Jill Russo Foster

Tips for Successful Personal Finances

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Do apps and emails make you spend more?

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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?

Are you missing out on these rewards?

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                                                                                                          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!

Spring Cleaning Your Finances

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Spring is a great time of year! One of my favorites, as the weather turns warmer and the days are longer. For us, it means more time outside and that can be from getting my garden planted and the thrill of fresh vegetables right in my backyard, to having meals outside; either just us or with friends and family. We can open the windows to air out the winter stale indoor air and sleep comfortably with the windows open all night. It means exploring the outdoors, maybe taking a walk in a new neighborhood or park, picnics and movies in the park.

With spring comes weddings and graduations – new beginnings. This can be true for all of us, even if we don’t have a milestone event coming up.

Traditionally, spring makes me think of spring cleaning and tackling the heavier cleaning throughout the house. We can do the same for our finances.  For the graduate, you can start them off with the gift of good finances – being able to start to plan their money and finance proactively and make planned purchases versus impulse buying. A great way to start would be the gift of my book, Cash Credit and Your Finances: The Teen Years.

For those who want to get your own finances back on track, 111 Ways to Save or Thrive In Five: Take Charge of Your Finances in 5 Minutes a Day will give you the push you need to get your finances in order.

You can order my books through my website or by order form. If you use the order form, you have the option of me personalizing the book. Just print the order form, fill out the recipient information section, and mail it to the address on the form or fax it to 203-504-7995. For the month of June 2017, we are also offering free shipping on all book sales that are ordered with the order form via mail or fax.

Click here to download the order form.

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Stretching Your Dollars With Discounts

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Coupons Pic

Are you looking to s-t-r-e-t-c-h your dollars with a discount? Here are some ideas you may not have thought about:

1.    Free food on your birthday – many restaurants offer you something on your actual birthday (some during your birthday week).

2.    Using your situation discounts – I am talking more than senior discounts. There are others such as military, memberships, student, government worker, etc. I have used my student discount for admission to museums, my senior discount to pay less for hotels and more.

3.   The day after discount – if you shop the day after a holiday you can usually receive a 50% or more discount on those items. Think more than wrapping paper and greeting cards the day after Christmas, there are other holidays throughout the year. 

4.    Double dipping your coupons – some stores will let you use multiple coupons for the same item to get an even bigger savings. I have used the case price discount and a manufactures coupon for items on sale to save even more.

5.    Don’t forget to ask for price adjustments and coupons. It never hurts to ask if there are any other discounts or coupons available at the checkout. Sometimes a sales person has that ability to give you even greater savings. If you get a coupon after the purchase, go back and ask for an adjustment for the original purchase within a certain time limit.

6.    Remember to buy off season. With the particularly warm month of December here in the northeast, winter merchandise seemed to go on sale even earlier. When you buy a snow blower in the spring or swimsuit in October you can save money.

7.    Sign up for emails (remember to use another email address) as there can be many emails to deal with. Companies offer coupons and discounts to their subscribers.This works for more than products, I have received discounts for concerts too. You can also try leaving items in the cart without checking out. Sometimes they will email you with a discount to place the order.

8.    Free Stuff – there are so many special days in a year it’s impossible to keep track of. National days such as donut day will give you a free donut, ice cream day etc. National Parks days throughout the year will waive the entrance fee. You can get some prescriptions filled at your local supermarket for free.  The list goes on and on.

Let me know what you do to get discounts and free stuff.

Holiday Credit Mistakes You Don’t Want to Make

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Getting ready for the holidays? That will put extra stress on your time and budget. Every time you shop, you’ll be facing temptations that could send your finances off the cliff.  If you want to keep away from the edge , keep listening:

  1. Every store will push their own card.  They’ll offer a 10-15% discount if you sign up at the register. With your little pile of purchases in front of you, it will sound like a good deal. Don’t do it.

Why not? Because they’ll run an inquiry on your credit report,  instantly lowering your credit score and costing you more money in the long run. Don’t forget that store credit cards charge the highest interest rates out there.  Think about the temptation you’ll face. With one purchase safely tucked away on a new credit card, you’ll find some breathing room in your checking account for more holiday purchases. Before you know it, you won’t have enough left to pay the store card in full. In the end, that discount will have cost you over 15%, putting you in the hole.

  1. You will be off your routine and forgetful. Between preparation, gatherings, and parties, something will probably slip through the cracks. You might even forget to pay a bill on time. Don’t do it.

Why not? Missing a due date will cost you a late fee – sometimes $35. If it’s a credit card payment, they could penalize you with an increased interest rate at a time you need it least. Worst of all, the late payment could end up on your credit report, lowering your credit score.

  1. You will want to spend more than you can afford. Don’t kid yourself. Holidays are a time of giving and sharing. You will get caught up in the moment and spend more than you planned. You may even spend so much, that you won’t have enough left over to pay your credit card in full when the bill arrives. Don’t do it.

Why not? It could take forever to pay off. If you have a $500 balance and only pay the minimum amount due (typically 2%) then it will take you 85 months (or 7 years plus) to pay off the balance. That is assuming you don’t make any other charges. Plus, you don’t want to start the New Year with new debt.

Plan ahead and use cash for holiday shopping to stay within your budget. That way, you can enjoy the holiday season without facing budget busting debt in January.

Bedroom Makeover on a Budget

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We’ve been updating the house for the past few years – on a budget. That means doing most of the work ourselves and finding bargains wherever possible. This year, I really wanted to tackle the bedroom.

Here are the details.

If you remember from #30Ways2Save, we painted our own bedroom in a weekend. It only cost a few cans of paint and was easy to do.

The carpet really needed to go. Our older home has small rooms, so we were able to find an inexpensive Berber carpet remnant, fully installed.  We saved money by ripping up the old carpet ourselves (and moving the furniture).  This was another weekend project that saved us money.

Finally, we really wanted new furniture.  We’ve had the same bedroom set for 15+ years and it wasn’t high quality to begin with. It was past time for it to go. We didn’t need, or want, to pay for a full bedroom set, so we were open to different styles if they looked good together and the price was right. I grabbed my good friend Lori, and off we went. She’s an expert shopper and knows where to find the best deals.  We were able to find a dresser and armoire, both on clearance, at two different stores. They look great together.

I am getting more comfortable with negotiating lower prices just by asking (and with touching up furniture). I was able to ask for additional discounts because of some minor scratches, which reduced the prices even more.

Bottom line: With time and effort you can have what you want at a cost that works with your budget.

For the Price of a Text Book…

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Some of you may know this already, but I’m taking a few classes to finish my degree. For those of you going to college, have a child in college, or about to go to college, this may help your wallet.

I have talked about the cost of text books before, but this was my first experience as an adult in today’s market.

text-book-costs-cropped-200I took a class this summer. The textbook was $60 used or $40 for a rental. Thinking I’d like to keep it for future reference, I decided to buy used. Imagine my shock when I discovered that the college bookstore didn’t carry the textbook for a class the college was offering. I had to prepay and have it ordered in.

After the class was over, I was shocked again when the bookstore wouldn’t buy it back. The college is offering the same class with the same book, so why not? Wanting to recoup some of my costs, I sold it online for $11.75 (postage was paid by the publisher).

Now I am taking my second class and that textbook was substantially more – $200 to buy new and $100 to buy used.  I did my research and checked a number of websites for the best deal (remember to search by the ISBN number to get the correct edition).  I decided to rent it for $40.  On the first day of class, the Professor mentioned that we could have used prior editions. Knowing that ahead of time would have saved me a lot of money.

Lessons learned:

1. Don’t shop at the college book store.

2. Compare prices (new, used, or rental) from several online retailers.

3. Check for digital editions depending on your learning preference.

4. Plan ahead so you don’t have to expedite shipping. The cheaper the shipping the better the deal.

A couple of hard lessons learned that I will put to good use for the remainder of my classes. Textbooks are expensive. Learn from my mistakes to cut a nice chunk off of college costs.