7 deadly sins of spending
With Black Friday and other spending pitfalls looming this holiday season, there's no better time to evaluate where your money is going before it's too late.The following are seven habits you need to break so you don't go broke. Let the collective wisdom of WalletPop, Investopedia, helpsavemydollars.com and MSN Money provide instant salvation.
LivingSocial.com launches travel deals, but do your own math first
LivingSocial, a website that offers city-specific pop-up deals based on group participation, has thrown travel deals into the mix. Although deals on the site are normally available for only 24 hours, the travel deals, which it calls "escapes," will be offered for a week at a time. Also unlike the normal deals, anyone can grab them without a minimum number of participants. Another perk: If customers can get three of their friends to book the same deal, theirs is free.
That's all good news. Now for the warning: Not all of these deals are the cheapest you can do. Take, for example, the current four-day air-hotel package from New York City to El Tukan Hotel & Beach Club at Playa del Carmen, outside of Cancun.
$40 for unlimited doctor visits? Sign me up
Aaron Crowe
Nov 10th 2010 @ 12:00PM EST
Filed Under: Saving Money, Health, Economizer, Insurance - Health Insurance
At prices as low as $40 a month, some medical groups are offering something that's cheaper than a gym membership, and just as good for your health -- unlimited access to their services without having to go through an insurance company.The plans are called Direct Medical Care -- and go by other names such as concierge medicine, retainer-based practices, subscription-based practices -- and cut out health insurance companies by having patients pay doctors directly, resulting in lower prices because doctor's don't have to spend as much time filling out insurance paperwork.
Which cars cost the least (and the most) to insure? And tips to save on car insurance
Josh Smith
Nov 10th 2010 @ 6:00AM EST
Filed Under: Insurance, Transportation, Economizer, Insurance - Car Insurance
If you're looking to buy a new car, one of the things you should do is check out how much your insurance will change based on the new make and model you choose. While there are many factors that influence the price you'll pay for insurance, the vehicle you drive is an important one. Pick a sports car like the Corvette, which ranks number 5 most expensive to insure, and you'll pay much more than if you had chosen to drive a Kia Sedona, which is the cheapest car to insure. The list of the most expensive cars to insure and the cheapest cars to insure in 2010 comes from InsWeb, which compared insurance rate requests from customers for over 400 models from January to September of this year. These quotes, and rankings, take into account the quotes for customers of various ages and from different areas of the United States.
Five cheap holiday destinations
Getting away for the winter holidays provides a break from family tradition -- and tension. Who stresses about gifts while taking in a new museum or exploring an unknown city? So instead of spending on gifts, consider traveling to one of these five cheap holiday destinations. For the biggest bargains, travel Nov. 21-27 and Dec. 19-27, according to Gabe Saglie, a senior travel editor at Travelzoo who shared these holiday deals. Atlanta -- Where can you sleep in a four-star hotel for less than $100 per night? Atlanta. If you visit in November, tickets to two NBA Hawks basketball games are 35% off. Through December, venture two hours outside of Atlanta to a spa resort in the mountains for $155 per night, including a $15 food credit and either a free round of golf or an hour horseback riding.
Join the toy platoon and help Dollar Tree provide kids with gifts
Marlene Alexander
Nov 9th 2010 @ 8:30AM EST
Filed Under: Shopping, Charity, Economizer, Holiday Shopping
Once again Dollar Tree is teaming up with Operation Homefront to ensure that the children of military families will have a Merry Christmas. And they want you to join the toy platoon and help them provide kids with gifts. This is the fourth season that Dollar Tree has participated in the toy drive, which is on now through December 6. Last year, customers donated an estimated $5.6 million in toys nationwide. The goal this year is $6 million.
8 collectibles you won't make any money on
What is a collectible? For most of us, it's something that tugs at our heartstrings; an object out of our childhood, or one we associate with special people, places, or events. Meaningful items, if only to us. Unfortunately, many speculators, seeing the climbing value of certain rare items, have jumped on the collectibles bandwagon as a way to make money, and, not too surprisingly, many of them have been burned. The Street.com recently named eight items that have scorched many a collector. Here's our take on these once-popular mementos.
Don't fall for rebates unless you're an organized shopper
I bought a new computer recently, and was pitched by the salesman to spend $100 for a "free" printer to go with it as a rebate. I declined, figuring that the $100 rebate wasn't worth the hassle of mailing back forms and receipts, then waiting at least a month for my money.Whether just lazy or unwilling to deal with rebates, only half of the people who get rebates redeem them, according to research by Kimberly Palmer, author of Generation Earn. From free printers and smartphones to a few dollars off a bottle of scotch, unless consumers are ultra-organized and mail in the necessary forms immediately, it's better for them to stay away from the rebate offers, Palmer said.
"They should look at the price upfront, because actually that's the price they're going to pay," she said.
Retailers are counting on lazy shoppers to not redeem the rebates, which are most popular on electronic items. There are many roadblocks that stop people from redeeming, including losing forms, filling the forms out incorrectly, not following up when they don't get the money, forgetting about them in the average six to eight weeks it takes to receive a rebate, and even throwing the unopened rebate check in the trash because it looks like junk mail.
Great gifts for him at the dollar store
Men are notoriously hard to buy for and the reasons are simple. Guys dig high-end stuff like electronics and when they see something they want, they're just as likely to buy it themselves, rather than think to leave loved ones a gift idea. But don't despair, there are some great gift ideas for men at the dollar store and they won't cost you a month's pay.
I saw a selection of Ivy & Castle men's body wash, soap on a rope, aftershave and shampoo in the dollar store, all of them full-sized bottles. Pick two, three or all four of these to make a great-looking gift for a man in your life.
For the photography buff, put together a kit including a table top tripod, a lens cleaning cloth, a couple of blank recordable CDs and a nice metal, wood or leather-look frame.
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