All you need to do to receive your free bottle of Diet Dr Pepper is to log on to the following website: http://www.freedietdrpepper.com/

Then choose the size of bottle you prefer, fill out the form with you name and shipping address and that’s it. The website says that in about 4-6 weeks after submitting the form, you should be receiving a coupon for a free bottle of diet Dr Pepper in the size that you had chosen. But HURRY UP! It also says that the contest is open only to the first 2 million people who register. It also limits the free drink to one per person.

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Like me, if you have ever spent some time taking a look at the various settings of a GPS device, you probably know that most devices out there have an ‘Avoid Toll-roads’ feature that I sometimes find particularly useful. Most GPS maps these days (depending on how up-to-date they are) have detailed information on which highways have toll-booths and at what locations. Based on this information, if you set the device to avoid toll-roads, it can successfully take you around the toll, thereby saving you some money. However a couple of points to keep in mind when using this feature:

1. Most of the times, the detour is longer or takes more time to cover than taking the toll-road. What I do in most cases is to check the route plan before and after I turn on the ‘Avoid Toll-roads’ setting, and if avoiding the toll-road is going to increase my journey time or distance considerably, then I choose to just take the toll-road instead.
2. Weigh the amount of money you would save on tolls versus the amount you would spend on the additional gas to take the (usually longer) detour. Avoid the toll-road only if the numbers make sense.
3. Sometimes it may not even be about the money. It may just be that there are extremely long queues at the toll-booths, especially during rush hour. In such cases, if time is of the essence, then avoiding the toll-roads may make more sense.
4. Make sure you turn the ‘Avoid Toll-road’ setting off after you are done with you journey. Some devices like mine, have this setting at the global level and if I leave this setting on, all routes that I calculate on this device will try to avoid toll-roads, until I turn the setting off. This may not be a concern for devices where this can be set for each route that is calculated.
5. There may not always be a way around the tolls and if this is the case, your device will tell you so.

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For this offer, you will need to sign up for a pre-paid card called the “Facecard”. It is like a pre-paid gift card that you would buy from Wal-Mart, Best Buy, etc. with the difference that you can use this card anywhere. You need to load this card with cash from you bank account before you can use it. So it is considered safer than a credit card because nobody can use it unless there is cash pre-loaded onto it. But you can read details of it on the website. You don’t necessarily need to use the card or load cash on it. Just sign up for it using this link and put in the promo code below to get the free $10. After that it is your choice whether to keep using the card or not. Below are the steps:

1. Go to: https://members.facecard.com/get.php
2. On the second page of the form at the bottom, enter referral code: fst
3. If you don’t enter the code above, you won’t get the $10.
4. Make sure you enter a valid email id, as you will be notified via email regarding your card mailing, activation and $10 deposit.
5. Because it’s a mastercard it requires your SS#, but it’s legit and ran by a bank called MetaBank
6. Once you receive the card via mail (within 7-10 business days after signing up), you need to call the number listed or go to the website to activate the card.
7. Within 3-5 business days of activating the card, the $10 will appear in your account.

I have done this myself and it works. A couple of additional tips:

1. If you have multiple people living in the same household, you can all sign up individually. So I signed up for my wife as well, and we now have a free $20 to spend.
2. Make sure to glance over the Terms and Conditions of the card after you receive it via mail. One of them states that there is an inactivity fee for not using the card for something like 60 or 90 days. So if you intend to not use the card beyond the $10 that you received as a gift, I would recommend calling Customer service and canceling the card after you spend your initial $10.

If you have any questions/comments, feel free to post in the comments section below. Enjoy your free $10 !!

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First things first, what is a timeshare?

In very simplistic terms, timeshare is a form of ownership of property for a fixed period of time. Example: when you buy a house, you buy the property for an unlimited period of time (until you sell). When you buy a timeshare property, it is yours to use only for the amount of time that you buy each year (ranging from 1-4 weeks). The more weeks you buy the more expensive it is.

Timeshares are very profitable for their owning companies, and so they try to convince as many people as possible to buy them. The most common way they do this is by making people attend a timeshare presentation. Most times, in order to attend these, they provide free gifts and incentives, like free cash, free hotel package, etc. For this very reason, attending these presentations can be very rewarding based on the gifts they promise you. So the next time you are approached by a sales person trying to register you for a timeshare presentation, keep in mind the following points:

1. They almost always prefer couples (married or not) or families to attend these presentations.
2. The free gifts are often negotiable. If you appear to be very reluctant, they will usually increase the monetary value of the free gifts to entice you further.
3. The free gift is usually mentioned clearly as you sign up on the registration form. Make sure it is the same as what the sales person has promised you.
4. The presentation is usually at a separate location, and involves a separate sales rep dedicated to presenting the timeshare concept to you and your significant other. You are NOT obligated to make a purchase at the end of the presentation.
5. These presentation are officially supposed to last 90 minutes, but may go on for as long as 3 hrs. If you consistently show no interest in purchasing the timeshare, chances are that the presentation will last for a shorter duration.
6. It is very important that you choose a reputed brand name presentation. From my experience, Marriott presentations are very much more professional and organized than unheard of companies like Westgate timeshare. The Westgate salesman was very unprofessional towards the end and they used some strong arm tactics like bringing in more people to convince us to buy.
7. Make sure the gift that you recieve is what was promised to you while registering.

I have attended two such presentations: Westgate (Las Vegas) and Marriott (Honolulu, Hawaii). We received a free lunch and $200 in casino chips at the end of the Westgate presentation. The presentation itself was very unprofessional, unpleasant and lasted much longer than what had been promised. The Marriott presentation on the other hand was very professional, understandable and extremely low-pressure. Our sales rep was very friendly and did not use any unpleasant sales tactics. At the end of it, I received a free round of golf at the Ko Olina Golf Club (with cart, a $150 value), and my wife received a free lunch along with a day-long owner’s pass at the Ko Olina resort giving here free access to the resort amenities ($100-$200 value).

So the next time you are out on vacation with your significant other, consider attending a timeshare presentation from a well-established brand name. Not only will you walk out of the presentation knowing more about the timeshare concept, but you will have received some exciting free gifts for your time.

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I was introduced to this holy book sometime last year, when a friend of mine recommended it to me. And what can I say, the experience made me feel like I was a born-again money-saver !

What is the Entertainment Book?

It is basically a coupon book. If you remember one of my earlier articles about saving money online using coupons codes, this is a very similar concept. Except that these are physical coupons that you can use at stores, restaurants, movie theaters, etc.

The good thing about the Entertainment book is that there is a different book for each region. For example, I live in Rhode Island and so I have a book that has coupons exclusive to Rhode Island stores and restaurants. The advantage to this is that there is a good possibility of finding a coupon for that local authentic Ethiopian restaurant that you love so much. To give you an example, there is this one Vietnamese restaurant in Cranston, RI called Minh Hai that my wife, friends and I absolutely love to frequent. Since it is a pretty small and cozy family-owned and managed restaurant, I never expected to find coupons for it anywhere. Lo and behold, the Entertainment book for RI had a buy one-get one free coupon for any entrée at this restaurant. That one coupon alone saved us $10.

Can I check what kind of coupons the Entertainment book has for my area?

Yes you can. Just go to the Entertainment.com website, enter your zip code and you can view all the discounts available in your area.

So the book must be pretty expensive right?

Wrong!! If you order it online, the book only costs about $30 . In most cases, if you were to redeem just 3 or 4 coupons from the entire book, you could recover the value of the book. And the book easily has over 200+ coupons. I cannot begin to explain to you the tremendous value of this book.

Do you expect me to lug this big fat coupon book with me everywhere I go?

No, you don’t have to. I just leave the book lying in the back seat of my car. Anytime we decide to eat out, watch a movie, go bowling, or shop at a retail store, I take a quick glance at the book to see if it has any pertinent coupons. All in all, it takes a couple of minutes. A couple of minutes to save a whole bunch of dollars? Sounds like a good deal to me!

So what kind of coupons does it have?

As I mentioned earlier, everything from restaurants (fast food and local) to retail stores, to movie theaters. You name it and there’s probably a coupon for it in this book. The good thing about it is that it has an alphabetical index of stores on the last couple of pages so that you can search for coupons by business name. It also has an index of stores grouped by their neighborhoods if you want to search based on a particular locality. There is another index of stores grouped by business type (restaurants, retail stores, services, entertainment).

Sounds good, but give me some examples.

Besides the example of the Vietnamese restaurant earlier, I saved about $50 on a car repair service at Firestone. I have also saved at least another $20 in fast food purchases. Most recently a group of friends and I saved $30 by using two coupons at Boston Billiards Club, a sports bar and billiard hall that is quite popular here in Rhode Island. So considering just these particular examples, I have saved a total of $110. If you run the numbers, the book has already paid itself 3 times over. And I still have enough coupons remaining to pay for it at least another 2 times over.

Sounds like a great deal! Where can I get the book?

Just click on the link below to proceed with your order. Remember that Entertainment comes out with a coupon book every year, with each year’s book having coupons that are valid until November 1st of that year. So right now you would want to get the book for 2009. They currently have a special offer where they provide free shipping on your order, so hurry up! Here’s the link:

But remember: you control the book, not the other way around!

One very important thing to keep in mind is that as far as possible, you should use it only for those purchases that you would have made whether you had the book or not. Oftentimes, the coupons have a tendency to tempt you to make unnecessary purchases just because of the exciting discount offers. It is in such a moment of absolute truth, my fellow mortal, that thou shalt resist the temptation put forth by Lucifer himself (Money-savingism Genesis 12:34-56). The goal is to use the book to help you save money on things you would have purchased anyway. If it makes you buy more than you need, then it goes against the fundamental principle of saving money.

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Start first with paying the lowest price for gas

Before I start talking about fuel additives, one smart way to save on gas itself is to pay the lowest price possible for it. And there’s a great website out there to help you do just that:

www.gasbuddy.com

All you need to do is to enter your zip code and it gives you a list of the gas stations in your area offering the lowest gas prices. All that is left for you to do is to make a stop at one of these gas stations when you need to fill up next.

Once you’ve got the best gas price, work on making that fuel do more for you:

One of the key metrics that we use to measure the fuel efficiency of our cars is their mileage. Mileage is usually calculated as MPG (Miles per Gallon) in the US and KPL (Kilometers per Liter) in most other countries. This effectively measures how far your car will travel in miles on one gallon of gas (for MPG). So in order to get the most out of our fuel, we obviously need to try and bump up the MPG on our cars. One way to do so is by using fuel additives. There are two types of fuel additives: those that work by increasing the fuel’s octane rating, and those that simply act as corrosion inhibitors or lubricators within the piston-cylinder mechanism. In this article, we will focus mainly on the latter type because they are generically applicable to most types of car engines. Fuel additives that increase the octane rating may not always make sense for lower-performance engines.

The fuel additives that act by inhibiting corrosion and lubricating mainly decrease the resistance to motion of the various moving parts of the engine assembly. They also help by cleaning any blockages that may have developed in the fuel delivery system, like the fuel injectors, carburetor, intake valves, etc. The fuel additive that I recommend using is the Lucas Oil Upper Cylinder Lubricant and Injector cleaner. I have tested this product and based on the cost of the fuel additive and the amount of fuel that it can treat, I highly recommend it. Here’s how the calculation behind my recommendation works:

Test Car: 1999 Nissan Maxima
Cost of fuel additive = $30 (good for 25 uses)
Cost of fuel additive per use (completely filling the tank from almost empty state): $30/25 = $1.2/use
Average number of gallons of gas filled in each use: 16 gallons/use (approximately the tank capacity of my car)
Therefore, cost of fuel additive per gallon of gas filled: ($1.2/use)/(16 gallons/use) = $0.075 per gallon

Test Results:
Mileage without using fuel additive: 24 mpg (highway)
Average cost of gas during testing: $3.70 per gallon
Therefore, number of miles that I get per dollar (without using fuel additive)= (24mpg)/($3.7 per gallon) = 6.5 miles per dollar

Mileage with using fuel additive: 28 mpg (highway)
Average cost of gas+fuel additive during testing: $3.70 per gallon (for gas) + $0.075 per gallon (for fuel additive) = $3.775 per gallon
Therefore, number of miles that I get per dollar (with using fuel additive)= (28mpg)/($3.775 per gallon) = 7.4 miles per dollar

As you can see from the calculations, I almost get an extra mile per dollar by using the fuel additive. Furthermore, without going into details of the calculation, I would always end up getting more miles per dollar using the fuel additive as long as the price of gas is above $0.45 per gallon. And with the way things are going, I seriously doubt that we will ever get close to those kinds of fuel prices again. So as you can see, the numbers have spoken! It always makes more sense to use the fuel additive to get those extra miles per dollar. Keep in mind that the mileage you get on your own car may vary from my test results. If you still want to test this out yourself before you take my word for it, you can always first buy the smaller bottle of this fuel additive, test it with you car and see what results you get. Click on the image below of the 5.25oz. size bottle of the fuel additive from Partsamerica.com (also operates as Advance Auto Parts)

If you are ready to get the bigger container of the Lucas Oil fuel additive, click on its image below:

The good thing about purchasing this from Partsamerica.com is that you can also search whether the product is available at an Advance Auto Parts store near you, and pick it up from that location directly (without paying any shipping charges).

If you would rather buy the product from Amazon, click on the Amazon image for product below. Be sure to check out reviews from other customers who bought this product on Amazon as well. A lot of them have also experienced a boost in vehicle acceleration after using this product.

Below is an Amazon link for a small sized bottle:

Another product that I briefly tested and saw good results with is the STP Fuel Injector and Carburettor Cleaner. This product is a little more expensive, but if you prefer to go with a brand name, then you can give this a shot. Click on the product image below for a link to Partsamerica:

Always remember that fuel additives are only one piece of the puzzle when it comes to getting better gas mileage from your vehicle. In conjunction with this, you must always make sure that your vehicle undergoes routine maintenance tasks like oil changes, tire rotation, tire pressure, wheel alignment, etc. For details on these other methods of increasing the mileage of your vehicle, check out the following links:

http://www.ehow.com/how_6193_gas-mileage-with.html

http://financialplan.about.com/cs/cars/a/SaveGas.htm

http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/edu/pubs/consumer/alerts/alt064.shtm

http://www.savingadvice.com/forums/money-saving-tips/39923-how-save-money-gas.html?highlight=mileage

If you do decide to purchase the fuel additives that I have suggested in this article, I request you to purchase them by clicking on the appropriate PartsAmerica or Amazon links in this article. They are affiliate links and so with every purchase that is made, the commission earned will help pay for the maintenance expenses of this blog.

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It all started in the summer of 2004, when I was a poor graduate student trying to make ends meet. It so happened that I walked into the King’s palace to enjoy a frugal, unhealthy meal. After deciding on the best artery-clogging combination of food, I placed my order and made my payment. The cashier then handed me the receipt and it was then that I stumbled upon the King’s secret. The reason I call this a secret is because till date, whomever I have spoken with doesn’t seem to have noticed this deal. And the funny thing is that all you have to do to see this deal is to turn the receipt over to the other side and behold! It looks like the image below. Click on it to see a larger, more legible version.

If you’ve managed to read the details of the offer from the image above, you probably agree that the King has a pretty good deal to offer here. If you haven’t read it yet, the deal states that you can get one FREE Whopper or Original Chicken Sandwich with the purchase of any size drink and fries after completing a brief survey. To complete the survey you need to do 3 things:

1. Call toll free 1-866-425-4745 anytime within 48 hrs of receiving the receipt
2. Complete the survey over the phone and get the validation code at the end
3. Write down the validation code in the space provided on the back of the receipt

That’s all it takes. A few things to keep in mind:

• The survey is conducted with an automated voice answering system
• Before the start of the survey, you will be asked to enter the store number. This number can be found on the front side of your receipt
• In my experience, the survey usually take 3-5 minutes to complete
• Since I have done this quite a few times, there are a couple of shortcuts that I know to get it done quicker, but I think I should save that for another post!
• If you go strictly by the terms stated on the receipt, you need to redeem the offer within one month of your previous purchase. But most BK restaurants I have redeemed this offer at don’t seem to care about the one-month part and accept it almost anytime

If you do the math, this deal almost cuts down the price of your meal to half of what you would have normally paid. And the food still packs in the same amount of sinful, crave-satiating, ‘heart-stopping’ taste that you expect it to. The King has been extending this offer since 2004 and is still going strong. That’s why I always keep the receipt from my previous BK purchase in my wallet, lest I get that urge to pay him a visit again.

The best part about this deal is that most BK restaurants do not realize that when you redeem this offer, they should not be providing you with a receipt at the end of your purchase. So most of them still do, and guess what: the cycle continues! So every time I redeem this offer at a BK restaurant, they give me another receipt at the end, which I keep for the next time. In the unexpected event that they do not give me a receipt, I look around for people that may have left their receipts on the counter without any intent of retaining them, and continue the cycle from thereon (and visit another BK restaurant from then onwards of course!)

So next time the King summons you, make sure you put his little secret to good use!

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These coupon codes are very similar to the paper coupons you would use at your local brick and mortar retail store. In the latter case, you would need to have physical possession of the right coupon, cut it out (if required) and present it to the cashier while checking out at the retail store counter to get the required discount(s). Besides this, there are usually very limited ways to procure the coupon. You can either wait to receive it via snail mail based on coupon subscription services, borrow it from a friend, or print it from your computer. These limited sources often constrain the usage of such coupons.

Online coupons codes however, usually require only one detail: like the name suggests, the ‘coupon code’. It is usually an alphanumeric sequence that you need to enter in the appropriate field just before completing your purchase from the online store. If the code is valid, the corresponding discount reflects immediately on your total shopping amount. Below is an example of an Orbitz page, where it asks you to enter a promotion code (if you have one), before finalizing the purchase of the vacation package.

Orbitz coupon code entry example

Now the big question is: where do you get these coupon codes from. The best part about the information superhighway is that people are always more than willing to share information, and this includes coupon codes as well. There are hundreds of websites out there where people can share coupon codes that have actually worked for them. One of my favorites is www.retailmenot.com. Here you can search for the name of the online store for which you want a coupon code. The search results display not only the variety of coupon codes, but also the associated discount offers (BOGO, % off, free shipping, etc.), expiry dates, and most importantly whether it has actually worked or not. People can vote for a coupon code if it has worked for them, and you can decide to use it based on the number of votes that it has.

One drawback of this website is that it allows anyone to post coupon codes without verifying the authenticity of the codes. This results in a quite a few bogus coupon codes posted by some troublesome elements. But as I mentioned earlier, you can always use the vote percentage to decide on whether to try using a coupon code. To try out the code, all you need to do is type in the same code (or copy and paste it) in the coupon/promotional code field of the website you are shopping at and see if it applies the appropriate discount to your checkout total.

Besides www.retailmenot.com, my second option usually is to google for the online store name followed by the term “coupon code”. So if I were buying the Orbitz package deal in the example above, I would google for “Orbitz coupon code”. You then have to do some sifting through the results to find any valid coupon codes out there. Some other credible websites that share coupon codes are (in no particular order):

www.couponcabin.com

www.couponcodes4u.com

www.couponmoney.com

www.couponchief.com

www.couponshack.com

Here is an example to demonstrate how useful this money-saving tip is. Just a few weeks back, I booked a Vegas flight + hotel package on Orbitz for four of my family members. On searching www.retailmenot.com for Orbitz coupon codes, I found a code that gives $100 off per hotel room for 5+ nights of stay. And since I was booking 2 hotel rooms, this coupon brought down my total package price by $200!! Two hundred bucks for just spending a couple of minutes searching for the right coupon code sounds like a great deal to me. There are coupon codes out there ranging from the smallest of Yahoo stores to the biggest online retail giants. So the next time you’re looking to buy something online, don’t forget to spend a few additional minutes looking for those valuable coupon codes.

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What are Online Savings accounts? They’re regular bank accounts, except for the fact that all the money handling is done online. The most important difference lies in the fact that you will never find a brick and mortar office for an online savings account banking service.

So what’s the big deal about these Online Savings accounts? 3 words: Higher Interest Rates !!! The difference between Online Savings and regular Savings account interest rates is usually at least 3%. To put things in perspective, let me give you an example. Imagine you had $10,000 kept aside to be saved for a rainy day. If you were to deposit those $10,000 in a regular Bank of America Savings Account for example (which typically has an interest rate of 0.2%), you would get back (0.002 * $10,000) = $20 in interest earnings at the end of the year. However, if you were to deposit the same $10,000 in an Online Savings Account (like ING Direct for example, which currently has an interest rate of 3%), you would get back (0.03 * $10,000) = $300 in interest earnings at the end of the year. That is a good $280 in extra income!

At this point, you’re probably thinking there’s a catch! The only catch here, if you can call it that, is convenience. Like all things in life, you always pay a premium for convenience, and the same applies here. The reason that these Online Savings Account can afford to offer such high interest rates is primarily because of the low overhead costs that they incur for their operations. As I mentioned earlier in this post, they do not have any brick and mortar branches, which significantly reduces their overhead. Additionally, all their customer service is handled over the phone or via the internet, which means that their customer service staff is not constrained by location. Their customer service resources can therefore be based out of common office locations and can still cater to the needs of customers across the nation via phone/internet, thereby saving on overhead costs. These benefits are thus passed along to the customer in the form of higher interest rates.

But the price that the customer has to pay for this is convenience. You can never actually walk into a physical branch location for this bank and deposit or withdraw your money. You always need to link it electronically with an existing checking account from a brick and mortar bank. This means that you must maintain a checking account (with a Bank of America, etc.) from which you can electronically transfer your money to and from your Online Savings account. Typically the transfer takes about 1-2 business days. So if you wanted to withdraw cash from your Online Savings Account, you would first have to transfer it to your Checking account, which may take about 2 business days, before finally withdrawing it from your checking account. This is only a minor drawback in my mind, since you can always maintain a small amount in your checking account to withdraw for emergencies.

To help you decide, the advantages and disadvantages of Online Savings accounts are summarized below:

Advantages:

1. High interest rates (at least 3% higher than a regular savings account)
2. Usually do not require a minimum account balance
3. FDIC insured up to $100,000 (as are regular savings accounts)
4. Online account management
5. Easy ACH money transfer capabilities (with no fees whatsoever for ACH transfers)
6. Ability to set up joint accounts

Disadvantages:

1. Inconvenience: No physical branch locations to withdraw cash immediately. Need to wait about 2 business days to transfer money to a checking account
2. Might not be a good option if you are not comfortable with banking over the internet (though most of these banks usually employ the highest level of online security features)

As you can see, the benefits far outweigh the drawbacks. So if you do not already have an Online Savings account, I would advise that you start thinking about opening one. There are a multitude of online banks offering such accounts. Some trusted ones are:

1. ING Direct (Orange Savings account)
2. HSBC Direct
3. Emigrant Direct
4. Capital One Direct banking
5. WaMu Online Saving account (has different tiers of interest rates, based on your account balance, need to have a WaMu Checking account as well to avoid any fees)
6. E*Trade Financial
7. GE Interest Plus (has different tiers of interest rates, based on your account balance)…etc.

I will not bother with posting the interest rates for each of the above accounts as they are subject to change as per the FED’s interest rate policy. I currently have an INGDirect and EmigrantDirect account. The reason for having the INGDirect account is because of the good interest rate and the ease of use of the account. The reason for the EmigrantDirect account is that if you can maintain a monthly balance of $10,000 in this account, you are eligible to get the EmigrantDirect Platinum credit card, which has a cash back of 1.4% on all purchases (which I think is a good deal as most other cards usually only offer a cash back of only 1% on all purchases).

After reading this, if you do decide to open an Online Savings account, I recommend that you go with ING Direct. Besides having a good interest rate (not necessarily the highest though), it has good customer satisfaction ratings and a very user-friendly interface. Besides, it was the first bank to introduce the concept of Online Savings accounts.

PLEASE NOTE: If you are interested in opening an ING Direct account, email me at: sudeepbapat@gmail.com and I will send you a referral link via email. If you use this referral link to open an account with a minimum of $250, you will get an additional $25 deposited to your account as a referral bonus. Additionally, I will receive $10 for referring you, so it’s a mutually beneficial situation.

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“What is SmarterCents.com” I hear you ask? It is just what the name suggests…a smarter way to save your cents; eventually adding up to nickels, dimes, dollars, tens of dollars, hundreds of dollars, thousands of dollars….you get the drift!

A wise man once said: “A dollar saved is a dollar earned !”. That one phrase sums up the entire premise of this blog. As the admin, I will try to share as many ideas as I have around the topic, and the only thing I ask of you in return is to help facilitate a healthy discussion by posting comments about any ideas or feedback that you may have for saving money.

“Alright Mr.admin…who the h*** are you and what authority do you have on the topic?”… I hear you ask yet again? Well, as far as having any authority on the topic, let me tell you straight up front: I claim no such thing! I’m just your regular guy, doing regular everyday things and trying to save money while I’m at it. So anything that I post here is most probably something that I have come across in my endeavors to save some moola. But since you’ve asked, let me give you some background info about me: name’s Sudeep Bapat. Originally from Mumbai, India. Did most of my high schooling in Bahrain (Middle East). Was lucky enough to get a Bachelor’s degree from the Indian Institute of Technology-Madras (some of the best days of my life). My insatiable craving to learn more (yeah right!) led me to a Masters degree from Purdue University as well. I now work as a Supply Chain Consultant for a company that makes supply chain planning and retail specific applications.

An interesting tidbit: In my college days, my friends would call me by the name ‘Mooch’. As the name suggests, I was often associated with the task of squeezing out the most value out of my money. Some of my friends would accuse me of being a miserly penny-pincher, but I think they were just envious of me! Hey, I was a poor college student then, so bite me! But over the years, I feel I have learnt more about the value of saving money, and I thought it best to share some of these ideas with the rest of the world. So here you are…’SmarterCents.com’. Enter at your own (financial) risk!

PS: I intend to post at least one article each week. As the discussion grows, I may look at posting more frequently.