Money Tips Network
My DIY Adventures
Over the past few years, I’ve worked to improve my DIY skills. Here are a few of the projects I’ve tackled – with an eye towards saving money and doing it myself.
I replaced the garbage disposal below our kitchen sink. This project was relatively simple. I worried a little bit about the electrical connection, but I figured it out. The disposal connects to the bottom of the sink via a special bracket and connects to the dishwasher via a long hose. Prior to disconnecting the old disposal, I snapped several pictures of its various connections. When connecting the new disposal, I referred the the pictures, and installation was a snap.
Best Low Interest Credit Cards of 2014
Before searching for the best low interest credit card, you should understand what “low interest” really means. Credit cards typically carry rates several times that of other types of credit, but you can find cards that offer a 0% intro APR for a given time period.
One of the newest and best low APR credit cards on the market today is the Discover it® chrome. It offers a 0% intro APR period of 14 months and and ongoing APR that is among the lowest in the industry.
Highlights:
Join Our Tweetchat on Thursday 8/21, 12pm PST for a Chance to Win $300 in Prizes!
Join our Tweetchat this Thursday at 12:00 p.m. Pacific/ 3p.m. Eastern for lively conversation and a chance to win a $200 gift card or one of two $50 gift cards! Use #WBChat and #ToothFairyCalculator to participate.
This week's topic: The Tooth Fairy! Join us as we talk about the average cost of a tooth, how the Tooth Fairy can teach kids about money, and leaving something other than money when kids lose a tooth. Let us know what the Tooth Fairy brought your kids this year and share with us the largest amount you’ve ever heard the Tooth Fairy left for a tooth!
5 Work Habits From Country Music
Johnny Cash once described country music as, "three chords and the truth." Now, the hard-drinking Man in Black may not have necessarily been talking about work habits, but it turns out country is full of work wisdom.
The value of putting in a solid day's work was a consistent theme of my Southern upbringing. We valued a strong work ethic so much that I spent more than one Christmas morning raking leaves for my grandfather (after presents and breakfast, of course). Like almost anything, the workday is better with a soundtrack, and as a kid mine was country music. Lately (and surprisingly), those lyrics have been coming back to me, providing with much more than just different ways to execute a party in the back of a truck.
Here are five work habits I've learned from country music.
Best Money Tips: Negotiate Discounts and Freebies For Your Dream Wedding
Welcome to Wise Bread's Best Money Tips Roundup! Today we found some awesome articles on negotiating discounts and freebies for your wedding, ways to go broke, and working out without a gym membership.
Top 5 Articles
How to Negotiate Discounts And Freebies for Your Dream Wedding — To negotiate discounts and freebies for your wedding, try to flatter your friends into helping for free. [Money Under 30]
20 Ways to Go Broke — Not saving for a rainy day and hitting the movies frequently can cause you to go broke. [brokeGIRLrich]
Should You Take the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge?
If you’ve been online in the past week or two, you have no doubt seen viral videos of strangers — and maybe even your friends — dumping buckets of ice over their heads. There is a charitable cause behind these videos. Most, or at least some, of the cold, soaked folks are accepting the challenge to support the ALS Association, a non-profit organization that provides support for research, assistance for people with Lou Gehrig’s Disease (Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis), and coordination of care, and the organization advocates for its cause through political lobbying.
Are You Tipping Wrong? This Is What You Should Be Leaving
Do you ever wonder if you're being too stingy or too generous — or if you're supposed to tip someone for their services at all? What about when you go on vacation: do the rules change? And what is the "right" amount to show appreciation for service providers at the holidays?
Well, wonder no longer, because it's all here in Wise Bread's guide to tipping for (almost) every situation.
Dining — In or Out
Eating at a 5-star restaurant is different than a counter-service joint. Here's the lowdown on how to tip for food-related services, based on advice from the Emily Post Institute, run by the family whose name is synonymous with etiquette.
5 Things That Seem Like Savvy Buys But Are Actually Terrible Splurges
We all have an instance in which we thought we were making a smart purchase, but ended up paying unintended consequences. It's so tempting to take up an almost-too-good-to-be-true offer, but here are five purchases that sounds savvy but are actually terrible splurges. (See also: 6 Things That Seem Like Spurges But Are Actually Savvy Buys)
1. Interest-Free Credit for a Limited Time
Many merchants offer no interest loans for a period of time for big ticket items like TVs and appliances.
Frugality and Hoarding
Jerome sent me a great question for the reader mailbag, but I found that my answer was getting too long so I chose to spin my response off into its own post.
Jerome asked this:
One of the big ideas of frugality is to not waste anything. That just seems to lead to hoarding, though. Most of the cheaper people I know have garages and closets jammed full of all kinds of things that I would probably just throw out. Does frugality lead to hoarding or am I missing something?
This is a really good question that touches on a bunch of interesting issues all at once, so let’s dig in.
First of all, you’re absolutely correct in saying that one of the big principles of frugality is to avoid waste. You get absolutely no direct value out of throwing something away, but it’s very likely that you had to invest something in acquiring that thing you’re throwing away. Thus, when you throw stuff away, you’re throwing away money.
The 10 Most Low Effort Ways to Save Money Ever
Anyone bringing home a steady, reasonably sufficient paycheck can save. Not only that, but saving is one of the simplest acts of money management that you can engage in, and there are a lot of ways to make it happen. (See also: 101 Easy Ways to Save Around the House)
To help you get started, try some — or all! — of the 10 of the most low-effort strategies for stocking your rainy-day fund.
Challenging traditional measures of financial success: Homeownership
This article is by staff writer Kristin Wong.
(This is Part II in a series about challenging traditional measures of financial success. Part I is The “Ivory Tower”: Reconsidering the college investment. Part III is The 9-to-5 job: Challenging how we earn a living.)
Last week, I was having dinner with my neighbor, a magnetic woman with a free spirit and a really youthful soul. She’s been renting the apartment above mine for something like 30 years.
“Do you ever think about buying a home?” I asked her.
12 New Ways Restaurants Trick You to Spend More
When I lived in Columbus, Ohio, my favorite spot was a little place called The Blue Danube, familiarly known as "The Dube." In addition to the usual inexpensive bar fare, the menu there offered the Dube Dinner Deluxe which paired a bottle of Dom Perignon with a couple of grilled cheese sandwiches (made with Roquefort cheese) at a cost of $185.
Though I always regarded the Dube Dinner Deluxe as more of a joke than anything else, I've since come to realize that including it on the menu was a savvy marketing strategy on the part of the bar's owners.
Podcasts that Provide Great Value
On my post titled Almost Infinite Investment Return, I had one reader ask me what podcasts I listened to (thinking that something we get for free could certainly have an infinite return). I responded there, but also thought it would be fun to post these for all to see and we could each share the podcasts we like. Here are my top podcasts:
The 5 Best Heart-Rate Monitors
Beyond exercise and a good diet, maintaining a healthy active lifestyle also means knowing as much as you can about your body, especially your heart. Having a good heart-rate monitor with you while you perform physical exercises can help you effectively train at the appropriate intensity level while also ensuring that your heart rate stays within a safe range.
A wide variety of heart-rate monitor models are available, each with their own unique features that are ideally suited for certain needs. Wise Bread is here to help find the best one for you with our top five list.
Are You Looking For A New Job?
If so, you might be in a better position than you think. The Bureau of Labor Statistics, or BLS as it’s more commonly known, keeps track of more than just unemployment statistics. Any time geeks try to analyze something, they go into inordinate detail, which glazes over the eyes of everyone trying to understand what they say, until the audience finally cries, “No! Stop! Please … just bottom-line this for me.” Always happy to oblige, the geeks then distill everything down to a single number. You would think that would make the readers/hearers happy. You would be wrong, of course, because then the audience complains that the single number doesn’t say everything.
The 6 Most Surprisingly Unhealthy Beverages
Think what you're eating is what matters most in your diet? Maybe it's what you're washing it all down with that's really the problem. According to statistics compiled by the Harvard School of Public Health, the rising consumption of sugary drinks is a major contributor to obesity in the United States. In fact, for about 25% of Americans, these drinks contribute 200 or more calories to their diet each day. (See also: 22 Reasons to Stop Drinking Soda)
Best Money Tips: Questions to Consider Before Overspending
Welcome to Wise Bread's Best Money Tips Roundup! Today we found some amazing articles on questions to consider before overspending, saving on back to school shopping, and cost cutting tips for drivers.
Top 5 Articles
8 Questions to Consider Before Overspending — Before you overspend, ask yourself what would happen if you didn't make the purchase. [Bobby Finance]
How to Save Money on Back to School Shopping — To save money on back to school shopping, don't be afraid to go used and create a list you can stick to. [Debt Roundup]
7 More Quick Tips and Tricks for Better Posture
One of the quickest and easiest ways to feel better both mentally and physically is to stand up straight. We've already covered some smart stretches you can do to get your posture more upright and your spine better aligned. But there's more work to do! (See also: 5 Easy Ways to take Better Care of Your Back)
Check out these easy exercises and other methods that will help ease back pain and have you looking and feeling more confident in no time.
1. Wall Test
Ask the Readers: What Money Advice Would You Give a College Student?
College students hear a lot of life advice from pretty much everyone around them, but tips on financial matters may not be at the top of their minds. Still, it's important for young people to know how to manage their money now — and in the future.
What money advice would you give a college student? Did someone give you this advice when you were that age, or did you have to learn from experience? Have you shared your tip with any college students you know?
Tell us what money advice you would give to a college student and we'll enter you in a drawing to win a $20 Amazon Gift Card!
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Nine Strategies for Fixing Common Budget Problems
Budgets are an amazing tool for getting a clear picture of your financial situation and for planning for the future. They make it possible to see, in one overall place, the exact state of your monthly spending. You know where every dime is going. You know why every dime is going there. You can also see exactly where your financial situation is headed if you stick to that budget.
Sarah and I used a very tight budget during the first few years of our financial turnaround. It provided us with a very specific plan for how we should spend our money, how much we could put towards debt every month, and so on. Along with our debt repayment plan, our budget paved the way to debt freedom.
We still budget, but it’s not as tight as it once was. Mostly, we use it as a guideline and as a way to model our expenses and savings into the future.
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