tip 2. Look at each other’s driving record. If one person has a DUI or multiple traffic violations get quotes for separate policies and also a couple policy and compare which is cheaper.
Tip 3. Always keep the agent that you are making a deal with on their toes, by not always accepting the first quote they give you. Ask what that quote includes, and see if you can get rid of some features that you do not need for a lower quote.
Tip 4. Pay your policy in 6 month or 1 year. Most insurance companies charge more if you pay monthly.
Good Luck and Happy Saving!
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The debt for young people is rising, more than ever before as younger people are getting more and more credit card offers in the mail. This is what got me in trouble. While in college I was a student with not very much money, a part-time job and credit card offers piling in the mailbox everyday. I lived on campus and even there you signup these little pieces of paper to get a free $2.00 T-shirt with you school logo on it and sure enough a few weeks later you have 5 - 12 credit cards ready to go in your mailbox. This alone put in me behind early in life, just to suffer to dig myself out later on.
Teach your children the value of money and how credit cards and ruin their future if not used properly. I would do this early on, by teaching them that money does not grow on trees and that the “urge to buy” something that costs more than you have is a bad idea and to let it go for 24 hours and think if you still want it or not.
Have your children work for their money, by doing some easy chores around the house, pick up a paper route, help neighbors. Do not just hand them money when they need money, this will teach them bad money handling skills later in life and you will see the credit cards mounting up.
Any other suggestions? Post a Comment!
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So you know there is a great deal coming up, right? or you want to purchase multiple items such as food items, but you only get one paper. No problem. Many people do not even think about look on Ebay! You can bid and get multiples of the same coupons (usually in 20s) sent to your house in a few days for only a couple of bucks. Most of these coupons will save you $20, $30 or more. If paired up with the right deals can get you multiple items for FREE! Just go on Ebay and go to the Coupon Section (Direct Link to Coupons) and search or browse for which coupons you would like to find. If you are not registered on ebay yet, Registration is Free (click here direct link).
I use Ebay a lot when I can not find coupons that I am looking for. Plus not all coupons are sent to everyone in the country! You can live in Florida and there is a coupon in Ohio for $4.00 off of your dog’s dog food brand and it is on sale for $3.99 (this happens a lot sometimes), but you don’t have a coupon. No problem just go to the pet food coupon (direct link there! ) section and you can find those coupons!
Good Luck and Happy Bidding!
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We live in a world where debt is not only acceptable, it is the norm. Almost everyone you meet has debt of some kind. So, in a society that views debt as a way of life, how can we control our debt instead of allowing it to control us? Here are some things to help you with debt prevention and management.
The first thing to do when considering your debt is to make a budget. It is important to have a plan for your money so that you will know exactly where all of your funds are going. Many people believe that a budget will be constricting and not allow them any freedom. Really the opposite is true. A budget allows you the freedom of having peace of mind knowing that all of your bills are paid and the money has been allocated ahead of time for these expenses.
Knowing where to start when making your budget can be overwhelming. The best place to begin is to make a list of all of your income. Once you have listed your income, make a list of all of your bills. Be sure to include things like cable, internet, cell phone, electricity, water, credit cards, loan payments, and any others that you might have on a monthly basis. Things like trash that are normally billed on a quarterly basis should also be included by dividing the normal bill by 3 to get the monthly total. Once you have listed all of your bills, consider living expenses. Things like gas, groceries, laundry, personal care, entertainment, and spending money should all be budgeted into your plan.
It is also important to have a savings plan. This is key to help you prevent yourself from getting into debt. Set aside a certain amount each month into a savings account. It can just be for general savings, or you could set a goal to save up for a big purchase. Saving with a goal in mind motivates many people to stick to their savings plan. They know that at the end they will be able to purchase the desired object without going into debt.
If you already have debt, it can be advantageous to take some steps to help manage it. If you have a high amount of credit card debt, it can be wise to consolidate it into one loan. If you are a homeowner, using the equity you have accumulated in your home is often the wisest way to restructure your debt load. You can roll all of your debt into one loan and make one payment that has tax advantages. It is wise to talk to your financial institution about all of the options they have for you.
Another way to manage existing debt is to consolidate your debt into one payment using an unsecured loan. Although the rates will be higher than a secured loan, often it will be lower than your credit card rates and the payment will be lower as well. This will allow you to pay off your debt in a specified time period while paying less interest over the long run.
There are many practical ways to manage the debt you already have while preventing yourself from getting in any deeper. Make a logical, practical budget and consolidate your existing debt in order.
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“I don’t know what you guys are paying for gasoline….but here in California we are also paying higher, up to $3.50 per gallon. My line of work is in petroleum for about 31 years now, so here are some tricks to get more of your money’s worth for every gallon.. Here at the Kinder Morgan Pipeline where I work in San Jose, CA we deliver about 4 million gallons in a 24-hour period thru the pipeline. One day is diesel the next day is jet fuel, and gasoline, regular and premium grades. We have 34-storage tanks here with a total capacity of 16,800,000 gallons.
Only buy or fill up your car or truck in the early morning when the ground temperature is still cold.
Remember that all service stations have their storage tanks buried below ground. The colder the ground the more dense the gasoline, when it gets warmer gasoline expands, so buying in the afternoon or in the evening….your gallon is not exactly a gallon. In the petroleum business, the specific gravity and the temperature of the gasoline, diesel and jet fuel, ethanol and other petroleum products plays an important role. A 1-degree rise in temperature is a big deal for this business. But the service stations do not have temperature compensation
at the pumps.
When you’re filling up do not squeeze the trigger of the nozzle to a fast mode. If you look you will see that the trigger has three (3) stages: low, middle, and high. In slow mode you should be pumping on low speed, thereby minimizing the vapors that are created while you are pumping. All hoses at the pump have a vapor return. If you are pumping on the fast rate, some of the liquid that goes to your tank becomes vapor. Those vapors are being sucked up and back into the underground storage tank so you’re getting less worth for your money.
One of the most important tips is to fill up when your gas tank is HALF FULL or HALF EMPTY. The reason for this is, the more gas you have in your tank the less air occupying its empty space. Gasoline evaporates faster than you can imagine. Gasoline storage tanks have an internal floating roof. This roof serves as zero clearance between the gas and the atmosphere, so it minimizes the evaporation. Unlike service stations, here where I work, every truck that we load is temperature compensated so that every gallon is actually the exact amount. Another reminder, if there is a gasoline truck pumping into the storage tanks when you stop to buy gas, DO NOT fill up–most likely the gasoline is being stirred up as the gas is being delivered, and you might pick up some of the dirt that normally settles on the bottom.
Hope this will help you get the most value for your money.
DO SHARE THESE TIPS WITH OTHERS! “
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Getting an apartment organized requires some special home organization skills. The areas to store anything always seem to be too small and the size of most apartment kitchens are enough to want to make you throw up your hands in defeat. But where there’s a will, there’s a way. Here are a few tips to help you maximize the space in your apartment.
Using Your Vertical Space
Use every inch of vertical space that you can. Get furniture that is tall. Bookcases are your friend. There are great ways you can use them and for more than just books. Use them to help you organize your kids’ toys in their room (use the top shelves that they can’t reach for displaying stuffed animals they don’t typically play with). Use them to display photos and knick-knacks. Use them for CDs and DVDs. Use all of the vertical space that you have in every closet space in the entire apartment. Stackable plastic containers or stackable plastic drawer units in closets can help you get your home organized and can help you effectively use the vertical space in those closets.
Cabinet Space Is Golden
Use every inch of it you can. Stackable plastic drawer units that fit under the kitchen or bathroom sink work great for organizing those spaces. These units also still make it easy for you to access what is in that space. Stackable plastic containers also work well for organizing these spaces and can be very inexpensive.
Kitchen Problems
A baker’s rack or pantry cupboard is the best way to tackle the problem of apartment kitchen storage space. A nice one of these in the dining area and in a style that matches your dining room furniture can help compliment the room in addition to giving you more storage space. And if you have space above your kitchen cabinets, don’t be afraid to use it. Attractive storage containers can help make the space look nice but yet still allows you to use it well. If you can find a hanging pot rack that won’t leave huge holes in the ceiling or wall, this is also a great way to free up cabinet space.
You control your space, your space does not control you. Use the space in your apartment to your best possible advantage. Just because you may have a smaller space, it does not mean that you can’t get your home organized in a way that fits your needs and that makes your home look beautiful.
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