Fall Savings for you.

Earning Extra Money

In our extra money series - the first thing we’ll be talking about is selling your stuff (ie the extra things around your house).

There are several different ways to do this and we’ll talk about each of them in a separate issue.

I’ve made money all three different ways and I think some things sell better (which means you make more) than others.

We’ll talk first about consignment shops.

There are many new (and different) types of consignment shops than there were a few years ago.

Clothes and Baby Items are what you can sell the best here. There are Baby specific consignment shops.

The best way to find consignment shops are to search first in your yellow pages and then online.

Here are a few tips.

1. Find out how they price things. Know what your profit will be.
2. Make sure to visit the shops first and then decide.
3. Make sure to keep careful records of what you consign.
4. Ask around the neighborhood about people’s experiences (good or bad).

Have a wonderful weekend.

http://www.deals.com/

http://www.dealio.com/

Of those two I like dealio the best. It seems laid out better and the coupons I checked out were more current.

Enjoy your Friday.

Fall Savings for you.

++ News -

Good Saturday. Don’t forget to set your clocks back tonight. While you’re setting them back, make sure that you change the batteries in your smoke detectors (and test them).

Links you can Use

http://www.allyou.com

Earning Extra Money

There are may different ways to earn extra money. What we’ll do in the weeks ahead are to help you seperate myth from facts, and to keep you from wasting your hard earned money on something that won’t work.

The first thing you’ll want to do is start creating a plan.

1. How Much

How much money would you like to earn ‘extra’. Think about how much extra you would like to earn this year (or next year).
Then divide that amount by 52. That’s how much extra you want to earn a week.
Then divide that amount by 5. That’s how much extra you would like to know in a day.

So say we want to earn $5,000 extra a year (that sounds like a lot).
$5,000 a year turns into about $97 a week or about $20 a day. (all the math was rounded up).

$20 a day is much more manageable than think about $5000.

2. What do you like to do.

This week work on doing a self inventory. What you want to do is find out exactly what you like to do. You don’t want to be working on something that you don’t like to do (no matter how much money you’ll make).

a. Think about things you really like to do. List these.
b. Think about things you really hate to do. List these.
c. Some good advice on figuring out what you’re good at can be found here.
http://www.school-survival.net/wiki/Finding_out_what_you%27re_good_at

Have a wonderful weekend.

One of the ways you can save money on your gift is by comparing prices.

Here are a couple of places to get you started.

Price Comparison Sites

Froogle - http://www.google.com/products

CNet - http://shopper.cnet.com/

Just type what you’re looking for in their search box (try not to be too specific at first) and you’ll be presented with a list of offers.

Example - I did a search for Window’s 7 and found prices ranging from $270 to $320.00. A big difference.

Have a wonderful Day.

1. If you both work and your kid gets sick, what will you do?

a. Will one of you take off, if so figure out who is going to do it, and speak to your boss about it now.
b. Can someone else take care of your child, if so make arrangements with them now… what back up plan do you have if they (those who you plan on taking care of the child are sick).

2. What happens if you get sick.

a. Make plans for what happens to your child.
b. Who takes care of your responsibilities (going to the store, taking your children to school etc.)

3. What happens if everyone is sick (which happens sometimes).

4. What happens if your school gets called off (which happened to the school my daughter goes to this week).

Hopefully these will get you to thinking and help you to plan ahead.

Fall Savings for you.

Five ways to save on your gifts for the holidays.

1. Use cash that you already have in rewards points from your credit cards.
2. If you have a big list - why not take a family picture (we talked about pictures on one of our recent posts) and give copies with a nice frame.
At Walgreens.com found a picture frame for less than 3 bucks. Amazon had one for less than 2 bucks.
Add a nice note  - or write a good ‘what happened in our family last year’note and you have an excellent gift.
Next year you can send them another picture and a note and they can use the same frame.
3. If you are crafty - then craft some of your gifts.
4. Buy a bunch of small items (from the Dollar Store). Make gift baskets or boxes. You can find some cheap boxes / bags here.
http://www.google.com/products?hl=en&q=cheap+baskets&scoring=p
5. Mutually decide not to buy / exhange gifts, or if there is a large group then exchange names (and set a reasonable price limit).

Have a wonderful weekend.

Next Issues -

Earning extra money - offline / online.

Hopefully this will help you get started.

1. Carving Pumpkins - some great detail on the art of carving and taking care of pumpkins can be found here.

http://www.pumpkincarving101.com/pumpkin_carving_stencils.html

2. Stencils for pumpkins - don’t pay for them, there are a ton of places where you can find them for free…. and who doesn’t like free.

http://www.spookmaster.com/pumpkin-carving-patterns-freebies.htm

http://gonewengland.about.com/od/pumpkincarving/l/blpmpkinpattern.htm

Have a wonderful Friday.

http://www.holidash.com/

Holidash is a site that focuses on holidays including several tips on saving you money. For example the site is now focused on Halloween. A good article on Halloween from there is about DIY costumes.

Have a wonderful Tuesday.

Fall Savings for you.

++ News -

Apparently Amazon and Wal-Mart are battling it out on the price of books. Many bestsellers can be had for $9. I’m not sure how long it will last, so if you’ve got any book lovers on your list you may want to buy early.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/bestsellers/books

Links you can Use

A good site if you’re wanting to save some money.

http://www.walletpop.com/

Creating your list for the holidays.

Now that you’ve figured out about how much you want to spend for the holidays, now it is time to figure out who you’re buying for.
As you’re working on your list, here are some tips that will help you save money.

1. Realize that you don’t have to buy something for everyone.
2. If you want to buy a ‘big’ present for someone, then work on distributing the cost. My sisters and I have combined our resources for a nice gift for my Mom and Dad.
3. If things are down for you this year, speak to groups that you normally exchange gifts with and ask if you can have a get together instead of giving gifts.
4. If you’re good at something (like baking cookies) consider doing that for gifts for teachers, etc. We’ll talk more about some cheap presents next week.
5. Some of the regular folks you normally gift to you may have to skip this year, just realize that everyone is in a hard spot, just speak with them. They will understand.
6. When making the list, make sure you include about how much you are going to spend for each person.
7. Begin talking with your family now about the holidays. Again explain that you’re spending less this year. Ask them what they want (or a few different choices) for each person.

Have a wonderful weekend.

Next Issues -

Saving on your gifts
Earning extra money - offline / online.

2. It it is bad weather, take a trip down memory lane by pulling out the videos of your kids when they were small.

3. Break out the monopoly board.

4. Tons of football games on this weekend. Pick sides and cheer for your team.

5. Make a game out of doing some fall clean up around the house.

Most of all spend some time with your family. Some of your kids best memories will be of the time you spent with them ‘goofing off’.