Beating Broke

Save Money and Eat Healthy: Rent an Apple Tree

September 3, 2013 By MelissaB 10 Comments

When my health began to suffer a few years ago thanks to stress, being overweight, and having some intestinal issues, I started taking much better care of myself. That meant eating organic foods, following a Paleo diet, and losing over 70 pounds.

I used to always say I didn’t have money to buy organic foods, but my health issues weren’t cheap, so I decided in the long run, eating the best food I could was a priority, even if it was more expensive. Over the years, though, I’ve found ways to cut costs on eating organic. One way is renting an organic apple tree.

How Does Renting an Apple Tree Work?

I simply Googled “rent an apple tree” to find one near us. Then, I rented one apple tree for $55. All the apples on that tree were mine. I paid in the spring, and the Paula Red apples were ready in August.

The farm called me to tell me when the apples were ripe, and then I and my family headed out to the orchard to pick the apples. It took less than 45 minutes, and we left with 94 pounds of organic apples.

What Did We Do With All Those Apples?

Paula Reds don’t stay good for long, so we turned them into applesauce. (And we ate a lot of them fresh.) We ended up with 28 quarts of applesauce, which I stored in the freezer. It took me, my husband and son working together 7 hours to process all of the apples.

We didn’t have to add any sugar because they were naturally sweet.

How Much Did We Save?

The lowest price I have been able to find for organic applesauce is $2.50 for 16 ounces at Trader Joe’s. Just like our applesauce, Trader Joe’s applesauce only contains organic apples. There are 32 ounces in a quart, so one quart of Trader Joe’s applesauce is $5.00.

One quart of our homemade applesauce from apples on our rented tree is approximately $1.96. Overall, we saved $85 and will have enough applesauce to last us through the winter.

We also signed up for another apple tree in October for apples that are suitable for storage. We’ll be able to keep them in our refrigerator for several months and eat them fresh. If we get another 94 pounds, we’ll be paying just 58 cents a pound, which will be a significant savings over the grocery stores where I can never seem to find organic apples for less than $1.99 a pound.

It’s Not Just About the Savings

Still, it’s not just about the savings. What matters is that we know exactly where the apples came from and how they were processed. In addition, they are local, in season, and organic, which is the best way to eat food.

If you want to feed your family healthier foods but feel that they are out of your budget, don’t despair. There are several unique ways to feed your family organic food on a budget. Renting an apple tree is just one of those ways. We’ll be sure to do this again next year.

Have you done something like this? Do you buy food direct from the farmer?

Original Photo Credit:MetaphoricalPlatypus, on Flickr.

5 Ways a Better Credit Score Leads to Better Finances

August 30, 2013 By Shane Ede 14 Comments

Everybody knows that you want to have the best credit score you can. Why? Because the better your credit score, the better the rates you can get on your loans, of course! But, did you know that there are other reasons to try and improve your credit score? In fact, here’s five ways that having a better credit score can lead to better finances.

More money. This is the obvious one. A better credit score leads to better rates on loans (see above), and better rates lead to less interest paid over the life of the loan. And less interest paid leads to… (wait for it) a better bank balance!
Better rentals. It’s a sad fact that many landlords are doing credit checks on prospective tenants these days. They’ve got assets to protect, so it’s a smart move for them, but the fact that there are so many landlords out there getting burned that it’s become necessary is sad. But, having a good credit score can help make sure you don’t get turned down for that great apartment down by the beach!
Quicker payoff. This one goes really closely with the first point. With those lower rates, and lessened interest also comes the ability to pay the loan off quicker. And, of course, a quicker payoff means a much better financial situation. Especially if you avoid any new loans afterward.
Any loan you like. If you must loan money, at least do it smartly. With the current state of affairs, you can’t just walk in and get a loan that has a pulse as it’s only requirement. In fact, many banks and credit unions are cutting way back on their sub-prime lending for anything. (P.S. the term “sub-prime” doesn’t just apply to mortgage loans) If you have poor credit, it’s much more likely, today, that you’ll get turned down for a loan altogether. Better credit means that if you really need a loan, you probably can have one.
Less fees. We all hate fees. Well, all of us except the financial institutions. A growing number of them are making a growing amount of their revenues from fees. And many have moved to an account structure that is based off of risk. And risk is determined by credit score. A lower credit score could mean an account with higher fees, or with monthly fees that some accounts might not have, while a higher credit score might qualify you for a different account without those fees.

So, you see, having a good credit score can really send your finances in the right direction. And, having a bad credit score can really send them into the dumps in a hurry too! Unless you’re very dedicated to the extreme frugaler lifestyle, and never plan on really using money, it still pays to have a good credit score. It doesn’t take much to build it, and you might be glad you did someday.

photo credit: o5com

VantageScore: A New Way to Figure Credit Scores

August 26, 2013 By MelissaB 6 Comments

Dave Ramsey doesn’t have one. I didn’t have one when I first graduated from college.

What am I talking about? A credit score.

Our reasons are different–Dave Ramsey shuns credit, and as a recent college graduate, I hadn’t yet opened a credit card account nor bought a car with a car loan–but we were still in the same situation. So, how did a recent college graduate making less than $35,000 a year get lumped in the same high risk category with Dave Ramsey? Simple. FICO didn’t have a score for either one of us because we hadn’t used credit in the last 6 months.

Life Without a FICO Score

Of course, if you’re Dave Ramsey earning a gazillion dollars a year (just joking, sort of), you don’t really need a credit score. You can pretty much buy what you need with cash.

However, if you’re like the majority of Americans, you need a credit score to do the most basic of things like rent an apartment or qualify for a car or home loan. (Okay, if you follow Ramsey’s advice to stay out of debt, you don’t need to qualify for a car loan, but you still likely need a home loan. Besides, many landlords routinely ask to check your credit before agreeing to allow you to rent their apartments.)

For many, then, there is a problem. How can you shun credit cards as Ramsey advocates and yet still have a credit score? For years, the answer used to be–you can’t.

However, CNN Money reports that hope might be on the way in the form of a VantageScore.

What Is a VantageScore?

A typical FICO credit score simply looks at the last 6 months of your credit history.

VantageScore, which was created by the three credit bureaus (Experian, Equifax and TransUnion) and unveiled in 2006, instead looks at 24 months of payment activity including payments that don’t require credit cards such as rent or house payments and utility payments.

How Many People Could Benefit from VantageScore

According to CNN Money, nearly 64 million Americans don’t have enough credit history or activity to generate a FICO score. Of that group, 10 million have excellent credit, and another 20 million have good credit.

Currently, many banks and other lending institutions are missing out on those consumers because they essentially have no FICO score. The VantageScore would show that these consumers are attractive to lenders because they are responsible with their money.

When Will VantageScore Become Mainstream?

For people without credit to benefit, VantageScore must become more mainstream. Currently, almost all lending institutions rely on the industry standard, the FICO score.

Until VantageScore becomes mainstream, if you are one who shuns credit, you may be faced with a difficult decision–either use credit sparingly every month and pay it off immediately, or save enough money to pay for everything you need in cash. (This, of course, is Dave Ramsey’s preferred method.)

Do you use credit just to keep a high credit score, or, like Dave Ramsey, do you shun credit? If you shun credit, have you had problems with not having a FICO score?