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Here's some good, fresh tips on ways to save money while you're spending (is that an oxymoron?) from ABC News. They are ideas from the author of Greatest Secrets of the Coupon Mom including combining online coupons and rebate programs, getting a refund for items that go on sale for a small period of time after you bought it (called a Price Guarantee), taking advantage of store coupons and which stores accept competitor's coupons and price matching.
Virgin Mobile is offering 1 minute of free talk time for your cell phone service for every 30 seconds of ads you watch on a computer or read as a text messages on their phones. You have to then answer questions to prove you watched it. The move is obviously targeted to teens—but I wonder what the response will be.
I talked with Lillian Cash on "Round the Country," an afternoon program on a 100,000 watt southern gospel station out of Toccoa Falls, GA, Greenville, SC and Asheville, NC. We talked a solid 30 minutes about the book and ideas on how to save money planning a wedding. Keep 'em coming! For those of you who found this blog from hearing about on the station, thanks for visiting! Feel free to post your questions and extra tips and ideas.
I have an article up at RELEVANTmagazine.com: "Wedding of the Century". Check it out!
I have an additional Amazon review up, thanks to Meredith Pelham, who blogs about frugal living at: http://likemerchantships.blogspot.com. An excerpt: "Cheap Ways to Tie The Knot is a FAR better overall planner than Bridal Bargains and more up-to-date (stylewise) than How To Have A Big Wedding On A Small Budget (although I'd still recommend reading Diane Warner's classic, too)."
Two great articles have been posted on CBN.com (The 700 Club's website).
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target=_blank>Ladies, Get 'Radiant'! By Jennifer E. Jones, CBN.com Producer
(This one's about the launch of Radiant magazine. An excerpt: “Most spirituality in women’s magazines leans toward new age and generic faith. However, Radiant is preaching a Jesus-specific gospel without thumping any Bibles.”)
* And an excerpt from my book: Cheap Ways to Have a Fabulous Reception
Congratulations to Angie Stoker who won a copy of Cheap Ways to Tie the Knot by participating in our contest this week. We got some great cheap tips. You can read them in the comments posted in the entry, "Cheap Ways to Challenge." Enjoy.
This article digests some tips from a recent Good Housekeeping issue. A few fresh ones:
• PriceRunner.com updates prices on over 500 items every week.
• Ebates.com lists more than 800 retailers that offer cash rebates up to 20% off.
• Dollar stores: Good Housekeeping recently found a 100-ounce bottle of Liquid Tide laundry detergent selling for $6.50 at a dollar store and $9.85 at a nearby grocery store.
Good tips!
Last weekend I visited my family in East Tennessee. Plane tickets were insanely expensive, but I did use Priceline.com and saved $68. Better than nothing. I celebrated my birthday there over the weekend. We got in plenty of shopping and time with family (here’s a photo of baby Jorah, my cousin Tiffany’s baby. She is adorable!).
Dad and Mom brought me to a discount furniture warehouse where they picked out furniture for the house they’re building. They got name-brand leather couches, coffeetable, end tables, dining set and hutch for much less than they would have paid in the stores—and thanks to my grandfather’s connections, the owner of the store gave them an additional amount off. I believe it ended up being at least $1500 off the already discounted price. They got a great deal.
And of course when there are deals around, I start salivating. Here is a loveseat I found in the back in the clearance section. The owner gave me an additional amount off of it, and didn’t charge me tax either. My parents are going to have to bring it down to me, though! This will go perfectly with my eBay couch.
On my last day there, my parents took me to Cootie Brown’s, a really redneck name for a really cool and eclectic restaurant. Handpainted tables, mosaic walls, bright colors, industrial-looking folk art. Anyway, I had a to-die-for hamburger with spinach, goat cheese and sun-dried tomatoes. Here are their really cute fried chips. Can chips be cute?
Here are my grandparents, the Rev. G.D. and Lou Peters and my parents, Steve and Jewel Baker, are pictured above.
Dad took me by a whole-in-the-wall car repair place that specializes in working on those old hippie VW buses—which my husband is obsessed with. His dream is to have a Microbus. So I took this photo for him.
Here’s a photo of the house my parents are building, just a street over from my grandparents. It’s a beautiful area. They looked for houses for a few months and found that the prices were way above the quality of the houses. So they’re building. They’re spending the same as they would have to buy an existing house but they’re getting a brand new one which will increase in value a lot faster than those older houses that weren’t in good shape.
What is your best money-saving strategy? Post a comment in reply to this post and be entered to win a copy of my book, Cheap Ways to Tie the Knot: How to Plan a Church Wedding for Less Than $5,000.
The fastest way to change your perspective about money is to give it away. To those living from paycheck to paycheck, saving money is at best optimistic; giving is nothing less than unrealistic. But giving could just be the best thing that ever happened to your checkbook.
Christian tradition (and others as well) includes a tenet of giving 10 percent of our income to a local assembly. This tithe does not only keep the lights on at the local church or enable it to invest in local charities, it does a number on the giving person’s heart. This act acknowledges that all we have and everything we are comes from God.
Giving changes our perspective on money by helping us see a bigger picture. We set priorities and make sacrifices in order to give to a cause we believe in. Giving opens our eyes to needs that are everywhere. It increases our capacity for compassion. “It connects us to the world and that lets us see past ourselves,” Mary Hunt writes in Debt-Proof Your Marriage. “Giving develops our faith and pulls the plug on our greed and compulsive money behaviors. Giving calms down that thing that lives inside some of us that says ‘I want more and more and more!’”
Hunt suggests developing a habit of giving by treating it like a regular bill, with the same urgency. If you feel that 10 percent is too much to start with, try 2 or 3. Your heart will become enlarged through the act of giving.
My wonderful mother-in-law, Ginger, bought Jeff and I a slow cooker/crock pot as a house-warming gift. The first weekend we cooked a ham with a can of pineapple over it. It was great, but I was looking for more easy recipes, with limited ingredients! I found this site today and it had several recipes I was looking for, plus a lot more. CheapCooking.com. Enjoy!
I got a great deal on a couch this weekend. I keep my eye on postings from a local dropoff eBay store. If I bid and win items, I can swing by and pick them up without paying shipping. I found a great couch and the bidding started at $9.99. I had the highest bid at $20.50 for four days ... When the time on the auction was four minutes and counting, I logged on to make sure no one snagged my bargain in the last minute. I'm so glad I did—someone jumped in with 10 seconds remaining and outbid me! I immediately posted a higher bid and won the auction with like two seconds remaining. Unbelievable! Total price: $32.87. Not bad!