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Festival of Frugality #220 - The Minimalist Edition

Admin — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 03:30:09 +0000

[This post is written and copyrighted by FIRE Finance (http://firefinance.blogspot.com).]

Welcome to a minimalist edition #220 of Festival of Frugality. It’s based on a theme of minimalism. Before we get started on the festival, you may want to checkout our current giveaway - “Get Financially Naked - How to Talk Money with your Honey.” If you are new to FIRE Finance, you can take a peek at our posts on frugal living, investing, retirement and free money. Now, ease yourself into a comfy chair with a drink of your choice to enjoy this festival to the fullest :).

Editor’s Picks

History has demonstrated that the most notable winners usually encountered heartbreaking obstacles before they triumphed. They won because they refused to become discouraged by their defeats - Bertie C. Forbes

8 Effective Ways to Raise Frugal Kids - Baker, Man vs Debt

Ten Simple Strategies For Easier Meal Planning - Kristia, Family Balance Sheet

Break Bad Habits When Managing Your Finances - Jacques Sprenger, The Smarter Wallet

Family & Home

Beware of little expenses; a small leak will sink a great ship - Benjamin Franklin

13 Good Cheap Date Ideas - Theresa, LuvBuv

Wedding Invitation Etiquette: Should Kids Be Invited To Weddings? - Silicon Valley Blogger, The Digerati Life

Turn Off Your Air Conditioning, Wisebread

Pay Extra for Turnkey Real Estate or Save with Fixer Upper? - Matt, Steadfast Finances

How genealogy research and frugal living relate - Paula Wethington, Monroe on a Budget

Health & Food

“Make the most of yourself, for that is all there is of you - Ralph Waldo Emerson

How To Get Affordable Health Insurance When You are Self Employed - Jeff Rose, Good Financial Cents

Cheap Meals: Dine for Less but Keep the Great Taste and Healthy Foods - PT, PT Money

Shopping

“The chains of habit are too strong to be felt until they are too strong to be broken - Samuel Johnson

When to Buy a Warranty - Ryan, Obsessed Analytic

How to Earn $100 an Hour (Or Save $100,000 in Your Lifetime) - FMF, Free Money Finance

Top 6 Mindless Money Wasters - J. Money, Budgets are Sexy

Global Spending: How People Spend their Money - KCLau, KCLau’s Money Tips

Finance & Taxes

Consider the postage stamp; Its usefulness consists in the ability to stick to one thing till it gets there - Josh Billings

How to live on one income - Money Savin’ Momma, Engineer a Debt Free Life

$3,000 Cash for Caulkers Details Revealed - Darwin, Darwin’s Finance

How Much is a Military Retirement Worth? - Ryan, Military Finance Network

Why I Don’t Have a Will and Why You Might Need One - Cheapskate Sandy, Yes, I Am Cheap

3 Sure-Fire Ways To Fail Financially - Bob, Christian Personal Finance

6 Scales of Financial Capability: How Do We Measure Up? - 2 Cents, Balance Junkie

People Are Begging for Financial Help. Five Things You Can Do - Joe Plemon, Personal Finance By The Book

Lifestyle inflation -the silent killer of dreams - Adam, Magical Penny

Know Thy (Financial) Self - Sun, The Sun’s Financial Diary

Reasons For A Roth Conversion From 401K Or Traditional Roth - ABCs Of Investing

Don’t Get Too Carried Away with Tax Deductions - Peak Personal Finance

Debt, Credit & Auto

Rather to go to bed supperless than rise in debt - Benjamin Franklin

Debt Settlement Complaints on the Rise - Matthew Paulson, American Consumer News

How to Avoid Credit Repair Scams - Payday Loner

The Infinite Advantages Of Paying Cash For A New Car - Craig Ford, Money Help For Christians

That brings us to the end of this festival. We thank Jim for giving us an opportunity to host a Festival of Frugality. The next edition of this festival will be crafted by Canadian Finance Blog.

Heartfelt thanks to you for making this festival a success. Adieu till we meet again at another festival of joyful sharing.

Image Source(s): iStockPhoto

FREE Giveaway - "Get Financially Naked" - How to talk Money with your Honey!

Admin — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 15:30:14 +0000

[This post is written and copyrighted by FIRE Finance (http://firefinance.blogspot.com).]

Welcome to our giveaway for March 2010. It’s a simple but very useful book titled “Get Financially Naked: How to Talk Money with Your Honey.”

Don’t be shocked by the title - it simply means we need to honestly talk with our spouses about money. This book is a succinct straightforward action-oriented guide that will help you to care for your relationship as well as your money matters at the same time.

Though intended for women, we found this book to be handy for both men and women who need to talk to each other about money. Most relationships are torpedoed by financial stress since partners are not on the same financial page. This book will help you to talk constructively with your honey about money. Often with a positive attitude and cooperation, such healthy conversations dramatically strengthen a relationship. Perhaps it’d be a good idea to read this book together if you are in a relationship with serious commitment.

Give Away Rules

To win this book, all you need to do is leave a short comment. Your comment # (generated automatically) will be your entry number.

The winner will be announced on Friday,March 12th, 2010.

Limit one entry per person.

Deadline for posting a valid comment is now through midnight (US - Eastern Standard Time), March 11th, 2010.

Winner Notification: Since this site is hosted on Blogger, we need your email address to contact you for sending the book. You have three choices:

Leave your email address in your comment.
If you are not comfortable about leaving your email address in your comment, kindly send an email to firegetters@gmail.com [firegetters at gmail dot com] with your email id. Please put the following in the subject line “FREE GiveAway”.
If you have a blog, and would like to be contacted through it, please leave its link in your comment.

Who is a winner?

We shall generate a two digit random number (http://random.org). The winner is the commenter whose comment # matches with the random number generated.

To maintain transparency, random numbers generated will be published.
If the winning entry is a comment from “Anonymous’ with no email id or link to a site, we’ll run the random number generator once again to find another winner.
Once a winner is announced and we’ve contacted him/her, we expect a response within a week. Else we’ll have to select a new winner.

The book will be mailed to an address in US only. Sorry :(. You don’t need to have a blog to participate in this giveaway. Good Luck!

Please subscribe our RSS Feed (What is this?) to stay tuned to our site.
Why? We are planning more giveaways with great, attractive and useful books, gizmos, and goodies.

FIRE Finance reserves all rights to the rules of this contest.

FREE QuickBooks Simple Start 2010

Admin — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 15:30:12 +0000

[This post is written and copyrighted by FIRE Finance (http://firefinance.blogspot.com).]

Quickbooks is offering a FREE Download for their product Simple Start 2010. If you have a small business with simple accounting needs then this tool might be a perfect fit for you. Simple Start is an easy-to-use free small business accounting software that can help you to manage your business better by staying organized, being prepared at tax time and presenting more professional looks.

Click here for the FREE Simple Start 2010

Quickbooks Simple Start 2010 will help you track sales & expenses for up to 20 customers, instantly create invoices, pay bills, & print checks. Please note that Simple Start is for first-time users and can only import data from prior versions of Simple Start.

Have Fun with Evian Roller Babies

Admin — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 20:30:15 +0000

[This post is written and copyrighted by FIRE Finance (http://firefinance.blogspot.com).]

Today we found this amazing commercial from Evian featuring babies on roller skates. It’s hilarious yet conveys a subtle message about the product. The technology used to simulate the babies motions with the music is mind boggling. The song is “Rapper’s Delight” by Dan The Automator.

Let us know whether you liked it or not. Create a wonderful weekend ahead :).

Smart Refrigeration Lowers Electricity Bill

Admin — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 20:30:13 +0000

[This post is written and copyrighted by FIRE Finance (http://firefinance.blogspot.com).]

This week a casual incident taught us a few things about frugal living. While shopping for groceries we bumped into an old friend from high school. We were close friends but had lost touch since we graduated. There was so much to catch up with but a grocery store seemed the last place in the world for doing so. Spontaneously we invited him to have dinner with us. He graciously accepted and accompanied us home. At high school, our friend was a simple guy and we were glad to see that he is still the same :).

We seated ourselves at our dining table with warm drinks, eager to share our experiences. Slowly as our conversation unfolded we discovered that our friend had become a refrigeration expert and was earning a good living. A couple of years ago he had set up his own company and was currently working for himself. He said that he had clearly understood the patterns of his business and was comfortable on going solo. He jokingly added that his job could not be shipped abroad since refrigeration needed to be physically done in US! Point taken, as techies, our jobs can be shipped out of US any day :(.

While conversing with him, we also started preparing dinner. Since we did not have a ready made meal plan, we ended up opening the refrigerator and staring at things that could be used for cooking dinner. While we were standing, deciding on what vegetables to chop and which cheese to use, our friend smiling warned us that we were wasting a lot of energy by keeping the refrigerator’s door open. He added that we should not leave a refrigerator’s door open longer than necessary since it loses cold air. Then the appliance sucks away a lot of energy to maintain its regulated temperature. This boosts up our electricity bill and lowers the life of the appliance. We immediately noted his point on a yellow sticky post it and pasted it on our refrigerator. Hopefully in future, this note will help us to keep our refrigerator door open for an optimal time only.

He took a look around our kitchen and said that we should have created some breathing space around our refrigerator. At present, our refrigerator is placed between an electric oven with four stoves on one side and the wall on the other. Since there is no space around it and a heating appliance next to it, our refrigerator’s engine is using up extra electricity to maintain the low temperatures that we have set. We live in a rented apartment and literally there is no room to move our kitchen’s appliances. But those of you who live in your own houses can easily do so. It will help in cutting down your refrigerator’s electricity consumption and lowering your monthly utility bill.

Our friend also advised us not to set too low temperatures for our refrigerator as this could increase its energy consumption by as much as 25%. Usually temperatures between 2 to 4 degree Celsius (36 to 40 degree Fahrenheit) is good enough for the main compartment. Freezers can have temperatures between -18 to -10 degree Celsius (0 to 5 degree Fahrenheit). And once in a while if we clean the condenser coils it keeps the refrigerator in good shape. Since we can’t move our refrigerator, cleaning coils is out of question. But we can definitely maintain the temperature ranges suggested by our friend.

By this time, dinner was cooked and we had a hearty meal. Our friend was very pleased with our simple belongings and frugal lifestyle. He said that he was tired of unnecessary stuff and clutter. Before he started his business, he had conducted a giant de-cluttering project which freed up lot of space in his house and earned him around $3000 in cash from sale of goods and appliances. He used that money to incorporate his company and pay for some legal stuff. Now he was thinking of selling his house since he did not need that much space and move to a smaller one. That would bring down his monthly mortgage payment and free up money for investing in his portfolio. Oops! We forgot to mention that he is also on the road to FIRE :).

We exchanged phone numbers, wished each other luck on our journey to FIRE and promised to keep in touch. It was an evening well spent amidst fond old memories and sharing new ones :).

We hope our friend’s tips on smart refrigeration will help you to cut down your electricity bill. If you have any more tricks up your sleeve, please drop a comment so that we all can benefit from them :).

Image Source(s): iStockPhoto

Annual Fee Introduced for Citi Cash Returns Credit Card

Admin — Sat, 20 Feb 2010 09:30:19 +0000

[This post is written and copyrighted by FIRE Finance (http://firefinance.blogspot.com).]

Today we received a letter from Citibank notifying us that they are going to introduce an annual fee of $60 for our Citi Cash Returns Card effective from April 1, 2010. This was a nice card which offered a no hassle 1% cash back on ALL purchases. The best part was that we’d get our cash back check automatically once it crossed $50. No headaches of ordering a rewards check or expiring rewards.

With this new annual fee this card simply isn’t an option for us. Why did Citibank do this? In their own words:

The reason we are making this change is to maintain the quality of our service amid the rising cost of doing business.

Is there a way to avoid this annual fee?

Well, Citibank says that they have worked out a solution for their “valued” customers.

However because you are a valued customer, we wanted to give you an opportunity to have the annual fee credited back to your account. Here’s how it works. Each year, we’ll credit the $60 fee back to your account once you have made $2,400 in purchases during that year. That comes to an average of $200 in spending a month, an amount you can reach by using your card for purchases you already make, like gas, groceries, cell phone plans or your cable bill.

Else what?

We have the right to opt out of this change (of annual fee of $60) and close our account. We can opt out by calling or writing to Citibank by March 31, 2010.

Now what do we do?

We’ve decided to opt out. Discover More offers 5% cash back on select categories along with an option to double the cash back with their partner merchants. So we’ll make Discover More our primary card now. The best part is that they are offering a $50 sign up bonus for new accounts. So if you want some free money along with a good credit card, check out Discover More.

As the credit market tightens due to new regulations, we feel more banks might follow Citibank’s act of adding annual fees to erstwhile free cards. More so for “deadbeat” customers like us who pay off their balance every month.

Let us know what you feel about this new change from Citibank. We look forward towards your comments.

Image Source(s): iStockPhoto

$100 Citibank Signup Bonus - Regular Checking Account

Admin — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 03:30:17 +0000

[This post is written and copyrighted by FIRE Finance (http://firefinance.blogspot.com).]

Feb 17, 2010: Citibank is offering $100 as a sign up bonus when we open a new qualifying regular checking account.

If you want to open an account by visiting a branch or calling 1-866-583-6708, mention code C2CA.

To qualify for the checking bonus, you must open a new qualifying regular checking account in either the Citibank Account or Citibank Everything Counts Account or in the Citigold account relationship package.

Make $1,000 in deposits in the new checking account by 03/31/2010.

$100 will be deposited to your Citibank checking account within 120 days from the end of the statement period in which you met the qualifying requirements. Your Citibank checking account must be in good standing at the time each bonus payment is deposited.n

Beginning no later than the first month after account opening, customer must complete at least ONE of the following to get $100:

One direct deposit to your checking account for three consecutive months.
OR at least TWO electronic bill payments from your checking account for three consecutive months. Electronic bill payments are those you make using Citibank Online, Citi Mobile or CitiPhone Banking. A bill that is paid by making a transfer between linked accounts does not qualify as a bill payment for this offer.
OR five or more qualifying signature purchase transactions using your Citibank debit card each month for three consecutive months. Qualifying purchases must be submitted through the MasterCard Network and are those for which either you or a merchant designates as a “credit” transaction (including purchases you sign for, small dollar purchases that do not require a signature and use of your MasterCard PayPass), Internet, phone and mail-order transactions. Qualifying purchases do not include those initiated using a Personal Identification Number (PIN) or other transactions submitted through other payment processing networks.

Existing Citibank checking customers are NOT eligible. This offer is not available at Citibank branches. Fees may apply to the checking account.

Free McAfee Internet Security

Admin — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 03:30:13 +0000

[This post is written and copyrighted by FIRE Finance (http://firefinance.blogspot.com).]

Bank of America is offering FREE McAfee Internet Security for 12 months to their customers. This will keep your PC safe and secure. McAfee Internet Security for one year is worth $69.99 which is now yours for FREE.

Free McAfee Internet Security Link

For those of you who are new to McAfee Internet Security, here is a list of its features which protects you from:

Viruses, spyware, and adware
Detects, blocks and removes them
Phishing
Alerts you to websites that may try to steal your identity
Spam
Keeps your mailbox free from unwanted, fraudulent, and phishing emails
Hackers
Twoway firewall and identity protection allows you to confidently use the Internet knowing hackers cant get access to your PCs.

Note: Your FREE subscription includes an automatic renewal at the end of the 12 month free period for another 12 months at 50% off (a $34.98 value).
To cancel this automatic renewal, you need to contact McAfee Customer Support at 1.866.622.3911 prior to the expiration of the free offer.

Enjoy this freebie from BOA :).

The Human Camera - Stephen Wiltshire

Admin — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 09:30:16 +0000

[This post is written and copyrighted by FIRE Finance (http://firefinance.blogspot.com).]

Have you ever heard of a human camera? Well, we hadn’t too until we stumbled upon Stephen Wiltshire. This autistic man is a human camera! With his immaculate memory he draws entire cities from memory right down to the true number of doors and windows of each building. Absolutely mind blowing isn’t it? Check out this video which shows how he draws the entire city of Rome on five and half yards of paper after a 45 minute helicopter ride.

Stephen was born in London to West Indian parents on 24th April, 1974. As a child he was mute, and did not relate to other human beings. Aged three, he was diagnosed as autistic. He had no language and lived entirely in his own world.

At the age of five, Stephen was sent to Queensmill School in London, where it was noticed that the only pastime he enjoyed was drawing. It soon became apparent he communicated with the world through the language of drawing; first animals, then London buses, and finally buildings. These drawings show a masterful perspective, a whimsical line, and reveal a natural innate artistry.

Click here to read more about Stephen …

If you are hooked, you can check out more amazing videos of Stephen’s drawings at his website.

Let us know how you felt after seeing the video of “The Human Camera.” Your comments are always appreciated and makes this site alive. We wish you a wonderful weekend ahead :).

Donating An Old Car May Not Be Tax Deductible

Admin — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 03:30:11 +0000

[This post is written and copyrighted by FIRE Finance (http://firefinance.blogspot.com).]

Feb 04, 2010: For many of us, our cars are prized possessions. As all good things come to an end, so does a car. Maybe it is time to get a bigger or better car for the family. Perhaps it has run a good 150k miles.

Whatever be the reason a day might come when we have to part with our dear automobile. If it has a good resale value selling it to a private party or a dealer is an option. However we do have another choice - donating it to a charity for a good cause. Even if the car is not in a proper running condition, we can still donate it. In most cases such a donation does have a benefit in the form of a tax deduction. However, there are few things to watch out:

Not all charities are eligible to receive tax deductible contributions.
We can download this list of organizations (zip file) to check which organizations are eligible to receive tax deductible donations (courtesy IRS’s official website).
We could choose an organization whose philosophies and interests match with our own. It should not be difficult to find organizations which genuinely care for people and work on projects that are close to our hearts.
To verify an organizations status we may call the IRS CustomerAccount Services division for Tax Exempt and Government Entities at 877-829-5500 (toll-free). It is necessary to provide the correct name of a charity. Knowing the charitys address is also helpful.
Donations to all charities may not allow us to claim tax deduction equal to the fair-market value (FMV) of the car.
Due to recent changes in IRS rules we may not be able to claim fair-market value for our donations. Only donations to certain types of charity organizations will qualify. For others charitable organizations, we’d have to settle for the actual sale price at which our donated car was sold by the charity.
If we care about the fair-market value for tax deduction purposes we should ask the charity if they qualify.
For car donations valued at $500 or more, we should get a receipt. It would wise to keep it safely along with other tax records.
Here is an IRS publication (pdf file) that has lot of helpful information.

We hope that these tips would help you prepare for a car donation. Kindly let us know if you are aware of a charity for which a car donation is fully tax deductible at fair market value. Looking forward towards your comments and suggestions.

Image Source(s): iStockPhoto