It’s Called Currency

It started a couple of weeks ago when my husband and I were headed out together. He hopped in the passenger side of my Jeep and discovered that the floorboard was wet. Since it had been littered with half-empty water bottles, we just assumed one of them had leaked and left it at that. However, a week of 100-degree days went by and the floorboard was still wet. So, he pulled out the shop vac and sucked out the water. Two or three days later, we’re headed somewhere else together and I climb in the passenger side only to discover that the floorboard is soaked. Obviously, it hadn’t been a leaking water bottle.
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Tags: Add new tag, spending less, transportation expenses by Julie Ann Dunn
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Periodically, it’s good to review expenses that you’re paying out of habit more than necessity, things that you’ve stopped thinking of as optional. For me, one of those things was my monthly expenditures on movie rentals.

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Tags: online shopping, spending less by Julie Ann Dunn
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In Part 1, you added up your income. Part 2 had you tally up your expenses. Now, before we look at the difference between those numbers, let’s talk about your savings.

Here in the United States, the amount of money Joe Citizen saves is non-existent. In recent years, the statistics have shown the nation’s savings rate at 2% on the high end and a negative 2% on the low end. In other words, our citizenry saves, on average, nothing. Are you an average Joe? [Read more →]

Tags: budgeting, cashflow management, priorities, saving, spending less by Julie Ann Dunn
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As the days grow colder in the Northern Hemisphere, we often find ourselves with higher utility bills due to the need to heat our homes and keep the lights on longer. One simple way to save on those bills is to turn down the heat. According to Energy Star, “On average, for every degree you set back your thermostat, you can save 3% on your energy bill.”

You can adjust your thermostat a degree a day and probably not notice any difference. [Read more →]

Tags: spending less by Julie Ann Dunn
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Which is the better deal: one item for $2.50, two for $5, or four for $10? Truth is, they are all the same price. Unfortunately, most people assume that the multiple item pricing equals savings. This is a trick that stores use to convince you to buy more, and if you’re watching your pennies, this is one trick you need to know how to avoid. [Read more →]

Tags: education, spending less by Julie Ann Dunn
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The day after Thanksgiving is called Black Friday because, for many stores, this is this day that they finally go “into the black” in terms of their income for the year. But this year, Black Friday may not be a reality for retailers who are so far “in the red” that they will continue to take losses as they cut prices in order to get you to shop.

Due to the current economic environment, you may find that the big Black Friday doorbusters and deep discounts of past years just aren’t there this year. [Read more →]

Tags: current events, online shopping, spending less by Julie Ann Dunn
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Every day, you are exposed to hundreds if not thousands of marketing messages. You see and/or hear them on TV, on the computer, as you drive down the road, as you browse through the newspaper or magazines. They are literally everywhere. Are you even aware that they are there? Maybe not. To you, I say, “Consumer be aware!” which is my version of the latin “Caveat Emptor” you may have heard before. Its translation is “buyer beware” and it is often used as a reminder that the buyer has the responsibility for educating themselves when making purchases. But we are consumers more than just buyers and we have a personal responsibility for noticing when we are being marketed to. [Read more →]

Tags: education, marketing, spending less by Julie Ann Dunn
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Maintenance is a word usually prefaced by “car” or “auto” for most of us. We maintain our vehicles with regular oil changes because we know that if we don’t, our transportation will be sitting on the side of the road getting us nowhere. The added benefits of regular maintenance is long-term savings: fewer trips to the mechanic, longer vehicle life, higher resale or trade-in value.

What about other areas of maintenance? [Read more →]

Tags: education, saving, spending less by Julie Ann Dunn
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As I was running through some headlines for online news articles yesterday, I was pleased to find some that related to topics I’ve talked about here in the past couple of weeks. For instance, on the subject of layaway, which was my November 2 topic,  Sears is reinstating its layaway program starting tomorrow. Of course, they’ve got restrictions so you can’t put a computer or refrigerator on layaway, but something’s better than nothing, right? Perhaps they’ll add options for those items if the program turns out to be popular.

I also discovered [Read more →]

Tags: budgeting, cashflow management, education, spending less by Julie Ann Dunn
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Have you noticed that the Sunday paper just doesn’t have the wealth of coupons that it used to? Back in the day, I was a mad coupon clipper. I looked forward to the hour I’d spend on a Sunday looking through the coupon flyers and cutting out the stack of gems buried within. I saved a good bit of money on my weekly grocery trips, especially when I could go on a double-coupon day. My personal best was probably in the neighborhood of $15 on a cartful.

Today, newspapers may have coupons, but they’re few and far between. [Read more →]

Tags: cashflow management, marketing, spending less by Julie Ann Dunn
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