This post is brought to you by CouponCactus.com, a great source of online coupon codes for taxes, groceries, and more.
My spending has gone crazy over the past few months. A new set of gears for my bike ($90), yards of brown suede for new curtains ($88), two new outfits for a trip to NYC ($152), and a pricey sushi lunch ($34).
Sure, I have reasons behind each purchase (I’m doing a race in May that requires additional gears, buying fabric is cheaper than buying curtains, I had a gift card and a rare coupon for the clothing store, and I hadn’t seen my friend in months), but this kind of spending is not sustainable.
My credit card bill, which I pay off in full each month, has risen on average by a few hundred dollars. Not good. Here are two things I’m doing to shift my habits downward.
1. I only buy groceries on Wednesday. I started this two weeks ago and it has made me more aware of how much money I’m spending on food because it is easier to remember my total purchases from one day. Two weeks ago I spent $92 at Trader Joe’s, which included many staple items, beer, and wine. Last week I spent $27 on groceries. My target weekly grocery spending is $25.
Toward the end of the cycle I challenge myself to create tasty meals with what is left and finish off the last vegetables before they go bad. There is a lot you can do with beans, onions, and garlic!
2. I single out an item on my credit card statement that I didn’t have to buy. This month the dubious honor goes to an $8.10 purchase at Stamps.com. I got sucked into their $100 offer for newbies: sign up and get a $5 supplies kit, $45 in free postage (which is strung out over four months), and a free $50 postage scale (which actually sells for about $20 and is useless after my 30-day trial period unless I join Stamps.com for $16 a month).
I don’t buy enough business postage to make it worthwhile to join Stamps.com for $16 a month. So when I read the fine print the $100 sign-up package evaporated into nothing. At that point, I had already spent $8.10 to get the “free” scale mailed to me. Blerg!
I wish I had been more skeptical of the $100 intro offer, which really was too good to be true. Being greedy cost me $8.10.
What do you wish you hadn’t bought in the past month? Leave a comment and the reader with the best story wins a hot pink BargainBabe.com T-shirt, above. There are only about a dozen left!
This week’s round up post of free products includes free deodorant, dessert, body wash, and gift cards. Get all the freebie deals here.
Borders just released four coupons, from 25-50% off. Some are quite exclusive, others are more open ended.
At 2 p.m. PST today I will publish a coupon code for 80% off restaurant gift certificates on my WalletPop blog. Check back later!
My frugal friends at Savings.com shared some great coupons with me this week.
Get 20 percent off accessories of $30 or more at Verizon Wireless. Unknown expiration date.
Get free shipping on orders of $30 or more at Avon. Expires March 11, 2010.
Get $15 off $75 or more at Smashbox. Expires March 1, 2010.
Get 20 percent off orders of $50 or more with free shipping at Kate Spade. Unknown expiration date.
Get $10 off most orders of $64.99 or more with free shipping at GameStop. Expires March 5, 2010.
A longtime reader sent me this series of photos depicting origami using one dollar bills. It is incredible! These paper figures are apparently made by an artist named Won Park, who does amazing things with paper. (Thanks to reader Andy for sharing Won’s homepage!)
The email forward that is circulating the web says “Origami is the traditional Japanese art of paper folding. The goal of this art is to create a representation of an object using geometric folds and crease patterns preferably without the use of gluing or cutting the paper, and using only one piece of paper.
“Won Park is the master of Origami. He is also called the “money folder”, a practitioner of origami whose canvas is the United States One Dollar Bill. Bending, twisting, and folding, he creates life-like shapes in stunning detail. Be sure to see his home at the end of the art.”
One Dollar
One Dollar Butterfly
One Dollar Camera
Two Dollars Battle Tank
Two Dollars Chinese Dragon
One Dollar Crab
There are another 10 origami images after the jump. (more…)
Just got some interesting economic factoids from the website BillShrink.com. Are you part of the savings trend?
- 46% of credit card holders paid their bill in full each month in Feb. 2009
- 59% of credit card holders paid their bill in full each month in Feb. 2010
- The average American family had $2,000 in unexpected expenses last year
- Americans have reduced their debt by $101.2 billion in the past 14 months ($1,874 per household)
- We are currently saving at record rates, setting a 15-year high (Check out BillShrink’s super cool graphic about American’s personal savings and debt, which goes back to 1960).
- We still over pay for lots of stuff, including ATM fees, credit card late fees, and dealership auto maintenance (though I’m seeing coupons from dealers these days)
To get this data BillShrink surveyed 154,000 users on its site from February 2009-January 2010. The pay off rate has been steadily increasing each month, according to the responses below.
Yes, I pay off balance each month No, I don’t pay off balance each month
02-09 46.03% 53.97%
03-09 45.92% 54.08%
04-09 41.75% 58.25%
05-09 43.19% 56.81%
06-09 46.28% 53.72%
07-09 46.92% 53.08%
08-09 48.72% 51.28%
09-09 51.21% 48.79%
10-09 51.99% 48.01%
11-09 54.73% 45.27%
12-09 57.25% 42.75%
01-10 58.63% 41.37%
I’m curious how BargainBabe.com readers compare to the national average.
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This week’s winner of the $10 Starbucks card is EvieK, who won by sharing great Los Angeles deals on BargainBabeLA.com. Congrats!
Kids eat free every Wednesday at El Torrito. Luuuv their chips and salsa. (Bargain Babe shared this deal.)
Still hungry? All you can eat BBQ is just $12 Monday and Tuesday at Willy’s Smokehouse. I am so there! (Shared by EvieK)
Dodgers tickets are half off for many of their early season games. Great prices for the Anaheim Angels, too!
Put this one on your calender for next weekend. The United Methodist Church in Northridge is holding a massive yard sale going on March 6.
The DLM clothing warehouse is opening its doors again to the public for a massive sale with prices at 80-90 percent below retail. Last time I blogged about DLM there was a huge response.
I’m a finalist in the Plutus Awards in the Best Deals and Bargains Blog category. Please vote for me!
I’m up against stiff competition. The other finalists are Bargain Briana, Deal Seeking Mom, Keeping the Kingdom First, and Wise Bread. Wow!
The contest is run by a personal finance blogger named Flexo. To vote you’ll need to share your name and email, then scroll down until you find the Best Deals and Bargain category (it’s pretty far down). Then vote for your favorite blog!
If you have not joined Swagbucks, now is a great time because the site has doubled the bonus you get for signing up, from 30 to 60 Swagbucks using a special code below. The bonus is to celebrate their second anniversary.
Swagbucks is a site that rewards you for searching for stuff on the Internet. Basically, you sign up, install the Swagbucks toolbar and every few searches you do you’ll earn a few Swagbucks. Then you trade in Swagbucks for gift cards and prizes. I’ve earned more than $300 in about six months of using the site. Where do you think I get all those Amazon gift cards for BargainBabeLA.com, eh? Hehehe.
If you join by March 4 and plug swagcode BARGAINBABE1 into the box that says “Enter your swagcode,” you’ll earn 60 swagbucks instead of the normal 30. The code is case sensitive and only works for new members.
Note, as part of the second anniversary, Swagbucks decided to inflate their currence, so everything is not multipled by 10. So if you had 45 bucks in your account you will now have 450. If a prize cost 45 swagbucks, it not costs 450. The ratio is the same the prizes still cost the same amount, relatively.
CVS.com is putting a bunch of CVS-brand products on sale by 20-30% off, including products for weight loss, dieting, hair loss, and smoking cessation. Plus, toothbrushes are as low as $.69 and vitamins are on sale.
A reader named Tami let me know about a fabulous sale + rebate offer that makes money and gets you free Olay Body Wash at Target. This week only!
Here’s another hot drugstore sale. All Rite Aid brand products are buy one get one 50% off Thursday through Saturday, Feb. 25-27, 2010.
Get a free sample of Tide Febreeze laundry detergent (not as pictured) when you sign up for the P&G email list. Already on it? You are still eligible.
See all the deals and coupons on my WalletPop blog.
I don’t have kids and I’m excited about a new site I just learned about called ConsignmentMommies.com, which lists kids consignment sales across the country. The site capitalizes on a newish trend – people buying and selling gently used kids clothing, toys, and gear at massive sales that resemble garage sales on steriods. There are 544 sales listed already.
You can search for sales within 5-100 miles of a particular zip code. A search in my hood resulted in two sales I already knew about and four new ones. Now if only I had kids!
You can post a sale on the site and review sales you’ve been to – all for free. Business listings are for a fee, however. A mother-daughter team launched the site in 2009 and they are still adding features, like a page listing all sales by state.
ConsignmentMommies.com also has a blog with helpful tips. One recent post shared pricing guidelines for maternity and kids clothing:
• Tee shirt $1-2
• Casual Top $3-4
• Dress Top $5
• Jeans $5
• Jean Shorts $2-5
• Shorts $1-4
• Pants $1-4
• Dress pants $3-6
• Casual Dress $3-5
• Dress $5-8
• Suit $10-$15
• Swim Suit $5-10
These sound like great prices to me! One parent I interviewed years ago said she made enough money selling her kid’s old gear, clothing, and toys, to buy what they needed for the next growth spurt. I hope this site helps you find a sale with great prices near you.
There are plenty of ways to do your taxes yourself and not pay a dime, especially if you make less than $49,000 (see three ways to do this below). But if you are going to hire someone, here are nine tips from author and CPA Stacy Johnson to help you choose a tax pro.
For the last four of Stacy’s tips for choosing a tax pro, visit his site, MoneyTalksNews, and scroll down to below the video.
Resources to file taxes for free
If you make less than $49,000 you can get free tax preparation and e-filing through the IRS’ VITA program.
File your taxes for FREE through AARP, even if you’re not a senior.
No matter what your income, file your taxes for free online through the IRS’ Free File Fillable Forms.
And there are lots of coupon codes for tax software, like this tax software coupon for 25% off at H&R Block At Home.
I was putting together a new tab on BargainBabe.com that features long-term strategies for coupon clipping (as opposed to coupons that expire in a few days) when I realized I had never written a basic how to clip coupons post. Shocking!
There are five steps to coupon clipping for grocery products, toiletries, and drugstore items.
1. Subscribe to the Sunday newspaper, which is when coupons are distributed. If you don’t want to subscribe, you may live in an area that the three major coupon inserts – RedPlum.com, SmartSource.com, and PGeSaver.com – want to reach. You can inquire directly by signing up on their sites. Online coupons are becoming more prevalent and may replace newspaper coupons someday.
2. Quickly flip through the inserts and clip any coupons that you are absolutely sure you will use no matter if the item is on sale this week. (I used to recommend clipping every single coupon and filing by category but that is not as efficient as this method).
3. File the rest of the inserts in one folder, noting the publication date. (i.e. Feb. 28, 2010).
4. Look for sales in the store circulars that arrive by mail or in your inbox if you have signed up for store email lists. Match sale items with what there are coupons for. There are two main “matching” databases that tell you when coupons were published so you don’t have to sort through each insert by hand. They are AFullCup.com and HotCouponWorld.com. To help find matches, read some of my favorite coupon match blogs, including CommonSenseWithMoney.com, CouponCravings.com, and KouponKaren.com. These blogs often do much of the work for you!
To get an idea of how much you can save by coupon matching, check out my extreme couponing adventure.
5. Take your coupons to the store and buy when the item is on sale! It always helps to be especially nice to the cashier when you are using a lot of coupons. Sometimes their cooperation can make a big difference in your total bill.
Bonus Tip: If you want more coupons than you can clip in your newspaper, check out these websites to buy and trade coupons.
Get 20 percent off your entire purchase at J.Crew when you and three friends each spend $125. Group buying has its perks.
Get a $25 gift card to Rite Aid or Kmart when you transfer a prescription using this coupon.
Michaels coupons – there are 8 of ‘em! – give 20-50 percent off all kinds of stuff in the store.
Remember Friendgiftr? They sell gift cards that you can swap among 125 retailers and they just lowered the fee to $.99-$1.99 per card (it used to be as much as $5).
Here’s a new Borders coupon for 30 percent off much of the items they sell, with the normal caveats.
Check out all the deals on my WalletPop blog.
m kasahara/Flickr
Here’s another great tip from my interview with author Laura Rowley: BrightScope.com. The site ranks 401k plans for some of the country’s biggest employers, from 0 to 100. Is your company listed?
- Home Depot
- Apple
- Hewlett Packard
- Lowe’s
- Dell
- General Electric
- Microsoft
- IBM
- McDonald’s
- Walt Disney
- Exxon Mobile
- Walmart
- Boeing
- Qualcomm
- Nike
- Proctor and Gamble
- Sears
- Nike
- Coca-Cola
The ratings consider 200 factors, including total plan cost, company generosity, and investment menu quality. For each of these factors and others (like participation rate, salary deferrals, and average investment) you can see how each plan ranks compared to others. The Google 401k plan, for instance, is in the top 15 percent of plans with the lowest fees, but is in the 35th to 64th percentile for average account balances. Those young computer whizzes are banking on their stock options, apparently. You can also get a report on the fees associated with your 401k when you register for the site.
BrightScope’s goal is “to increase the retirement security of America’s workforce by bringing transparency and efficiency to the 401k plan market,” the site says. BrightScope claims to be “the only 401k analytics firm that is truly independent and does not accept compensation in the form of revenue sharing from mutual fund companies or plan providers.”
So how does the site make money? BrightScope is “aligned with plan sponsors,” which is all the website says about its bottom line. That leaves me slightly suspicions. It seems the site means well, but if the folks behind BrightScope are not willing to explain how it makes money then they are hiding something. You can read more about the company on their About page.
As for the data sources, the site culls 401k info from the Department of Labor, the Securities and Exchange Commission, the U.S. Census Bureau, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, and the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Some mutual fund and investment data come from mutual fund prospectuses, and a few companies provided information.I hope this site is a resource for you!
I talked to Laura Rowley, author of “Money and Happiness”
1. “Female” versions of products are often more expensive. Consumer Reports did a study and found that products with his/her versions, like shaving cream, deodorant, and razors, perform the same but cost $1-2 more for the version targeting women, Laura said. All that pink packaging is cute, but not worth an extra dime.
2. A coupon toolbar saves time. Research shows more people do at least two online searches before they buy. First to find the product and then to find coupons for the product. Laura likes the coupon toolbar at Dealio.com, which automatically finds coupons when you search for products on Yahoo, Bing, or Google. Having a toolbar helps you get more value out of a single search.
3. Certain debit cards earn cash rebates. Laura says she earns 3-4 percent on the account tied to her debit card. To earn this high interest rate, you generally have to do five things. One, swipe your debit card 10-12 times a month. Two, set up direct deposit into the account. Three, use the bank’s online banking program. Four, get statements by email not snail mail. Five, bank locally. You aren’t going to see any of the major banks offering this perk.
But do the benefits of using a high-interest debit card surpass credit card perks? “Totally,” Laura said. “It’s way better to get 3-4 percent interest than credit rewards.” What about not building your credit history by using a debit card? “The people with the best credit scores only use 8-10 percent of their credit capacity every month. By using a debit card 10 times, you are getting the best of both worlds.”
Still interested? Go to CheckingFinder.com, plug in your zip code to find a local bank, and compare offers. The banks can afford to give you this interest rate because they are making money on the interchange fee. Every time you swipe your debit card, retailers pay about 2 percent of the sale, Laura said.
This deal works best for people who are comfortable banking online. Laura recommends using a high-interest debit card for small purchases between $10-$50 and a credit card for bigger charges. She makes the most of this deal by transferring 3-4 months of savings into her high-interest account. But only do this if you can stop yourself from spending your savings!
I just checked for my zip code and one bank is offering 4.09 percent interest on balances up to $25,000. That’s a far cry from the 1.25 percent interest rate ING Direct is offering for a 18-month CD.
