I Pick Up Pennies

Sorry to do such a quick reversal. And I’m sorry for posting about something I hadn’t checked out thoroughly. Since someone I knew had received the items, I thought it was safe.

And it may still be — the jury’s out. So far, there are no actual complaints of not receiving items. That said, my mom talked to an industry friend of hers who, after some quick checking, was very skeptical. Furthermore, she mentioned a FatWallet thread about Amoozle.

The details are not in Amoozle’s favor. Does that mean it’s definitely a scam? No. But it’s apparently awfully similar to Cardlilly, which I’m not familiar with. Based on what I read, they get a whole bunch of good reviews and then start claiming “delayed” orders and so on.

I decided to cancel the order. I’m sorry for anyone who bought based on my recommendation. I should have done more research.

I’m off to feel dumb for not checking on this more.

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How I saved $60

Abigail — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 19:24:55 +0000

The website Amoozle is currently offering a buy one, get one free on $25 Visa, MasterCard and American Express gift cards. My mom used the site to buy a similar offer for Amazon. The code was emailed to her after the promotion ended, so I know it’s not a hoax.

Now, before you get too excited, I should warn you there are some restrictions:

1. You can only get one of each card.

2. The cards won’t ship until the promotion ends, which is when all 500 are sold or 21 days are up. Whichever comes first.

3. There’s a $4.95 handling fee for each card you buy. So, for 3 buy-one-get-one offers, I was charged $14.95. That’s why I say that I saved $60.05, rather than $75.

4. You’ll (probably) be charged a foreign transaction fee. Despite being available only in the U.S., apparently Amoozle is Canadian. Or so reports my mom, who was charged about 88 cents by her credit card company.

That said, I’m still saving at least $55 — probably closer to $58. Seems worth it to me!

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DIY spa day

Abigail — Sun, 29 Jan 2012 21:58:26 +0000

Yesterday, one of our friends had a birthday party. I literally can’t remember the last time I went to a party. A couple we know had a housewarming party back in late spring or early summer, but I wasn’t feeling well and didn’t go.

Given all the crap that has been happening lately — and the fact that I actually felt emotionally stable enough to go — I decided some pampering was in order.

So, mini spa day.

Body wash

Because of Tim’s skin, we have a lot of Philosophy products lying around. Before you judge, just remember we do get them at reduced prices via eBay and store sales — always combined with cash back via Mr. Rebates or Ebates.

But, even using that combination, Philosphy products are still pricier than many frugal folks like. Fear not, there are plenty of other options.

Back in the days before Philosophy, I just relied on body washes that felt luxurious but cost very little. My favorites were usually from Nivea or Softsoap. Ingredients like shea butter or milk and honey feel indulgent, while keeping prices down. And, of course, combining coupons and sales means you can substantially drive down the $6 price tag.

To add a little extra indulgence — and to come out feel really radiant — add a sugar scrub to your routine. For a truly frugal product, make your own scrub.

Conditioner

I know I should condition more. I’m lucky if I remember to do it once a week. (Though I use products that help protect my hair out of the shower. I guess that helps.)

But when I’m pampering, I make sure to give my hair a nice, deep conditioning. It feels indulgent, even though you really don’t have to spend much.

First of all, it turns out that high-end brands are often sister companies of less prestigious brands. For example, Kerastase is made by Loreal. The former’s $50 “hair masque” has almost identical ingredients as the latter’s $4.99 Vive Pro Smooth Intense Conditioning Treatment. Nuff said.

I got some Pantene Professional Damage Repair at BlogHer. I have been using that every couple of weeks — well, at least once a month — with pretty good results. Amazon has the best deal at $5. You only get 5 in a pack (though if your hair is shoulder length or above you can get two uses per ampoule), but that’s still a reasonable price.

For the best deal, though, just combine your normal conditioner with a shower cap. Or, if you’re classy like I was growing up, a plastic grocery bag. I’ve also heard of using saran wrap.

Just slather it on, tuck your hair up under some form of plastic and wait half an hour. The idea is that the plastic seals in the moisture (and conditioner) and your hair gets a rich treatment. Just be sure to rinse thoroughly. If you don’t, it will show.

Face Masks

I find there’s very little that can beat face masks for feeling pampered and fussed over. Even if the person doing the fussing over me is, well, me.

My general go-to for a few years was The Body Shop’s Tea Tree face mask. I considered it an indulgence at $15 because, uh, I was broke. But it was great, and if/when we run out of Philosophy face mask products, I’ll probably gravitate back to it. If you shop carefully, you can also get the $15 price tag down. There are frequent sales, plus social buying sites tend to offer $20 vouchers for $10. Keep your eyes peeled.

Alas, that’s where my face mask knowledge ends. So I defer to the experts at Allure. They listed Queen Helene’s Mint Julep mask ($4.75 or less), which was in a few other “affordable face masks” lists. Another one of intrest was Freeman Beauty masks ($3.99 and up).

As always, though, you can save the most money by being industrious and whipping up something at home. There is a long list of face mask recipes on About.com Beauty, and a list of 50 mask recipes on Witty Living.

Pedicure

Personally, I don’t bother with this all that often. But a pretty color on your toes can be a nice cheap way to feel pampered. Especially if you do a foot soak or scrub down those tootsies to keep them from getting too rough.

I always mean to. I never do. But plenty of women love even the at-home ritual of prettying up their feet. And, with plenty of cheap and colorful options at any drugstore, it’s a great frugal way to primp.

And let’s not forget…

Good music is a must — whatever your definition of that is. You need something to bounce around to as you apply a face mask/toe color/makeup. Or play something lovely and soft to relax to.

Whatever tunes you choose, you should emerge from your DIY spa day refreshed, moisturized and feeling pretty confident. And that’s worth any price.

Anyone have any product suggestions or extra steps for pampering?

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Freebie Friday

Abigail — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 07:47:28 +0000

Freebie Friday is brought to you by The Freebie Blogger. Check out the site daily for tips, events and, of course, freebies.

Free Tena Twist Sample

Free Theme Park Admission for Military

Kraft Mac & Cheese Free Product Coupon

Free Printable Fire Safety Activity Book

Possible Free Papa Johns Pizza

Free Business Solutions Magazine Subscription

Free Brighter Than the Sun Song Download

Free Subscription to Martha Stewart Living

Free Yummi Bears Vitamin Sample (code KKFREE)

Free Prai 24K Golden Caviar Skin Care Sample

Free Calcet Calcium Citrate & Vitamin D Creamy Bites Sample

25 Free Digital Prints at Walmart

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Toilet paper math

Abigail — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 01:14:04 +0000

I am always frustrated by toilet paper prices. Thanks to different sizes of packaging — number of rolls, sheets per roll, regular or double, etc — toilet paper is just not something that’s easy to compare.

Of course, toilet paper is also one of those things I rarely think about until we’re almost out. In which case, I’m forced to simply choose the best deal that I can find and hope it’s not too bad.

Not knowing, though, frustrates me. Most other grocery and toiletries items are easily compared. A tube of toothpaste compares to a tube of toothpaste — and they’ll tell you precisely how many ounces are in each, right there in the ad.

But seeing some toilet paper on sale doesn’t really tell you everything. You have no idea of sheets per roll of either one, just roll count. And, yes, perhaps that’s getting a little overly detail-oriented. But it’s just frustrating to not be able to compare without getting out the calculator.

So, I did what any sensible — by which I mean irrationally obsessed — person would do and broke out the calculator. I was bound and determined to compare apples to apples, which meant finding out sheets per roll and/or square footage.

Like I said, irrationally obsessed. But haven’t you ever wondered? (If not, just placate me and say you have.)

The real trick to comparing such things online is being able to zoom in on the packaging. Not all product descriptions will list sheets per roll and square footage. But all the packages have that information on the front.

In the end, I found that Soap.com had the best tools for viewing that information. So then I just had to find the exact packages on sale in the weekly circulars.

Once I had that, it was just a matter of some number crunching.

And, yes, reading over this post, I do sound a little manic. But I’m still glad I finally broke down those numbers.

Why?

Well, Charmin’s so-called double roll is only 176 sheets, compared to 150 in a regular Angel Soft roll. Quilted Northern is a little closer at 225-245 per roll. But that’s still significantly less than twice an Angel Soft roll.

Once I figured out the roll differences, there was almost no comparison.

It helped that Angel Soft was on sale at Fry’s, 88 cents for a four-pack. (That’s 15/100 of a penny per sheet for those of you playing along at home.) But even its normal price of $2.49 (or 4/10 of a penny per sheet) is better than a lot of the other brands when they’re on sale.

Of course, people have different preferences. Some people swear by a particular brand. As long as it’s two-ply, I don’t care. But I understand that brand loyalty does sometimes weight the scales a bit. And with something as personal as “bathroom tissue”… well, who can blame you?

That said, I’m making a trip to Fry’s tonight to stock up on 4-packs of Angel Soft. While this calculator play was educational, I’d rather not have to do any more toilet paper math for awhile.

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After the D & C

Abigail — Sat, 21 Jan 2012 20:21:20 +0000

I’ve never been great at allowing myself healing time.

I laid low on Friday after the D & C. On Saturday, though, I took my mother-in-law to a Goodwill sale. Then, instead of lying down, I got a notion in my head that it was the perfect time to sweep the house. (In my defense, tile means it’s more obvious you need to clean.) And sweeping entails sweeping, then Swiffering and then using a wet Swiffer cloth.

That started the cramps back up, but I desperately wanted to get out of the house. So I went to Magic with Tim. We had to drop in the second round — the two doses of ibuprofen weren’t touching the cramps and I was even more emotionally fragile than expected.

I feel too exposed when I’m around people who know — even though I know they want to be supportive — and too upset at people who don’t know, for not magically sensing the crap I’m going through. Or, maybe, because I’m afraid then I’ll have to tell them.

So I’ve stayed home and laid low. And filled the Vicodin prescription the doctor wrote. Other than going out once a day for a meal — not great for the budget but we can afford it if we’re careful in other areas and, frankly, who gives a crap right now anyway — I pretty much just sit around at home and watch TV or sleep.

Mostly sleep, actually. To the point that I’m actually sore from sleeping so much. (I bought two massages through Groupon. Tim and I could both use some pampering.)

Meanwhile, I’ve given Tim my blessing to go and play Magic. Part of me wants to keep him here, holding me and/or watching TV with me. But even on good days, he goes a little stir crazy; and this miscarriage happened to him, too.

He wanted to have people over, so he could still be close but would also be distracted. But I’m just not up for interaction with most people. Instead, he goes out and plays. But if he isn’t sure he’ll get into the Top 8, he drops after round 3 — out of 5 or 6 — and comes home to check on me. So far, it works more than it doesn’t, which is about all you can hope for in such situations.

The only other issue is my irritability. Everything is a mountain — especially molehills. Everything exasperates me. The only reason I’m able to be back at work is that I only talk to customers via email. So I can take deep breaths and channel a patient, courteous version of myself.

I’d take more time off, but sitting around all day will quickly drive me even crazier than dealing with customers.

Instead, I’m going to go in for medication management. I called my health plan and got a list of approved practitioners. On Monday, I’ll call around and make an appointment. I predict the person will increase my mood stabilizer. And I predict that will help some — and every little bit counts.

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Want to buy a car? Overpay your taxes

Abigail — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 18:55:54 +0000

Normally, just about everyone in the personal finance world is going to tell you to avoid overpaying the IRS. I am usually one of them.

While you want to avoid penalties for late payments or underpayment, it’s also important to remember that the IRS won’t give you a penny of interest for any overpayment. (Though it has little compunction about charging you interest on underpayment.)

That said, there are times that you can profit from overpaying the IRS. To be exact, you can get a 100% return on that overpayment.

As the 1040 season hovers ominously ahead of us. car dealerships are starting to roll out the “Double your refund” offers. Essentially, you sign over your expected return and they double it as a down payment.

The closer we get to April, the more places will probably make these offers. Furniture stores, travel agencies and other such spots want to lure customers in, despite a bad economy. What better way than giving folks “free” money… that they have to spend at your establishment? Especially when the original funds are still an abstraction to the consumer.

But what if you haven’t overpaid this year? Well, there’s still time. Sort of.

Even if you’re not self-employed, you can send in an estimated tax payment. This is good for people whose situations have changed and worry that they’ve underpaid their tax liability for the year. You just print out a voucher from the IRS site, write out a check and send it in.

Now here’s the tricky part: The deadline for that was 1/17/12. For those of you paying attention, today is 1/18/12.

But all is not lost. We’re a nation of procrastinators. Plenty of estimated tax vouchers will be sent after the deadline. More importantly, if you haven’t actually underpaid, the funds aren’t really late. Not in the sense than the IRS cares about, anyway.

So, all you have to do is go to the IRS site and print out the voucher for an estimated payment. If you do this, make absolutely sure you use a voucher for the 4th quarter of 2011. If you use a 2012 estimated tax form, that money’s gone until 2013. You can find the 2011 Estimated Tax payment vouchers here.

A few caveats:

First, be smart. Your refund is real money — no matter how abstract it is right now — and so could be going into your savings account. Make sure the dealership is offering a good enough deal. When they have something to offer — credit for a trade-in or a special promotion — dealerships are less likely to haggle down to lower prices.

Second, do your research. Not all stores will make this offer. Check to find out where the deals have been offered in the past, what those stores’ reputations are and what limits there are. No sense in draining your savings account by $5,000 if they’ll only double $3,000.

Finally, whatever you do, don’t overpay throughout 2012 for a planned purchase in 2013. Here’s why:

1. The IRS doesn’t give mid-year refunds.

Need funds in September that you overpaid back in April or June? Tough. You won’t see those until 2013.

2. Overpayment doesn’t carry over quarter to quarter.

If you owe $2,000 every quarter, you can’t pay $3,000 in Q1 and only $1,00 in Q2. Not without risking underpayment penalties, anyway. (And those would accrue interest throughout the year.) The safe harbor rule does protect you to a certain extent here, but, really, why risk it?

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Buckling down — for all 4 of us

Abigail — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 10:00:08 +0000

My goal this week is to get serious about groceries.

We really aren’t doing a great job of carefully planning the food bill. Part of that is laziness on our part. Currently, Nadine gets about $300 a month in benefits. Now that we’re all more settled in, the rampant grocery spending seems to have abated; so her monthly benefits cover most of our grocery costs.

But, starting in February, Arizona state will be in charge of her food stamps, which means she’ll only get about $100 in help. In other words, we’ll need a better system — one that I’d rather have in place before the big cut happen.

The problem is communal meals. I love having someone — Nadine and/or Tim — cook. And right now it’s simple: Nadine’s benefits cover most of our grocery bill. But, starting next month, things will get far more complicated.

We won’t want to pay for every single communal meal we eat. But we also won’t want Nadine and Marc shouldering too much of the costs, either. And, of course, it’s not as though Nadine separates her grocery lists into shared items and ones for just her and Marc.

So we have to find a way to make sure they’re not buying too many of the communal groceries, without our having to pay too much for their own purchases. Which probably comes off as stingy, but I’m more worried about the potential for resentment.

I don’t want to have to wonder how much of the groceries we paid for was for things I really think is a waste of money — and I’m sure they don’t want me poring over every bill they bring home. It could get uncomfortable.

Everyone has different grocery standards. I’m horrified when Marc buys those paltry trays of sliced fruit for $3-5 a shot. Heck, I got a little dizzy when Nadine bought cherries this week that weren’t on sale. Yeah, they $2.50 a pound — not horribly priced — but they also weren’t all that robust looking, and Marc hadn’t even specifically asked for them.

And, in case I didn’t mention it, they weren’t on sale. I stress that because I understand how silly it probably sounds. But that was the thought pounding in my head while she examined the incredibly unimpressive bag that was probably nearly $5.

I was raised that you only ever buy fruit that is on sale. You just don’t buy it otherwise. (My only exception, for some reason, is bananas. Maybe because they’re so cheap anyway?)

It’s this kind of stuff that will quickly strain relations with my relations. And it’s just not worth that kind of resentment. So we’d better buckle down and figure out a better system before I end up yelling at a bewildered in-law in the produce section. (Don’t laugh. If my blood sugar were low enough, I could easily drag Marc by the ear into the canned fruit section and ask if he were aware it existed.)

So, what to do?

The biggest thing is to figure out communal meals separately. If Nadine and I sit down with the food ads each Wednesday, we can decide on the couple of meals to make that week. Then we can make sure that Tim and I are covering a fair share of those costs, simply by making sure that some of those ingredients land in our cart instead of hers.

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Bargain hunting for a D&C

Abigail — Sat, 14 Jan 2012 12:27:56 +0000

I believe this is what they call an insult to injury.

I was woken up on Wednesday by the news that my insurance wouldn’t schedule the thing until I got a referral to the OB’s office from my primary. That meant the visit the day before wouldn’t have been covered, not to mention having to schedule an extraneous appointment with a doctor I had yet to meet (my plan changed on January 1st) and go through the unpleasant explanation, etc.

I called my insurance company furious. Before I schedule the 1/10 appointment back in December, I called to make sure I didn’t need a referral. They assured me I didn’t.

Hence my angry, somewhat blubbering phone call. It was not a good way to wake up the day after such news, I assured the phone rep.

She was quite helpful/apologetic and confirmed that I hadn’t needed a referral. She even checked with her supervisor just to be 100% sure. She then got on the phone with my OB’s office herself and let them know they had been given bad information.

She then informed me that they were going to try to book me in Banner Hospital and so the co-pay was $150 plus 20% of the cost of any drugs, which was usually under $20.

Needless to say, I wasn’t thrilled by the prospect of paying $150 for the privilege of this procedure. After hanging up with her and getting Tim up to speed, I called my insurance again.

As the phone rang, I had the momentary lucid thought that it was somewhat macabre to be looking for a “good deal” on a D&C. But given the unpleasantness of this entire situation, I really didn’t want to pay more than a penny extra.

It turned out to be moot — the $150 was the flat rate for any outpatient procedure with this insurance. I was a little relieved, truth be told. I really didn’t want to wheel and deal too much for something like this. Mainly, I just wanted to check and make sure that my HMO wasn’t charging more based on location.

The procedure was scheduled for Friday morning, with a check-in of 6:15 a.m. and a starting time of 8:15 a.m. More insult to injury: Tim had been planning to catch a ride to LA for a Magic tournament at 6 a.m. that day. Since general anesthetic is used, he had to be there to drive me home around 9 or 10 a.m.

Of course, I also wouldn’t have wanted him to leave right after the procedure. I doubt he would have wanted it either. And he had no qualms about cancelling with his ride. It just would have been nice for him to be able to get out of town and clear his head a bit.

He’s been nothing but supportive, while he himself processes all this on his own terms and timeline. He is upset, too, and there’s really not much we can do but be there for each other.

He put out a note on Facebook, so that we wouldn’t have to keep repeating ourselves to the Magic community. (We also figured it would give those folks time to think of something to say the next time they saw us, so they stand less chance of blurting out something cringe-worthy.)

The outpouring has been pretty overwhelming. And, of course, here and on my mom’s post, we’ve seen a huge amount of support. So thank you all for that.

And now, it being 5:45 a.m. on Friday morning, I’m about to head off to the hospital. Dread and anticipation of loss make this particularly hard. It’s nice to know you all are out there.

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