Uncategorized – Page 13 – Luv Saving Money

5 Ways To Save Up For Summer Vacation With Help From Gladiator Lending

This post is sponsored by Diamondlinks. Any opinions expressed are my own.

Summer vacation can be a big expense but sometimes you just need to get away. Summer vacations are possible if you plan far enough ahead. Maybe you only go every other year and save up. Here are several ways to budget for your family vacation

5 Ways To Save Up For Summer Vacation:

Jar/Piggy Bank or “rainy day” fund
Online Piggy Bank or Savings Account
Vacation Clubs
Erasing Debt you already have to free up spendable cash
Envelope System

Each one is explained in this article

The Jar/Piggy Bank Method

Some people refer to it as the “rainy day” fund too. For our last vacation I used this method. Loose change, dollar bills from your coat pocket, $5, $10, or $20 a paycheck adds up, especially if you plan far enough in advance. I ended up just shy of my goal but I purposely over-estimated my goal.

I just a clear glass jar (pickles jars work well or larger coconut oil jars) I prefer a far because you can visually see the money growing in your jar.

Why this works?

In an age where we don’t have to carry cash as much it’s easy to pull out the debit card or credit card and swipe, swipe, swipe. For some, it can be hard to keep track of or easy to spend. Having a goal gives motivation while having it in a jar at home makes it harder to spend when you see that pair of shoes you know would be great for vacation.

Online Piggy Bank or Savings

There are sites out there now that offer fee free savings and even give you decent interest rates on your savings. One of those sites is SmartyPig. I’m currently using this one for our vacation next year.

Smarty Pig is partnered with SallieMae. It touts itself as an online piggy bank. Set a financial goal then add a funding source. It could be a savings or checking account. Then choose your investment frequency. You can choose monthly or biweekly. You also can currently earn 1.75% interest.

Why this works

This is a great way to save without really thinking about it. You don’t even have to leave your house. It can be setup and handled through the comfort of your own home. Partnered with SallieMae and earning interest adds more bonuses.

Vacation Clubs

Many local banks have a vacation clubs or holiday clubs that can be used for the holidays or vacation. Check with your local bank to see how your bank handles their clubs. Some of offer interest rates, different deposit times, etc.

Why this works

Vacation Clubs are another way to save without having to really think about it. Set it and forget it until the money is deposited into your main account and ready to use for vacation. All while having the peace of mind of your money being protected by a financial institution you trust.

Reducing Current Debt

Easier said than done, I know. It’s always a good idea to work toward paying off debt whether you’re planning a vacation or not. Money freed up means more money for savings, emergency expenses, and vacations. One way to consider for quick relief is a low interest debt consolidation.

Sites like Gladiator Lending offer low interest debt consolidation. It can help get your debt into one manageable payment and reset. This option is good for those living pay check to paycheck due to debt that can be paid off.

Another option is debt help books from debt gurus like Dave Ramsey and Suzy Orman. Dave Ramsey’s books helped me climb out of $30,000 worth of debt when I divorced my first husband. I’m happy to say every dollar of any joint debt associated with my first marriage is not paid off!

Why this works

For obvious reasons, this is a longer term solution to freeing up money. Not only will you help your credit by getting rid of debt but it can also lift some current burden from your shoulder to wear things like vacations or small trips can be a reality.

Envelope Systems

I’ve never done this one personally but I know plenty of people who do and swear by it. The basic idea of the envelope system for budgeting is that you have envelopes for household expenses: groceries, mortgage payment, phone bill, credit card payments, etc. You should also have an emergency envelope for things like unexpected car repair bills or medical bills.

You can also create an envelope for vacations or outings. Put in what you can afford each pay check even if it’s only $5 or $10. When your envelope reaches an amount to take the vacation you want, then go for it. If you have envelopes for things that can be paid off such as credit cards, as you get them paid off you can start allocating that money to savings and other envelopes including your vacation envelope.

Why it works

There’s a clear amount for each area. If you have a “dining out” envelope for example anyone in the house can look in the envelope and know if there is enough money to do eat out or not. Labeling or coloring-coding each envelope can help your spouse understand where money is going and how much.

Ghosts of Thores-Cross Book Tour & Giveaway

The Haunting of Thores-Cross

Ghosts of Thores-Cross Book 1

by Karen Perkins

Genre: Paranormal Suspense

“The ghost of a wronged young woman in the village of Thores-Cross waits 230 years to have her story told in Perkins’s suspenseful and atmospheric first Yorkshire Ghost novel” – BookLife by Publishers Weekly

*Silver Medal Winner, European fiction – 2015 IPPY Book Awards

*#1 Bestseller in 6 Amazon Categories, including Ghost Suspense, British Horror and Gothic Romance

*Top 10 Bestseller in 8 more, including Historical Thrillers and Occult Horror

*Over 100 5-STAR reviews on Amazon.com

Likened by independent reviewers on Amazon to the Brontë sisters, Edgar Allen Poe, Barbara Erskine and Nathaniel Hawthorne, Karen Perkins’ novels are filled with unflinching honesty and an acute understanding of human nature. She explores not only the depths of humanity, but the depths of human motivation behind the actions and pain people inflict upon each other, as well as the repercussions of these actions not only in the short term, but also the later generations who live with the implications of the past.

Emma Moorcroft is still grieving after a late miscarriage and moves to her dream house at Thruscross Reservoir with her husband, Dave. Both Emma and Dave hope that moving into their new home signifies a fresh start, but life is not that simple. Emma has nightmares about the reservoir and the drowned village that lies beneath the water, and is further disturbed by the sound of church bells – from a church that no longer exists.

Jennet is fifteen and lives in the isolated community of Thores-Cross, where life revolves about the sheep on which they depend. Following the sudden loss of both her parents, she is seduced by the local wool merchant, Richard Ramsgill. She becomes pregnant and is shunned not only by Ramsgill, but by the entire village. Lonely and embittered, Jennet’s problems escalate, leading to tragic consequences which continue to have an effect through the centuries.

Emma becomes fixated on Jennet, neglecting herself, her beloved dogs and her husband to the point where her marriage may not survive. As Jennet and Emma’s lives become further entwined, Emma’s obsession deepens and she realises that the curse Jennet inflicted on the Ramsgill family over two hundred years ago is still claiming lives.

Emma is the only one who can stop Jennet killing again, but will her efforts be enough?

Goodreads * Amazon

Cursed

Ghosts of Thores-Cross Book 2

Jennet’s here. No one is safe.

A skeleton is dug up at the crossing of the ways on Hanging Moor, striking dread into the heart of Old Ma Ramsgill – the elderly matriarch of the village of Thruscross. And with good reason. The eighteenth-century witch, Jennet, has been woken.

A spate of killings by a vicious black dog gives credence to her warnings and the community – in particular her family – realise they are in terrible danger.

Drastic measures are needed to contain her, but with the imminent flooding of the valley to create a new reservoir, do they have the ability to stop her and break her curse?

Goodreads * Amazon

Jennet

Ghosts of Thores-Cross Book 3

‘Jennet will have your heart and your fear in equal measure’

‘Through Jennet we see how cruelty can drive even the most ordinary people to hatred and, in Jennet’s case, evil’

Yorkshire is in the grip of a heatwave, and Thruscross Reservoir has dried up to reveal the remains of the drowned village of Thores-Cross beneath.

Playing in the mud which coats the valley floor, four-year-old Clare Wainwright finds an old inkpot, and can’t wait to show it to her best friend, Louise. But when Louise’s mother, Emma, sees it, her reaction is shocking, and both families are plunged into their worst nightmares.

Emma knows what the inkpot portends:

Jennet has woken.Now she wants the children.

This is not a gore-ridden, jump-scare horror story. This is more real than that. Jennet is a story about the horrific things that people do to each other, and the way we react to that maltreatment – which does not always end with death.

Jennet’s story is a horror story because it’s not necessarily fiction. It reflects the way women were treated in the time that Jennet lived. It reflects the psychology of the abuse cycle. And it reflects real life. All of it.

If, as I believe, the spirit does not die when the physical body dies, then how many spirits are looking for vengeance today?

What wrongs will you want to right when you pass through that veil? What will I?

This is the conclusion of Jennet’s story, which began in The Haunting of Thores-Cross. I hope she finds peace. I really do.

Goodreads * Amazon

Karen Perkins is the author of eight fiction titles: the Yorkshire Ghost Stories and the Valkyrie Series of historical nautical fiction. All of her fiction has appeared at the top of bestseller lists on both sides of the Atlantic, including the top 21 in the UK Kindle Store in 2018.

Her first Yorkshire Ghost Story – THE HAUNTING OF THORES- CROSS – won the Silver Medal for European Fiction in the prestigious 2015 Independent Publisher Book Awards in New York, whilst her Valkyrie novel, DEAD RECKONING, was long-listed in the 2011 MSLEXIA novel competition.

Originally a financial advisor, a sailing injury left Karen with a chronic pain condition which she has been battling for over twenty five years (although she did take the European ladies title despite the injury!). Writing has given her a new lease of – and purpose to – life, and she is currently working on a sequel to Parliament of Rooks: Haunting Brontë Country.

When not writing, she helps other authors prepare their books for publishing and has edited over 150 titles, including the 2017 Kindle UK Storyteller Award winner, The Relic Hunters by David Leadbeater, and has also published a series of publishing guides to help aspiring authors realise their dreams.

Karen Perkins is a member of the Society of Authors and the Horror Writers Association.

Website * Facebook * Facebook Group * Twitter * Instagram * Amazon * Goodreads

Cursed – Excerpt
Thruscross, North Yorkshire
7 th August 1966 – 11:30 a.m.

‘Right, tea break over, lads, back to work. Rog, Steve, you’re up on Hanging Moor in the
bulldozers. As soon as they’ve gone through, Paul and Simon, you get the chippings down. And take
care – don’t go past the markers, that drop’s lethal.’
The road crew groaned, threw their dregs of tea to the ground and refastened their flasks before
clambering into their machines to dig out the access road to the new dam spanning the Washburn
Valley. The valley would be flooded in a month’s time, creating the new reservoir for the Leeds
Corporation Waterworks to supply half of Leeds with drinking water, and the road should have been
completed last month.
Rog led the way, the large bucket scraping heather and peat, then dumping it into the waiting
tipper truck.
Steve followed, making a deeper cut. Together they gouged an ugly scar over the pristine
Yorkshire moorland.
‘Bugger,’ Steve cried out and jolted in his seat, knocking the control levers. The big digger
wobbled, teetered, then slowly toppled over towards the edge and a sheer wooded drop of a hundred
and fifty feet to the valley bottom below.
‘Steve!’ Rog cried. ‘Lads, help!’
The rest of the crew downed tools and diggers and rushed to the stricken bulldozer. By the time
they reached it, Rog was already clambering on to the cab, desperately trying not to look at the vista
that opened up before him only a few feet away.
‘Steve?’ he called again. No answer. His mate lay unconscious, twisted in his seat. ‘No!’ The
digger slid a foot or two in the wrong direction.
‘Rog, get down; she’s going over!’ Andy, the foreman, shouted.
‘No – Steve’s out cold.’
‘You’re no help to him if your weight pushes it over the edge – get down! We’ll get help, but we
need to secure the digger somehow, keep her steady.’
Rog took a last look at his mate then nodded. He realised he couldn’t get into the cab without
destabilising the digger further and he had no idea how serious Steve’s injuries were. He climbed
down carefully, just as Simon drew up in the tipper truck. Half full of soil and rock, it was the
heaviest vehicle there.
Andy got on the radio to inform his boss at the dam where there was a telephone to call for help,
while Paul ran over with a chain. He secured it round one of the digging arms, and Simon backed up –
slowly – until the chain was taut.
The digger shifted, turning around the pivot point they’d created. The back end now hung off the
edge of the cliff.
‘Keep it there, Simon,’ Andy called. ‘And keep it in reverse – if the edge fails, you’ll need to pull
him backwards.’
‘Can’t he just do that anyway?’ Rog asked.
‘We don’t know how badly he’s hurt. If he’s broken his back or neck, moving him could make it
worse. We don’t want to move him unless we have to – not until the Fire Brigade and ambulance get
here. What happened anyway?’
‘Uh.’ Rog pulled his attention away from the downed machine. ‘I don’t know – he shouted out,
then rolled it.’
‘He shouted before he rolled?’
‘Yes.’
‘Andy, Rog. Come and have a look at this,’ Paul called and beckoned them over to join him where
Steve had made his last cut.
‘What is it?’ Andy came hurrying over.
‘Uh, looks like a skull.’

‘What? Oh Christ, it’s a bloody skeleton! Well, that’s us finished, lads, no more work here for at
least a month while they sort this one out,’ Rog said.
‘Forget that, we’ll just go round it,’ Andy said.
The three men looked over at Steve, then back into the grave. Only the skull and shoulder girdle
were visible. As one, they shuddered as a worm pushed its way out of the compacted earth behind the
jaw bones, for a moment looking as if the skull had stuck an emaciated tongue out at them.

Follow the tour HERE for exclusive excerpts, guest posts and a giveaway!

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See Will Smith as Genie in the First TV Spot for Aladdin

I loved Aladdin as a cartoon and can’t wait to see the live action movie. See Will Smith as Genie in Aladdin in this TV spot

A thrilling and vibrant live-action adaptation of Disney’s animated classic, “Aladdin” is the exciting tale of the charming street rat Aladdin, the courageous and self-determined Princess Jasmine and the Genie who may be the key to their future. Directed by Guy Ritchie, who brings his singular flair for fast-paced, visceral action to the fictitious port city of Agrabah, “Aladdin” is written by John August and Ritchie based on Disney’s “Aladdin.” The film stars Will Smith as the Genie; Mena Massoud as Aladdin; Naomi Scott as Jasmine; Marwan Kenzari as Jafar; Navid Negahban as the Sultan; Nasim Pedrad as Dalia; Billy Magnussen as Prince Anders; and Numan Acar as Hakim.

Aladdin (Mena Massoud) meets the larger-than-life blue Genie (Will Smith) in Disney’s live-action adaptation ALADDIN, directed by Guy Ritchie.

“Aladdin” is produced by Dan Lin, p.g.a., and Jonathan Eirich, p.g.a., with Marc Platt and Kevin De La Noy serving as executive producers. Eight-time Academy Award®-winning composer Alan Menken provides the score, which includes new recordings of the original songs written by Menken and Oscar®-winning lyricists Howard Ashman and Tim Rice and includes two new songs written by Menken and Oscar and Tony Award®-winning songwriters Benj Pasek and Justin Paul.