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Newsletter to Your Friends (Use this link only if you receive this newsletter by email) Week of September 21, 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! Prosper is the loans marketplace. You can borrow, invest or trade. Borrow Money - Low rates on Personal Loans Personal loans with no middlemen, no hidden fees, and fixed monthly payments. Invest Money - Largest Peer-to-Peer Lending Marketplace Learn about online investing on Prosper and invest in high return good-credit loans. Learn more at Prosper.com GET $25 GIFT CERTIFICATES FOR ONLY $4! Enter Discount Code: ENJOY This is an excellent deal to save money on eating out at a fine restaurant. I've verified that the discount exists but really don't know when it will expire so you may want to hurry. Restaurant.com Search and Compare among 40+ sites, 20,000 sellers, millions of books! This is an excellent site to save money on your books especially for student text books. Check them out at http://www.addall.com/ 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 AdvertisementFiles, photos, ebooks, MP3s, everything is gone. If you have been a computer user for very long this has happened to you. Now you can back up those precious files automatically. Just set it and everything is done in the background. If you lose a file or your computer crashes you have everything at the click of your mouse. Don't take a chance. Back up your computer today! Get Carbonite and breath easy. Click Here To Get A 15 Day Free Trial Grandpa Terry's Tip of the WeekI'm turning my tip this week over to Monique Rowe that has a blog to help one-income families with the struggles. I've always worked off and on and don't remember ever working full time. I left home when I was 16 and lived on my own for a few months, till the place I worked at shut down for the season.After that I moved in with my gramma for a bit, then with a boyfriend, whom I later married. Things were always tough financially. During my married life, I developed anxiety and IBS, which made having a regular 9-5 job difficult. My ex-husband always paid big payments on everything we owned, such as our car and home. This may sound like a good plan, but it didn't leave us with much money for anything else,including groceries, so I had to always be creative. Fast forward to twenty years plus, 2 children and then divorce. While I was married, I work a few days a week, here and there, off and on. We never had a babysitter- if either one went out, the other was there to watch the children. I always looked for ways to bring in extra money without being away from home, or for too long. I wanted to be with my family and be there for the children. Over the years I did refunding, sold Avon, did party plans, had garage sales, sold this and that at farmers markets, and tried most of the get rich quick schemes out there.It was all for the sake of wanting to be at home. Once I was divorced, I lived with the girls and managed on my own for 3 years. It was tough. I used to find myself always telling the girls to shut off the lights when they left the room and the tv when they weren't watching it.Once my older daughter moved out, she became more frugal I believe than me. I am happy to say everything I did and said, sunk in. The past 3 years I have been living with my common law and my youngest daughter. Although the kids grew up, I still enjoy staying home as much as I can. Call me old fashioned. I still do odds and ends to bring in a bit of pocket money. Over the summer I began writing more and decided I was going to write a book. I would share my tips and also those of other one income families. My book is now with the publisher and in a month or two should be ready for the public. I started a blog and love sharing my life with everyone on what we do to save money and how we can have more with less. I believe with sharing ideas and tips, we can all move towards a simplier life. Monique Rowe Making less... go farther- Stretching the One Income Dollar http://www.oneincomedollar.com 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 EmailBe very careful using the Wal-Mart site to search for a job. The very first site we went to was fraud and now we are getting unwanted emails from places we had never heard from until using this site. User Beware!Dee New Castle, IN I don't want the President to mess with my insurance. I have worked hard to get a good job with good benefits. It would be cheaper to insure those that do not have insurance than to cram Obamacare down everyones throats. The government can't run anything without messing it up and having cost overruns. Suzan Ellis Hi Terri! How are you doing? Fine, I hope. I already gave you my two cents worth a few months ago but have had some new thoughts about it. My health insurance premiums have tripled and policies calling for high deductibles are now what is given. Insurance companies collect premiums from you and I and what do they do with this money? After they pay off claims, costs and (big fat bonuses), they put the rest in the stock market. So, if health costs supposedly only went up 10 or 20 %, where is this extra money going? You guessed it! To make up for some of their stock market losses and plough more money into them. So, if Obama mandates health care. In other words, we have to by law give money to the insurance companies for our health care and subsidize those considered poor and the excess goes into the stock market. We are on the verge of a hugh bankruptcy Depression. I saw a book that states that beginning October/November, the stock market will begin a fall that will take the Dow down to around 2000 points by October 2010. The last Depression took a full 3 years for the stocks to bottom out Guess what! The Recession started in late 2007 and 3 years will be 2010. Anyway the point is that if the market were to fall another 80%! The insurance companies courtesy of Obama would legally force us to pay whatever the insurance companies want to charge us for premiums. The insurance companies will steal from us to offset their huge losses from their stupid stock market mutual funds losses. The illegal issue is phoney because when Obama denies covering them, guess what! After he passes this health care thing, he is on record for making the illegals citizens which will entitle them to free medical care courtesy of you and me the tax payer. He wants to make the Mexicans who are here illegally citizens. So.. Imagine a country in a depression with a bankrupt stock market, bankrupt banks, and finally bankrupt citizens giving their hard earned cash to the insurance companies. Imagine insurance companies charging your over $1,000 per month if this went down! That is $1,000 per month per person or family that won´t go into the rest of the economy and consumer spending. A country where no one spends hardly anything because these stupid politicians obligated citizens to give insurance companies blank checks! Anyway, what do you think Terri? Jim Hi Grandpa Terry, Thank you for all your great advice. I had had a progression of my MS and have to spend many hours in bed. Please don't feel sorry for me. This is not something God gave me but allowed me to have. I am greatly blessed in many ways, from a wonderful husband and sons to our money situation. I love to do intercessory prayer (praying for others). If this letter is appropriate for your newsletter and any of your readers have prayer requests I would love to pray for them. They can email me at prayersforhelp@yahoo.com . Karen Good Morning! First, from sad experience I would advise everyone to do the work, have a plan and make the calls to solve their own financial issues, rather than use a debt resolution company. (Websites like Grandpa Terry´s can help us do this.) These people are in business for a reason, and it is for them to make money. This happened to us. All of a sudden their phone # was not a working #, we had no way to reach them, and our money was gone. We would have been better served to consult an attorney, which is what we ended up doing in the end. So, it could be a mistake to ask me to comment on the president´s health care plan. I caused quite a ruckus on Face Book which you may not want on your site. J You´d better edit as necessary. As most of us know, there are several plans circulating in Congress. Our president made a strong effort to get his plan/public option rushed through Congress when the majority of our legislators had not even read it and against the wishes of a majority of our citizens. Those who had the audacity to oppose this were insulted and called names. It seems that common sense and life experiences should tell us to stay away from anything that cannot stand up to thorough public scrutiny and which must be ramrodded through without the peoples´ consent. This raises a huge red flag for me, along with the fact that Nancy Pelosi has blocked several other (Republican) options from even coming to the floor for consideration or discussion—in fact, even the existence of these alternate bills is denied. I say this without knowing for sure what is in the plan, and from the point of view that our president is not very trustworthy and appears to say whatever serves him well right at the moment. While he denies that certain parts of his package are true, many who have actually read it are quite willing to produce the language in the plan and clarify it for the layman. There are numerous websites out there which provide this information and would enable people to have a more balanced perspective. For myself, I process insurance claims at our dental office and am acquainted with Medicaid, Medicare and Social Security. Trust me; we do not want more of that. I am very frustrated with the commercial insurance companies as well. While I realize there need to be major changes, I strongly oppose the public option. Thanks for your newsletter and all you do. Seriously, when I watch the news I start to wonder if everyone is bamboozled by what the media puts out. I appreciate your common sense approach to things. Plus…..you have helped me delay my ironing for about half an hour! Brenda I too am not sure about the Health proposal but I do have a little something for people to think about especially those who have coverage right now. A couple of years ago the company my husband worked for decided to forgo the cost of insurance by becoming self-insured, at that time we had to pay a portion of the cost, then a year ago they came along and posted a note that they were cutting the dental and there were to be more cuts soon. The following week a note was posted that on September 1 the deductible would inscrease to one million dollars for three months and then the would be stopping the insurance. By increasing the deductible to 0ne million dollars that made us unable to use Cobra....They also didn't give use a change to keep the policy when they went self-insured. All this took place in a two week period. Everyone who has insurance at their job place needs to know that things like this can happen and do happen everyday. Thanks Ellen Crescent City, CA Featured ArticleBy Kimberly A. Griffiths With so many different types of sales running all the time, why would anyone ever pay retail? In most cases, with a little research, you may never have to pay retail again. Buyers beware -- not all sales are created equally. % off sale price Some sales offer substantial savings such as 50% off already reduced merchandise which is probably as deep a discount as you can get. It may take some time and patience once you're in the store, but these sales can really be wonderful when buying necessities such as back-to-school clothes and even for off-season holiday shopping. Buy one, get one 50% off The buy one, get one 50% off is my least favorite sale. It is essentially a way for stores to move their merchandise without offering any great incentive to the shopper. It's just another way of saying get a 25% discount when you purchase two items. Unless you're shopping with a friend, family member, or neighbor who needs the same thing, it just isn't all that exciting of a sale. You rarely need to buy two of one thing. I would also group the buy two, get one free in this category - uneventful. Two-for-One Lately I have noticed that grocery stores have pulled out all the stops to offer their products at a two-for-one deal. Almost every shelf is lined with a brightly colored sale sticker offering two-for-one. But again, more often than not, I only need one item not two! I can't speak for all the stores nationwide since they all have different policies, but in my case, I found that if you buy only one item instead of the two that they're pushing, the one item is half the price. For example, if orange juice is advertised as two for one at $4.00, one might be $2.00 - ask the cashier! If you find that the one item is indeed half the price, tell the cashier that you no longer want the second item. They will put the food back on the shelf. no worries. BOGO Another marketing incentive is the buy-one-get-one-free (BOGO) option. If you dine out with a spouse, colleagues, or a friend, consider eating out at restaurants offering a buy-one-get-one-free coupon. Truly, if you tend to eat out often, this could be a substantial monthly savings. Just commit for one week that you will not eat out unless you have a buy-one-get-one-free coupon. Go to www.ValPak.com, search for restaurants by zip code, and ooo la la instant printable coupons for restaurants in your area! A word of caution, no matter how frugal you may be, I don't recommend using a coupon on a first date. Know the difference between a special event versus going out to lunch with a co-worker! Free After Rebate Although the free after rebate takes a little work, this can also be quite a good deal. I notice these offers most often on small electronics. In fact, the modem I'm currently using was free after submitting a manufacturer's rebate. Sure, I had to wait 8 weeks for the check to come in the mail, but I'd rather spend 15 minutes on the front-end of the deal doing a little bit of work so that I can get my money back. Free Samples One of the best ways to try out a product is when it is free! From laundry detergent to toothpaste, companies are anxious for you to try their product. If you live in a major city, free trial mints/gum, aspirin, soda, etc. are passed out on street corners from time to time. If you want to get more free stuff, try www.StartSampling.com. Online Sales Whether you are researching to buy in a physical store or looking to buy online, always look for product coupons. Simply type in the product you are looking for and the word "coupon" into a search engine like yahoo, msn, google, or ask jeeves. For example, recently I decided to have a few personal photographs enlarged to place on a wall in my home. I did a search online for "photograph coupon" and found a 40% discount on my purchase at www.kodakgallery.com. The entire purchase took 2 minutes longer because I searched for a virtual coupon which saved me $20. Saving $20 in 2 minutes on something I was going to purchase anyway is exciting! If you cannot find a coupon after doing a search, try using a shopbot, a comparison pricing tool, which finds the lowest price in their network for the product you are searching for. Some common shopbots include www.pricescan.com, www.pricecheck.com, www.pricegrabber.com, and www.smartshopper.com. No Sale? If a store isn't offering a sale, don't hesitate to ask the store manager if the price quoted is the best value they can offer. Once you ask the question, remain quiet and let the store manager respond. Don't look away, don't interrupt, just wait for his/her response. This approach takes practice, but you can save a lot of money by learning how to negotiate. You may flop the first few attempts but remember, you're the customer and you can always ask. For example: At an oil change garage or dry cleaners: "I have a coupon for your competitor down the street, will you accept their coupon?" If the answer is yes, then ask "Do you offer any further discounts?"Speaking to your credit card company: "I received a credit card offer from Bank X in the mail which offers a rate that is 1% lower than what I'm currently paying with no annual fee. I'm considering switching to this card unless you can offer the same or better deal. What terms can you offer me?"Buying furniture: "Since I'm buying more than one piece of furniture [on sale of course], can you arrange for free delivery for me?"Almost every other type of face-to-face purchase: Is this the best deal you can offer?In Summary Spend a little time trying to save the hard earned money you worked for this week. Don't be so eager to spend it or give it away. And, don't buy something just because it's on sale - that's also not a wise choice. Spend money only on the things you need and preferably find these things on sale. If you really want to see the difference in savings that you are making by shopping the sales, create a strategy. If you save 25% on your grocery bill or $12.00 by using a coupon, put the money you would have spent into a jar. The money you accumulate in a month's time will amaze you. Use the savings to pay off the credit card bill that you are paying off. Become a smart shopper by never paying retail - ever! About the Author: Kimberly A. Griffiths is the author of One Paycheck at a Time (Booklocker.com, 2003), www.OnePaycheckataTime.com , ISBN: 1591133327, a 200-page workbook containing budget management exercises for an entire year of paychecks. Griffiths has been through the vicious cycle of debt herself and provides a system to managing your money paycheck to paycheck. You customize the journal based on your pay schedule and learn the necessary tools for making ends meet. This article is intended for educational purposes only and it should not be interpreted as financial advice. For advice that is specific to your circumstances, please consult your tax and financial advisor.
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