Coupons

By Stuart Miles, published on 04 September 2012
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Many have turned to clipping coupons to save money in today's current economic climate and with the success of television shows like Extreme Couponing, more and more people and pulling out the scissors and clipping away. 

There is a shift however to the conventional way of clipping coupons and that would be the digital age approach to couponing.  Several sites have coupons that you can print out or even download to your grocery store club card. 

This is making the art and science of couponing even more accessible and fast.  No more flipping through newspapers to get good deals, just visit a number of these sites and "clip" your coupons with your mouse or touchpad.

Coupon Sites:

http://www.couponmom.com/redplum-coupons-892

http://smartsource.com/smartsource/index.jsp?Link=MKRU3JAAR6CCY

http://www.coupons.com/

http://blog.pch.com/blog/category/pch-shop-and-win/

How to Buy a House With No Down Payment

If you’re looking to buy a home, have a decent credit score, and don’t own any other properties it is a good idea to consider a USDA Loan.  This is a government backed loan that lets you buy a home without any down payment.  Let me say that again…NO DOWN PAYMENT.  

They have 2 types of loans.  One is a standard home purchase and the other is a rehab loan where you can get money to rehabilitate an existing home.  The home of course has to be owner-occupied just like the FHA Home Loan.  

By Idea go, published on 05 July 2010
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If you don’t qualify for the USDA then of course you can do the standard FHA Loan that only requires 3.5% down.

For more information check the USDA site and here are a couple of articles about it as well:

http://www.rurdev.usda.gov/Home.html
http://www.usdaloanagency.com/what-is-a-usda-loan/


The only catch to the USDA Loan is that the home has to be in the USDA funding area.  These areas are usually in more suburban and rural places that are just being developed.

Credit Monitoring

It is very important to monitor your credit especially if you are in the market for buying a home, car or a loan.  You have to make sure that no one has stolen your identity but even beyond criminal activity the credit bureaus have reporting errors.  Sometimes people with the same name are mixed up and you end up having someone’s bad credit account on your credit profile. 

Be sure to check your credit report once a year but for my taste I think it is more prudent to check your credit once a month.  The best service to do this is Credit Karma.  They are totally free and give you a break-down of your accounts.  I’m a big fan of free which some other credit monitoring services aren’t. 

By James Barker, published on 25 August 2008
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Credit Karma makes its money from the offers that it makes from credit cards and other loan products.  Some of them may actually be worth your while.  If you have a bad interest rate on a credit card you may be able to do a balance transfer on a card for 6-12 months free interest.  That could save you hundreds of dollars. 

If you haven’t found out by now, you will later, that credit is one of the most important things you can have if you are trying to get ahead.  Make sure you check it frequently.

Best Internet Provider

By digitalart, published on 23 May 2011
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I don’t know about you but I have not been happy with my internet service.  I am not one to give bad reviews because I normally try to work something out with the company.  However I must say that Comcast is definitely lacking on customer service and their internet speed is ridiculously slow. 

I began searching for alternatives and I found that there are not too many out there especially if you live in a rural area.  I’m in the DC-metro area and the best alternative I found was RCN.  I haven’t tried them yet so I will definitely give you an update but after looking at other options it’s probably the best one.  AT&T has the best coverage for 4G LTE if you want to go the wireless hotspot route.  However their plan is $50 a month for only 5GB of data.  If your data goes over you have to pay an extra $10 for each GB you go over.  I don’t like the idea of checking every 5 minutes to see if I have used all my data.

It’s good to compare prices to see who has the best plans and speeds as well.  You can check your speed at Speedtest.net.  I checked my internet speed and it was around 20-22mbps download speed which is the slow end of the spectrum.  RCN has a deal for 50mpbs and if you want more you can get up to 75mbps. 

Verizon Fios sounds like it is the fastest out there but again the availability issue comes in to play depending on where you are and they also may have to install cable.  In that case they have to do some digging in the ground. 

Do some digging on the web yourself to see which one is the best in your area.

Mother's Day Gift Ideas

By tiverylucky, published on 27 April 2013

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Mother's Day is just around the corner. My mom never wants appliances as gifts because to her the appliance is not personal.  It's something everyone in the house uses.

I recommend of course getting your mom a card but you can also buy her jewelry.  Some of the best deals on jewelry you can get are on Liquidation Channel.  They have quality precious gems for ridiculously low prices and if you do their auctions you can save even more.

Flowers are also a good way to go but some moms may have allergies so it may be a good idea to stick to the jewelry.

You can also take her out to dinner or if you are not in her vicinity send her a gift card to her favorite restaurant.

Lastly, you can arrange a spa treatment for her.  I'm sure most moms would love to be pampered.

Whatever you get, make sure it's a personal gift from your heart.