I’d like to share a method that works well for me on how I go about paying my bills. It does require some discipline but I feel it’s well worth it in the end if you struggle with a tight budget. I tend to feel less stressed when I use this method and I hope it will help others as it does me. This approach works even better if you have an interest bearing checking or savings account and credit cards with some type of rewards bonus attached to it.
Ok, so most of the people I know of tend to pay their bills right when they actually get the bill or wait till the day before the due date to pay it. *raises hand* Yeah, that used to be me too until it got to be too difficult to come up with a large sum of money all at once right at the end of the month. I thought of a way that would make it more simpler for myself.
I will give you an example for a long-term bill like car insurance..
Ok so if you chose the pay every 6 months option, good for you! In the long run you pay less as most insurance companies will discount the premium if done this way. Ok, so you’ve scrambled to pay your last premium and now you figure don’t worry about the next payment for the next 6 months. I think a better approach would be to start saving up for it now. If your premium is $500 and you get paid weekly, put $20 ($500/6months=$83/mo / 4 weeks = $20/wk avg) of your paycheck into an interest-bearing checking or savings account. When it’s time to pay, you’ll have it ready and then some extra since some months have 5 Fridays.
I find this much easier. Use the same concept with all of your bills and believe me your life will be a lot easier. Yes, it will require discipline, but remember the first time is always the hardest – after that it gets easier and easier to do. You’re less tempted to use the money that you will need later when it’s not sitting in front of you.
This Canadian girl has an amazing voice and is quickly rising to the top. Her name is Tiffany Eugenio! I believe this girl will be an amazing artist with an incredible talent! Check her out!
AHHH! I can’t wait! I just saw a commercial for this on tv and the show will be coming to Atlantic Station this month! The video below is absolutely beautiful and I think it would be worth seeing!
I couldn’t help thinking how much I wanted a netbook when I woke up this morning so I popped over to Amazon to do some research. I’ve narrowed it down to two netbooks that might fit what I’m looking for and would love any input if you happen to own any of them. I’m leaning more towards the ASUS just because I think it may do better in terms of video quality. If you know of something better, please please let me know!
Last night I was starving so I decided to order delivery from this pizza place down the street called Hungry Howies. You’ve probably heard of it. I like to order pizza online because I can think at my own pace and change my mind if I need to before I place my order. The site seemed sortof messed up because when I would click something I would sometimes get an error so i’d have to click it again to make it work.
I used a coupon for a triple play pizza deal which is 3 small pizza’s with 1 topping each for $10.99. I finished picking out the 3 pizza’s I wanted and was ready to place the order. I looked over everything to make sure it was correct and hit the charge my card button. BAM! $22.21 WHAT!!?!?? WHAT DID I DO WRONG?? Funny how it didn’t show me the total before I hit the charge my card button. GRRR! Oh well, maybe I can’t add as well as I thought. I check my e-mail to see what I ordered and there’s the culprit! I ordered 4 pizzas! I could have sworn it was only 3. Maybe I shouldn’t have hit that create a pizza button twice. That was really more than what I wanted to spend but oh well. I’ll just deal with it.
So as I wait for my pizza to be delivered I do other things to pass the time..45 minutes goes by..ok well I did order FOUR pizzas. An hour and 30 minutes goes by – I call them up. “Yeah..um I just wanted to make sure my order went through?” the guy replies, “oh yea, i made a mistake and thought you ordered double toppings on one pizza but it was actually a fourth pizza. The guy just left right now and he’s on his way over there. I’ll take care of it when he gets back.” I reply “oh ok, thank you” then hang up. YES! YES! YES! 2 hours later I end up with 4 FREE PIZZAS!! HAHA! Ok so it wasn’t such a bad night and I get to eat pizza for 4 days straight! oK..I think I’m gonna be sick…
Finding a job seems to be getting worse for some and better for others. I’m fortunate enough to still have mine. In the meantime while you’re in the process of looking for one, it doesn’t hurt to gain some extra knowledge. I’ve listed below some of my favorite sites below.
PENTAGON FEDERAL CREDIT UNION
Any chance I get, I try to tell people about these guys. They are 100% legit as they are a Federal Bank. No, you do not have to be part of the military to join them. The only money you have to pay is a $5 (members fee) that sits in your account for..I have no idea. Mine has been there for about 2 years now. It’s not a big deal. $5 is nothing for what they offer. I have financed my 2nd vehicle with them and am extremely happy. Both of my cars were used and the first was financed at 4.99% APR then later they dropped to 3.99% APR!! That’s unheard of for a used vehicle! Although the acceptance process I don’t believe is that strict. My credit score was 745 when I applied and I had no balance on any of my credit cards.
I suspect anything over a score of 700 would be good. Also, the vehicle should be under 100k mileage or they more than likely won’t approve you. The application must be done online otherwise they up the rate if you do it over the phone. If you have any questions about Pentagon Federal Credit Union, post a comment and i’ll do my best to answer all of your questions.
I’ve been wanting a netbook lately since my HP Laptop crapped out on me last year and it’s been sitting on the nightstand collecting dust all this time. Plus, it’s to big to lug around when I want to go to the bookstore, library or Ihop!. I’ve been keeping my eyes open for any good deals that fits what I’m looking for. If anyone else sees anything worth looking it, please post a comment and share with the rest of us!
Ok, so this is what i’m looking for as far as specs:
Price: Under $500 preferably
Brand: Acer or Asus or any other reliable brand out there
Memory: 2GB minimum
Speed: over 1.2 GHTz
Size / Weight: I don’t care as long as it’s not huge and heavy. I may even settle for a small laptop instead
Space: 120GB minimum
Graphics Card: Nvidia? I want something that will run my photoshop and other graphical programs. I know netbooks aren’t meant for high-end software but I just have a select few i’ll be using so I’m not going to treat it like my regular PC.
Bluetooth & Wi-Fi capability: YES
I think that’s it for my main concerns. If I think of anything more, I’ll add more.
The other day I received a call from an unknown number and they had left a voice-mail message. I know it was recorded due to the fact that only half of it made it onto my voice mailbox. The part I received went something along the lines of “….wrong with your account however it is very important we speak with you regarding your current visa, master card, discover card & American Express card..” blah blah blah followed by options to press 1 or 2 to speak to a live representative.
First of all. I do not even have an American Express card! If they hadn’t of mentioned that card, they may have had me calling in a state of panic thinking someone out there had been using my credit card account! I decided to do what I’ve done in the past and that was to plug the phone number into a search engine and see what pops up. Low and behold! I could have sworn I added my name to that DO NOT CALL REGISTRY two years ago…
==Recommended Links==
National Do Not Call Registry: http://www.donotcall.gov/
Add your name to the list free of charge. It may take 30 days to go into effect. If you get a call after 30 days from when you registered, file a complaint!
==Additional Complaint Links==
The below sites are great to see if any others have gotten the same call and you’re able to find more information about who called you. You can also file complaints here to help others. www.whocallsme.com www.800notes.com www.callercomplaints.com
I’ve been following Chelsea Lee for awhile now on Youtube and she has one of the most soothing voices I’ve ever heard. She just recently got signed to Atlantic Records and I believe one of her songs “Figure us out” was featured on “The City”. Check her out and let me know what you think.
Bank of America should change its name to Bank of Antics! I’m really glad I don’t have an account with these guys. They’ve decided to experiment with approximately 1% of their customer base whose use the rewards credit card by charging an annual fee ranging from $29 up to $99 starting in February.
“We’re testing this to see what the feedback is. In terms of any plans going forward, we haven’t made any decisions.” as quoted by a spokeswoman for Bank of America.
MMM – NO THANKS.
Today, I also read that Citi-group may also be charging a fee if you do not meet the annual spending threshold set each year which may be as high as $2,400!
Groupon.com
Groupon is a fairly new site that started about a year ago. They showcase daily deals on their front page in various cities. You will have to select your city first before seeing the discounted deal appear in your location. The way you get the advertised deal is if enough people join in. If the quota is met then everyone who joined in gets the deal!
OVGuide.com
If you haven’t heard of OVGuide.com, it is one of the best search engines for finding past movies or tv shows. I usually don’t have a problem finding anything I want. Try them out – It’s Free!
CHECKING-FINDER
If you’re looking for a high-interest checking account you may want to check this site out. You can put in your zip code and either sort by the return rate or the closest bank to you. This is a great way to gain a high return if you keep a large balance in your checking.
I’ve been with ING Direct for a good 3 years now and I still love them! I have not had one single problem with them and their customer service is just how it should be. I have the Electric Orange checking and the Orange Savings account with them and use them every single week. I like the idea of my savings sitting far enough out of my reach so i’m not tempted to dive in to it easily at the first instance that I see something I want! Yet, it’s not too far away that in the event of an emergency I can transfer from my ING savings to my ING checking and just use my debit card to access my funds.
If you have not tried them out. I definitely recommend doing so. The interest rate on the savings account is 1.30% annual percentage and for the checking you get up to 1.55% APY.
They also offer other services such as 12-month CDs at 2.10% APY, Home Loans, Stocks, Mutual Funds, and ETF investing with no account minimum. You can even get accounts for your kids! Roth RIA’s and 401(k)’s as well as business accounts are also available.
If you would like an e-mail invite to join, fill out THIS form or visit their site atwww.ingdirect.com If you sign up under me I get $10 and you get $25!
Yesterday, I spent a bit of time trying to find the best hosting service for my new blog that met the requirements for what I needed and I settled on these guys. One of the reasons I picked them was because of all the good reviews that I came across. I never saw a bad one yet.
The 2nd reason was for their stability. They have been around for at least 5 years now and have an extensive customer base. I don’t believe they are just going to up and leave anytime soon.
The 3rd reason was for the customer service I received on their homepage that I visited. You know those live chat things that can sometimes get annoying. Except they didn’t contact me, I contacted them and asked some questions about their service. The lady was straight forward and told me everything that I needed to know and didn’t try to hide anything as far as pricing or hidden fees.
The last reason is the ease of use of their cpanel and not to mention the less than 5-minute wordpess setup! Holy Cow – That was awesome!! Oh, and don’t forget they give you a FREE domain with your plan! I wish I knew that before I went to godaddy to get one! I would have saved $8! At least the domain transfer was a breeze =)
So yeah folks, this is probably one of the best deals out there right now for hosting. Check them out and let me know what you think of them! ||CLICK HERE TO SIGNUP!||
I finally got this thing up and running. There’s a lot more work to do but I just wanted to get my post in here in case anyone stumbles in. The purpose of this blog is to share money-saving tips in every part of your life! I will basically be helping you with the legwork by doing research on various topics and attempting to keep it all in one place. I don’t claim to be an expert on the subject – I just want to share things I’ve learned and found through my explorations with all you guys out there who care to listen. Please bear with me over the next weeks as we get up and going. Thanks for visiting!
