by Tricia
I am going through my emails today and catching up on some of the great links readers have sent me. I haven’t been able to personally go through all of them (one is a seminar), but I trust that these readers sent over good information. They are regular tipsters and I can’t thank them enough!
Chris sent me a link to Motley Fool’s How to Get out of Debt Seminar. It’s completely online and self-paced, so you can go through it at your convenience. They have the action steps listed, and it looks like you will go through getting ready to pay off your debt all the way to dealing with setbacks. I didn’t get a chance to go through it, but it looks like a great place to start learning how to deal with your debt. Thanks, Chris!
Beverly sent me a link to an interesting concept. There is a site out there called ShortCuts that will link more coupons to your store cards. From their store list, this is compatible with Kroger, Ralphs, Gerbes and more. I am unable to test this, because I don’t have any of those stores in my area. Are any of you using it? Thanks, Beverly for the link!
Lastly, here’s a contest I thought I would spread the word on. Intuit is giving away a free year of Quicken Online (and $350) every week until June 23. To enter, you need to add them as a friend on Facebook. I don’t have a Facebook account, but I may sign up to try to win 🙂 Click here for more information.
My wife uses something called The Grocery Game (http://www.thegrocerygame.com/) to save money at the store. They overlay what’s on sale at each store with the manufacturer’s coupons from the last few months, highlighting items that are heavily discounted or free. It sometimes involves a little stocking up when the deals are especially good, and our $200/week grocery bill dropped to below $100, and we rarely save less than 50%. Not bad since it only costs $1/week to join. Also, it has the effect of making us plan our meals and trips to the store ahead of time, which cuts down significantly the amount of food that spoils because we weren’t planned out.
The savings are so extreme at times that a friend of ours was accused of coupon fraud at the checkout counter, and had to involve the manager to clear it up because the cashier didn’t believe her coupons were legitimate. After adding in all of the discounts, her $240 worth of groceries were down to about $40, including about 1/3 of the items being free.
Thanks for the info! Adding them as a friend right now!