Watch Your Bank

You’ve got to watch your bank closely to make sure they don’t pull a fast one on you.  I have a Pier 1 credit card (which was taken over by Chase Bank) and on which I owed $317.00.  For one reason or another, I didn’t realize I owed them money and went on a several month trip overseas.  When I got home, I realized that I owed Pier 1 the money (now Chase, since they had taken over the credit card) so I called up Chase to find out the exact amount I needed to pay.

The Chase customer service rep told me I owed $317 (including late fees), so I paid it while we were on the phone.  When I hung up, I had this nice, warm fuzzy feeling that all my bills were paid and I didn’t need to worry about a bill coming from Chase next month. 

Well, guess what.  Early the following month, I went to the mailbox and there was a bill from Chase.  Before I even opened it, I began to get angry.  “Why the heck do I have a letter from Chase?” I asked.  I got inside the house, opened the bill and lo, and behold, a bill from Chase.  It was a bill for $3.11

Now, why did they send me a bill?  Good question.  I called them up right away and got a customer service rep who promptly said it was the amount I owed for November 07.  I said “Why do I owe anything for Nov?”

“Well” said the customer service rep, ” When you paid off the bill, it wasn’t the pay-off balance.  It was the balance as of the end of the prior month.”

I could have spit nails.

“Do you mean to tell me that when I called up and paid off what I thought was the balance, it wasn’t the balance?” I asked.

“Yes” said the customer service rep.

I practically flipped out.  I told him there was no way I was going to pay it, the moon would turn to green cheese before they saw that $3.11, etc…

To make a long story short, they took off the $3.11 from my account and now I genuinely have a ZERO DOLLAR balance.

But I had to find out the hard way.

Here is the bottom line.  If you pay off your credit card on time every month, as I ususally do, you won’t know.  You have to ask for the PAY OFF BALANCE and not just the BALANCE.  I don’t know whether this is a new tactic for bank credit cards now or not, but ALWAYS, ALWAYS, ALWAYS keep track of what you paid and when you paid it, so when you have to fight with the bank, you will be prepared.

Save on Eating Out

Here are a few ways to save on eating out at restaurants.

There are various ways of saving money when you go out to eat, but basically they fall into two strategies.  You can save by changing your behavior while in the restaurant or by finding coupons or discounts in advance.  We’ll cover both here.

First, lets talk about changing your behavior while at the restaurant.  Of course, part of the fun of going out to eat is having a wide selection to choose from, and we all know that some meals are more costly than others.  Chicken is generally cheaper than lobster. Still, there are a few things you can eliminate that would still allow you to have a great meal and lower the overall bill.   Restaurants have a high profit margin on their beverages and their deserts.  So, always ask for a glass of ice water (making sure its not some fancy bottled water from Italy or something).  If you can ejoy your meal with just water as your beverage you will be saving probably on average $1.75 per meal.

When you finish the meal, don’t order desert.  The markup on desert is tremendous and if you actually stopped to think about it, $5.00 -$7.00 is very costly for a piece of cake or ice cream.  If you have a group of four and you cut out beverages and desert you could easily save  close to $28 off the entire bill.  That will also correspondingly lower the amount of tip you need to leave, too.
The entrée part of your meal can be lowered too.  Generally, pasta dishes or vegetarian dishes are less expensive than meat dishes.  Also, white meat dishes are generally less expensive than red meat dishes.
Another thing you can do if you are a bird-like eater is ask for ½ protions or order a child’s meal.  They’re usually much less than the adult size, yet can be filling enough if you’re a light eater.
Definitely time your trip to the restaurant to coincide with their two-for-one type offers.  If two of you can eat for the price of one and you minimize the cost by not ordering desert or beverages, you can eat out more often without busting your budget.
The other strategy is to look for coupons, discounts, and websites before you go.  Every week in most neighborhoods, you get flyers in the mail from www.ValPak.com offering 2 for 1, general discounts, or ½ off nights.  Look through these and keep whichever coupon appeals to you.  The good thing about ValPak is that you can go to their website and see all the applicable coupons for your zip code and its totally free to download a coupon that appeals to you.

You can also buy a coupon book from www.entertainment.com for $25 that has good coupons for lots of really good restaurants in most metro areas.  The advantage to this book is that you can try lots of different restaurants, all with a discount of some sort and thereby get variety and perhaps find a new favorite restaurant.  It also contains coupons for other things like movies, tourist activities, hotels, etc…  The bad thing is you have to pay $25 for it.  If you don’t go out to eat a lot, or wouldn’t use the other coupons, then this is not a good choice for you.
There are also several really good websites that offer you the opportunity of downloading coupons before you go.  Here are two others that I’ve found useful:

www.restaurant.com - This website allows you to buy gift certificates for participating restaurants for a discount.  For example,  you can buy a $25 gift certificate for $10.  It has a lot of participating restaurants.  You login, choose a restaurant and then buy the certificate.  The reason this is so good is that not only can you save a bundle, but they have so many participating restaurants.

www.hotcoupons.com - Just put in your zip code and you will see a list of categories for which they have coupons.  If you click on restaurants, you’ll see several choices for your area.  The good thing is there is no cost, but choice and supply are a bit more limited than restaurant.com
 

These sites offer newsletters/email coupons regularly.  If you sign up, they’ll send emails with special promotions and coupons which will cost you nothing and help you save on eating out.

www.olivegarden.com (newsletter signup at the top right of the home page)

www.macaronigrill.com (under ‘Lets Connect’, then ‘Join the Mac Pack’)

www.chilis.com (under ‘Email Club’ at the top of the homepage)

www.fridays.com (Under ‘Join Friday’s E-Club on right side of home page)

www.eltorito.com (sign up under ‘Que Pasa’)

www.maggianos.com (under ‘Join our email list’ at the very bottom of the home page)

www.bennigans.com (under ‘Join the Club’)

Also, several restaurants offer ‘birthday clubs’ where the birthday boy or girl will get their dinner for free.  If you can get a free meal once a year, why not?

Save Money on Cars

These days you can hardly survive without a car.  We depend on them and sadly, they cost a lot of money to acquire and maintain.   However, there are things you can do to lower your car related expenses. Read more

Tips for Renters

There are several things you can do to save money on rent.  Here are a few suggestions that might help you lower your rent expense. Read more

How to Save Money On Utilites

There are several things you can do to lower your monthly energy bills.  Follow as many of these as you can and you will find that you can lower your annual energy costs by hundreds of dollars a year.

• Read more

  Written by admin · Filed Under Utilities · Leave a Comment 

  Save Money on Groceries

  January 22, 2008

   

  We all need to buy groceries.  The good news is that there are many things you can do to lower your grocery shopping bills. Read more

  Written by admin · Filed Under Groceries · Leave a Comment 

  Tips for Homeowners

  January 22, 2008

  Owning a home is expensive, but there are a few things you can do to lower your ownership costs.  Try to do as many of these tips as you can and you will save money.

    ·       Save money on homeowner’s insurance.  Shop around every time your policy comes up for renewal.  It is imporant to lower your insurance costs and maintain adequate coverage.  If you shop for home insurance using online insurance quote comparisons, you can know very quickly if you are currently spending too much on homeowner’s insurance..  I’ve found Insureme to be a good source for high quality insurers at very good prices www.insureme.com.  The point is never pay more than you absolutely have to.  If you live in  Florida you may be stuck for finding a cheap policy for windstorm, especially if you are within a mile or two of the beach. If so, the only carrier is probably with Citizen’s Ins.  At any rate, SHOP AROUND.  

  ·       Do maintenance to your house when it needs it.  Don’t put it off or wait.  It will always cost you more to fix a problem later than it will right away.  I have owned several houses and normally the big ticket maintenance items are the roof, the AC (or heating), the plumbing and the electricity.If any of these need repairs or replacing and you don’t have a friend who is a contractor to help you out, then SHOP AROUND.  Get at least three quotes from REPUTABLE contractors.  Throw out the most expensive and the cheapest.  (Assuming the cheapest is way cheaper than the others).  You don’t want a contractor who does a crappy job.  GET REFERENCES from other clients who’ve used them before.  If they won’t give you references, then tell them to get lost and find another contractor.  Call up the references and find out.  Walk up and down your street and ask your neighbors who they’ve used for roofing, electrical work, etc… and whether or not they’re happy with the work and how much it cost.  Bottom line… DO YOUR HOMEWORK.  If you can do it yourself, consider it seriously, but many times, you will spend more doing it yourself than hiring somebody who does it for a living.  You save money not by being cheap but by being wise.   Check out contractors here:          Angie’s List - Find thousands of unbiased ratings and reviews on service companies in your area, join Angie’s List today.         Also, you can check out www.improvenet.com, www.renovationexperts.com, www.contractors.com           The federal Trade Commission has a great site for information on contracting/contractors.            Read this first before you begin any home improvement project…          www.ftc.gov/bcp/conline/pubs/services/homeimpv.shtm

  ·       Landscape your home if you want to sell it.  If you want to increase the sale-ability of your house, you must landscape your home.  Its hard work, but this is a task you can do yourself.  It doesn’t have to be done all at once, but before you begin, draw it out and have a plan.  Do it right.  Go to the library and get some books on Landscape design.  Find a picture of something you like and copy it.  Remember two rules.  First, never have more than 5 different plants in any single garden and second, group large plants (like trees) together in odd numbers.  If you buy large plants like trees, buy them at a tree farm or wholesaler.  You’ll save significantly over what you would pay at a nursery.

  ·       Don’t put in a pool unless you live in Florida, Arizona, California or Hawaii.  Yes, I know they’re nice, but save the money.  In almost every other state it won’t increase the value of your house.  In the four states listed above it might, but even then not significantly.  It will, however, make your house more sellable in those states.  If you must do home improvement, then improve the kitchen and the bathrooms, then finish the basement (if you have one).

  ·       Pay more for a house in a landlocked area, close to the beach or in a great school zone.  Yes, you should pay more.  If you buy a home in the middle of nowhere because its cheaper, chances are it won’t go up very much in price, if at all,  and you’ll have a hard time selling it.  If you buy in a landlocked area (think Manhattan) or close to the beach, or on a lake, or in a built up area (any good area close to a downtown, like Queen Anne Hill in Seattle, Highland Park in Dallas, Coral Gables in Miami etc…) you will never have trouble selling the house and it will go up in value.  Why? Because everybody wants to live there.  If you cannot afford the fancy area of town, then try to choose an area that has a ‘feature’, like is close to a lake, close to a subway stop, or in a good school system, close to a University, etc…

  ·       Don’t spend money on projects you like, but won’t increase the value of the house.  You might like gardening, but don’t build a greenhouse (if you can’t afford it).  It won’t increase the value of your house.  Remember, if your house gives you money, you can give money to it.  If it doesn’t give you money, don’t give your money to it.  

  ·       Lower your property tax if you can.  Always contest what the county wants to tax you.  If it goes up at all, contest it.  Why?  You might win and thereby save yourself a lot of money.  If you don’t you’ve lost nothing.  If you don’t try, you will most certainly pay more than you did last year.  Chances are in the next few years your house’s value isn’t going to skyrocket, so neither should your taxes.  

  ·       If you have a mortgage, then think about refinancing.  Of course, it goes without saying that you have to shop around.  Only refinance if it will save you money and you’re not going to pay off the mortgage anytime soon. Pay attention to closing costs, interest rate, hidden fees, fixed, arm etc… Don’t rely on anybody but yourself.  Find out.

  Written by admin · Filed Under Housing · 1 Comment