Money Saving Tips

File For FREE With H & R Block

Ugh…It’s that time of the year again — TAXES! I’m sure we can all agree that filing our taxes isn’t one of our top 10 things we look forward to doing.  But, like it or not you have to do it.  So why not check out H & R Block to complete your federal tax return using their online product for FREE.  State returns are an additional fee.  But, its a great place to start and get it over with.  April 15th will be here before you know it.  So get a jump on filing today!

Simple Tip to Save on Fixed Price Produce

When you’re at the grocery store shopping for things like lettuce, celery, and herbs many times these will be sold at a fixed price. We all have got so used to looking for the lowest price item when things are sold by the pound, but have you ever stopped to think that you can get more food for your money by weighing the fixed price vegetables that you buy too?

When I was at the store the other day find a head of lettuce for a salad that evening. I picked out 2 to 3 bunches of lettuce that I thought looked the biggest. I then waited all 3 of these heads of lettuce and noticed a 20% difference in the weight from the biggest to the smallest. That 20% difference could’ve ended up costing me $.50 or more.

So the moral of this quick tip is even when you are purchasing items that are sold at a fixed price make sure that you use the produce scales that are provided so you get the most food for your dollar.

This tip also works just as well when you are buying bagged items such as:

• Potatos
• Oranges
• Apples
• Kiwis

Free Credit Report from Credit Sesame – Scam or not?

I have always been very interested in my credit score and how to increase my credit rating.  For the last 3 years I have been paying for a credit report monitoring service that also gives me my score.  The price for this service is NOT cheap and I end up paying around $150  a year for this service.

Is Free Possible?

I heard about CreditSesame and thought I would check it out as they promise all the same services as my current pay service, but for free.   No recurring billing, no funny business.   They are able to do this by advertising offers to you based on your credit information.  It is a similar business model as Mint.com if you are familiar with their site.

My Test…

I decided to sign up for the site and go over all the steps and my opinion of the site for my readers to see if it would be useful.

First, when you first get to the site you arrive at a “Landing Page” where you are asked to input your name, email, state and zip code.

Next you are asked to sign up for your account and enter a password.  After you complete the registration process the site WILL ask you for your social security number.  Many people, me included, are very guarded about releasing there SSN on the internet.  I checked on this site and it has a valid SSL certificate so all of your data is encrypted when sent.  I put in my SSN and continued though the process.

At this point you will be asked a few security questions to verify your identity and and then you will be given access to your credit score and some other recommendations on how to save money based on their analysis.   My advise is to use the site to get your credit score and then make your own decisions on what other financial products you need.

Creditsesame.com gets paid when you sign up for one of the products that they recommend so make sure you do your homework before you signup for any new financial products.  You can see that I have an OK credit score from the picture below and I didn’t have to put in a creditcard anytime during the process.

What I like…

• No credit card required
• You get your Experian credit report and score for free and Updates every month
• Easy signup process

What I don’t Like…

• No monitoring included
• Only receive credit report from one agency
• They try to sell you on other financial product (but hey, this is how they can do it for free).

Overall, I am pretty impressed and if you don’t know what your current credit score or report looks like, it is probably worth checking it out.  Please let me know if you have any questions and I will try to answer them the best I can!

What Personality Does it Take to Be a Coupon Guru?

You might be wondering if you have the personality type to become a successful coupon shopper. The truth is, anyone can be a successful coupon shopper as long as you understand your personality type and craft a shopping trip around your individual traits and habits.

There are usually 2 types of coupon shoppers. The 1st is the newbie coupon shopper who is just learning how to use coupons and doesn’t quite understand the intricacies of being successful at the grocery store.  The 2nd type of shopper, is the expert shopper.  These people walk into the grocery store with a clear plan and vision and attack the store with great vigor. They don’t deviate from their list and generally they know all the products they are going to purchase before they even walk into the store and have grocery coupons to pair with the store discounts.

One of the best tips for the newbie coupon shopper is to plan your weekly meals around the protein that is on sale for that week. Usually, your grocery store will have a different protein on the front page of their circular each week and this protein will usually be at an excellent value. You have a couple of choices: you can either use the protein that’s on sale in all of your meals for the week (which can get kind of boring), or you can purchase enough of the discounted protein and freezer wrap it when you get home so that you can use it over the next 1 to 6 months.

Our family prefers to do the 2nd method as we don’t like to eat the same protein every day for a week. We have found the best way to keep our meets fresh is by utilizing a vacuum seal product which you can find at your local variety store.  Sometimes, we will even pre-marinate our meats before we freeze them so all we have to do is take them out of the freezer, defrost them, and grill them up.

2 Tips to Becoming a Successful Coupon Shopper

If you want to be a successful coupon shopper then their are a few important rules you will have to adopt when you are at the grocery store:

Stock your pantry when the price is right – If you purchase in bulk when you find a good deal and pack your pantry full for 2 to 3 months then every time he you go to use that product it’s like you are buying it on sale over and over again. This is the secret to a successful coupon shopper and why they always have a large stockpile of goods that they have purchased at an extraordinary rate.

Be prepared to save – Having a super awesome grocery shopping trip doesn’t happen by accident. If you want to save a ton of money and pack your pantry full of those amazing deals then you’re going to have to spend some time before heading to the store to plan your shopping trip. The coupon experts will compare the weekly flyers with their grocery coupons they have clipped and also see if double coupons can be used to create the trifecta of savings.

The 2 tips mentioned above aren’t rocket science, but if you use them and practice them you will find that your shopping trips become more successful and less expensive.

Great Tips and Discounts from Home Depot

I have been a member of the Home Depot Newsletter for about a year now and they provide a ton of helpful information, tutorials, and tips.  Also, you will sometimes get special discounts that they only send out via email.  It’s well worth signing up if you are doing any work on your house or yard.

How You Can Improve The Environment and Save Money By Using Rainwater Collection

Saving rainwater is a remarkable way to save money and also an easy way to start living green. Even though water is readily available, the expansion of the world’s population is making it more difficult to find in some places. We learn more and more about this difficult situation on the news everyday.

Locating freshwater is more complicated in large metropolitan areas than in rural areas. In the Usa, some large towns and cities such as Los Angeles, New York, and Chicago often place constraints on their water usage, suggesting to their residents the quantity and duration they can use fresh water.

It really is not that hard to try and do your part in saving the water and it can also be pretty fun. It’s low-cost and doesn’t take much to get started, yet it can make a significant difference in the quantity of gallons of water made use of each year. It is possible to save a significant sum of money on your water bills by accomplishing this.

All you have to do is accumulate and utilize rainwater. Rainwater will not cost anything to accumulate as it freely falls out of the sky. Just what exactly do you need to have to obtain rainwater? An uncomplicated way to accomplish this is to set the rain barrel in areas in which water tends to collect. This water is not going to be suitable for drinking as it will contain elements of dirt from the roof top and possible traces of substances it has acquired in the process. What additional ways would you use the water if it’s hazardous to drink? You may be allowed to water your yard. This way you won’t be required to squander fresh tap water.

Each and every gallon of water that you just collect in your rain barrel is actually one gallon of tap water you will not have to use. This could certainly save money while you are aiding the water shortage. Dependant on how much rain you experience each year, you can save as much as 1000 gallons of water per calendar year with a 55 gallon rain barrel.

A good strategy is to use several rain barrels making sure that you can collect water from various areas of your house. This allows you to collect large concentrations of water that would generally just to go into the drainage.

It is an easy task to find rain barrels in hardware or home and garden stores. You can additionally find rainwater barrels that allow you to use only the water you’ll need at one time by utilizing a spout. If you desire to save a lot of rainwater, you’ll be able to buy large storage tanks that are usually placed underneath your backyard garden. These will certainly fill up with considerable quantities of water.

Take into consideration whether you must get some rain barrels and accumulate rainwater. You’ll help save money and additionally conserve drinking water.