Jill Russo Foster

Tips for Successful Personal Finances

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We’re Back From Our Anniversary Trip

This year we celebrated our anniversary with a Pacific Northwest cruise.

Back in the early summer, I wrote two newsletters about planning our fall vacation.  We are back and wanted to share the trip with you.  Here’s the link to the two earlier newsletters – first and second issues to remind you of the details.

We took a Pacific Northwest cruise out of Seattle with stops at Astoria, Oregon, San Francisco, California and Victoria, BC and few days in Seattle too.

With all this planning and paying ahead, we spent very little on the actual vacation.  Mostly everything was paid (or paid with points / miles) in the months before as our budget permitted – hotel, cruise, airfare, attractions and some meals were included.  We selected hotels with breakfast included, bought City Pass’ (discount admission to attractions) and walked and/or public transportation.  Lots of steps – over 21,000 in San Francisco in one day!

Yes, there was a lot of research and planning, but this step saved us money and we have fun – lots of money!

Here we are at the Space Needle.  To view more photos, visit our Pinterest page.

What To Do Something Fun and Free?

Have you wanted to get outdoors and explore a new area?  Here is the northeast, it would be wonderful to see spring temperatures to that. Well April 21 to 29 is National Parks Week and admission to some National Parks is waived on the first day – April 21.

Want to know which parks are in your neighborhood and if they are participating?  For more details visit the website.

This is a great way to get out and explore, exercise and just have fun!

Can’t make it on April 21, check out the  as they are other days of the year that are free.

Take Your Child To The Library Day!

This is a great memory from my childhood.  I loved going with my mom to the library and taking out a book.  In fact, I still use the local library and read many books each year.

In honor of Take Your Child To The Library Day which is February 3, 2018, I am offering you a 20% discount on my book Cash, Credit and Your Finances: The Teen Years from now until February 3.  For $20.00 you can purchase a copy of my book directly from me, have it personalized to your recipient and it including priority shipping.  This is only available from my website. Click here to purchase.

Voted “Best Teen Book” by Radical Parenting Teen Team

The Perfect Teen Gift

Help your kids:

  • Cope with product advertising
  • Understand that credit isn’t magic money.
  • Develop strong short-term budgeting skills
  • Create a long-term financial plan

Cash, Credit, and Your Finances: The Teen Years looks at finances through the eyes of five different teenagers. They all have things they want and need, but they all handle their money differently.  Some will succeed and some will give up… which one do you want your child to be?

Start your child off with the gift of reading and learning great money skills. Buy Cash, Credit and Your Finances: The Teen Years now!

Saving money daily – discounts

I love getting a discount.  Don’t you?

When we grocery shop, we use coupons, meal plan and shop the sales.  We eat healthy with any organic products, so there aren’t as many coupons as in the past.  Yes, items do go on sale, but it can still be expensive.

Our grocery store gives us gas points.  For every dollar we spend, we get points – 100 points is 10¢ off per gallon.  Last weekend we saved 90¢ per gallon.  That certainly helps our budget and can helpful to you.

Are you getting all the rewards possible? Learn more on discounts and rewards.

Can you travel cheaply?

My answer is always, yes!!!

We have traveled to lots of places and not spent too much. It does take planning, but we find it well worth it.

You need to search for great deals on the places you want to explore.  Look for sales, perks and discounts.  Research your options.  Right now we are researching an upcoming trip.  We are looking for a hotel that is centrally located and near transportation hubs.

Last year in Italy, we stayed at a hotel by the airport.  We were able to walk to the hotel when we arrived.  You might be thinking it’s not convenient.  This particular hotel had a fee shuttle to downtown Rome every two hour between 8 am and 11pm.  Yeah! No transportation costs.

For places to stay, we look for hotels / timeshares that have kitchen facilities.  It’s more cost effective to go to the market and purchase food than to eat our for every meal.  Plus, if possible, you can bring things from home.  No, you cannot bring meat and vegetables.  You can bring items that you only need a few of instead of buying a large quantity (think salt, pepper, steel wool, paper goods and more).  This is a photo from a beach vacation and what we packed in our luggage.

What do you do to reduce your travel costs?

 

 

Double check to save money

When you make travel reservations, do you stop there?

We have found that periodically checking back with the cruise / hotel / rental car / etc. can save you money.  Just this morning, I rechecked an upcoming hotel reservation.  I do this by making a new reservation inquiry to see what the price is.  This morning the same hotel and same room type was $36 less per night.  I made the new reservation and cancelled the old one.

Note – this only works if you have not prepaid for something and if there is no cancellation penalty.

We have done this in the past on a cruise that actually had seven different price changes lower.  The savings before the final payment reduced what we owed.  The savings after final payment were given to us as an on board credit.

Try this with your next reservation and let me know how much you were able to save.

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!

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!