Tired of having an over-stuffed wallet and paying too many credit card bills each month? Personal finance blog The Simple Dollar has a few suggestions on which cards to keep and which to start canceling over time. It's not as simple as cutting all of them up except one, as the post points out:Which is your oldest card? That card is the one that has the longest credit history, which is important for your credit report. For me, my oldest card is one that I got as a freshman in college. It has an atrocious "bonus" program associated to it (1/4% return in the form of "points"), but it was the first one I had and thus it's been on my credit report for more than a decade, establishing that I've had positive credit for a long while.Rather than keep the card in his wallet, however, the author simply locks it away in a safe, so the good credit hits keep coming every month. How did you decide which credit card gets the prime slot in your wallet? Share your wisdom in the comments. Photo by
Like flossing, stretching and car waxing, socking away savings is easy to think positive about and much, much harder to act on. For help tricking yourself to be good, finance blog The Digerati Life offers 15 ways to defeat your inner spending machine. This one might be worth pondering while you're weighing those Black Friday rebate deals:
#8 Bank the savings you receive from coupons, sales and discounts
Big sales can save you a bundle, so how about writing yourself a check each time you score some savings while shopping? If you were prepared to pay full price but discover a savings of 10%, bank the 10% you save into your savings account. This could be a painless strategy of building up your nest egg that you incorporate into your daily shopping habits.What kind of mental hacks have you used to secretly store away cash? Share your tips in the comments.
Financial savings blog The Simple Dollar has written up a just-in-time article detailing ways you can save money when you have houseguests. There is a ton of really good advice here, but here's the one that I liked the best (note: the writer lives in Seattle):Make a list of inexpensive local activities - This is tough in Seattle, where all the cool stuff is pricey (especially for kids). This is when taking advantage of local parks is key. Visitors who bring their dogs might be happy to see some of your local pet-friendly areas. While our museums and zoo/aquarium are ridiculously pricey, we have lots of art galleries, and of course, the local gem that is Pike Place Market. That's where I drag my guests, and no one has every complained.
It's tempting to go the other route and bankrupt yourself for the sake of fun, but it's so unnecessary. What are your tips for saving money in the midst of having guests? Thoughts in the comments.
Looking for ways to squeeze more mileage out of that dollar? You can save some serious cash simply by planning to buy certain items on specific days of the week, according to Yahoo Finance.
For instance, try buying a car on Monday: the dealers are desperate for weekend traffic and will most likely cut you a better deal. Purchase clothes on Thursdays, right before stores start their weekend promotions. Pump your gas before 10 AM on Thursdays, since prices usually hike up on Thursday afternoons. Have you found a day that saves you some dough on a purchase? Thoughts in the comments.
Financial blog Wise Bread wrote up a (probably unintentional) hilarious post titled "Frugal Things My Mom Does"; namely, saving and squeezing ketchup packets in order to fill an empty bottle. There's frugal, and there's a wee bit nutty - and I think this might have crossed the line into nutty. However, I know that my own mom, God bless her, has enough sugar packets to make the next decade teeth-hurting sweet. So, come on - share with us in the comments what wise (or not) frugality living tip your mom has passed on down to you...well, at least tried to pass on to you. I'm sure we'll get some good ones here.
According to Smart Money's purchasing guide, you can save some ducats just by making purchases on certain days. Thanks to online coupons, price-comparison search engines and reward memberships, savvy shoppers can pay less than full price on any day that ends in "y." But depending on what you're planning to buy, some days of the week may yield better bargains than others.
With a little bit of patience and persuasion, Smart Money explains how you can save some clams on airline tickets, books, cars, clothing, dinner out, gas, groceries, and hotel rooms. The Cheapest Days to Buy Certain Items [Smart Money]