So many gifts to give, and so little time to go and shop for them!  Doesn’t that seem like the mantra these days? 

I know that I sometimes feel overwhelmed when having to shop for gifts for friends and family, and I (while not sounding like a jerk) wished there was another way to go about doing it.

Giftcards Do Make Great Gifts

That is why I love giftcards.  Many old fashioned individuals view them as a bit of a cop out, but I actually think that giftcards do make great gifts.

The biggest reason: the individual can go and buy what they would like.  Like I mentioned – the traditional cop out is that “you should shop for a gift to make it personal”.  However, my giftcard gift is personal.  I know that my best friend loves shopping at Nordstrom.  So, I get them a giftcard there.  Yes, I could have bought them a shirt and they could return it, but now the gift receiver has an additional hassle of having to return the item to get what they want.  With a giftcard, they can just buy what they want on the first go-round.

Second, I know that  I personally like receiving giftcards, and many other people do too.  So, that old rules don’t necessarily apply any more – giftcards do make great gifts.

Alternatives for Those Receiving Giftcards

However, just because giftcards make great gifts doesn’t mean that the actual card you receive is a great gift.  Maybe you got a giftcard to a place you never shop, or maybe your aunt from another part of the country sent you a giftcard for a store that doesn’t have shops in your area.

If this happens to you, you can do what I do, and just use a service to sell giftcards.  There are many places online where you can sell back your giftcards and get cash for them.  That way, you still get the value of the gift, but you can actually use it for something worthwhile to you.

Depending on the site, the process is pretty simply: enter your card number, confirm you method of payment, and you’re done.  A quick and painless alternative for a giftcard you wouldn’t use!

When you see your friends buying nice things such as a new car or a second home, do you automatically think that they have gone deep into debt for the purchase or do you secretly envy them and think they must have come into some money?  Do you think, some people have all the luck or some people have it so easy?  Maybe rather than feeling sorry for yourself or resentful of others, you should take a hard look at your own spending habits.

Recently, I was watching a rerun of the King of Queens.  In this episode, “Home Cheapo”, Carrie and Doug are envious of their friends, Deacon and Kelly, who have just bought a beautiful vacation home.  Carrie and Doug run through all of the ways Deacon and Kelly must have been able to afford the home including that they suddenly came into money.  Finally, they decide that Deacon and Kelly can afford the home because Carrie and Doug have been paying for Deacon and Kelly’s share whenever they go out together, which isn’t exactly true.

After much feuding between the couples, Deacon and Kelly finally share that they were able to buy the home because they cut their expenses, stopped going out to eat and saved their money for quite awhile.  This leads Carrie and Doug to look at their own spending such as Carrie’s trips to get her nails done and Doug’s beer drinking and food eating habits.  They suddenly begin to see that all of the money they have used to pamper and treat themselves could have been used in a better way, such as Deacon and Kelly have done by buying a vacation home.

In our society where many, many people overspend, it is easy to see someone buy something nice that we would like and just say that they must be deeply in debt.  This might be true.  But it also might be true that they are sacrificing and saving.

There is nothing wrong with buying little treats for yourself throughout the week such as coffee out, lunches out, trips to restaurants, and concert tickets, to name a few.  But, keep in mind, when you make these choices, you may be unconsciously making another choice.  These little treats that you don’t even remember spending the money on a week later may be why you can’t buy a second home (or even a first home) or why you can’t take that trip to Europe that you have always dreamed of or why you can’t reach whatever other big dream you have.

Saving for important, memorable things such as a house or a trip is hard.  You have to constantly delay gratification, and let’s face it, humans aren’t good at that.  It is much easier to treat yourself with little purchases throughout the day and week.  Just know that you are then sacrificing bigger dreams.  You are living like Carrie and Doug, who were jealous and bitter in this episode, rather than Deacon and Kelly who were willing to sacrifice short-term to get something they wanted long-term.

If you want to make changes to the way in which your kitchen looks, you’ll probably be aware of the fact that it will cost money to carry them out. With that in mind, you’ll want to save money wherever you can without it being at the expense of the overall quality of the makeover.

However, if you plan to buy a brand new Fridge Freezer as part of your kitchen renovation, you’ll worry about it being beyond your means, even if your current one isn’t up to scratch.

When renovating your kitchen, you’ll want to do it within budget, and might fear that certain kitchen appliancess may be too expensive. However, that brand new Dishwasher which you’ve wanted for a while might not be quite as costly as first feared. To help make a kitchen look different, buying new appliances can be at the heart of it, but to make sure that it doesn’t cost you too much, it pays to shop around.

To make your kitchen look great, you’ll want the best appliances you can get, but are worried that you’ll be unable to afford them. Visiting appliances direct it can be possible to get some from the biggest brands around for much less than you think. For example, a brand new Fridge Freezer by Beko can be bought for a very reasonable price, and does all that you could ask. Similarly, Tumble Dryers, Dishwashers and even Washing Machines from the big brands are available for around that price.

By being savvy about your purchases, you could have the appliance of your dreams without having to break the bank. They could make your kitchen look completely different, while simultaneously performing much better than your old appliances. Simply by shopping around, you could find yourself with a top-class appliance which is streets ahead of what you already have in terms of quality, appearance and services.

The latte factor is a term coined by financial author David Bach to describe daily, wasteful spending.  For those of us trying to save more and lessen/consolidate debt, knowledge of the latte factor can cause a sense of guilt as we slyly shuffle into a Starbucks to spend our hard earned money.

On the weekend, I enjoy spending two or three hours at my local Starbucks taking advantage of the free Wi-Fi and doing my freelance writing there in relative peace and quiet while my husband watches the kids at home.  However, over time I have learned some techniques to minimize the amount of money I am handing over.  If you, too, can’t resist the lure of Starbucks (or the free Wi-Fi), use some of these tips to make it more affordable:

 1.  Use a registered Starbucks’ card.  These cards are free to register and they can save you a bundle of money.  After you have used your card 5 times in a year, you move to their Green Level and get a free drink voucher on your birthday.  Once you have purchased 30 drinks in a year you will move to the Gold Level.  At the Gold Level, every time you have used your card to purchase 15 drinks, they will send you a card for a free drink.  At either level you will qualify for free select syrups and milk options (such as upgrading to soy milk).

2.  Buy discount gift cards to load your Starbucks’ card.  Rather than just hand the cashier over $10 to reload on your registered card or set your card to automatically charge your credit card when the balance runs low, buy discount gift cards instead.  Use a site like giftcardgranny.com to track all of the Starbucks’ gift cards that are currently available on a variety of gift card sites.  You can often find Starbucks’ gift cards for 5 to 10% off the face value; once you buy one, simply transfer the balance to your registered card.

3.  Take advantage of the free condiments.  If you like iced coffee with milk, rather than ordering it that way, just order regular coffee and add milk at the condiment station.  Of course, do this within reason.  If you like more than a healthy dash of milk, you should pay for it when you order your drink.

4.  Save the expensive drinks for your free drinks.  I buy the lowest priced drinks that I enjoy when I am paying for them.  However, when I have my free drink card as a result of buying 15 drinks with my registered card, I treat myself and buy a more expensive drink like a frappuccino.

5.  Shop the clearance racks.  Buying Starbucks’ coffee beans to brew at home is usually not an option since they are pricey.  However, we wait for sales of seasonal blends.  Right after Christmas, Starbucks’ offered their Christmas blend of coffee on sale, buy one get one free.  With the sale, the coffee beans were the price we would pay for cheaper coffee beans at the grocery store, so we stocked up.

True, making coffee at home is much cheaper than buying coffee at Starbucks.  Still, if you enjoy doing some work at Starbucks or meeting friends for a chat or ending your date night there, you can still enjoy your visit and spend less than you normally would utilizing some of the strategies above.

**Photo by Dennis Mojado

If you are just starting out, it can be expensive to furnish your first apartment.  When I moved to graduate school and lived on my own for the first time, I spent about $500 furnishing my apartment, and that included having many pieces my mom was generous enough to give me from her home. 

If you are a recent college grad just starting out, don’t waste your money on new furniture.  Instead, consider furnishing your apartment with items you can buy on Craigslist.

Craigslist has gotten a bad name in recent years, but in between all of the bogus “make money” ads, the free car insurance quotes online ads, and the affiliate marketers who push their survey sites, there are real ads, by real people. And I’ve gotten some great deals over the years…

My husband and I had a portable dishwasher that we sold when we moved into an apartment with a built-in dishwasher.  We bought the dishwasher for $400 three years ago, and we sold it to a middle-aged couple for $150.  The couple we sold it to bought their last portable dishwasher in the late 1980s, and it had just stopped working after nearly 23 years of use.  The husband told me that they make it a policy to try to buy all of their household furniture and appliances on Craigslist.

Benefits of Furnishing Your Place Using Craigslist

-Just like new car owners take a hit to depreciation when they drive the car off the lot, so too is it with appliances and other household furniture.  We had our dishwasher for 3 years, and basically paid $250 for the privilege of using it; the couple who bought it paid just $150, and they will have it until it dies.  Their out of pocket cost is much lower than ours because they let us take the depreciation hit.

-The Craigslist market is so large, you will be able to find what you need if you are patient.  When we were looking for a few household items on Craigslist, I saw people selling their furniture in sets at rock bottom prices because they just wanted to be rid of it because they were moving.  If you are patient and willing to perhaps wait a few weeks, you should be able to find the style and quality of furniture you would like to buy.

-Have a nicely furnished home for a fraction of the cost to buy new.  Good couches can be expensive.  Even if you find a deal, you are looking at $600, though they can run upwards of $1,200.  If instead you buy a couch off Craigslist for $200, you have saved yourself $400 to $1,000.  Let’s be honest—many people starting out buy their new furniture on credit.  Not only have you saved yourself a great deal of money by buying on Craigslist, but you have saved yourself months, perhaps years, of interest on your credit card by not spending more than you can afford.

Craigslist is such a large marketplace now that it is possible to furnish your entire apartment with items you find on Craigslist.  If you are just starting out, don’t go into debt to buy furniture.  Instead take advantage of a great market that offers quality furniture at a steep discount.

Have you bought furniture off Craigslist?  What was your experience?

The Super Bowl is just around the corner and if your house is about be invaded by party-goers, you might be worried about what hosting a huge party is going to cost you.

Potlucks and BYOB are always a good way to host a party on the cheap, but if you want to keep the burden off of your guests, here are a few way to keep the costs down on the food, decor and entertainment.

1. Food

A Super Bowl party is one event where you can get away with serving cheap food. Fact of the matter is, most people aren’t looking for prime rib. They want salty chips and cold beer.

Here are a few things that are easy to make and cost less than $5 each:

Deviled Eggs – Less than $3,00

Bag of Chips & Salsa – $4.00-$5.00

Vegetarian Chili – Around $5.00 for 8 servings (Add another $3.00 if you want the ground beef)

Carryout Pizza – $5.00 for a Large 1-Topping at places like Little Caesars & Hungry Howies

2. Decor

The elaborate, Martha Stewart-like decorations that adorn some football parties are fun, but truth be told, most folks won’t miss them. Save a few bucks and skip out on all of the team decor and football shaped piñatas.

If you’re insistent on decorating, a couple rolls of streamers in your favorite team’s color can go a long way to transforming a room. And if you’re feeling REALLY creative, decorating the party food can be a fun, cheap way to add some life to your party. Check out this massive football stadium we found made out of Doritos, Twinkies  and Guacamole. LOL! It’s brought to you by the fine folks over at HolyTaco.com and here are the step-by-step directions if you want to make your own.

Photo by HolyTaco.com

3. Entertainment

Once the game starts, all eyes will be on the TV, but try adding a little bit of entertainment to keep your guests engaged and socializing. Here are a couple of ideas…

• Start a friendly pool on which team will win how large the spread will be. I recommend setting a house maximum of $20 a person so that it doesn’t get out of control.
• Have all your guests guess how many beer commercials will air during the Super Bowl and send the winner home with a bottle of liquor.
• The folks over at HolidayCentral.com suggest putting together Superbowl Commercial Bingo. They advise you to “create or purchase 5 x 5 bingo cards. Each card must be unique for each player. Play the game like traditional bingo, but the squares on the bingo card will be based on things you will see in commercials during the Super Bowl. Some suggestions include:  Pizza Delivery Guy, Kick to the Groin, Soda Commercial, Talking Babies, Movie Trailer, GPS Commercial, or CarInsurance Commercial.  Any five squares in a row represent a Bingo win.”

Have fun everyone!!

*Superbowl party photo by jasonlam on flickr*

I don’t like cleaning; and I make no secret of that fact.  Dust can multiply for months, and I might notice that it is there, but I probably won’t clean it.  I do have the basics that I do every day—dishes, and general picking up.  I clean the bathrooms and sweep and mop the kitchen floor, so I am not a complete slob, but I hate deep cleaning.

A few years ago hiring a house cleaner seemed like a luxury I couldn’t afford.  However, my husband and I are in gazelle intense mode now that he has finished his Ph.D.  Simply put, we have a lot of debt to pay off from his many years in school.  I work from home and have recently come to the conclusion that I make more per hour than a housecleaner does.  I could justify the expense of a house cleaner coming in every two weeks to do more deep cleaning such as mopping the entire upstairs, dusting, cleaning blinds, etc. if I work during the time the housecleaner is there.

Many of us are conditioned to see outsourcing household chores as a luxury that we should not waste money on.  (At least that was the way I was raised.)  However, if you work a full-time job and have a side gig in the evenings and weekends, AND make more per hour than you would pay for the outsourcing, it may make sense to hire someone to do the tasks you don’t want to or don’t have the time to do.  I would much rather do my work than clean the house, and economically, it makes sense to outsource.

Of course, housecleaning isn’t the only chore you could outsource.   There is dry cleaning, lawn care, even meal planning.  (There are plenty of sites that offer meal plans at a reasonable cost.  Every week you login and they give you a list of meals, the recipes, and your grocery list.  All you have to do is the cooking and shopping.)  If you are thinking of outsourcing, choose tasks that you don’t like to do.  I happen to enjoy grocery shopping and cooking, so I don’t want to outsource that.  Cleaning?  That is a different story.

If you can easily afford to outsource, there may be no hesitation on your part.  However, if you are on a tight budget like we are or if you are trying to work as hard as you can to pay down debt as quickly as you can, you may feel that you cannot justify the expense of outsourcing.  Take the time to crunch the numbers.  If you can find someone in the neighborhood to mow your lawn at $20 per hour and you can make $40 per hour doing your own work, it makes sense to outsource because you still walk away with an extra $20 (the $40 you earned minus the $20 you paid to have someone mow).  If outsourcing gives you more hours to work and ultimately nets you more money, it may well be worth doing.

*Photo by Cole007*

It is not unusual for students to move several times over the course of their college career.  They may move from the dorm to an off campus apartment with friends and then to their own apartment.  However, before moving multiple times, think carefully about the expenses you will incur.

When I was in graduate school, I moved six times over the course of 2.5 years.  I had a nice apartment the first year, but it was small and a bit over my budget.  I thought the responsible thing to do would be to move to a cheaper apartment, but I ended up moving every few months after that for a number of different reasons.  However, in almost every apartment I moved to, the landlords never gave me back my security deposit, even though I had not caused any damage to the apartment.  I lost at least $1,000 over those moves in security deposits.  (I now know what they did was illegal and that I had rights as a tenant, but I didn’t know that then.)  Suddenly the savings I saw from moving to a different apartment evaporated.

When you move to the new apartment, you will have to pay a security deposit, typically 1 to 1.5x the amount of your monthly rent.  Some apartments also require that you pay first and last months’ rent also.  This can cost you several hundred to several thousand dollars upfront.

Then there is the expense of moving your belongings and furniture.  If you have to hire movers, this could run a couple of hundred dollars.  If you have friends that will help you move, buying them pizza is a nice gesture.  Depending on how many friends help, this could run you $50 to $75.  If you have large furniture to move, you will probably need to rent a moving truck for a day or two.

In addition to the larger expenses of possibly losing your security deposit from the old apartment, paying a security deposit and possible first and last months’ rent at the new apartment and the cost of the move itself, there are other smaller expenses.

-If your new apartment is not wired for the Internet service you prefer to use, you will need to pay for the installation.

-If you still use checks, you will need to pay for new checks with your new address on them.

-You may need to buy smaller items for the apartment such as new shower curtains, blinds, and other accessories.

There are many expenses that you will have to pay when in college.  While it may seem responsible to move to a cheaper apartment to save money on rent, make sure that you crunch the numbers to see if, after all of the associated moving costs, you are actually saving a significant amount of money.  Moving is not fun; why go through the hassle if your savings will be minimal?  The best bet is to choose a location you can live in for the majority, if not the entirety, of your college career and save yourself the expense and hassle of moving.

*Photo by Parvinder Singh*

I received the following email the other day. Here is the email below and my reply. What other stories / advice can you offer this reader. I asked her to check back here for more info from this great community!

I am currently taking the Dave Ramsey Financial Peace University class that is being offered by FREE by my employer. At first I was excited but now it seems I have just fallen off. Since I have been taking the class I gotten a tax refund and money from a car accident.  I didn’t do the things I was suppose to,  not even start the $1000 emergency fund.  However, I did pay off a few bills.

I feel that I just wasted the money.   Let me add that I didn’t go out and splurge on things like new cars and flatscreen TVs.  I didn’t by anything come to think of it, but we did eat out more than we usually do but surely all of the money didn’t go to eating out. I was also going to ask what do you think of this.

My husband hurt his back and has been out of work for a year. My job alone can’t pay our normal household bills not to mention excess bills. I just got a part time job and if I take my entire check from my full time job it can pay all the bills and the part time we can use or gas, food, etc. What do you think?

- Sandra

My reply:

First I’d like to thank Sandra for reaching out and allowing me to publish her question and my response.  There are other readers who may have a similar situation and hopefully the responses from the community will be a benefit to others!

I see 3 issues and I’ll attempt to address each of them:

1. Financial Peace University ~ Don’t beat yourself up for not completing this.  I am a HUGE advocate of FPU and while it is a proven way to financial stability it is not the only way.  Dave Ramsey says that when it comes to finances it is 80% behavior and 20% head knowledge.  Ask yourself “why” you didn’t complete this task and address that.

2. It’s good that you paid off a few bills.  However you probably feel you’ve wasted it because you can’t account for a good chunk of it.  You’d be surprised how fast money flies when you are eating out.  Whatever your plan of attack, YOU NEED AN EMERGENCY FUND. I can’t stress the importance of this enough.  If $1,000 is out of reach right now, set a goal of $500.  Practice saving!

3.  I’m sorry to hear about your husband’s back injury.  It can be a drastic change to go from 2 incomes to 1.  I think your part-time job solution is a decent short term solution, but you need to think long term.  You need to immediately increase your cash flow.  A part-time job will do that, but how long do you think you can sustain 60 hr work weeks?  Are there expenses you can cut / decrease?  Cable?  Cell phone plans?  Insurance premiums?

Hope this helps!

Readers, it’s your turn!  What advice can you offer Sandra?  Leave your responses in the comments!

Last week I adopted a puppy from the Humane Society.  It’s no secret that any pet will cost money, so I figured it would be an interesting exercise to see how much the pup is costing per month.   This is what was spent in the month of Feb.  I adopted him on the last day of the month so it wasn’t much:

February 2011
Adoption fees: $90
This includes first set of shots, micro-chip, etc

Total for 2011:
$90

In March, I’ve already spent money on a Kennel crate, leashes and collars.  I still need to get dog food, dishes and a couple toys before I bring Otis home.  I also know that neutering will cost $25.

What about you?
I need your help dog lovers!  What is a good brand of Puppy food?   What other expenses will I encounter this first year?  In your opinion, what is frivolous and what is a necessity?