The Frugal Beagle

Generally, a frugal is a person who uses his/her money in a thrifty stratagem. Most of the underpinning tactics in frugal living involves costs reduction and preventing wastes. In short, a frugal doesn’t follow the normal cycle of spending found in average consumers.

1. If possible, cook at home every day. Cooking your own food is often the cheapest way to eat. It’s a good idea to take lunch to work everyday. A chicken salad sandwich and beverages for lunch may cost you $4.5 each day or nearly $1200 a year. If possible, have breakfast and coffee at home.
2. Disconnect your telephone land line; compare cellphone providers for the cheapest monthly fee.
3. Buy pretty much everything during sales after comparing prices before and during a sale. Buy large quantity of non-perishable items during a sale.
4. Drive your car to death. If you keep a maintenance log and look after your car regularly, you may use it conveniently for 25 years or more.
5. Gather with like-minded relatives and friends. You may get great tips from experienced frugals.
6. Watch movies at cheaper theatres that play movies released 1-2 months ago and make sure you are on a full stomach.
7. Making a list before a grocery shopping is not enough, leave your credit cards at home and bring just enough cash.
8. Always check on expiry dates before buying to prevent waste.
9. Avoid vending machines. If the weather is warm, put a bottle of frozen tea in your car in the morning and you can get an iced tea for free during hot summer days.
10. Buy used products when possible
11. Ignore those advertising mailers left in your mailbox.
12. Switch off unused electric appliances. Although it’s a minor improvement, using Compact Fluorescent Light (CFL) bulbs will cut the utility bill by roughly thirty dollars annually. CFL bulbs require one-third of the energy than conventional bulbs and they may last 10 times longer than normal bulbs.
13. Learn how to DIY things to avoid buying things needlessly or using expensive mechanics/plumbers/technicians service
14. If you have a plan for travel, compare discount airfares, buy weeks before the departure date and fly at nights

A quick cash advance, offered by loan lenders, can be a real-problem solver for people in need of fast cash. The lender offers you cash amounts ranging from $100 to $1500, and you can solve your financial emergency with this. This loan is given to you till your next payday when you repay the loan.

Once you have submitted your application, the quick cash companies will deposit the funds you require within 24 hours – if not earlier. The loan is given for a period of 15-30 days. No collateral is asked for to be eligible for the loan. However, you will be charged a processing fee, an annual percentage rate, and an interest fee or late fee if you fail to repay at the right time.

Some of the criteria required for you to qualify for a quick cash advance are:
You must be employed.
You must submit a complete application.
You must possess a current bank account in your name.
You must have lived in your present address for a certain number of years. (depending on the lender)
No collaterals or credit checks are needed.

Payday loans are extremely useful, even a life-saver, provided you handle it well. You have to handle these loans right so that you have an overall good experience, which again, depends entirely on you.

You must take certain steps to ensure that you do not miss out on your loan payment:
Don’t use your credit card for making charges, till you have paid your loan.

Once your paycheck is in your hand, make a cashier’s check for the loan amount from your bank, and mail the check to the lender immediately.

Start building up an emergency fund by putting away some money in a savings account, so that you can handle those unexpected costs in future by yourself.

When you get your paycheck next, add more funds to your emergency fund, and see it grow! Do not make quick cash advances a habit.

Try to make your payments always on time so that you are not charged late fees on the loan. If you stick to this strategy, your quick cash advance will be of real help to you.

You can easily become a good financial manager and build up your own alternatives, so that you don’t have to rely on loans every time.

A savvy consumer understands that a good moment to save cash is while pushing the shopping cart down those grocery store aisles. You can find many ways to save cash on groceries; however, not all of those tricks are obvious to the untrained eyes.

With proper shopping, you can slash the grocery bill approximately in half without sacrificing essential nutrition requirements for your family needs. By carefully directing your supermarket shopping sprees, you will save hundreds or thousands of dollars each month, and you don’t have to live continuously on macaroni and cheese or Beanie Weenies either.

Put differently, you can still have your cheesecake and eat it cheerfully; only this time you will do it in frugal living fashion by spending significantly less than you do now. Now you can walk through the grocery aisles with a new insight and awareness that will make your family the envy of all grocery shoppers.

The average consumer enters a grocery store with list in hand, believing they have everything perfectly organized. Unfortunately, many end up filling their shopping carts with things they don’t need and had no intention of buying. Taking a couple of extra items you don’t previously plan to buy is understandable, however statistics show that most shoppers leave the grocery store with a dozen things they don’t need.

How does it compute in cents and dollars? No matter how cautiously they plan a shopping trip, many may spend about $2,500 per year on impulse buying!

People who adopt frugal living, on the other hand, always make a sensible shopping list and firmly stick to it. These people spend an hour or so each day clipping some coupons, analyzing their food supply, and always organize their next grocery shopping. When it comes to their actual shopping trip, these people know exactly what they need to do. Not only do well-designed lists make their shopping visits more cost-effective, but they also save the shoppers a considerable amount of time trying to determine what they need and want.

It’s not a coincidence that milk, bread, and other frequently purchased things are located on far side of the market. Store manager knows it will force you to walk across the whole store, improving the likelihood that you will buy something you don’t really need. They also understand that most shoppers have poor planning and wander through the grocery aisles because their grocery lists are just a hodgepodge of poorly organized items. To counter it, and save a significant amount of time, people who adopt frugal living group things on their lists: for example, all veggies and fruits should be together, all meats together, and all processed foods together. If you group those things on your list, you will be less likely to walk down a certain aisle more than once and be lured by an impulse buy. You will also save about 15 minutes of your shopping time and about $10-15 in unplanned transaction.

The credit card industry takes a lot of heat, but the honest truth is if you use them right way, you can have the upper hand. Because the market is so saturated, now financial institutions have to offer rewards and cash back to get consumers to choose their cards. If you use the right cards and pay off your balance in full each and every month, then you can actually profit off of them.

Let’s take a closer at the different reward categories typically available:

Hotel Credit Cards
There are a number of cards out there which are affiliated with major hotels and resorts. With these, you will receive higher rewards when you stay at their properties. In addition, your spending everywhere else will earn you thinks like a free night’s stay.

Right now one of the most lucrative out there right now is the Starwood Preferred Guest credit card. It offers Starpoints which you can use for upgrades and free stays at Starwood hotels. The best part is they usually offer a very attractive signup bonus; at the time of writing, they are giving 25,000 points just for signing up (enough for up to six free nights).

Airline Credit Cards
Alternately, you may be better off going with a card that gives you airfare rewards instead. Almost every major airline out there offers their own co-branded card. With these, you sometimes can benefit from upgrades and perks when you fly – like no baggage fees.

The main drawback is that usually the rebates can only be used for flying with that airline. If you fly with the same carrier all the time, this doesn’t matter, but most people like the idea of having some flexibility. Fortunately, there are a number of other cards out there which earn you miles that can be used any airline. Currently, Discover and American Express probably offer the best deals, but Chase and others have some decent offers too.

Gas Credit Cards
With gas prices on the rise, this is one of the most popular categories lately. There are dozens of different cards on the market which offer a discount or rebate on gasoline purchases.

When it comes to gas cards, each typically falls under one of two categories: those co-issued by a gas station and those which are not. For example, the Chevron credit card can only be used at Chevron stations. Instead, many opt for one that offers rebates everywhere, like the Amex Blue or Discover More card. However these credit card deals are constantly changing, so be sure and do your research before you apply.