$5 Magazine Subscriptions

I love finding deals on magazine subscriptions, and amazon.com is a great place to get those. Right now, through December 1st, you can get one year subscriptions for as little as 5 bucks on popular magazines such as Southern Living, Real Simple and House Beautiful. These make great gifts for Christmas and are only 5$!

Other 5$ subscriptions include: Cosmopolitan, Smart Money, Food and Wine, Sports Illustrated for Kids

Click here to order!

Paying for Christmas

If you've shopped at all lately- be it a grocery store, the mall or a discount retailer- chances are the Christmas decorations are up and staring you in the face. Although you might be thinking that Christmas is still a ways away, it's actually just around the corner. Now, more than ever, is the time to start thinking about how to financially prepare for the month of December (if you haven't already).


Christmas is almost synonymous with large credit card bills in January. But with the hikes in rates this past year, and new hidden fees popping up every day, using a credit card to pay for Christmas is no longer a wise or safe move financially. Do yourself a favor this season and vow to pay for Christmas in cash. Start a Christmas savings fund and contribute as much as possible to it during the month of November. Here are some easy ideas to help get you started and seeing some instant buildup:

• Eat every meal at home for the month. The average family spends hundreds of dollars on eating out, of which could be going to a Christmas fund.
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• Cut back on luxury frills such as the movie theater and excessive driving. Instead, look for ways to entertain for free at home by watching movies you already own or playing cards or board games. This is will bring your family closer together too!
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• Avoid major purchases until after January, if at all possible. A large piece of furniture or household appliance that does not require immediate attention should be put off for a couple months. Think of creative ways to get by until you are able to afford it.
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• Buy used if you need something. This includes clothing, appliances and other items. Not only will you save a bundle for Christmas, but you will be helping the environment by being resourceful.
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• Trim the phone bill. This is an easy area that many people can save on. Take a good look at your monthly phone bill- are you using all the features and minutes that you pay for? If not, downgrade, at least temporarily. You can also upgrade your plan after the holidays if necessary. Instant savings. Do this for all your utility bills, and you will have a large lump of cash available for the holidays.

Strapped for Cash? Cook Frugal Meals

One of the easiest ways to save money is through cutting back on groceries. Many foods and recipes can actually be purchased quite cheap, saving you money each week at the grocery store. Don't know where to start? Here is a list of meal ideas for dinner, lunch and breakfast along with some snack options for eating on the cheap... Because cutting your food budget does not have to mean sacrificing health or living on Ramen Noodles. When times are tough, think cooking from scratch!

Budget Finance Binder

My husband and I recently started using a finance binder to help us with our budget, saving and spending patterns. It has changed our financial lives in a tremendous way, and so I wanted to share it with my readers here. I learned this technique from the book "America's Cheapest Family", which is a fabulous read, and one that I recommend highly.

Here's a breakdown of our Finance Binder contents. Each category has its own page:

• Allowance/Blow Money (this is for our individual misc. spending, like me getting my nails done or my hubby buying new guitar strings)
• Dates/Entertainment
• Fast Food
• Gas
• Groceries
• Rent
• Insurance/Taxes
• Utilities
• Gifts and Charities
• Alcohol/Bars
• Pet Food/Supplies
• Clothing
• Eyecare
• Car Repair/Maintenance
• Haircuts
• Household/Furniture
• Doctor/Medications
• Savings
• Student Loan Debt
• Holiday/Christmas Fund
• Vacation

We keep one checking account and have all the budgets in there together. We use our debit card for everything so we can save all those pennies in each category. We also each have our own checking register and record a purchase/withdrawal in them each time we make them. Rather than keep a running total of the checking account's balance, we just record the purchase and initial which category it is coming from. We sit down once a week or twice a month and write down all the information in the binder and balance it by adding up the total from each category and the making sure it matches the checking account balance online.

If we need to "borrow" money from one account from another, we write it down as a withdrawal from that account and deposit into another. That way everything is accounted for. There is no wondering where the money is coming from for a certain item.

We write the total amount to be deposited each month in a corner of each category sheet so we know how much we have to work with.

If we get any unexpected income- such as overtime hours or gifts- we immediately break it down into what we call our

"wind-fall" plan:

• 60% Debt
• 20% Savings
• 10% Giving
• 10% Whatever we what

This helps us save so much since we are no longer going out and spending 100% of the extra money. It gives us some money to have fun, but while also saving it and directing it to our debt. In short, it gives that extra money a plan.

We've been married over a year and a half now, so this budget system has really been trial and error. It takes a while to figure out what works for you. I think this is the best budgeting system that I have used so far (I've tried excel sheets, mint.com, the envelope system), especially in regards to saving. It's completely portable and can be instantly updated. Plus, you get to look over each category every month and evaluate purchases without scrolling through a mine of transactions.

I hope this helps you in some way, whether you're starting to pay off debt, saving for something special or beginning to budget.

Credit Card Companies Seek Every Last Penny Out of Customer

Recently I closed our only credit card, which was with Chase Bank. We had only gotten it on impulse in the beginning of the summer (before Dave Ramsey changed our lives, of course), and after paying off the balance before the due date, called to close. The representative was friendly enough and told us we would receive a confirmation letter and that there were no further charges.
Well, a word to the wise. Don't trust them to be good on their word. When you close a credit card account, that means less money for the credit card companies. They don't like it. It means they can no longer get any interest from you.

After I closed the account, I could no longer access it online. Until, suddenly, today. I was checking my checking account and noticed the credit card account had reopened. With a finance charge.

Yes, even after I had paid off the balance in full and gotten a statement from the company. They were going after my pennies. If I had not seen it, I would have been "late" on my payment (which is what they like, isn't it?) and thus induced more charges. No notification was sent to me either by mail or email in the meantime.

I called to complain, but the lady simply said it was a finance charge and needed to be paid. I eventually asked for the charge to be removed since we were told otherwise and had never been late on any payments and she consented. Let's just hope they stay true to their word.

So, for all of you working to pay off your credit cards (especially from Chase, I have heard similar stories) remember to pay an extra two or three dollars to account for that inevitable finance charge they will try to bill you. That way, they owe you money rather than the other way around.

Lesson learned: don't dabble with credit cards. They really are out to suck every last penny from you!

Budget Friendly Family Fall Festivities

Fall has arrived, and with it, an abundance of vacationing opportunities. Cooler weather means less humidity and one last chance to soak up the outdoors before winter shuts in... [continue reading]...

Coupon Clippers Help You Save Huge

I mentioned in a previous post about the benefits of stockpiling and how it could save your family a tremendous amount of money. In order to save really big, however, you must have a large stash of coupons on hand for that particular item that is on sale. Enter The Coupon Clippers.

The Coupon Clippers lets you search for available coupons on their website and pay a small fee to order them. This is especially helpful if you do not have access to print coupons or if your newspaper doesn't carry them anymore. You can order a large batch of the same coupon all at once.

For example, in anticipation of fall sales on soups and canned goods, I ordered 20 soup coupons worth .50 each and 10 canned vegetable coupons worth $1.00 each. Since my store doubles coupons up to a dollar, these .50 coupons are actually worth $1.00. That makes the total coupon savings worth $30! I paid ONE DOLLAR for 20 of the soup coupons and $1.20 for the veggie coupons. Talk about some serious savings!

Note that The Coupon Clippers mandate that your order has to total at least $3.94 before checking out. This shouldn't be hard to do, since many of the coupons can result in fantastic savings.

I hope this helps you save more in the grocery store and become a little more wallet wise!