Entries Tagged 'Saving' ↓

A while ago I wrote an article on Wise Bread titled Five Ways to Squeeze Savings from Your Workplace. One of the commenters wrote that she actually collects cans and bottles at work and then turn them in at the recycling center for a little bit of money. I thought that was pretty funny, but I do drink quite a few bottled waters and soft drinks at work. I also bring home a few drinks that the hubby likes so we discard quite a few bottles and cans each week. Lately I have been feeling guilty about throwing those bottles and cans away. Finally, last week I sort of broke down and brought a plastic bag to work and collected the bottles and cans I used. On Friday I took the dozen or so cans and bottle I collected at work and today I sold them all at the recycling center along with a pile of other bottles and cans I collected outside on the patio. I got enough money to buy a rotisserie chicken, and I was pretty happy about it.

My hubby mocked me a bit and said, “Wow! Months of saving and all you got was a chicken!” I was still pretty proud of it because I got the chicken by recycling! If I were a bit more systematic about my recycling I could earn a few bucks a week and that could cover quite a few expenses. Here’s what I could possibly gain by turning in those bottles and cans.

Rotisserie chicken or burrito - $5 to $7 - Required recycling: 3 to 6 cans a day for a month (This is pretty easy to do between the two of us).

Laundry money - $10 to $15 a month - Required recycling: 6 to 10 cans a day (Sometimes I do drink 2 to 3 of the small bottled orange juices at work so this amount of recycling is definitely reachable).

Internet bill - $36 a month - Required recycling: 20 to 25 cans/bottles a day (This would require collecting other people’s bottles and cans but it is feasible.)

Gas money for my car - $100 a month - Required recycling: 60 to 100 cans a day (Okay this one probably requires me to be a full time dumpster diver so I probably won’t do it).

Now I have to admit that my mom is probably going to read this article and call me and say, “don’t be so damn cheap! You don’t need to be a real bag lady!” However, I think I will stick to turning in at least the bottles and cans my hubby and I produce everyday. A chicken or burrito every month for recycling waste is still a pretty good incentive to me!

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In my article about how I saved $30,000 in college I wrote that I entered a lot of sweepstakes, and some people are curious how exactly that works. Today I will share in detail what I did, and give some tips through what I learned.

1. Use a sweepstakes list - It is time consuming to find out about individual sweekstakes yourself. What I did was use online-sweepstakes.com. It is a great community and forum with thousands of contests that you can enter. It used to be completely free, but now there is a subscription fee for some of the premium content (more sweeps and site specific contests). I paid subscription for one year because I won so many things from there.

2. Use a sweepstakes only email address - This is to prevent spam and newsletters from rendering your main email address useless. No matter how hard you try, if you are a sweeper you may be spammed.

3. Always read the rules - You should always read the rules and see if you qualify. Otherwise, if you won something and then got disqualified it would be a sad loss. Usually sweepstakes disallow Floridians to enter because of the laws there. Liquor companies also do not allow Californians to enter for prizes worth more than $5.00.

4. Try to enter contests sponsored by reputable companies - This is important because there are scammers out there that try to collect emails and addresses and then sell these lists. If you only deal with companies that are fairly well known then the chance of being scammed is lessened greatly.

5. Use a form filler - The most popular form filling software I have seen is Roboform. Before Roboform I had to write my own form fillers. It is usually not against the rules to use Roboform to fill out a contest entry.

6. Enter local contests or limited entry contests for better chances - Some contests have rules that say they are limited to the first X number of entrants. These contests will give you a much better chance at winning. Local television and radio stations are also good places to look for contests because the pool of entrants is much smaller than a national contest.

7. Never give out money - Sweepstakes should be no purchase necessary. This is the law. If a sweepstakes asks for money or credit card information you should avoid it. There should be no entry fees of any kind.

These are the basics of sweeping, but there are a lot of other things I learned through the few years I was a sweeper. A lot of sweepers are stay at home moms and they are generally very friendly. The key is to be careful when you are online and supplying private information. You also have to be persistent to win. I have won some very nice prizes and tried many products that I would otherwise not have bought. So I think if you have a lot of free time on your hands it is a good hobby.

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Welcome to the 123rd Carnival of Debt Reduction! If you are a new visitor to The Baglady feel free to look around! Since this is the 123rd edition of this wonderful carnival started by the Mighty Bargain Hunter, I decided to group the thirteen excellent articles this week into the one, two, threes of debt reduction!

Editor’s Picks:

Both of the following two articles offer no nonsense tips on how to reduce your debt. Go ahead and read them!

Tips To Kickstart Your Debt Reduction posted at The Happy Rock.

How to Pay Off Your Debts posted at Funny about Money - “This is the latest in a series explaining Funny’s Ten Money Principles.”

1. Avoid Debt!

Avoiding new debt and charges is the first step towards reducing your debt. Here are quite a few articles focusing on avoiding credit card charges and other various scams.

Lynnae presents My Bank Sent Me a Letter posted at beingfrugal.net - “I received a letter from my bank, along with some convenience checks. My bank told me it pays to use the checks. Pays whom? is my question.”

Steer Clear of Customer Service Credit Card Offers posted at The Truth About CreditCards.com.

Do You Have Too Much Plastic? posted at Millionaire Money Habits - “How many credit cards do you own, and when is enough enough? Discounts, lower fees, better rates, travel perks. Sounds tempting, doesn’t it? The number of credit cards you have may be hurting your credit score. Here’s how to fix that.”

Killer Credit Card Fees and How to Avoid Them posted at Cash Money Life.

Do Not Fall for Rent to Buy Mortgage Loan Schemes posted at Mortgage Loan Calculator - ” In current times of falling home prices in the US and the $1.8 trillion sub-prime mortgage debt that financial banks have to deal with, “Rent to Buy” signs are popping up everywhere to lure consumers into purchasing homes at “cheap mortgage rates.” Rent to Buy is a marketing gimmick used by landlords to lease out their homes and receive rental income, only because they cannot sell their homes in the existing mortgage market. If you are renting, there is little benefit for you to fall for these schemes. The reason is because most Rent to Buy schemes do not result in a purchase. People with bad credit, no down payments and lots of credit card debt also qualify for rent to buy schemes. That’s why you should avoid them.”

2. Make Budgets and Plans That Work

Once you are committed to reducing your debt you would need a plan and discipline to execute your plan. These articles offer stories and advice on how to budget for your goal.

Low-Tech Budgeting posted at DebtFREE-Revolution.

Debt Free posted at Motherhood101Aplus.

At Least Some Expenses You Can Plan For posted at I’ve Paid For This Twice Already… - “Being in debt and having a large expense looming is difficult to navigate. Planning is key!”

3. Shift Your Mindset from Spending to Saving

Once you are on your way to eliminate debt you should shift your mindset from spending mode to savings mode so that you never ever get into debt again!

Risking the Minimal Emergency Fund posted at Me vs Debt.

Small Savings Add Up and Here’s The Proof posted at Saving Advice Blog.

Day 623: If Only People Felt This Way About Keeping Their Money posted at We’re In Debt.

Thank you all for reading this edition of the Carnival of Debt Reduction and make sure to submit your articles for the next edition here! If you enjoy reading The Baglady feel free to subscribe to the full feed!

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So a couple months ago Get Rich Slowly linked my story about my super cheap ex-boyfriend and thousands of people read it in a matter of hours. After that I received an email from a guy named Alan Corey and it said the following:

Hi Baglady,

I came across your blog today and have to say I loved reading about your ex-boyfriend. He reminds me a lot of myself. I went to extreme measures to achieve my financial goals and finally was rewarded for it. I would love to send him (and you) an advanced copy of my book ” A Million Bucks by 30.” It hopefully will keep you both motivated to also remind you that you two are doing things right.

Cheers,

Alan Corey

www.alancorey.com

So I went to the guy’s website and read a bit about him, and he seemed weird, but kind of funny, and mostly harmless. So I replied to him to send me the book, and a couple weeks later I received a package from the publisher Random House and it contained a shiny advanced copy of the book and on the title page it said, “Here’s to better boyfriends”. (Well, thanks Alan, but I don’t need anymore boyfriends. I got a super cool hubby now.) I read it on the way to Southern California while my hubby drove, and to be honest I rather enjoyed the book because it was quite funny and candid. After reading his story of eating only ramen noodles for three months I understood why he said my super cheap ex reminded him of himself. Though what is funnier to me is that another incident in his book reminded me of myself. The story was that one of his girlfriends was really into movies and spent hundreds of dollars a month on her passion, and he made a spreadsheet showing her how much money she could earn if she invested the money instead of spending it on movies. (A replica of the spreadsheet is in the book). After he presented the spreadsheet he was dumped. I laughed out loud at this because I made a similar spreadsheet for my hubby while we were dating because he spent a lot of money on games and gadgets. Fortunately my hubby didn’t dump me. I do understand where Alan is coming from and the spreadsheet is really his way of saying to the girl that he cares about her, but unfortunately the message was lost somewhere. The book is also sprinkled with sections named “Extreme Cheapskate Strategy”. Some of these tips are good, but some are a bit too extreme or even borderline unethical. I will not list them here, but some of these are pretty hilarious too.

The main vehicle Alan used to become a millionaire is real estate. But unlike the infamous Casey Serin he was very sensible about what he could handle. He almost always offered lower than the asking price and had partners and kept his full time job throughout all of his real estate ventures. I like that Alan acknowledged that he was lucky to catch one of the largest real estate booms in history, but I would like to emphasize that Alan really worked his butt off too. I really don’t know how he is able to have a full time job, handle six or seven crazy tenants, go to a bazillion open houses, renovate houses, host success seminars, and go on a bunch of reality TV shows. My main criticism of the book is that people might read it and think it’s easy to become a house flipper or landlord and suddenly become a young millionaire. Those easy money days are dying down and it really takes a lot of time and patience to be a successful real estate investor. I think Alan should have had a summary of his personality traits and actions that took him where he is, and I think a lot of financially successful people have similar paths to Alan’s. I will try to summarize the things that made Alan successful here for him:

1. Have a clear goal — Alan lists his goals from the beginning of the book to the end. His main goal has always been becoming a millionaire by 30, but he also had many smaller subgoals that brings him closer to the majority goal. Basically, knowing where you want to go is always important to your success.

2. Don’t Care About What Others Think of You and Live Below Your Means — Alan was really cheap and didn’t care to have a beautiful apartment or the best room in the house, and that’s how he saved and earned money. He also earned a lot of money and free goodies by being ridiculed on reality TV shows, but that’s really in another league of not caring what others think.

3. Work Your Butt Off (at least in the beginning) — As I mentioned before, Alan really worked pretty hard when he was young, and as his wealth increased it became easier to accumulate money. The rich do become richer, but sitting on your butt and not working towards your goals will not make you rich in the first place.

4. Take Risks but Also Research Everything Before You Jump In – For the most part I thought the risks Alan took in real estate were realistic and well thought out. He also emphasizes that he took a lot of time researching the investments he was about to make. I think the research part is overlooked by a lot of people who want to become rich quickly. It is usually not that easy to find a good investment and the cliche “it always goes up in the long run” isn’t always true for everything.

5. Don’t Be Too Greedy – One thing I really liked about Alan’s story is that he quit and got out of the rat race. If he kept on flipping houses he might have lost his fortunes, but he did what he wanted to do and decided that he is done. Sometimes people can become wildly successful but never learn to quit and become a slave to earning money once again. I admire the people that value living their life over having the biggest bank account and the fanciest cars. Another example of this is Millionaire Mommy Next Door and I highly recommend her blog.

Anyway, I definitely recommend Alan’s book if you want a light hearted read about a Southern boy making it big in the Big Apple. I was laughing a lot when I read it, but that is because I can really relate to what he went through.  Though I am hoping that his book doesn’t create any new Casey Serins and his readers would realize that it isn’t easy to become a millionaire, but anyone could do it.

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Something I found quite interesting when I visit China is that a lot of people think foreigners are automatically rich, and if you’re a Chinese expatriate people would think you’re loaded, too. When I am immersed in that environment sometimes I do feel I am wealthy and I tend to spend more money than I should. The exchange rate makes me feel rich in a mathematical manner, and I don’t calculate the prices to US dollars extremely accurately every time I buy something. As a coworker of mine says it, “it feels like I am spending monopoly money in China and I could buy so much more!”. Here are some of my stories about this phenomenon.

The first time I went back to China was in 1999. This was a full seven years after I left my home country and I was sixteen. I remember that my mom told me to not tell people that I am from America because they will try to rip me off. When we went back home we did some shopping, and we were buying quite a bit of stuff and the vendor was quite puzzled. She said to us, “you’re not Yangzhouese are you?” (Yangzhou is the city I am from, the birthplace of Yangzhou/Yangchow fried rice). We both knew the merchant was an out of towner because she had an accent of another dialect. So my mom replied in fluent Yangzhouese, “can’t your tell by the way we speak that we’re really Yangzhouese? You’re the out of towner!” I thought it was funny that the way we spent money in our hometown marked us as tourists, and yet we had the essence of the locals because of our language.

The next time we went to China was 2006. China change so much in seven years and everything became much more expensive and the dollar has declined against the yuan, but this time we went with a tour group. We were inexperienced tourists and every time we were brought to a tourist trap shop we bought something. In Beijing my mom gave into sales pressure and bought a little statue for way more than it’s worth. She still blames us for letting her buy it today. I guess the problem is that this time they knew we were from America, and gave us the “special” high prices in the designated stores. The excitement of being back in China and having fun really got to us on that trip, and we went a bit overboard. Then again, I felt like I was supporting the economy of my homeland, and it wasn’t a bad thing.

The last time I went to China was shortly before I got married this year. My mother and I toured some of the most beautiful and remote places in China and I could write a lot more about this later. The people in these distant lands were so simple and beautiful and we bought a lot less things this time, but we were mostly happy with our finds. Then after the tour we went back home to Yangzhou and had dinner with friends and family. Of course my grandparents have told everyone how much money I make because they are proud of it. People were impressed because they always multiply the income by the exchange rate, and they don’t realize that we have fairly heavy income taxes and a high cost of living here. (in China there is still no income tax at this moment) It felt good to invite everyone to a very nice restaurant and pay for it out of my pocket because I am able to do it. Again, that feeling of being rich crept up.

It is dangerous to feel rich when you travel abroad to any country that has a currency that’s cheaper than the dollar because you can end up spending a lot and you will be noticed. It is better to lay low sometimes so you don’t get robbed or scammed. Additionally, I think what is worse is to feel superior to the people who have less than us. The next time I go back to China I will be with my hubby, and I will keep on reminding myself the reality of our life. We are not internet tycoons and we live a comfortable life, but we still need to be responsible with our money no matter which country we are in. It is so easy to get lost in the surreal surroundings of a foreign land and there is nothing wrong with having some fun, but just remember to count your blessings, and your spending.

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