Twelve Summer Savings Tips

School is out for Summer! So it's time to post my top twelve summer savings tips that can help you get through the summer with your savings and your sanity intact:

1. Use Cash, Save 20% – Use cash for three main problem areas: food, entertainment and gas. Put the budgeted money in three separate envelopes. When you go grocery shopping, go to your cash envelope and do the same when your family wants to go to a movie. The constant visual cash reminder can save as much as 20% in each area. And you avoid going further into debt by not using credit cards.

2. Book It – Entertainment.com offers a coupon book that is available for 150 metro markets and usually costs between $25 and $45 but is on sale for only $10! Preview the coupon booklet for your area (or an area where you will vacation) to see if the coupons are ones you will use. An added benefit: you’ll not only save on eating out, but you can also save on movie theaters, theme parks, dry cleaning, and at local shops. Average advertised total book savings—$17,000. To redeem only 25 percent is an annual savings of $4,250.

3. For Movie Fanatics – Check with your local theater for special discount days or about reward programs for frequent visitors, some of which may also offer discounts on food and even free future tickets. Some theaters offer “Summer Movies” that are designed for kids and can cost as little as $1. Be aware that you can often purchase the matinee ticket at discounted prices. Sometimes the difference in a full price and matinee price is only ten minutes (the 5:55 PM showing is cheaper than the 6:05 showing). Some theater chains have special purchases of multiple tickets (usually packages of 50) that can be redeemed over a specific period of time—but make sure you will actually use these in time in order to maximize the value of your investment. Your employer, credit union, credit card provider, alumni association or even your union may also offer movie discount values.

4. New and Improved Staycations – Replicate a "taking a vacation" feeling without going far by exploring your town or region like you never have before. Check out the “newcomers package” at your local chamber of commerce or visit your regional parks and recreation website to discover programs available for families. At www.FactoryToursUSA.com, search your area for fun tours for seeing how things are made. Many historic homes and governmental buildings, such as state capital buildings, also offer free tours. You might be surprised at all the fun things to do right in your backyard. And speaking of your backyard, why not stage a family campout? Your family gets to sleep in tents, tell scary stories and make s'mores (over a propane grill).

5. Eat New for Less – If you want to try a new restaurant but not pay full price, go to Restaurant.com, a site that issues coupons and gift certificates for over 6,000 eateries around the country. Our family picks a spot and pays $10 for a $25 gift certificate—we save over 50 percent in the process. The average restaurant bill for a family of four is $86. Our family saves $43 x 52 weeks = $2,236. Also watch for summer sales on this site, we recently bought $25 gift certificates for only $2 for a couple of local eateries.

6. Plant a Vegetable Garden or Try Community Gardening – Stake out a piece of the backyard or fill window boxes, barrels and tubs, urns or even pots and hanging basket with seedlings and starter plants for a vegetable and/or herb garden. Aside from the food bill savings, harvesting the bounty with your children will provide months of good taste and good cheer. Some neighborhoods offer community gardening where you pay $5 for your plot and get to know your neighbors while gardening. If you don’t have access to community gardening, but know a friend or colleague that loves to garden, offer to help with the cost of plants and seeds and care products in exchange for going shopping in their garden.

7. Big to Little Bag – Whether you’re wheeling around town or on a 300 mile road trip, avoid fast food joints and pricey convenience store traps by buying healthy snacks in larger quantities and then packing them in reusable containers and keeping them in your car. Any time you divide menu items from a larger quantity to a lunch bag size, you save BIG! For example, buying a two pound bag of mini-carrots and dividing them into snack size plastic bags, I’ve saved 40% over the prepackaged, smaller baggies of carrots. Do this for chips, cookies, nuts, fruit snacks, raisins, grapes, sweet snap peas, celery, cherries, and anything else your family enjoys!

8. Get Everyone Their Own Bottle – The same advice above applies to drinks. Instead of pulling over to buy expensive bottles of water, soda or juice, everyone in your family should have their own colorful, reusable plastic bottle filled with their favorite refreshment. Toss them in a cooler and take them along wherever you go and lap up the savings while being good to the environment.

9. Breakfast for Dinner – Being creative is the key to cost savings and along that line you can have a "breakfast for dinner" night. My kids love it when my husband makes waffles on Sunday and we freeze the extras for a breakfast night--it saves time AND money.

10. Don’t Get Zapped – Electricity is a big expense in the summer, and some states are offering a special discount for those who are willing to restrict their use during certain times of the day. It can be as simple as raising an air conditioning setting during the day and running your swimming pool pump at night. Our family has a band on our air conditioning unit that saves us $150 per month, & we’ve stayed cool with temps as high as 115 outside! Check with your power company for details.

11. Flush Wisely – With bathrooms in use more with the kids home 24/7, save money with water displacement. Don’t put bricks, however, in your toilet tank to do so. They can break apart, clog pipes and cost you thousands of dollars in repairs. Instead, use a one quart plastic container that will not interfere with the toilet flapper valve and put this in the tank. It will save $150 per year per bathroom. In our house that is $450 per year!

12. Stop Doing Dishes! – Every now and then I give some advice that I really like! If you stop washing your dishes by hand and only run the dishwasher to clean your dirty dishes, you could save $1.50 per load. The reason is that it costs money to heat the water and pipes in your home, which is something that happens every time you wash a few dishes by hand.

Here's the most valuable tip of all: hug, love, kiss and squeeze those munchkins as much as you can because they grow and go too quickly!

Ellie Kay
America's Family Financial Expert (R)
www.elliekay.com

Credit Card Reform - Ellie on Neil Cavuto Today

The Senate passed a bill for credit card reform and this populist idea may end up costing the good credit managers more as they shoulder the burden of those with poor credit problems. In the next two years, government stress tests indicate that companies will chargeoff 82 billion in bad debts and that money is coming from somewhere. Today on Neil Cavuto, here is what I suggested:

What Consumers can expect:

• Annual Fees - 50 million of you are paying no fees but I believe you'll be charged in the future while existing annual fees are likely to rise
• Higher APRS - beware that in many cases, using your card after the APR has been raised is the same thing as accepting the higher APR
• Reduced limits - if your limit hasn't changed yet, it probably will and if you are not aware of the limit change, this could result in an over-the-limit fee
• Altered Grace Period - your new due date could be sooner than you thought and the result is a hefty late fee
• Hidden Fees - When it comes to recovering 82 billion in chargeoffs and 20 billion in lost revenue from fees, credit card companies will get creative in what they'll charge you for!

What Consumers can do about it:

• Call in -- When you receive notification of higher APRs, lowered limits or annual fees be prepared to call the credit card company and do what you can to try to get back what they have taken away from you. Read my blog on what to say and what not to say in my tagged consumer debt label.
• Caution - Do NOT cancel your major bank card just because they've added an annual fee--this could hurt your credit score in a significant way! If you've had the card for 5 or more years and cancel it, then your longevity is affected in your credit scoring. So be strategic in what you cancel and when.
• Control - Make sure you are in control, in terms of knowledge, of your card's changes. If you receive any kind of notification about grace periods, credit limits or higher APRS, then read the fine print in order to understand what limitations are being placed on your card. If you don't understand the fine print, then call the company and ask them when your new due date is, what your credit limit is, what your new APR will be and if using your card constitutes acceptance of the new APR. Also ask them if there have been any other changes to your credit card agreement (this is where you may discover some hidden fees.)
• Creativity - With the reduction of reward perks and cash back savings, it may be time to look outside your own credit card for rewards on the items you purchase. For example, at the site Upromise.com you sign up free and get anywhere from 1% to 25% deposited into a 529 savings plan for items purchased. Also be sure to check bankrate.com in the future ( a few months from now) in order to compare what other credit card companies are offering in terms of rewards and perks. There may yet be something left for those of us with good credit!

Ellie Kay

America's Family Financial Expert (R)

www.elliekay.com

Ellie on ABC News "Money Matters"

It's one of those west coast satellite interviews where I'm picked up at my hotel at 5:40 AM, in studio by 6:00 AM and on the air by
6:30. Except things don't always go as planned--especially in media.

I really enjoy being on shows like Money Matters because the hosts are out to give people news they can use, so there's good natured bantering associated with the practical tips.

I arrived at the west coast ABC bureau and they put me in a studio. As they were putting on my microphone, the audio feed box broke--something clearly beyond anyone's control. The tech (who has been doing TV stuff for 25 years) fiddled here & there and kept saying "Oh no!" and "this isn't good." Trust me, these are not words that bring comfort as you're waiting to on national television in front of a gazillion people. But this guy looked resourceful and he kept fiddling, trying one thing after another.

By now, we're 5 minutes to air. Finally, he takes a phone and a microphone, then DUCT TAPES the microphone to the top part of the phone. Then he plugs the audio feed into the phone and puts the mini earpiece into my ear. This allowed me to "hear" the producer on the phone from NY and also hear the host ask me questions! All of this you'd never know to watch the piece on Money Matters .

The result is a fun, upbeat piece on Mother's Day gifts that you can even use for Father's Day too, if you want to get a jumpstart on that holiday.

As a mom of so many, I find that Mother's Day isn't just "a" day around our house--it's a season by the time all the gifts come trickling in from all the kids. Hope YOU have a great Mom's Day, too!

Ellie Kay
America's Family Financial Expert (R)
http://www.elliekay.com/

Mother's Day Gifts - 8 Cool & Inexpensive Gifts

This is a test. It's a test to see if ANY of my kids ever read my blog. If I get at least ONE item from the following list, then I'll KNOW you guys read your mama's website. If I don't....well you don't wanna know--trust me! :-) So if you know my kids and you read this blog, you might want to send them a heads up that their heads are on the line on this one!

Here are some ideas I came up with that are cool and inexpensive gifts for Mother's Day 2009. And I would be happy with ANY of these!

1. Gift Mom Her Own Facebook Page: Middle aged women are the most quickly growing demographic on facebook! Set it up and have the family write a profile for Mom. Tweens and teens love this one and even Dad can get involved Your Mom can then use the site to do her own social and professional networking as well as keep in touch with the family.

2. Help Her Organize A Room: Give Mom a room of her choice and help her clean it out and simplify things. Design a gift certificate that’s good for a few hours one morning or afternoon. From the kitchen to her office, this is a great idea for any home area that needs de-cluttering. She’ll not only love the stress-busting effects of an organized environment, but even more importantly, the time she’ll have with you. For more ideas on how to organize, go to Marcia Ramsland's site, www.organizingpro.com

3. Assemble a Playlist for her iPod or other portable music player: Know some songs that bring your Mom to mind? Nothing will bring a smile to her face faster than music with lyrics that say what she means to you or take her back to a special time. Think Bette Milder’s Wind Beneath My Wings or the Caribbean tunes she fell in love with on vacation.

4. YouTube Tribute: Take it one step further and marry one or two of her favorite tunes with photos and funny videos from the family collection for a full multi-media extravaganza. Post it at www.youtube.com . These can also be assembled into a special Mother’s Day e-book online at need website suggestion here.

5. Personalized Coupon Book: If all these tips are too high tech for you, then let's go back to yesterday and a low tech, but meaningful gift, one that I remember my kids making for me when they looked like the kids sitting on this camper! Make your own coupon book with gift certificates for everything from doing the dishes for a week and mowing the lawn to a Mom and Dad’s night out or allowing Mom to be queen for the day. The latter means that dinner is on the table when she gets home, no one argues with her and she gets to watch her favorite TV show or movie without interruption! The one catch: you gotta mean it!

6. Coupon Collection: Speaking of coupons, agree for a month to take over the chore of maintaining and organizing the coupon collection. For Ellie, who saves $8,000 annually on groceries, this is a huge help and time saver especially with the number and variety of coupons available on the market today.

7. Plant a Vegetable Garden: Stake out a piece of the backyard or fill window boxes, barrels and tubs, urns or even pots and hanging basket with seedlings and starter plants for a vegetable and/or herb garden. Aside from the food bill savings, harvesting the bounty will provide months of good taste and good cheer for your Mom and others.

8. If you’ve left it to the very, very, very last minute: Remember anything personalized is better. So, instead of the generic stuffed animal, go with the item labeled “World’s Greatest Mom.”

Remember, Kay kids, that your mama loves you!

Ellie Kay
America's Family Financial Expert (R)
www.elliekay.com

Americans Lose Confidence in Ability to Retire --Ellie on Neil Cavuto (Fox News)

A recent report said that only 13% of Americans believe they will be able to retire in comfort due to the current recession throwing them a curveball. I know that a lot of people are pessimistic right now. But it's not the time to panic, but be purposeful instead!

Gone are the days when we can trust the company, social security or Uncle Sugar to fund our retirement--but it doesn't mean we're without resources! I went on Neil Cavuto this week to talk about ways we can take charge of our own retirement and regain hope that we WILL be able to still have the gold in those golden years!

**PARTICIPATE - take advantage of 401(k)s in your company while you can, maxing out the matching portion. Yes, the market stinks, but the matching portion is FREE MONEY and even a 25% match is better than anything you're going to see in today's market.

**PRIORITIZE - start to be more agrressive in taking charge of your retirement by fully funding ROTH or traditional IRAs, including catchup funds if you qualify. Or, if you or your spouse own a homebased business, then fund a SEP (Simplified Employee Pension) IRA. Not only will it help you fund retirement tomorrow, but it will give you a significant tax break today!

**PURSUE - look at alternate sources for retirement funding such as HSAs (health savings accounts) that are tax favored, can be rolled over each year & are available at retirement. This would be a supplemental fund for retirement, not a primary. It basically works like this: you buy a high deductible insurance policy (and save tons on insurance), then you put the amount of your deductible into an HSA. So if a family had a $2500 deductible, they can put that amount into this account every year. If they don't use it on medical related expenses, then it will continue to rollover and grow until retirement. Go to http://www.ehealthinsurance.com/ for more info.

**PROJECT - what will you really need for retirement? Reevaluate & simplify to streamline your retirement needs, downsizing as necessary. By having an accurate estimation of your expectations and adjusting them to meet your projected income, then you can still retire, but maybe just do some things differently. Go to my tool center for a cool calculator that will help estimate what you'll need at retirement.

**PROTECT - learm to guard your retirement from people & projects that would deteriorate your funds. Even well meaning folks can mess you up big time. For example, now is NOT the time to loan your Uncle Harry $50K for his dream of starting an Emu farm! As parents to seven kids, my hubby and I know that bailing kids out of consumer debt or trying to fix their financial problems could also leave use vulnerable to a deterioriated retirement fund. So we set the precedence with the older ones by refusing to co-sign, bailout or fund anything that has to do with consumer debt. When it comes to giving friends or family long term loans, investing in speculative businesses, etc--JUST SAY NO!

Happy Retirement,

Ellie Kay

America's Family Financial Expert (R)

http://www.elliekay.com/

Tax Time Tips from Ellie

• Wait for Your Refund – If you’re like everyone else in this economy, you need every penny of that tax return. So even though a tax preparer offers to advance you your refund, just wait. Fees can range from $60 to $100 on an average refund of $3000. In fact Americans spent $890 million in fees for money they would have received anyway in 2007.
• Don’t Cash That Check – Some consumers are trying to get a jump on their spending while they are waiting for the IRS check to come in by cashing the checks that come in with your credit card statements. These “checks” have high fees and interest associated with them and the interest starts accumulating immediately.
• Rainy Day Strategies – I’ve recommended that single income families have 8 months of living expenses in an emergency fund and dual income families put back 6 months worth. But most families do not have anywhere near that amount, so get a jump start on your savings by depositing your check into an emergency fund.
• Beware ID Theft when Filing Taxes – Last minute filers who go to a temporary tax preparer are particularly susceptible to identity theft as the personal information on tax forms are exactly what predators are trying to find. Never go to a temporary tax preparer who may lure you with the promise of quick & cheap tax preparations. Instead, look to Turbo Tax, another software program, or a permanent CPA or tax prep service.
• Don’t Believe the IRS – Another tactic for ID theft during tax time is from scammers posing as IRS or Social Security representatives who try to trick you into revealing personal info via e-mail or phone calls. To validate whether an IRS inquiry is the real deal, call 1-800-829-1040.
• Homebased Business Tips – One of the few areas of our economy that is flourishing is in some of the direct sales companies. There are a lot of ways to make sure you get every deduction coming to you such as using Turbo tax or going to a professional. Homebased businesses can get tax breaks for buying their own health insurance, using a dedicated portion of their home as an office and job related moving expenses. But one of the most overlooked tax breaks is the SEP, or Simplified Employee Pension IRA because they think they are too small to qualify. So as your tax pro if contributing to a SEP IRA will help reduce your tax bill while building your retirement!

Here's to minimal tax trauma for you and yours!

Ellie Kay
www.elliekay.com
America's Family Financial Expert

Ellie on Neil Cavuto -- Financially Pinched Companies Pinch Employees

Goodyear Tire announced that they were reinstating their 401(k) program after cancelling it in 2003. But it's not the "good news" it appears to be because at the same time they froze more traditional pensions, thereby saving hundreds of millions of dollars at employee's expense! So what do YOU do when your company cuts benefits--do you have a recourse?

Basically, you take charge. You don't rely on your company to be your uncle sugar, you realize that you have to rely on other resources that are available to you. Today, I shared this on Neil Cavuto

1) TAKE ADVANTAGE WHILE YOU CAN: Invest in your 401(k) if/when it comes back into play. Companies are reinstating formerly suspended 401(k) plans. These may come back for six months, a year or longer. TAKE ADVANTAGE OF THE MATCHING PORTION up to the the % the company allows (usually 4% or 5%). Even if they are only matching 25%, that's a much better percentage than what you can make on your money in today's market.

2) TAKE MATTERS INTO YOUR OWN HANDS: One of the things that companies are doing is kind of a bait and switch tactic. For example, they may be reinstating 401(k)s but they are coming in the back door and cutting pension programs that are far more costly. It used to be that you could cound on social security and your pension to retire, but that is no longer true during a recession. Therefore, you need to fund your own retirement through Roth or Regular IRAs or even a SEP IRA (Simplified Employee Pension) if you or your spouse own a small homebased business. Max out the amount you contribute to your IRA based on your age (up to $5,000 for a traditional IRA or $6,000 if you are over 50) and don't trust your company to fund your retirement.

3) TAKE CARE OF YOUR OWN HEALTHCARE: Just about the time we find out that healthcare costs are rising 7% to 8%, we also find out that more and more companies are cutting healthcare benefits. Yesterday was the time to check into a high deductible individual or family plan with an HSA (Health Savings Account). For example, if you're an individual and have a $2900 deductible on your health insurance, you can tuck up to $2900 into a tax favored HSA account. If you're a family you can contribute up to $5800 per year. These tax favored funds are not the old fashioned "use it or lose it" rather they are your funds that will be rolled over from year to year and can eventually be used at retirement. Premiums for this high deductible plans are about half what a costly group plan can cost you and your family, so now is the time to have that safety net of covering the big medical expenses while not trusting your employer to be there for you when it comes to healthcare.

4) TAKE IT TO THE TOP & BE THE TOP: Employers still want to attract and keep the best talent. Show them you are not the weak link and make yourself indispensable. Go the extra mile, do quality work, bring in business, get along with your peers, support your boss and make sure that YOU are the talent they want to keep.

5) TAKE THE HIGH ROAD: If you are in the position of having to accept a severance package realize that you can still negotiate it. You can often test the wiggle room to get a higher amount and you can determine whether you take a lump sum or a longer payout. You also need to be sure to negotiate for longer lasting health and life insurance benefits. Don't sign any papers the day you are let go and don't make any rash or emotional decisions. Take a breath, take your time and realize that you still have options.

Ellie Kay

America's Family Financial Expert (R)

http://www.elliekay.com/