frugality

A simple price comparison can save you thousands.

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thWhen it comes to saving money, pick the lowest-hanging fruit first. A new survey from Insurance.com compared the per-minute value of tactics such as changing cellphone carriers, carefully pricing new vehicles and seeking a better car insurance rate.

Shopping for insurance won quite handily, with a value of $54 per minute.

A cynic would call that pretty convenient, since Insurance.com has an auto-insurance rate comparison tool. But the fact is that consumers often benefit by using a tool like this.

In part that’s because a change in circumstances – reaching the age of 25, getting married, moving, taking a job with a shorter commute, even improving your credit score – can mean better rates. But it’s also because even reasonably intelligent people wind up overpaying from the get-go and fail to do anything about it.

I know this because I overpaid for car insurance myself. Way overpaid. For way too long.

 

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One way to celebrate National Splurge Day.

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th-1Yet another holiday invented to make you spend money! Just what we need, right? But I’m sorta-kinda okay with National Splurge Day, as long as the splurges are done frugally.

In fact, I think you should splurge on something today – but that you should do so in as cost-effective a way as possible, and with an eye toward postponing future splurges.

Does that mean you can never have nice things? Not at all. In fact, what it means is that you can likely get those nice things faster – but only if you’re willing to grow up, wise up and stop ignoring future goals in favor of fun-right-now stuff.

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Should you subscribe to a toilet-paper service?

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thIs arranging for regular delivery of items you use often – pet supplies, diapers, medical supplies and, yes, TP – a frugal hack?

Usually. Merchants like Amazon, Wag.com, Target and Drugstore.com will cut you a break on the prices and let you set the terms/quantities.

Although a super-couponer can often beat the subscription prices, not everyone’s willing to do that consistently (even with help from a site like CouponMom.com or a grocery app like Favado).

So it’s better to get a pretty good price all the time then a swell deal every so often.

For more on this, see my latest post on Money Talks News. “Does it pay to have diapers, toilet paper, dog food delivered to the door?” explains the ins and outs (and a few other advantages) of subscription services.

Although I’d taken a bit of a break from Money Talks News recently to work on a personal project, I’m now back in the saddle. Here’s what else has run lately:

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What’s going on.

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thSummer is in full swing in Anchorage, by which I mean the garden is planted and the clouds came back.

A little rain, even, although not nearly enough. After weeks of relentless sun I have to admit that it was good to see “normal” weather again.

Some people refer to clouds and rain as “state fair weather.” I don’t agree. State fair weather requires low-40s temperatures plus enough wind to blow the rain sideways. What good are carnival rides and barbecued turkey legs when it’s actually nice out?

But as with every summer, I’m losing track of time in a huge way. Look at the clock and it’s 6 p.m. The next thing you know it’s 10:30 – who let that happen?

Losing track of blogging, too, i.e., I haven’t written much lately. Let’s play catch-up.

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Giveaway: “How to Coupon Effectively.”

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6Jzsjxlu5p2na58f6rGMjSLcrgc08TYIRKAAQTwdk44NfpSB2lsDn1hAaYExm8F10Nkd7xE4qGu41_5nTQGUxg=s478Lauren Greutman, who blogs at I Am That Lady, can put to rest most coupon myths. For example, as the mom of four young children she doesn’t have time to turn couponing into a full-time job.

Nor is her pantry full of prefab potatoes, salty snacks and garishly colored cereals; in fact, her family eats gluten-free and organic.

That’s why she wrote an e-book called “How to Coupon Effectively: Learn How to Save Thousands Per Year Spending Only 2 Hours Per Week.” She’s offered to donate a copy to give away this week, to help some lucky reader save money without getting calluses from clipping those Qs.

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6 financial lessons from “Godzilla.”

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th-2To be honest, I’d hoped for more from the “Godzilla” reboot. The trailer sure made it look like a big ol’ popcorn romp.

Sure, plenty of stuff happened: buildings stomped flat, nuclear facilities collapsing, trains bitten in half, EMPs causing quarter-slot machines to malfunction.

But despite high production values and a handful of really swell actors (Bryan Cranston, Ken Watanabe, Juliette Binoche, David Strathairn) the film had a marked sense of detachment, as though nothing we were seeing really mattered much.

On the bright side, Linda B. and I saw the film on cheap day ($5.25 all shows) and we paid with discounted gift cards, which brought the cost down further. Not that it matters: I’m taking the price of the ticket as a business expense  because – as usual – I  found money lessons in the film.

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The 10-cent bucket list.

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thThe other day I went to Wal-Mart to purchase gift cards for my current giveaway (which is open until 7 p.m. PDT May 9, if you haven’t already entered). While there I noticed carts full of deeply discounted Easter items.

Six-packs of Reese’s peanut butter eggs for 50 cents? I took four packages for the freezer, figuring my nephews might enjoy an ice-cold treat on a warm spring or summer day.

Then I saw the gallon-sized white plastic buckets with a pastel egg motif. Apparently these are designed for Easter egg hunts; filled with fake straw and treats, they’d also make good Easter baskets. And the price was right: 10 cents.

Heaven help me, I almost bought some. But then the frugal filter kicked in. Except that this time I’m calling it the “10-cent bucket list,” i.e., the questions I’m glad I asked myself before walking out with bags full of future clutter.

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Blog roundup: Sick as a dog edition.

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thTwo weekends ago I came down with what seemed like an upper-respiratory virus: congestion, low-grade fever, and general aches and pains. In addition I felt sharp pain in my face whenever I coughed (which was often).

The fever disappeared within two days but everything else hung on, and dug in. After nine days of feeling that I’d been beaten with several efficient hammers, I reluctantly made an appointment at the Anchorage Neighborhood Health Center.

“Reluctantly” because I figured there wasn’t much to be done about a virus and that I didn’t have a full-blown sinus infection that could be treated. But I was so tired of hearing my own breath wheezing and clotting that I figured it was time.

Besides, my Aunt Elna was known to have broken ribs while coughing, and eeeewwww.

Professional demeanor prevented the doc from saying “You sound like crap” but I think that’s what she meant. No pneumonia (“although it could turn into that”) so just as I thought: no antibiotics.

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Giveaway: “Couponing For The Rest of Us”

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bookAnd now for something completely different: a coupon expert who doesn’t like coupons.

Kasey Knight Trennum, who blogs at Time 2 $ave/Time 2 Give, says that she’s never sung the praises of coupons. Ask her about “the joys of saving a ton of money,” however, and she’ll get pretty vocal.

More than vocal: Trennum wrote a book, “Couponing For The Rest of Us: The Not-So-Extreme Guide to Saving More,” that’s designed to help readers save money “without it becoming an obsession.”

The author offers information on topics like deciphering “sales cycles,” how to locate coupons for items your family actually eats, smart stockpiling, making the Internet do most of the legwork, and turning saving into sharing.

And again, a sane approach: “I can’t stress enough (that) balance is the key to making couponing work for you. You have to figure out how to make it fit into your world; it cannot become your world.”

In addition to the book, this week’s winner will also get a cute little green accordion-style folder. After all, some coupons are still made of paper rather than pixels.

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