Do-It-Yourself Photography Works for Me
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Do you cringe when you hear the words “school picture day”? I know when my kids were in school, I dreaded the day they would bring home the note that said, “Tomorrow is picture day. Please dress your best”. When I got this note, I knew that it would soon be followed by the envelope asking me to purchase photos.
Can I just be real for a moment?
Those. photos. are. outrageously. priced.
I would do my best to buy the smallest package they had just so I wasn’t spending so much money. I felt the kids would be upset if I did not purchase a picture package. One day however, my daughter said to me, “Mom, you take tons of pictures of me already. Why do you keep buying these picture packages if they are so expensive?”
That made me really think about ways to get beautiful photo shots wherever we happened to be. Then I could take these shots, go to the photo kiosk and print my own wallet size prints for family members. I checked out Wal-Mart’s prices and they are very reasonable. You can get a family package for only $20 that includes 4 (8×10’s), 8 (5×7’s), and 24 wallet size prints. They also have a standard package for only $5 that has one 8×10, 2 (5×7’s) and 16 wallets. A package like this from a school would cost you anywhere from $25-$30! (You can check out those Wal-Mart photo packages HERE).
My advice is to shop around for a great package price and ditch the school photo packages! They are less personal and much more expensive. Besides, when taking your own photos you can get creative and really let the personalities shine! (Check out my November 2009 Digest for some creative Family Photo ideas)
You can find more Works For Me Wednesday tips at We Are That Family.
Continue reading Do-It-Yourself Photography Works for Me …
From Econobusters.
Fall garage and Mom 2 Mom sales in Monroe MI
I haven’t done a garage sale roundup in a long time. I spent many Saturday mornings last year checking out the sales and posted links every week. It just wasn’t possible for me to do that this summer. But I want to give my local readers in Monroe County, Mich., a reminder that the fall [...]
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From Monroe on a Budget.
Student gift cards at Meijer
Meijer has a new gift card called the Reloadable Student Gift Card. It comes with key tags labeled “Bank of Mom” and “Bank of Dad.” The way this works is: Mom or Dad goes to Meijer, uses the key card to load funds onto the student’s gift card, and the student can go shopping as [...]
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From Monroe on a Budget.
Student gift cards at Meijer
Meijer has a new gift card called the Reloadable Student Gift Card. It comes with key tags labeled “Bank of Mom” and “Bank of Dad.” The way this works is: Mom or Dad goes to Meijer, uses the key card to load funds onto the student’s gift card, and the student can go shopping as [...]
Continue reading Student gift cards at Meijer …
From Monroe on a Budget.
Encore: Death of a cell phone
I’ve had a cell phone since 1997. It’s pretty handy technology for a mom – and also a news reporter – to have. Just a few weeks after I was mobile calling, I blew way threw my 30-minute monthly allowance while covering a disaster scene in northwest Ohio. I had quite an interesting discussion with [...]
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From Monroe on a Budget.
Clearance Clothing at Target
Thanks Money Saving Mom for this great coupon tip!
Heather from The Clearance Chick emailed in to say she found Men’s Polo Shirts on clearance at her Target store for only $3.74 each. She used the $3/1 Merona Men’s Shirt coupon to get these for $0.74 each.
I can’t guarantee that you’ll find the same clearance prices at your Target store, but I’d definitely encourage you to print the Target clothing coupons available and check the clearances available at your Target store. You may be able to get some items for free or less than $1 each!
Continue reading Clearance Clothing at Target …
From Econobusters.
Monroe County Homemaker: LeeAnn Comstock
I have an article in today’s edition of The Monroe Evening News about LeeAnn Comstock winning the Monroe County (Mich.) Homemaker of the Year 2010 title. LeeAnn is well-known at the county fair. Her mom was the 2009 Monroe County Homemaker. Even more amazing is that her dad was the 1997 Monroe County Homemaker and [...]
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From Monroe on a Budget.
Review: Point, Click, and Save
Every Sunday, The Simple Dollar reviews a personal finance book or other book of interest.
MashupMom.com is one of the better coupon and sale aggregating blogs out there (meaning that most of the content posted is either sales at various stores or coupons for various products). I have mixed feelings about such sites. On the one hand, I do appreciate that they’re showing readers ways to save money. On the other hand, I know from personal experience that without a good financial backbone, coupons and sales become just a way to acquire even more stuff and put yourself in an equally bad (or arguably worse) position than you were before.
Those same caveats came to mind when I read Mashup Mom’s (actually Rachel Singer Gordon) book Point, Click, and Save. The book is absolutely loaded with fantastic ideas for saving money online… but the vast majority of those tips merely reduce the price of things people don’t necessarily need. In other words, this book can save you a lot of money if you use it in a reasonable way (seeking out ways to save money on things that you’ve already decided that you want), but it can also just cause you to accumulate more stuff and not save any money at all (if you’re the type of person who will buy four more sweaters because they’re 50% off today).
Let’s dig in and peek at some of the advice on offer.
1 | Let’s Get Started
This opening chapter largely outlines the points I make above. In short, the advice in this book works best when used in the context of a larger strategy of spending less than you earn and building towards bigger goals in life. In other words, these tactics won’t help you get ahead if you merely use them as a tool in a never-ending race to acquire more and more stuff. While this chapter is far from a personal finance guide, it does make clear that these tips alone won’t make you rich or even save you money if they’re not used with sense and restraint.
2 | Change the Way You Shop
Here, Gordon talks about some of the basic tactics for more financially effective shopping: stocking up on non-perishables when they’re on sale, making meal plans and shopping lists, using coupons, signing up for customer rewards programs, and so forth. The real secret, though, is just one word: planning. The more forethought you put into your shopping, the less you’ll spend for what you need.
3 | Get Connected Online
Gordon mostly just lists a ton of websites where you can seek out deals, coupons, freebies, work-at-home opportunities and such – in other words, sites that mostly just list such opportunities. These are great resources to start with, particularly if you’re looking for something specific. (I usually find it’s a bad idea to go rummaging through such deal sites if you don’t have something specific in mind that you’re looking for, because the bargains can tempt you into buying something unnecessary).
4 | Get in the Game
This chapter explains how exactly to go about hunting down deep discounts on the staples you already buy – and then, of course, stocking up on those items once you find the discounts. The trick usually involves “stacking” – holding onto coupons, then waiting until a local store offers a great discount on the item. This requires some time – you not only have to keep track of coupons, you also have to keep track of store flyers and cross-match them. However, the rewards can be tremendous, such as getting 20 bars of soap for free (I did this once, stacking a Lever 2000 coupon with a huge sale at a CVS a couple years ago). Just stick items like that in your closet and use them up over time.
5 | Get It Online
Here, Gordon summarizes the many, many ways you can save money using the internet, from simply shopping for bargains to using it to replace your CD collection (using free internet radio) or your cable box (using sites like Hulu). There are many, many wonderful free services out there, from photo organizers (I love Flickr) to word processing programs (I love Google Docs).
6 | Fantastic Freebies
I generally don’t use freebie sites because, frankly, most of the freebies are things that I have no interest in having at all – and it’s not worth the time for me to hunt down the one or two freebies out of hundreds that I might be interested in. However, Gordon does mention my favorite site for free things of all – Freecycle. I often browse the listings here because every once in a while, someone gives something amazing away on here simply because they can’t use it.
7 | Make Money at Home
Just as there are countless ways to save money online, there are countless ways to earn a little, too. Gordon outlines a lot of these, but they all have the same thing in common: if you just dabble with them, you won’t earn much, and you’ll never earn a good rate with some of them no matter how much time you put into them. I know of people who have done quite well, though, capitalizing on skills they already have and selling them online, like a few people who sell lots of handmade goods via Etsy.
8 | Make Bonus Income with Your Online Activities
This is more or less an extension of the previous chapter, except here Gordon focuses on things where companies are paying you to gather data, like taking surveys or using a search engine that monitors what you’re doing for marketing data. Some of these things require little effort, but they earn very, very little and for me, the privacy concerns of many of these things outweigh what you might earn. Still, for some, this is another avenue of putting a bit more change in your pocket.
9 | Organization, Balance, and Planning
Here, Gordon moves back towards general personal finance advice, discussing some of the online options for saving and managing your money, like online banks (ING Direct and SmartyPig, both of which I use, are mentioned) and other money management tools. She also encourages people to get involved reading personal finance blogs (The Simple Dollar is mentioned) and get a grip on their overall money picture, which is really key.
Is Point, Click, and Save Worth Reading?
This book does exactly what it promises: it outlines ways to save money on purchases online and make a bit of income online as well. It’s written in an upbeat (and a bit cheeky) tone that made for enjoyable, light reading.
Is it worth reading? It mostly comes down to a question of whether you’re already adept online or not. If you’ve already got a good familiarity with online shopping sites and can comparison shop easily online, this book won’t offer a lot for you.
But it’s perfect as a book. The obvious audience for this book are the people who aren’t as adept on the web, who don’t use it as a tool for comparison shopping. Those are the people who are well-served by reading this book, and I highly recommend it to them.
Just be sure you don’t use the tips to buy mountains of stuff you don’t really need.
Continue reading Review: Point, Click, and Save …
From The Simple Dollar.
A couple more ideas for the disater kit …
Well, now. I think we’ve had more than enough tornadic weather in southeast Michigan and northwest Ohio for the summer. On Thursday night, my daughter, mom and I waited out a tornado warning at one of my sisters’ homes with a young nephew and two nieces. And when the tornado warnings came through tonight, my [...]
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From Monroe on a Budget.
Cool Mom Picks gives lowdown on coupon codes
I am not a big fan of third-party coupon code and bargain sites. If I don’t know what the source of the information is, I’m hesitant to follow up. The coupon codes I personally use are ones that the retailers and services post on their web sites, in their twitter, send in the mail, email [...]
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From Monroe on a Budget.