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Newsletter to Your Friends (Use this link only if you receive this newsletter by email) Week of July 27, 2009This is an OPT-IN list ONLY! If you feel that you have received this message in error, please follow the directions at the bottom of this email to unsubscribe. Thank you.Click Here to view this newsletter online. Navigate This ColumnGrandpa Terry's Update Welcome to The Budget Stretcher! On August 1st you will have to pay $57 for a Lifetime Membership to Budget Stretcher Premium (BSP) to get all of the Member Benefits. But if you act now you can have that lifetime membership for only $28.50 and never have to pay another penny. I'm adding a link on BSP to a web site where you can get free online bill pay. This service normally costs you a monthly fee. There are hundreds of links and resources available at BSP to make your financial life easier and I am adding new stuff every week. Make sure you check it out at the below link: http://www.homemoneyhelp.com/julsubspecial.htm You now have the option of paying for your Premium Membership by Personal Check or Money Order. (Must be postmarked by July 31, 2009) It's hard to believe that summer vacation is almost over. My grandkids start school on August 13, 2009. As usual I'm going to be running tips in the newsletter to save money on school supplies and clothes and give you some ideas to make the upcoming school year a little easier. You can start by reviewing the "Site of the Week" at Back to School - First Gov.gov If you have any ideas or tips to make on Back To School please send them to me and I will get them in the newsletter. Gas In Homewood IL - $2.69 a Gallon!!! Sometimes it helps to keep a log of your spending for a month or two to get an idea of where your money is going. I've developed a form called a Monthly Spending Log that will help and I've giving it to your free this week. Here are the download links to a couple of different versions: Excel Format http://www.homemoneyhelp.com/calcforms/monthlyspendinglog.xls Microsoft Works Format http://www.homemoneyhelp.com/calcforms/msl.xlr That's all for now. Remember, I really enjoy hearing from you folks. If you have any comments, complaints, suggestions or just want to say Hi, please send me an email to tre2000@midwest.net If you know someone that may be interested in subscribing to our newsletter just copy and paste the below link into an email to them and have them subscribe: http://www.homemoneyhelp.com/confirmsubs.html Have a great week, Grandpa Terry Sponsor AdvertisementAre you frustrated trying to get by on the money you make? Would you like to get a good view to where all your money is going? Would you like to start saving your money, or save even more? Looking for something easier then software like Quicken or Money? Would you like to teach your children about finance? Click Here to check out My Budget Planner Today Grandpa Terry's Tip of the Week(Another Point Of View) I know you meant your message for those who tend to carry a balance and not for us who pay off in full every month (per your first sentence), but there are advantages to credit cards over cash. The major one for me-- if I lose a credit card, or somebody takes it, I can cancel it with no financial loss. When cash is gone-- it's gone, and nobody is going to send you new cash to replace it. A card provides me a statement of what I spent, where. Cash-- when it's gone, it's gone... and sometimes I don't remember for what or where. Yes, I probably SHOULD write such things down, but I don't, and receipts tend to stray. No ATM/teller lines to deal with. Can't buy gas at CostCo with cash-- and it's up to 20 cents/gal cheaper there than regular local stations, plus a 3% rebate if the CostCo AmEx is used. Other purchases made with the AmEx get a 1% rebate-- which is "real" for me, since I do pay off monthly and thus am not paying interest to Am Ex. It's not a whole lot-- less than $100/year, but the check they send can be used "like cash" at Cost Co, and pays for a weekly shopping trip plus enough cash back to go to the Food Court and buy a pizza for dinner (they only take cash in the Food Court...). Kaytee My Response: Hi Kaytee, You are absolutely right that credit cards can do all of those things and save you a bundle, be more secure than cash and help you track your spending. But, this can only pay off if you don't carry a balance. Many of these benefits can also be accomplished with a debit card with a credit card logo. With the average credit card balance being carried by consumers of $8,000 with an interest rate of around 15% their average interest per month is $100. There are no rewards programs, rebates or any other benefit that will add up to that much. Some of the folks I work with are paying $200 to $500 per month just in credit card interest. You have put yourself in a position to reap the rewards of your credit cards through responsible use. Others have to learn this and are paying the price for over using their credit cards. Thanks for giving me a comparison to put in the newsletter. All the best, Terry Sponsor AdvertisementTHE MORE DEBTS YOU HAVE, THE FASTER YOU CAN PAY THEM OFF! Paying highest-interest debt first is the SLOWEST way out ... You can laugh at money worries - if you follow our simple plan. Discover savvy consumer money secrets your friends don't know and banks won't tell you. Limited time only. ACT NOW: http://www.1shoppingcart.com/app/aftrack.asp?afid=107959 Grandpa Terry's EmailGood Morning, GT~Great newsletter today! We are working at paying off our credit cards. It seems a slow process, but we don’t use the cards at all, so they are going down (more about that in a minute). I have a Chase card that has been at 0% interest for over a year. I don’t know if they have forgotten to start charging interest, or what. It is down to about $1,600, so I would think someone would be looking at that account pretty soon. Also, when I made my Citibank payment, I noticed they had moved my payment date up by two days. I made the payment on-line the day before the payment was due; however they did not post the payment until two days after it was made. So I will be watching my next statement especially closely—if they dared to put a late fee on there I have an ace up my sleeve because Discover called to see why I was not using my card and informed me they have special rates for people who want to consolidate and pay off their credit card debt. So I do have a “Plan B” if I need it. Anyway, here is something that has saved me some interest charges. I think we all know that if we add to an existing credit card debt the card companies don’t let you pay that off first, so you end up paying a lot of interest on the new charges as well as the old. But sometimes, you just have to charge. Our kids were coming to visit over the Fourth of July. Our son was bringing his new girlfriend. At a time like that, especially, a working toilet is a necessity, but of course, it was almost predicable that our old one would develop a couple of cracks in the base, with an accompanying leak into the basement. Two days before our family was to arrive, we had to make a flying trip to the nearest Menard’s for a new toilet and linoleum for the bathroom. (I’m not even going to talk about doing the installation ourselves, along with all the other things that needed to be done.) Needless to say, this was not in the budget, and I have made a commitment not to use my credit cards. Enter the store card. If you qualify for the card, their interest-free rates can be from 3 to 9 months. Divide your charge into equal monthly payments. We paid $420 for our supplies. There is no interest charge until March, 2010. If I pay $20 this month, I can pay $50 per month until March and not pay any interest, and it is reasonable, at least right now, to think we can afford those payments. If I am able to pay more each month, I can do that, too. I like to think I am beating the card companies at their own game. They are gambling that I won’t be able to pay off my bill in that amount of time. I am pretty sure I can. So, that’s my story. If you can use any part of it, feel free. Hope you had a wonderful Fourth of July. Everything worked out for us and we had a great time---we are hoping our son’s girlfriend is our future daughter-in-law! Brenda A few months ago you had a reader send some links about writing your own will. Could you please re post this information again. Thank you Hope NC My Response: Hi Hope, I wasn't able to find the tip you were referring to but I did find 3 sites to prepare a free Last Will and Testament. Here are the links: Print, sign and notarize http://www.alllaw.com/forms/wills_and_trusts/last_will_and_testam/printer.htm Requires registration http://www.legaleinstein.com/?hid=463778775&affid=600085&c1=last%20will%20and%20testaments This one requires a one week free trial membership http://www.rocketlawyer.com/documents/legal-form-Complete+Will.aspx I hope this helps, Grandpa Terry I have several bank of america cards and I am receiving notice of increases in interest rates. Including changing from fixed rates to variable. This is how they reward good customers. They are not jumping from 1 or 2% but 5 or more. Plus I keep getting my limits increased and new offers I don’t get it. They say not to cancel your cards but I believe they will start charging you an inactive fee, anything to get money from you. So I will slowly get rid of most of them. The banks still cant seem to get it right. Some people who have charged large amounts on their credit cards will never get out of debt at this rate. Grandpa Terry, I was reading your reponse to changes at Chase, well Bank of America is making changes too. they are basically changing all fixed rate cards to variable rate. Here is a portion of the introduction: "What Is Happening: All standard Annual Percentage Rates (APRs) will be variable rates that will change each month with the Prime Rate. The Prime Rate will be selected at the end of each month, and will be applied to all balances in the same billing cycleas when selected. Variable default rates will also use the variable rate formulat disclosed below if a Default Rate is applied to your account after the effective date of this amendment. These changes do not affect any promotional rates that may apply to your account." They apparently set the initial rate to reflect the current rate you are paying. We actually had two cards at Bank of America (one had been tranfered to them), so we had two different rates. They used the Prime Rate and then added different margins of percentage points to added up to the current rate we are paying. We've paid one card off. When Prime goes up our current rate will go up. This was after decreasing credit lines in March and then increasing transaction fees in April. We are in the process of quickly trying to pay off the second card. Char In about April I got a notice that my APR would be rising from about 12% to 17% on one of my three Chase Cards. One is Disney, one is generic and one is Amazon. This was the Amazon one. Unfortunately, I had charged roofing materials for my dad's house on that card last fall. I called and talked to someone in a call center who was barely understandable because of her accent. At any rate, I told them I disagreed with the increase in APR. She asked me to hold, them came back on and said that my interest rate would not be raised, but my minimum monthly payment would be. I said that would be fine as the minimum payment was about $33 and I usually paid around $150. I didn't check my statements until this last one where it showed my APR to be 19+%. I called and again got another barely intelligible person, who said it was past the "deadline" for me to protest the change. I told him I had already called in protest, but as often or as loudly as I said it, he merely reiterated that the deadline was past and he could do nothing. I asked to speak to his supervisor and was transferred to another gentleman.He told me the deadline had passed, and I went through my whole explanation with him again. I also told him that out of 2 Bank of American cards and 3 chase cards, the Amazon had already been the highest. He apologized and said he would refund the difference in the finance charges, but now my account would be closed and I would lose all my purchase points. Horrors! I asked what the notation on the clossed account would be and he told me it would say the account was closed because I did not agree to the terms. Now this seems kind of negative to me. I think closed at customer's request would be better. He went on to tell me how much they valued my business, my reply being "OBVIOUSLY NOT!" and I hung up. It doesn't matter how good your credit is, they want to squeeze every dime out of you before the legislation reigning them in takes effect in 2010. By the way, why did they delay this until 2010? The consumers could have used it immediately, you know, like the recipients of all the stimulus monies. Thanks for all you do, Marilyn Featured ArticleBy Christina Spence
a.. Baking Soda - I'm known as a bit of a baking soda nut! Why? This powerful little box may not look impressive, but it contains a serious multitasking cleaner. Use it as a powder cleanser, to neutralize odors naturally, and even to wash floors and walls. b.. Vinegar - This is the other top cleaning powerhouse that every home needs. I tend to buy MASSIVE jugs of this stuff, because I use it like a madwoman. Vinegar is a natural acid, meaning that it does a lot of the tougher cleaning jobs around your home - but at a fraction of the cost of commercial cleaners. Plus, it's friendlier for you, your family AND the environment. Use it in natural cleaning formulas, to clean out the coffeemaker, to remove hard water stains, and much more. For dozens of way to use this amazing stuff, visit http://www.kitchencraftsnmore.net/vinegar.html c.. Club soda - This is a surprisingly good glass and mirror cleaner! Either fresh or old unfizzy stuff will work fine. Just pour this into a clean spray bottle and use as you would any glass cleaner. Use a lint-free cloth or paper towel to give stainless steel surfaces a shine with this too. d.. Shaving cream - Surprise! Shaving cream is a surprisingly effective carpet and clothing stain remover. Just squeeze some out onto the stain (moisten first with a bit of cool water - never warm water, as that will set the stain) and use a scrubber brush to get it down deep into the fibers. Rinse and continue until stain is removed. e.. Lemon juice - Lemon juice (or other citrus juices such as orange juice) works great as a degreasing agent. Plus, it's also a pretty darn wonderful disinfectant and stain remover. Dip a cut lemon into some baking soda or salt and use as the best smelling scrubber around - awesome for sinks and tubs. Or, make a paste of table salt and lemon juice and use as a pre treatment for tough laundry stains.
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