As Promised, I contacted Walmart and they responded.
Their first response was automated and did not address my question, which was...
"Comments : Is the price on this item correct? http://www.walmart.com/ip/Ziploc-Sandwich-Bags-100-ct-3-pk/15120907 I'm hoping it's a keyboard error on your part."
Their automated response told me that Walmart carries a wide variety of products, and to check back if an order was shown as "Out of Stock" etc... (where's the rolling eyes smiley?).
So I responded with "Your automated response had nothing to do with my question. Please read the question and answer it."
And their response with the actual answer to my question is, "Thank you for contacting Walmart.com regarding the price for the Ziploc Sandwich Bags, 100 ct, 3 Pack.
We received your email and to ensure we provide you with accurate information, we are researching the matter. The item Ziplock Sandwich Bags, 100 ct, 3 Pack is priced at $16.34 and available for this home free item ships free with qualifying $45 order. We're writing to let you know how to order items from our online store. Just follow these easy steps: ......" blah blah blah
And just to make my point, I wrote back: "You do realize your 1 pack of 100 is only $2.88, right?"
Feeling a bit snarky today but not becuase of money. Sometimes a person finds out that they are not as in control of their world as they think they are. Grrr.
And that's my post for today.
Tuesday, October 11, 2011
Monday, October 10, 2011
Price variations... OMG! Focus on Ziploc.
It's not really a shock that prices can vary greatly, but Holy Toledo!
Ziploc bags for example... Just sitting in my armchair, looking online and in ads, here is what I've found (will do the in store comparisons later).
Ziploc Sandwich Bags -
Fleet Farm - Buy 500 for $10.99 = $0.02198/ea. (reg price $13.49 or ($0.02698/ea)
or 100 for $3.19 ($0.0319/ea).
Drugstore.com - Buy 100 for $4.09, (buy 4 get $2 off), so.. 4 boxes totalling 400 units for $14.36 = ($0.0359/ea). (They ship to your house for free.)
Broken down it doesn't look bad... 2 cents vs 3 cents per bag, but you're getting 100 more for $3.37 less when shopping at Fleet Farm during this week's sale vs Drugstore.com.
Alice.com - Buy 100 for $3.49 ($0.0349/ea), or buy 50 for $2.15 ($0.043/ea) (Also ships to your house for free with a minimum purchase).
Walmart.com - OK - This totally doesn't make sense... 1. Buy 1 - 100 ct box online for $2.88 ($0.0288/ea). 2. Buy a 3 pack of 100 ct bags for $16.34 ($0.054466/ea). Seriously!! http://www.walmart.com/ip/Ziploc-Sandwich-Bags-100-ct-3-pk/15120907
I wrote to Walmart to ask if that price was correct, or if it was a keyboarding error by one of their staff. I'll let you know what they say after they respond.
Hmmm... maybe it's not wrong... here is an offer from Walmart for a box of 500 Ziploc Sandwich bags for $25.89 ($0.05178/ea). Two and a half times the price of buying it at Fleet Farm!!!
**How in the world could I not have been paying attention????? I wonder how much money my family has wasted over the years. No... don't tell me. I don't want to know.**
Target.com - Ziploc Sandwich bags - 225 for $5.79 ($0.0257333 ea).
I'll check the grocery stores and the drugstores in person.
REMEMBER - The more you spend on an item, the more tax you are paying for that purchase. Double whammy on the pocketbook.
Ok, the other 3 Fleet Farm sale offers in comparison to other stores will be without the rambling commentary ... maybe. ;)
Ziploc Double Zipper Freezer Bags Quart Size - (Not double thick, not easy zipper, not expandable bottom, not fresh shield.).
Fleet Farm - 216 for $10.99 ($0.0508796/ea).
Drugstore.com - 20 for $3.19 (buy 4 save $2)($0.1345/ea), or 40 for $4.59 ($0.10225/ea).
Alice.com - 24 for $3.05 ($0.1270833/ea).
Wal-Mart - 40 for 3.98 ($0.0995).
Target - 60 for $5.79 ($0.0965).
Ziploc Double Zipper Storage Bags Gallon Size -
Fleet Farm - 208 for $10.99 ($0.0508796/ea).
Drugstore.com - 20 for $3.19 (buy 4 save $2) ($0.1345/ea).
Alice.com - 40 for 4.55 ($0.11375/ea).
Wal-Mart - 40 for $3.98 ($0.0995/ea), or 250 for $34.29 ($0.13716/ea).
Target - 60 for $5.79 ($0.0965).
Ziploc Double Zipper Freezer Bags Gallon Size -
Fleet Farm - 152 for $10.99 ($0.0723026/ea).
Drugstore.com - 30 for $5.29 (Buy 4 get $2 off)($0.159667), or 15 for $3.19 (Buy 4 get $2 off)($0.17933).
Alice.com - Identical item not available.
Wal-Mart - 30 for $3.98 ($0.132667/ea).
Target - 46 for $5.79 ($0.1258695/ea).
For my own knowledge, though they are not on special at FF, and because we use them for kiddo's school snacks...
Ziplock Snack Bags -
Fleet Farm - 100 for $2.99 ($0.0299/ea).
Drugstore.com - 100 for $3.59 (buy 4 get $2 off) so 400 for $12.36 ($0.0309/ea).
Alice.com - 50 for $2.15 ($0.043/ea).
Wal-Mart - [Out of stock] 3pk X 100ea for $8.01 ($0.0267/ea), or 100 for $2.88 ($0.0288/ea).
Target - Not online.
Sheesh... That's enough for today...
Ziploc bags for example... Just sitting in my armchair, looking online and in ads, here is what I've found (will do the in store comparisons later).
Ziploc Sandwich Bags -
Fleet Farm - Buy 500 for $10.99 = $0.02198/ea. (reg price $13.49 or ($0.02698/ea)
or 100 for $3.19 ($0.0319/ea).
Drugstore.com - Buy 100 for $4.09, (buy 4 get $2 off), so.. 4 boxes totalling 400 units for $14.36 = ($0.0359/ea). (They ship to your house for free.)
Broken down it doesn't look bad... 2 cents vs 3 cents per bag, but you're getting 100 more for $3.37 less when shopping at Fleet Farm during this week's sale vs Drugstore.com.
Alice.com - Buy 100 for $3.49 ($0.0349/ea), or buy 50 for $2.15 ($0.043/ea) (Also ships to your house for free with a minimum purchase).
Walmart.com - OK - This totally doesn't make sense... 1. Buy 1 - 100 ct box online for $2.88 ($0.0288/ea). 2. Buy a 3 pack of 100 ct bags for $16.34 ($0.054466/ea). Seriously!! http://www.walmart.com/ip/Ziploc-Sandwich-Bags-100-ct-3-pk/15120907
I wrote to Walmart to ask if that price was correct, or if it was a keyboarding error by one of their staff. I'll let you know what they say after they respond.
Hmmm... maybe it's not wrong... here is an offer from Walmart for a box of 500 Ziploc Sandwich bags for $25.89 ($0.05178/ea). Two and a half times the price of buying it at Fleet Farm!!!
**How in the world could I not have been paying attention????? I wonder how much money my family has wasted over the years. No... don't tell me. I don't want to know.**
Target.com - Ziploc Sandwich bags - 225 for $5.79 ($0.0257333 ea).
I'll check the grocery stores and the drugstores in person.
REMEMBER - The more you spend on an item, the more tax you are paying for that purchase. Double whammy on the pocketbook.
Ok, the other 3 Fleet Farm sale offers in comparison to other stores will be without the rambling commentary ... maybe. ;)
Ziploc Double Zipper Freezer Bags Quart Size - (Not double thick, not easy zipper, not expandable bottom, not fresh shield.).
Fleet Farm - 216 for $10.99 ($0.0508796/ea).
Drugstore.com - 20 for $3.19 (buy 4 save $2)($0.1345/ea), or 40 for $4.59 ($0.10225/ea).
Alice.com - 24 for $3.05 ($0.1270833/ea).
Wal-Mart - 40 for 3.98 ($0.0995).
Target - 60 for $5.79 ($0.0965).
Ziploc Double Zipper Storage Bags Gallon Size -
Fleet Farm - 208 for $10.99 ($0.0508796/ea).
Drugstore.com - 20 for $3.19 (buy 4 save $2) ($0.1345/ea).
Alice.com - 40 for 4.55 ($0.11375/ea).
Wal-Mart - 40 for $3.98 ($0.0995/ea), or 250 for $34.29 ($0.13716/ea).
Target - 60 for $5.79 ($0.0965).
Ziploc Double Zipper Freezer Bags Gallon Size -
Fleet Farm - 152 for $10.99 ($0.0723026/ea).
Drugstore.com - 30 for $5.29 (Buy 4 get $2 off)($0.159667), or 15 for $3.19 (Buy 4 get $2 off)($0.17933).
Alice.com - Identical item not available.
Wal-Mart - 30 for $3.98 ($0.132667/ea).
Target - 46 for $5.79 ($0.1258695/ea).
For my own knowledge, though they are not on special at FF, and because we use them for kiddo's school snacks...
Ziplock Snack Bags -
Fleet Farm - 100 for $2.99 ($0.0299/ea).
Drugstore.com - 100 for $3.59 (buy 4 get $2 off) so 400 for $12.36 ($0.0309/ea).
Alice.com - 50 for $2.15 ($0.043/ea).
Wal-Mart - [Out of stock] 3pk X 100ea for $8.01 ($0.0267/ea), or 100 for $2.88 ($0.0288/ea).
Target - Not online.
Sheesh... That's enough for today...
Free Symphony and Arts Entertainment
Today I will be attending the symphony with kiddo. Free Culture & Arts entertainment, my only cost is helping to chaperone a large group of 4th graders. Not a bad deal, and my daughter is euphoric that I'm attending.
Sunday, October 9, 2011
What not to do... & future planning
Today was an exercise in futility.
Today I went to sites I had heard about, supposedly ways to save money or earn points or future cash for giving my opinions to companies. What a racket... either that, or I did it wrong. Right now my email box is jam packed with junk mail. I hope I can make it go away as easily as I made it appear.
Maybe the trick is to sign up with one and see how that goes before you click on the others thinking that more is better.
I signed up with Panda Research. They accumulate money you have "earned" by giving them your opinion, and send the "earned cash" to you via Paypal in $100 increments. If you never earn $100... you lose. If you earn $100 over time, they send you the $100 increment, saving any additional amount earned towards your future $100 payout.
So they started my pot with $3.00 for confirming my membership.
I filled out an Auto Insurance survey, which of course leads the Auto Insurance people to call you with quotes and email you ads. But I got $4.00 in my pot for that one.
I filled out a Mind Quiz survey. Didn't have to order anything. Awesome! Answered 10 questions and found out my IQ is 133.. is that good?, and got an offer via email to have my life astrologized for a fee. I declined. But I got $5.00 in my pot.
Tried to do a survey on online auctions. They wanted me to sign up, give them my credit card number, and purchase "bids" for something? Odd... I failed this one, earned nothing, wasted time.
Tried to do a survey on grocery stores. This one was horrendous, I don't even remember most of it. At the end, in order to qualify for my "free gift," they said I had to pick from a page full of offers (maybe 20), and complete two offers. I found the two least likely to get me in trouble.
I signed up for a 30 day free trial at Netflix. Cool... I can let them suggest movies based on my likes, not on the likes of my child who has given 5 stars to every kid and cooking and how this is made show out there. I'll cancel this in 30 days, since I don't need an additional time suck in my world. (They needed my credit card information for this one... yeah, stupid I know.)
The second offer I accepted was for a Free Green Dot Card (Prepaid Visa card for those who haven't heard of it). There is a monthly fee if you don't follow their guidelines... we'll see if this works or not, if not... I saved $4.95 by purchasing it online and not at a grocery store. (I also gave them personal information.)
Even though I felt that Netflix and the Green Dot card company are both reputable companies, I wonder if signing up for these things through links based in another site was bad. I looked to check if the web address was secured, and both of the pages I filled out started with https://... so I assumed that makes me safe. hmmm I hope so.
When I clicked on "submit" after accepting two of their offers, I got sent to a page telling me to accept two of the offers below... hmmm... since I already did that, I just clicked "submit" again. That time I got sent to a page telling me I had to accept 6 of the offers below!!! I chose to back out and close the page.
So I wasted A LOT of time on this one, and learned a valuable lesson about how to NOT spend my time.
Did not find any sales or coupons that would help my life during my time wading through this muck and mire of internet "savings &/or free money."
If the Panda Research site is real though, and I can find other surveys to fill out (in my spare time.. ha), that don't ask me to spend money or sign up for more spam in my mailbox, well then, that could be cool. If it's real, I guess I "earned" $12.00 today. Maybe I'll see it sometime in the future, maybe not.
Will I get smarter as time goes on? Let's hope so.
Spent $1.75 on a newspaper today to look at ads and clip coupons.
Hubby took kiddo to Target to spend the $20 gift card that her brother gave her for her birthday. She bought a doll that drinks and wets itself for $19.99. According to her, the Target toy department is going downhill.
Hubby spent $1.41 in tax on her doll, and bought a box of BooBerry Cereal, 9.6 oz for $2.66 ($.28/oz). I'll learn eventually if that's a good price per ounce for cereal.
Total expenditures today. $5.82. No yipee savings though... maybe I'll find some when I go through the newspaper tonight.
The Plan:
So yesterday as I went through Drugstore.com and Alice.com, they had store/household categories. I figure that is how I will make up my list of things we use regularly, and also how I will build the bones of the Excel spreadsheet I will use to figure out which stores are cheaper on which items on a per unit basis.
The categories I have decided that will work for me are:
Cleaning Closet - Cleaners (floor, glass, carpet, dusting, polishing, sponges, swiffer pads), lightbulbs, batteries, air & fabric odor removers, drain/septic fluids, filters (air/water), vacuum cleaner bags, trash bags, lysol wipes.
Kitchen - Dishwashing liquid/detergent, plastic bags (snack to gallon), cling wrap/reynolds wrap/press n seal, paper towels, napkins.
Bathroom - Shampoo/conditioner (adult/kids), soap (bar & liquid hand), toothbrushes, toothpaste, dental floss, feminine products, razors, toilet paper, wet wipes, bubble bath, toilet bowl cleaner, tub & tile cleaner.
Office Supplies - Computer paper, computer ink, letter size envelopes, stamps, pens, pencils, staples, clear tape, masking tape, scotch tape.
Outdoor/Garden - Lawn Bags.
Pets - Dog food, dog shampoo, beef bones, seasonal heartworm/tick repellent.
Laundry - Laundry detergent, bounce sheets, bleach, water softener salt.
Medicine Cabinet - Prescriptions, Advil, Aleve, Tylenol, Children's Tylenol, Dimetapp, NyQuil, Robitussen, OptiFree Contact Solution, Benadryl pills/spray/gel, Bactine, Neosporin, Bandaids.
Food Pantry - Meat, Dairy, Produce, Frozen, Boxed, Canned, Bakery, Soda/Juice/Tea, etc.
I'm sure I've forgotten many things, but this is a nice start.
Of course all of the above is subject to change if I find a better way of doing it.
Tonight I will peruse the grocery ads, including Walgreens & CVS for things we actually use. Look for deals and bargains, and coupons. Figuring out while I go, how much things really cost (I really don't know this, as hubby has been doing most of the grocery shopping for our household for quite some time).
He cooks too! We had brisket tonight for dinner... OMG... the way he makes it... totally moan worthy.
Today I went to sites I had heard about, supposedly ways to save money or earn points or future cash for giving my opinions to companies. What a racket... either that, or I did it wrong. Right now my email box is jam packed with junk mail. I hope I can make it go away as easily as I made it appear.
Maybe the trick is to sign up with one and see how that goes before you click on the others thinking that more is better.
I signed up with Panda Research. They accumulate money you have "earned" by giving them your opinion, and send the "earned cash" to you via Paypal in $100 increments. If you never earn $100... you lose. If you earn $100 over time, they send you the $100 increment, saving any additional amount earned towards your future $100 payout.
So they started my pot with $3.00 for confirming my membership.
I filled out an Auto Insurance survey, which of course leads the Auto Insurance people to call you with quotes and email you ads. But I got $4.00 in my pot for that one.
I filled out a Mind Quiz survey. Didn't have to order anything. Awesome! Answered 10 questions and found out my IQ is 133.. is that good?, and got an offer via email to have my life astrologized for a fee. I declined. But I got $5.00 in my pot.
Tried to do a survey on online auctions. They wanted me to sign up, give them my credit card number, and purchase "bids" for something? Odd... I failed this one, earned nothing, wasted time.
Tried to do a survey on grocery stores. This one was horrendous, I don't even remember most of it. At the end, in order to qualify for my "free gift," they said I had to pick from a page full of offers (maybe 20), and complete two offers. I found the two least likely to get me in trouble.
I signed up for a 30 day free trial at Netflix. Cool... I can let them suggest movies based on my likes, not on the likes of my child who has given 5 stars to every kid and cooking and how this is made show out there. I'll cancel this in 30 days, since I don't need an additional time suck in my world. (They needed my credit card information for this one... yeah, stupid I know.)
The second offer I accepted was for a Free Green Dot Card (Prepaid Visa card for those who haven't heard of it). There is a monthly fee if you don't follow their guidelines... we'll see if this works or not, if not... I saved $4.95 by purchasing it online and not at a grocery store. (I also gave them personal information.)
Even though I felt that Netflix and the Green Dot card company are both reputable companies, I wonder if signing up for these things through links based in another site was bad. I looked to check if the web address was secured, and both of the pages I filled out started with https://... so I assumed that makes me safe. hmmm I hope so.
When I clicked on "submit" after accepting two of their offers, I got sent to a page telling me to accept two of the offers below... hmmm... since I already did that, I just clicked "submit" again. That time I got sent to a page telling me I had to accept 6 of the offers below!!! I chose to back out and close the page.
So I wasted A LOT of time on this one, and learned a valuable lesson about how to NOT spend my time.
Did not find any sales or coupons that would help my life during my time wading through this muck and mire of internet "savings &/or free money."
If the Panda Research site is real though, and I can find other surveys to fill out (in my spare time.. ha), that don't ask me to spend money or sign up for more spam in my mailbox, well then, that could be cool. If it's real, I guess I "earned" $12.00 today. Maybe I'll see it sometime in the future, maybe not.
Will I get smarter as time goes on? Let's hope so.
Spent $1.75 on a newspaper today to look at ads and clip coupons.
Hubby took kiddo to Target to spend the $20 gift card that her brother gave her for her birthday. She bought a doll that drinks and wets itself for $19.99. According to her, the Target toy department is going downhill.
Hubby spent $1.41 in tax on her doll, and bought a box of BooBerry Cereal, 9.6 oz for $2.66 ($.28/oz). I'll learn eventually if that's a good price per ounce for cereal.
Total expenditures today. $5.82. No yipee savings though... maybe I'll find some when I go through the newspaper tonight.
The Plan:
So yesterday as I went through Drugstore.com and Alice.com, they had store/household categories. I figure that is how I will make up my list of things we use regularly, and also how I will build the bones of the Excel spreadsheet I will use to figure out which stores are cheaper on which items on a per unit basis.
The categories I have decided that will work for me are:
Cleaning Closet - Cleaners (floor, glass, carpet, dusting, polishing, sponges, swiffer pads), lightbulbs, batteries, air & fabric odor removers, drain/septic fluids, filters (air/water), vacuum cleaner bags, trash bags, lysol wipes.
Kitchen - Dishwashing liquid/detergent, plastic bags (snack to gallon), cling wrap/reynolds wrap/press n seal, paper towels, napkins.
Bathroom - Shampoo/conditioner (adult/kids), soap (bar & liquid hand), toothbrushes, toothpaste, dental floss, feminine products, razors, toilet paper, wet wipes, bubble bath, toilet bowl cleaner, tub & tile cleaner.
Office Supplies - Computer paper, computer ink, letter size envelopes, stamps, pens, pencils, staples, clear tape, masking tape, scotch tape.
Outdoor/Garden - Lawn Bags.
Pets - Dog food, dog shampoo, beef bones, seasonal heartworm/tick repellent.
Laundry - Laundry detergent, bounce sheets, bleach, water softener salt.
Medicine Cabinet - Prescriptions, Advil, Aleve, Tylenol, Children's Tylenol, Dimetapp, NyQuil, Robitussen, OptiFree Contact Solution, Benadryl pills/spray/gel, Bactine, Neosporin, Bandaids.
Food Pantry - Meat, Dairy, Produce, Frozen, Boxed, Canned, Bakery, Soda/Juice/Tea, etc.
I'm sure I've forgotten many things, but this is a nice start.
Of course all of the above is subject to change if I find a better way of doing it.
Tonight I will peruse the grocery ads, including Walgreens & CVS for things we actually use. Look for deals and bargains, and coupons. Figuring out while I go, how much things really cost (I really don't know this, as hubby has been doing most of the grocery shopping for our household for quite some time).
He cooks too! We had brisket tonight for dinner... OMG... the way he makes it... totally moan worthy.
Saturday, October 8, 2011
Day one of my blog...
Couponing
So... a few days ago, an online news story was about extreme couponing. They had the Extreme Coupon Professors as guests, and were talking about TLC's show Extreme Couponing. Haven't seen the show yet... don't watch tv. Would like to though, if they ever bring it to Netflix.
They talked about clipping services to order multiples of good coupons, checking out related blogs, and calling manufacturers for coupons. They mentioned, coupons.com, redplum.com, freetastegood.com. I have gone to them, signed up for things, and am getting blasted with advertisements now in my email. I don't know what's from them and what is spam at this point.
Bills
Yesterday, there was this story on Yahoo.. http://finance.yahoo.com/news/First-Person-Slashing-My-ac-3970251951.html?x=0. She slashed her household expenses by $6,600 per year "without sacrificing."
So if I'm working on learning how to coupon that should help. But other expenses that we have are ridiculous, so I checked them out.
-----
Auto Insurance - We pay $731. every 6 months for 2 new cars with full coverage and a deductible of $500. If we increased our deductible to $1000., we would save $12.17 per month ($146.04 per year). If we increased our deductible to $2000., we would save $24 per month ($288.00 per year). I'm not so sure that's worth it. What if we got in an accident next week? Where would the $1000 or $2000 come from??
We have been paying our auto insurance monthly. A discount is offered if it is paid in full at the beginning of the 6 month term. We would have saved $146.00 if we had done that for our 6 month July-December policy (1 year overpayment of $292.00). You can bet I'll find a way to pay our policy renewal in January, in full.
Debt
I have been working over the past couple of years on paying off our debt, which is also ridiculous, and the interest we pay... I don't even want to think about... but I will, at some point soon.
1.
I called USAA to see if we could get our APR lowered. They can do that with some accounts, but our account was not set up with a variable rate. sigh... oh well, it's still the lowest APR we have right now, at 12.5%. We have had this account since 1994.
2.
Now Citibank... *nasty namecalling here*... We had an account with them since the year 2000. Very good payment history... APR of 9.24%. In July of 2009, I received a letter about a change in Terms of Service. My new APR would now be 29.99%!!!!!!! WHAT?? I called them up and asked what I did wrong, and what I could do to fix whatever mistake I made.
Apparently I did nothing wrong. They were sending this letter out en masse. I really wonder how many people stayed with Citibank with terms of service like that. 29.99% is Criminal (IMHO).
They offered me a "good customer discount" of 26.99% but that's no bargain. If I wanted to stay at 9.24%, I had to deny the TOS change, and cancel my card. Which I did. But my long standing good credit with them is gone, and is no longer reflected in my credit history report. I received numerous dings to my credit report because of this. Not the least of which, my debt to credit available ratio is severely unbalanced.
3.
I have paid off a credit card at my bank which had a 17.25% APR and had an available credit of $7500. Which of course I had maxed out at one point. Did you know that the bank can cancel your line of credit if your credit score goes down? Yep, they can. You still have to make the payments, but your available credit is zero, and the account is closed. Again, the debt to credit available ratio unbalanced even more.
It is an internal struggle for me to pay off debt I cannot use again before paying down/off debt that could be available for future emergency situations.
4.
Currently at the top of my "to pay off first" list, is a 16.74%, which was at a zero balance last month, but then I needed a dress for a wedding. This is an important wedding, not one I could wear just any dress to. I will be in the family pictures. A once in my life event that will never happen again. So to me, this was worth both spending the money and using the card.
5.
Next in line is a debt with no possible future use. It is at 13.00% APR. This one had an available credit balance of 10,000. This is still at $9,500ish because we worked hard on paying the others down first, and were only making slightly over minimum payment.
This line of credit at my bank was truly a just pay the interest minimum balance. The actual balance never went down. They calculate the finance charge and round up to the nearest dollar.... that's the amount of the minimum payment due!!
This was another one where they gave me a bunch of money to spend, I maxed it out (stupid, I know), and then they closed it because of my low FICO score. So one more instance... (the third I have listed here) of having debt out there that is higher than the credit available to me. Can't imagine what my available credit to debt ratio is. One has been paid off... two more to go. UGH
Pay Attention people... they will rob you blind, and have been doing a good job on me for a while now... because I wasn't paying attention. I won't take my business elsewhere though, they have good customer service, and I have an account history with them of about forever. I'll just be smarter in the future.
6.
Best Buy... Gotta love the "Same as Cash" option. You do have to make minimum monthly payments, but if you pay it completely off by the date specified, you have paid no interest. If you do not pay it off, they charge you all of the interest accrued from the time of your purchase.
By using this "Same as Cash" option on two separate purchases, each for a 6 month term, I did not have to pay $18.97 interest on a purchase made 12/10, nor did I have to pay $19.91 interest on a purchase made 1/2011. I just paid the minimum payment each month until the last month, when I paid it in full.
I have one more "Same as Cash" purchase on my card. My son needed a computer for college, I purchased it for him as a loan in 7/2010 on an 18 month term. He paid me back pretty quickly. I used the cash he paid me back with to help pay down high APR debt, and only paid the minimum due each month on the card. I will continue to do that, and pay the full balance due shortly before 2/8/2012.
At this time, the interest accured for that computer is at $130.03... and I will never have to pay it, because I will pay it off on time.
One would think saving $18.97 or $19.91 isn't a big deal, but these were lower cost items at a shorter term. But when you look at a higher cost item (approx $500.) at their 24.24% interest rate, and the 15 month savings of $130.03 so far, it's pretty huge. I wonder how much I will have 'not had to pay' when the full 18 months is up.
Communication bills
Doesn't seem we can do much with the cell phone bill, the slightly lower rates for like half of the plan minutes we currently have just doesn't make sense if we were then to somehow go over our minutes. (Approx $1980 per year for 3 cell phones.)
Cable seems pretty set in stone too. Too many family members refuse to do without it, and just paying for it seems like less stress than dealing with the complaints I'd hear about it going away. Plus, it covers our home phone (which we never use), and our internet... which we run both of our home based businesses on, so cannot lose that. ($2136 per year. landline/internet/cable tv (no premium channels).
(That's ~$4000 per year to keep in touch and veg on the couch, and on the up side, run two businesses.)
Utilities
Electricity and Natural Gas... we'll see. We just put in new windows on the top half of the house, and replaced the patio doors. (We paid cash for the windows and sweat equity for the labor, so could only afford half... but no interest... yay!! A 60% savings compared to what my friend paid to contract out for her upper floor windows.) I'll calculate over the next year the differences in our energy usage over each month.
Garbage and Water/sewer are pre-determined.
Savings so far, just by paying attention...
Dollar Tree
Toothpaste for kiddo and she likes it! - Aim Kids Bubble Berry 4.8 oz
- I bought 3 @ 1.00 ea.
Toothbrushes - Colgate Extra Clean 42 Soft Full Easy Grip & Cleaning Tip
- I bought 2 @ 1.00 ea.
(Not to be confusing, but with Oral-B toothbrushes on Sale at Cub for 2 for $6, paying only $1 per, made me happy... calculated, it's a savings of $4.00!!)
Amazon.com
Story time... Hubby went to Home Depot to purchase the replacement cartridge for our refrigerator water filter. Came home with it... said it was $44, up $10 dollars from last time he purchased it.
I said I bet we could find it cheaper online. I found it at Amazon.com for $32.45 and FREE SHIPPING. Hubby didn't think the difference was worth the trouble, but I told him it all adds up. (I have said that for years, but have never followed through on giving him any proof... with luck, I'll stay with my venture in Saving money this time.)
I looked at the Home Depot receipt, what he paid with tax was $48.16. The difference between what he paid, and what I paid at Amazon.com is $15.71. Totally worth a side trip to return the expensive one to Home Depot the next time I go pay my mortgage two blocks from there. (won't make a seperate trip, don't need to waste gas)
But wait, there's more... I ordered the filter cartridge on Amazon.com, and went to check out. Normally, I don't pay attention to and purposefully avoid anyone that offers me a credit card. (Too many credit checks will hurt your credit score.) But this one said if I applied for an Amazon Credit Card I would get $30. off my order, and have this card which had some rewards or points system. Knowing my credit sucks anyway, I said yes. Huh!... They approved me, so I have a new card with a rewards system that I'll need to figure out how to use wisely. And I got my water filter cartrige replacement for $2.45!!
I saved $45.71 on this one item!!! I will pay the card the full amount due of $2.45, when the bill comes, and will not pay any interest on this purchase.
A happy side note... when Amazon.com sent me my terms of service and use information (which I've never actually read on any other card before), way at the bottom, it told me what my FICO score is. So now I have a solid base number that I can work on improving.
I purchased it, and will return the expensive one to Home Depot.
Yay Me!!
So... a few days ago, an online news story was about extreme couponing. They had the Extreme Coupon Professors as guests, and were talking about TLC's show Extreme Couponing. Haven't seen the show yet... don't watch tv. Would like to though, if they ever bring it to Netflix.
They talked about clipping services to order multiples of good coupons, checking out related blogs, and calling manufacturers for coupons. They mentioned, coupons.com, redplum.com, freetastegood.com. I have gone to them, signed up for things, and am getting blasted with advertisements now in my email. I don't know what's from them and what is spam at this point.
Bills
Yesterday, there was this story on Yahoo.. http://finance.yahoo.com/news/First-Person-Slashing-My-ac-3970251951.html?x=0. She slashed her household expenses by $6,600 per year "without sacrificing."
So if I'm working on learning how to coupon that should help. But other expenses that we have are ridiculous, so I checked them out.
-----
Auto Insurance - We pay $731. every 6 months for 2 new cars with full coverage and a deductible of $500. If we increased our deductible to $1000., we would save $12.17 per month ($146.04 per year). If we increased our deductible to $2000., we would save $24 per month ($288.00 per year). I'm not so sure that's worth it. What if we got in an accident next week? Where would the $1000 or $2000 come from??
We have been paying our auto insurance monthly. A discount is offered if it is paid in full at the beginning of the 6 month term. We would have saved $146.00 if we had done that for our 6 month July-December policy (1 year overpayment of $292.00). You can bet I'll find a way to pay our policy renewal in January, in full.
Debt
I have been working over the past couple of years on paying off our debt, which is also ridiculous, and the interest we pay... I don't even want to think about... but I will, at some point soon.
1.
I called USAA to see if we could get our APR lowered. They can do that with some accounts, but our account was not set up with a variable rate. sigh... oh well, it's still the lowest APR we have right now, at 12.5%. We have had this account since 1994.
2.
Now Citibank... *nasty namecalling here*... We had an account with them since the year 2000. Very good payment history... APR of 9.24%. In July of 2009, I received a letter about a change in Terms of Service. My new APR would now be 29.99%!!!!!!! WHAT?? I called them up and asked what I did wrong, and what I could do to fix whatever mistake I made.
Apparently I did nothing wrong. They were sending this letter out en masse. I really wonder how many people stayed with Citibank with terms of service like that. 29.99% is Criminal (IMHO).
They offered me a "good customer discount" of 26.99% but that's no bargain. If I wanted to stay at 9.24%, I had to deny the TOS change, and cancel my card. Which I did. But my long standing good credit with them is gone, and is no longer reflected in my credit history report. I received numerous dings to my credit report because of this. Not the least of which, my debt to credit available ratio is severely unbalanced.
3.
I have paid off a credit card at my bank which had a 17.25% APR and had an available credit of $7500. Which of course I had maxed out at one point. Did you know that the bank can cancel your line of credit if your credit score goes down? Yep, they can. You still have to make the payments, but your available credit is zero, and the account is closed. Again, the debt to credit available ratio unbalanced even more.
It is an internal struggle for me to pay off debt I cannot use again before paying down/off debt that could be available for future emergency situations.
4.
Currently at the top of my "to pay off first" list, is a 16.74%, which was at a zero balance last month, but then I needed a dress for a wedding. This is an important wedding, not one I could wear just any dress to. I will be in the family pictures. A once in my life event that will never happen again. So to me, this was worth both spending the money and using the card.
5.
Next in line is a debt with no possible future use. It is at 13.00% APR. This one had an available credit balance of 10,000. This is still at $9,500ish because we worked hard on paying the others down first, and were only making slightly over minimum payment.
This line of credit at my bank was truly a just pay the interest minimum balance. The actual balance never went down. They calculate the finance charge and round up to the nearest dollar.... that's the amount of the minimum payment due!!
This was another one where they gave me a bunch of money to spend, I maxed it out (stupid, I know), and then they closed it because of my low FICO score. So one more instance... (the third I have listed here) of having debt out there that is higher than the credit available to me. Can't imagine what my available credit to debt ratio is. One has been paid off... two more to go. UGH
Pay Attention people... they will rob you blind, and have been doing a good job on me for a while now... because I wasn't paying attention. I won't take my business elsewhere though, they have good customer service, and I have an account history with them of about forever. I'll just be smarter in the future.
6.
Best Buy... Gotta love the "Same as Cash" option. You do have to make minimum monthly payments, but if you pay it completely off by the date specified, you have paid no interest. If you do not pay it off, they charge you all of the interest accrued from the time of your purchase.
By using this "Same as Cash" option on two separate purchases, each for a 6 month term, I did not have to pay $18.97 interest on a purchase made 12/10, nor did I have to pay $19.91 interest on a purchase made 1/2011. I just paid the minimum payment each month until the last month, when I paid it in full.
I have one more "Same as Cash" purchase on my card. My son needed a computer for college, I purchased it for him as a loan in 7/2010 on an 18 month term. He paid me back pretty quickly. I used the cash he paid me back with to help pay down high APR debt, and only paid the minimum due each month on the card. I will continue to do that, and pay the full balance due shortly before 2/8/2012.
At this time, the interest accured for that computer is at $130.03... and I will never have to pay it, because I will pay it off on time.
One would think saving $18.97 or $19.91 isn't a big deal, but these were lower cost items at a shorter term. But when you look at a higher cost item (approx $500.) at their 24.24% interest rate, and the 15 month savings of $130.03 so far, it's pretty huge. I wonder how much I will have 'not had to pay' when the full 18 months is up.
Communication bills
Doesn't seem we can do much with the cell phone bill, the slightly lower rates for like half of the plan minutes we currently have just doesn't make sense if we were then to somehow go over our minutes. (Approx $1980 per year for 3 cell phones.)
Cable seems pretty set in stone too. Too many family members refuse to do without it, and just paying for it seems like less stress than dealing with the complaints I'd hear about it going away. Plus, it covers our home phone (which we never use), and our internet... which we run both of our home based businesses on, so cannot lose that. ($2136 per year. landline/internet/cable tv (no premium channels).
(That's ~$4000 per year to keep in touch and veg on the couch, and on the up side, run two businesses.)
Utilities
Electricity and Natural Gas... we'll see. We just put in new windows on the top half of the house, and replaced the patio doors. (We paid cash for the windows and sweat equity for the labor, so could only afford half... but no interest... yay!! A 60% savings compared to what my friend paid to contract out for her upper floor windows.) I'll calculate over the next year the differences in our energy usage over each month.
Garbage and Water/sewer are pre-determined.
Savings so far, just by paying attention...
Dollar Tree
Toothpaste for kiddo and she likes it! - Aim Kids Bubble Berry 4.8 oz
- I bought 3 @ 1.00 ea.
Toothbrushes - Colgate Extra Clean 42 Soft Full Easy Grip & Cleaning Tip
- I bought 2 @ 1.00 ea.
(Not to be confusing, but with Oral-B toothbrushes on Sale at Cub for 2 for $6, paying only $1 per, made me happy... calculated, it's a savings of $4.00!!)
Amazon.com
Story time... Hubby went to Home Depot to purchase the replacement cartridge for our refrigerator water filter. Came home with it... said it was $44, up $10 dollars from last time he purchased it.
I said I bet we could find it cheaper online. I found it at Amazon.com for $32.45 and FREE SHIPPING. Hubby didn't think the difference was worth the trouble, but I told him it all adds up. (I have said that for years, but have never followed through on giving him any proof... with luck, I'll stay with my venture in Saving money this time.)
I looked at the Home Depot receipt, what he paid with tax was $48.16. The difference between what he paid, and what I paid at Amazon.com is $15.71. Totally worth a side trip to return the expensive one to Home Depot the next time I go pay my mortgage two blocks from there. (won't make a seperate trip, don't need to waste gas)
But wait, there's more... I ordered the filter cartridge on Amazon.com, and went to check out. Normally, I don't pay attention to and purposefully avoid anyone that offers me a credit card. (Too many credit checks will hurt your credit score.) But this one said if I applied for an Amazon Credit Card I would get $30. off my order, and have this card which had some rewards or points system. Knowing my credit sucks anyway, I said yes. Huh!... They approved me, so I have a new card with a rewards system that I'll need to figure out how to use wisely. And I got my water filter cartrige replacement for $2.45!!
I saved $45.71 on this one item!!! I will pay the card the full amount due of $2.45, when the bill comes, and will not pay any interest on this purchase.
A happy side note... when Amazon.com sent me my terms of service and use information (which I've never actually read on any other card before), way at the bottom, it told me what my FICO score is. So now I have a solid base number that I can work on improving.
I purchased it, and will return the expensive one to Home Depot.
Yay Me!!
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