I’ve been so tight with my wallet lately that I’m itching for a smart splurge. I don’t want to blow all my cash, but I want to have a little fun. If you are in the same boat, check out these four online sample sales, as reviewed in the May issue of ShopSmart Magazine.
EditorsCloset.com – “Whether you’re looking for accessories, gifts, or formal dresses, this site has it. Brands range from up-and-coming American designers to European classics. We recently found a fabulous Oscar de la Renta gown marked down 87 percent to $450.” Get an invite to join the site here. Refunds within 14 days.
HauteLook.com – “The site has more than 20 weekly sales and a huge variety of brands – everything from BCBG Maz Azria to Oprah fave Robert Rodriguez. We fell in love with a $370 BCBG lavender silk dress marked down to $74.” Store credit for clothes only within 14 days.
Redtagcrazy.com – “The site sells multiple sizes of just one women’s apparel item at a time. Sales last an hour or two or until pieces sell out.” Returns for store credit.
Ruelala.com – “It’s all about investment pieces at RueLaLa; think office separates from classic American designers like Cole Haan. We found an Anne Klein pantsuit for $85, discounted 75 percent.” Returns within 30 days unless final sale. Get an invite here.
When negotiating a discounted rate for a hotel room, persistence pays off. My sister learned this first hand this while booking a room for her family’s spring break trip to Santa Barbara.
She checked rates online then called the hotel she wanted to stay at and asked if she had enough points to get a deal.
Nope.
Next she asked if they had any deals going on. No again.
So she kept pushing by saying things like:
“I’m really looking for a lower rate than that.”
“Do you have any rooms that are discounted?”
“Is there any way we could lower that rate?”
“I don’t need an ocean view or prime space.”
“Can you do better?”
She kept the tone friendly and was very patient. Somehow, they eventually found a lower rate! She ended up saving $100 a night for the first night, and $80 a night for the second and third nights.
The true savings are even greater because hotel taxes are based on the nightly rate. And when you book directly through the hotel you are more likely to earn points or club rewards.
There is a certain psychological approach to haggling that is particularly important. I put science to work and embarrassed friends by asking for a discount on cupcakes.
Cheap things to do, eat, and see in Santa Barbara
Thanks, Sarah!
Getting a lender to modify your mortgage to make it more affordable is a complicated process. A recent story in the LA Times explains the ins and outs of the $75 billion federal program to help struggling homeowners.
If you have been fantasizing about negotiating lower mortgage payments, the story may well disappoint. “Loan modifications, with rare exceptions, can be obtained only by borrowers who can show there’s a substantial chance their troubled mortgages can get back on track.”
To be eligible for a mortgage modification:
- The home must NOT be an investment property
- The unpaid loan balance has to be $729,750 or less
- Loan must have been made before Jan. 1, 2009
- You must be employed or have a new job lined up
Read the full story here.
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~Julia
aka Bargain Babe
TheStreet.com has a list of places that will cut you a break if you get laid off, including the YMCA, Hyundai, and JetBlue. Very cool.
I was trying to persuade a friend to buy a $.47 cent green hat (nearly all of you guessed correctly!) at Old Navy when she confessed why she had to say no. She only buys one accessory and one item of clothing each month. And while the hat was a great bargain, it was not worth $.47 to her.
Her rule – a new year’s resolution which she intends to keep year round – has helped her save hundreds of dollars each month. Shopping is one of her main methods of de-stressing. But with this plan, that has changed.
“Now that I have the pressure of only buying two things a month, nothing looks as appealing to me,” said my friend Sarah. “What if later in the month I find something really amazing?”
I happened to be with her when she found her clothing purchase for March – a cute floral top at H&M that was a throwback to the 70s. Definitely worth it.
The price was $15.90. If the price was particularly low one month did she let herself buy an extra item, I asked. No, because then you get into a gray area that allows you to justify more spending, she said.
I think Sarah’s system is brilliant because it is very clear cut, which takes the emotion out of shopping. Falling in love with clothes does terrible things to your wallet.
My friend’s system does leave room for big splurges, however, because she does not set any price limits. This has not been a problem for her, but it would get me into trouble. One purchase at Nordstrom and I would spend more money than if I let myself buy a few low-cost items each month. But perhaps it will work for you!
Here are some ideas to freshen your home post spring-cleaning.
Make your own curtains using a light-colored material from a fabric store.
Join the Freecycle network and get free stuff! Each network is a Yahoo! group based on geography. So everything listed is free – and nearby!
Better Budgeting recommends lining up 5 or 7 clear glass jars and bottles on a windowsill, counter top, or shelving. Place one flower in each bottle. This works in the kitchen, bedroom, bathroom, and front porch!
Apply a fresh coat of paint to one room. You can accomplish a lot in one weekend without spending too much moolah. Borrow re-useable supplies from a friend if you can.
Browse the Craigslist free pages. Click on your city, say Minneapolis, then under “for sale,” click on free. Co crazy!
Quick and Simple recommends inserting cute note cards into a picture frame with multiple slots, above. Use cards you received for sentimental value.
Head to a garage sale with a targeted list and limited cash. I like to leave my wallet at home and instead bring $10, which can go a long way at a garage sale. And then while haggling you can honestly say, but I only have $10!
Quick and Simple recommends covering a canvas (blank or one you are bored of) with fabric that you like. Group multiple canvases for an artsy look.
Paint a few old pots in a bright color of high-gloss varnish (shellac), which you can buy at art stores and home improvement stores. Plant something in them or use them as an accent on bookshelves. If your budget allows, use different colors of varnish.
The craft store JoAnn’s has tons of project ideas. Join their email list for regular coupons via email. Michael’s also has cheap home decor ideas.
Has a friend or family member asked you for a loan recently? Lending money to friends and family is becoming more common, but there are pitfalls.
Watch this 5:41 video from MSNBC for tips on how to turn down the loan, offer other types of help, or create a contract for the loan.
If you are buying anything, get the lowest price by using one of 20 price trackers reviewed by CNET. I highlighted a few interesting ones below, though I encourage you to read about all 20 in the original article.
Amazon Price Watch (aka NukePrice.com)
“Amazon Price Watch may sound like it’s only Amazon.com prices, but it actually works with around 100 online retailers. You can have it watch the price of something by dropping its link into the service’s Web form, or by installing a browser add-on that lets you start tracking from the retailer’s site. Along with price-watching tools, it’s also got a deals finder and a “filler items” tool that will help you find low-priced items to add to your Amazon order to get free shipping.”
EDealInfo
“EDealInfo may not be the prettiest site of the bunch, but it’s got a simple and powerful way to build a deal alert without too many specifics. For example, you can keep track of an entire genre of products for price drops, like all digital cameras from a certain retailer, or group of retailers. It’s also registration-free.”
NetHaggler
“NetHaggler is a service designed to let users band together to get a lower price from a retailer by buying a single product as a group. It also has a price tracking feature that lets you bookmark items you’d be interested in buying for a certain price. Its system will then send you an alert either if your product falls within the price you’ve set, or if it’s been able to haggle down the price by bulk buying with other users.”
ShoppingNotes
“ShoppingNotes is one of the simplest tools on this list. There’s no sign-up, you just give the site the product page URL (or URLs as a group) and your e-mail address. It then sends you an e-mail if the price goes down. Besides its main site there’s a bookmarklet you can add to your browser to begin watching a price from any site you’re on.”
ZingSale
“ZingSale is one of the prettiest sites on this list and, like the others, is set up to let you quickly put together a list of items you want to track for price drops. It’s got a fast and smart search engine, with a very deep level of categorization, which can help narrow down your searches. And its e-mails lead directly to the retailer that’s selling it at the lowest price.”
Thanks, Ellyn!
Customers of The Gas Company may be eligible for a 20% discount on their gas bill through a program called CARE. To qualify you or a person in your household must receive benefits from Medi-Cal, Food Stamps, TANF, Women, Infant & Children (WIC), Healthy Families Category A & B, or LIHEAP.
Or you can qualify if your income is less than $30,500 for up to two people in the home, $35,800 for up to three people, $43,200 for four, $50,600 for five, or $58,000 for six. For each additional household member add $7,400.
If you apply and are accepted the discount starts within 90 days. For details and an application, download this form. (It is a pdf so give it time to open.) For applications in Spanish, Korean, Vietnamese, Japanese or large print English, go to this page and look for the appropriate link.
Thanks, Tina!
A friend recently found out he is getting a $13,535 tax refund. Wow!!!
I could not persuade him to invest in Bargain Babe, so he has the pleasant burden of deciding what to do with his wad. He is considering refinancing, socking it away, or splurging on a long trip to hike the Inca Trail in Peru.
Hubby and I don’t expect to get a tax refund, but if we did it would go straight to savings.
What are your plans for your tax return – or are you expecting to write a check to Uncle Sam? Share your two cents by leaving a comment.
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.
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.
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!
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