Jill Russo Foster

Tips for Successful Personal Finances

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FREE Stuff To Do

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This Saturday is a big day!  You have so many choices of what to do and it’s all FREE.  Yes, I you heard me FREE!!!!!!

There are two options with many choices for things to do this Saturday, September 22 only.

Option 1 – it’s National Parks Free Day – so you can visit a national park and save on the entrance fee.  Click this link to find out more.  You can check out a local park or make plans to visit one farther.  Don’t worry if you can’t make it this Saturday, there is one more free day coming up later this year.

Option 2 – it’s Smithsonian Museum Day – now is your chance to visit a museum for free, both in your area and across the country.  Check out this link to see which museums are participating and to get your ticket.  You’ll need a ticket to visit for free and you can get that at the website.

Two options for you and your family for this Saturday that won’t break your wallet.  Enjoy!

If You Don’t Succeed, Try Again

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You’ve heard the saying, if you don’t succeed, try again.  We’ll that was try number two yesterday to get the results that we wanted.

Every August it’s the time in our home to negotiate the TV, internet and phone bill.  It’s a time that I dislike, but it’s something that has to be done.  Every year, we get that letter that our current package is expiring and the cost will be increasing substantially.  Ugh!

I phoned earlier in the month and was given a new package that didn’t meet our needs or budget.  We have lowered our services in past years, so there isn’t a lower package with less channels (we’re on basic).  Not being happy with the call, I research other companies and their options.

Yesterday, was call number two.  Spoke with two different people and get the results we wanted.  The price will be increasing less than $5.  Yeah!

If you need to negotiate with a company to get the results you need / want, be prepared to make multiple calls.  You might just get a person that will go the extra mile to find what you are looking for.  We did and we are set for another year.

Spring Cleaning Your Finances & More

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Today, I am going to talk about actual spring cleaning and how I do this while saving money.

Personally, we try to avoid chemicals in all aspects of our lives.  A few years back I was amazed at all the products on the market and what they were made up of.  Have you hear of these words?

  • sodium lauryl / laureth sulfate (SLS)
  • fragrances and dyes
  • propylene glycol
  • parabens
  • formaldehyde

And that is to name only a few ingredients.  Can you guess what products these chemicals are in? (see the bottom).

In our household, we have eliminated much of these thanks to many other options.  We use  Young Living’s Essential Oils and make many of our own products and/or purchase them from Young Living.  Thieves is a staple in our home – here’s a link to the product information page.  We use this oil / products to clean (dish washing soap, dishwasher detergent, tooth paste, hand sanitizer, wipes and more.

We make our own cleaners – one quick and easy to do one is glass cleaner (1/4 cup white vinegar, 2 cups water with a few drops of my favorite essential oils mix together in a glass spray bottle.  This works great in mirrors, windows and glass coffee table.  There are many more items you can easily make at home without chemicals.  One of my favorite books Essential Oils Ancient Medicine by Dr. Josh Axe, Ty Bollinger and Jordan Rubin.

If you would like to try a sample of essential oils, I have a very limited supply of Young Livings Thieve’s essential oils, that I can let you try, just reply to this blog post and I will respond.  If you are interested in learning more about Young Living oils, please click this link.

Not only can you spring clean your home without chemical, you can save money too.  Home made products are easy to make and can be cost pennies (saving your wallet too).

Note, that I have an affiliate relationship with Young Living.

Toothpaste, Shampoo, Make Up, Laundry Detergent, Soaps, Deodorant and more.

Reducing The Chemicals In Our Life

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I don’t know about you, but there seems to be more and more chemicals in my life.  They are in the food we eat, the products we buy, in our home and everywhere else.  It’s scary to me.

When I do something, I ten to jump in with both feet.

For our food, I cook most meals and purchase whole unprocessed foods for the meals I make.  I tend to stick to the outer aisles of the grocery store buying more fruits, vegetables, meat and fish (more so than the processed ready to eat food in the aisles.  We still have our garden in the warmer months for fresh just picked vegetables. I am experimenting more with new recipes / ideas to make.  Are we perfect, no!  But we are substantially better than a few years ago.

In our home, we have eliminated most toxic products in favor of healthier alternatives.  Using vinegar, baking soda, Castile soap with essential oils does the trick in our house.  Clean bathrooms, floors, counter tops and more with no more toxic fumes and they work great!

If you want to try or start, here are some great resources to learn more and to make your own products:

For more resources, please visit my resource page on my website JillRussoFoster.com

What do you do in your household?  Let me know

**If a link is an affiliate it will be clearly noted with ** so that you are aware that Jill Russo Foster may receive a percentage of the purchase price if you chose to buy the linked product. There is no difference in price to you.

Eliminating Expenses

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As I get older, I don’t need as many things and we continue to reduce and eliminate things and save the money.

This year, I have eliminated things in my business that I don’t really need – such as my efax and 800# (most of my correspondence is by email, so why pay for these services).  As you know, I have changed the format of the newsletter and eliminated another monthly service bill.  All this adds up to a savings.

For our personal life, we would rather have experiences versus stuff. I spent a good part of 2017 going through family photos, slides and movies ( a bug project that I should have done a long time ago).  We sorted and tossed. We sorted and gave to other family members. We sorted and scanned photos.  We sorted and had the slides digitized. We sorted and had the movies turned into DVDs.  We took numerous boxes, a file cabinet and slide carousels into a few photo albums and DVD’s.  All the photo are a back up hard drive and in a cloud (the ones we saved I don’t want to lose).

What can your reduce or eliminate to save you money?

Ask Questions

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January has been a month of me asking questions.  You may be thinking what is she talking about.  Lots of items came to light throughout the month that required more information.  Here is a sampling of what came up:

  • I was listed as a “non-owner” on our auto insurance.  I had no idea what that mean and had to do the research to find out more.
  • I received two bills one from the lab for bloodwork and one from doctor’s office for a physical.  It was my understanding that this was covered through my medical insurance as a preventative visit at no cost to me. Again, multiple calls and asking for my medical claims to be adjusted.
  • Receiving less than expected in a paycheck.  More calls to get to get to the bottom line
  • And the list goes on.

Never be afraid or think your questions aren’t worthy of an answer.  In my case, it’s my money.  Call and ask questions until you are satisfied with the answers.

For me, I was able to save money on our auto insurance after a lengthy phone call, the medical insurance company paid the bloodwork bill in full after appeal, the doctors bill was adjusted and I owed less than 50% of the bill and I am still working to understand resolve the paycheck issue.  So far, I with these questions we have saved close to $300. That’s worth my time and efforts.

Saving money daily – eliminating expenses

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What are the things you are willing to do without or do differently?

In our household, we do our own yardwork and save by not having to pay for a lawn or snowplowing service.  The trade off is that it takes time to do these tasks and we had to purchase the lawn mower, weed wacker and snow blower.  This can be a big initial expense.  But, we don’t have monthly bills.

Our town has private trash collectors, that’s another monthly bill.  We take our own trash to the transfer station and eliminated that bill years ago.

What are you willing to do or doing that have helped your finances?

For more tips, please visit my website.

Saving money daily – our garden

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As far as I can remember back, my family has always had a garden.

Ours in smaller, but we grow what we need.  Ever spring we start with herbs in a flower box, just outside the back door.  This year is rosemary, parsley, basil and cilantro.  You can start from seed or buy the plants all for a minimal amount of money and have fresh herbs all summer long.  When the weather turns colder, we will freeze the remaining herb for later in the year.

Our garden has tomatoes, lettuce, cucumbers, squash, broccoli, peppers, kale and more.  There is nothing better than to be able to walk out into the yard and pick what you want for dinner.

Everything we grow is that much less that we buy at the store.  As August arrives, everything is starting to be ready to pick.  This saves money each and every trip to the grocery store.

For more money saving tips, follow me on social media Facebook, Twitter, Linked In and my website.

Can you travel cheaply?

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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?