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Shared Aug 30, 2010 comment

10 Ways to Protect Your Identity Online

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10 Ways to Protect Your Identity Online

Published: by on   |  This post may contain affiliate links. Read my disclosure policy here.

Guest post by Melissa from Mom’s Plans and Dining Out Challenge

One morning I tried to log into my eBay account but couldn’t. I contacted eBay and once I was able to get in, what I saw was over $1,000 in purchases.  My heart dropped, my cheeks flushed, my chest tightened and I felt like I couldn’t breathe. Anyone who has had their account compromised knows this feeling well.

What followed was a two day fast-course on protecting my identity online. Here is what I learned:

1. Change Passwords Frequently

I heard someone on NPR say that “passwords are like underwear. Change them frequently and don’t share them with anyone.” Try to change passwords every 30 to 60 days.

2. Make Passwords Difficult to Guess

You should have a combination of letters and numbers such as M7*dr36!aLd. Is it a pain to have more complicated passwords? Absolutely, but it is worth it to protect my identity.

3. Use A Different Password for Each Account

If thieves can hack into one account, they can hack into other accounts with the same password.

4. Use One Credit Card Solely For Online Purchases

If you use credit cards, have one that you use solely for online purchases and one that you use solely for all other purchases. If one credit card account is taken over — say the one you do NOT use for online purchases and suddenly online purchases begin showing up — the credit card company is much more likely to catch the theft because the charges will be outside your normal purchasing pattern.

5. Link Your Debit Card to a Special Bank Account

If you have an account only for debit card use and the card is compromised, the thieves will not be able to clean out your regular checking account that is used to pay bills. Worse case scenario they would only clean out the checking account specifically used for the debit card.

6. Link Your PayPal Account to a Special Account

Only use your designated credit card for on-line purchases or your designated bank account for your debit card. Do not use your regular credit card or checking account in case the account is compromised.

7. Order Your Free Credit Report Every Four Months

You can go to AnnualCreditReport.com and get your credit report for free from each of the three credit reporting agencies (Experian, TransUnion and Equifax) once a year. Order one every four months. For instance, one from Experian in January, one from TransUnion in May and one from Equifax in September.

8. Put a Fraud Alert on Your Credit Report If You Think Your Account Was Compromised

If you call one of the credit reporting agencies to authorize a fraud alert, they will call the other two agencies and convey the information for you.  (These are the numbers for the fraud departments: EQUIFAX: 800-525-6285, EXPERIAN: 888-397-3742, TRANSUNION: 800-680-7289.)

9. Put a Security Freeze on Your Credit Report

This is a radical step, but it will completely protect your identity. When you use a security freeze, you essentially lock down your credit. If you want to open a line of credit, you must first unfreeze your accounts. However, if your information is stolen and the thief tries to open up an account, they will be thwarted.

You must pay $10 to the credit reporting agency to freeze your credit. They will give you a special number as confirmation. Keep this number in a very safe place as you need it to unlock your credit.

10. Make Sure to Have a Firewall, Virus Scan, Spy Ware and Ad Ware Software

Many of these programs can be downloaded for free and offer the initial step of protection.

Identity theft on the Internet is a growing business and the damage can be done quickly. In less than 24 hours, someone used my account to purchase 3 cell phones at a cost of $1000. Imagine if I hadn’t caught it so quickly. Luckily eBay was wonderful and took care of the sales and the $1000.

I hope that my bad experience can help you protect yourself online.

Melissa blogs at Mom’s Plans and Dining Out Challenge. She’s a stay-at-home mom to a boy and two girls.

Do you have an idea for a guest post? I am always looking for high-quality, original (i.e. not published anywhere else online) content with tips and ideas Money Saving Mom® readers can use. If you would like to submit a guest post, please follow the Guest Posting Guidelines.

photo by Ed Yourdon

Money Saving Mom
Shared Aug 28, 2010 comment

Becoming a Work-At-Home Mom: A blog series, an ebook and an ecourse

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Becoming a Work-At-Home Mom: A blog series, an ebook and an ecourse

Published: by on   |  This post may contain affiliate links. Read my disclosure policy here.

If you’re new here, be sure to read the first posts in this Becoming a Work-At-Home Mom series here.

My “brilliant” idea back in 2006 to start a website with quick and frugal ebooks and money-saving tips fell pretty much flat on its face. The website design was atrocious because I didn’t know the first thing about designing a site from scratch (I only have a basic knowledge of HTML — enough to make very minor tweaks, not design a site from the ground up!) and I ran out of time to invest into bettering it because my husband got a job in another city and we ended up having to move in less than a month’s time.

Between moving, pregnancy, being a wife and mom and running my blog and other business, life was full and my initial “grandiose” idea got shoved to the back burner.

But it wasn’t just because all of those things that I didn’t continue on with SimplyCentsible.com, the main reason I stopped trying to build it up was because no one really seemed interested and there was little to no traffic to it after I put in hours of work and promoted it rather heavily. I decided maybe there just really wasn’t that much interest out there on frugality. Or maybe I just wasn’t the person to be talking about it. So I dropped the idea and went back to blogging as usual.

However, around that time, I did happen to mention our (at that time) $35-per-week grocery budget sort of off-hand in one of my posts. Little did I dream the kind of interest that wold conjure up! People started delurking and emailing to ask, “How on earth do you feed your family for $35 per week?” Since I had been using coupons for over six years at that point, I had kind of forgotten that most people spent significantly more on groceries!

But as the barrage of questions began coming, I realized that our grocery budget was apparently way, way low compared with most of the rest of society. So I started answering the questions by doing a blog series on my personal blog on “Supermarket Savings.”

That blog series exploded into something I never could have imagined: people started telling their friends, who told their friends, who told their friends. Before I knew it, my little blog was getting around 5,000 visitors per day — and people were begging for more help with lowering their grocery budget and reducing their overall expenses.

I tweaked and expanded the Supermarket Savings series into an ebook and it sold incredibly well. I mentally gave a big sigh of relief that it was finished! I figured the questions and emails would now die down as the ebook pretty much covered all the basic details on using coupons, playing the drugstore game and getting the most bang for your buck at the grocery store.

Well, the questions didn’t stop. In fact, the emails started pouring in from people who were brand-new to couponing and had no idea where to start. Again and again, I realized that they just wanted someone to hold their hand and walk them through step-by-step how to drastically cut their grocery budget.

They needed more than just the basics; they needed very detailed specifics on how to work the deals. The thought of setting up a blog to share these details and specifics still hadn’t crossed my mind yet, but I did decide to teach an online course called “Supermarket Savings 101.” There was nothing out there like it from everything I researched and, based upon the response and emails I was receiving, there was a huge need for this.

So, two weeks after Kaitlynn was born, I opened up registration for the online class. My plan was to teach a small number of participants the materials in my Supermarket Savings ebook at a more in-depth level. There would be different audio lessons, handouts, free ebooks on frugal living and a forum for participants to interact. In addition, there would be assignments every week which the class members had to complete and turn in which I would give feedback on.

My hope was that I would use the materials from this pilot class to create a downloadable ecourse to sell. I knew that having the real-time feedback and questions would be invaluable in helping me to craft a course which could benefit the most people.

I set the class registration price at $17.95 for the two-week class and announced it on my blog. I’d never done something this ambitious before and my goal was to get 20 registrations. I figured that would be a good number to work with to provide enough differing backgrounds and areas of the country to cover a lot of the potential questions and situations people are in.

I was a little blown away when I ended up with over 70 registrants for the online class! I was very thrilled, but it was also a bit daunting because I had a great turn out of participants, but now I had to figure out what I was going to teach and how I was going to teach it — and how I was going to try and give feedback to 70 different class participants. I was hoping I wasn’t setting myself up for another disastrous failure!

…to be continued next Saturday

Money Saving Mom
Shared Aug 28, 2010 comment

Super Savings Saturday: Local eggs, bread and peaches

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Super Savings Saturday: Local eggs, bread and peaches

Published: by on   |  This post may contain affiliate links. Read my disclosure policy here.

I did very little shopping this week, as you can tell from the picture, as our freezer and cupboards are pretty full and there just wasn’t much that we needed.

I stopped by a local bread store to use a Groupon I had and bought a loaf of yummy whole-wheat bread (and ended up getting to introduce everyone in line behind me to Groupon since they couldn’t believe my total for the bread was so low!). I bought a dozen farm-fresh eggs. And my mom gave me some peaches they’d picked from a local orchard.

Other than buying two gallons of milk (not pictured), that was the extent of our grocery purchases this week.

So our total in grocery expenditures this week was around $9.

We did go out to eat more than our usual once-a-week because Silas and I went with my husband on a business trip to Kansas City for a few days. That said, we brought some of the food for the trip and we used a gift card we’d been given to Chick-fil-A for one of the meals, so we ended up not spending much out of pocket for food on the trip.

__________________

Did you snag any great deals or bargains this week or save money in other ways? If so, be sure to post about them on your blog and leave your link below. Please remember that this weekly round-up is to share deals you personally got and/or money you were able to save this week. In order to keep this weekly round-up focused on helping and inspiring others in their efforts to save money, links which have little-to-no content other than promoting affiliate links, etc. will be deleted. Also, to make it easy for everyone to navigate quickly through the links, your link must link directly to your Super Savings Saturday post.

Money Saving Mom
Shared Aug 27, 2010 comment

We Paid Cash! :: Medical School

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We Paid Cash! :: Medical School

Published: by on   |  This post may contain affiliate links. Read my disclosure policy here.

We paid cash!Testimony from Sara

One of the best pieces of advice we got before my husband and I married, was to read The Total Money Makeover by Dave Ramsey. We became huge fans of Dave’s advice and because we both came from frugal families, we felt equally yoked for our financial future — even knowing my husband wanted to go to medical school.

The Preparation

About six months before we got married (going on six years ago now!), my husband was accepted to medical school. Because we had a goal of staying debt free, we immediately started to devise a plan.

I had been working for a few months at my first “real job” and was already starting to see savings build little by little. Neither one of us had any previous debt as we had college paid for by scholarships, and I had worked my way through graduate school as a Graduate Assistant. So we were already off to a good start.

We knew how much medical school tuition would cost, and added in some extra for books, equipment and miscellaneous items he might need. And we really started to pray. We prayed for God’s direction, for discipline, and patience. After all, I’d just finished school myself, and after working hard to get through it, it was tempting to want to splurge.

You know what? God provided!

First, we found out a few months after his acceptance that my husband had received a scholarship to cover the first semester — what a blessing! It gave us a little more time to save. Secondly, God blessed my work, and we saw little savings grow more and more into reaching our goals!

The Result

By staying the course and keeping to our commitment, at the end of my husband’s second year of school, we had already saved enough for all four years! After counting tuition, fees, equipment, National testing, and all the books he needed, we paid around $50,000. God is so good! We can look back and see His hand and blessing the entire way.

The Bumps in the Road and God’s Provision

Not everything came without some sweat — literally.

First, at the beginning of the third year of school, my husband’s car just went kaput. You couldn’t drive it over about 50 mph without feeling like you were trying to use your body to hold down the steering wheel. The tires were worn out, the engine needed some serious work and it had no air conditioning. And let me tell ya, here in Mississippi, that was a big deal! Rob had just started clinical rotations and was dressing up for work so he would leave before daylight, to keep himself from sweating too badly. Eventually, we were able to pay cash for a used car for him.

We paid cash for medical school!Secondly, and very sweetly, our first little bundle came into the world the middle of the third year (our second came a month before Rob graduated). I never knew I’d want to stay home with him so badly. I cried and cried, thinking in my heart that God’s timing was not right for me to stay at home — especially while we had no other income.

The month I went back to work, the company I worked for announced that, for the first time ever, wanted to hire someone part-time in my area! God was so faithful. He gave me the desire to be home with my son, and He provided the means!

So, I worked part-time until January of this year when I quit my job to stay home full-time. By saving up enough for medical school early and living frugally along the way, we were able have set aside enough money in the bank to supplement my husband’s income until he finished residency.

You want to know the cool thing? It’s been eight months, and we still haven’t used a dime of our savings!

And the Rest of the Story?

My husband is in his second year of residency now, and we stay committed to our goal. Rob doesn’t make much as a resident, and still has three years to go. However, we know that living frugally now gives us a peace about where we’ll be in the future.

We are so happy and so thankful to be debt-free! So many of my husbands friends and classmates came out of school with six-figure debt. God has taught us a lot through the past six years; it’s not always been easy, but it’s been so worth it.

Sara and Rob, with Rhett (2) and Colt (1), live in Jackson, Mississippi.

Have you saved up and paid cash for something — large or small? Submit your story for possible publication here.

Money Saving Mom
Shared Aug 26, 2010 comment

Ask the Readers: How far will you travel for good deals?

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Ask the Readers: How far will you travel for good deals?

Published: by on   |  This post may contain affiliate links. Read my disclosure policy here.

I live in the northeast US and I feel like we don’t have the best grocery stores up here. But, I recently found an Aldi about a half hour to 45 minutes away from my house. You seem like a big supporter of Aldi so I was just wondering if you thought it would be frugal of me to make the drive there every month or so to do some grocery shopping or would it just be a waste of gas, money and time? What are your thoughts? -Becky

If I personally lived in an area where there were few grocery stores with good deals, I would definitely consider it worth my time and the expense of gas to drive 30 minutes to Aldi once every four to six weeks.

However, to make it worth the drive, you’d want to be strategic about it. You’d want to stock up on enough items which were significantly lower than the prices you would usually pay to last you for another four to six weeks (or until your next trip). I’d also look to see if there were any other great stores in the same area that I could also stop by to make my trip even more worthwhile.

I would likely buy enough fresh produce to last me for a week or two (depending upon what the produce is, sometimes it will last longer than that). I’d also stock up on staple items such as baking supplies and canned goods. And finally, I’d buy perishable items which can be frozen. You can freeze bread, butter, cheese, milk, fresh fruit (for smoothies or baking) and so much more. So I’d likely freeze most of the perishable items which we couldn’t use up in a week in order to extend their life.

I would track my expenditures at Aldi compared to the prices I could get at the local stores to make sure that I was saving enough money to make it worth the trip. Since it would be at least an hour of driving plus some gas money for the trip, I’d need to be saving at least $50 per trip to make it worth my time and expense.

Most importantly, I’d continue to do the best I could to find deals at my local stores. Sometimes, high-priced stores which don’t double coupons will have incredible loss leaders or catalina deals. Keep your eyes peeled! (By the way, have you signed up to receive the best deals at your local stores in your inbox every week? We do the work for you so make sure and take advantage of this free resource!)

Would you drive to Aldi if you were in Becky’s shoes? How far will you travel for good deals? I’d love to hear your answers!

WANT TO SAVE $100 FAST?!Join the FREE 14-Day Savings Challenge!

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Money Saving Mom
Shared Aug 26, 2010 comment

Beyond baking soda and vinegar

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Beyond baking soda and vinegar

Published: by on   |  This post may contain affiliate links. Read my disclosure policy here.

Tammy has a great post up on ways to get beyond commercial products that don’t just involve the standard baking soda and vinegar you often hear of.

I’m seriously considering trying making my own toothpaste and deodorant after I make homemade laundry detergent. It might be a total fail, but you never know until you try!

Money Saving Mom
Shared Aug 26, 2010 comment

Reader Tip: How I Saved $100 on a Car Seat

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Reader Tip: How I Saved $100 on a Car Seat

Published: by on   |  This post may contain affiliate links. Read my disclosure policy here.

Here’s a great tip from Pamela:

We recently came to grips with our 6-figure debt and are determined to work our way out. We know it’s going to be a long road and we’re doing everything we can to spend only what’s in our envelopes and stay within our budget!

As you can imagine, we need all the help we can get to stay disciplined, so I was excited to find a free and easy-to-use website that helped me save almost $100 dollars on a much-needed car seat for our two year old!

The site is called camelcamelcamel.com. It tracks product prices on Amazon and it notifies you when the price on those products drops below the target price you specify.

Here’s how it works:

  1. Sign up. It’s completely free. This step is actually optional, but registering gives you some added features. (If you do sign up, make sure you verify your account after signing up by replying to the email you will receive.)
  2. When you’re ready to start tracking a product, go to camelcamelcamel.com.
  3. In the search box at the top of the page, type in the product you wish to buy.
  4. Look at the list of possibilities that comes up and click on the exact product you are looking for.
  5. The Overview page for that product will show you current prices and history of prices on Amazon, 3rd Party New and 3rd Party Used. With cool graphs even! Click around to see the historical prices and other fun info about the product.
  6. To set a target price, click on “Create a price watch for this product”
  7. Choose when you want to be alerted. Whether for Amazon Price, 3rd Party New and/or 3rd Party Used
  8. Specify the price at which you wish to be notified
  9. Choose to have email alerts or Twitter alerts (RSS feeds are also available)
  10. Click “Create price watch(es)”

That’s it! Now all you have to do is be patient and wait. 🙂 If and when the price on your product drops to your target price (or below), you’ll be notified.

I opted to receive notifications via email, so when my notification came, I simply clicked on the link they provided and then clicked through to Amazon where I purchased our car seat!

Pamela blogs about paying off her family’s 6-figure debt and staying green & healthy at ooshela.com.

Shared Aug 25, 2010 comment

31 Days to a Better Grocery Budget: Look for Markdowns

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31 Days to a Better Grocery Budget: Look for Markdowns

Published: by on   |  This post may contain affiliate links. Read my disclosure policy here.

New here? Be sure to read the first posts in the 31 Days to a Better Grocery Budget.

One way we save up to $25 per week is by buying marked-down groceries. I often receive the question, “How do you find out when a store marks down groceries?”

Each Store is Different

I wish I had some super-secret answer to tell you so that you could just magically find markdowns at your store. However, each store is different and often the policies vary widely even in the same store chain in the same town. Sometimes, a store doesn’t even have policies for markdowns and it is based upon whatever mood the produce manager is in as to what kind of deals you’ll find.

Talk to the Produce Manager

Some store chains have a policy against marking items down. The best way to find out is to just ask. Usually, the produce manager is the person to start with.

Inquire what they do with produce that is going bad or milk that is almost to its expiration date and see if they have a policy on marking these items down. If they don’t, ask if you could get a discount if you found a gallon of milk which was expiring in a few days or produce which was going bad.

Plan Your Shopping Trips Around Markdowns

Some stores routinely mark items down on specific days or at specific times. If so, plan your shopping trips around those times.

For instance, our local health food store usually marks the produce and dairy items down every day between 10 a.m. and 12 p.m. So I try to play my shopping outings so I’ll be at this store around lunchtime. If I don’t have a chance to shop around lunchtime, it’s usually not worth stopping by because the markdowns have already been snatched up.

Look For Markdowns First When Shopping

The very first thing I do when I walk into a grocery store is to go around the perimeter of the store and look for the orange markdown stickers on items. I hit the produce section first. Then the meat, dairy and bread items.

By starting with looking for markdowns, I then can rework my grocery list if I hit on a great deal. For example, if I was planning to buy carrots and cucumbers to use as raw veggies during the week, but I found a big bag of marked-down colored peppers and a marked-down head of cauliflower, if they were less expensive than the carrots and cucumbers I was planning to buy, I’d likely swap them and save a dollar or two.

My favorite thing about buying markdowns is that they add some variety to our menu. While I might not pay full price for a roast or salmon, I’ll snatch it up if it’s marked down by 50%.

It Never Hurts to Ask

Just because an item isn’t marked down doesn’t mean you can’t get it discounted. Unless your store has a strict policy against marking down items, don’t hesitate to ask if the store will reduce that past-its-prime bag of apples or that expiring-in-three-days jug of milk.

I’ve rarely been turned down when asking if a store will mark down an obviously-close-to-expiring item. And on a few occasions, they’ve even just given it to me for free!

Don’t Buy Something Just Because It’s Marked Down

Like I often say, “If you don’t need something, it’s not a good deal — no matter how inexpensive it is!” If you don’t like squash, don’t get suckered into buying five big bags of squash marked down to $1 each. Save your $5 and use it on something you’ll actually eat.

Before I will put a marked down item in my cart, I always make sure I can fit it into our grocery budget and also that I have a plan for how I’m going to use it. Oftentimes, upon careful consideration, I’ll end up passing up some of the markdowns just because I’m not entirely sure we’ll use them before they go bad.

What are your best tips for finding marked-down groceries? Share them in the comments.

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Money Saving Mom
Shared Aug 25, 2010 comment

Good Reads: The Other 8 Hours

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Good Reads: The Other 8 Hours

Published: by on   |  This post may contain affiliate links. Read my disclosure policy here.

Of all the business books I’ve read in the last five years, The Other 8 Hours: Maximize Your Free Time to Create New Wealth and Purpose is hands-down the very best one I’ve read. I underlined and marked up page after page after page. It is clear-cut, concise, packed with practical wisdom and so very true.

The author not only gives you the tools you need to transform your life and your finances, but he inspires you to dream big dreams, set big goals and then work hard to achieve them.

So many people feel stuck. Stuck in a job they don’t like. Stuck in an area of the country they don’t like. Stuck in a financial mess and feeling there is no way out.

This book gives you hope. You do have time to change your life – if you’re willing to make the most of The Other 8 Hours. Whether you’re a business executive or a stay-at-home mom, the principles and ideas contained in The Other 8 Hours could very likely change your life!

Please note: This book has a bit of crass language in it. I don’t endorse the language and wish it could have been omitted from the book because the message would have been just as strong without it.

Discovered any Good Reads recently? Tell me about them in the comments and I’ll consider adding them to my long and ever-growing book list!

Money Saving Mom
Shared Aug 24, 2010 comment

Nothing Says “I Love You” Like a $4 Aldi Bouquet

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Nothing Says “I Love You” Like a $4 Aldi Bouquet

Published: by on   |  This post may contain affiliate links. Read my disclosure policy here.

Last week, my husband came home with a bouquet of beautiful roses. Not for any other reason than just because.

I looked at the price tag (I know, I know, I just can’t help myself! I always look at the price tag first thing whenever I pick up anything!) and I smiled.

He knows me so well.

I love flowers – especially when my husband gives them to me at random times instead of a Hallmark holiday – but I love more the fact that my husband knows a $4 Aldi bouquet is just as beautiful to me than a $40 bouquet from a specialty shop.

OVER-SPENDING EVERY SINGLE MONTH?Grab these FREE Budgeting Sheets!

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Money Saving Mom
Shared Aug 23, 2010 comment

Becoming a Work-At-Home Mom: Learning from those who are older and wiser

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Becoming a Work-At-Home Mom: Learning from those who are older and wiser

Published: by on   |  This post may contain affiliate links. Read my disclosure policy here.

My apologies that this didn’t get posted on Saturday as I’d planned. Some unexpected things came up and writing this post got ditched for more important things. If you’re new here, be sure to read the first posts in this Becoming a Work-At-Home Mom series here.

After my husband finished law school and I stopped working as a marketing manager for the homeschool magazine, I cut back significantly on the time I spent working on business endeavors. It was wonderfully freeing and I felt like I was finally able to focus on my family and home again after neglecting many things for months.

Before my daughter got up in the morning or during her afternoon naptime, I continued to work on building the blog and our online business. The blog had grown to have around 2,000 to 3,000 visitors per day, so there was an increasing load of email and comments to keep up with. Plus, our online book business was slowly picking up. There were always at least a few orders every day and when we ran sales, there’d be a slew of at least 30 to 50 orders.

I had plenty to do, but I was looking for ways to be a little more efficient and maximize the return on my investment of time when it came to business stuff. So I started spending more time learning more about monetizing a blog. I began observing other bloggers who were making a full-time income from blogging and trying to determine what made them successful and what was working for them.

I discovered that most of those who were doing well were honest, straight-forward, unique, creative and they blogged often and wrote well. I also noticed that they usually utilized multiple streams of income. In many cases, not only were they offering private ad sales, but they also had ad networks plus they participated in various affiliate marketing opportunities and some even produced ebooks and downloadable products. One thing was clear: they didn’t put all their eggs into one basket.

The thought of making a full-time income from blogging seemed utterly unattainable to me, but I remember thinking how incredible that it would be. I figured it was something only a small handful of really smart, really talented people who got in at the right time and place could ever pull off. But it fascinated me and I kept watching and learning from those who were doing it well.

At the same time, I continued to spend a lot of time writing ebooks as these were our best-selling items and required very little upfront costs. Plus, since I had set up the download process through Clickbank, unless a customer had a technical issue, the buying process was entirely automated. It wasn’t unusual for me to make between $15 and $30 per day in ebook profits. And when I ran a sale or released a new ebook, the earnings would be much higher than that.

I was encouraged and excited and I realized that the more I could automate things, the more I could increase the business income without it requiring more time and effort on my behalf.

One day, I had an idea to produce a little ebook with 10 different fast and frugal dinner menus complete with recipes and tips. I called the ebook Simply Centsible Suppers and it sold like hotcakes! After that ebook was such a success, I wrote another called Simply Centsible Breakfasts. Again, it sold really well. I was selling these ebooks for $2.97, so after the fees associated with the download, I was making less than $2 in profit per book. However, it was really apparent that I’d hit on a hot topic.

Being the entrepreneurial person I am, I started to brainstorm all sorts of things I could do with this idea. I envisioned a whole line of ebooks: Simply Centsible Snacks, Simply Centsible Side Dishes, Simply Centsible Sack Lunches… you get the picture. Then, I decided I should set up a website which was called SimplyCentsible.com that had articles on frugality and which promoted my ebooks.

I had just found out we were expecting our second child and was in the throes of morning-noon-and-night sickness, so I figured it was the perfect time for me to work on setting up a new website. And so I went to work setting up SimplyCentsible.com — a website which I thought was destined to really take off and put into practice all these monetization ideas I’d been gleaning over the past year.

My brain was spinning as I lay there day after day sick as a dog on the couch. I’d hit on a brilliant idea — or so I thought.

But time would prove that it was a very short-lived “brilliant” idea.

…To be continued on Saturday

Money Saving Mom
Shared Aug 23, 2010 comment

How to Get the P90X Fitness System Inexpensively

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How to Get the P90X Fitness System Inexpensively

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Guest post by Cassie and Michael who blog at The Thrifty Couple

Thanks to Crystal’s posts on P90X, we were inspired to purchase the P90X System ourselves. We just received ours last week and look forward to getting started. We have been wanting to try something new in an effort to try and be good stewards of all of the things the Lord has given to us — even in the area of physical health and fitness!

Being The Thrifty Couple, we have had a few people ask us how we are managing to take on a fitness program the thrifty way?

1. Order the program off of Amazon and buy it with Swagbucks.

The P90x program is priced right around $140 on Amazon. You might have enough Swagbucks to cover 25% of the cost or 50% or better yet, you could have enough Swagbucks to pay for the whole thing, which means you can get it for free.

2. Buy one off of Ebay

Find an auction that has free shipping and you can also have automatic bids placed in the increments you decide and up to a maximum amount. By doing this, set your absolute final maximum bid for a new set to be a little lower than Amazon. Amazon is your fall back!

3. Check your local classifieds.

Where we live, two of our news stations have a classified ads section on their website. Thousands of locals, including us, use these classified ads to sell and buy things each month. Just today, there are dozens of P90X ads starting at $25 for gently-used and $40 for brand-new! So whatever your main local classifieds are, definitely check there.

Here are a few suggestions of places to check for deals on P90X:

  • Ebay runs a local classified ads site.
  • Oodle.com (we saw a number of brand new sets for $50)
  • Your local newspaper classifieds
  • Check your local television station classifieds
  • Check your local Craig’s List ads as well. When we checked there for our local area, again there were a handful of new systems starting at $50.
  • Finally, check Freecycle.org and you might just score a free set.

Note from Crystal: There is a knockoff version of the P90X program out there that some are selling much more inexpensively so be aware of this when you are searching for a deal.

CJ, from My P90X Nutrition Plan recently wrote and said:

“As it turns out, the guide has obviously been copied and is rife with typos, some of which could be very damaging to people trying to follow the nutrition plan. One especially terrible one is that it says that Phase 1 Level III requires 3,800 calories a day as opposed to the 3,000 in the actual guide! One quick way folks can tell if theirs is a knockoff is that the “N” in “Nutrition Plan” is lowercase on the cover of my knockoff version.”

“I just learned that my P90X program is a KNOCKOFF! I purchased mine online from Craigslist (for around $70), and while it seemed odd that the guy was willing to sell it so cheaply, it was unopened and contained all of the materials, so I didn’t think anything of it after that.

Remember that trying to stay (or become) physically fit can be done in a thrifty, frugal manner. Always check out your options as you might just be surprised to find a much more affordable option for whatever you do. And you might find that painful process of trying to get fit is just a little less painful than you thought — well, at least in the purchasing of it!

Alex and Cassie are a frugal couple that blogs over at The Thrifty Couple. They are a Christian, homeschooling family raising 4 children. They have been learning how to live a frugal lifestyle for years — which, in fact, aided them in becoming debt-free.

Do you have an idea for a guest post? I am always looking for high-quality, original (i.e. not published anywhere else online) content with tips and ideas Money Saving Mom® readers can use. If you would like to submit a guest post, please follow the Guest Posting Guidelines.

Money Saving Mom
Shared Aug 21, 2010 comment

Super Savings Saturday: Dillons, Aldi and farm-fresh eggs

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Super Savings Saturday: Dillons, Aldi and farm-fresh eggs

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Dillons shopping trip: $18.34 spent — read more details on this shopping trip here.

Aldi shopping trip: approximately $16 spent (I lost the receipt, so I don’t have an exact amount.)

I used frozen fruit and veggies for the first few days of this week instead of making a trip to the store for fresh supplies as we were just getting back from our vacation to Arkansas and settling back into our routine.  So we made it through Thursday before a trip to the store was necessary (except for my husband picking up a gallon of chocolate milk and milk on his way home from work on Monday) — which definitely ended up saving us some money this week. It seems eating from the pantry and freezer always accomplishes that, doesn’t it?

We spent $18.34 at Dillons and then around $16 at Aldi. Plus, we bought two dozen farm-fresh eggs and the two gallons of milk/chocolate milk not pictured. So, all in all, we spent around $43 on groceries this week.

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Did you snag any great deals or bargains this week or save money in other ways? If so, be sure to post about them on your blog and leave your link below. Please remember that this weekly round-up is to share deals you personally got and/or money you were able to save this week. In order to keep this weekly round-up focused on helping and inspiring others in their efforts to save money, links which have little-to-no content other than promoting affiliate links, etc. will be deleted. Also, to make it easy for everyone to navigate quickly through the links, your link must link directly to your Super Savings Saturday post.

Money Saving Mom
Shared Aug 20, 2010 comment

We Paid Cash! :: My Diamond Wedding Ring

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We Paid Cash! :: My Diamond Wedding Ring

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We paid cash!

Testimonial from Heather

We paid cash for my new wedding ring — today!

The Background

My boyfriend and I knew each other for 8 years and dated for a year before we decided to get married. Money was very tight so we invited close family to a small ceremony at the courthouse with a Justice of the Peace.

We didn’t have any money for a nice wedding ring since my now-husband had recently lost his job with the city. I bought a solitare ring and matching band from Claire’s that totaled less than $30. Very cheap, but hey, it worked and you wouldn’t believe the compliments I got on it!

Diamond Wedding RingOver the past year I have had to replace the cheap “costume jewelry ring” a few times but it was what the ring symbolized that was important to us.

How We Did It

We’ve saved little by little during the last 11 months hoping to save enough by the time our anniversary came up on August 26th.

My husband, after a year of unemployment, has decided to join the military and since we can take only one car with us, we sold the old clunker we rarely used and got enough to buy a new ring and have some leftover for fun money!

The Deal

The ring I found after shopping around was originally priced at $1500, on sale for $899 and I talked the sales rep down to $799 INCLUDING lifetime warranties for the gold and diamonds. $870 out the door cash for a brand new 1-carat diamond ring!

Good things come to those who wait! : )

Wedding RingHeather, husband Chris, and daughters Allison and Brooke live in Phoenix, Arizona where they live debt-free. In addition to their recent wedding ring purchase they have paid cash for their 50″ Panasonic plasma tv, new leather furniture, second car and have never paid full price for diapers!

Have you saved up and paid cash for something — large or small? Submit your story for possible publication here.

Money Saving Mom
Shared Aug 20, 2010 comment

We Paid Cash! :: Our Adoption

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We Paid Cash! :: Our Adoption

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We paid cash!Testimony from David and Melissa

The best piece of pre-marital advice we ever received came from my Dad just over nine years ago. He suggested that if we ever hoped to be a one-income family giving me the freedom to stay home with our children, we should budget only on that one income from day one.

We decided to take that advice to heart and right from the very beginning, my income (I’m an elementary teacher) went straight into our savings account. Over the years we’ve used those savings to help pay cash for several different things; the biggest of which was for the adoption of our daughter.

How we paid cash for adoptionThe Background

We struggled with infertility for over six years before adopting our daughter this past January. During that time we spent literally thousands and thousands of dollars on fertility treatments (including IVF). However when all of those treatments left us with only broken hearts and two miscarriages, we decided it was time to explore adoption. God came through in a truly remarkable way and provided a beautiful baby girl for us almost immediately.

Adoptions are expensive no matter how you look at them. Ours cost us in the ballpark of $15,000. I am pleased (and still a little surprised and amazed) to say that because of our sacrifice of that second income for the last 9 years, we were able to pay cash for the entire amount.

How We Did It

  • Living within our means based on my husband’s income only.
  • Never seeing what our lifestyle would feel like with two incomes.
  • Putting the second income (minus tithe) entirely into our savings account.
  • Using extreme self-control and resist the temptation to take annual trips to Disney World with those saved funds. 🙂
  • Don’t spend the money until enough has been saved.
  • We have made the personal choice to pay cash for everything except our house. If we don’t have the cash for it, we don’t buy it.

Next Steps

Now that I’m finally a mom, it was a real dilemma whether to now stay home with our daughter or return to work.  Knowing that our ability to adopt again is based on being able to raise another $15,000, we made the decision for me to work at least another year so that our next adoption can also be paid in cash.

We are David and Melissa Gafford and we have a 7 month old daughter named Addison. You can read more about our adoption story on our blog.