Beating Broke

Personal Finance from the Broke Perspective

Take Advantage of Super Bowl Sales to Save Money

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Super Bowl 2013 is on February 3, only a week away.  If you’re a football fan, you’re probably counting down the days and planning your Super Bowl party.  Your whole day, indeed your whole weekend, may revolve around the Super Bowl.

However, if you’re like me, you aren’t a big football fan.  In fact, I have no idea which teams are even heading to the Super Bowl this year. (Ed. note: 49ers vs. Ravens)

Still, fan or not, the week before Super Bowl is the perfect time to save some money, and lots of it.  The Super Bowl is a national, cultural event, and many sales revolve around Super Bowl viewing “necessities.”

 

 

 

 

 

Here are some things you may want to buy and stock up on while they’re cheap during the week before Super Bowl:

Super Bowl SavingsTelevisions – If you’re in need of a new television, you’re likely to see the lowest prices now, the week before the Super Bowl.  The prices now are often even better than those on Black Friday.  Of course, if you don’t need a tv, this isn’t a good deal, but if you’ve been thinking about replacing yours, now is the time to do it.

Cable/satellite packages – If you don’t yet have cable or you want to switch providers, now is the time.  Cable and satellite companies hope to snag new sports enthusiasts during the big game, and some cultural Super Bowl events, such as the notorious Lingerie Bowl, can only be seen on cable (as well as the much more benign Puppy Bowl).

NFL apparel – Get your favorite team’s jersey at a significant discount this week.  Even Victoria’s Secret gets in on this by offering discounted pink NFL gear.

Beverages – If you’re a family of soda drinkers, don’t buy your pop at full price.  Stock up during Super Bowl and buy enough to last you through the next big soda sale, which usually happens around Memorial Day.  Bottled water is also often on sale.  We only buy bottled water for our car trips when driving to conferences, but it’s nice to buy it when it’s at rock bottom price.

Snack foods – If you have a teenage boy or another member of the family who can’t get enough of snacks like nachos, chips, and cheese curls, now is the time to buy them while they are cheap.  True, you may need to hide them from your snack monster so they’re not devoured in a few days, but again, you can stock up and save for the next several months until they go on sale again around Memorial Day.

Don’t forget that other condiments like ketchup, mustard, and salsa may also be on sale now.

Foods you can freeze – You’ll also likely find chicken and ground beef on sale, as well as cheese.  Don’t forget that you can freeze these items, so stock up and feed your family for the rest of the winter with meat that you got on sale.

Whether you’re a Super Bowl fan or not, this week is the perfect week to stock up on some basics and buy some luxuries at a steep discount.

What is your favorite item to buy during Super Bowl sales?

Is It Always This Difficult to Find a Financial Planner?

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Thanks to working at my “traditional” job for 11 years that included a dollar for dollar match on my retirement contributions after 5 years of service, I have a nice 6 figure retirement account.  However, I left that job 1.5 years and the money is still just sitting there with my old employer.  The problem?  I can’t find a financial planner I trust, especially since that is currently our only retirement savings.

Jedi Salesman
This is not the Adviser you are looking for…

Adviser 1–In It for The Money

I first met with a financial adviser at our credit union to discuss transferring the money into my own IRA.  This is important because my retirement is currently part of the state’s retirement fund.  Unfortunately, in the state I live in, the higher officials have been siphoning money from the state pension fund and can’t agree on how to replace the money.  If I don’t move the money soon, I am worried it won’t be there!

This adviser highly recommended an annuity even though I am still fairly young.  He promised it was a safe investment that would give me money every month.  The problem?  I would only get about $1,000 a month 30 years from now when I retire.  After inflation 30 years from now, $1000 doesn’t sound like such a good guarantee.  A bit of probing helped me determine that the adviser works on commission and makes the biggest commission selling annuities.

Moving on, thank you.

Adviser 2–Helpful but Too Busy

Next, I turned to my accountant’s firm.  Her husband is a Dave Ramsey trained financial adviser.  This sounded perfect, and when my husband and I talked to him over the phone one night this past summer, he asked all of the right questions and seemed to have our best interests in mind.  He took the time to ask where we were financially right now as well as where we would like to be.  He recommended some investments, and we planned to talk in about 4 weeks to start the paperwork to move my retirement.

The problem?  We haven’t talked to him since.  I have left some messages for him; he has left some for me, but over the months, we have just played phone tag.  I last called in early December because I wanted this whole issue resolved before 2013 began.  We are well into 2013, and I still haven’t heard back from him.

Moving on.

Adviser 3–A Keeper?

When my cousin casually mentioned her financial adviser at Christmas, I pounced on her.  Who was he?  Would she recommend him?  Does he get back to her quickly?

She raved about him and said he was attentive and that the investments he chose were making them good money.  She gave me his number, and next week he is on my list of people to call.

When I quit my job 1.5 years ago, I would have never guessed finding a good financial adviser is so difficult.  I feel like I am back on the dating scene again trying to find just the right match.

Is my experience unique, or have you, too, had trouble finding a financial adviser to work with?  What did you look for in a financial adviser?

img credit:Brad Montgomery on Flickr.

What Christmas Expectations Are You Setting for Your Children?

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What are your children’s expectations for Christmas presents?  Do they expect many Christmas presents under the tree and their every wish to be met?  Do they expect a modest Christmas?

Believe it or not, the answer to this question doesn’t really depend on your kids; it depends on you.  From the time your children are small, you set their expectations, and what you set by example is what they come to know as “normal” (until they get married and find that their partner has a different “normal” than they do, but that is another post).

If you have small children, think carefully about what expectations you want to give your children.  Yes, retailers would prefer that you shop ’til you drop and give your credit card a work out, but it doesn’t have to be that way.  Here are what some people do who have chosen to have a different Christmas celebration than retailers would prefer you have:

1.  Give some new gifts, some used, and some homemade.

Amy Dacyczyn, the original Frugal Zealot and author of The Tightwad Gazette had six children to buy for.  Each child got one new gift.  Then, they got a few gifts that were used items that she had purchased at garage sales and thrift stores.  She also made her children a few gifts.  If I remember correctly, she spent $50 or under for each child.  (Of course, this was 20 years ago, so accounting for inflation, she spent no more than $82 for each child in 2012 dollars.

While you might balk at the idea of giving garage sale gifts for presents, I can tell you that I followed Dacyczyn’s practices when I had my own kids, and some of our kids’ presents are nice finds that we got at garage sales.  My oldest is 8, and he has yet to complain about it because it is what he expects.  He still does get new presents, but there are used ones in the mix.  (I like the term recycled better, though.)

2.  Give a charitable donation instead of gifts.

Ann Voskamp, the blogger behind A Holy Experience, recounts that one Christmas Eve 10 years ago, her son asked her, “Why don’t we give up things so we can give to Jesus for his birthday?”  The question radically changed Voskamp’s way of thinking, and from that year on, her family has foregone giving Christmas gifts to one another.  Instead, each day during Advent they make a charitable donation using the money they would have spent on gifts.

This is a radical idea, to be sure, but it is the norm now for her family.

3.  Only give 3 gifts.

Another idea based in Christian roots is to only give your children three gifts.  Some do this because the Wise Men brought Jesus 3 gifts.  Others take a spin on this and give their children three gifts–something they want, something they need, and something they can experience.

4.  Meet needs as gifts.

Gifts don’t have to be all luxuries and things you want.  When I was growing up, my parents’ money was extremely tight.  I got some new clothes during the back to school season, but my winter clothes and sometimes even my uniform clothing or new backpack were all given as Christmas presents.  I was always excited to get these things and never felt deprived.  My mom told me a few years ago that she had to give gifts this way because money was so tight, but I never knew.  This practice was normal for me.

Christmas gift giving was not always the extravaganza it is now.  As an adult, I reread the Little House in the Prairie books, and I was struck by how happy Laura was to get her very own handmade tin cup and an orange for Christmas one year.

If you are a parent of small children, you can start your Christmas gift giving traditions now, and they don’t have to involve credit card debt you can’t pay off until March or April.

What is your favorite way to give gifts at Christmas?

img credit: South Granville Live on Flickr