Budgeting
Learning the hard lessons of "Pay Day"
Wed, 2010-03-24 17:10 | 
Imagine it's payday.
Now, tell me about it. And we'll keep score along the way to see how well you can manage money.
1. Do you get a "live" check or have you setup a direct deposit into a bank account?
If you have direct deposit, add a point.
If you get a live check, subtract a point...unless you pay everything with cash in which case you can also add a point.
We'll come to that later.
2. What does your first payment go towards?
Tags: 
Tackling the Grocery Store
I've decided that one place I can trim the budget is at the grocery store. Lately, I've been able to save 30-50% each trip. One way to start my savings is to limit the amount of grocery store trips. I try to do it only once a week. There is alot of temptation to impulse buy each time you go. I also use coupons. I get two newspapers so I can save and stock up even more on items that go on sale. I know lots of people who get more inserts than that. I also use a couple of websites that I have found really helpful. One is www.pinchingyourpennies.com and the other is www.grocerygame.com.
Go from "sticker price" conditioning to "sticker shock" awakening!
Let’s say you're in the market for a home and see the sticker price of $300,000.
Do you immediately think that is the cost of the home, or do you mentally adjust for the interest you will pay?
On a $300,000 home loan at 5% interest rate over a 30-year loan, your total payments will add up to $579,000. (Actually, it will likely be more when you adjust for taxes and insurance on the home).
In any event, the interest payment itself nearly doubles the actual price of the home!
Christmas Shop Online and Save
Who is going to do alot of shopping online for Christmas? Me! I have found some ways to save money while saving my sanity. :) I like to start by going to www.ebates.com and clicking through to the stores I am going to be buying from. I typically get 4-8% cash back. Just the other day I received a $50 check back from ebates just for clicking through them to get to my store's site. They have a ton of different stores: gap, Ralph Lauren, Sephora, etc. I also like to check on www.retailmenot.com for any codes that I can use when I check out.
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