I’ve Paid For This Twice Already…

Big News Afoot At Swagbucks - And Another New User Code!

I’ve written about Swagbucks before - it is a search engine portal that gives you the chance to win “Swagbucks” every time you search (redeemable for a number of prizes including Amazon gift cards, which is what I redeem mine for).  The portal uses Google and Ask.com to search, and although it does mix in some sponsored results (as does any search engine) I have found in using it that the results I get are comparable to using Google (my search engine of choice, which also does have sponsored search results) and I like earning gift cards at Amazon for doing what I would normally be doing anyway.  I am one of those people who does a lot of online searching, so it works well for me.  In fact, through a mix of search-earned Swagbucks and referrals, I purchased my spouse’s birthday present this year as well as some DVDs for my mom.

A few months ago Swagbucks offered me my own “swagcode” for new users to their portal - if when you registered for their free search engine portal, you entered my swagcode, you got bonus swagbucks for registering.  And now they’re doing it again.   If you haven’t tried Swagbucks yet, sign up and enter the code PAIDTWICE1 (case sensitive) and you’ll  receive 6 Swagbucks (3 for signing up, 3 from the code)!  It is active now and will expire the 16th of June at 11:59pm PST.

Swagbucks has a number of new things going on this week, including Thursday, unveiling an entirely new and sleeker version of their website, so if you haven’t tried using their search engine, check it out (and enter the PAIDTWICE1 swagcode of course)!  It is totally free, there is no hidden catch, and if you don’t like it, you don’t ever have to use it again.  For me, it’s a frugal way to earn gift cards to get presents for my family I was going to get anyway - but now I can do it for free. 

And a user tip - I use Firefox as my web browser, and Swagbucks gives you an option to add Swagbucks to the built-in search bar in the Firefox browser.  So I have Swagbucks selected there as my default search, but if I ever want to use Google or something else to search, all I have to do is select it from the dropdown menu.  Easy peasy!   In Firefox, it isn’t a separate toobar or anything like that (in IE I think there is a toolbar you can install if you choose to). 

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My Escrow Account Made Me Happy, For This Year

Our mortgage is still more than 80% of our home’s value (and a higher percentage every day it seems, as the value of our home plummets, but that’s another story) so we’re required by our lender to have an escrow account through them to pay our homeowner’s insurance and property taxes.  This isn’t a big deal, except that I’d rather handle the money myself, but I am patient enough to wait until we get our mortgage paid down to the appropriate level.

In the past two years since we’ve owned our home, we’ve had our monthly payment adjusted upwards twice from its origin due to projected escrow shortages.  There is a minimum balance required in our escrow account, and if our property taxes or homeowner’s insurance is higher than the bank expects, the minimum balance drops too low and then we have to put more money in (which is what raises our monthly payment).  It has never been a huge upward increase in our payment, but it has so far always been up.

So this year when I got the annual letter from the mortgage holder, I was less than excited.  But when I opened it, my tune changed immediately.  Not only does our monthly payment go down for the next year by $43.66, we also got a check for $996.86 because we have too much in our escrow account.  Our property taxes have gone down by over $500, which is where the escrow overage came from (the good side benefit of lower property values, I guess).

We discussed what to do with the unexpected windfall, both the check and the monthly mortgage decrease, and we’ll be putting both towards my student loan.  So this month I’ll be paying $1496.86 towards the student loan, and every month after until it is gone I’ll bump the minimum we pay up by $43.66.  We discussed the idea of putting it towards our mortgage principal since it came from the mortgage company, but decided we’d rather keep concentrating on that last non-mortgage debt and make it go away as fast as possible.

Sometimes the readjustment letter has good news, after all.

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Frugal Living For The Not-So-Frugal

I’ve had a lot of questions lately pop into my inbox from new readers that found this site searching for frugality topics out of necessity, not necessarily desire.  With the economic climate in the US such as it is, sometimes people are making the choice to be frugal as self preservation, not as a desired lifestyle choice.

And I can completely relate to that.  Although I enjoy trying to be frugal with what I have and find ways to cut or eliminate expenses, it wasn’t always this way.  I never had super-extravagant tastes, but I did like to spend money on myself, and not always for things I needed.  Becoming a more frugal person has been a very eye-opening experience, and has taught me a lot about myself, but hasn’t always been easy.

The problem with any radical changes is that they tend not to last.  If a person tries to go from spending money freely and without any forethought, directly to spending only on a strict and controlled budget, that is a recipe for disaster.  You might stop spending money for a few days, or a week, but sooner rather than later you “slip”, and once you slip it is easier and easier to go back to your old habits.

Small steps are the key.  Here are some ideas for a few small steps to take to ease into a world of frugality - which to me is not about spending as little as possible, but instead about being self-aware about the choices we make with our finances and the effect they have over both the long and short term.

Date night can be a walk in the park.  Literally.

If you have kids, which I do, having a date night with your spouse doesn’t have to be an extravagant affair.  My spouse and I recently went on our first date night in quite a while, and honestly, it was fun just to hang out and not have kids pulling us in 16 directions.  Plan your date night with an eye to the atmosphere and not just something expensive.  A picnic in the park can be as fun (or more) than a fancy dinner out.  The second-run movie theater can be a great alternative to the newest releases.  And if you do have kids, trading babysitting with a friend can keep you from breaking the bank on child care.

Cutting coupons doesn’t have to be all or nothing.

Coupons are a great way to lower your grocery (or other) bills.  But you don’t have to spend hours and hours finding the best deals.  ease into using coupons.  Start with just scanning the Sunday coupon offerings and picking out things you were already going to buy anyway.  As you become more comfortable with the process, you can branch out.

Spotting the right sale is like a beat the bank game show.

I scan circulars for sport, I admit it.  I like to try and beat the advertising at its own game.  It is all a matter of mindset.  If you think something is drudgery - it will be.  Inject a little fun.  Have a contest with yourself to get the best deal (or a better deal than last time).  You might like it!

What has to go first - what needs to go next - what’s left is negotiable.

Changing everything today may not be possible.  Take a realistic look at your finances.  How much needs to be cut back?  Prioritize.   If you need to eliminate $150 from your monthly budget, start by cutting $150 of your spending, not $500.  Work your way up bit by bit instead of all at once, and the road will be easier to stick to for the long term.

Looking at the world through a frugal lens does take some work, but ultimately can be very rewarding.   Looking at frugality as a task to be enjoyed, and ultimately as taking control over your financial life, can provide needed encouragement to keep on the path to a better financial future even when that road seems steep.

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When You and Your Financial Partner Aren’t On The Same Page

My spouse and I don’t often argue about money anymore.  But it wasn’t always this way.  Back when we first were married and merged our finances, we would quite often have minor disagreements that sometimes turned into full blown wars over how we spent (or didn’t spend) our money.  The underlying cause was of course a lack of communication about the reasons behind our differing positions, but it wasn’t because we didn’t talk.  We both assumed the other was aware of things that they really weren’t, and based our arguments from that position instead of really getting down into the underlying financial realities.

Once we started talking about the actual facts of our situation, instead of making assumptions that were incorrect, we became a team in handling our finances instead of adversaries.  This is the process we took to get there.

Make Sure Everyone’s Aware of the Actual Situation

I was (and still am) the primary handler of the day to day finances.  I paid all the bills, so I had a much better idea than my spouse of how much money came in and went out and how they related to each other.  I assumed he was as aware as I was, but he wasn’t.  Most of our arguments stemmed from that simple fact - our expenses and our income were very close to the same, but since he didn’t realize that, he wanted to spend more money on non-essentials than we really could afford.  Once I drew up an income/expenses sheet (with a list of our monthly expenses and how that compared to our monthly income, broken down into types) and explained it all to him, he was much more in tune with our financial reality and much more willing to put off or forego a non-essential expense - and much more on board with working towards becoming more financially stable.

Compromise is the Name of the Game

Sticking to your position with no room for discussion rarely ends well.  You may have to, depending on what your situation is, but there is usually some room for compromise.   Try not to react immediately in the negative to the other’s position.  Listen, reflect, and figure out a middle ground you can meet in.  Maybe you want to have the ability to spend how you choose.  Maybe your partner does.  And maybe there isn’t really any flexibility in the budget to allow you to spend.  You may have to start with a tiny bit of flexibility, like $5 a week (or even less, we’ve done it!) and as you work towards improving your financial position, slowly increase the flexibility.  Things only get better if you accept reality and work from there.

Long Term Goals Vs Short Term Realities

Understanding what you are working towards is important.  Saying “I want an allowance to spend how I want” or “We can’t spend money on anything until things get better” might be valid points, but working short term realities into a long term scenario shows why what happens now is important for the future.  Be specific - try to avoid things like “until it gets better” or “I want to spend what I want”.  Draw up a detailed plan for how what you are doing now with your money will improve the future, and also how you can get to a place where both of you are having some of your needs (to spend or to save) met.  Specific benchmarks such as certain income, savings, or debt reduction milestones can work wonders for motivation and get you on the same page.

Getting to a place of agreement about money management may not always be easy, but if both people are willing to listen and do the work, it can be done.  Working together towards your common goal is a much smoother ride than working at cross-purposes.  Put yourself in your partner’s shoes and then start opening those lines of communication today.

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At What Cost Credit? And What It Is Worth?

After my post about Capital One raising our interest rate, I got a lot of interesting comments that made me wonder about the role of credit in our society and how it is changing.  I’ll be the first to admit that I don’t pay much attention to news about credit cards in general.  I am not strictly anti-debt but in the past I have not been as responsible as I wish I had been about using debt and accumulating debt, and I can finally see the light at the end of the tunnel, a world without monthly non-mortgage debt payments.  I don’t blame credit cards for taking advantage of me - I am not claiming they always do the nicest things or are in the business of helping the consumer - but it was my attitude towards available credit and taking on debt that needed an adjustment.

Now, the rules governing credit cards are changing.  Things like universal default (when you are late on one card, every card can penalize you) are being eliminated, and interest rates can’t be raised automatically when you pay late.  Fees and penalties are being capped.   Many things are being put into place to stop credit cards from taking advantage of those who are in over their head.

Which is good.  But on the other hand, someone has to pay for it.  And that someone seems to be those who use credit but do so without getting behind or paying late.

Annual fees - a yearly fee just for having a credit card - are expected to make a comeback.  As I’ve already firsthand experienced, interest rates for everyone are being raised as a pre-emptive strike before the laws go into effect.  Having a credit line “just in case” is going to cost me.  Is that worth it to me?  I don’t think of the credit card as my money any more, nor as an emergency fund.  But I’m not in a place yet where I can say with conviction we can handle anything life might throw at us without turning to credit.  I’m working on getting there, but we are definitely not there yet.

So on the one hand, I’m happy that preying on the most vulnerable will stop.  For example (and again it is my “friends” Capital One), my middle brother is not the most responsible when it comes to managing his finances.  He has a Capital One card with a very low limit, and he’d charged it beyond its limit.  Totally his fault, and he was assessed a penalty for it.  But the crazy thing was, his minimum payment due the next month wasn’t even enough to bring him below his limit!  And he doesn’t pay attention to things like that, so he paid his minimum, then was charged another over the limit fee for being over the limit.  This went on for three months until he asked me to take a look at things and I explained what was going on.    I’d like practices like that to stop.  It’s not illegal, but certainly unethical and just… tricky.

But at the same time I’m not really excited about paying a fee just to have a credit card.  Someone has to pay somewhere, and that someone might be me.  So, we’ll see what happens.  But for now, I can only say I am ambivalent.

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