Today I checked out a site for our United Kingdom friends at money.co.uk.  This site is chock-full of information and I found myself lost in it for hours.  The site is extremely navigable and the only reason why I spent so much time there was the vast abundance of information.

I think my favorite feature was the weekly savings tips email.  You can subscribe to their email alerts and they send you the weekly ideas for such wonderful items as cheap hotel rooms, low-rate credit cards, free deals, low-fare flights, free and low-cost medical care, etc.  I’m jealous that we don’t have such a comprehensive email system in the U.S.  These emails are secure, they are easy to unsubscribe, and there is an average of one email per week.  If there is no information, they won’t send you anything.  This is an improvement on information just for information’s sake.  The weekly tips page says you can even benefit from their information if you think you don’t have any money to save or invest.  We all know that once you start to follow these tips, you will realize that we all have money to save.

The site also offers information on credit cards.  Although I tell my readers that I steer clear of credit cards myself, it is very possible to find credit cards here to do the old credit card arbitrage deal.  The Money Credit Card site offers the top ten credit cards right on the front page, and then you can use the information to compare rates, etc.  I think if you are at a level where you can compare the rates on credit cards, you probably are more in control than I was when I had credit card problems.  Just remember to stay in control.  This is important, as you can use their site to find the best deals.  The site also offers a credit card news tab on this page.  This tab offers insight into the credit card world to keep you better-informed.

I have told people at this site several times to compare insurance, and the Money webpage gives you exactly the tools to do that.  If you click on the insurance tab, they offer several options from educating yourself to comparing costs so that you can save a ton of money.  You can compare car, home, vehicle, pet, or even travel insurance.  They even have news for each of these different types of insurance.

It turns out that you don’t need to fork over tons of money just to get skinny!  It’s mostly about making yourself have a conscience about what you’re eating.

According to the Chicago Tribune, a study showed that people that kept food and activity journals lost twice as much weight as those that just dieted and exercised.

I’ve been keeping a food journal for the past three days, and let me tell you -it’s been working.  When I consider “cheating” and remember I have to write it up, I just don’t do it.  It’s good.

What do you do to save money while dieting?  Are there some better cheaper ways to diet?

Good morning!  I just wanted to let everyone know that I’m sorry I’ve been gone these last few weeks.  I will be back to my regular posting schedule by next week.

Thanks for your patience.

We stopped by the Pentagon City Mall the other day to check out their used games for DS’s PS2.  He deserved it since he earned straight A’s for the last quarter of school.  That’s part of the bargain.  Anyway, I had not visited the mall for a long time, and it always opens my eyes when I do go there.  In my opinion, there isn’t really a reason to visit the mall, but several hundreds of people at the mall on that day disagreed with me, obviously.

Either way, as one is apt to do, I found myself realizing that there are a few things that we need.  Only when you’re at the mall can you realize all your faults, without due budgeting.

Do you feel the same thing when you go into retail establishments, especially the mall?  Can you ever be satisfied if you’re a perpetual mall-goer?

I was reading an article about people that save their change the other day, and I started reflecting upon the fact that I just don’t have much change anymore.  I don’t save change.  I have a little drawer in my jewelry box and if I happen to find any change on the ground, I just put it in that drawer.  It’s not even much.  I use my debit card for everything, so I don’t receive change anymore.

A gross thing that I found on the internet was an article about vending machines receiving credit cards.  Just what Americans need, another place to use their credit cards and get fatter.  Wonderful. 

What about you?  Do you use cash for anything anymore?  What about checks?  Should I be using cash because I won’t spend so much money?  Are we going to be able to use electronic cash for everything soon?

I live in a military area, making the move-in/move-out rate about the same every year.  Our area is plussing up over the next several years, which means that the move-in rate with be higher than the move-out rate.  So, although I bought our home during the uptick in housing sales, and it might have been inflated in price a bit, I still keep the value the same in my net worth, since I don’t expect to get a higher price for it.

Has the value of your home gone up or down?  Why do you think so?

I confessed the other day on this blog that I work without a budget.  I know, I know, this is like a trapeze artist working without a net.  Here are the key points that made it work for me:

1.  Plug the leaks.  Become insane about not spending money.  Irresponsible behavior got me into debt, but it took extra-responsible behavior to get me out of debt.

2.  Ensure you can cover your monthly expenses.  After stopping the huge outflow, ensure you have enough to cover all monthly expenditures.  This is key, because if you don’t have enough to cover the basic bills, you need more income.

3.  Once you have completed 1 and 2, start to pay everything down.  The way that I did this is a bit complicated.  I paid all the minimums on everything for the first month (month 1).  Then, when month 1 closed, I put all the extra into a savings account and noted the amount (let’s say I had $100 to make it simple).  I took the credit card with the highest interest and paid that extra $100 toward that credit card in month 2.  Then, at the end of month 2, I took all my extra and continued to do the same thing in month 3, 4, etc.

4.  Unexpected things that come up must be planned.  How do I keep my head wrapped around this?  I have a huge emergency fund, and I pay it back after I cover the unexpected.  If I had something unexpected come up in month 2, I would pay for it out of the emergency fund, then use all my extra ($100) to pay back the emergency fund each month until the emergency fund was completely paid back.

This is a simple way to work without a budget.  You must be extremely disciplined to work this way - this is not for the faint of heart.  DH and I work well this way, but it might not be for you.

We went to Six Flags on Saturday.  DS deserves a lot for getting straight A’s again this last quarter of school.  So, I bought the tickets online for half price (BOGO) and we hopped on the Metro.  I took $40 worth of cash, figuring we could figure out how to eat for $20 per meal, since I’m usually so crafty.

Not so.  We got there and I had forgotten that you get charged an arm and a leg for lockers.  I found a locker tucked away at the very rear of the park for $1 for every two hours, so I took advantage of that.  I also had used  a dollar to tip the hotel maid out of our $40 for the day.  We had to walk to the back of the park every two hours.  Our lunch cost $21 for two very old pieces of pizza and a small soda, which we split.  The water fountain water was warm and not very easily found.

But I had the advantage that I hadn’t even thought about…DS’s legs wore out before my money ran out.  He looked up at me at about 4:00 (3 hours before the last bus back to the Metro) and told me he was tired of walking.  I told him we could sit down for awhile and rest, but he said no, he was ready to go.  He slept the whole way home.  I had $7 left in my pocket (from the $40) when we got back to the hotel room.

We could have driven, but it would have cost another $15 to park in the parking lot there.

How do you hack the theme park system?