Beating Broke

Ways to Save When Back-to-School Shopping

July 20, 2011 By MelissaB 2 Comments

After the long days of summer, many parents look forward to their children’s return to school. Unfortunately, preparing for the return to school often includes a large financial outlay for back to school supplies and clothes. However, there are several strategies you can employ to limit how much you have to spend.

Back to School Supplies

-In late July, try to obtain your child’s back to school supply list from the school. Scour the ads for great deals and look at sites like A Full Cup to learn which items you can get for free. It may take several weeks for all of the items on your child’s list to go on sale, which is why you want to start shopping in late July. I employed this strategy last year and got all of my son’s school supplies for $12, and I bought extra to give at Christmas too.

-Keep in mind that stores such as Staples, Office Depot and Office Max have a price matching policy. If you find a lower price at a competitor’s store, bring in the ad, and the store you are shopping at will match the price. You can save gas by taking advantage of this policy, but beware that most have a 7 to 14 day window for the competitor’s price, and a few stores exclude prices advertised on websites.

-When you can obtain items for free, try to buy more than you need. Then, if your child runs out of some of the supplies mid-school year, you won’t have to pay full price to buy more. You can just shop in your supply you got for free.

Back to School Clothing

-Before going out to shop for clothes, first go through your child’s closet to see what clothing they already have that still fits and is in good condition. Make a list of items and colors so you can look for matching pieces when shopping.

-Check out stores like Once Upon a Child. They often have new designer clothes for 1/3 to ½ the retail cost.

-Buy on eBay. Many people list their children’s gently worn clothes on eBay, and you can find many auctions in late July and August. To make sure you get a good deal, read the description thoroughly. A good seller should specify how worn the clothes are and any flaws in the clothing. To make sure you are dealing with a good seller, check their feedback. It should be 100% positive. I never buy from a seller with lower than 98% positive feedback. Also, the more feedback a seller has, the more experienced they are. Finally, feel free to ask questions about the clothing before you bid on it. Consider buying several auctions from one seller who combines shipping to save on shipping costs.

-Check out Craigslist. People often list their children’s clothes for sale and when they are having garage sales. You probably don’t want to buy all of your children’s clothes used, but you can find some high quality clothing at a fraction of the cost by considering used clothing markets.

-Buy mix and match clothing. Try to buy 3 to 4 pairs of pants and 5 to 6 shirts that can be interchanged. This dramatically extends the variety of outfits your child can wear.

-Stagger your buying. Buy some lightweight fall clothes early in the season, and buy sweaters and warmer clothes later in the fall. This can help you distribute the money that you spend over a few months. Wait for seasonal sales such as Columbus Day. Also, the stores frequently reduce the fall merchandise to make way for the winter items; try to buy more clothes when they are on clearance.

The average American spends $600 on back to school shopping. You can reduce that amount by half or more by following some of these strategies. If you take the time to plan ahead and wait for the sales, you can dramatically cut your back-to-school expenses. Happy frugal shopping!

photo credit: me and the sysop

Going on Trips with Fido (and other Pets)

July 11, 2011 By Shane Ede 5 Comments

When you take a trip that’s going to last over night or longer, and you have pets, you are faced with a decision to make. You’ve either got to find somewhere for your pet to stay or take your pet with you. If you don’t have a family member or friend that will watch your pet for you while you’re gone, you’re faced with finding a kennel or pet hotel to put your pet into until your return. Anyone who has boarded a pet will know that it isn’t a budget friendly thing to do. The frugal thing to do is to take your pet with you on your trip whenever possible.

Taking trips with your pets can be just as cringe-worthy for those without any experience in doing so. When we went on a week-long trip recently, I was more nervous about taking our dog with us than I was about any other part of the trip. The longest trip we’d ever taken the dog on was a two-hour ride, and the trip we were taking was an 8-9 hour trip followed by another 7-8 hour trip the next day and then doing it all over again at the end of the vacation. There was even a hotel stay on the way and one back. When it was all said and done, there was very little to worry about with the dog. He was a champ! (that’s him below) I thought I might share a few things that I learned about traveling with animals with you.

Hotels. I had this huge preconceived notion that there were very few hotels that would allow a dog in the hotel. I was kinda wrong. While many of the nicer hotels don’t allow pets, many of the more budget friendly (not dives) hotels will usually allow a pet for a small nightly deposit or fee. Some, like Kelly Inns, are extremely pet friendly and allow pets for no charge. If you know what city you are going to end up in for the night, do a little research and find a pet friendly hotel ahead of time. Then make reservations. We did this on our way to our destination. On the way back, we didn’t know where we were going to stop, but I was able to use the browser on my smart phone from the road to find and make reservations at a pet friendly hotel. Once you’re in the hotel, remember that your pet is in a strange place and will likely experience some anxiety if you all leave the room without your pet. If your pet doesn’t handle anxiety well, plan to leave your pet in your car while your away from the room. Many of the pet friendly hotels will have policies against leaving your pet unattended in the room because animals that have anxiety problems tend to take it out by chewing and digging. Both are bad for hotel furniture and carpet.
Riding Room. Your pet is going to need somewhere to sit. Don’t overpack to the point where you have to push and shove so that your dog can sit on top of the pile of luggage. If you wouldn’t be at least slightly comfortable riding there, neither will your pet. Different pets will have different requirements. In our case, we took a big comfy blanket and laid it out in the back of our Suburban for a bed for our dog. He then squeezed himself in between the two child seats on the bench seat and rode with his backside on the seat and his head on the console between the two front seats. Once you’ve taken a few longer trips with your pet, you’ll likely get a feel for where he/she likes to ride and be able to adjust accordingly. Once we figured out our dog wasn’t going to ride in the back on the blanket, we just made sure he had a path from the back to the seat without climbing over all the luggage and left it at that.
Food and water. Most importantly, make sure you bring plenty of food with you. If you’ve got the room, bring a bowl too that you can just leave out in the car or in your hotel room. Everybody’s schedule is likely going to be a bit screwed up, so your pet might not adhere to it’s normal eating schedule. Water is a bit trickier since it’s a bit harder to contain and still make available. What we found to work pretty well is to have a bowl and a large bottle that we could cap to hold the water. Whenever we stopped, we’d pour a bit of water into the bowl for our dog to drink then could pour out the extras from the bowl back into the bottle or onto the ground and not have to worry about spills.
Entertainment. If you’ve ever traveled with kids, you know that entertainment for the trip is of utmost importance. It’s not as important for pets, but it can be very helpful. Bring along a few of your pets toys for him/her to play with at your destination. A favorite chew bone for in the hotel, and a ball to fetch at our final destination for instance.
Potty breaks. Unless your pet is really, really good about telling you when it needs to relieve itself, you’ll want to schedule regular breaks for a quick walk. Our dog is pretty good about this and is used to going 4-8 hours without going outside during the work week, so he was pretty good on our trip. He’s also a big dog, so has a larger capacity than some smaller pets will. If your pet is asking outside frequently at home, he/she will likely still need breaks during your trip that are nearly as frequent. We found that anytime we stopped for gas, taking our dog over to a grassy area did the trick. Most interstate rest areas have an area to take your pets to.

Taking trips with pets can be a stress inducing idea, but if you take the proper precautions, it can also be very rewarding. It can also be easier on the pet that would have to stay at a boarding kennel otherwise. We’re glad we took our dog with us. I know he enjoyed being with us and playing up in the mountains with us. As an added bonus, he turned out to be a bit of entertainment for the kids too. Just like anything else, planning can make or break your trip. So take the time to plan ahead, and take your pet with you on your next trip.

Photo Credit:Thatedeguy on Flickr

3 Ways to Record Your Stuff for Personal Property Insurance

July 8, 2011 By Shane Ede 3 Comments

So, you’ve got auto insurance for your car, health insurance for your health, flood insurance for your property, and home insurance for your house. Everything’s covered! Yay! Whoa there. Not quite. These days, it seems like you’ve got to insure everything if you want it covered in case of loss. There’s pet insurance. Celebrities are insuring their body parts. And, while you probably don’t need to insure those killer legs, you probably want to check to make sure you have some sort of personal property insurance (or personal belongings insurance).

Despite what you may think, your home insurance doesn’t necessarily cover your personal properties. They might have some small rider that will pay out a small amount to replace certain essentials like clothes and such, but if you’re ever in need of it, you’ll quickly find that it will fall far short of replacing much of the personal property that you owned. Some of the things will have caps on them for value. Got a killer gaming computer? Not covered to it’s full value. Many people are choosing to add a personal property policy to their list of insurance policies.

Part of getting a personal property policy is being able to identify the item, it’s value, and prove both. Here are three ways you can use to record the property that you own, and do it easily.

Spreadsheet — Create a spreadsheet for each room and list the items you are insuring from that room. Be sure to record any serial numbers and model numbers that you can. A short description can also be helpful.
Take Pictures — Combined with a simple spreadsheet, take pictures of the items that you own in each room. This can help identify the items, and act as proof of serial and model numbers as well as condition.
Contents Video — Take a camcorder (or any device that records decent quality video) and walk through each room of your house, recording each item that you’ll be insuring. Again, be sure to record serial numbers and model numbers. You can use the ability to record voice to add in descriptions as you go.

Properly recording and keeping track of your property can make purchasing your personal property insurance a much easier task and make sure that you’re insured for the proper amounts and items so that you don’t find yourself trying to replace expensive items that you though your home insurance would cover.

photo credit: 111 Emergency