I have received a handful of emails saying the links in my daily emails are taking a super long time to open.
[poll id="9"]
Don’t forget to sign up for Bargain Babe email updates to automatically be entered to win one of two $25 Starbucks gift cards.
I am giving them out to celebrate my first month of blogging. My email updates are free and you can unsubscribe at any time.
Sign up at http://www.bargainbabe.com/email-updates-and-rss/
The random drawing is March 23. Feel free to share with friends and family.
If you already signed up, thanks and good luck!
~Julia
aka Bargain Babe
Get a $1 oatmeal breakfast cup with fruit and brown sugar from Jamba Juice with this printable coupon. Expires March 31, 2009. Not valid in Hawaii or grocery stores.
Nordstrom has hundreds of pairs of shoes marked down by 33 to 40% off. Perhaps it is time for me to buy heels suitable for going out. Browse men’s sale pairs and kids’ sale pairs.
Every Wednesday get a free movie rental from MovieBox when you visit their blog for the code. This week’s code is 75EA16. You can also get a free code sent to your phone every Monday. Find a RedBox near you.
Get 8 bars of Dove soap for less than $1 with a coupon at Walgreens this week.
REI members can get 20% off one regular priced item with coupon code MEMSAVE. Ends March 29, 2009. Some exclusions.
Thanks, Sarah!
Repairing your credit history is one of the best ways to improve your chances of getting a mortgage. Here are nine things you can do to fix your credit, courtesy of Heather Moch, a mortgage broker turned credit consultant who runs HM Credit Consulting, Inc.
- Make payments ontime. This makes up about 35% of your score.
- Keep balances low. Less than 50% of your allowed spending limit, or 30% if you can. This makes up about 30% of your score.
- Keep old accounts open. The length of your credit history is really important. If you close an account from college because you no longer use the card, your whole credit history is gone. Use the card every few months for the best score.
- If you are going to apply for a mortgage, avoid opening a ton of new credit lines. Even an inquiry into opening a line of credit (like when J.Crew offers you 10% off to open a credit card and checks your record first) can have an impact if enough of them happen in a short period of time.
- Along these same lines, opting out of pre-approved credit offers through the mail using a free site called OptOutPrescreen.com will reduce the number of times banks and credit companies make an inquiry into your credit.
- Mix it up. Having a mix of four credit lines, such as a credit card, mortgage, car loan, secured line of credit through your bank, or student loan will lead to a better score than only having one type of credit.
- Be vigilant. All kinds of slip ups show up on your credit report, including late payments, collections, tax liens, late child support checks or alimony, and late library books.
- Haggle. When you negotiate with collectors, they will often take 20-50% of what they are asking for to settle a debt.
- Get a credit report. Use AnnualCreditReport.com to get a free annual report to check for errors that need to be fixed.
Vacation like there is no recession is the unofficial motto of HomeExchange.com, which as 26,000 listings for homes you can swap with yours. Home swapping is cheaper than a hotel and is becoming trendy for weekend getaways and events, like a wedding, alumni football game, or parent’s weekend at college.
Home Exchange lets you search its listings, though completing a transaction requires membership. A silver membership costs $100 for one year. Use code BB2009 – special for Bargain Babe readers – to get 25% off. Expires March 31, 2009. If you do not complete an exchange within your first year, the second year is free.
Browse all listings by country. The US has by far the most, with 10,126 listings, when I checked. If you want to go on a ski vacation, here is a home in Park City, Utah that is 1/2 mile from a ski resort. Or maybe you want to visit Yellowstone National Park but prefer a hard roof in Cody, WY over camping.
For a far flung vacation, consider these two listings for Placencia Village in Belize. Or browse Home Exchange’s top 10 destinations. For more about how exchanging homes works, read their FAQs.
A blogger is a different breed. We are driven, obsessive, and constant self-promoters.
I learned how to blog from a guy who sat across from me at the LA Daily News. His name was Greg Hernandez and he blogged constantly. This garnered a lot of attention, which led to blog envy (on my part). When I launched a blog at the paper we became instant rivals but also best blogger friends.
We shared tips, compared stats (5,430,499 wins for him, 19 for me) and learned from each other. He showed me how to embed videos and overcome my fear of telling everyone I know about my blog. I showed him how to align photos.
Now, he is blogging independently just like me. Greg in Hollywood is all things pop culture through a gay man’s eyes.
And so our mostly good-natured rivalry continues. I have one month on him, but no doubt he will catch up to me quickly. Good luck, Greg!
Is your birthday is coming up? Check out Free Birthday Treats, a Web site that lays out what you can get for free on your special day.
The site breaks the freebies down by adult, child, pets, and state. Perfect! You can also search by type of freebie (travel, entertainment, food, and retail). The online category does not seem to have any entries, unfortunately.
Adults in California, for instance, can get a free car wash at 7 Flags, free skiing at Big Bear, and a lot of free food. If you know of a deal that is not listed, add it here.
If you lost your job and have a mortgage with Citigroup, you may be able to pay just $500 a month on your mortgage for three months, according to a CNN story. “Some homeowners may be able to get extensions after the 90 days expire, depending on their situation,” the story says.
To qualify for the Citgroup Homeowner Unemployment Assist program, you must be 60 days or more past due on your mortgages or in foreclosure. “The house must also be the customer’s primary residence,” according to an AP story.
Unemployed workers can also pay significantly less for health insurance because of the stimulus package. Previously, COBRA allowed workers to continue coverage for 18 months if they paid the entire premium plus a 2% administrative fee. Now, the stimulus package will cover 65% of the COBRA payment for workers laid off between Sept. 1 and the end of 2009.
“If you delayed signing up for COBRA coverage when you lost your job, you have 60 days to re-enroll after you receive a notice from your employer,” says a USA Today story. Keep reading for more details.
I went to a friend’s house this weekend and she proudly showed me her new urban garden. Actually, it was just a pile of dirt bordered by wood, but she has plans to grow lettuce, herbs, and tomatoes.
I assumed my friend spent all day digging and hammering because urban gardens are very popular. Turns out she could care less about trends.
“At least I’ll have food,” she half-joked.
Urban gardening is not about Mother Earth any more. It’s about survival.
Recession string beans, anyone?
When my current batch of potted tulips dies, I’m going to jump on the bandwagon. Are you thinking about doing the same thing?
Here are resources to start a recession garden:
Urban gardening help points to many other resources on the web and has a helpful plant guide
American Community Garden Association – check out their Learn page for practical tips and to find a community garden near you.
Square foot gardening is a technique that supposedly reduces weeding and maintenance time
Earthfirst is a fun blog about environmental news, including urban gardening (not the radical environmental group).
Burpee is one of the better known sites to buy seeds online.
All about planters has a list of vegetables that grow really well in containers.
Thanks to all the readers who checked out my contest entry for the best personal finance blog post of 2008 on Free Money Finance. I made it to round two!!!
This time I am in Game 6: got myself into a bargain bind. Check out my post and my competitor’s.
You can vote for me – if you feel it is better than my rival – by leaving a comment voting for “Bind” on the Free Money Finance page. Votes on BargainBabe.com do not count, unfortunately.
Your comment should look like this: Game 6: Bind
You can also vote in game 5: “Kickstart” or “29.”
Thanks for your support!
My credit card bill is typically about $3,000. Last month it was $669.19. No joke. My new simple budget reduced my spending by more than $2,000. Yipee!
I did it by using my simple budget formula:
Income minus savings minus necessities minus irregular expenses = discretionary spending.
My discretionary spending, which is how much money I have to spend each month, totalled $796.50. I tracked my expenses on an index card, subtracting each purchase and I have never hated parting with my cash quite as much. Something about writing it down and subtracting each expenditure really made it easy to say no to my credit card.
To apply my simple budget system to your finances fill in the dollar amounts for each of these categories.
Income: (the easiest category if you are salaried)
Savings: $833 (to max out ROTH Ira accounts for Hubby and me)
Necessities: rent, gas, electricity, Internet service, cell phone service, gasoline (Hubby and I each get one full tank a month seeing how I work from home and he commutes on his bike), doctor visits, medicine, gifts and my newspaper subscription to the Sunday NY Times (which is on the chopping block)
Irregular expenses: car insurance, car registration, car repairs, dental visits, Christmas presents, magazine subscriptions, charitable donations, vacations, yoga classes, and oil changes. I totaled what we spent on these categories last year and divided by 12. I automatically deduct this amount from our checking account into a special ING savings account each month.
Discretionary spending: food, clothing, bus fare, entertainment, vitamins, toiletries, meals out, hair cuts, travel, and home maintenance. To see why I put food on the discretionary list, go here.
February was the first month Hubby and I tried this new system and we both had money leftover. (See my card above.) I’m wondering if it will be as easy to get through March. I’m also not sure what to do with the $207.02 I have left over!
[poll id="8"]
If you are looking for more personal finance advice, consider checking out Frugal Focus. It is a Web site that draws content from eight frugal living blogs, including Bargain Babe!
The site is about celebrating living well on a budget. Frugal Focus launches today. Check it out!
