I am one of those people who pretty much ignores every “deal” that I’m offered. What I’ve learned is that I rarely need what’s being offered and the “deal” almost always turns out to involve too many terms and clauses to make it actually wortwhile.

Despite this, I do know that there are some amazing promotional deals out there. For example, cars made with new technology (such as hybrids when they first started to come onto the market) are often promoted with assistance from the government so that you can get terrific rebates and tax breaks when buying them. If you’re in the market for this type of thing at the time that it’s being offered then you can save a lot of money using those promotions.

Sometimes I do wonder if I miss out on good deals like this because I so often have turned a deaf ear to any sort of sales promotion. For the most part, I think that I probably benefit even if I miss out sometimes because I’m not getting sucked into the many bad promotions that are out there. Nevertheless, I think there are probably some people getting perks that I miss out on because I won’t listen to what’s being offered.

Do you pay attention to promotions?

Tags: money, Personal Finance, promotional deals, save money

Most people do the work that they do in order to earn an income. And the majority of people wish that they earned more than they do for the work that they are doing. However, there are things that matter more to employees than earning money does.

Some of the top things that employees care about more than the amount of money that they’re making are:

• Job security. People want to know that they’re going to continue to have the job in the future. This is especially true during the recession when people are really worried about potential layoffs.
• Job mobility. People like the idea that they have some freedom. They want to be able to change positions within the company or to relocate to do the same job from a new place.
• Respect in the office. There are many aspects to this. Employees want praise. They want to be trusted. They want their voices to count in the development of the company.
• Benefits. Employees may do a job that doesn’t pay well if it gives them other perks and benefits.

Wages do matter. People need to make enough to maintain their lifestyles. But money isn’t the most important thing that a job can offer to employees which is something important to keep in mind if you are an employer!

Tags: business, employees, employment, income, money, pay, wages, work

As I started to write this post, I was about to write that I can’t even remember the last time that I wrote a check. However, that’s not true. I can clearly remember the last time that I wrote a check because it’s such an uncommon occurrence that it stands out in my mind. A guy that was going to do some work for me asked me to drop a check in the mail to him and I wasn’t even sure if I had a check to send. It turned out that I did have a check – the address on it was not my current one (where I’ve lived for over three years) nor the one before that but the one prior to even that one. The account was still good and the check cleared without a problem but it threw me off because it had probably been about that long since I’d had to write a check for anything.

I just don’t see the point of using checks anymore. Everything that I need to pay for can either be paid for with cash, debit or credit. Every bill that I have can be set up to pay through automatic bill pay or even just through a one-time check from my bank. Sure, I pay a small fee to have checks written for me by my bank but the fee is probably smaller than the cost of buying and sending checks. Plus it’s a lot easier to keep track of my money when the checks are written by my bank since it’s all automatically recorded on my account and I can clearly see my transactions and balance information. I never have to worry about a check unexpectedly clearing and leaving me in the red.

Since I don’t use checks anymore, I’ve found that there are things that I don’t really remember very well about checking. Like I wasn’t sure if the aforementioned check would clear since the address wasn’t right. And I couldn’t quite remember the proper way to void a check if I made a mistake when writing it out. These just aren’t skills that I need any more. Does anyone?! Even the people who pay me to do my work don’t seem to need these skills since everyone is paying through automatic account payments or PayPal payments. Are checks becoming obsolete?

Tags: banking, checking account, hubpages, kathryn vercillo, money, Personal Finance, writing checks

People who are trying to save money will find that there are certain areas of spending that are smarter to cut back in than others. The most obvious thing that you should do is to track your spending and see where you spend the most; then cut back in those areas to significantly reduce your expenditures.

Most people will find that the two biggest areas of expense for them are the cost of their housing and the cost of their daily transportation. You can save a whole lot of money by moving into a smaller home and cutting back on your use of a car.

Of course, not all people will be able to cut back in these areas. There are some other things that you can look at to reduce spending by a lot. Reducing your vices, limiting what you spend on luxuries and spending time instead of money wherever possible are three more ways that you can probably save money in your life.

These seem to be the quickest places to start saving money if you work on them in my opinion. What do you think? Are there better places to start saving money in your life than these key areas? Where would you start with trying to spend less?

Tags: kathryn vercillo, money, Personal Finance, save money, spend less, spending

Everyone is talking about trying to save money these days. People are cutting back in all areas of their lives in order to adapt to the recession that we’re in. But the thing about money is that some people are just naturally better at earning it than others. There are some people out there who are leveraging the recession to their advantage and actually making money off of the fact that the economy is in a bad position.

For example, there are coupon queens out there who are earning an income for their ability to tell others how to save money. Through their blogs and lectures, they are getting people to pay them for advice on the things that they do every day to reduce their own spending. It’s a smart way to approach the recession and also an ironic one; they have people spend money on learning how to save money.

Other businesses are doing well because of the recession even they aren’t actually marketing themselves as being able to help people in this time. Businesses that supply churches with products (such as communion wafers) are seeing profits climb because more people are going to church in these tough times. It’s an interesting phenomenon; some businesses always have to thrive in any situation.

People who are having a tough time right now may want to ask themselves where they can make changes that can take advantage of the position that we’re in. If you can identify a way that the recession can be a money-earning asset in your line of work then you can ride the wave of these economic troubles and perhaps even make a profit doing it.

Tags: business, earn money, economy, income, kathryn vercillo, money, recession, save money

I recently researched a company in the UK that pays drivers money to place advertisements for businesses on their car. Is this something that you would do? A lot of people who wouldn’t have answered yes to that question a year ago are turning up with applications in hand for this business because times are tight and the need cash.

It doesn’t seem like a bad idea at all. You get paid money for the driving that you would be doing anyway. This allows you to reduce the cost of driving and gain an income that you didn’t already have access to. You don’t have to go too far out of your way to do it either – just commit to driving a certain amount of miles each month, checking in with the company and parking in visible areas.

There are certainly some drawbacks to this. You have to make sure to keep your car clean and to drive appropriately since you’re representing someone else’s company. And you have to remember that you’re going to be supporting a business or product while you do this. But that seems like a small price to pay for a little bit of extra cash right now.

From the reverse side of things, this could be a great way for small businesses to get valuable advertising without having to spend a lot of money during these tough times. Are there programs like this in the US right now? If there are, would you consider signing up?

Tags: advertising, business, driving, earn money, kathryn vercillo, marketing, money, Personal Finance, Travel

I’ve been reading a lot lately about coupon queens and coupon divas. These are people who pride themselves on an ability to use coupons to save a large amount of money on everything that they purchase. They offer all sorts of tricks and tips to enhance money-saving with coupon use.

This is all smart stuff. However, I think that the average person needs to balance saving money with saving time. Clipping coupons can end up wasting a lot of time if you don’t know what to look for and how to do it efficiently.

One of the most important things to learn if you want to save money with different types of coupons is how many different types of coupons are out there and which ones are even worth your time. There are coupons for free stuff, coupons for half off, coupons for buy one get one free … You have to really know what’s what if you’re going to be able to quickly sift through coupons and really make use of them without spending too much time on them.

See my recent article describing 10 different types of coupons to learn more about this area of personal finance.

Tags: coupons, discount codes, kathryn vercillo, money, Personal Finance, saving money

The recession is doing strange things to people. It’s causing many different types of changes – some positive and some negative. One of the things that seems to be affected greatly is relationships. People are handling dating, marriage and discussions about money differently than they did in the past.

For some people, this has been a good thing. Couples that are facing the recession head-on together may be strengthening their relationship as a result of undergoing these tough times as a team. Unfortunately, that’s not how everyone is handling this situation.

There are quite a few couples out there that find their relationship impacted by the recession in a negative way. They are fighting about money. They are fighting about things unrelated to money because they’re stressed out by their finances. They are letting the recession tear them apart instead of allowing it to bring them together.

At the end of this difficult economic time, we are going to see that the way we dealt with the recession says a lot about who we are and the lives that we lead. Those couples who opt to make use of this time to bring themselves closer could be the ones that end up having positive life-long relationships.

Tags: dating, economy, marriage, money, Personal Finance, recession, Relationships

I keep trying to reduce what I spend each month so that I can save a little bit of money. It’s a smart thing for anyone to do and it’s really important for those of us who freelance and who therefore may have an unstable income. Unfortunately, I continue to keep over-spending on groceries and dining out even though I’m aware of the fact that this is a problem for me.

It’s not that I don’t know how to save money on food. I’ve written extensively on this topic including recently publishing 20 Simple Tips for Spending Less on Food Without Resorting to Ramen. I’m aware of the tricks and I use some of them on a regular basis. But the fact of the matter is that there are some foods that I like that are expensive and I’m not very good at restraining myself from buying them even though I know that they impact my food budget. Marinated mushrooms and fancy cheeses are two big examples from my kitchen.

The other thing that I do to waste money on food is that I often spend more money than necessary on food for when other people come over. Any time that I’m going to have someone to my house, I buy way too much food – even when it’s for a potluck! I’m always worried that there won’t be enough. It’s something I really need to work on if I want to spend less.

Luckily, the one area that I’m getting good at is saving money on eating out. I’m learning not only to eat out less but also to make smart choices when I do dine out. I always split my meal in half and save part of it for later. I usually skip expensive drinks. And I try to choose affordable restaurants. So I’m getting there. Slowly.

Tags: Food, grocery shopping, hubpages, kathryn vercillo, money, Personal Finance, saving money, shopping, spending money

The London Summit meeting of the G20 economies is set to take place in a couple of days and people are predicting disaster. The purpose of the meeting is for the financial leaders of the world’s major economies to come together to discuss solutions to the problems facing the global economy. However there is a lot of controversy surrounding the event and concerns from many that nothing will actually be done to resolve the world’s global financial problems.

There are a number of protests happening this week in London surrounding this event. The news is predicting that a failure to achieve a positive result from the meeting could end up causing these reltaively peaceful protests to get out of hand and to become future riots. Just what would cause that or how long it would take to occur is unclear.

What underlies all of this is a feeling of fear. People are afraid that the financial situation that we are facing isn’t going to get better and they’re terrified that it could get worse. Whenever fear motivates our actions, problems are created. Is there a way for us to approach the concerns of the economy without coming from a place of fear?

Tags: fear, g20, global economy, hubpages, london, money, news, politics, summit