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Deals That Are Nifty by Sister Thrifty: October 2005

Deals That Are Nifty by Sister Thrifty

Great Steals and Deals around town and online to save you the big bucks and help you keep more of your hard-earned money!

Saturday, October 29, 2005

Daylight Savings

Hi all!
Did you know that Daylight Savings Time was created in order to save money and energy?! They must have been subscribers to the Sister Thrifty
newsletter! ark Energy use and the demand for electricity for lighting
our homes is directly connected to when we go to bed and when we get up.
Bedtime for most of us is late evening through the year. When we go to bed, we turn off the lights and TV.
Here's some interesting info on how Daylight Savings came to be, but if you're short on time you can skip the next couple of paragrahs...just remember to set your clocks back tonight before going to bed!!.....In the average home, 25 percent of all the electricity we use is for lighting and small appliances, such as TVs, VCRs and stereos. A good percentage of energy consumed by lighting and appliances occurs in the evening when families are home. By moving the clock ahead one hour, we can cut the amount of electricity we consume each day. Studies done in the 1970s by the U.S.
Department of Transportation show that we trim the entire country's electricity usage by about one percent EACH DAY with Daylight Saving Time.
Daylight Saving Time "makes" the sun "set" one hour later and therefore reduces the period between sunset and bedtime by one hour. This means that less electricity would be used for lighting and appliances late in the day.
We also use less electricity because we are home fewer hours during the "longer" days of spring and summer. Most people plan outdoor activities in the extra daylight hours. When we are not at home, we don't turn on the appliances and lights. A poll done by the U.S. Department of Transportation indicated that Americans liked Daylight Saving Time because "there is more
light in the evenings / can do more in the evenings." While the amounts of
energy saved per household are small...added up they can be very large.
Time zones were first used by the railroads in 1883 to standardize their schedules. Benjamin Franklin (great thrifty guy) suggested the idea way back in 1784! The American law by which we turn our clock forward in the spring and back in the fall is known as the Uniform Time Act of 1966.
Well, you might have already known all that silliness, but did you know that beginning in 2007 Daylight Saving Time will be extended one month and begins for most of the United States at 2:00 am on the 2nd Sunday in March to 2:00 am on the frst Sunday of November?!!! Well, now ya do!
The Christmas shopping season is fast approaching! If you are a AAA member check out www.shopamericavip.com/aaa to see a list of all the malls in the country who are offering discounts to their stores for their customers during the holidays. AAA has decent roadside assistance, but they also have an impressive discount program for their members. I save enough money each year on the discounts I get from amusement parks to restaurants to oil changes to event tickets to hotels that more than pays for my annual membership. You should seriously check it out. :)
If you're tired of the high-priced, low-end service you get from America Online but you can't seem to shake them, follow these steps:
1) Sign on to your AOL account.
2) Click on the "Keyword" box in the upper right corner and type the word "cancel" when the entry box appears. A screen will appear with a toll-free number and mailing address. If you are unable to log on, call 888-265-8008 for cancellation help.
3) Call the number and follow the instructions to cancel your membership. A representative should be able to cancel your account within a few minutes.
(DSL accounts may take longer)
4) Ask that a confirmation of your cancellation be e-mailed to you if you have another account, faxed or mailed to your home address.
Note: AOL does not allow members to cancel their accounts online.
Here is a list of cheap ISP's:
www.chilitech.com - $9.95 per month with a year contract. Make sure you can get a local access number before signing up.
www.695online.com - Internet service for $6.95 a month. Your credit card will be billed $26.80 right away, which covers three months of service plus a one-time setup fee of $5.95. If you don't like this, don't sign up.
•www.lafn.org - For residents of California. It costs just $50 a year because it is run almost entirely by volunteers.
* NetZero and Juno - As of Sept. 2001, Netzero and Juno have merged and are offering similar ISP packages. Both continue to offer a free Internet service, but they are limited in their terms of service and usage. NetZero users are limited to surfing 10 hours a month. Juno does not specify a limit on time with the free service, but some users who report spending from 5 to 20 hours a month online have reported being warned that they are "heavy users" and could be charged because of overuse. Both companies also offer a
$9.95 "unlimited" package.
• Wal-Mart - Wal-Mart has started its own Internet service for $9.94 a month. The company is offering unlimited access and a free 700-hour trial month.
• Worldshare - Formerly "Freelane," Worldshare is offered in the U.S., Canada and the Caribbean. Rates are as follows: 75 hours/mo for $9.95; 150 hours/mo for $12.95; Unlimited Access for $15.95.
Well, that's it for now. Have a safe, happy Halloween, and remember to hit those after Halloween sales at Wal-Mart and Target for next year's decorations & party supplies! :)
CENTSerely,
Sister Thrifty

Saturday, October 22, 2005

Marie Calendars

Hi everyone!
Have you checked out my new web site at www.sisterthrifty.com ?? Be sure to enter this month's consumer tip contest! Just submit a great shopping tip or some steals and deals around town and you could win a coupon for a free kid's meal at Souplantation! (Also known as Sweet Tomatoes on the east coast). Click on the link to the Sister Thrifty Blog as well. You can read old issues and add your own comments.
I probably shouldn't tell you this, since I gain 5 pounds every year on this thrifty tip alone....Marie Calendar's is having their special pie sale.....ANY pie for $5.99...even their really expensive ones are only
$5.99. mmmmmmmm The sale goes on every October and February. mmmmmmm
Here's a question for ya... Should you buy cell phone insurance? Almost always the answer is no. But most people agree to pay for cell phone insurance when they sign their contract. They end up paying about $5 a month for the insurance, plus a deductible if your phone gets damaged or you lose it. One current lawsuit is even alleging that cell phone insurance is fraud.
The suit states that you’re paying insurance on a used phone. That’s right.
When you turn in your damaged phone and get another one, it’s usually "refurbished" anyway. Consumer Reports weighed in on this topic and said the only reason people should get cell phone insurance is if you own a very expensive phone. Insurance rates are the same for a $500 phone and a $50 phone. So, it makes no sense.
Here's something kinda cool....When you have a doctor visit and need a prescription, he or she may hand you some samples to get you started and it’s always a brand name medicine. You are so excited about the samples because you’re getting something free. But, when you go fill your prescription, what do you get? The brand name medicine, of course. And you pay for it too. It’s caused a tug of war between drug companies and insurance companies. As a result, Aetna has offered to give patients a 30-day prescription for free. The patient doesn’t even have to be an Aetna member. Aetna reps simply put a vending machine in doctor’s offices where people can get meds immediately. A doctor or nurse punches in a secret code and out pops a 30-day supply. About 100 doctor’s offices have the machines right now, according to the Wall Street Journal. Good idea because everyone wins. Costco and Sam’s Club are two other alternatives. They charge a tiny mark-up on generics, so you’ll save a ton.
Americans are the first people ever who save just so we can spend. When we see a "SALE" sign we feel compelled to buy, and we end up in the poor house.
But American Express has a new credit card that saves money for people as they spend. When you use the card, you get 1 percent cash back and that money is automatically put into a savings account the earns 3 percent interest. So, if you spend $100, $1 goes into savings and starts earning interest. It’s called "The One," and it’s geared toward young people. The idea is that people who’ve grown up in a spending culture will learn the value of saving. There is a $35 annual fee, which I'm not thrilled about.
But it’s a good start. Another good deal is the Costco cash rewards card from American Express. You’re given a voucher for spending in Costco, but you can also cash it if you want. Gee, can you tell I like Costco?
And finally, a bank that lets us keep the change....Bank of America has a new program called "Keep the Change." When you go into a store and purchase something with your debit card, the bank will round it up to the nearest dollar and put the remainder into a savings account. In addition, the bank will add an additional five percent to that amount. So, if you make a purchase for $3.12, the bank will round it up to $4 and put the 88 cents into a savings account for you. Those 88 cents then automatically becomes 92 cents because of the 5 percent addition. Your purchases can be matched up to $250 a year, which means you would have to use your debit card about 500 times in a year. That’s not likely, but it’s a great incentive to save money regardless. People are not saving nearly enough these days, so BOA has the
foresight to help customers with that. Yay!
Hope some of those little tidbits help your wallet this week. Have a great one!
CENTSerely,
Sister Thrifty

Saturday, October 15, 2005

Insurance

Hi everyone!
Are you sad that you just recently discovered Sister Thrifty and that you've missed all the great consumer tips and shopping advice from past newsletters? Now you don't have to be sad anymore...of course, who am I to take away your perfectly good reason to eat chocolate and be depressed? Now you can read all of the newsletters from 2005 at http://sisterthrifty.blogspot.com You can also access it through the link
at www.sisterthrifty.com Woohoo! I'll be adding the newsletters from the
past two years soon. Some of the newsletters contain timely steals and deals that are no longer any good, but most of them contain general consumer tips that you don't want to miss!
Speaking of timeliness and missing something.....don't forget to set your clocks back one hour on Sunday, October 30th! They say you're character is revealed by how you choose to spend that extra one hour......uh....hmmm....I'm most likely going to be sleeping. What does that say about me?.....it says I'm exhausted!
To save 20% at www.Joanne.com use promotion code OCTPER520 in your online shopping basket. It's good until next Wednesday.
If you’d been asked what a credit score was five years ago, would you have known? Ten years ago, did you know what a credit report was? The credit reporting industry used to keep both of these a secret from us. The dossier collecting business is highly profitable in terms of selling your information, and it helped lenders decide whether to give you a loan without your knowledge. But there was a lot of discrimination, and eventually both of these became public. Our three-digit credit score went public when the owner of eloan.com decided to publicize our numbers for free. Banks were furious of course, but it led the way for more access. Tons of companies now sell us our credit scores and we can get our credit reports for free. The end result is that almost 90 percent of people know that paying bills on time affects your score the most. Three-quarters of people know that maxing out your credit score also plays into your score. Your income doesn’t affect your score at all. So, letting people know things really benefits the public. Thank goodness someone had the foresight to open this system up so people could improve their scores and ratings.
There is a lot of confusion these days over what types of insurance you really need. There are only three. But first let’s discuss the kinds of insurance you don’t need. One kind of insurance you should never buy is credit life insurance, also known as "croak and choke." Mortgage life insurance is the technical term. The salespeople pretend it’s a great idea, claiming that if you die your debts are paid off. Basically, with this insurance, the bank gets paid off and gets your money instead of your heirs.
In addition, the premiums are about 10 times as high as traditional types of life insurance. Mortgage life’s cousin is credit life insurance, and you are pushed to get this when you buy a car or other big purchase. These are sold as protection for you, but really they provide protection for the bank. So, it’s essentially like putting lipstick on a pig. Maybe it looks better, but it’s still a pig. Another popular item is the variable annuity. It’s almost never a good idea to buy one of these because there are monstrous commissions. What about cancer insurance? If you get cancer, you need health insurance and term life insurance, and that’s it. And, if you can’t work and need replacement of your income, you want disability insurance. Those are the only three you need. All the others you can chuck. What about your car?
You don’t need rental insurance when renting a car, first of all. If you get in an accident, you’ll owe regardless of whether you have insurance. And usually your credit cards or auto insurance company has some type of temporary rental car coverage. PEC or "personal effects coverage," which covers things stolen out of your rental car, is not necessary either.
Have you heard about the prescription drug benefit for senior citizens that is launching next year? It’s going to be provided by private companies to Medicare-eligible seniors, and they’ll have up to 20 choices for programs depending on where they live. The plans will have a monthly premium and it’s important to get in on the early side or there are financial penalties for signing up later. Enrollment starts Nov. 15 and the program goes into effect Jan. 1, 2006. It can get quite confusing, so it’s important to go over the terms with your parents. Seniors will pay a monthly premium that will vary from company to company. For every prescription a senior buys, the first $250 comes out of pocket. After that, Medicare covers 75 percent of the next $2,000 in drug purchases. The program pretty much stops there. If you go beyond $3,000 in drug purchases, it comes out of the senior’s pocket. And, after $5,000, the government gets involved again. So, you and your parents need to read up on this. The one thing you don’t want to do is to make no decision at all. Now, there is one group of people that should not participate in a Medicare benefit plan. The small number of people who are offered a good plan as a retiree should not get involved. It’s a potential break from the exorbitant prescription drug costs out there, but you need to do your homework.
Alrighty, that should do it for today! Be good out there and save those pennies!
CENTSerely,
Sister Thrifty

Tuesday, October 11, 2005

Basic Money Saving Tips

Hi everyone!
So many new people have subscribed to this e-newsletter lately, that I thought this week I'd pass along some basic money-saving tips we should all live by:
• Spend less money than you earn. duh!
* Have realistic expectations.
* Maintain spotless credit. Pay your bills in full and on
time.
* Diversify your investments.
• Look for a higher paying job or acquire skills so you're worth more.
• Create a financial budget to help you save.
• Only use credit cards if you can pay them off in full each month.
• Stop purchasing frivolous, impulse items.
• Refinance your mortgage or debt at a lower rate.
• Refinance your car loan at a lower interest rate.
• Find cheaper insurance rates for heath, life, and auto.
• Use coupons to shop.
• Wait for things to go on sale before buying them.
• Don't buy anything just because it is on sale.
• Buy generic, or non-name brand merchandise when you can.
• Drive used cars.
• Don't eat out as much as you'd like to.
• Do more activities at home.
• Invest the money you save so that it earns money too.
• Create a plan to save $100 per month (or as much as you can swing). .
• Don't ever spend money just because you have it.
• Stay busy - you have less time to spend money!
• Find an inexpensive hobby to occupy your time and stop you from spending
money.
• Find a hobby that you can earn money doing.
• Go on a diet and lose weight Not only do you save money on food, look and
feel
better, but your long term healthcare costs should also fall dramatically.
• Learn how to manage your finances by reading financial publications.
• Increase the money you earn (second job, promotion, new job, investments,
etc.)
• Don't try to compete with your friends and neighbors.
• Don't try to compare yourself to your friends and neighbors.
• Contribute the maximum each year to your 401K or to an IRA.
• Buy Dental Insurance before you need it.
• Buy Health Insurance before you need it.
• Remember, paying down debt is also a way to save money (it saves you from
a debt
payment and gets you closer to having money to invest).
• Lower your phone bill.
• Lower your cable bill by ending pay channels or switching to satellite.
• Practice restraint.
• Be patient.
• Start saving money today!
• Don't give up!
A final word about credit cards today..
www.cardweb.com recently learned the highest interest rates from the ten largest credit card companies. These are the rates companies impose based on "cross default clauses." Cross default clauses are any negative marks on your credit report that allow credit card companies to raise your interest rate. Here are the rates: Chase – 30%; Citibank – 30%; Bank of America – 30%; MBNA – 20%; Discover – 26%; Capital One – 27%; American Express – 28%; HSBC – 28%; Providian – 30% and Wells Fargo – 24%. So, if you have a credit card with one of these cards and you carry a balance, you run the risk of paying a 30 percent interest rate. In addition, there is no appeals process to the cross default clauses. If it’s an error on your credit report, credit card companies don’t care. They can still charge that rate. The only power you have is to pay your bills in full and on time. If you do that, you will never be charged these exorbitant rates.

Lastly, if you live near Carlsbad, CA and you're interested in a free black, wrought-iron bunk bed call Raquel at 760-603-8259. It's the kind with a twin mattress on top and a full futon on the bottom that converts from flat to couch style. The bottom part of the iron is curved (not supposed to be) so works best in a couch position. Futon is teal colored.
Ok doky,
Have a GREAT day!
CENTSerely,
Sister Thrifty

Hi everyone!
How about some REAL Tightwad Tips this week?....
Vegetable Band Aids
Save the wide vegetable bands from bunches of asparagus, broccoli, and other vegetables. Put them in your kitchen drawer and bring-em out when you have a stubborn cap. Wrap the cap and twist away. The rubber band will grip the cap perfectly. These bands are also great for wrapping up cords or hanging up broom handles. Save the rest of these bands for packages and projects.
Cereal companies make tons of sugar coated profits on their artificially sweetened prices. Most of their rich tasting price is due to advertising
costs, so fight back! Get some of your money back by using every bit of
their product. The cardboard boxes are useful as project placemats. The plastic cereal liners replace what used to be wax paper. These liners have lots of uses, so always save these liners after the cereal is gone.
Carefully pull the seams apart and you'll have a long length of liner paper to use for baking, cooking, lining shelves or any other purposes. When making pastry crust, roll dough between two sheets, pastry pulls-up nice.
Liners can be torn into squares and used to cover items placed into the microwave oven. These liner squares don't catch fire and they keep moisture in the food and the splatters off the interior microwave walls.
It's amazing what a microwave oven can do to rejuvenate foods and various items. A short zap will rejuvenate a roll of old masking tape and make it
stick again. A short zap will make a lemon give more juice when squeezed.
A little zap will refreshen stale muffins and bread items. Microwave ovens
work by heating items from inside out. Many times items that appear to
have no moisture at all can be made to live again by just using from 10 to 30 seconds in most 600 to 1000 watt microwave ovens.
Fruit Smoothie: Salad Salvation
Nothing in the world is more ugly than a two day old fruit salad. Even when I use the old lemon juice trick, it still gets smushy and looks really bad.
Fortunately, there's a cool and trendy way to give a beautiful face to that old mess. Enter the world of fruit smoothes and natural "power drinks".
Simply take a cup of the old, but tasty, fruit salad and put it in the blender. Blend for a few moments until it's pureed then add a cup of ice cubes and puree again. Voila! You have a fruit smoothie that everyone will
love. The color is bright and the taste is always great. It's great in
the morning or before a workout, and it's a healthy drink that's loaded with fiber. Kids will even drink it as a treat. If you like, you can add extra
fruit or an egg for protein. But heed this warning: Never let anyone see
the pre-pureed ingredients. It's natural for fruits to shade brown as they
oxidize, yet most of us are too scared to venture beyond the artificial beauty of preservatives. As long as the salad is good, the smoothie will be great! Don't forget to freeze some as fruit cubes too.
If you’ve been making only minimum payments on your credit cards, things are about to change for you. Under an administrative direct from federal regulators, banks now have to charge you more of your balance each month.
Banks have always wanted you to have some debt on your credit cards. But the Feds have decided that is creating instability in the economy. So, if you’ve been living on fumes and have been unable to make the minimums, you may be in for a shock. But if you can make those higher minimums, you are going to get out of debt a lot sooner. Right now, you would remain in debt up to 45 years if you make only minimum payments on your cards. That’s without charging anything new on the card. Under the new, higher guidelines, you’ll be out of debt in 2013. You have to stop using your cards of course, and you need to stay afloat on your home and car payments first. But this is a good thing for people with credit card debt in the long run.
Hey, every penny adds up!
Have a wonderful fall weekend!
CENTSerely,
Sister Thrifty

Monday, October 10, 2005

Family Tree Maker

Hey everyone!
Thanks to Cassie Bizzigotti for sharing this GREAT thrifty news, but you have to jump on it quick!!
Now is a good time to start Genealogy if you haven't and if you are bored with using PAF.... Family Tree Maker 2006 Deluxe edition is FREE after the rebate (69.99 to buy) at Fry's Electronics. You need to purchase it by
10/11 - Tuesday- and have your rebate postmarked by 10/20. The new edition has lots of cool features plus a FREE one year subscription to www.Ancestry.com ! On Saturday night (10/8) they had many, many boxes left.
Even if you have an older edition, the free ancestry.com membership is worth the trip to Fry's. I really like the new one a lot better than the really old version I had. I find that using FTM is much easier to use while doing research.
Also, check out www.climbingfamilytrees.com for the newest genealogy book to hit store shelves in November!
CENTSerely,
Sister Thrifty

Saturday, October 08, 2005

Tightwad Tips

Hi everyone!
How about some REAL Tightwad Tips this week?....
Vegetable Band Aids
Save the wide vegetable bands from bunches of asparagus, broccoli, and other vegetables. Put them in your kitchen drawer and bring-em out when you have a stubborn cap. Wrap the cap and twist away. The rubber band will grip the cap perfectly. These bands are also great for wrapping up cords or hanging up broom handles. Save the rest of these bands for packages and projects.
Cereal companies make tons of sugar coated profits on their artificially sweetened prices. Most of their rich tasting price is due to advertising
costs, so fight back! Get some of your money back by using every bit of
their product. The cardboard boxes are useful as project placemats. The plastic cereal liners replace what used to be wax paper. These liners have lots of uses, so always save these liners after the cereal is gone.
Carefully pull the seams apart and you'll have a long length of liner paper to use for baking, cooking, lining shelves or any other purposes. When making pastry crust, roll dough between two sheets, pastry pulls-up nice.
Liners can be torn into squares and used to cover items placed into the microwave oven. These liner squares don't catch fire and they keep moisture in the food and the splatters off the interior microwave walls.
It's amazing what a microwave oven can do to rejuvenate foods and various items. A short zap will rejuvenate a roll of old masking tape and make it
stick again. A short zap will make a lemon give more juice when squeezed.
A little zap will refreshen stale muffins and bread items. Microwave ovens
work by heating items from inside out. Many times items that appear to
have no moisture at all can be made to live again by just using from 10 to 30 seconds in most 600 to 1000 watt microwave ovens.
Fruit Smoothie: Salad Salvation
Nothing in the world is more ugly than a two day old fruit salad. Even when I use the old lemon juice trick, it still gets smushy and looks really bad.
Fortunately, there's a cool and trendy way to give a beautiful face to that old mess. Enter the world of fruit smoothes and natural "power drinks".
Simply take a cup of the old, but tasty, fruit salad and put it in the blender. Blend for a few moments until it's pureed then add a cup of ice cubes and puree again. Voila! You have a fruit smoothie that everyone will
love. The color is bright and the taste is always great. It's great in
the morning or before a workout, and it's a healthy drink that's loaded with fiber. Kids will even drink it as a treat. If you like, you can add extra
fruit or an egg for protein. But heed this warning: Never let anyone see
the pre-pureed ingredients. It's natural for fruits to shade brown as they
oxidize, yet most of us are too scared to venture beyond the artificial beauty of preservatives. As long as the salad is good, the smoothie will be great! Don't forget to freeze some as fruit cubes too.
If you’ve been making only minimum payments on your credit cards, things are about to change for you. Under an administrative direct from federal regulators, banks now have to charge you more of your balance each month.
Banks have always wanted you to have some debt on your credit cards. But the Feds have decided that is creating instability in the economy. So, if you’ve been living on fumes and have been unable to make the minimums, you may be in for a shock. But if you can make those higher minimums, you are going to get out of debt a lot sooner. Right now, you would remain in debt up to 45 years if you make only minimum payments on your cards. That’s without charging anything new on the card. Under the new, higher guidelines, you’ll be out of debt in 2013. You have to stop using your cards of course, and you need to stay afloat on your home and car payments first. But this is a good thing for people with credit card debt in the long run.
Hey, every penny adds up!
Have a wonderful fall weekend!
CENTSerely,
Sister Thrifty

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