money saving tips – Page 13

7 Ways To Save Even More On Memorial Day Sales

While many consumers will hit the road to celebrate Memorial Day with a weekend getaway, millions of others will be heading to the mall to hunt down the season’s best bargains. Memorial Day weekend represents one of the biggest sale events of the year and also the best time to buy certain items, including mattresses and refrigerators.

Discounts will be plentiful this weekend, but savvy shoppers know there’s more to getting a deal than just buying something on sale. To spend less on your purchases this Memorial Day weekend, read up on the following seven “s’s” to saving even more.

Study the deals.
Since retailers will try to trick you into believing that everything is on sale this weekend, it’s important to study the deals to differentiate the best and worst buys. Summer items like clothing and swimsuits will see some discounts, but this biggest deals will be found on spring clearance, home goods and mattresses. Grills and patio furniture will headline ads and store circulars, however, these big-ticket items are better priced later in the season when retailers focus on fall and winter products. Check out Dealnews for a comprehensive Memorial Day buying guide.

Shop early.
Retailers typically start offering Memorial Day sales the week before the holiday itself. Plan to shop early to take advantage of a larger selection of sale items. If you wait untilMonday, most of the good stuff will be picked through. In addition to in-store offers, online deals will abound making it possible to avoid the crowds altogether and take advantage of savings from the comfort of your home, or road if you’re traveling.

Seek out stackable savings.
Scored a sale? Don’t stop there. Look for coupons to deepen the discount even further! Memorial Day weekend will see tons of stackable savings, so download a free coupon app like Coupon Sherpa for extra in-store deals like a free $20 Babies’ R Us gift card with $100 diaper, wipe, food or formula purchase through May 30. Also look for promo codes for online purchases, like $15 off your $75 order from The Gap or 20% off your highest-priced product with $60 purchase with an Aeropostale coupon.

Sign up for savings.
If you can’t find an additional coupon or promo code to sweeten your Memorial Day haul, sign up for savings by opting into a retailer’s email newsletter program. Most stores will send new member discounts of 10 to 20% off! Consider signing up a few days before the sale starts to ensure you receive the coupon in time to use it for your shopping spree. You may even consider creating a separate email account for all your retail offers to stay organized.

Scrutinize prices.
Don’t assume the 20 to 30% savings is the best one around. Comparison shop to make sure you’re getting the deepest discount by using the ShopSavvy app, which scans the barcode of a product you’re looking at and provides a list of local and online prices. You can also use CamelCamelCamel.com to compare the price histories of products sold on Amazon, and setup deal alerts to get notified when something you’re shopping for drops in price.

Swing by an outlet center.
Malls, department stores and boutique shops aren’t the only ones hosting Memorial Day sales. Your nearby outlet center will also offer store-wide sales as well as additional discounts for even bigger savings. In addition to looking up coupons on a mobile app, visit the outlet center’s website for information about available deals and coupons. Also remember that not everything at an outlet center is a good deal, so learn how to get the best deals from outlet shopping before you go.

Score cash back.
Get something back for the purchases you’re making online with EBates, which gives you between two and 10% back on online orders just by shopping through their portal. You can also use Paribus to receive reimbursements when something you purchased online drops in price. The tool scans your inbox for online receipts and tracks prices for you, taking a cut of the refund they find.

Feel free to share “7 Ways to Save Even More on Memorial Day Sales” with your audience, giving proper attribution to the source.

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Andrea Woroch is a money-saving expert who transforms everyday consumers into savvy shoppers by sharing smart spending tips and personal finance advice. As a sought-after media source, she has been featured among such top news outlets as Good Morning America, Today, CNN, Dr. OZ, New York Times, MONEY Magazine, Consumer Reports, Forbes and many more. In addition, Andrea’s stories have been published among leading publications and sites such as Yahoo!, AOL Daily Finance, CNN Money, Huffington Post, LearnVest and New York Daily News. Check out Andrea’s demo reel or visit her website at AndreaWoroch.com for more information about booking an interview or requesting an original written article. You can also follow her on Twitter orFacebook for daily money tips.

For all media inquiries, please contact Andrea Woroch at 970-672-6085 or email andrea@andreaworoch.com.

Thinking of Buying Your Teen a Car? Consider this

Your teen is turning 16. Maybe you’re seriously considering buying your teen a car but can’t decide which route to go. Do you get a new car or a used car? Maybe they passed their drivers license test and you’re ready for them to start driving themselves so you can get some of your free time back. Here’s some financial aspects to consider when making your decision.

It’s not a secret that insuring a teen is EXPENSIVE. The reasons for that are pretty obvious: lack of driving experience, maturity, and statistics. Now I don’t want to scare you (I’m sure you’re already a little nervous) but the fact is teens are more likely to be in a fender bender than those 20 years of age or older. According to the CDC website that rate of accidents is at it’s highest within the first 30 days of licensure. Being a higher risk means higher rates.

car accident cartoon

The next thing to consider is what kind of car. Again, the insurance factors in. You might think a cheaper car equates to cheaper insurance. Not necessarily according to a report done by CNBC. It turns out SUVs and trucks are usually cheaper to insurance than coupes and sedans. Why? Because a larger SUV is less likely to sustain as much damage in an accident when compared to a smaller car. At the top of the list for vehicles that are cheaper to insure are the Ford Explorer, GMC Sierra and Toyota RAV4. In fact, some of the worst cars to insure are the Ford Focus, Chevy Cruze, and Hyundai Elantra.

You can contact your insurance agent before buying a car your teen has their eyes on and have them run the numbers.

Since driving a car is a big responsibility consider having your teen help with the car payments and/or insurance payments. Make sure they know how to change tires, what to do if they are in an accident, and have them learn how to do some of the basic maintenance of the vehicle like changing the oil, topping off fluids, and changing bulbs. It’s a good way for your teen to know the cost of driving and take more ownership of their own ride.

This post is sponsored by CF Search Marketing.

6 Retail Tricks That Make You Look Foolish

While most of us limit our practical jokes to the first day of April, retailers use several tricks to fool shoppers all year long into spending their hard-earned dollars. As consumer behavior shifts more toward experiences over products, stores are getting sneakier with their sales strategies, duping customers in increasingly deceptive ways.

Consider the following retail traps that make you look a fool, and how to avoid them during your next shopping trip.

retail tricks picture

1. Dressing room deceptions.
Some retailers use special lighting, tilted mirrors and even special products to make customers appear slimmer and tanner in dressing rooms. This strategy was the subject of a recent TODAY Show Rossen Reports segment that profiled the creator of a mirror that made shoppers look 10 to 15 pounds lighter. When you feel more attractive in an article of clothing, you’re more likely to buy it, so retailers go to great lengths to create a flattering reflection which encourages you to spend. Evaluate a purchase based on how closely it meets your needs and budget, and make sure the store accepts returns for a full refund if you decide later that you aren’t happy with the fit and style.

2. Charm pricing.
Price tags that end with 0.09, 0.95 and 0.99 are statistically more attractive to consumers compared to full-dollar pricing. Why? Because shoppers tend to only focus on the number to the left of the decimal point, a tendency dubbed the “left-digit effect.” For example, consumers are more likely to purchase an item priced at $4.99 compared to one price at $5.00, even though the difference is just one cent. The perceived difference is much greater since consumers typically round down, and retailers use this to their advantage. Get in the habit of rounding up before making your buying decision!

3. Urgent promotions and emails.
Creating a sense of urgency is the bedrock of many promotions and messages and represents a great way to get consumers to make impulse purchases. When shoppers receive an email with “limited-time only” deals or “one-day” sales, they’re more likely to buy immediately for fear of missing out on the savings opportunity. Sales and promotions are recurring, though, so consumers almost always have the opportunity to take advantage of discounts at any given time. Unsubscribe from retailers’ e-newsletters and use sites likeCouponSherpa.com for printable and online coupons when you need them.

4. Purchase minimums.
Shoppers like to think they’re in control of their spending, but retailers are sneaky in getting consumers to buy more than they intended. Free shipping minimums are examples of threshold offers used by online retailers to force customers to spend a certain amount to qualify for free delivery. Bounce-back offers like Kohl’s Cash are another popular strategy which requires customers to fulfill a minimum spend in order to receive a savings voucher for a future visit. Don’t let retailers dictate your purchase amount and wait for a free shipping offer or search for codes on FreeShipping.org, and earn bounce-back offers only when your planned spend meets the criteria.

5. Store-card discounts.
Playing off a shopper’s desire to save money, retailers promote new discounts with a one-time deal of 10 to 20% off to those who apply for a store credit card. While these initial savings are tempting, the long-term benefits of these strategies are suspect. Retail associates are often incentivized to pitch store credit cards that feature low credit limits and high APRs, neither of which are ideal for customer budgets or credit scores. What’s more, store’s know that consumers are likely to buy more in that first initial visit to maximize the discount savings and will be prone to increase spending when swiping a card. It’s best to stick with one major credit card that offers cash-back rewards or travel points.

6. Tiered savings.
The slogan “buy more, save more” is used by many retailers, from clothing to furniture stores, to create the perception of extra value. These tiered savings include deals like $10 off $50, $15 off $75 or $20 off $100. While it’s tempting to opt for the biggest savings ($20 in this example), each deal represents the same savings of 20%. Tiered discounts drive shoppers to spend more to yield a greater savings even though the deal is the same in each example. In reality, the more money you spend, the less you have in your wallet or bank account, so don’t let these types of offers fool you into buying more!

Feel free to share “6 Retail Tricks That Make You Look Foolish” with your audience, giving proper attribution to the source.

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Can You Really Save Money On Name Brand Prescription Medications?

Let’s face it, for some, taking medication is a daily necessity. Even with insurance, some medications can be painful to pay for month after month. And if one doesn’t have insurance it can be even more difficult to manage.

A number of types while scrolling through coupons on coupons.com I saw the ad “Pay as low as $0 for your epipen precription” or something like that. It caught my attention because my one son needs an Epipen due to bee sting allergies. I didn’t really check it out though. I always thought. “Oh it’s not what it seems” or “It’s probably just for those that don’t have insurance or are on a fixed income, I have insurance I’m sure it won’t help me”.

Well I went to pick up my UC medication at Rite Aid. I take Lialda which is a name brand prescription. I was paying about $18/mo with my insurance and considered myself lucky. Then my pharmacy tech says to me “Angie do you have one of those discount cards for your prescription since you have to take this every month?” I told her “No I didn’t think they worked” She said “Yea just go to the Lialda website. Fill out a form and you’ll get a card in the mail. You can print a temporary one. It will save you some money” Well since my pharmacy recommended it I figured I’d give it a try. I went to the Lialda website and sure enough there as the info. I filled out the form, printed my temporary card and took it with me the next time I got it filled. My pharmacy was able to put it in my account. Now instead of $18 I only pay $10. Sure it’s not a big savings but hey, anything’s better than nothing right?

So then I went to the epipen site through that link on coupons.com and did the same thing. Now instead of paining $30 for my son’s double packs I pay $18.

It doesn’t cost anything so it can’t hurt to see if you can also save money. If you take a name brand medication, visit their website to see if they have a similar program. Epipen and Lialda do for sure.

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Saving Money When Heating Your Home

It’s January. Here in Pennsylvania it’s almost a given that we’ll have some single digit nights and below freezing point temps during the day. It’s not my favorite time of the year. I’m someone who is cold more often than not. But the cost of heating can make me hesitant to turn up the thermostat. Well that and my hubby and boys always complain it’s too hot if I turn it up. So I resort to thick socks two layers of shirts and warm comfy pants.

There are a lot of ways to save money on heating your home. Here are just a few:

One of the best things we did for our oil furnace was to get a programmable thermostat. We set it so the temperature goes down a little while we’re sleeping but kicks on right before everyone starts to get up and get moving for work. When I worked full time and the 3 boys were in school we’d also have it drop a few degrees during the day and kick back on just before I got home from work. It’s nice because you don’t have to forget about turning it down or come home to a colder than usual house. If you’re going on vacation, you can have it set to a lower temp, say 60 degrees while you’re away so you don’t have to worry about pipes freezing but you also don’t have to use as much heating fuel.

Insulated curtains are another easy way to warm a room up a degree or two. We have nice 2 nice size windows in our small living room. We also have hard wood floors. I kept telling my husband how that room always felt colder. We only had sheers on our windows. Putting up insulated curtains for the winter did help take some of the chill off the room.

Infrared quartz heaters. We just moved into a new house in October so we’re still learning the best ways to heat our home. We found out the family room above the garage did not have heat set up for it. The baseboard heating elements are there but it hadn’t been finished by the people that lived here before us. We moved out Infrared Quartz heater from our old house and decided to give that a try in the mean time. Our family room is a large room The infrared quartz heater works well to warm the room up. They’re safer than space heaters and don’t get very hot to the touch. You can get some with a fireplace look or just a standard box shape. There are also different BTUs depending on the size of the area you’re trying to heat. We’ve had ours for about 7 years now. It’s been a good investment.

Check weather stripping on doors and windows. Old, cracked, or peeling weather stripping will allow cold are to sneak into the house.

Another simple thing, if you have a door that goes into your garage from your house, make sure the door is closed. We have to go through the garage to get to the family room. The kids leave the door in the laundry room open all the time. I can always tell when they left the door open because the cooler temp from the garage creeps into the kitchen.

If you’re not sure where or why your home isn’t holding heat you can have an energy audit done. An energy audit is done by a professional. They can find why your home isn’t holding heat and make recommendation for heating efficiency. You might need insulation or more insulation, windows could be the culprit, or a draft from your chimney could let old man winter into your home.

If you have electric heat, another thing to consider is comparing electric companies. You might be able to lock in a better rate with a different electric company. If you live in Pennsylvania, like me, Direct Energy PA can Save up to 16%* over MetEd’s electricity rate, and up to 12%* over Penn Power’s electricity rate. There’s more! Save up to 10%* over Penelec’s electricity rate!

*All savings refers to the current difference between Direct Energy’s fixed rate offer and the Utility’s current Fixed Rate for Basic Service as of January 8, 2016, and does not include any other component of the electricity bill. Utility rates are subject to change and there may be no savings following the respective official utility rate change date. Direct Energy’s fixed rates include electricity supply charges only and excludes delivery/transmission charges, taxes, and all other utility-related charges. Offer is limited and valid for new residential customers only.

As a money saver, I also noticed Direct Energy PA participates in the Plenti program so on top of electric savings you could be earning Plenti points too. Just thought I’d point that out.

What recommendations do you have for saving money on your heating costs?