myMoneyTree

Cash In On Used Technology

Scott Reynolds — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 13:38:46 +0000

I, like many people, am one to seek out technology to help with daily life or just make things easier. However, as new devices enter the marketplace I am also quick to replace what I have with something better. The result is a small collection of used and now unused items. One example is I have 2 gps units that I purchased within the past 4 years. I used them very much and they have been a great help, but I now have a new smartphone that has gps built into it that is actually better than the unit that was built for it. I also replaced my old Blackberry with this new smartphone. I decided to sell it on a popular classified website to see what I could get for them. I got $200 for the Blackberry which, after my rebate, was more than double what I paid for the new phone. I haven’t pulled the trigger on selling the old gps units yet, but I will.

Be Money Smart with a Smart Phone

Derek Allen — Fri, 09 Jul 2010 19:10:30 +0000

Smart phones are the latest technology boom taking over the consumer market. You can’t turn on the TV without seeing a few ads for the latest smart phone. The demand for them is huge and it doesn’t look like this trend will be ending anytime soon. Especially when people waited in line for well over 6 hours to receive their new iPhone 4. Smart phones may be expensive, but the potential savings they could allow you to harness can easily make up for the cost. This latest technology boom has brought about app marketplaces where developers can write custom software to run on smart phones. I will be sharing the apps that I use on my iPhone, though many will have versions to run on different smart phones, that I use everyday to make my income go further.

Google: Google is an incredible tool that is available on any smart phone with internet access. Before I buy anything online I always do a quick search for coupon codes if the store has a field for one in checkout. A good portion of the time I can find something that will at least save me 5%. Usually it is more in the range of 10-20% off my purchase.

Almost all of the big retailers offer competitor price match on advertised offers. While your standing in the checkout line hit up the competitor websites. You might find that product your buying is being offered at a lower price. Show them at the register for them to mark down the price. Sometimes they will only offer the price match on printed advertisements, in these cases you can threaten to go to the competitor and they might beat the price. If this doesn’t work you can simply just go to the competitor and get the product for cheaper.

A quick Google search can also save you from making a wasted trip to a store that may be closed. I know I have wasted a bunch of gas driving to a store on a holiday, on a sunday, or at a moderately late time just to find that it is closed.

If you haven’t already, check out my recent post on how to use Google Voice to send free text messages.

Mint: I’ve been using Mint for a while to track my finances and their phone app is a must for anyone looking to budget effectively. The Mint app automatically synchronizes with your online bank account to categorize purchases. You can create budgets from these categories and monitor your spending habits over time. I use it to identify areas that I need to cut back on and to check to see how purchases will fit into my budget. Having this app on your phone allows you to monitor your finances and spending on the go.

Coupon Sherpa: This app features a coupon database that is continually being updated. They allow you to bring up the coupon on your phone at checkout where the cashier can scan the barcode straight off of your phone. A quick search with this app during checkout lines can rack up in big savings real fast. Did I mention that the app is free?

Gas Buddy: For $2.99 you can search for the cheapest gas prices in your area. This allows you to recover the cost of the app in just one fill up. The prices are based on what other users in the community report. I live in a mid sized city and have yet to find an incorrect price. The only difficulties I encounter with this app are related to internet connection. Sometimes it doesn’t want to allow you to use the 3G connection for the app. A couple quick retries usually allow you to use the app just fine. They also have an On Fumes option which will show you the closest gas station.

Pandora: You don’t need to shell out a bunch of money to build up your music library. You can use Pandora, a free internet radio station, to stream music to your phone. You can create personalized radio stations based on a band or song you like. Pandora will stream you songs that match your entry based on certain criteria. The new music you can discover is really quite humbling. The only time I’ve experienced issues streaming music is driving through the backwoods of Virginia. Everywhere else the service worked perfectly on the 3G network.

Those were only the apps that I have used to save myself a some dough on more than one ocassion. The iPhone app store is constantly increasing and the Driod marketplace is increasing at an even faster rate. There are much more apps out there that you can use to save some serious money.

Photo Credit: bump

Do you have a money saving app that you would like to share?

Let Technology Be Your Guide
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Enjoying the Fourth of July on a Budget

Derek Allen — Sat, 03 Jul 2010 20:00:30 +0000

Independence Day is a wonderful time of year to celebrate with friends and loved ones. The weather is perfect for outdoor activities and barbecuing that makes for an all day event. Money shouldn’t be an excuse not to enjoy the fourth and celebrate our nation’s independence. Here are a few quick tips to enjoy Independence Day without being dependent on someone else for the bill.

The first thing that comes to mind when thinking about the 4^th of July are the fireworks. They are easily the most memorable aspect of celebrating our nation’s independence each year. Their hisses and booms can be heard all day while people bask the warm summer weather. You don’t have to spend a lot of money to enjoy them.

More likely than not there will be a free fireworks display somewhere within driving distance. They are great events for families and friends. Plan ahead of time and figure out where you’re going to park. These events always attract large groups of people and vendors trying to gouge prices for parking spots. You will also want to avoid wasting gas sitting in traffic due to everyone trying to leave at once. Plan to leave later or pick a place far enough from the event to avoid the smog bog afterwards. Consider parking a few miles away and make a bike trip during the day to the event location.

If there are no shows nearby consider teaming up with a neighbor to split the costs for a neighborhood fireworks display. You can get decent sized fireworks package for ~$20 or less. If a big fireworks display isn’t a must for you, just stick with sparklers. There are cheap and kids love them. If you are looking at cheap fireworks, stay away from the snakes. I remember getting so excited after picking out one with a big cobra on the package in a fireworks tent, only to be let down by the lackluster pile of ash it metamorphosized into.

You can always avoid the sweat, smoke, and pesky mosquitoes and catch a fireworks show on TV. There is bound to be a huge show on network TV, not to mention it will probably be bigger than anything you can muster together.

Plan an outdoor activity for the day. A bike ride or hike in a nearby park doesn’t cost a dime. It is also a wonderful opportunity to play some outdoor sports. If you are playing an event, think of some activities your guests might enjoy. Potato sack and three legged races, water balloon tosses, and good ‘ole Frisbee all hardly cost anything to put together.

If you are planning a barbecue, check to see if you can save by buying in bulk. Don’t be afraid to ask guests to bring a side dish. I’m sure most of them will offer to when you invite them, so make a list ahead of time to make sure everything is covered. Don’t be afraid to ask people to throw in money if they can spare it. They should have no problem sparing a few bucks to reimburse the hardworking host for the money and time they have spent.

Let Technology Be Your Guide

Scott Reynolds — Thu, 01 Jul 2010 14:04:22 +0000

I recently upgraded my smart phone from a Blackberry to one of the Android phones. Not only is it a change for me in operating the phone, but there is a world of many, many more applications (both free and paid) that I knew about but never had access to. Although Blackberry does very well with their applications, they don’t scratch the surface when it comes to pure numbers of applications. The reason I bring this up is in the process of searching applications to download and discover, I found that there are also many applications related to budgeting. There are applications that cover everything from daily budgeting, expense management, and saving, to budgeting for a vacation. I received 67 results from my simple search for “budget”. There is even one that helps you budget with virtual envelopes as I discussed in a previous post. Pretty cool.

Creating A Personal Budget

Scott Reynolds — Thu, 17 Jun 2010 14:04:24 +0000

In a personal budget all sources of income are identified and expenses are planned. One way of budgeting originated during the Great Depression. It’s called the envelope system. Basically, for every bill or expense you have you dedicate an envelope to it with the estimated amount written on the front of the envelope. Once you have funds or get paid you put that amount in cash into the envelope. Once the expense is due you take the money out and pay the bill. If you do this for all of your expenses there is no confusion between amounts owed for expenses and other monies in your bank account. Hopefully, by identifying your income and expenses you can also be inspired to save some money for emergencies, or even long term savings goals.

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Five Steps to Better Your Finances in 2010

Free Text Messaging

Derek Allen — Fri, 11 Jun 2010 19:26:43 +0000

I have never been much of a texter because I’ve always had a pretty crumby phone. I always had plans to upgrade to a smartphone when I could afford one. However, when my girlfriend put my phone through the washer I had to use my upgrade on a replacement phone. I was finally able to upgrade to an iPhone and consequentially my text messages began to rise out of the limits that my basic plan provides (200 total: in and out). For another $10 a month I could add 1300 more messages, but I knew I wouldn’t use all of them and I didn’t want to give more money to my cell phone provider for a service that costs them virtually nothing. Then I realized I could use Google Voice to help with this dilemma. I signed up for it a long time ago and only really used my invite for the vanity number. I could be using it to send free text messages straight from my phone.

Google Voice was rejected from Apple’s Appstore a while ago, and its rejection caused retroactive rejections to similar, but less popular apps. This really didn’t accomplish much since Google just converted the app into a website custom designed for the iPhone. It contains virtually the same features, but instead of being an app on your iPhone you have to navigate to the website. This really isn’t a big difference as you might think. You can bookmark the page and add the bookmark to your home screen. In fact, this approach might be considered better since the app isn’t taking up valuable hard drive space from the phone.

When you sign up for Google Voice you get to choose your own vanity number for free. You can search the available numbers for the vanity number of your choice. After you have your number, import your contacts from your gmail account or add them manually. Any text you send from the Google Voice website is absolutely free. Now that you’re set up, you want to notify all of your friends to text message you at your new number instead. You can set up Google Voice to forward the text messages to your cell phone, which wouldn’t free up any incoming text messaging rates. Alternatively, you can have the messages forwarded to an e-mail address. One thing that you might not be aware of is that every cell phone has an e-mail address in which they can receive text messages. So when that text message gets forwarded to your e-mail, you can reply directly back to your friend through e-mail since his cell phone has an e-mail address. By using Google Voice to forward text messages to e-mail, you don’t have to pay a single dime to send or receive text messages. Cut that $15 or $20 a month charge from your phone bill, and use Google Voice to send text messages for free.

Google Voice has a tons of other nifty features that don’t fall into the scope of this post but you can learn about them here: http://www.google.com/googlevoice/about.html

Google Voice is currently invite only, but I got approved in about a week. I have one invite left and I’m giving it away to the first person who indicates they want one in the comments section.

Photo Credit: Nesster

Living On One Income

Scott Reynolds — Thu, 10 Jun 2010 14:37:58 +0000

You may not think it possible especially these days, but some families either by choice or by the loss of a bread-winners job, live on one income. In reality a family living on one income can be more financially stable than one living on two. The reason is if one income is lost due to the loss of a job the two income family would be in trouble, or at least need to make major adjustments until a new job was found. Most two income families live within those means, but have become accustomed to that two income lifestyle and need that income to cover their basic needs like mortgage, loans, and credit cards. A one income family has already made those adjustments. Regardless, the first step is creating and strictly sticking with a budget.

Where things really get interesting is when you have two incomes and continue with two incomes, but budget yourself to live in one. This takes a lot of planning and potentially a lot of cuts, but that’s when you really begin saving and paying off major debts like mortgages. For most people once you have paid off your mortgage, the rest is very manageable.

Think About Reclaimed Water

Scott Reynolds — Fri, 04 Jun 2010 13:34:56 +0000

About 6 months ago I looked into getting a reclaimed water hookup for my sprinklers. My county offers the option to hook up to reclaimed water if you have the work done to connect the line to your system. I considered this for 2 reasons. First of all my county has cut our regular watering days down to 1 day per week. St. Augustine grass just doesn’t want to survive with water only once a week. The second reason is that reclaimed water is much less expensive than potable water. The initial investment was about $500 for the county and the plumber that installed the lines to my system. So far I have saved at least that much. My water bill has been cut in half since the installation.

Now I understand that some people consider having a lawn in the first place is wasteful and unnecessary. Some people have rocks or wood chips as a lawn, but for my community only a regular grass lawn is allowed.

This is just one way to create more money power for yourself.

Everyone Needs Critical Illness Insurance

Scott Reynolds — Thu, 27 May 2010 14:05:23 +0000

Critical Illness insurance is a fairly new product in the history of insurance. The plans came about as a spinoff to the more common Cancer plans. The cancer plans typically pay a set amount of money for each treatment and type of treatment. There may also be a benefit for a hospital admission or stay due to cancer. The critical illness plans cover many more diseases then just cancer and in addition pay a much higher lump sum benefit. Typically the benefit trigger on a critical illness policy is just being diagnosed by a physician as having one of the covered diseases. On most policies that would include Cancer, Heart Attack, Stroke, Kidney Failure, Major Organ Transplant, and Paralysis. Some cover more diseases like Alzheimer’s, Blindness, Deafness, Burns and Loss of Speach. In addition critical illness policies often cover other things, but at a lower benefit like 25%. Cancer in Situ which is a cancer that has not spread, bypass surgery and even angioplasty. Some policies will pay multiple times. So if you have a heart attack with a $50K policy you will get the $50K. Then if you continue to pay premiums and have a stroke you get another $50K. There is even one policy that pays 3 times. An example of premium is a 30 year old non smoker with a $50K policy costs about $23 per month.

So why does everyone need Critical Illness and what does this have to do with Money Power? Even though you may have health insurance, there will be some type of out of pocket expense that you will incur if diagnosed with one of these diseases. You may have to pay a deductible or copays or coinsurance. Not to mention you probably won’t be working for some time. Even if you have disability insurance there is often a waiting period where no benefits are payable and then they usually only cover 60%-70% of your salary. Critical Illness coverage can protect your money. By having critical illness insurance you can leave your savings in tact. You won’t be tempted to withdraw that 401K money because you have to pay your mortgage. Critical Illness is an insurance product that like all other insurance products, protects against risk. You never know if you will need it, but if you do you will be glad you made the purchase.

Don’t Grocery Shop with a List

Derek Allen — Fri, 21 May 2010 20:50:54 +0000

I used to always grocery shop with a list. It helped me remember everything I needed at the grocery store. But I still found myself navigating almost every aisle of the grocery store. Except those 2 or 3 in the middle that are always empty, who uses those? By the time I ended up in the checkout line my cart looked like it belonged to a contestant in a shopping spree. It was chock full of stuff that I didn’t need. If you don’t believe me, open up your fridge and take a look at the inside door. How many different salad dressings do you have? Way more than you could ever possibly need. I was wasting valuable money on unplanned purchases. I finally decided to try something I have been putting off for a while: grocery shopping with a menu.

A grocery menu is an explicit list of ingredients that are used in a planned menu of meals. I planned out meals for two weeks, and only included a few healthy snacks (with appropriate portions). By having everything I need for the next 2 weeks completely mapped out, I no longer needed to swim through each aisle. I went straight to the items I needed and didn’t end up with a single product that I didn’t plan to buy. Grocery stores are meticulously laid out to get the customers to buy stuff they don’t need. Don’t grocery shop hungry, and stick to the aisles where the items you need are located.

Cheaper Grocery Bills

Grocery shopping with a menu is not just cheaper because you buy less items. Have you ever had something go bad because you let it sit too long before you went to eat it? I know it has happened to me almost every time I grocery shopped. By planning your meals ahead of time, you can cook the meals that use fresh/time sensitive ingredients first. This allows you to avoid wasting money on produce that goes bad before you use it.

Grocery shopping with a menu is also a great way to make sure you stick to your budget. You can get a good estimate of your grocery bill before you go to the store and make sure it is within your budget. You can also coordinate your menu with items that are on sale or couponed. This allows you to fully take advantage of the grocery store’s weekly deals, instead of buying the same old groceries and hoping something is discounted.

Healthier Meals

The number one expense I hear people wanting to cut back on is eating out. Eating out is expensive and unhealthy. What happens when you go to make dinner and you open the pantry door only to find that is full of random items that don’t come close to qualifying as a meal? You go out to eat. This will never happen if you prepare a menu of meals ahead of time. You will know when you don’t have any meals left beforehand. Save your wallet and waistline at the same time, and don’t eat out.

The only way to know a 100% that you are eating healthy and losing weight, is to actively monitor your calorie intake. Its simple logic: eat less than you burn and you will lose weight. When you plan out your meals, make note of the nutrition facts. Plan healthy meals that are low in calories and fat. Combine this with a simple exercise routine and you can guarantee yourself that you will lose those pounds, or continue a healthy lifestyle. Be sure to include snacks and drinks in your calculations. Buy healthy snacks and portion them out ahead of time. Make Ziploc bags or Tupperware containers with the appropriate servings.

I challenge everyone to stop grocery shopping with a list, and start grocery shopping with a menu. Compare your receipts before and after. It saved me upwards of 30% on my grocery bill and helped me keep on track with my fitness. Over the next few weeks I will be sharing meals from my menu that I enjoyed, stay tuned!

Photo Credit: R.B. Boyer