I am always so excited to share good savings tips!  I love to cook homemade dinners, but of course I also love to eat out!  When we do go out I am always looking for a deal and coupons if available.  With the economy in the state that is is there are so many restaurants with great deals and coupons.  Well with Valentines Day coming up I got to thinking about going out to eat, while I may not do that this actual Valentines’ weekend – as I hate a crowd – we will probably go out next weekend. 

Restaurant Coupons

So I started searching around for restaurant coupons and found this http://www.savings.com/c-Restaurant-coupons.html and they have links to great restaurant coupons!  Good restaurants too like Melting Pot, Cheesecake Factory and Ruby Tuesday.  Some of them require you to fill out a form or survey but then you get a great coupon!

Restaurant Reviews

Do you like honest restaurnat reviews – not just those ones that are written up in the paper by food critics?  Real honest to goodness people out in your community that have opinions on local restaurants?  Then check out Yelp! http://www.yelp.com - on my computer it magically knew what city I was in, but you can tell it to go to a particular city.  And when Charlotte popped up – then it even narrowed restaurants down by neighborhood areas!  So the next time you are dying to try out that new Thai place in town and want the real scoop on it – this is a great place to check it out before you spend your hard earned money there!

Free Online Coupons

If you are looking for tons of coupons on a variety of items - check out  http://www.savings.com - as they have access to terrific coupons.  I just started getting into the coupon thing this year, and it can be addicting once you start saving money!  There is many coupon categories to choose from housewares, clothing, kids – from stores like Target, Gap and Macy’s.  Again there is a link to the sites to fill out forms, but if you are in search of a coupon this site is a good way to narrow it down.

I am a saver by nature – not a spender.  But when I do spend – I want to spend wisely and use a coupon when ever possible!

  – Helping you achieve your Domestic Success!

One of the biggest financial mistakes I ever made was not getting the credit card – (because you need one to establish your credit history to improve your FICO) – but my mistake was using the card incorrectly!

Our society thinks it’s a privilege to be able to get a card with $10,000 limit and then go spend it all.  Do they have $10,000 to spend – no – so why are they spending it?  Because the credit card company allows them to  – but at such a high cost it’s not worth it.  On a smaller scale say you spent the month happily charging away, $200 here, $50 there, $100 over there…..by the end of the month you end up with $2000 and you can’t even believe it!  But say you can only afford to pay $100 a month for it….even if you cut up your credit card right then and there, here’s what will happen to you.  A $2000 credit card balance at 18.9% will cost you $421 in interest and 25 months to pay it off.  That’s over two years, and at the end of that time you won’t even remember what you were paying for!

Back to my mistake.  During my first week of college, I was all bright eyed and overjoyed to be away at school.  Unsuspectingly I walked into the courtyard and saw people giving away big bags of M&M’s!  I should have run, don’t I know better than to take candy from a stranger? 

Well they were offering credit cards to poor – unsuspecting college kids.  Why do credit card companies prey on college kids?  Because it’s easy – most students have little to no money, and love the idea of the freedom of a credit card.  The credit card company knows that many parents will help their kid out if they are having trouble paying the bill.  But FREEDOM is the last thing credit debt gives you.

So I happily filled out the paperwork and snatched up a 1 pound bag of Free M&M’s.  That was the most expensive bags of M&M’s I’ve ever bought!  A fast week later the card shows up in the mail.  At first it just sat in my wallet – untouched.

Then a friend came to me who was having car trouble and asked if I would use my new card to pay the mechanic and they would “pay me right back”.  My answer should have been “NO – why don’t you get your own card, or ask your parents” – anything other than yes!  So not only did they NOT pay me back right away, I had to chase them down for almost a year begging for my money.  Of course over the year the interest was piling up.  But the worst thing was when they finally did give me the money I made another mistake – I took the cash and spent it – when I should have paid off the bill!

So then I had debt, and it was easy to start adding more to it.  Clothes, shoes, plane tickets etc…and before you know it I had several thousand in credit card debt and as a young college student I had trouble just paying the minimum.

For almost 10 years I carried that debt around.  Always paying the minimum, but never getting rid of it, it followed me around like a bad rat.  Well, I thank God for my husband who was anti credit-card, so when we got married we made a budget to pay it off and when it was paid off  – then the Freedom came.  There is no freedom when you have credit debt looming over your head.  Do we have credit cards now – YES – it’s a must to maintain a good FICO score.  But we use them completely different. 

I use them to earn “points” and the credit cards get paid in FULL every month.  Every month.  So if we don’t have the money to pay it in full – we DON”T BUY it – we save for it.

Yes, it can be hard to be strict with yourself, but it’s worth the freedom.  Plus over time I realized all these “things” I had to buy never made me any happier.  I am much happier in a credit debt free life!

My favorite financial guru is Suze Orman and her book “Women & Money”.  I watch her weekly Saturday night program (actually DVR it and watch it while I do laundry) and follow the steps in her book.   A side note to the credit card debt – of course if you are in an emergency situation, credit cards can be a useful tool – as long as you use them wisely. 

-Helping you achieve your Domestic Success!

photo by dawnzy

Financially speaking “money talk” can be a delicate subject to mention in your marriage .     

Back in the “olden days” young ladies would live with their family right up until getting married.  Then the newlyweds would have one checking account and one savings account.  End of story.

Well now as you know – things are much different!  Young women leave their parents household and have a career, get apartments and may have numerous on-line bank accounts and 401K investments – all before getting married!

So the husband and wife, who are used to having their own bank account, might have trouble with the concept of traditional joint accounts.  Derek & I tried traditional – it didn’t work for us.  With having a mortgage, multiple household bills and large family grocery bill I felt it was too hard to figure out what extra money I had leftover to treat myself to something.

So now we have Mine, Yours and Ours bank accounts.  We both have a checking account for miscellaneous items, we have a household checking account for bills, and a household savings account as a nest egg.  With all the on-line banking options it’s easy to move money around and even give personalized names like Wendy’s checking.  

So what about that nest egg?  If you don’t do this now – you need to start.  Pay Yourself First – before your bills!  Your goal is to have a 6 – 8 month nest egg for emergencies.  So calculate what your monthly expenses are, multiply by 6 or 8 and that is your nest egg goal.  It seems like a big number – right?  Well it is, and it might take a while to save that much, but these days if someone loses a job it might take 6 – 8 months before finding a new one! 

How do you pay yourself first?  Here are a few ideas:

• The first time you get a pay raise or bonus, take that extra amount and put it right into savings.  If you’ve lived without it before, you can continue without it.  
• When you finish paying off a car loan, take that same amount and put it in savings.  Again if you’ve lived without it before, you can continue without it.  

If neither scenario is in your immediate future – don’t worry – they will come.  In the meanwhile take a look at your monthly expenses.  Look for non-essential items, fancy coffees at the café, fast-food lunches, and shopping splurges.  Cut back or stop those and put that extra money into savings.

Trust me it Pays to Pay Yourself First!  Sooner than later your nest egg will be complete and you’ll have extra splurge money for vacations, fancy dinners and shopping sprees!

- Wendy

Helping you achieve your Domestic Success!