Archive for March, 2009

Brownbag Your Lunch and Save Money

By: Green Panda | Date posted: March 30, 2009 (10:50 pm)

I just started my new job and I have software training all this week. My new manager mentioned that bringing lunch in to save time and some money. Seeing as some of our goals include building the emergency fund up a few more months and have a house down payment ready this year, this new income will be used wisely. 

I’m brown bagging my lunch to save money, have healthier food, and have a chance to chat with my co-workers. I enjoy eating out for work lunches, but eating out consistently and without a plan can take a drain your bank account. 

Don't keep your brown bag lunch just sandwiches

Don't keep your brown bag lunch just sandwiches

 

Tips For Better Brown Bag Lunches

  • Upgrade your lunches by redirecting funds. Some people think that they have to cut their food spending to save money, but that’s a horrible idea. Look to spend money better ingredients. 
  • Use sandwich bags for portion control.  I noticed many snacks are now packaged in convenient single servings. Of course, you have to pay for this convenience. Grab a value size package of your favorite snacks and use a ziploc your portions. It’ll help your waist and wallet.
  • Try mixing it up. Consider packing some hummus dip the vegetables instead of just ranch. Turn your regular salad into a taco salad. 
  •  Pasta can be a great lunch. You can add some meat and cheese to have an easy to make and eat lunch. I had some shrimp pasta leftovers today.
  • Use fast food condiments: Next time you grab something from a fast food chain, grab a few more packets of your favorite condiments for your lunches. 

Do you brown bag for lunch? What’s your favorite meal? What benefit have you found with making your lunch?

Photo Credit:  46137  

Weekly Round Up: Family in Town

By: Green Panda | Date posted: March 28, 2009 (10:56 pm)

I have family in town, so this posts this week has been a bit slow. I should be back to my normal schedule Monday and I excited about some of the articles next week. The anniversary dinner went well and we’re relaxing a bit with some Mario Kart Wii. 

Personal Finance Carnivals

 

Top Personal Finance Posts This Week

7 Things You Didn’t Know About Me

By: Green Panda | Date posted: March 26, 2009 (6:48 pm)

Kate from The Paycheck Chronicles has tagged me for a meme. I haven’t done one in awhile, so I’m up for it. 

7 Things You Didn’t Know About Me” Meme Rules

  1. Link to your original tagger(s) and list these rules in your post.        

  2. Share seven facts about yourself in the post.        

  3. Tag seven people at the end of your post by leaving their names and the links to their blogs.
  4. Let them know they’ve been tagged.
     

7 Things You Didn’t Know About Me

  1. My favorite dessert is tiramisu. I discovered it by accident in 2007 in a little hole in the wall Little Italy resturant in New York City.
  2. We have a cat named Hurricane. My family rescued him at a shelter and slowly he went from the family cat to my cat to our cat. 
  3. I’m a Star Trek and Star Wars fan. I followed pretty much all the series except Enterprise. I got hookedon Star Trek from my family and yes, I’ll see the new movie opening day. I also enjoy Jedi Academy, KOTOR, and The Force Unleashed. I laos made my husband play KOTOR and he loved it. 
  4. I started this blog as a way to keep a record of interesting news clips, it eventually became my personal finance blog (hence the very unfinancial name).
  5. The maximum amount I can drive for a single shift is 8 hours. After that, I get irritable. I also helpped my husband learn howto drive stick shift. 
  6. I’m a champ in Mario Kart 64. This has not translated to the Wii Mario Kart. 
  7. This weekend is my in-laws’ 30th anniversary. 

 

I decided to tag some personal finance bloggers

Who I’m tagging:

Saving Money on Your Groceries

By: Green Panda | Date posted: March 25, 2009 (11:17 pm)

You can save money when you buy groceries.

You can save money when you buy groceries.

I wanted to share again some ways to save money with grocery bills. While it is not exciting, getting the best foods for your money is a great for your lng term health and finances.

How We Maximize Our Grocery Shopping

Sit down and make a shopping list.

This seems really elementary, but it is the most important step. Can’t figure how to make a good food list? Try working backwards. Think of the meals you like to have this month. Do you like spaghetti, chicken wings, or tacos? Break the meals down until you have a list of items. A shopping list also helps in keeping you from overspending.

Use a price book.

Many people think of price book and think it’s overly tedious and don’t think it’s time well spent.  It’s actually easy to start a price book and it can simplify your shopping trips and save you some money.

Buy for the month (or longer).

Our goal is to go a big grocery shop once a month. We’re not crazy about grocery shopping, so we try to make this as less painful as possible. We use Costco for our bulk items, like dry goods. Wal-Mart typically has the cheapest prices on some more perishable items. Occassionaly Target and Harris Teeter will have some items on sale and we stock up.

Buy meat in bulk and freeze.

We try to get a good amount of meat on sale, divide it up for sevral meal, and then freeze it. That tip drops the cost per pound down. When we get home, for example, I have broken down ground beef  into several bags for meatloaf, spaghetti, tacos, hamburger helper, etc.

Take advantage of sales that you’d actually buy without the sale.

Sometimes I want to buy something because it’s on sale. It’s not something that we use a lot or even at all. When you do that you’re not really saving money, you’re spending more. It’s not bad if you do this once a shopping trip if you want to expand your menu, but if you’re on a tight budget, try to minimize this.

Making it yourself can save you money.

We do grab a few prepackaged meals for when we’re time crunch, but otherwise we just cook it ourselves.

Cut the junk food snacks down.

Sometimes grabbing 5 cans of Pringles is a bit too much. Don’t completely stop getting them, just cut down. Your waist and wallet will be grateful.

Eat leftovers.

Some of the best food I ate was leftovers; pastas taste better the next day. Be reasonable, though, and don’t keep things in the fridge until they grow stuff. Be safe and eat it within the next 2 days. If not, dump it.

Your Thoughts on Saving Money with Groceries

Please feel free to leave your tips on how you save money with your grocery bills in the comments section. We can learn from one another.

Photo Credit: iboy_daniel

I Will Teach You To Be Rich: Book Review

By: Green Panda | Date posted: March 23, 2009 (1:22 pm)

I decided to read Ramit’s new personal finance book, I will Teach You To Be Rich, and give a review. Ramit gives specific step by step guides and scripts to help you with handling your money. Many topics that are covered in the book, I shared my thoughts on.

 My favorite chapters were 4and 5 which dealt with consciences spending (pg.108) and automating your cash flow (pg 132). Ramit gives specific step by step guides and scripts to help you with handling your money.i-will-teach-you-to-be-rich-book-cover

I wanted to highlight of three of the chapters. 

Chapter One – Optimize Your Credit Cards

Ramit opens the book with information on how to get your credit cards under control and organized. He encourages reader to check out their credit report and make sure it’s accurate. We’ve had to check out reports and noticed errors on both credit reports.

He explains the benefits of having a clean and accurate credit report and the difference between that and your credit score.  He also shows you how to negotiate lowering your interest rate and getting rid of annual fees.

If you’re looking to pay off credit card debt, it’s also covered in the first chapter.  

 

Chapter Two: Beat the Banks

 I think that the second chapter is very important in getting your bank accounts in order.  Ramit discusses what to look for in a checking and in a savings account. He also takes the time to explain how his own accounts are set up. 

Credit unions are another great option for people looking for accounts with no fees. Try to avoid paying for fees if there are comparable fee less option.

 

Chapter Four: Conscious Spending

 Loved this chapter because it highlighted that personal finance is about spending on the people and things that you love and cutting expenses on what doesn’t matter to you.  Having a specific goal in mind is a great motivator to keep on saving and Jim’s thoughts on having a reason to save showed the power of this.

 Some people confuse being frugal with being cheap ad think the chart on page 96 does a great job of explaining the difference.

 ======

I hope this review was helpful for you.  The book flows very well, explaining how to cut fees from your credit cards, explaining how credit scores affects your life, finding the best bank (or credit union) for you, and how to start investing. 

I used the tips on information on automatic transfers as I have both scheduled and irregular income. I think this is a useful and entertaining book well worth the price. Here’s the link to buy the I Will Teach You To Be Rich book.

»crosslinked«

Weekly Round Up: Preparing for Visitors

By: Green Panda | Date posted: March 22, 2009 (2:26 pm)

This weekend is busy, as we’re preparing to have family over next weekend. I’m trying to get all my freelance work and errands done, so I’ have plenty of free time to hang with my in-laws when they come down. I’m looking forward to having a great time and showing them around town. 

Blogging News:

Personal Finance Carnivals

 

 

Top Personal Finance Posts This Week

Have a great weekend!

 

 

Pet Care | Ways to Save

By: Green Panda | Date posted: March 20, 2009 (10:10 pm)

Our Cat’s Situation

Our cat has been sick for over the past month. He has started to have accidents on the carpet which is bad enough, but we also noticed his urine was a reddish orange. Worried, we called our regular vet office and scheduled an appointment.

He was diagnosed and got medication, but after some weeks we haven’t seen any improvement. we took him to the vet for a follow up

My friend had her pet go through something similar and recommended her vet. I was scheduled an appointment Wednesday and had the records from the old vet sent over so I could get an informed second opinion. We are on a new diet regime and he got some medication. We’ll wait and see if it improves. I’m grateful that we some money saved to pay for his bills. I’m considering getting some pet insurance for him, but I have to run the numbers first.

If anyone thinks having a pet is cheap, they’re wrong. Having a pet means being responsible for a life, with all the expenses of food, medicine, and everything else.

Try to get my cat feeling better

Try to get my cat feeling better

What’s Having a Pet Going to Cost?

Pets are not as cheap as people think. SPCA has some yearly estimates on the costs of pets. Are these estimates close to what you thought pets cost?

DOGS:

Food 12 bags dog food (18kg) @ $45 $540.00
Biscuit treats 2 boxes per month @ $3.99 96.00
Veterinary Care Yearly Visit – exam and vaccinations 120.00
Nail clipping 6 trips to the vet  @ $15.00 90.00
License fee 30.00
Grooming Spring bath and brush out 40.00
Vacation 2 weeks dog care  @ $20/day 280.00
Total
*please note that is not the Adoption cost at an SPCA shelter, this is an approximate yearly cost of keeping the animal		 $1196.00

CATS:

Food and Treats 4 cans of cat food per month @ $2.00 $96.00
Dry cat food 1 bag (3.6kg) per month @ $20.00 240.00
Cat treats 12 bags @ $2.00 24.00
Veterinary Care Yearly visit – exam and vaccinations 80.00
Kitty litter 1 bag of cat litter per month @ $12.00 144.00
Nail clipping 6  @ $15.00 90.00
Anti-furball medication 2 tubes @ $7.50 15.00
Cat care Vacation 2 weeks @ $15.00 per day 210.00
Total
*please note that is not the Adoption cost at an SPCA shelter, this is an approximate yearly cost of keeping the animal		 $899.00

While these are estimates, it would be reasonable to try and see if you could afford the financial responsibilities of being a pet owner. For some people in this economy, now is not a good time to decide to own a pet. Look at these numbers as a guideline and see if you can afford it.

Personally we have spent more money than we saved from paying off the car loan and switching our car insurance. The truth is we love our pets and make sacrifices to take care of them. It can be excruciating to decide the tough choices.  Life happens and we do we have to protect our pets.

Tips on Saving on Vet Care

  • Schedule regular check-ups: You may think you’re saving money by only taking your pet to the vet for emergencies, but you can easily end up paying more when they get seriously ill.  Take your pet to their yearly check up exam.
  • Ask your vet about treatments: Check with your vet if treatments are necessary or are some optional. Shop around to see if you can find good deals on pet meds.
  • Try some DIY grooming: Bathe your pets at home. Grab a Pedi-Paw or something like it and trim your pet’s nails.
  • Consider Pet Health Insurance: Check around and see if  pet health insurance is a smart financial move for you. Some policies can save you some money, but double check the fine print. Puppy and kitten insurance can save you some money during that expensive first year.
  • Keep careful records of your pet’s inoculations and other health-care services. If you move and or switch vets, make sure you can send the information to avoid duplication and misdiagnosis.

Please plan ahead and save money up for your pet. Be sure you can afford them before you get one. What tips would you give to potential, new, and current pet owners?

Photo Credit: Green Panda

This articles was included in the Festival of Frugality #170 – Frugal Living is Timeless.

Fixing your Finances: Get Started on Just One Thing

By: Green Panda | Date posted: March 19, 2009 (2:20 pm)

I’ve been talking to a lot of people around my neighborhood and  many are concerned about their finances in this economy. They are worried that they might lose their job (if they haven’t already, I have to buddies who were laid off in the last month, one was an engineer, the other in I.T.), getting an emergency fund up, paying down their high interest debt, plus a dozen other things.

They are stressing themselves out worrying, but they are not getting anything done. It’s all for nothing. Focus on one one, maybe two goals for a bit. It will reduce your stress and you’ll have a better chance accomplishing your goals. stock-market

Remember: “Action is Better than Perfection“. Try to go ahead and pick one thing to actually do to improve your finances.

What to Do For Some Common Financial Goals

Here’s the essence of personal finance problems that many people encounter.

  • If you’re in debt, find out how bad it is. Are you $500 in debt or $5000? The amount determines your basic game plan. Try to come up idea to raise money to eliminate debt. Use a debt snowball to get out of credit card debt.
  • If you’re low on savings, start an emergency fund.  Set aside $500 aside for when bad things happen, because they do.
  • If you don’t your retirement fund started, then get started today. Put something away consistently every paycheck. Even if it’s $50/month at first, sock some money away for your future.
  • If you want to maximize your finances, read as much as you can about your options. If you still want more help, contact a fee-based personal finance advisor.

Personal finance can be as complicated as you want or it can be much easier if you want to. Take it step by step: automate your savings, set up free and automatic bill pay, and set aside some money for retirement.

You can also tweak and improve your finances, but getting started is the biggest thing to do. You’re more likely to achieve your goal if you focus on one thing and decrease the stress in your life.

What is your first priority with your finances? How are your doing with your financial goals so far?

Photo Credit: shanti

This post was included in the Carnival of Personal Finance.

This blog uses the cross-linker plugin developed by Jan Hvizdak, owner of Aqua-Fish.Net