Author: Laurie

September 25, 2013

Paying off Debt: Preparing Yourself for the Journey

Happy Wednesday, friends! We’ve had great weather here this week, sunny and 70ish. The fall colors are just starting to come in, and we’ve finished up the last of our canning efforts, I think, so WOOHOO for that! Today I’m going to kind of bounce off of a two-part series I did over at Frugal Rules. The first part, Why So Many People Fail to Become Debt Free, was posted last week, and part 2 debuts tomorrow. It’s important when beginning a journey as daunting as revamping your financial life that you are aware of potential roadblocks and failures before you start, which is why I wrote the 2-part series over at Frugal Rules. But there are some other things you need to know before you start your journey to debt free. Read more

September 23, 2013

Hidden Tips for Saving Money at Home: Part 2

Good morning, frugal friends! Due to popular demand, we’ve put together a second addition of last week’s Hidden Tips for Saving Money at Home post. Hope you like it just as much as the first edition. 🙂

The more we look, the more we find there’s always more ways to save money on things we use at home. We really can get by on less if we are willing to sacrifice and make the effort, so here are some more money saving ideas that you and yours might find helpful. Read more

September 22, 2013

Saving Money on Trade Show Booths

Trade shows are a great way to get the word out about your business and to connect with your existing customers and clients. Trade shows can also cost a lot of money in terms of travel, hotel, registration and all of the supplies you need to make everything a success. Research ways to save yourself money and get the most out of your trip if you know that you’ll be attending a trade show soon. Read more

September 19, 2013

How to Save Money: 10 Items to Always Buy Out of Season

Welcome back to our twice monthly guest-poster, Kyle, from Rather-be-Shopping. Once again, Kyle has amazing money-saving tips for us. Thanks, Kyle, for sharing your wisdom. 🙂

If you are the type of shopper who doesn’t consider the right time to buy certain items, you’re most likely spending way more money than you need to. Due to the laws of supply and demand, almost everything we consume has a cheaper and more expensive buying season. If you can plan ahead and buy when items are out of season you can typically save a lot of money. Here are 10 popular items to consider.

1. Televisions

Buy in April and May. The Japanese fiscal years ends in March which means television manufacturers like Samsung and Sony will be very eager to unload inventory in April and May. Deals during these two months are historically better than Black Friday and the week leading up to the Super Bowl. If you are cool with last season’s model you can really score a great deal.

2. Refrigerators

Buy in May. New refrigerator models are historically released in May which means your Home Depot’s and Lowe’s of the world will seriously discount current inventory to make room for new models on the sales floor. Use this knowledge to your advantage and save up to 50%. My wife and I did this last year and saved $570 on a new Samsung fridge.

3. Clothing

Clothing and apparel are one of those things that always present buying opportunities if you shop smart. Be sure to always buy at the end of the current season for the following year. For example, right now many stores are clearing out their summer merchandise for pennies on the dollar. Buy your shorts, t-shirts, summer dresses, and flip-flops now and store them for next spring and summer. Your wallet will thank you.

4. Dishware & Flatware

Buy in June. May and June is officially known as wedding season and with it comes deals on dishware for everyone, including those not tying the knot. If you can hold out until June to buy your flatware and dishes you’ll be able to save a bundle.

5. Carpeting & Flooring

Buy in January. The peak of the pricing on new carpet, laminate flooring, and hardwood flooring is in October and November as people spruce up their home right before the holidays arrive. Use this knowledge and wait until January when prices go down substantially.

6. BBQ’s and A/C’s

Buy in the winter. BBQ’s and air conditioners are obviously warm weather luxuries and the demand plummets when it gets chilly outside. If having the newest and greatest model is no big deal for you, buy last season’s model when stores start to clear them out.

7. Wedding Decor/Supplies

Buy in October or November. The wedding season is long over which put you in the driver’s seat when buying wedding supplies as well as reserving locations. Your ability to negotiate pricing on wedding and reception locations as well as DJ’s, flowers, and catering goes way up in October and November as well.

8. School Supplies

Buy in September. I always recommend only buying the “must-haves” like pencils, notebooks, and paper in July and August. Then when school begins and stores start to clear out merchandise, stock up on all the other stuff like backpacks, calculators, and laptops. This is a great way to take advantage of clearance deals at stores like Walmart, Target, Office Depot, and Kohl’s.

9. Lawnmowers & Weed Eaters

Buy in September. If your lawnmower barely made it through the summer don’t wait until next spring to buy a new one. The best deals of the year are happening right now as stores do NOT want to store their current inventory until next year. Use this to your advantage and you can easily save up to 50% off a new mower or weed eater.

10. Patio Furniture

Buy in October. Most Americans store their patio furniture in their garage during the winter months. Well, your big box stores don’t have a garage to store the furniture they haven’t sold. So instead, they slash the prices of their inventory in October to quickly get rid of it making it a great time to buy.

This list is just the tip of the iceberg. When considering any significant purchase, always do some research to determine if you can save money by waiting until the item is “officially” out of season. While you can’t really wait 6 months for a better deal on a refrigerator if yours completely breaks, you can wait for a better time to buy if you think your fridge is ugly, getting old, or losing efficiency.

As for some related coupons, here are some of the most popular off-season deals currently on my website.

About The Author: Kyle James is the creator of Rather Be Shopping.com which is a site dedicated to helping families save more of their hard earned money each month.

September 18, 2013

Don’t Hire an Employee Until You do These 8 Essential Things

Congratulations! Your business has grown to the point that you’re starting to consider hiring an employee to help manage the load. As an entrepreneur, this is an exciting time. It’s one of the first steps to growing your company, lightening your work load, and helping you make more money. Read more

September 18, 2013

Using Hope to Reach Your Financial Goals

There’s been lots of talk in the PF blogging world the last several days on how to pay off your debt. Anyone looking to get out of debt should seriously study tips such as those shared by Free Money Minute and Luke 1428 this week. Any road to debt free has to start with education if it is to be successful. Along with those crucial debt payoff tips though, if you’re looking to truly have the follow-through to start and to finish your road to debt-free, you need to have one vitally important ingredient: hope.

Why is hope so crucial to paying off debt? Let’s start by defining the word hope. Webster’s Dictionary defines hope this way:

Hope: a feeling that what is wanted will happen; to want or to expect.

If you don’t expect to pay off your debt, you can be quite certain that you’ll fail. Why? Because if you don’t expect to succeed at paying off your debt, then you are, by default, expecting to fail. You have no hope. And if you have no hope, you have no reason to make the necessary sacrifices and changes needed to rid yourself of the debt that’s hanging over your head. Does that make sense? Now that you understand the importance of hope in your debt payoff journey, here’s how to make hope work for you:

1. Define the reason for your hope. It’s time to define what you are hoping for and, more importantly, why. Don’t just tell yourself “I hope to pay off my debt”. Make a decisive reason for paying off your debt, as in: I want ( i.e. expect) to pay off my debt so that I can create a better future for my family/retire early/become self-employed, etc. Whatever your reason for having hope that you can and will pay off your debt, write it down and post it somewhere where you can see it clearly on a regular basis. Know what is the driving force behind your hope, or expectation, of paying off your debt, by using your motivational list to keep you on track.

2. Tie your hope to specific goals. Hope without action is pointless. It’s time now to set those specific, measurable, attainable, reasonable, timely goals for your debt payoff plan, using your newfound hope to keep you on track with those goals. Using a clear budget as your guide, decide how and when you will pay off each of your outstanding debts. Make a chart if you need to so that you can display your plan clearly in order to keep yourself motivated.

3. Use your hope. Hope is especially important when you hit those roadblocks in paying off your debt, whether they be financial roadblocks, physical roadblocks, or emotional roadblocks. As Luke 1428 mentioned in his post this week on paying off debt, there are LOTS of ups and downs in a debt-free journey, and it’s important to be prepared for them. This is why it’s so important that your hope and your reasons for your hope be clearly defined. When the roadblocks come, you need to be able to divert your attention to the driving force behind your hope: your motivational list of whys and your debt payoff chart. Diverting your attention off of the roadblocks and onto your reasons for your hope will swell up an energy force within you that has the ability to propel you back into forward motion, if you are willing to work at it.

4. Exercise your hope “muscles”. Hope, like any form of strength, needs to be exercised. Every person is different; some are motivated by fear, some by excitement, some by achievement, etc. Use your imagination to exercise your hope muscles to keep your motivation for debt freedom strong and solid. For me, I exercise my “hope” muscles in two ways. One, by fear. I use “What if” scenarios like “What if Rick got laid off” or “What if our ability to feed the kids was threatened” or whatever. Using fear in this form helps me not to be tempted into spending money in ways that go against what we’ve got on our budget. The other motivation I use is more aspirational. I dream about being able to take the kids on vacations, or I imagine handing them a check big enough for a down payment on their first house, or I imagine what our mortgage-burning party will be like. Envisioning reaching our goals of debt free helps me to stay on track with our budget, and it also helps me to be more creative as I look for ways to trim expenses and save money.

The idea of hope sounds a bit cheesy and pollyannish at times, I know, but hope really does have a driving force behind it that is powerful and effective. Use hope today to help reach your impossible dreams.

How does hope help you achieve your goals?

September 16, 2013

Hidden Tips for Saving Money at Home

When looking to save money on those necessities for the home and family, it’s always a good idea to do all of the usual things: price compare, use coupons, stock up on sales, and so forth. At our house, we’ve got an extreme amount of debt to pay off right now, so we’ve had to get extra creative in saving money.

What we’ve found in the last 8 months is that there are ways to save money at home that are often overlooked by the average budgeter. Here are some of our hidden tips for saving money on common household expenses: Read more

September 3, 2013

How to Make Rabbits Stop Eating Your Garden

Greetings, friends! This post comes courtesy of a reader question I got from our friend and loyal reader, Jim. Jim wrote:

My wife lovingly plants a veggie garden every year. 3 years ago we lost our last dog and for the past 3 years rabbits have eaten our entire veggie (raised) garden – ugh! We’ve tried everything except a chicken wire fence (she claims that will be too much of a hassle to weed/garden around). Have you got any suggestions? We can’t get another dog because our granddaughter is allergic to them.

Being that this is quite the common problem, I thought I’d address it in a post. First, let’s talk a little bit about rabbits and their eating habits (hey, that rhymes!)

Rabbits like to feed at twilight, but are pretty non-picky as long as they get their meal. Their main preferences as far as vegetables are: lettuce, cabbage, broccoli and cauliflower. They also like very young fruit trees.. Being that rabbits reproduce at quite a rapid pace, they can quickly overtake your garden similar to a scene like Alfred Hitchcock’s “The Birds”.

Rabbits and other pests are quite common to most people’s gardens, but there are humane ways to rid, or at least ward off the fluffy intruders; ways that don’t include the hassles of a trap or the finality of a .22. 🙂

Here are some tips for keeping your veggies safe from our fluffy friends:

1. Put a fence up, and put it up early. I know: they are a hassle, those chicken wire fences, but it is one of the best ways to keep rabbits and other intruders at bay. My elderly friend and mentor, Pete, makes a 6 foot high chicken wire fence with wood supports and a door, that looks like a giant see-through room. People go in and out via the door to weed and gather the goodies, and the large “room” he creates every year keeps out the many would-be visitors, including a small, long-time resident black bear.

2. Scare them away with smell. “Rabbits sniff everything”, my gardening book says, “and after a sneezing fit, they’ll move on”. Sprinkling black pepper on your plants in the evening will send those wascally wabbits running from your garden plants in a fit of sneezing, so the experts say. Another option is, if you can find their path from their home to your garden, you can sprinkle the path with moth crystals. (no affiliate links within this post) Don’t use plain mothballs, however, as they can be dangerous and appealing to kids due to their resemblance to candy. Another tip suggested sprinkling blood meal around the edges of your garden and/or on your plants will scare rabbits away as well, fearing for their very lives.

3. Utilize companion planting. Companion planting has been used for centuries as a way to help plants grow better. Planting certain plants next to other plants not only encourages better growth, but can ward off intruders as well. For instance, planting marigolds in your garden can help ward off certain flying insects with their bright color and intense (to the bugs) scent. Rabbits in particular dislike onions, so surrounding your lettuce, cabbage, cauliflower and broccoli with onions, chives and garlic can really do wonders for warding off those pesky “wabbits”.

Jim, and my other gardening friends, I hope this helps a bit.

How about you, readers? What are your tried and true tips for keeping rabbits from eating your home-grown goodies?

August 30, 2013

How to Save Money: Frugal Alternatives to Cable TV

Happy Friday, friends! No, this isn’t our actual TV, but ours isn’t far off; we still have the old 36-inch tube TV sitting in the living room, and like any true frugal family, will have it there until the debt is paid off or the thing dies. 🙂 We’ll have the week’s good reads tomorrow, but today, I want to welcome back Kyle from Rather Be Shopping with more money saving tips for you. Thanks, Kyle, for sharing your wisdom again!

About two months ago, my wife and I made the big move and eliminated the cable TV bill from our lives and haven’t looked back. In our case, it was actually our Dish Network bill since we don’t get cable out in the countryside where we live, but the savings was still the same and quite significant. We were paying $55/month for the satellite TV service, which equated to $660 annually. We now only pay $7.99 a month and I’d make the argument that we actually get better programming now and shows that we actually watch. Here are some great frugal alternatives to your expensive cable TV service. Read more

August 28, 2013

How to Save Money: Check the Labels

I had a “duh” money spending moment yesterday and I’m SO ticked at myself! Not because of how much money I wasted, but because of how I wasted it. We’ve read before about how advertisers sneak their way into your hearts and convince you to spend money. And we can find lots of good info on many sites on how to save money on groceries. But until yesterday, I wouldn’t have thought that checking labels should be part of my money-saving journey. It is now. Read more