photo credit: woodleywonderworks

You may remember a post in October regarding our unhappiness with our cable service provider.  Since the cable company has a monopoly on this service area our choices were to switch to satellite (Direct TV or DISH) or AT&T U-Verse. 

Well, I guess we could go without (and it would save money)…nah, if you know Mr. Boomer and I that would NEVER happen.  After all we’re baby boomer who grew up with the boob tube. 

1st Choice

After research, discussion and much procrastination our selection was to go with DISH Network.  We picked the package, number of receivers and were happy to see that we’d be saving money.  Our broadband internet service would continue to be through the cable company (at least initially).  Installation day came and there were complications.

Our community is very hilly bur we thought there was enough distance between buildings and trees to be fine with the reception.  Apparently a hill blocks the Southern exposure required by the dish.  It couldn’t be done.  (We also weren’t thrilled to know we’d have to get their wiring installed throughout the house even though we have perfectly good cable already.  Ugg to more wires!)

Back to the drawing board.

2nd Choice

Due to our previously mentioned procrastination we might have still been with our cable provider except AT&T had sales staff going door to door since they’re new to our neighborhood.  Mr. Boomer signed us up and we get $200 in rebates as well.  We have more movie channels then ever and, hallelujah, the NFL channel.  We can now watch the Thursday night games like most people who don’t have Time Warner. 

Of course there were complications.  The sales rep wrote down the wrong unit number so they didn’t have things set up in the office when the technician came.  Also, our building is one of the farthest away from the telephone box which means we can only watch or record one high definition channel at a time.

Results

So far we’re happy with the change.  The Internet is twice as fast (unfortunately it doesn’t help me write any faster).  We have more high definition channels than before and can record three shows at once.  We haven’t had any chattering of the picture.

 The negative side is the high definition viewing limitation.  I’m hoping that changes in the future or else we might be looking again.   Are you satisfiied with your provider is it is time to evaluate and make a change? 

Content © Bucksomeboomer  2009. All Rights Reserved.

Learn How Groupon Works! from The Point on Vimeo.

I was shooting the sh!! networking with coworkers a couple of weeks ago when one of them (let’s call him Joe since that’s his name) told me how he’s found great deals on Groupon. Maybe you already knew about it but it was news to me so I checked it out.

What is Groupon

Groupon started about a year ago as a way to take advantage the power of group buying.  As the video above explains each weekday a different single coupon deal is offered.  The catch is that a threshold of required sales must be met for the deal to be sealed.  Businesses win by getting new customers and lots of exposure without upfront advertising expense. 

What kind of deals

Groupon is currently offered in 45 U.S. cities but don’t despair if it’s not in your city; the list continues to grow.  The daily offering ranges from activities (whale watching anyone?) to restaurants.  Other recent offerings include museums, massages, singing telegrams and cleaning services.  The savings appear to be at least 50% off the standard price.

Your credit/debit card isn’t charged unless the minimum required is met and then you’ll recieve your coupon/ticket in your email the next day.

Results

Since I signed up there haven’t been any offers that moved me to buy although I do see past deals I would have jumped on.  My coworker said he got a great deal on oil changes among others.  It seems like such a cool idea I wanted to share it withyou now versus waiting until I had a firsthand experience. 

Have you used Groupon?  Did you like it? If you are not already signed up please click here to be referred by me. 

Content © Bucksomeboomer  2009. All Rights Reserved.

Today is Black Friday and many people take advantage of the sales to do some or all of their holiday shopping.  Planning for holiday shopping should start well in advance of today. 

Budget

Preparing an annual budget should be one task in your year-end financial planning. My budget includes a line item for gifts which requires me to have segmented out how much to spend on Christmas (the December holiday we celebrate).  In my less financially responsible past I shopped without a budget and spent too much.

 Use a List

I create a spreadsheet every year and list everyone (including my hair stylist and the newspaper carrier) that I plan to give to that holiday season.  The next step is to indicate how much I plan to give or spend for that person along with the actual planned gift item.  I make sure the total fits in my holiday gift budget or else adjust until it does.  The best thing is when it’s less!

Cut Back

  One of the  benefits of the recent economic times is that frugality and simplicity are more prevalent.  This is the time to cut back if you haven’t already and just keep it up when better times return.  One way to reduce expenses is to reduce the number of gifts given.  

In past years, my sisters and brother gave each other gifts.  Last Christmas my brother suggested drawing names for this year which we did earlier in the year.  We also set a spending limit of $20.  This added a new element of fun to selecting the gift  in trying to find the best value within the limit.

Another way to cut back is to replace bought gifts with homemade.  I plan to try a couple of the ideas from Jenn @ Frugal Upstate.  She has several recipes for homemade gifts that are simple enough even I can make them!

 Shop Early

By this I don’t mean early in the day, but throughout the year.  It’s not uncommon for me to buy gifts for the following year at day after Christmas sales.  By knowing your budget AND your list you can be on the lookout for the right gift every shopping trip.  Don’t forget to update your holiday list to keep track of what you have and still need.

Holiday Supplies

Buy your holiday supplies AFTER the holiday.  I am mortified if I run out of wrapping paper, gift bags or cards and have to pay full price.  I stock up on these and paper goods (plates and napkins) when they’re marked down at least 75%.  It’s also a good time to buy ornaments, lights, wreaths and trees. 

By preparing and following these steps during the holidays the Boomer family can enjoy the holidays without breaking the bank.  Do you use any of these to save during the holidays?  What are your holiday shopping tips?

Photo by http://www.flickr.com/photos/pagedooley/ / CC BY 2.0 
Content © Bucksomeboomer  2009. All Rights Reserved.

Everybody loves a good deal, right?  I sure do, but have become pickier about which ones to jump on as I focus on becoming debt-free.  That pesky student loan has got to go!

I’ev shared bargains with coworkers, friends and family but realized I left out an important group – you!  (Yes, I do have readers that aren’t coworkers, firends or family.)  Let me tell you about five of my favorite sites and why.

1. Slickdeals. This is my favorite website for finding bargains, freebies and coupons. Before I buy anything, I search this site to find the best price or a coupon code. At one point, this was my browser home page but there are too many enticing deals. I save money by only using this site when I’ve already made the decision to buy.  Does this make me a recovering shopaholic?

2. Woot.This site features a new deal every day. The operative word is “a”. There is only one and when they’re sold out..that’s it until the next day. I don’t buy here often, but visit anyway for the entertaining descriptions of the sale item. There are now woot spinoffs for wine, t-shirts (love the creativity) and kids.

3. Travelzoo. Travel is one of my loves and we’ve found many travel and entertainment bargains here. My mom traveled to meet the new great-grandson for $15 each way thanks to a Travelzoo email alert.  Sign up for the weekly top 20 email and you’ll soon be enjoying the finds.

4. The Freebie Blogger. This site lists free items, giveaways and weekly deals at major retailers. Wendi isn’t the only blogger in the niche but is the first one I found so I have a special fondness for this blog.  Plus, it doesn’t focus on moms (I am a mom, but good deals appeal to more than moms).

5. Money Saving Methods. This is the site where I learned about survey companies and mystery shopping.  Carrie knows them all and gives you the pros and cons.  This site also lists freebies, bank offers and rebates among other ways to save or earn the bucks.

Did this list include your favorite deal website?  If not, please share.  If you have to buy something, you should get the best deal possible.

Photo by US Government (public domain) 

Content © Bucksomeboomer  2009. All Rights Reserved.

Last week I received an email from Amazon introducing Amazon Payphraseand inviting me to create my own Payphrase.  It sounded so simple and useful.  As they noted in the first sentence, I’m “a frequent Amazon.com shopper”. 

I wasn’t happy about that point since I’ve really cut down my online shopping the past six months.  But I was curious as to what this new service meant. 

Basically, you come up with a phrase you’ll remember and link it to your stored payment method and shipping address information.  Then use the payphrase and PIN on the payment screen at Amazon.com and six other online retailers.  The benefits according to Amazon are privacy, quicker checkout and parental controls. 

Sounds good, right?  Well, I have serious concerns about he first two claimed benefits.  How is it more private for Amazon.com to know your spending patterns at the other retailers?  It’s not any of their business but they would be able to track this information and market to you accordingly.

Yes the other websites won’t have your credit card information but these are reputable retailers as trustworthy as Amazon.  It seems a little to big brother to me.

Now let’s talk about the second benefit which is easier checkout.  I guess the easy part is because you don’t have to enter your credit card information and shipping address. However, you can create accounts and enter this information only once (like I do at Amazon…remember I’m a frequent shopper).

I must admit the third benefit is pretty cool and will be really beneficial to parents of college students.  If you have kids that can buy their own items it would be convenient to set up a spending limit and give them the payphrase with corresponding PIN.  You don’t have to worry about going over-budget if you set the amount to cover textbooks only.

For now, I’m not going to use the Payphrase feature as the negatives outweigh the positive.  Is this something you’ll use?

Content © Bucksomeboomer  2009. All Rights Reserved.

Since I work in the technology field, I naturally am attracted to electronics with the newest features. Of course, I don’t want the newest for bragging rights. It has to make my life easier or enhances a current use.

Last year, I wanted a GPS. Mr. Boomer thought we didn’t need it as printing maps from mapquest or google maps would meet our needs. It made sense to get one especially for business trips so I took advantage of a Black Friday sale. 

One year later we are both glad to own this handy device.  I’ve used it on business and personal trips and Mr. Boomer just used it last week while visiting his kids in Arkansas.  Conversely, I wanted a Wii last year and bought that.  It didn’t get as much use as I envisioned (okay, I only used it a few times) so I sold the games and system.  

Well, I’m lusting after three hot electronics this year.  We’ll see if I end up owning any before the New Year.

1. IPhone.  I didn’t buy into the hype regarding this phone and until a couple of months ago didn’t want one.  Many of my co-workers own them and find the apps feature to be incredibly useful. I would love being able to keep up with email, twitter, facebook all without being tied down to a desk.  Add in the additional features of tracking spending and food choices and it’s a winner.  Right now, the price is keeping me at bay but a strong rumor is that a 8 GB version of the 3Gs will be out soon.

2. Netbook.Having an iPhone might take the edge off my “needing” a netbook.  I have a laptop at work and at home.  My work laptop is 4 years old and very heavy.  My home laptop is about 18 months old and much lighter.  However, it has a 17 inch screen.  Both of these are not optimal for traveling because of their weight and/or size.  Again, some of my coworkers have netbooks and I see how they are truly mobile.  Can you meet this need with an iPhone?  Not sure.

3. Kindle.  Mr. Boomer and I love to read.  We take 6-10 books with us on every vacation.  Having said that this item is in the least likely to buy category primarily because you can read e-books on both the Iphone and Netbook.  The Kindle cost is high for a device that only does one thing.  One cool thing it does is allow annotations so you can write your own notes without writing all over a book (which is sacriligous to me!).

My strategy is to hold off buying until I see a deal too good to ignore OR the lust diminishes (or is more likely replaced by some other new gadget).  If you have any of these items, are they worth it?

Photo by  Marius Røstad/Mobilen.no Creative Commons Attribution 3.0.

Content © Bucksomeboomer  2009. All Rights Reserved.

 Wednesday is Veterans Day which is an annual day to honor and remember those who have served in the US Military.  This day was formally identified as a holiday in 1919 to note the one year anniversary of the end of the “war to end all wars”…World War One.  Unfortunately this was not the war to end all wars.

This year’s ceremonies will include extra sadness based on the recent workplace violence at Ft. Hood, Texas.  Please take some time on this Federal holiday to remember those who have served our country especially those that made the ultimate sacrifice.

Okay, shake off the somber mood and let’s get on with some interesting reads this week. 

Editor’s Picks

 1. What’s Your Financial Profile?  Read Brad @ Enemy of Debt’s article discussing good, bad and ugly (okay that is one of Mr. Boomer’s favorite movies) financial profiles.  I think I’ve transitioned from well-off but broke to comfortable, generous and stable.  What about you?

2. 50 Christmas Gift Ideas: Make Your Own Personalized Gifts. For those of us on a budget this holiday season (and who isn’t) Craig @ Money Help for Christians provides 50 ideas for those gifts we all cherish…homemade.

3. The Great Big List of 75 Budgeting Tools, Finance Software and Iphone Money Apps. Peter @ Bible Money Matters one-ups Craig’s number and gives us 75 various tools to use in managing your personal finances.  I have IPhone lust (which you’ll read about later this month) and would love to give those apps a try.

4. Should You Purchase A Cheaper Product or Upgrade to a More Expensive Product?Craig @ Moolanomy Personal Finance makes a good point about buying a entry level product instead of one with all the bells and whistles that may end up not being used. I bought a Microsoft Zune at a great price a couple of years ago to see if I would use it before going with an Ipod. The verdict is that yes I use it, but it meets my needs so I don’t need an Ipod yet.

5. 12 Ways to Use Up Leftover Halloween Candy. If you still have any Halloween candy left over you probably just want it to go away. Jenn @ Frugal Upstate has 12 great ideas on how to put it to good use. I must say the leftover candy cake sounded appealing!

Carnivals

Carnival of Financial Planning – Edition #114 @ The Skilled Investor
Baby Boomers Blog Carnival Twelfth @ Baby Boomers U.S. (The Blog)
Carnival of Money Hackers #89 – My Favourite Coffee Edition @ The Financial Blogger
Carnival of Money Stories @ Christian PF

Content © Bucksomeboomer  2009. All Rights Reserved.

A couple of months ago I took advantage of a back to school sale at Staples and bought some photo paper that was ridiculously cheap after rebate.  I’ve received rebates for years from Staples and have found the process to be easy, reasonably quick and reliable. 

The rebates for the photo paper (I bought two packs) was given in the form of a pre-loaded Visa card.  How the heck am I supposed to put that in my savings account?  I didn’t even try to make that happen. 

Instead I decided to use  the card on textbooks for my son in Paramedic school.  He needs lots of books and I offered to buy some as an early Christmas present.  I bought them online and found competitive pricing at Amazon.com along with free shipping.  I used some of my awards from survey sites, my prepaid Visa card and the rest from my checking account.

If your balance is more than the amount on the card there is no way to indicate it during the sale.  Instead, I got a card declined email.  What I ended up doing was removing one of the books from the cart so the amount due was less than the card balance.  That worked, but I still have about $12. on the card.  I plan to spend that (if possible) reloading my Starbucks card at Starbucks.com. 

I’m still annoyed at Staples. I think they offer the cards instead of a check because a certain percent of recipients won’t go to all the trouble involved with spending it.    Next time, I’ll read the rebate information carefully before I buy. 

Have you had a good experience with prepaid credit cards? 

Photo by Nebrot.    Creative Commons Attribution 3.0.

Content © Bucksomeboomer  2009. All Rights Reserved.

You know I like a good bargain and coming up later this month is one of my favorite shopping events…Black Friday!  For those that have been been living in a bomb shelter or managed to escape the hype somehow, Black Friday in the shopping context is the day after Thanksgiving and is the start of the holiday shopping season.

Over the past decade or so with the proliferation of computers, game systems and personal electronics the game has been raised to include incredible bargains and competitive shopping (sadly, even violence at times).   My holiday shopping budget is less than year, but I’m still in the market for a good bargain or two.  Here’s a three step plan to a successful day.

 Research

Black Friday ads are already being released by retailers and posted online.  My favorite website is Black Friday 2009 which gets an updated name each year. They’ll email you when new ads are released.  The first email of this year’s news was sent last month without having to sign up again.  Other sites you might want to check out include BlackFriday.Info and Slick Deals.

Strategy

Now that you know what is on sale it’s time to create a plan for success.  Identify the items you want to buy and prioritize.  Identify which ones can be purchased at the retailer’s website.  Last year the Boomer family rented a mountain cabin for the Thanksgiving weekend which meant we were hours away from a mall.  I still managed to nab a number of Black Friday specials via Internet shopping.

Now figure out which stores you want to hit and note their opening times.  Plan to attend in opening order, but make decisions on the priority list when you have more than 1 opening at the same time.  Don’t forget to review the ads in your Thanksgiving Day newspaper to confirm your shopping list.  This offers another option to another piece of pie or watching football.

Shop

Set your alarm for Black Friday and GET UP when it goes off.  Seriously.  I have second-guessed myself a time or two, but I’m never sorry.  This is where pre-planning really helps.  Who can make intelligent decisions at 4 am?  Just follow the list and keep to your budget.  Oh, and have fun!

If you want to know more about Black Friday check out Wikipedia for lots of tidbits. Do you shop on Black Friday?  What’s your plan?

Photo by Enoch Lau 

Content © Bucksomeboomer  2009.  All Rights Reserved.

Is it just me or did the ice cream shrink?  I am pretty good about saving money at the grocery store but it’s hard to get ahead when the goods are getting smaller. Can you find a half gallon of ice cream? It’s been replaced by 1.5 quarts.

And I’m not the only one to notice and it’s not just the ice cream.  This recent post @ The Consumerist has photographic proof of shrinking toilet paper. This is the latest in the ongoing Shrink Ray feature at the site.

Why does it bother me?  Instead of coming right out and raising the prices these manufacturers know most of us won’t notice the change…at least not right away.  They are raising the price per unit (whether it be ounces, per item or some other measure) but telling us the reason for the shrinking packaging is to avoid raising prices.  Either way, the price has risen.

 USA Today wrote about this in June 2008 and I’m sure it’s even more prevalent today.

What can consumer’s do about it?  One suggestion I read was to change to products that haven’t shrunk.  Unless there is a substitute that will meet your need just as well, that’s not practical.  But store brands are getting more competitive and deserve a close look.  Upset consumers have written to the companies, but with little success it appears.

Starting a price book will help track what each product costs by measured unit.  This helps you identify right away when the price has been raised as a result of the package being downsized. Over time, you’ll have a helpful resource of what is the normal price for items being tracked.

Maybe there’s hope. One retailer is big enough (and confident enough) to buck the trend.  Costco increased the size of tuna cans earlier this year.  Sure, they undoubtedly raised the price.  Consumers know that the prices have to rise sometimes.  Just respect us and play it straight.

Photo by Karen Horton / CC BY 2.0 

Content © Bucksomeboomer  2009.  All Rights Reserved.