Blog Profile / Mighty Bargain Hunter
| URL : | http://www.mightybargainhunter.com/ | |
|---|---|---|
| Filed Under: | Business & Finance / Personal Finance | |
| Posts on Regator: | 146 | |
| Posts / Week: | 1.5 | |
| Archived Since: | July 5, 2011 | |
Blog Post Archive
How to get more rides at Disney for less?
Amusement parks can be a great vacation, especially if you like rides that test your ability to hold your lunch. The more popular amusement parks, like the Disney family of parks, are busy much of the year. And busy can mean long wait times on the rides. Since time is far more valuable than money, [...]Show More Summary
Price-check guarantees are a great bargain … for businesses?
I was chatting with a coworker a few days ago, and the topic of price-check guarantees came up. A price-check guarantee at a grocery store says something like this: “If an item rings up for more than the price on the shelf, we’ll knock $3 off of the lower price. If the item is less [...]Show More Summary
Extremely low-tech greywater toilet flushing system
Utilities make up a dependable expense in a family’s budget. Along with grocery expenses, it’s also a place that usually has a bit of slop that can be removed if things get tight. And if cleanliness is next to godliness, certainly we all take regular showers or baths. The extent to which we do this [...]Show More Summary
Five ways to use loyalty cards effectively
Many stores offer loyalty cards. These plastic cards often come in pairs: one for your wallet, and a smaller one with a hole in it for your keychain. Presenting the loyalty card at checkout entitles you to special prices on particular products, as well as other periodic perks like announcements of special sales, follow-on coupons, [...]Show More Summary
Don’t believe the “replace toner cartridge” warning
Printers have sure come a long way. I fondly remember by Commodore MPS-801 dot matrix printer with 42 pixels — total — for each letter. It used continuous fanfold paper and only printed in one direction. Fast forward thirty years. (Yikes!) Now our current printer does full color, two-sided, in pretty much any font I [...]Show More Summary
Here’s a furlough pay calculator
My recent post on running a practice month on a furlough budget had a comment from Dan: I created a furlough calculator for everyone I work with. It quickly made its way around the globe and many civil service employees are using it to project the near future. It is a simple excel spreadsheet that [...]Show More Summary
Watch the money value of time when bargain hunting
Time and money aren’t the same thing. Time is much more valuable than money. We only get so much time to prepare our legacy. “They aren’t making any more,” the saying goes. A person with plenty of money wants to spend less time doing routine tasks, and can afford to pay to spend less time. [...]Show More Summary
Your very own personal merchant account?!
I darkened the doorstep of the Personal Finance and Money Stack Exchange for the first time in a while. (If for no other reason than to be a thorn in Little Advisor‘s side. ) My wife uses Square and loves it. She’s used it to sell copies of An Uncivilized Yankee and A Great Wide [...]Show More Summary
Is paying down debt faster always a good idea?
Paying more than the minimum amount due on an installment loan, like an automobile loan or a mortgage, saves on interest expenses in the long run. You owe the money for less time, and hence pay less interest. There are of course lots of ways to pay down loans more quickly. There’s something for everybody [...]Show More Summary
Be friendly with slow-cooked budget-friendly meals
As I’ve mentioned before a couple of times, we live in an area that could likely see a lot of furlough activity. Though there is the possibility of using the furlough days to good benefit, a lot of my friends are looking for good ways to save money as they are looking unlovingly at thousands [...]Show More Summary
Earn gift certificates with Swagbucks and get cheap education
I’ve been a member of Swagbucks for a bit, and I’ve earned over $300 in Amazon.com gift cards since then. Amazon.com gift cards are one of the best deals that Swagbucks has going on, and they’re almost as good as cash, since you can get just about anything on Amazon. I recently signed up to [...]Show More Summary
A pizza guy shouldn’t make a cardiologist salary
Saw this story on MSN Money about a pizza delivery guy who delivered 85 pizzas, costing $1,453.95. He received a $10 tip. A friend of the driver then posts a picture of the receipt on Reddit, and the 15 minutes of fame begins. The article points out that the tip is less than 1% of [...]Show More Summary
Eat out less for memorable meals
Eating out is a common budget-buster. A meal at a restaurant can cost easily several times what a meal prepared at home would cost. And don’t get me started on the 1,000%-plus markup on sodas! If dining out is killing your budget, then a simple way to begin bringing the problem under control is to [...]Show More Summary
Prepare for federal employee furlough with a furlough practice budget
At the beginning of this month, sequestration went into effect. This means sweeping cuts of $85 billion from this fiscal year’s budget. To shore up this shortfall, many agencies are furloughing employees during this time, which effectively is a partial layoff. I live in an area with a lot of federal government employees, many of [...]Show More Summary
Save money with a targeted no-spend month
We all have spending habits. Some spending habits are more expensive than others, but we have habits nonetheless. The spending habits we have are often the result of guilty pleasure (choose your favorite; I certainly won’t judge). They can also be related to hobbies, like music. If you’re looking to save money, though, those spending [...]Show More Summary
Reduce financial problems in marriage with regular financial dates
Life can become hectic. The incessant activities of making a living, raising children, and feeding passions can strain the connections associated with married life. One piece of advice that’s often given to married couples experiencing these kinds of strains is to schedule dates — as in put it on the calendar, make reservations, get a [...]Show More Summary
The best time to redeem in-store coupons
I give grocery stores a lot of credit. They do seem to come up with new and exciting ways to get you to spend more money while giving you the impressing that you’re saving money. As I was going through my receipts to enter things in Quicken to track our spending, I ran across what [...]Show More Summary
How to get your taxes done in two hours
My mother-in-law was very happy today. Four popped collars happy. So happy, in fact, she gave me not one, but two high-fives. Her taxes were finished. Practically signed, sealed, and delivered. Just waiting on one form from an investment firm that was overdue, but otherwise, done and done! She didn’t have a simple return, either. [...]Show More Summary
Retirement savings wake-up call
My tax-advantaged retirement account from my employer offers a valuable piece of information on our annual statements. It’s the amount of monthly retirement income I can expect, given the amount I have in there now. This amount really was nothing to write home about. (It amounts to about 6% of my gross income.) But I’m [...]Show More Summary
Five ways to save money for big expenses
Nothing derails well-laid-out financial plans like a giant expense. The kind of expense that consumes one or more full paychecks. Big expenses happen to everybody. Some are unplanned, like an emergency room visit, or a trip to the vet after a pet gets bitten by a copperhead. It’s for this reason that building up a [...]Show More Summary