Andy Hough

The Simple Way to Clip Coupons

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Many people do not want to mess with clipping coupons because they don’t believe the savings is worth the time it takes to cut out and organize the coupons. I tend to agree with them but I still use coupons because I use them in a way that takes little time to clip and organize yet provides big savings.

The resource I use to make clipping coupons easy is MoneySavingMom.com. If you go to her site you will see a widget with a list of stores in the right sidebar. If you click on your local store it will go to a post matching up coupons to the current sale at that particular grocery chain. To make things even easier the post will usually include links to printable coupons and e-coupons. This makes using coupons easy because you only “clip” the coupons that match a sale and you know you will use. I don’t usually bother with cutting coupons out of the paper anymore because it is easier to just use the printable and e-coupons.

There are several sites on the web where you can get printable coupons. I try to get mine through my MyPoints account since I receive a few points for using the coupons I print from there in addition to getting the coupon savings. A few sites to get coupons online are Coupons.com, Redplum.com, and Smartsource.com. You can get e-coupons at Cellfire.com and possibly at your local grocer’s website as well.

If you have a local grocery store that doubles coupons then you can get some really great deals. Last week I was able to get cereal, Chex Mix, and Hamburger Helper for 49 cents each. It is true that most coupons are for processed foods but since I would eat these foods whether I was using coupons or not it doesn’t have any effect on my diet. And these foods are probably still better than the fast food I eat most days. You can still use coupons to eat healthy you just won’t be using nearly as many coupons.

If you are interested in using coupons I suggest you check out the MoneySavingMom website and see how the deals work for you.

Does Checking Take from the Poor and Give to the Rich?

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A recent study found that credit cards transfer wealth from the poor to the rich. J.D. of Get Rich Slowly stated that it would not change the way he uses credit cards. Adam at ManvsDebt used the study to support the reasons he does not use credit cards.

The obvious alternative to credit cards is to use a debit card tied to a checking account. These checking accounts represent a transfer of wealth from the poor to the rich as well.

The Federal Reserve Bank of Boston includes this quote on their download page. “Because credit card spending and rewards are positively correlated with household income, the payment instrument transfer also induces a regressive transfer from low-income to high-income households in general.” Banks cover the cost of providing a checking account mainly from overdraft fees and debit card interchange fees. A 2006 FDIC study found a correlation between household income and overdraft fees, those who live in lower income areas were much more likely to have incurred overdraft charges. Following the reasoning in the credit card study the conclusion is that checking represents a transfer wealth from low-income to high-income households.

Adam concludes that “consumers who use cash or other forms of payment pay marked up prices to account for the transaction fees generated by those which use credit cards.” Since debit cards also charge interchange fees it is fair to conclude that they account for some percentage of the marked up prices. Debit card users benefit because the fees cover the cost of providing them with a checking account and sometimes debit cards provide rewards as well. It is only the cash customer paying the marked up prices who doesn’t receive any benefit. Who is most likely to be paying cash?

Adam has chosen to opt out of the credit card industry because he doesn’t agree with credit card industry practices. Debit cards are a lesser evil but they do share many of the practices of the credit card industry.

Is the answer to just use cash with no checking account? Those who don’t have checking accounts often have to buy money orders and pay a hefty fee to cash their paychecks. I haven’t done the research but it is easy to see how that would also represent a transfer of wealth from the poor to the rich. Just using cash doesn’t seem to be a viable alternative.

I am going to just continue using my credit cards, debit cards, and checking accounts as usual. Although I don’t agree with some of the practices of these companies by being financially responsible one can avoid much of the cost.

What would be your solution?

July Investment Income – $90.62

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My July investment income rose slightly to $90.62 from $89.47 the month before.  This was due to a slight rise in the value of my stocks.  I did not make any additional investments in July.  Part of the reason for the decline in my investment income from its highs earlier this year is that I am now counting only $1000 cash as part of my investment portfolio.  I was counting $1500 earlier but after skipping a month of calculating my investment income I forgot how much cash I was counting as part of my investment portfolio.  I have decided to keep the figure at $1000 since my amount of cash available has seriously decreased.

Unless the market treats me badly in August I should have an increase in my investment income because I will finally resume adding to my portfolio.  This will probably end again in September though because I have a big expense that month.

Disclaimer: This is not my actual investment income. To get this figure I first add up my retirement savings, emergency fund, and any other money I consider permanent savings. What the total of my savings would earn at 6% interest for a month is my monthly investment income. My goal is to get this amount to $1000 a month. If I have $1000 in monthly passive investment income I will be able to retire early.

Online Income Report – July 2010

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Here is a breakdown of my online income for July. I am reporting the income I received in July not the income earned. Much of the income received in a month was earned in a previous month so the monthly income figure is not always indicative of the current income trend. Anyway, I received money from the following sources in July.

  • Google Adsense – $255.64
  • Kontera – $108.70
  • Text Links – $39.40
  • Direct Ad Sales – $458
  • Affiliate Sales – $285
  • Ehow – $11.86

Total                  $1158.60

It was a great month for online income.  This is the first time I have made it over four figures.  My income was helped by a large amount of direct ad sales and an accumulated affiliate payout.  My income will most likely go down in August but I already have a couple more ad sales lined up and quite a bit in affiliate sales due me giving me a shot at making the four figure mark once again.  If I can keep my income going like this I might become a five figure blogger for the first time ever.  This would be especially great considering 2009’s online income was less than 2008.

Total Cost of Car Ownership Update

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The last time I calculated the total cost of car ownership for my Camry I came up with a cost per mile of $0.84 if I counted the entire cost of my car as depreciation and $0.28 cost per mile if I used a more realistic figure for depreciation.  I’ve driven a lot of miles since then but with my car already being a high mileage car those miles should not cause much depreciation.  Therefore my new cost per mile figures are quite a bit lower.

As of today my car has cost me 35.6 cents per mile if I value my car at $0.  Using a more realistic figure for depreciation my cost per mile is 16.9 cents.  I doubt I will be able to get my total cost per mile much lower than that since fuel alone is almost ten cents per mile.  Also there will be maintenance and probably repair bills coming up.  Even if I don’t reduce my cost per mile it is still a lot lower than the IRS figure of 50 cents per mile.   It is clear to me that driving a used car is much more frugal option than buying new.  You would have to drive a new car an awful lot of miles to get the cost per mile down to what mine is.

Of course, one of the reasons that my cost of car ownership is so low is because I drive a lot of miles.   While this lowers my cost per mile it means more money coming out of my pocket.  For both financial and environmental reasons I would like to reduce my miles driven.   My wife and I are now sharing the car so it is getting even more use although the miles should go down now that I am starting a regular job.

One thing that I didn’t consider when considering my total cost of car ownership is the fact that my employers reimbursed me for many of the miles driven.   Also, the miles I have driven for mystery shopping are deductible.  If I were to factor that in my cost per mile would be even lower.  That is more math than I want to do though so I will just keep the figures as they are.