budget – Page 2 – Luv Saving Money

BJ’s Inner Circle Membership $25 (reg $55)

Do you live near a BJ’s Wholesale? Thought about getting a membership but didn’t want to spend the $55, unsure if you’d use it enough? Well you’re in luck. You can now get a BJ’s Inner Circle Membership or only $25. This is for new members only.

BJ’s beats supermarket prices on national brands every day, saving families 25% off grocery store prices. BJ’s members can use a mix of manufacturers coupons, BJ’s coupons and personalized offers from BJ’s to get even more value during their shopping trip. Families can save up to $500 a year by shopping at BJ’s.

BJ’s offers convenient shopping options like same-day grocery delivery and digital Add-to-Card coupons in the app and on BJs.com.

Grab your BJ’s wholesale membership for $25 here

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Greenlight the Debit Card for Kids

In a world that is increasingly becoming cashless it’s a good idea to teach kids how to budget and manage cashless account early. Greenlight is the debit card for kids, managed by parents.

Greenlight let’s parents monitor and add money to your child’s account without runs to the the ATM. You can set parental controls and get immediate notifications when your child spends money. Immediately reward your kids, give them their allowance as soon as you think about it, get your kids involved so they can learn to manage their own finances. There’s so many benefits to Greenlight.

Right now you can get a 30 day trial of Greenlight to test it out for you and your child. After the 30 day trial it’s $4.99 a month service fee. After your 30 day trial you can also get a custom Greenlight card for your child that even has a selfie on it if you like. You can fund the account with $5, $20, or $50

I’m gonna be honest. I currently have 3 kids I’m giving an allowance too. Trying to remember to take out the money at the ATM on my way home from work or having extra cash on hand for incentive chores is hard. This would be such a convenience for me.

I’m gonna have to try this out myself. I know several people that already use Greenlight and love it. Do you use Greenlight? Have you been thinking about it?

This post does contain affiliate links. I will earn a commission from actions taken through my links

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Dirt Devil Endura Max XL Review

I received the Dirt Devil Endura Max XL at no cost review through Bzzagent. I decided to write a review on my blog about this particular vacuum because I really have a lot to say about it.

I want to start by saying, I’ve gone through over my fair share of vacuums. I’ve tried everything from higher end pricier vacuums like Dyson to budget friendly Walmart specials. I’ve mostly bought brand new vacuums but I did roll the dice on a few refurbs. Vacuums never seem to last more than a year or 2 for us no matter the style, price, or brand. We are a family of 6 with 3 cats. I run a robot vacuum daily and run an upright vacuum at least twice a week, sometime more. I do that because the robot vacuum just doesn’t get all the tighter areas and corners. I’ve also tried two different brands robot vacuums for the record. So I feel like I have a good comparison and can give a fair judgment on a vacuum.

So I received the Dirt Devil Endura Max XL in the mail. I unbox the vacuum and find my owner’s manual and set up info. I’ve set up quite a few vacuums. I found this one to be just a little confusing. Instead of the hose being one piece it’s actually two pieces. The written instructions for setup are minimal and the pictures are black and white and not very detailed. The pictures make it seem like the hose is all one piece but of course it’s not. I tried looking up youtube videos but to no avail. I finally figured out where it should go and I was ready to use the vacuum.

After the slight confusion with the set up, I also noticed that the materials used for the suction tube, hose, and suction tube release button were a pretty cheap plastic. It does not seem like it will be very durable. Especially in my house which is apparently hard on vacuums.

So I turn the vacuum on and, oh my goodness, it is absolutely the loudest vacuum I’ve ever owned. Even my husband was complaining about the noise. This vacuum also vibrates much more than I’m used to with other vacuums I’ve owned. I found myself not wanting to run the vacuum after the kids go to bed (which is usually the time I like to do it. I’m a night owl.) I also don’t want to run this vacuum in the mornings because my husband works night shift and I don’t want to wake him up.

So is there any good news Ang?

Yes, I can’t say I should just throw the whole vacuum away. The suction does appear to be pretty good. I had no issue vacuuming up popcorn, getting crumbs out of corners in the kitchen or vacuuming up cat hair. It’s really light weight for the size of the vacuum so it’s not a burden to carry it upstairs.

It’s multi-surface with different surface settings. I had no issues using it on my tile floors in my kitchen, hardwood floors in the living room, or carpeting in the bedrooms. It came with a couple attachments which were easy to apply and use on my furniture.

The canister works much like any other canister vacuum I’ve owned. Easy to open and empty the contents of the canister. Easy to replace the filter when needed.

The power cord length, I would say, is sufficient. I’ve had vacuums with longer cords, I’ve had vacuums with shorter cords. If I was wishing, I’d have the cord be another 3 feet longer or so but this part isn’t a deal breaker for me.

In Summary

If the noise isn’t an issue for you, you need a light-weight vacuum, and you’re not hard on vacuums like my family is then this would probably work out for you. It does the job.

Depending on the site, this vacuum is being listed with a retail price of $90 – $96. Had I paid that price out of pocket for this vacuum I would have been very disappointed. I don’t see myself using this vacuum much in my house especially since I have other options available. I think this will be one that I send off with one of my older boys to college or to their first place to get them started.

Easy Tool For Life Insurance Quotes

A good friend of mine has been an insurance agent for a little while now. She shares so much information on insurance. Things I never knew before. I know we all “know” that we need life insurance but often it’s pushed aside as an expense we “don’t need right now” or “Or I have insurance through work so why do I need to pay for additional insurance?”

Well I’ll tell you my story. One from the working world and one from being on the other side of someone not having insurance.

I’ve been working with the same hospital for 15 years now. For many years I was able to get life insurance through work. When I was full-time I was able to get up to 4X my income for a very affordable rate. I opted to do 2X my yearly income and paid only a few dollars per month. Well after I had my 3rd son, and talking with my husband, I cut down to part-time. Cutting down to part-time I was able to keep all my benefits EXCEPT that the life-insurance was reduced to a maximum of $10,000 and I had to pay a little extra if I wanted that $10,000. I did that because I thought, well, at least it will bury me. Then a few years after our hospital was bought out and became for profit I lost every single benefit except my 401k. That included my life insurance. For the first time in 13 years, at that time, I found myself without any life insurance. The reality is, companies don’t have to offer life insurance to employees. It’s often one of the first things to go when cutting costs.

On the other side of the story. My father in law passed away in November. He was in his early 60s. He did have a chronic and progressive disease but he never set up a will, POA, Living Will, or had life insurance. When he passed away my husband had to figure out everything. We had to hire an attorney to help walk us through the process because he had a house, 2 vehicles, etc. Thankfully my husband is a good saver and we were able to pay some expenses out of pocket until we set up administrator accounts for his bank accounts. I didn’t realize how many expenses there were when someone passes away. It’s not just burial but paying utilities in his house until we were able to sell it, hiring an attorney, hiring an auctioneer to get rid of the tools, furniture, etc. There’s estate tax, there’s more I just can’t think of it all in this minute.

Had my husband not been able to prepare us financially it definitely would have been a hardship for a while. When you set up an administrator account for the estate every penny has to be accounted for and have to do with the estate. We have to provide every receipt to our attorney for utilities bills, property taxes, hiring a cleaning service, etc. This continues until the estate is dissolved which we are finally getting close to doing. Reminder my father in law passed in November. There was no life insurance. Had he had life insurance we could have received the payment from that within a month or two.

So please, do yourself a favor, do your family a favor and at least look into getting life insurance. There’s different kinds and amounts so you can find something to fit your budget or set your family up the way you want to.

It only take a few minutes to get an idea of what you want and can afford for the future .