Save Money on Food by Saving your Food from going bad.

OK, I'm sure you have heard of the vacuum sealers to save food.  I had invested in one several years ago but seeing as how it was one of the first models (I won't reveal the brand name) it ended up having problems, but through it, I was able to discover what it was I wanted in one... eventually.  Anyhow, after years of food molding, going bad or getting freezer burn, I decided it was time to 'reinvest'.  Best part is, the machines are better and cheaper than they were back then.  So far I am extremely pleased with my purchase and below and links to the items.  If you decide to buy through these links, I will earn a commission with sales.  Happy cooking and saving.  Trust me, the money you spend will save you a ton of money all year long ^_^.



Click on the link below to see more products for this sealer.

Too Good To Be True

One valuable lesson I have learned is that it is nearly impossible to get something for nothing.  An offer may seem absolutely incredible but 99.5% there is a con-artist behind it.  First of all, any survey that requires you to enter your phone number and a pin number is signing you up for some worthless service 'charged directly to your phone bill'!  Winning a $500 or $1000 gift certificate usually means you end up spending a ton of money, and IF you get your certificate.... well, you're lucky.  If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.  I have tried a few supposidly reputable online surveys, just to see if they would pan out, so far, nothing possitive has come of that experience.  If I ever do find one, I'll most certainly post it but I don't really plan on looking anytime soon.

Everything is 'Buyer Beware'.  The internet is littered with scams and people trying to get every penny out of you that they can.  The best thing to do is, if it raises any red flags at all, avoid it.  If you are not 100% possitive that it is ligit, investigate or avoid.

The best financial sense is to avoid others taking advantage of you and your hard earned money.

Best of Luck!!!

The Almighty Dollar

Hmmm.  What's so big about a lousy dollar.  We easily plunk it down for junk food, coffee, quarters for a game, and other such insignificant things.  One dollar really doesn't amount to much these days... or does it?  Have you ever stopped to think just how many of these little dollars you spend each day, month, year?  Did you realize that most Americans waste about 10%-20% of their hard earned money on meaningless this, one dollar at a time? 

One thing I have learned is to be accountable for every penny I spend.  I had no idea how much fifty cents here and a dollar there, actually added up to at the end of the month.  I found it invaluable to take a few moments a week to review my reciepts and log how I was spending money.  Now I find myself second guessing how I spend money.  Things that I would not think twice about plunking a simple dollar down for, I reconsider because I wonder if it really is worth losing that dollar.  Once you spend it, it is gone - forever! 

So, if you go as far as reconsidering how you spend that dollar, what should you do with it?  Easy, invest it.  There are many high yeild savings accounts you can access.  Have a money jar or some other place where you can put that extra money (this includes money you save when using coupons when shopping) and when it has a nice amount, go deposit it and never look at it again. 

OK, never is a bit of a stretch but pretending the money doesn't exist, helps to curve the temptation to spend it later.  Why save it?  Well, many reasons really.  Emergancies - real ones, retirement, college funds.... you get the idea.  High yeild accounts, over a long period of time, if you leave the money in, will pay off well.

After all, you (and/or your significant other) worked hard to earn that money.  Too often we wonder where it all went and why we keep working so hard for money that never ads up to much.  A dollar might seem insignificant at first but when you take time to realize how all those little dollars add up, you may begin to appreciate each and everyone.  Hold yourself accountable for every single penny you spend. 

You may have to sacrifice the 'little pleasures' in life to a degree but wouldn't it be wonderful to see a big reward for that frugalness?  I use to not think so but then I learned that there are many ways to cut the 'little pleasures' to a degree.  I still have coffee but I do not buy it anymore from the shops.  For the price of two cups of take out coffee, I can buy 1 bag of premium coffee and a favorite creamer or two that will last for weeks or months.  What do I do with the money I save?  Well.... at the moment, I am using it to get out of debt, however, once that is accomplished, it will go straight into a high yeild savings account.  Now don't put your savings account off, make at least one to two transactions (deposits) a month.  Paying bills is important but you may have an emergancy pop up and you do not want to go into further debt to take care of that emergancy.

Cheers!

Multiple Streams of Income

So, one of the goals from my financial instruction is to set up at least one new source of income each year.  Over the weekend and into this week, I have set about about five new streams.  Now, granted, each stream brings in only a little each but they cost me nothing but some time and good friends being willing to give me a little of their time.  It is said, 'A penny saved, Is a penny earned'.  Although each stream might seem small, when you add them up each of those pennies, nickles, dimes and quarters add up quickly.  I look forward to seeing how many more streams I can set up before the year is over.  If interest arises, I will give some tips and tricks to helping you make your own streams.  Just let me know.

Buying on The Internet - Pay Pal

Pay Pal.... Well, you probably have heard of it, you may even use it, but why am I talking about it?  Good question.  For the longest time I was Anti-Pay Pal because I misunderstood it and heard too many horror stories about people hacking into your account and so forth.

Well.... I have a different view now... Now that I understand it better.  First of all, ignor all Pay Pal Emails and you will do just fine.  Secondly, by using Pay Pal, you only have to log in your account info with them and then, with most venders, you never have to give out your information again because Pay Pal will send them the money for you. 

How it works is that it is linked directly to your bank account, should you need additional funds when purchasing something - there is no charge to you to do this.  Secondly, if you are a seller, you will find that most of your consumers will only buy merchandise from you this way because they do not like entering their account information online.  For sellers there is a small fee... I believe but you will get more buisness this way. 

Now, not all distributers are on the Pay-Pal path... yet.  So how I personally dealt with this was, instead of giving out my Bank Account Number, I subscribed to get an Amazon Credit Card.  There are several reasons for this, none of which is to go into debt.  The Amazon Card is a Visa card, and so it works with anyone who accepts Visa, whether on the internet or at the store.  Secondly, the limit is relatively low, so I can't overdue my spending and if the number is stolen for some reason, I can cancel the card and report the problem and if ANY money loss is a result, it is relatively low.  Of course this is just a personal choice I made.  The best part is that I earn money back with every purchase I make.  So for me it works out well, especially when I have a financial emergancy.

Word of Caution....
Use Credit Cards at your own risk.  If you are an out of control spender.... Like I tend to be, you could get yourself in hot water by overduing the Credit Card thing.  So if you are unable to control your spending, you may want to think twice before getting a Credit Card.  The one thing I do like about it is that by using a credit card like this - responsibly - it is great for my Credit Score.

Coupons? Are they really worth the time and effort?

Ok, so for years I have struggled with the question, 'Are coupons Really worth it?" 

Yeah, I know they save you money and all but 'if' I clipped one or put one aside to eventually use, I would either lose it or forget about it all together.  So, after a while I just gave up on the idea of using coupons all together because it was just too much work and to frustrating.

Then, about a month ago, when I started my Enlightened Financial Journey (It's just a funky title ^_^), I had a whim to go shopping at Albertsons at about 11pm one night.  Naturally my son Josh was up for it, he loves going on late night shopping sprees with me, or walks or whatever <3.  Anyhow, it just so happened that on that night we saw two women at the store shopping away on a coupon spree.  At first I looked at them with a 'What the Heck?' attitude and then it dawned on me that I should have been doing the same thing.  My system now is similar to their but a little more my style.  So I will share with you my new hobby, as it were.

I proceeded to go to Wal*Mart, to shop smart ^_^, and bought a Trapper Keeper, Baseball Card sleeves, tape, dividers, small calculater, sticky pads and one of those little money bags.  No coupons for them but them for the coupons.  The ladies at the store just had a three ring binder and baseball card inserts. 

Now you might be saying, ok, you just went out and spent about $30 for coupons?  I know it sounds silly but in the end it has more than paid for itself.  First of all, I am actually using my coupons now, mostly because they are all in one place and I can find them.  Because I am holding myself accountable for every penny I spend, I have a calculater to keep track of how much I am spending, the money bag to put all my reciepts in and tape to use to stick the coupon straight onto the product when I place it in the basket or something similar. 

At the moment we still don't get the news paper, so I don't get coupons there but between the mail, online coupons and whatnot, I have already saved the money to cover the cost of the book for them.

Now one word of warning.  Coupons are very seductive and may make you buy things you might not normally buy.  When choosing which coupons to file in your book, think twice about them.  Do you really need that product?  Is it something you usually or often get (maybe you don't need it this month but the coupon will expire when you do)? 

So, last but not least, online coupons.  I Love Them!!!!  You merely pick out what you want and print them up for the store to scan.  So far, no one has given me any trouble about them, so they are a great way to go with coupon shopping.... Oh and yes, you can save a great deal of money on coupons.  Here are a couple of sites you might want to consider visiting to find coupons online....

BeFrugal.com
RetailMeNot.com
Coupons.com

That should be enough to get you started on your journey to saving money.  I have been debating about getting the newspaper for coupons but I am not certain that the cost of the paper is worth the few coupons I might save.  I would probably be best off just getting the local Sunday paper and seeing if the price vs. savings is worth the money.  Every newspaper is different, so this would be up to you.  If you get the paper already, then the descision isn't hard to make.

Happy Shopping!!!

Finances

Uggg.  Ok, so finances are not one of my favorite topics to discuss, being second least favorite to politics.... Please, I hate politics!  Anyhow, I thought it would be nice to start a blog that will document the lessons I am learning about being more financially responsible.  OK, in my Stock blog I said I would do it there but Stocks are so big of a subject, and finances are so different in their own way that I thought I should keep the two separate.  So, if you are looking for tips and tricks to saving money or how best to spend or save it, in this blog you will find what I am learning from professionals.  I had to pay to learn everything I am teaching you for free so help me out by clicking on Google ads and/or buying through my site at Amazon.com.  I would really appreciate it.  Thanks!