financial – Luv Saving Money

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

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 .

Selling a House That’s Part of an Estate

My father in law passed away in November. We found out he had no will in place. With the help of a good attorney they helped my husband set up an estate. Our attorney has been walking him through everything. While there was a lot to deal with in regard to the estate, probably the biggest piece is selling the house.

We did an estate auction and tried to sell the house through the auctioneer. We were selling it “as is” We had an interested buyer but that person was trying to use a VA loan. The VA doesn’t grant loans for houses “as is” we learned. So that fell through.

We hired someone to take the rest of the stuff away that was left after the auction. We then hired a professional cleaning service to clean the inside of the house. It was then ready to be put on the market by a realtor this time. We chose to use Remax. We had a lot of interest in the house and 2 good offers within the first 2 days of listing. Fun fact, our realtor told us that Remax has there own cleaning service that we could use for an additional cost so that’s who we ended up using. They did a great job.

In our area houses are cheap, especially in comparison to many areas. Taxes are low too. Our school district is one of the best in our area. So had all kinds of offers while trying to get it ready for market. One person told use they were to get a settlement at the end of the month and wanted to buy the house and the truck. Another person was trying to rebuild their life after some life circumstance and was trying to find bad credit loans

I have the Zillow app on my phone. It was encouraging to see all the views and saves on the house. We are so ready to finalize everything with this estate and move on. If I’m being honest, I have the Zillow app on my phone all the time. I’m always curious as to what different house in my area look like on the inside. I also have dream homes saved on the beach, you know, just in case. Please tell me I’m not the only one who does this!

It made us quickly realize that hiring professionals through the whole process was worth every dollar. From our attorney walking us through the process, to the auctioneer handling the selling of his truck and a number of things from the house, the cleaning service for making it look great and move-in ready, to the realtor being on top of things, I wouldn’t want to do it any other way. Plus a lot of the fees were able to be deducted from the estate account because it all dealt with the estate.

This post is brought to you by Diamond Links.

Amazon Prime Day 2021

Amazon Prime Days is back to help kick off summer June 21 & 22 2021. That’s two days of savings with more than 2 million deals. There will be deals in every category: fashion, home, beauty, electronics, and a lot more. There will also be entertainment benefits for Prime Video, Amazon Music, Prime Gaming, and more.

Are you a Prime member? Well you can start shopping early, today, in fact. You can already find deals on:

JBL headphones
Fire TVs
Toys – Save on select toys and games from LEGO, Hasbro, Barbie, Fisher-Price, Radio Flyer, Magna-Tiles, and Paw Patrol, including learning, technology, arts & crafts, outdoor, and sports toys
Kitchen – Save on select Margaritaville blenders, 25% on select GoWise air fryers, and up to 30% on Le Creuset cast iron and stoneware products.
Home
Pets
Home Improvement – Save on select DEWALT 20-Volt MAX tools and jobsite accessories and the Z GRILLS Wood Pellet Grill and Smoker. For your smart home, save up to 20% on select ecobee products. Save on select First Alert smoke detectors.
Books

And much more!

Save While Supporting Small Business

Spend $10, Get $10: Starting on Monday, June 7, through Sunday, June 20, Amazon will offer a $10 credit to use on Prime Day to members who spend $10 on select small business products and brands based in the U.S. in Amazon’s store, including products from Amazon Handmade and Amazon Launchpad. This promotion is fully funded by Amazon to connect customers with local small businesses selling in its store. Small business promotions will also run in the U.K., Spain, Germany, Italy, France, and Japan.

There are more small businesses participating than ever before. There will be over 300,000 sellers that will be eligible for the spend $10 get $10 promotion.

Earn 10% Back in Rewards: During the Spend $10, Get $10 promotion, Amazon Prime Rewards Visa Card and Amazon Prime Store Card holders with an eligible Prime membership will also earn 10% back in rewards on select small business purchases.Visit amazon.com/pcb to learn more.

Curated Storefront: To make it easy for customers to support small businesses this Prime Day, Amazon has curated collections to connect customers with small businesses at amazon.com/supportsmall. Customers can shop across collections, including from Black-owned, woman-owned, and military family-owned small businesses.

Shop Small Businesses with Alexa: Echo device owners in the U.S., the U.K., and Germany can say, “Alexa, shop small business” to discover products eligible for the Spend $10, Get $10 promotion.

Shop on Amazon Live: On Monday, June 7, customers can shop alongside Kristen Bell, Karamo Brown, and Mindy Kaling who will be joined by some of their favorite small business owners to discuss their products and inspiring stories. Throughout Prime Day, Amazon Live will spotlight exciting deals curated from small businesses across Amazon. Viewers will also have the opportunity to hear directly from business owners, learn more about their products, and shop their Prime Day deals during a re-occurring segment called Small Business Showcase on June 21 and June 22.

Ways to Shop and Save During Amazon Prime Days

Amazon Prime Rewards Visa Card: For the entire month of June, Prime members get a $150 Amazon Gift Card instantly upon approval for the Amazon Prime Rewards Visa Card. Visit amazon.com/primevisa to learn more.

Guys I have had one credit card for that last 16 years. I’ve used it to build my credit after my divorce and I feel loyal to it. The problem is, there’s no perks to it. No rewards, no points, no cash back, no travel miles, nothing. Credit Sesame kept telling me opening another credit card may help my credit score and I kept pushing it off. BUT with this offer I had to take advantage. I got the $150 Amazon gift card and checked the pre-approval link so as not to ding my credit if I wasn’t qualified. But my hard work has paid off and I qualified. The $150 Amazon credit went into my account almost immediately. You can get this credit just for applying even if you don’t qualify! PLEASE, use your credit responsibly.

Amazon Gift Cards: Today through June 20, Prime members can get a $10 promotional credit with the purchase of $40 or more in select Prime branded Amazon Gift Cards. Visit amazon.com/giftcardspd21 to learn more.

Go In-Store: Customers can find in-store deals by visiting Amazon’s physical retail locations, including Whole Foods Market, Amazon 4-star, Amazon Books, Amazon Pop Up, Amazon Go, and Amazon Fresh.

Amazon Coupons: Discover more ways to save with Amazon Coupons. Find discounts on everyday essentials, electronics, clothing, and more. Simply clip the coupon and the discount will be applied at checkout. Explore the most popular coupons on amazon.com/coupons.

What Amazon Is Doing For Employees

Prime Day Helping to Create Good Jobs

To help deliver for customers, Amazon recently announced that it is hiring for 75,000 new jobs across its fulfillment and transportation networks.
Amazon also recently announced pay increases across its fulfillment and transportation networks, and these open roles offer an average starting pay of over $17 per hour, plus sign-on bonuses of up to $1,000 in many locations.
All Amazon regular full-time employees in the U.S. receive comprehensive health benefits starting on the first day of the job—with no waiting period. We offer medical, dental, and vision coverage to all our regular full-time employees, regardless of their level, tenure, or position.
New Amazon employees joining our fulfillment and transportation network will join the already thousands of employees who ensure fast, efficient, and safe delivery to our customers throughout Prime Day and the rest of the year. The locations with the most open roles include Arizona, California, Colorado, Georgia, Illinois, Kentucky, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Washington, and Wisconsin.

Options for Amazon Prime

You can’t shop ALL the deals, get free 2 day shipping, and get the best and most out of Amazon video and music without a Prime membership. Remember there are also exclusive Prime member deals too.

Don’t forget, if you’re new to Amazon Prime you get a 30 day free trial. Now is a great time to test it out because your Prime will be free during Prime Days!

Are you a student? You can get 50% off a Prime student membership

Prime Student 6-month Trial

There’s also 50% off Prime for eligible government assistance recipients.

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