Beating Broke

Personal Finance from the Broke Perspective

Extreme Couponing: Fad or Lifestyle

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Ever since TLC decided that it would make for good reality television to follow around a bunch of folks who use coupons and dub them “Extreme Couponers”, there’s been a ton of talk about the people on the show, and people like them.  People who spend hours each day clipping coupons and then checking them against store fliers all so they can create spreadsheets and action plans on how to best use the coupons in order to pay the least amount of money for whatever it is that they are buying.

So far, I’ve avoided talking about these people.  I figure it’s about time that I make my thoughts known.  What kind of personal finance site would Beating Broke be if we didn’t talk about one of the hottest topics in the personal finance world.  My immediate take upon watching an episode of the show was that the people on it are a bit OCD.  I like my money, and I’d rather not part with it if I don’t have to, but not so badly that I’m going to buy several hundred tubes of toothpaste.  Or several hundred of anything for that matter.  I also don’t buy the “I saved $xxx” argument.  If you hadn’t gone to the store in the first place, you would have saved every penny you spent.

Coupons can play a somewhat important role in your shopping.  But, it doesn’t have to be as overwhelming as all that.  My wife, for instance, is on a coupon train that Extreme Couponing: Getting ready for my big shopping trip!she joined through Swapmamas.  Every week or so, she gets a big envelope that’s bursting at the seam with coupons that the person who sent them to her just couldn’t use.  She’ll sort through them while we’re watching T.V. or lying in bed at the end of the day.  She carries the ones she keeps in a nice little accordion pocket organizer that she bought for that reason, then sends the rest off to the next person on the train.  When we go shopping, we try to make a list and she’ll take 10-15 minutes to flip through the coupons to see if we have any sams club coupons or similar that we can use.  We don’t get results like the folks on that show, but it’s not out of the ordinary to save anywhere from 5% to 20% on any given trip.  On stuff we were going to buy anyways.

Extreme couponing has become a bit of a fad.  People are watching shows like the one on TLC and thinking they can do the same thing.  Some of them are going to less than honest means to achieve those goals and are stealing papers from dispensers just to get to the valuable coupons in the inserts.  When you have to steal to save your money, you really need to draw that line and get some help.  Done right, couponing can be something that is hardly intrusive at all, and that can save you some money.  Done right, it can become a bit of a lifestyle.

Some say they just don’t have the time to use coupons, but I think they have a somewhat distorted view of the time involved.  It doesn’t have to be time consuming, and the returns can be rewarding.  Give it a try.  Next thing you know, you’ll be buying two of those Sunday papers.

photo credit: bargainbri

Originally published on 8/15/2011

Choosing Your Next Bank

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In the last five years or so, the banking industry has seen some major changes.  Interest rates have plummeted. We’ve had at least one recession, and a recovery of sorts.  The stock market has dropped like a rock and soared like an eagle.  We’ve also seen the rise of online banks become a new-fangled curiosity to something that most of us accept as a standard.

Online banks have made it normal to have services like bill-pay, electronic deposit, and easy to use online account management.  They’ve also put the pressure on traditional brick and mortar institutions to revamp their services, lower their fees, and offer more for their users.  But, they’ve also made it more difficult to decide on a bank.  No longer do we just pick the best one of a handful in our town, or the one that mom and dad used to use.  They’ve increased our selection, and made the decision a tad bit more difficult.  So, how do we go about selecting our next bank?

Bank Location

Choosing Your Next BankEven in our super digital world, where our physical locations are becoming less and less likely to matter, the location of your bank might make a difference to you.  You might like the ability to walk into a branch of your bank and make a deposit, or talk to someone face to face.  You might just like the security of knowing that you have that ability should you really need it.

When you’re choosing your next bank, you really need to decide if having a local branch available to you is something that is important, or if it’s just something that might be nice.  If it’s important, you’ll want to take most of the online banks off the list of eligible institutions right away.  If it just might be nice, you can leave them on the list.

Bank Fees

There’s been a lot of talk about bank fees, hidden fees, and transaction fees lately.  After the most recent housing market crash, and the new legislation on credit card transaction fees, many banks are trying to find new innovative ways of recouping the costs.  They’re getting creative with their fees, and their fee structures.  It should go without saying that you can have the best bank in the world, with all the shiny services, but if they’re adding on fees all over the place, they just aren’t that great.

When you’re choosing your next bank, take a close look at their fees and fees structure.  Does their checking/savings account have a monthly fee if you’re inactive?  Does it have other monthly fees for services?  Are the fees they have significantly higher than what other institutions charge?  Fees that you don’t, or won’t, end up being charged might not seem all that important, but they can be an indicator of the future of the institutions fee structure.  Be sure to make note of, or cross off entirely, any bank that has a difficult to understand fee schedule, or higher than average fees.

Bank Services

Here’s where you can usually weed the really bad ones out.  Maybe they have all the right locations, a huge ATM network, and better than average fees.  All of that will be somewhat useless if they don’t have all the services that you want.  Find out what services they offer.

When choosing your next bank, be sure to check to make sure what services they offer.  Make a list of services that you must have.  Bill-Pay would be top of that list for me.  If it’s an online bank, having some way of depositing checks electronically through an app on your phone might be high up on the list.  Does their debit card offer cash back?  Do they offer any rewards?  What other perks does the account have?  What perks would you like it to have?  The truly analytically minded out there, like me, might just choose to use a spreadsheet to tick off what each candidate has, and use it to compare.

There are plenty of choices out there.  Decide on what it is that you want in a bank, and then go about finding one that offers it all.  Chances are that you’ll find it.  For me, I’m still using the Capital One 360 (used to be ING Direct) account I opened up years ago.  I like that it’s easy to use, super simple to create sub accounts for categorization, and has very few fees.  I’m also a fan of Ally bank, but their login process seems to lock me out about every third or fourth time I try and login.  That’s not very convenient for me. 🙁  But, their rates are usually up there with the highest and their customer service is top notch.  If you’re better at remembering your password than I am, they’re a good option as well.  I’ve also heard good things about Perkstreet (2% cash back debit), and USAA, but haven’t used either to verify.

Here are some banks offering some great rates for online savings (rates are accurate as of 9/23/2013):

  • Capital One 360 — 0.75% APY — Apply Now
  • AMEX — 0.85% APY — Apply Now
  • Ally — 0.84% APY — Apply Now

I know there are plenty of other options that others rave about all the time. What is your favorite bank?  What qualifications do you look for in a bank?

This post was first published in June 2013, but is being republished today, with updates (Perkstreet is closing, and rates updates)

 

Embrace Abundance

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One of the tried and true tenets of personal finance is frugality.  Either through penny-pinching and coupon clipping, or through budgets and smart spending, we aim for frugality.  We choose to be frugal either because we have high debt loads, or because we just want to save some money for some purchase.  In short, we’re reacting to a scarcity of some resource.  In the case of many of us, that resource is money.

Through scarcity, we find ways to make things last longer, or stretch further.  We find ways to turn something raw into something useful.  Scarcity teaches us to be resourceful; not only with our money, but with our food, clothing, supplies, our whole world.

But, sometimes we get so wrapped up in embracing scarcity, and learning from it, that we forget to also embrace abundance.

Sometimes we even participate in abundance, but only because we claim that it’s the scarcity that’s the driving force of our action.

Today, forget scarcity.  Embrace abundance.

Embrace Abundance

Just for a day.  (I think you’ll want to do so longer, but start with a day.)

Embrace the things in your life that are abundant.  Embrace the abundant opportunity to partake in the last few days of summer and go to the park.  Swing.  Play with your children.  Or pets.  Or friends.

Embrace the abundant knowledge that you have in your local library, or through services like PaperbackSwap, and learn something.  Read a book. (Even if it’s strictly for pleasure.)

Embrace the abundant joy that you have in your family.  Break out the cards or board games and enjoy their company.  (Even the one who’s ruthless at Monopoly. )

It doesn’t matter what it is.  But, don’t do it because of scarcity.  Do it because there’s something in abundance that you want to enjoy.

What do you have in your life that is overflowing in abundance?  Embrace it.

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