While major events like buying a house, purchasing a car, going to college, or visiting a hospital might seem to have the greatest impact on household finances, it’s really the day-to-day details that count. The ability to make good decisions about spending and saving consistently is what will lead to better results for you and your family.

There are plenty of opportunities to needlessly throw away money every day. The plethora of bills and expenses can be daunting, and you may find yourself spending without thinking. However, it is truly worth the effort of reviewing your monthly costs and seeking out better deals and more opportunities to save.

It’s easy to get complacent with your roles in the household. However, you might be missing out on plenty of savings that will be vital in the long-run. That’s why it never hurts to have someone else be your second pair of eyes once in a while when looking over your monthly expenditures. As a team, you can help each other find new ways and opportunities to better your financial situation. Can we find a cheaper internet provider? Is there a better cell phone plan out there for us? Do we actually need the cable TV package that we currently have?

A good place to start looking for savings each month is your car insurance. Because it’s usually easy to switch to a new provider without incurring any extra costs, it’s certainly in your best interest to seek out a better deal. Then, check out other household expenses. In no time, you’ll be saving a few hundred dollars each month while only expending a little extra energy.

Have you compared car insurance lately?

Goal: Save 10%

This year my goals were fairly simple; save money ($6,000 for the year), continue to grow my blog (375 readers daily), and ride my bike (1,000 miles this year). Using the SMART technique, I came up with a plan to meet each target goal. I also added in paying off the car, but that goal is soclose to being completed, I almost can’t count it as a “New Year’s” goal. So how am I doing at day 31?

Biking

One month into the new year I’m finding that riding my bike 1,000 miles this year is going to be a piece of cake. I’m super motivated since I’ve started a bike blog, Bike Lane Living, and the weather has been sublime. It helps that this is something I have complete control over; it’s up to me to wake up 15-30 minutes earlier than usual and it’s up to me to psyche myself into “You gotta ride, the weather is terrific!” There’s really few, if any, outside factors working against me to meet this goal. Progress: Ahead of the game.

Blog

So starting another blog this year may be splitting my time and focus in two and could detract from my initial goal. However, I’m realizing I need to outsource some of the “busy” work it takes to “run” a blog. But of course, some of you know this already! I’ve enlisted the help of a couple of colleagues to help me network more often; submit to carnivals, comment on blogs I just don’t have time to catch up on, etc. This should assist me in meeting my blog goal and expanding my readership. So far, my page views have been consistently improving and this is a good sign. Progress: On target.

Saving Money

I just wrote an article the other day mentioning some strategies for those of us (i.e. ME) that need mind tricks to SAVE MORE MONEY! If finances were completely up to me, I think I’d be on schedule (Ah, Um…I need to save so pay me more! Or, hey, we don’t really need that, do we?). But let’s face it; outside factors influence how much I can save and what I have to work with. Yet, sticking with a 10% savings plan, I think I’ll be able to play catch-up in the next couple of  months. I’ve also been good at stashing the Lincolns in my Mason Jar, so hopefully that will add up to some extra green by March. At only $200 saved so far this year, I’d say I have a bit of catching up to do! Progress: Behind.

If only saving were as easy as biking, I’d be doing great. I need to break the cycle and save more because this is becoming a recurring theme (and post)!

How are your New Year’s goals or resolutions going so far?

• Pay for funeral services. Cost: $3,000 – $10,000.
• Replace the loss of one income for 6-months to a year. Cost: $18,000 – $36,000.
• Take a few months off of work to sort things out and grieve. Cost: $18,000.
• Buy something expensive to make the remaining person feel better (Okay, Mr. LH said he buy an expensive car. I think I’d just visit family members.) Cost: $3,000 – $35,000.

We’re still paying on our life insurance policy, but because it is a term policy we don’t intend to have it forever since term policies don’t have a cash value applied to them. Actually, with a large enough emergency fund, we could budget for the above items over a 10 year period.

If I calculated out the maximum of each of the above items, that comes to $99,000 (just a grand under our policy coverage). Over 10 years, at a 4% compounded savings rate, if I invested $670 a month I’d have a little over $99K saved in 10 years. Now, if all goes well and we’re still kicking (and really, we wouldn’t be that old anyway), we’d have a nice little nest egg set aside for the future. Also, we’d be saving $5,280 in payments in that same amount of time.

So now I ask myself, “Is an emergency fund a better alternative?” It is if I can scrape together $670 a month to only be applied to our “ER/death” fund. This figure doesn’t take into account retirement, travel, or any other type of emergency that I’d need to budget for.

An alternative would be to swap out our term policy for a cash policy, which would mean we pay a higher monthly amount, but have the option of cashing it out in our senior  years. This may actually be a better option for us since at this point, we could afford a slightly higher monthly payment. I also don’t like the idea of paying money towards something we won’t ever be able to take advantage of except if one of us dies. We’re sort of betting against death or for death I suppose if we wanted to take advantage of the term policy.

Have you reviewed your life insurance policy? Did you opt for a term policy or cash policy?

For instance, my cats seems to prefer to barf up their hairballs on the carpets instead of the laminate flooring that covers three-quarters of my house. Once a year I have to have my carpets cleaned professionally due to cat vomit; cost: $120. We purposely have a light weight blanket over our bedspread for exactly these kinds of mishaps. Over the past year, the stains have sunk in and just won’t come out. Sometime this year, I’m sure I’ll replace it; cost: $35. Every now and then, my cats get into a bit of trouble and knock over a trinket on a counter top. Those trinkets are usually under the $20 range, but that can add up over time; cost:who knows.

It’s just not cats, though. Just the other day I overheard someone describing her puppy’s destructive behavior, chewing up shoes, books, and who knows what else.

Well just last night, my cats decided to pull a doosey of an accident. One of them (and I’m not sure which one) knocked over a fairly heavy bar stool (I’m thinking it’s my fat cat Fred) and destroyed it. It landed on its side and broke the top of the back off like a twig. It’s a shame because this particular bar stool is $300. Yep. That’s the true cost of pets I suppose.

If you have pets, how much do you estimate you spend annually on pet destruction?

Pocket those Percentages.

One way I’ve been able to stash some extra cash is to set aside a percentage of my income. Using percents makes it easier for me to feel like I’m accomplishing my savings goal, especially since I live on a fluctuating income. I set aside 10%  percent from every source of income I receive and apply it towards savings. I auto debit the amount from my pay check making it easy for me to not count it as “income.” For all other sources of income, I automatically move 10% of the total check to my savings account.

If I had a set amount, I’m not sure I’d be able to meet it every month and I’d become discouraged. Percentages work no matter what my income might be in any given month.

Don’t Spend the Lincoln’s (or Benjamin’s, or Jeffersons, etc.)

I came across this tip on another website (of course I don’t remember which one!) that used a mind trick to save some extra cash; select a bill of choice and make a commitment to NOT spend it. I rarely have cash on hand, however, my goal is to save every Lincoln I come across. Five bucks here and there will eventually add up. After three to six months, my goal is to deposit the total into my savings account. This might motivate me to use cash more often. Of course the objective here is to increase your savings account, so place the cash where you can forget about it for a while!

Save those Gifts

Birthday’s, anniversaries, and even holidays are great ways to boost your savings. Deposit cash gifts into your savings account and turn gift cards into cash by cashing them out, or selling them. If the gift card is from a place you normally shop, save them for future use and stash the cash value in your savings account. If you don’t feel comfortable turning a gift into cash, tell family and friends that you’re working hard to ramp up your savings and would prefer gifts that help accomplish that goal.

Find Motivation

Another great way to get motivated to save more money is by using an online company that offer rewards for saving such as SaveUp. SaveUp wants to make saving money fun and offers daily give-aways to help motivate their members. Setting up an account earns you points that you use to “play” a game for a prize. Prizes include cash, bills paid, cars, shopping sprees, and many other options. Just a warning: SaveUp is a little addicting.

Do you use mind tricks to save more money?

Chicago Loft - photo credit by Lavender & Lilies

Finding a home in the perfect location at the right price can be difficult. It seems that most urban areas offer very small homes or homes that are extremely expensive.

Picture this; you find a terrific urban neighborhood that offers walking or biking to local shops and restaurants and the school district is distinguished, unfortunately the only house you can afford is under 1,000 square feet and you know that size just won’t accommodate your family’s needs. An alternative to a smaller abode might just be to raise the roof, literally, by adding a loft. Creativity is a plus in this scenario, you can A.) convert your attic into a room, B.) add a loft to a volume ceiling (higher than just a vaulted ceiling), or C.) raise the roof and build up.

Take the attic for instance; most families don’t use the entire portion of the attic for storage. With the help of a contractor, you can convert a portion of your attic into another room. Apparently, rafter attics are the easiest to convert without raising the roof, truss-built attics require more work to convert and may require an architect. A contractor will make sure your walls and floor will support the weight of an addition. Within your plan, a contractor will also make sure fire exits are available and take into consideration windows, sky lights, and air flow. Resource for attic conversions.

Can’t covert the attic? What about a vaulted-volume ceiling? If your ceiling is high enough, you can build a loft room or just a sleeping loft to add a little extra space. Sleeping lofts are quite popular in cities like New York where space is limited. Narrow ladders can be tucked away during the day and brought out when it’s time for bed. Resource for loft conversions.

West Hollywood Cottage - photo credit Sunset.com

Sunset.com recently showcased a small cottage in West Hollywood. Originally only 600-square feet without much land to work with, the couple built up and doubled the square footage. Adding plenty of windows, using bright white walls and geometric designs and colors gives the illusion there’s more room than what’s actually there.

Would you consider a smaller home in a better, or more prestigious, neighborhood? Would you add on?

• First Gen American with How to Take a Break from Toxic People
• Financial Samurai with Always be the Underdog
• Financially Consumed shares PT Money’s Personal Finance Blogger Map
• Well Heeled Blog with Income, Goals, and How Much is “Enough”
• Sustainable Life Blog with Getting Back on Track with Rewards
• Budgeting in the Fun Stuff with I visited a Psychic Monk – Your Read that Right -  a hilarious personal experience of visiting a psychic. I think I’ll skip a palm reading, thank you.
• Barbara Friedberg with Why You Need Feeback for Success
• Frugal Confessions with How to Save Money on Dieting since it’s a hot topic this month; dieting that is, well and maybe saving money.
• Krantcents with Interview Questions that make you go hmmm…
• The Saved Quarter with The Saved Quarter Challenge: Take Charge of Your Credit Penny’s set up her annual saved quarter challenge and offers solid advice for getting your credit in shape.
• Super Frugalette with Using Price Comparison Websites to Save Money
• Debt Free by Thirty with Learning from the Lilkendeys: Entertainment Value
• Minting Nickels with Perfection Not Required
• Financially Consumed with How Much Will You Pay for Gasoline in 2012? I’d say an arm and maybe a leg, but I’ll just ride my bike more.
• Not Made of Money with Our Rules for Credit Card Use I recently switched to using credit cards for everyday purchases and I like the change so far.

And our weekly carnival submissions

(Thanks, Don for helping me with this!)

Debt Black Hole: Creating A Financial Plan For 2012 Conventions & Conferences – Attending Comic Book/Sci-Fi Conventions & Professional Conferences can be expensive. That’s why creating a plan to pay for these events is important. This is a breakdown of the financial plan I’m using to attend 6 different events in 2012.

Sense to Save: Even small amounts have a big impact when prepaying the mortgage – If you’re early in the amortization period of an installment loan, the impact of even a few extra dollars per month can be huge. I was surprised to see that only $10 more/month could shave nearly a year off my 30-year term.

Personal Finance Whiz: Should I Fix My Car or Get a New One? – If you own a car it’s inevitable that you’ll someday face a stupidly expensive repair bill. How do you know when it’s worth it to fix your car and when it’s time to trash it?

The College Investor: Free Online Money Management Tools – A look at some of the best online money management tools that are FREE!

My Multiple Incomes: Are You Ready For Mobile Readers? – A look at how many mobile readers your site gets, and if they can really even read your content on their mobile device.

My Journey to Millions: What Do You Do with Your Children’s Money? – “What Should I do with Money my child has received for a gift?

Narrow Bridge Finance: Why New Year’s Resolutions Are a Waste of Time – Don’t make new year’s resolutions, make “right now” resolutions

Invest It Wisely: 3 Frugal Ideas for a Romantic Valentine’s Day – Remember, there’s no need to spend a fortune on Valentine’s Day. Sometimes, a bit of cheap fun is all you need. So, what are your ideas for Valentine’s Day this year?

MoneyGreenLife: MoneyFail #3 – Dumb With 401k Contribution – Don’t be dumb by not participating in your company’s 401k program. I will lose almost $300,000 by not enrolling for 18 months a few years back.

compounding returns: The Poor Man’s Guide to Getting Rich – A simple, 3 step plan that will allow anyone to build real wealth!

20s Finances : Why Financing a Car Can be a Bad Idea – If you are looking to get a car and you don’t have enough money saved to purchase the car outright, you may be tempted to get a car loan so that you don’t have to wait. But is this really the best route to take?

Thousandaire : Claim Your Unclaimed Property – Check to see if you have unclaimed property (free money) waiting for you. Just search at your state’s website and you might have something!

My Broken Coin : Live A Little: Have A Latte – This is a new series I am starting on this blog. It is called Live A Little, and it is not about how to save more by cutting expenses and living frugal. It is about spending, but in an intelligent way.

Money Q&A : Four Great Benefits Of Buying A House – There are many great benefits of buying a house such as wealth creation, tax savings, forced savings, and others. Renting should not be your default option when there are so many great benefits of buying a house.

101 Centavos : How NOT to Invest in Water – I’ve been reading quite a bit about water lately. Set a Google alert for water scarcity India China, and your inbox is bound to fill up with stories of water scarcity.

Passive Income To Retire : Generate passive income – How to do it – If you want to generate passive income, you need to know the two ways that people establish a passive income.

Your Finances Simplified : 4 Tips to Improve Credit Even After A Bankruptcy – A bankruptcy can be a financial event which wrecks credit and hurts a consumers ability to qualify for loans. Its effects can be felt for years afterwards, as it appears on a credit report for 7-10 years (depending on what type of BK you file for).

Newlyweds on a Budget : My Plan to Lose Ten Pounds in Three Months – Have you joined the 10-Pound Challenge yet? Lose ten pounds in three months, win money! Everyone needs a plan to lose ten pounds in three months. We all want to lose weight fast and find the easiest shortcut to get there.

Smart Family Finance : Lottery Winner Loses Everything in Four Years: Smart Approaches for Families with Income Windfalls – Lottery winners are famous for winning fortunes and then losing them. That is because it is easy to make financial mistakes when families run into income windfalls. However, there are a few approaches to help you to make smart decisions and minimize the risks of losing everything.

Funancials : CD’s are for Hypocrites – I would venture to say that there are two investment products people learn about before any others – Stocks and CD’s (Certificates of Deposit). Assuming most people learn about these two options when they’re young, I would think the way they were explained was elementary. Something like – stocks are risky – CD’s are risk-free. But are they remembering inflation?

Finance Fox : Million Dollar Question: Should I Use My Savings To Pay Down Debt or Fund My Retirement Plan? – Mortgage vs RRSP. TFSA vs Student Loan. Credit Card Debt vs RRSP. TFSA vs Mortgage. RRSP vs Car Payment. Lots of different situations, some of us are in one of these and others may have two or more different forms of debt to pay down.

Frugal Confessions : Health Insurance Companies Give Financial Incentives for Good Habits – Since I discussed a ‘stick’ approach my health insurance company began on January 1, 2012 by charging a higher premium for smokers than for non-smokers, I’d like to take the time to discuss a ‘carrot’ incentive approach!

Financial Success for Young Adults : What is a Portfolio? – A portfolio is made up of assets. There are five major asset classes of intangible financial instruments; Stocks, Bonds, Options, Futures, and Foreign exchange.

Broke Professionals : Five Ways to Save Money and Get Fit at Work – Now that the New Year is here, we are all looking for ways to trim down the expenses and the waistlines. Here are a few ideas on how to do that before or after work or at lunch time. Use Lunch Get some exercise on your lunch break. Read this article for more ideas!

The Penny Hoarder : 4 Reasons You Should Not Invest in Real Estate Right Now – A few weeks ago we shared with you some reasons why this might be a good time to invest in real estate and this week we wanted to present the other side of the argument. Here are four good reasons not to buy real estate right now…

Darwin’s Money : US Debt Now Equivalent to Entire US Economy – Investing in This New Era – The United States has just reached the dreaded 100% Debt-to-GDP ratio with its $15.2 Trillion debt level surpassing the value of all goods and services produced in-country. This is important because it vaults us into a whole new echelon of debt-ridden societies with financial crises of their own: only Greece, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Japan and Portugal have debt-to-GDP ratios exceeding 100%. This is scary stuff folks!

My Retirement Blog : The Number One Retirement Fear – According to an AARP study recently released, health care issues are the number one biggest fear retirees have. Is retirement affordable? The biggest challenge for most potential retirees is the cost of care and the ability to stay healthy through retirement. Experts claim one will need an extra $200-$300,000 to pay just for health care.

Personal Finance Journey : Is Outsourcing Household Chores a Luxury or a Smart Money Move? – I don’t like cleaning; and I make no secret of that fact. Dust can multiply for months, and I might notice that it is there, but I probably won’t clean it. I do have the basics that I do every day – dishes, and general picking up. I clean the bathrooms and sweep and mop the kitchen floor, so I am not a complete slob, but I hate deep cleaning.

Young Family Finance : Retirement Planning for Young Families – Find out what the first step of retirement planning should be for young families.

The Ultimate Juggle : A Side Income – Finding a side income can go a long ways to meet your financial needs. Find out how to manage your time and make it happen.

MoneySmartGuides : Radical Idea to Create Jobs – I have many crazy ideas. Most aren’t fit to become reality (like my spray-painting lawnmower for when the summer heat turns your grass brown). But every so often, I come up with something that I feel holds merit. And my

KrantCents : How Students with NO Credit History, Can Begin to Build a Financial Record – Here are 3 ways to allow young adults to safely build credit without the risk of going into debt.

Beating The Index : NAL Energy to Underperform in 2012? – I believe the stock will underperform in 2012 based on running 2 set of scenarios which indicate the company is not in its best shape.

Entertainment Timez : Starting Up A Roth IRA For Kids – My son now has earned income and we are starting up a Roth IRA for him to participate in. Read why are are starting a Roth IRA for Kids!

Sweating the Big Stuff : Tax Evasion Costs Over $300 Billion Each Year – Think tax evasion is a small problem? Thing again: tax evasion in the U.S. amounts to $337.3 billion a year.

Money Reasons : My Son Is A Young Entrepreneur – This is about my son’s transformation in becoming a young entrepreneur. Not bad considering he is only eleven.

Money Spruce : Five Reasons to Give Up Goal Setting – Should we give up goal setting to achieve more success? Goals are something everyone uses, but is it the most effective for getting things done. Here’s a discussion why it might not be.

Beating Broke: How to Overcome Dissapointment when Our Financial Role Models Disappoint Us – How do we overcome that level of disappointment when someone we trust to give good advice, and to behave in a professional manner, doesn’t?

Smart on Money: American Express Bank Personal Savings Account Review – American Express is one of the most recognizable brands in the world. Most people know about them because of their credit and charge cards (that’s where I first came upon them), but they’ve also quickly become a good solid option when it comes to online savings accounts.

Bucksome Boomer: The Verdict on Jury Duty – Many people try to avoid jury service, but it is a great way to give back to the community. Even Axl Rose served last week! Every citizen should experience the process once. It will restore or strengthen your faith in the system.

Living in Financial Excellence: Handling Business Criticism; Suze Orman’s Approved Card – A summary of my thoughts about Suze’s card? There aren’t any real benefits, and it costs you a monthly fee to have no added benefit. But there’s a lot of discussion on the show, so you’ll have to listen in for the specifics.

Money Talks Coaching: Why You Should Get Out of Debt Even If You Can’t Maintain It – I think paying off your debt is a valuable exercise even if you don’t think you can maintain the debt-loss. You will practice skills you need to improve your financial life just like dieting did for my weight. It will bring your debt into focus and you will see it in a way that you’ve never seen it before.

Cash Flow Mantra: Suze Orman, WTF? – Where Suze has been over the past six months! Does Netflix ring a bell? How about Bank of America and debit card fees? Heck, even the Kardashians were smart enough to recognize that high fees on a debit card were a non-starter

Money Is the Root: Blog Goals and Updates, 2012 – #2 – Welcome to the 2012 blogging updates for Money Is The Root. Just as last year, I will provide weekly updates on my site statistics, blogging income, and intended goals for the short and long term. These posts will provide ongoing updates regarding my progress on my three blogs, and perhaps more in the near future, as well as achieving $30,000 in online income this year

Smart Wealth: How to Save Money on Your Car Insurance – While a necessity, car insurance is also quite costly, and the cost varies depending on several different factors. There are quite a few ways that you can lower your auto insurance, and I will list a few below.

THE Canadian Personal Finance Site: Let’s all Sell Out! – Last week Ms. Orman announced a Debit Card approved by her which sounds innocuous until you started to read the fine print, and this is what is causing me to rethink my opinion of her. While I have no problem with someone hustling to make a buck (heck I do it myself as you have seen with my Quicken Review and other things I have talked about) but this new venture has me scratching my financial head.

The Millionaire Nurse: Projects: Getting Started! A Growing Mushrooms at Home Case Study – Getting things done. That’s the object here. Read about our new project:growing mushrooms. The steps to become SSD’s (spore spawn diddys) are the same for all projects and can help you get organized to complete any task.

Money Beagle: I’m Anxious To See What My Paycheck Will Look Like – The beginning of the year means many changes. What will it mean to the twice a month paycheck?

So You Think You Can Save: Save Money By Keeping Your Car Longer – The average age of a car in America is 10.8 years, a new high. Are you keeping your car longer and reaping the associated savings?

Free Ticket to Japan: How to Prepare Japanese Food on a Budget – Lot of people think Japanese meals are expensive to make. They believe this is so because the food in Japanese restaurants is expensive. In this article, we will shed light on how to prepare cheap Japanese food, using your available resources.

Prairie Eco Thrifter: Buying a Home with the Help of Mortgage Insurance – It’s a positive thing to buy a house and make it the home you always dreamed of. It’s something everyone should experience. But it’s important to make it happen within your means. Sometimes mortgage insurance is the only way homeownership will ever be possible.

My Personal Finance Journey: $196 Giveaway – Community and Charity 10% Monthly Blog Income Give Back # 4 – January 2012 Edition + 2 Year Blog Birthday Celebration – This post describes the details of My Personal Finance Journey’s Monthly Blog Income Giveaway, which gives 10% of MPFJ’s net (after-tax) blogging income/profit to MPFJ readers (5%) and to charity (5%). Instructions on how to enter the giveaway are described, as well as the goals for developing personal relationships with the possible recipient charities.

Free Money Wisdom: Romantic Yet Frugal Tips for Valentine’s Day – Because I have insight into the female gender, I’m going to give you lads a few tips on how to be original this V-Day. Hopefully, this will score you some points with your lady. If not, don’t show her where your ideas came from.

Passive Family Income: Never Shop at a Grocery Store Again – A Review of Peapod – Do you like grocery shopping, or is it one of those tasks that you detest? If you work full-time, is your one day to buy your groceries on Saturday when everyone else has descended upon the stores? If so, and you are ready to say “Enough!”, you may want to take a look at Peapod home grocery delivery.

Family Money Values: Real Estate Mistakes – Buying Before Construction – Learn from my mistakes in real estate – what NOT to do!

Thriftability: Saving Money on Insurance: Simplify by Bundling – As the quest continues to save money on insurance premiums, individuals and families may be overlooking a common method to doing so. Going with one company could just be the ticket, not only for the health of your bank account, but also to make things just a bit simpler.

Saving Advice: 20 Ways to Break Your TV Habit and Save a Fortune – When I started to write about personal finance, I was working a full time job so in order to do it, something had to give. Greatly reducing the amount of TV I watched was one of the best decisions I’ve ever made.

Everything Finance Blog: Do You Need to Pay a Nanny Tax This Year? – There is no doubt that nannies and house cleaners can help you maintain your busy lifestyle. However, before employing one on a regular basis, make sure that you are familiar with the nanny tax laws and what you need to do to file so that you don’t face stiff tax penalties for missed payments

Investor Junkie: What Are DRIPs? – All the way around, DRIPs can help you maximize your dividend investing efforts.

Frugal Zeitgeist: How Much Sugar For Kids? – A look at how much and what types of sugar is appropriate for kids to consume.

Budgeting in the Fun Stuff: Health Update #3 – Crystal Light Challenge/10 Pound Challenge Kick Off – As I told you all towards the end of November 2011, I am posting updates twice a month here to keep me accountable for the $1200 a year for fitness that we are spending on Weight Watchers and our gym memberships. Yep, I am using you as my accountability partners whether you signed up for it or not, hahaha.

Don’t Quit Your Day Job…: S&P Ratings Cuts in Europe – Everyone (except people in their RSS readers!) loves interactivity… and I could think of no better way to present the recent S&P ratings cuts than to graph the entire world. So, here is my best effort to portray the world’s credit risk.

The Money Principle: How can one ‘be’ when there is nothing ‘to do’? – Socrates said that “To do is to be.”; Sartre that “To be is to do.” When one is long term unemployed life is more like Sinatra’s “Do be do be do.” How does one move from Sinatra to Socrates and Sartre?

Affiliate Tips: How To Get A Money Making Mindset – In this article I will show you why it is so important to have a money making mindset, and how you can develop yours.

Stock Trend Investing: Investing Your Savings Sure and Simple – When investing your savings are not just focused on the return on investment. Keep two eyes on the return of investment. Here is an outline and some tips for beginners about the type of assets in which they can invest their savings.

Novel Investor: Asset Allocation And The Benefits Of Rebalancing – How your money is invested, its asset allocation and consistent rebalancing will be the most important decision you’ll make as an investor.

Off-Road Finance: Additive vs. Multiplicative Thinking About Money – A look at two ways of thinking about money, and which applies when.

HowToSaveMoney.ca: How to Eliminate You Home Phone Bill and Long Distance Charges! – The Internet is becoming the only infrastructure necessary to do many of the things that used to require special mediums before like making phone calls, watching TV, listening to music, and so on. Yes, the internet can even help you completely eliminate your monthly home phone bill as well as the long distance charges you may have become accustomed to!

Frugal Living: Party Tips for the Broke Young Professionals – How can you open your home and make your friends feel welcome without going broke in the process? Check out the frugal party tips below.

American Debt Project: Personal Finance Classics Book Review: The Millionaire Next Door – The first of five book reviews on the classics of personal finance! I’d love to hear from others if I have a good list of 5 or if their list is totally different!

Married (with Debt): The OTHER 1% (who WILL Hurt You) – We all know of the OWS 1%, but have you met the OTHER 1%, those who will punch you in the face for disrespecting them? If not, check out this analysis of the trend towards disrespect of others, and how it factors into the way people view money, class and economic policy.

Average Joe’s Money Blog: 5 Steps to Care for an Older Car – New statistics last week show people are saving money by driving their cars longer–in fact, the average car on the road is now 11.1 years old. If you drive an older car, here’s how to keep it running for the long haul.

PT Money Personal Finance: How to Become an Online Tutor and Make an Extra $1,000 a Month – Ways to Make More Money: An interview with an online tutor discussing the pros/cons and qualifications needed pursue a part-time job in that field.

RamblingFever Money: Don’t Sell Yourself Short on Investment Return Expectations – Do you think 10 to 12 percent is unreasonable when it comes to expectations for average annual mutual fund returns? The funds I invest in hit these numbers and I created a chart to explain.

Watson Inc: 3 Reasons to Focus on Household Cash Flow – There is clearly a significant disconnect between our knowing the importance of cash flow and our actions. Here are three reasons for a renewed focus on cash flow.

My University Money: Pay Off Debt Fast or Build Assets? – Yes, I would rather have all my currents debts paid off than be in my current financial position… because then I could turn around and put myself in much better debt all over again!

One Cent At A Time: All you need to know about 2012 tax return – All you need to know for filing income tax for the year 2011, which is needed to be filed on or before April 17, 2012. Contains links to relevant IRS notices and web pages for you quick reference.

Free From Broke : 10 Commonly Overlooked Tax Deductions – Don’t pay more taxes than you have to. Take a look at these ten common overlooked tax deductions and see how you can save on your taxes.

Mom’s Plans: Debt Snowflake Challenge #3, Every Little Penny Helps – I have noticed that some people believe that there is no point in snowflaking money because they can’t generate hundreds of dollars to snowflake. Maybe they can only find an extra $5 to snowflake a week, so they think, what is the point? The point is that even the small amounts add up over time, and they can save you much more in interest.

Mint.com

I’ve known about Mint.com for quite a while now, but I never thought I needed it because I use Quickbooks. I’m also the person responsible for all the finances in our family as well; I create annual budgets, pay the bills, and keep track of our online accounts, so I really didn’t think I needed this to keep track of our finances. Yet, after speaking with a close family member who was clueless on their family’s finances (and frightened about what might happen in the future), I realized my significant other (SO) needed to be kept in the loop.

I don’t intend to relinquish my obsession, I mean responsibility, with our finances, but I realize it’s important for him to know what bills we (I mean “I”) pay, when they’re due, and how to pay them. I’d hate for something to happen to me and my SO to be completely clueless as to what to do next. So, I signed up for Mint.com – for his sake. With Mint.com it’s a “read-only” kind of site, but it gives him access to all of the accounts we’re responsible for paying and our financial information.

What I Like About Mint

• Easy to set up. It was fairly easy to set up my account. I had to gather all of my financial information that I wanted to keep track of, but the site made it easy to find the correct financial institutions. (However, with Mint.com, you need to have online accounts with your financial vendors).
• Emails me reminders about bills that are due. It also lists them on my “home page” for accounts that I’ve added.
• Records transactions. It lists the debits and credits for all the accounts I’ve set up.  Having this in one place makes it easy for my SO to see where we’re spending money.
• Updates balances each time I login. This gives me an up to the hour (some institutions update faster than others) balance.

But I’m Not Keen On…

• The budget section. For my own use, I thought I’d set up the budget section to cross-check against my Quickbooks and make sure I’m tracking my income and expenses properly. However, Mint.com automatically categorizes debits and credits willy-nilly. Maybe I’m not using it correctly, but I had to go through some of my recent transactions and re-categorize them. It also doesn’t take into consideration income from one month and expenses from another. My budget states I’m over by quite a bit, but the income came in last month and the expense went out this month. I’m sure this will clear itself up eventually, but in the meantime it’s irritating.
• Double transaction entries. Since I’ve been using my credit card for daily purchases, it’s seeing them twice; once when the purchase is pending and again once it goes through. This completely messes up the budget portion of my account. It shows I’m way over my budgeted amount for certain categories.

I’m sure once I get a handle on the budget section and categorize my “uncategorized” transactions, I’ll appreciate the budget part of Mint.com a lot more. Hopefully, the double transactions will resolve themselves. However, now my SO has access to our financial information – and it’s in one place for him to easily access.

Do you use Mint.com? Is there one person in your family responsible for the finances, or do you share responsibility?

One week later, we were running errands and decided to pop into Fry’s Electronics, which usually has great prices on TV’s. Just for the heck of it, we price shopped our exact TV and lo and behold it was $200 less than what we had purchased it for just 7 days earlier. We had the sales assistant print out the price and ran it over to the store where we had made our purchase. Within 15 minutes they had verified the price match and refunded the $200 plus sales tax.

Now, you may be wondering, “Why didn’t you just buy it from Fry’s to begin with?” Fry’s hadn’t dropped the price until the weekend we price matched our purchase  and there was no way of knowing they would price it for $200 less than our first vendor choice.

We still have 45 days left to find our TV for less. I don’t know if that will happen, as I’m pretty sure we’ve now gotten it at the bargain-basement price, but having this option available to me makes me feel like we are smart shoppers. Big ticket items on sale that offer price matches are great deals!

Have you purchased an item with a price match and took them up on the offer?