Jill Russo Foster

Tips for Successful Personal Finances

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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.

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 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?

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.