Author Archives: Money Beagle

Making It In Diapers Without Amazon

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We were big fans of the Amazon Mom program when it first came out.  When it first debuted, you got 30% off diapers and free shipping, plus a year of Prime benefits.

It was pure awesome.

I kind of figured that it might be too good to be true, and sure enough, it was.  They cut the discount from 30% to 20%, then they rolled out the kicker: To get that, you had to pay $79 in Amazon Prime membership.  If you didn’t subscribe to Prime, you got a measly 5%.

We went back and forth on whether to subscribe or not.  It was really nice getting anything we ordered in two days, and the diaper discounts were nice.

In the end, we decided against the membership.  At first, there was a withdrawal period.  Instead of just having diapers show up at our door, we had to go get them.  Instead of having anything we need in two days, we had to either wait for it (and sometimes scramble to hit the $25 minimum on Free Super Saver shipping) or go get it ourselves.

In the end, though, we’ve managed just fine.

My wife always seems to find diaper deals at either Target or Meijer, where they’ll have an in-store coupon that they will allow you to combine with a manufacturers coupon, plus sometimes they’ll do a deal where if you buy a couple of packs, you get a gift card that you can use on your next order.  We might be paying slightly more for diapers than we would have with Amazon, but when you factor the additional $79 that Amazon would have wanted, I think we’re at least breaking even.

It also helps that our little boy is potty trained which as cut his diaper consumption down quite a bit (he still gets a diaper during nap and overnight).

And, if buying stuff got a little less convenient, well that’s OK too.  It probably saves us money on buying stuff that we might not otherwise buy.

It was a nervous couple of weeks when Amazon first announced that they were effectively curbing the Amazon Mom program for us, but after we settled in, we realized that we are doing just fine.

At some point, Prime might be worth it if we look for the streaming movies and TV shows it gets you, but with summer coming up, camping trips planned, and a 10-month old that looks ready to walk within the next few weeks, well let’s just say that we have plenty to keep us entertained!

Any parents out there affected by the Amazon Mom changes earlier this year?  How did you handle it and what changes has it meant for you?

Thanks for reading! Please subscribe to my RSS feed, follow me on Twitter, or check out my Facebook page.This original Money Beagle post Copyright 2012 Money Beagle is authorized to appear only on www.moneybeagle.com. Thank you for reading and remember: It’s a great day to be alive!

Getting Used To A New Credit Card

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We recently signed up for the American Express Costco credit card.  The main reason is that you get 3% cash back on gasoline purchases. With the camper coming out of storage recently and planning a few trips, we know that we’ll be spending quite a bit on gas this summer, and looked for a card that would do the best to offset some of those costs.

The Costco card was definitely the right choice.  I’m all about getting cash (even though Costco makes you get the cash at their service desk, that’s fine with me) and not any sort of points or mileage or anything like that.  I know that some rewards might pay more at first but they tend to lower the rate after a few months or move you to rotating categories.  For gas, I wanted something that didn’t do much changing, and so far as I could tell, the Costco card has been offering the 3% back for a number of years now.

Still, this is our first true American Express card, so there were a number of things that were different when it came time to paying our credit card.

Billing Cycle – The billing cycle was slightly off from our Citi Dividends cards.  This is no big deal,as I pay off all the credit cards at the same time, but because the cycle closed a few days later, our gas costs for the month were slightly higher since there were a few extra days.   No big deal.

Reward Wait Time- The Citi card gives you the cash back in your ‘account’ right away, where the American Express delays the reward by a month.  So, our reward for the first month didn’t show up until a full month later.  This was important to me because I wanted to make sure that the gas stations we typically use were classified correctly (they were) but it took a full month from our first statement to get this verification.

No Early Payments – Most of the stuff we purchase with our credit card fall into distinct categories: Groceries, Gas, Cell Phone Bill and a couple of others.  If we have a ‘large’ purchase, we’ll put it on the card and I will often just pay that portion right way.  This keeps the budget categories in line and gives us the cash rewards. American Express won’t let you pay early, as they will only let you pay based on your last statement date.  Everything else is pending.

None of this is a big deal, but it’s interesting to see the slight differences.  They’re not at all overwhelming, but it makes me realize how quickly things could get out of control if you kept adding different cards. We only have a couple of credit cards that we deal with, but I can imagine that there are plenty of people out there who have so many cards that it gets very easy to miss billing cycle dates or limits or other things.  That’s why we took a lot of time to make sure that getting another card was the right decision for us, and I would encourage anybody using more than a couple of cards to consider simplifying.

Have you found yourself with credit card overload?

Thanks for reading! Please subscribe to my RSS feed, follow me on Twitter, or check out my Facebook page.This original Money Beagle post Copyright 2012 Money Beagle is authorized to appear only on www.moneybeagle.com. Thank you for reading and remember: It’s a great day to be alive!

Fuel Prices Rise, Driving Habits Changing

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Petrol prices may have fallen slightly but they remain high for motorists around the country, and due to inflation even further rises in the price of fuel look likely in the future. According to the latest AA Fuel Price Report, average petrol prices stood at 134.51p a litre in mid-October, compared with 135.61p in September, meaning motorists saw a slight reprieve month-to-month. Throughout the summer, the cost of petrol averaged 135.5p a litre, with a peak in May record of 137.43p a litre.

Over the summer, a family running two cars typically spent £241.54 more this year than they did a year ago. However, the higher prices may have had some benefits in terms of road safety, with people generally taking it a bit easier behind the wheel to get the most out of their hard-earned fuel.  Slower driving not only leads to safer roads and savings on petrol costs, it could also mean lower car insurance premiums if it leads to fewer accidents for a sustained period of time – something that benefits everybody. With this in mind, more motorists are trying to find out how they can alter their driving habits and contribute to better motoring while saving some cash. What will it take to get more people to change their habits?

Recently, British Car Auctions published research showing that the rising cost of fuel is now the biggest factor affecting drivers behaviour and choice of cars. In a survey of 4,000 motorists, 27 per cent said they were looking for a vehicle with better fuel consumption, compared with 17 per cent who said they were looking for lower road tax. One quarter of those surveyed said fuel prices of up to £1.40 a litre would force them to change how they drive, while a further ten per cent would hold out until prices hit £1.50. With a drop in two-car families, this means the remaining car will have to work that much harder, said Tony Gannon, communications director at British Car Auctions. We are likely to see households keeping cars for longer and not changing them until mileages are much higher. He added: Our research shows that motorists have several measures in mind to curtail their frontline motoring costs. Unsurprisingly, 39 per cent said they would like to see a reduction in fuel duty if they were in power, while more than one in five said they would tackle the national fuel price. How can I reduce my fuel consumption when driving?

One of the simplest and most obvious ways to reduce your fuel consumption is something everybody should be doing anyway: observe the speed limit at all times. Petrol mileage decreases rapidly at speeds of over 60mph, so the steadier you go, the more you save – not to mention reducing the risk of having an accident or being picked up by the police for speeding, both of which can have dire consequences for your car insurance premiums. Driving more gently, by avoiding harsh acceleration and heavy braking, and changing gear at a more modest engine speed will also contribute to more fuel in your tank over time. Other ways to get more petrol for your money are to reduce excess weight in the car. By avoiding carrying unnecessary heavy items around, you can improve your miles per gallon significantly, although this will be more noticeable in smaller cars than larger ones. Leaving the engine idling when parked is another way to waste fuel, as is using air conditioning when it’s not needed. There are a number of training courses available that will teach these skills and many more to make you a safer driver, which could also mean you qualify for lower car insurance premiums.

Things To Think About Before Making The Big Move

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Today’s post is a guest post from Kyle Taylor, who is the editor of ThePennyHoarder.com, a daily blog with weird & wacky tips on how to make extra money.

Coming up with a reason is the easy part. Looking for an adventure, running from a bad job market, getting away from a relationship gone south, heading to college, avoiding nagging parents and even just simple boredom, there are millions of reasons make people want to pull up familiar roots and start fresh in a new place.

Don’t jump out of your seat and pack the car quite yet: consider career options, geography and many other deciding factors before you take the out-of-state (or country) plunge.

Job Market and Cost of Living 

Many different dynamics contributed to the 2008 financial crisis, and the ensuing economic slump that persists to this day. Likewise, many states weathered the Great Recession better than others, and still are weathering it better today.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics lists both Dakotas, Nebraska, Vermont, New Hampshire, Iowa, Wyoming, Minnesota, Utah and Virginia as having 2012 unemployment rates at or below 5%. The cost of living varies from these top-ten states; for example, Vermont is considerably more expensive than North Dakota.

Plus, the list is dominated by agricultural-based economies (hence the lack of exposure to the real estate bubble that caused the economic crisis). Start out at an individual state’s .gov site (example: type in www.nd.gov for North Dakota) to see if you think it might be a good fit for you. From there, research unemployment statistics (also available at the BLS site), available industries, infrastructure,  and get a general feel for what the state is all about.

 Granola to Cowboy (and Cowgirl)

Life is more than career and money: don’t forget that different states are a better fit for different personality types.

Nuts and granola and outdoorsy? Colorado likely is a good middle-of-the-road cost of living fit that offers a plethora of outdoor adventures. Comfy in a cowboy hat and stirrups, and looking for a low cost-of-living alternative? The cowboy king of low-cost-of-living states, the Lone Star state, beckons you, weary traveler. But remember, Texas summers are stickier than grandma’s crusty-old fly paper (lots of bugs too, so keep the fly paper and bug spray handy). Shorts and sandals? Hawaii offers year-round balmy 80-degree sun but the cost of living and career opportunities (outside of the tourism industry) are onerous. Alaska is beautiful (especially in the summer) but is a foreboding and frigid Arctic region once Old Man Winter settles in. Is the world your doorstep?

Some Places Will Pay You to Move There

Amazingly, several cities across America actually pay you to move there. Seriously. Michigan’s Motor City entices would-be bohemians with generous college allowances or even a potential fixer-upper residence (cash from the city of Detroit to remodel it). Conditions apply (such as employment with certain companies within Detroit) but the fact still remains: you could be paid to make Motown your town. Want adventure? Alaska’s oil is black gold for state wanderlusters: The state of Alaska pays residents a nifty dividend each year, all you have to do is claim Alaska residence and U.S. citizenship and your yearly Permanent Fund Reserve oil dividend will arrive in the mail. The average dividend check is around $1200.

Camden, Maine and Curtis, Nebraska also offer out-of-staters promos and goodies. NASA is even paying people 5k per month to lie in bed (as part of a research experiment at the Houston, Texas Johnson Space Center).

So, have you made any big moves lately? How many months/years of homework did you do before you moved?

 

A Bittersweet Net Worth Milestone

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For the first time in over three years, I estimate that we have full positive equity in our home.

This is a good thing, but it’s bittersweet considering that we put 20% down on our home in 2007. Part of the downside was automatic and would have been in any market (see below) but that’s still a lot of equity lost otherwise.

The calculation

I estimate the top-line value (what a contract would say) of our home using four inputs:

  1. Tax estimates – The city tax bill gives the value of our home, and it’s generally been pretty accurate compared to market estimates
  2. The bank estimate – Our lender has always allowed us to pseduo-begin a re-finance application, at one point where it would give you a ballpark estimate of your home.
  3. Zillow – Even though this changes regularly, we use this as a fraction of the calculation.
  4. The ‘sniff test’ – I look at comparable sells in the neighborhood and will give a manual adjustment based on what I think is realistic based on what’s going around us.

The 7.75% catch

Now, I mentioned above that some of the drop in value is expected.  That’s simply a circumstance based on how I do the accounting.

My net worth is what I would expect to get if we cashed everything out.  Since there are selling costs associated with the sell of a house, on day one I automatically wrote down 7.75% of the expected sell value of the house, as I would expect a realtor fee of 6%, miscellaneous filing and other ‘fees’ that come about, as well as a cushion for any improvements or such that might need to be done to get the place sell ready.  Many people don’t do this, but I feel this is a more true cost based on how we calculate our net worth.

If you removed the 7.75% cushion, we were never technically underwater based on any estimates I had made.  But, we did fall into what I considered ‘treading water’ where writing off the 7.75% brought us to a negative value, meaning simply, that had we sold our house, we would have owed money after paying the mortgage, the realtor, and other fees that would have been necessary.

This has been the case in my net worth spreadsheet for the last 37 months.  But, this month we actually show that we would walk away with money.  If home values stay stable, we will continue to build this number simply by the equity we add with our mortgage payment each month. Hopefully, the value would rise on top of that and we will eventually return to having a decent cushion.

This is worrisome but it doesn’t eat me alive, simply because I never viewed our house as an investment.  We don’t plan on selling our house anytime soon, and we can afford the payments.  It might take a couple of years, but we’ll return the equity back that we put in originally, and as we continue to make payments and the principle amount increases each month, and if the market continues to strengthen (which I believe it will), equity will flow back quickly.

Either way, even though it’s small, it’s nice to see a positive number in the ‘house’ part of our net worth statement.

Really, it’s about time.

Thanks for reading! Please subscribe to my RSS feed, follow me on Twitter, or check out my Facebook page.This original Money Beagle post Copyright 2012 Money Beagle is authorized to appear only on www.moneybeagle.com. Thank you for reading and remember: It’s a great day to be alive!

What’s Your Financial Horror?

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A few weeks back (on Friday the 13th, appropriately enough), Jana from Daily Money Shot revealed what her biggest financial horror would be.  I thought I’d give it a try.

The obvious stuff (losing all your investments or something that would wipe out everything) is excluded because, well, it’s too obvious.

I thought I’d drop in the one thing that gives me a near panic attack at least once every couple of weeks:

Losing my wedding ring.

See, here’s the deal.

I am not one of those guys that leaves their ring on 24×7.  I love having it on but I don’t wear it to bed and I take it off when I’m doing outside work or other ‘involved’ work where it could get damaged or lost.

And the lost part is the worrisome part.

See, when I got married I was probably around 165 pounds or so.  I actually gained a few pounds over the first couple years of being married, and the ring always fit me fine.

Over the past 2-3 years, though, I’ve gradually lost some weight.  Not enough at one time to be noticeable, but over time I’ve dropped nearly 20 pounds, to where I’m now around 153.

As such, my ring isn’t loose where it’s going to fall off, but it’s also not ultra snug.

Last month, we had a couple of trees removed from the backyard, mainly because one was pretty well dead.  The tree trimmer chipped up the pieces so that I could use them as mulch in the planting beds and such on our property.

For three days, I was busy with a shovel, rake and wheelbarrow transporting the mulch from a huge pile in the driveway all around the house and such.  I wore outside gloves, but when you’re dealing with tiny pieces of wood, I found myself taking them off and shaking them out every fifteen minutes or so.

After a couple of hours and probably ten shakes on the first day of work, I realized that I didn’t have my wedding ring on.  My heart immediately started racing as I knew that if I lost my ring during this type of task, it would literally be like finding a needle in a haystack as the ring could be anywhere…the remaining pile of mulch, anywhere I had done, or anywhere along the way where I might have shaken out my gloves.  Logic told me that I had probably taken it off before I went outside, but I had to stop work, take off my dirty shoes and socks, brush off, and go inside to check.

Sure enough, the ring was in our bathroom, right next to the sink.

Next day, same thing happens.  This time, the panic hit me right when my wife was bringing the kids outside to play.  I practically knocked her over as I ran inside to do my check.  Sure enough, the ring was still there.

On the third day, I actually walked by my wife on the way out and said to her “My ring is upstairs in the bathroom” right before I left.  She was like O……kay.   Later on, I explained to her that by speaking the words, I actually remembered throughout the time I was working that I had put the ring in a safe spot.

I think the fact that I don’t wear the ring consistently makes it harder for me to keep track of it, especially since when I take it off, I’m usually in middle of changing or getting ready to work outside or something else that is taking part of the attention away that would normally make it a lasting memory.

I’m hesitant to get the ring re-sized, only because I know that I’m sneaking up to the age of 40 and that’s typically a time where your body starts sneaking those lost pounds back on.  Plus, it’s not loose enough to where I ever have to worry about it falling off without it being pulled off by something.

Outside of the obvious, what is your financial horror?

Thanks for reading! Please subscribe to my RSS feed, follow me on Twitter, or check out my Facebook page.This original Money Beagle post Copyright 2012 Money Beagle is authorized to appear only on www.moneybeagle.com. Thank you for reading and remember: It’s a great day to be alive!