Jill Russo Foster

Tips for Successful Personal Finances

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Did your credit score go up this past weekend?

In the past, you may have reviewed your credit score and found someone else’s information on your report?

With this new change, credit reporting agencies will be using a new three point (name, address, social security or date of birth) check system before adding liens and judgements to someone’s credit report.  Hopefully, this will stop some information from appearing on the wring person’s credit report, thus lowering the credit score.

As of July 1, you may see liens and/or judgements that are not yours removed from your credit and therefore your credit score will go up.  It’s estimated that 10 to 12 million consumers will see their credit scores rise by 10 to 40 points this past weekend.

Bottomline, you need to stay on top of your credit reports and check them regularly.  Do you want to be reminded to check one of your credit report every four months, then sign up for my newsletter Money Choices and you will receive a reminder three times per year to help you stay on top of your credit report. www.JillRussoFoster.com

 

Christmas Holidays in July!

 

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Christmas Holidays in July! You may think I am going crazy but I have a plan. Now is the time to start to think about the holidays. You are at the mid-point of the year, which means there are 21 weeks to save between now and Black Friday.

This year Black Friday is November 24, Chanukah is December 13 and Christmas is December 25.

To stop the January debt hangover, start to save now and have the money you need by automating this process! Set it up once and then you will be at your goal in no time.

First determine how much you want to save and when you get paid (weekly, every other week, etc.).  Calculate the amount you will need to save based on the paydays between now and Black Friday. Set up an automatic transfer from your checking to your savings account for the day after your direct deposit.

Do this now and you won’t be scrambling in November. You will be eating turkey for Thanksgiving knowing that you are all set with the cash for the holidays and won’t have to start January off with your holiday debt.

 

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What are you doing for the holiday weekend?

With 4th of July being a Tuesday, many of us are making this a four day weekend – we are.

If your plans are to stay local, here are some suggestions of free (or nearly free) things to do.  Summer to me means outdoors – picnics, the beach, outdoor movies, concerts in the park, explore something new and more.  Just pack a meal and/or water and go.  You can visit a local attraction – zoo, museum, park and more.  Don’t forget to check with your local library for free or discounted passes to local attractions.  We have saved anywhere from $5 off to totally free admission for up to 4 at our local zoo to paying no admission to the Audubon center.

Whatever you chose to do, get outside and enjoy your summer!

Money Makes The World Go Round

Today, I am doing a workshop, Money Make The World go Round at Empower Her for kids ages 8 to 11.  We are going to discuss budgeting, wants, needs with the help of a fun game!

What do you do to sell your unwanted items?

We are doing a big clean out of our home.  We are selling lots of items.  Our go to website is www.CraigsList.org and we have had some success.  A friend suggested using Facebook Marketplace, so we tried this.  Not so much luck here – a lot of interest, but no actual sales.  What website / app have you used that works for you?

Getting the best deal on a cruise

Last week we were looking at a destination that we have wanted to travel to.  This is how we got the best deal for us.

First we started at the cruise line’s website to come up with the cruise information.  If you are first time cruiser, I wouldn’t suggest your try this.  We determined the specific cruise / itinerary we wanted.  Next, we look at sailing dates – which ones worked with our schedule and had the lowest pricing.  Now, we have a base price.

We checked with our airline’s cruise vacation planner.  Yes, they offered the cruise.  But, they had a processing fee and were a little more than booking with the cruise line directly.  We had an email that was saying they were having a great sale, so we called them.  There price was higher than the cruise website.

Next, we set up a post to get bids on this specific cruise – cruise line, itinerary, sailing date, cabin category and waited.  Several offers came in.  We contacted one.  They were able to match the cruise website price to the penny and offered us an on-board credit of $250.

In our experience, pricing is very similar among many options.  The perks are what is different and they can be a great reason to use one vacation planner versus another.

How do you plan your cruise vacation?

Do apps and emails make you spend more?

Are you often tempted to make purchases you hadn’t planned to?  Are you tempted by a sale that you were unaware of until you received an email?  Was there an offer you couldn’t refuse?

Email is a part of our lives.  But overspending doesn’t have to be.  Take action to protect yourself from spend money that you didn’t need to.  Unsubscribe from emails, deleted apps, don’t read sales flyers etc.  Take the temptation away from your daily life and save your money for what you really want to spend it on.

Did you spend money you weren’t planning to because of an email or app?

What To Pack To Save Money

Summer is coming and that makes me think of vacations. You might be saying, here they go again! You may be right, but not yet. There are a couple planned for later this year.

I wanted to offer you some packing tips that will save you money. When we head to a beach or resorts with pools, we pack our pool toys. Yes, you read this correctly. First, by using an airline credit card, we get our checked bags for FREE – only that makes this work. One suitcase is for us and one is a suitcase for toys. So this is in the beach toy suitcase:

•    Noodles / Rafts / Tubes / Snorkel Gear
•    Soft-sided cooler – we have one that the freeze pack is a part of the cooler
(one less thing to carry along)
•    Entertainment – playing cards, games, etc.

When we travel to a destination, we try to reserve a unit with a kitchen or at least a fridge. This saves us so much money by being able to make and bring our own meals. You might be thinking cooking on vacation – ugh! This can be as simple as having breakfast, beverages and snacks from a grocery store versus paying restaurant or resort prices. Picking up a bottle of water at the store is much more cost effective than buying a bottle at pool side.

Here’s an example of what we do. We bring as much as possible, especially things you won’t finish,  like steel wool, paper plates, herbs and more. Next, we place an online order (if that is possible) from the grocery store before we leave. Then we either pick up the order at the store or have it delivered to where we are staying. Having some or most of your meals at grocery store prices saves money.  Yes, we still do go out for some meals – just not all.

Remember that you typically cannot bring meat, fruit or vegetables out of the US and into another country. Usually, you can bring sealed items in their original packaging. Here’s one of our suitcases.

If you want a copy of my food packing list, email jill@jillrussofoster.com and I will share it with you.

Are you missing out on these rewards?

                                                                                                          We saved $1.50 per gallon with our grocery store’s gas rewards program.  Didn’t buy anything special, just our usual groceries.         Paid $105.9 / gallon!