Cell Phone Company Ads and Commercials

Free iPhone on Us. Just $25 a month for four cell phone lines.

Yeah. You’ve seen them, but do you believe them? Too good to be true still exists, and it’s better than even money if anyone is sneaking in fine print on too good to be true deals, it’s the cell phone companies.

I’m in the same boat. Those iPhone 12s I mentioned up there? That’s not just a random example. That’s me. Right now, while sitting on Verizon after switching from Comcast/Xfinity in order to get my last free phones. I dug through all the fine print then and I’m going to do it now. I’ve got better things to spend my money on than cell phone company tricks.

Verizon Get iPhone 15 on us

Let’s start with Verizon. Thanks to AT&T running all of those our existing customers get the best deals too commercials back during the Super Bowl, the other major mobile carriers had to step up and more or less match that thinking. It’s about time.

The dumbest thing in marketing still has to be screwing over your long-term, paying on time, customers until they switch to another cell phone carrier in order to get the deals that are only for new customers. That’s what happened to us with Xfinity. We were perfectly happy. Had a sweet discount because we also have Xfinity internet and TV, but they would only give free phones to new customers, so down the mobile phone company churn road we went to Verizon.

Why We Chose Verizon Back Then

I used to be on top of everything tech. Then, I became a work from home dad, and knowing everything about every new technology didn’t seem so important. So, I gave up being a tech know it all for being an internet advice dad. Ahem.

Before I stopped knowing everything, Verizon was the best. They had the best network and the best service. They cost the most, but they were worth it. Verizon was brand name, everybody else was second tier.

So, when Black Friday rolled around, I checked out all the deals, and finding similar offering from all the different cell phone carriers, I jumped at the chance to be on Verizon since it finally fit in my budget the way I wanted.

Oops.

Somewhere along the line, Verizon made a bad strategic decision and ended up with a worse network than others. The gaps in its service are not just a common lament online, but also among my fellow Ingress players who wander into alleys, middle of nowhere trails, and sometimes military bases to “hack portals.” All of which require a wireless connection.

Sure, one bar of 3G is available in some of those places, but what is that really worth other than Verizon getting to color that area red on its coverage map?

The worst part of Verizon’s coverage? The deal knell as it were? My own house gets just one bar of coverage. The Indian restaurant down the street where sometimes I need to wait for my takeout? Zero bars. Not just zero bars, but SOS. I literally cannot make phone calls from my own house when the Wi-Fi is down because the reception is so bad.

Ouch.

What kind of sucks is that it is really great in other places. Verizon is the best where it actually has decent coverage. I get 5G and 5GUW, and whatnot in tons of great places. It’s just that there are so many holes.

According to everything I’ve read about it (real stuff, not marketing fluff) says that Verzion’s signals are fast but not strong enough to bridge the distance they established for older tech, so there are a lot of holes. The better network belongs to T-Mobile who at long last were able to achieve their only strategic goal for the last decade by buying Sprint. Apparently combining the networks worked good for them.

How Much Is Verizon for My Family Today?

To analyze which mobile phone carrier is best for your family you need to start with your current situation. For me, that’s my current plan at Verizon. Use the cell phone budget checklist and spreadsheet to help make your calculations.

Current Phone Liability

Those free iPhones were mostly free, but they weren’t free in a “Here is your free phone. Now run along you little scamp.”

They were free in the form of 36 monthly credits. We got two iPhone 12 and two iPhone 12 Mini. We get $19.44 a month credit toward the 12s, and $16.66 toward the Minis resulting in almost free phones because I got the bigger storage. So, we pay $1.39 a month out of our own pocket. What really matters is that we have 10 more months of credits coming totalling $229.13 for the 12s and $198.55 for the Minis.

At this point, the analysis has taken a huge turn toward staying with Verizon. You may remember some of the cell phone ads language and while, “free iPhone on us,” sounds good, it’s missing “and we’ll pay off whatever you owe to switch.”

Looks like we are probably waiting for Black Friday again.

If you didn’t do the math– or didn’t want to– we would owe $855.40 on our four cell phones to leave Verizon.

Is Verizon a Good Family Cell Phone Company Now?

Alright. Enough history. Time to look forward. All things being even, I will be moving to a new cellphone company to get better coverage, but all things are never even. There is a way where Verizon still comes out as the best deal for my family and we’ll just get over it on the whole network thing.

It turns out Verizon kind of sucks compared to T-Mobile at least, but will get there in a second.

Right now, we have older Verizon plans called Play More and Play Start. Play More comes with the Disney Bundle FOR FREE as well as mobile hotspot tethering. Play Start does not. Play More costs $49/month (with the discount for auto bill and online statements) the Play Start costs $39/month. If you’re doing the math, that’s $176 for four lines plus all the junk fees and taxes.

Verizon iPhone On Us Offer Legit No Scam Fine Print Teardown

Here we go. The big headline says iPhone on us. The fine print says that you get a $830 credit over 36 months. You can get an iPhone 15 with 128 GB of storage for $830. So, that’s the free offer. The rest are not really free.

• iPhone 15 – free
• iPhone 15 Plus – discounted by $830
• iPhone 15 Pro – discounted by $830
• iPhone 15 Pro Max – discounted by $830

That’s not a scam by Verizon. It’s careful wording and fine print. After all get an iPhone free on us doesn’t say which iPhone. Still $830 off is a good deal and results in you just paying a few bucks more each month to get a better iPhone or one with more storage.

Free Verizon iPhone Plans

The iPhone on us catch is that in order to get it, you must choose one of the two most expensive plans for your free phone cell phone plan. In this case, you can get Unlimited Plus or Unlimited Ultimate, neither of which comes with free Disney+ bundle. It’s a $10 add on.

• Verizon Unlimited Ultimate costs $55 per month
• Verzion Unlimited Plus costs $45 per month

You can add other stuff. Much of it is a good deal but you need to pay attention. For example, you can get YouTube premium for $10/month on each line ($40 total). But, you can get YouTube Family plan directly from YouTube for $23/month.

Is Verizon Worth It For Our Family Plan?

I think you can already tell where this is heading. Verizon will give a free iPhone. It’s not some Verizon scam. However, they will not pay off our current iPhones. Seemingly, our credits would disapear and we’d owe a lump sum. You can’t even use the $830 to pay it off because you only get that as little monthly credits over three years.

Is T-Mobile a Good Family Cell Phone Company Now?

Okay. If T-Mobile has the best network now, and won’t put my phone and favorite restaurants in coverage dead zones, can I use the T-Mobile Get 4 ON US promotion to switch?

First off, remember that there is no offer to pay off my existing phones or pay to switch, or anything like that. All you get is the free iPhone.

Like Verizon, T-Mobile free iPhone is legit, it just has to be the iPhone 15 (no plus, pro, max). You can get the better phones or one with more storage. You just have to pay for the difference.

However, here is a major difference between the T-Mobile iPhone on us offer, and the Verizon iPhone on us offer. T-Mobile gives you the $830 over 24 monthly credits instead of 36. That means you are only on the hook for 2 years instead of 3 years. We’d already be free and clear if we had a two year deal.

There is a partial downside. If you do go with a more expensive phone, you are also paying that over 24 months instead of 36. Instead of us paying off getting an iPhone Plus at the rate of $2.18 per month, it would be more like $4 or $5 per month. That’s not a huge deal, but remember when you have a family you have to multiply everything by four, or how ever many of you there are.

T-Mobile Cell Phone Family Plans Analysis

Instead of jamming you into their most expensive plans to recover the cost of that free iPhone, T-Mobile is offering a money saving deal on their cheaper unlimitted plan called Essentials. In order to get the cheapest price you need four lines, so either give Jimmy a cell phone earlier than you swore you would never do in the parenting forums, or shell out extra. If there are five of you. It’s time to get creative.

The T-Mobile Essentials plan on this offer is just $25 per month (plus junk fees and taxes). That makes T-Mobile way cheaper than Verizon for families like ours. For now, we get free Disney+ that you have to figure into the mix, but that’s hardly worth it.

You can, presumably, upgrade to better T-Mobile plans and still keep the overall discount, but WOW are the higher plans crazy overpriced. For an extra $85 per month you get free Apple TV+ and Netflix, but you can get those for much less.

There is this insulting difference to hide a the fact that the $25 per line plan actually costs at least $28.49 per line plus whatever Federal & Local Surcharges come up compared to its other plans, but I still don’t think that will get you to an extra $85 per month.

For the purposes of our analysis, I currently pay $176 per month plus fees and stuff and I would get $100 per month with T-Mobile. That’s a no brainer. It’s almost enough to make me switch even if we have to take it in the shorts on the Verizon phones. After all, 10 more months times $76 difference = $760.

That still comes up a bit short on the $855 we owe, especially since better offers are likely just four or five months away. Even if they aren’t, we’d be $175 to $200 lower on the amount to pay off, so it makes sense to wait.

What about AT&T?

I didn’t go there yet. Maybe I should take a look. I’ll do that and then I’ll come back and update this article. I’ve got to put together the mobile phone family plan comparison tool and checklist anyway.

Switching Family Cell Phone Plans originally published at Undefeated Daddy

Quick Clean Your Glasses

The first step to keeping your glasses clean as a parent is to hold on to those little microfiber cloths that they give you free with every pair of eyeglasses, sunglasses, and sports glasses you buy. Those may have been a throw in your drawer, use them every once and a while luxury before, they are the essential step one to glasses that stay clean around babies, toddlers, and kiddos.

Hoard those glasses cloths like they are canned foods during an emergency. No matter how many of them you have, there will never be one where you need it unless you have dozens of those things. Fortunately, you don’t have to wait and buy a new pair of glasses to get more.

Screen cleaning cloths for computer screens, phone screens, tool screens, and electronic screens are all 100% suitable for using on your glasses. While screen cloths are not the same as iPhone cloths, they work just as well on your glasses. However, if you want to get a jump start on your collection you can order something like six of them for less than $10.

Once you have a sufficient supply of screen wiping cloths, it is time to get serious about jelly fingers, food throws, and the smudges of the two tweens you have pinned to the couch in glorious victory.

Eyeglass Cleaner

My eyeglasses store used to give me these tiny bottles of lens cleaner, and before I was a dad, they were more than enough. I had three or four of those bottles laying around my office at a time. Of course, eventually they would tip over and only fifty percent would stay leakproof. The others would drip away and evaporate in the dry Colorado air.

That dripping problem is exactly why you will need to abandon liquid lens cleaner when you become a dad. You don’t want those slowly dripping out in your diaper bag, your dad satchel, or even in the pockets of your cargo shorts.

But what are you going to do about those times when you get not just a smudge, but an actual smear of jelly (spotting a theme here?), or splash of orange juice on your best pair of glasses? What we need is a way to get the full power of a bottle of liquid lens cleaner, with the potential for drips, breaks, or leaks.

Is WalletHub Legit?

Fortunately, my 60-ish year-old mother accidentally came to the rescue when one of her grandchildren befouled her favorite son’s glasses while on a visit. She handed me, from a drawer, a wet-wipe (restaurant, not baby) type of lens cleaner. These wipes are presoaked in lens cleaner, and then individually packaged. They are so small that you can dump literally dozens of them in your diaper bag, glove box, or cargo pants pockets without adding any bulk or weight. And the best part? No dripping!

Now, I couldn’t find exactly what my mom had. I’m assuming that she found them at Sam’s Club because that is like the one store that would have something like that that we don’t overlap on. (I’m a Costco guy myself. It feels a little nicer, and they actually pay their employees decently.) Nevertheless, the internet to the rescue. Search for lens wipes, glasses wipe, or virtually any variation thereof, and you will find a plethora of wet lens wipe options.

I got a 100-pack of these pre-moistened lens wipes for like five bucks from Amazon. (I know, I got all high-and-mighty up there about Sam’s Club and then go all Amazon on you. Just roll with it ok?) They apparently have Smudge Guard and 3X cleaning power, although I’m not sure compared to what. I’m sure you can find the same at Walgreens or Walmart if you looked around enough.

How To Use Wet Lens Wipes

That’s right, “how to.” You’re thinking, “You can’t be serious,” but I am. Here is why. If you are anything like me, you won’t read the instructions — heck, I don’t know if there are any — and you will instinctively try two things. First, you will try and wipe with these wet ones like you do with those dry microfiber cloths. Don’t. These work best more as a wipe off (side to side, as it were) than as a circular rubbing. Second, you will try and use up the wetness. Don’t do that either or you will end up with streaks.

These things have far more liquid than you need for your eyeglasses. In fact, the side of the box has pictures of glasses, a camera, ski goggles, and what I think is supposed to be a camcorder. (So, if you have one of those lying around you are good to go, I guess.)

Instead, think of these things as tiny Windex wipes and your glasses as tiny windows. More is not better. The goal is to stop touching when the streaks are gone. Just wipe until the peanut butter is off and then give a couple more wipes on both sides of the lens just to be sure and then let your glasses dry. Next, buff them up with one of those dry cloths I told you about up there.

Wondering if Acorns stole my money?

You should be good as new, at least for the next few minutes. I see Junior has spilled his orange juice and gotten it all over those cute overalls Grandma bought for him at Once Upon a Child, or maybe Sam’s Club.

Next up? Using AirTags to track your kids.

Happy parenting!

Wearing Glasses with Kids originally published at Undefeated Daddy

Tax Deduction for Donating Baby Clothes

There are a lot of ways to get some money for used children’s clothing. The simplest is to donate clothing to a charitable organization. Any IRS 503(c)(b) non-profit organization will do. Unless you have your deduction limited for some reason, you can deduct the “value” of donated clothing from your income taxes. (This deduction was limited by the Trump tax law, but since those deductions are set to expire soon, I’m going to leave it here.)

If you are in the 30 percent tax bracket, for example, your taxes are reduced by $3 for every $10 of clothing you donate. (This is overly simplified, but it works to give an approximate idea.) When it comes to valuing the clothes for a tax deduction, there are a lot of rules, but the one most people use is to deduct the “thrift-shop value” of the clothing, which is essentially what you would pay to buy the same item from a thrift shop. Some charitable organizations like Goodwill and Salvation Army have approximate values for common items posted on their websites. TurboTax also includes an estimated value if you do your income taxes with TurboTax.

It might not sound like much, but if you count every shirt you donate at just $2, and you donate 50 shirts, adds up to $100 and a savings of $30 on your taxes. Not bad for putting everything in a box and hauling it down to the donation center.

Selling Baby and Toddler Clothes as Garage Sale

Another way to get money for your used kids’ clothing is to hold a garage sale. In this case, if you sold 50 shirts for $1 each, you would get $50. If you could get $2 a piece, you would get $100. That is cash in the pocket which is better than a tax deduction.

The catch is that there are a lot of people selling a lot of children’s clothing at a lot of garage sales every weekend. In other words, how much baby clothing you can sell depends on how many buyers show up willing and able to buy. Generally, to attract traffic to a garage sale, you need more than just a pile of baby clothes, so unless you have other stuff to round out your garage sale, this might not be the way to go.

Children’s Clothing Consignment Shops and Once Upon a Child

A consignment shop takes your stuff and tries to sell it. They keep a percentage, often half, and you get the rest. Since a consignment shop doesn’t want merchandise piling up, and only makes a profit when items sell within a reasonable time, many of them mark items down as time goes by. Your percentage remains the same, but the selling value drops.

This model does not necessarily lend itself to clothing since the items aren’t sold for a high enough dollar amount to warrant all the necessary tracking. Thus, used clothing consignment stores will often just buy the clothes directly from you.

Once Upon a Child is one such children’s secondhand store. You take in your children’s clothing, and other items, and they make you an offer. Is Once Upon a Child worth it?

Is Once Upon a Child Worth It?

Here is the deal. Used clothing is one thing. Quality used clothing is another. While it is obvious that clothes such be in good condition and without stains or tears, they also need to be brand name. Clothing from Carter’s and Jumping Beans, for example, may draw an offer. Anything from a department store, Target, or off-brand catalog or whatever, will not.

The Target RedCard might save you some money though.

I took several boxes of neatly folded clothing, totaling well over 100 pieces, and my Once Upon a Child store offered to buy only 22 of them for a grand total of just over $27. It’s enough to purchase some fun kids movies on Amazon Prime or even DVD if I see a good sale.

If you are going to sell your clothes to Once Upon a Child or another children’s second-hand clothing store, here are some tips.

1. Take Small Amounts – Don’t take a huge lot all at once. This isn’t a good way to clean out your basement, it is a good way to clean out your drawers.  It takes a while to go through and you lose count of what you are selling and at what price. In my example above, I got just over $1 for each piece. Is that a good deal? Considering I already tried a garage sale and plan to donate the rest, it’s better than nothing, but with such a huge load, I lost control over saying yes or no to specific pieces.
2. Separate Your Brand Names – The Once Upon a Child website lists their “preferred” brand names. Start by taking in just the clothing you have that matches that list. This maximizes the chances of you getting an offer on most of it. If you want to throw in a few extra pieces just to see what happens, go ahead.
3. Don’t Expect Much – A dollar for a piece of baby clothes or for toddler clothes isn’t a lot. Of course, you won’t get much more donating or selling on your own, either. The good news is you can always say no.
4. Check What Is For Sale First – You get a 20 percent bonus on the amount offered if you take store credit instead of a check. That is only a good deal if you already want to buy. Forcing yourself to buy things just to take advantage of store credit doesn’t make sense when you can get cash. Only take the store credit if you know you want to buy cheaper baby clothes.
5. Don’t Bother Without Brand Names – The way the OUC business works is that they buy brand name clothing that they can resell for used, but still with the boost from being a brand name price. I saw long sleeve Jumping Beans shirts on sale for $7.50. That comes out to just under half the typical online retail price of $16 and even less than what you would pay at full price in a store. That math doesn’t work for baby clothes that you bought for $3.50 on sale at Target though.

Is It Worth Selling Kid’s Clothes to Once Upon a Child?

I don’t mean to single out Once Upon a Child here. It just happens to be the place I went. I assume that most other kid’s consignment shops work similarly. However, I think the key is to determine whether you would get more value out of the tax deduction than out of the secondhand sale.

For example, if you are in the 30 percent tax bracket, and a nice sweater provides a $5.00 deduction, then you are netting $1.50 off your income taxes. If OUC or whoever is only offering a dollar, then you are losing money.

On the other hand, they cut you a check immediately, whereas you’ll have to wait until you file your taxes to reap the benefit of the donation.

If you want cash now, Once Upon a Child is a decent alternative.

If you can never rack up enough tax deductions, consider donating the clothing and taking the tax deduction instead.

Is Once Upon a Child Worth It? originally published at Undefeated Daddy

Most Children’s Place retail stores are in shopping malls or outlet malls.  There is a Children’s Place in the Cherry Creek Mall on the upper level near the play area (giant breakfast food!), and another one in the Castle Rock Outlet mall. 

It seems that the physical stores carry much more clothing for toddlers and older kids, and not very much in the way of infant and newborn clothes.  However, the Children’s Place online store has tons of stuff for infants and newborns as well as all the same things for toddlers and kids that they have in their physical stores.

Children’s Place Prices

The prices at The Childrens Place are good, but not great.  That is, until they have a sale.

Children’s Place has sales all the time.  Even better, they offer a lot of coupons too.  Sign up in the store or online and you can get coupons in the mail, email coupons, and discount codes or coupon codes.

Combine these coupons with a sale and you can get a great deal on baby clothes and save money on toddler clothes and kids clothes too. Why stop there? Buy using Rakuten and you can often get up to 6% cash back. Now, you are saving money, and making money all at the same time.

Do you need some reviews of Rakuten?

As an example, our son, who was born in June, has lots of clothing thanks to gifts from family, friends, and coworkers, and of course, gifts from a baby shower.  Like all babies, he got a lot of really “cute” clothes and a lot less of the plain everyday staples that any parent needs to dress their baby warmly and comfortably on a regular basis.

Since he is a newborn, we have a lot of newborn sized clothes and 0 to 3 months sized clothes.  The catch is that he is big but not always big enough to need 3-to-6-month sized baby clothes.

To fill in the gaps in baby’s wardrobe, I went to Children’s Place online store during a “Monster Sale” with a coupon code that I got.  The sale included $5 shipping on all orders regardless of size.  By scrolling through baby boy sale items, I was able to pick up 4 pairs of shorts (in 2 sizes), 4 tops, and 2 onesies for less than $25 including shipping.  You can’t beat that price even at Wal-Mart.

Are Children’s Place Prices the Same Online and In the Store?

Ironically, I dropped into the mall store a couple of days later to find that the same stuff I paid $2.25 for (before coupon) were only marked down to $4.99 in the store.  That doesn’t sound like a big difference, but on ten items that adds up to $20!

Do yourself a favor and go create a dummy Yahoo email or dummy Google email account (Google email is better) to use for signing up for coupons and sales information.  Don’t use your regular email account or it will get stuffed with emails all the time.  Go do this now, because you can save a ton of money by signing up for email newsletters, or offers, or whatever from not just kids clothing stores, but diaper companies, formula companies, baby bottle companies, and so on.  Don’t be afraid to sign up for these offers or you will miss out.

Since you have a separate email account just for these offers and registrations, you can just let the emails pile up in the inbox until you need something.  Then, log on and see if you have a coupon for whatever store you want.  Then, do a select all and delete everything else to start the process over again.

A little effort can save you big money which is very important to new parents because babies are expensive, and don’t even get me started on how much having a toddler costs.

(By the way, always check the “sizing chart” whenever shopping for baby clothes, toddler clothes, or kids’ clothes.  If you think that sizes are never the same across brands for adult clothes, it is even worse for children’s clothes!)

Cheap Baby Clothes, Toddler Clothes Discount Sale originally published at Undefeated Daddy

The Economy Basic Scam

Airlines know that thanks to the internet, people will check around for the best airfare. Since most travelers choose based on price, they need a way to make their airfares sound lower, so they don’t chase their cash pinatas customers off. Enter the economy basic scam.

You see, before the pandemic, the lowest airfare was the economy fare. No matter what the name sounds like it was the regular airfare as far as everyone, but the airlines were concerned. The airlines had a non-economy airfare, but only fools and those with business contracts ever paid that price. It came in hand though for pretending that the airlines offer discount travel for children or going home for a funeral. Those “discounts” are based upon the standard fare, which is hundreds of dollars higher than the fare you see on the website, and Google Flights, or Kayak.

Usually, people paying the economy fare couldn’t change their tickets without a fee, and refunds were laughable. But thanks to the pandemic, everyone realized that the airlines were jerks about the whole change fee thing, so the airlines did the right thing and agreed to waive the change fees.

Change Fees Forever, Baby!

Search for a flight with Google Flights, or Kayak, or through your travel credit card. Whatever you like, go ahead. It does not matter.

Done?

Now click that fare. If you are paying attention, you will notice that you have priced an Economy Basic fare.

What is an economy basic fare?

I thought you would never ask. An economy basic fare is for customers who want the cheap flight they saw on the internet the most cost conscientious customers. There are three important things to pay attention to with basic economy fares.

• No free bag check with economy basic
• No seat reservations
• No changes without change fees

Only the airlines could take something bad for family travel and make it worse. Granted free bags have been gone a long time unless you are flying Southwest, which is why people often try and book Southwest first. Even if the other airlines match the Southwest fare, it still costs more because you get free bags on Southwest and pay $50 or more per bag. Four of you going to visit grandma for two weeks? That’s an extra $200 over that “competitive” fare.

As a father traveling with kids, I pay really close attention to that middle bullet point. If you cannot make seat reservations before you check in 24 hours before your flight, what seats do you think are left for you?

If you answered “middle seats” you are a winner. Well… actually… a loser. Traveling with small kids sitting six rows away between two lumberjacks while you sit in a middle seat trying to take care of your kids during the flight just isn’t going to work.

That’s okay, because remember when I told you the airlines were lying about waiving the change fees? Even if you only have a carryon, and even if you are totally fine with sitting in the middle seat, you should pay attention to the fine print on every airline’s website reminding you that they are waiving change fees… um… …except economy basic fares.

Traveling With Kids

Traveling with kids can get tricky especially if they are younger. Whenever you have the ability do yourself self a favor and pay up for economy main fares. (Oh, that’s right. Even if you know they are cheats and liars, they still make it hard to know if you have the good fare or if you should pay more money.)

One travel tip that many families booking airfare use is paying for the aisle and the window seat for each parent and child (works best with 3 to 4 kids). Then, just hope that the aisle doesn’t get filled in. If it does, just ask if the lucky traveler would be willing to trade your aisle seat for his middle seat. Who would say no to that?

International Travel with Children

Along with all of the usual issues with international travel with kids remember that they need a valid passport and that theirs expire after only FIVE YEARS unlike yours which takes 10 years to expire. Unfortunately, that is not all.

Most countries require visitors to have six months left on their valid passport in order to enter the country. That means that your child’s passport becomes worthless everywhere except Canada and Mexico after just 4.5 years. Remember passport processing times are always long and these days they are even longer, so if you even think that you are going to be travelling internationally, get started on those passports if they have less than a year on them.

TSA Pre and Kids

First off, TSA Pre is awesome. No matter who you are, and no matter how little you travel, I encourage you to get TSA Pre. Most travel credit cards will even pay for it for you, so that it is free. You won’t regret walking past the crazy regular security line, plus you don’t have to take your shoes off or take food out of your backpack (Still no liquids though).

You can usually take littler kiddos without through TSA Pre, but if Junior or Junette are getting close to 13, get them TSA Pre too. Not only do you get to take them through, but it is also an awesome thing to have when they head off to college or parts unknown. If you have more than one credit card offering TSA Pre, be sure to keep track so you keep getting free fees.

Parents Beware the Airlines New Scam originally published at Undefeated Daddy

Best Squishmallow Gift Ideas!

#1 Squishmallow Minis

Alright, look. Squishmallows is all about the Squishmallow stuffies kids know and love. Finding a new Squishmallow offering is a trigger to kid’s “I want” instinct, but the biggest Squishmallows are BIG, maybe too big. Head them off at the pass with Squishmallow Minis. Kick up a notch with a pack of Mystery Squishmallow Minis, four to six small minis that won’t crowd your kids’ bed combined with a surprise mystery box inside of a surprise gift box!

#2 Squishmallow Monopoly

If there is one thing my kiddo loves more than Squishmallows, it is Monopoly. What if there was a way to combing Squishmallows with Monopoly? That would be the greatest gift ever!

#3 Squishmallow Moose

Okay, so I’m biased. I love Moose (too much to make the plural joke, BTW), and this one is so cute! Squishmallow Moose!

#4 – Squishville Places

What’s that? You didn’t know there was a Squishville? There is and it is wonderful. There are numerous different Squishville play scenes ranging from the Squishville Mall to the Squishville School and the Squishville Movie Theatre.

#5 – Pixar and Disney Squishmallows

I’m never sure which company pays in a collection like this, but I am sure they make beloved Squishmallows for those that love Squishmallow and Disney and Pixar. (There is also Hello Kitty Squishmallows and Peanuts Squishmallows). My personal favorites are the Wall-E and EVE Squishmallows!

#6 – Best Squishmallow Christmas Gift

If you are looking for the best Christmas gifts for your kiddo, then #6 is for you. The perfect Christmas gift from Santa could be one of the many holiday themed Squishmallows. There is Hello Kitty, Mickey Mouse, Nightmare Before Christmas, and the traditional Squishmallows in Christmas sweaters or Santa hats, and so on. Get the 10″ ones and they fit just perfectly in your average stocking.

Top 6 Squishmallow Gifts originally published at Undefeated Daddy

First up, the Top 6 Squishmallow Gifts for those kids who can’t get enough Squishmallows but have so many they can’t even fit where they go.

Second, we have some recommended Christmas toys for younger children.

Third, the soon to be updated Dad Reviews Stuff article.

Fourth, what about some reviews of kid movies?

You can always contribute to their future with a gift to their 529 plan. (Best for kiddos too young to know they didn’t get a toy out of it

I’ll keep them coming.

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Christmas Toy Reviews From a Real Dad originally published at Undefeated Daddy

In most states, your teen will need to get a significant amount of guided driving, which is driving while a parent is in the car. For example, to get a driverâ€s license in Colorado for teenagers, they need to hold a permit for six months and get 20 hours of behind-the-wheel training, which is driving around with parents or an instructor.

By the time your child is ready to drive, the worry about how they drive slowly recedes. With each hour of driving, they learn the experience that makes them better, more competent drivers.

However, just because your teen is a capable driver does not mean that nothing will ever come up while owning a car or driving a car.

Car Batteries

Car batteries are consumables. Over time a batteryâ€s maximum charge grows lower until the battery can no longer provide enough power to start the car. If they are lucky, your kiddoâ€s car will fail to start when they are parked somewhere safe with people around to help them. However, you want to be prepared for when that doesnâ€t happen.

First, your childâ€s car must absolutely have a pair of jumper cables. Whether you just toss them in the trunk, or make them a part of some roadside kit, jumper cables can be a necessity. Just because there is a helpful person around, doesnâ€t mean that they will necessarily have jumper cables. Having your own set means that anyone can jumpstart your car and they donâ€t need to have any jumper cables.

Portable Car Battery Charger

Another option is to carry a portable jump starter in the car. Unlike jumper cables which require another running automobile, a portable jump starter is a battery itself. Simply connect the jumper cables to the car batter and jump start the car, all without the help of friends or strangers.

Look for a portable jump starter that has long-life storage. Some jumpers require charging every 3 months, or even every month. I donâ€t know what your life is like, but Iâ€m going to forget all about that until the time comes that I need it. Good portable jump starters hold their charge for at least a year or longer. I got this one which says it only needs to be recharged every two years. Now THAT I can remember.

I’ll let you know in two years if it’s true.

AAA Membership For Kids

Sure, you have experience, and maybe a little bit of know-how. Youâ€re also a full-grown adult who knows danger when you see it. Your children might not have nearly the same aptitude yet.

As my oldest heads off to college we became AAA members. Iâ€ve never needed anything like them at for the most part I feel like it might not be the best spent money, but I love the peace of mind that comes from my college freshman having a card in their wallet that they can call AAA for anything that they used to call me for.

New Teen Driver Safety originally published at Undefeated Daddy

• Financial Security – Sure, they know not to leave their wallet unattended, and they aren’t dumb enough to let their friends borrow their debit card, but do they know the rest of the rules of financial security?
  • Use a Password Manager – There are too many places that require a username and password anymore. No one can remember that many passwords, so they either write them down, or more commonly, just start using the same few passwords on every site. Teach them about password managers. Even the default password manager on iPhones and Android is better than nothing.
  • How to Check and Freeze Your Credit Report – You probably told them about how to keep good credit and why that is important, but do they know how to handle it? Every kid should know how to check their credit report, how to get a credit score, and how to freeze their credit report.
• Dealing with People – Nobody is interested in raising another, “Let me speak to your manager,” Karen, but knowing when to stand up for yourself and how is still important. Teach them about how hard it is to work retail, or food service. Teach them how to look people in the eye, and how to shake hands. They’ve seen it in movies, but how hard and how many times to pump is a personal preference, within limits. Let them practice with you.
• How To Tie a Tie – More for boys, but also helpful for girls. She’ll be the hero when she can tie all the groomsmen’s ties for them at her best friend’s wedding when they have no idea how to do it.
• How To JumpStart a Car – Even if it never happens to them, the day will come when they want to help out a friend, or even a stranger in need. Teach them where the cables go, both for the jumper and the jumpee. If you get the opportunity let them listen for the ticking sound that says dead alternator, and not dead battery.
• How To Deal With Mice and Wasps – Way back when, when not every channel ran some sort of long-term reality TV show, there was a show on MTV that filmed the life of Jessica Simpson and her first husband Nick Lachey. In one episode, Lachey finds a wasp hive, or hornet’s nest. His first instinct is to spray it with the hose. Yikes! – Be sure your kids know how to bait and set a mouse trap, and about long-distance spraying wasp and hornet killer.

6 Lessons You Might Forget to Teach Your Kids originally published at Undefeated Daddy

As a parent you know that having kids makes everything more expensive. A nice dinner out with you and the wife costs half of what the same dinner costs with the wife and both kids. (OK, a little more than half, but wine and cocktails don’t count.) So, saving money with kids is a constant battle. Southwest Airlines is rocking an interesting, but limited, deal to get a free Southwest Companion Pass for a short term.

Soutwest Companion Pass

For those of you who are new parents, or just new at flying with kids, allow me to regale you with a tale of the Southwest Airlines Companion Pass. The Southwest Companion pass allows another person to travel with you for free. Unlike all those scam offers where a companion can fly free, but only if you pay the much higher full fare, the Soutwest Companion Pass 2022 lets your companion fly free no matter what ticket you buy, even if you score a $49 Wanna Get Away fare.

Here is the best part. Although you have to designate who your pass companion will be, you are allowed to change it up to three times per year. If you’re a little savvy about how you use those changes, it should be plenty.

How To Get Southwest Companion Pass

Getting the Southwest Companion Pass with normal rules and procedures is a bit of an ordeal. You have to earn 125,000 qualifying points or fly 100 one-way flights during a single calendar year from January to December. As you may imagine, people that qualify aren’t families taking trips, it’s people traveling for business flying back and forth between Denver and Chicago, or whatever. You can continue to use Southwest gift cards to buy the paying fare, but Southwest Airlines gift cards cannot be used to pay for Early Bird Check In. (Complete list of gift card rules is below).

Fortunately, there are Companion Pass secret tricks that can get you one easier.

How To Get a Southwest Companion Pass Without Flying So Much

Every so often Southwest offers special ways to get a companion pass without the usual requirements. These Companion Pass special offers often involve getting a Southwest credit card. Earlier this year, we did just that and charged anything and everything to our Southwest Rapid Rewards Chase Visa and qualified for a companion pass without flying. For that offer, the pass was good for the year you are in, 2022 and the following year 2023. As you can imagine getting one free child airfare whenever we go somewhere saves us a ton of money.

Southwest Companion Pass Special Offer

The current Soutwest companion pass offer is smaller, both to qualify for, and to use.

To qualify you have to be a Southwest Rapid Rewards member, which is Southwest Airlines’ frequent flyer program.

1. You must login into your Rapid Rewards account and register for the promotion.
2. Then you have to buy any round trip or two one-way flights by 9/8/22 (act fast!)
3. You must travel on the flight you buy by November 17, 2022.
4. Then you get a companion pass for free!

The Catch

Remember I told you there was a catch?

In exchange for such an easy qualification for a companion pass, it is limited to a shorter duration. This special companion pass offer is only good from January 4, 2023, to March 4, 2023. So, although the Soutwest Companion Pass saves big money for families if you use it throughout the year, but this is only four months, so it may not do what you would like.

If your school year calendar has loaded into your head, you may recognize that Soutwest has crafted this offers so that you have to travel before the holidays. Then, your companion pass only turns on after both Christmas and New Year’s. Then, your companion pass expires before Spring Break.

You want to think this through. If you need standard school holidays to travel, this offer won’t save you much. However, if you have a school that has a Fall Break in October, and you travel on Martin Luther King Day, and again if you get a President’s Day holiday break, then it might be worth it. You pay for everyone on the flight for Fall Break, and then you get a companion free for the January and February trips.

I know what you’re thinking. (maybe)

What if I have two kids and a spouse?

Ah yessss. That’s what I’m talking about.

If you are a member of Rapid Rewards, and your spouse is a member of Rapid Rewards, there is no reason that both of you can register for this promotion, and you buy one child’s ticket on your account, and your spouse buys one ticket on their account, and now you get two special offer companion passes, so you can fly two children for free on those January and February trips and that saves some serious money.

Free Southwest Companion Pass Offer Rules and Regulations

In addition to what is laid out above, Southwest has some rules to keep you from pulling a fast one on this deal. If you buy a flight with points, it does not count. However, you can use Southwest gift cards, LUV vouchers, and any travel funds you have on your account.

If you really want to take this to the limit, you could buy Southwest gift cards somewhere you get a reward or discount and then use them to buy the flight. If you can maximize some cash back on the cards that would save even more. Eventually, your reward isn’t worth the effort, but think it through. Maybe a school fundraiser or sports team benefits when you buy gift cards. That would be worth it.

Also, it only counts if you buy the fare after you register. So, if you already have a flight coming before November 11, it doesn’t count. However, if you looked at your current itinerary and it seems that you could cancel your original flight and then innocently rebook the same flight, then that may qualify. Ensure that the flight still has at least a few seats available and that the fare has not increased, or you may end up paying more than you can save.

More Southwest Rewards Specials

Southwest does not announce ahead of time any special offers, however, they do tend to have them every so often, so if this one doesn’t work for you, just wait for the next one. Other airlines offer various rewards as well, although none so generous. Either way, traveling makes great memories for you and your kids, so make it work whenever you can, even if you can’t get a free child airline ticket.

Another way to save on Southwest fares is with gift card specials that pop up. Costco, for example sells $500 gift cards for $450. On sale the same Southwest Airlines Costco gift certificate can be marked even lower. If you catch a Costco airlines gift card sale, you can get a $500 gift card for $440, $430, or maybe even less. Southwest gift cards never expire, but there are other Costco airlines gift card rules that apply as rules for Southwest gift cards as well.

Southwest Gift Card Rules for Traveling Families

• A Southwest^® gift card is non-refundable.
• A Southwest gift card has no expiration date.
• A Southwest gift card is fully transferrable.
• A Southwest gift card is not replaceable if lost, stolen, or destroyed.
• A Southwest gift card is VOID if altered or obtained fraudulently.
• A Southwest gift card has no value until activated. It is activated after payment clears.
• A Southwest gift card is not a credit or debit card and has no implied warranties.

You can use gift cards on a Southwest child’s fares, although that might not save any money.

Southwest Companion Pass Free Travel for Kids originally published at Undefeated Daddy