May 29, 2008
Save money on your grocery bills.
I was sent this link today for the Grocery Game.
The Grocery Game is a website that can save you hundreds of dollars on grocery bill each month. Log in, spend a few minutes with a pair of scissors, and you're off to win The Grocery Game!
When you play, you'll get a weekly list (called Teri's List) of the lowest-priced products at your supermarket matched with manufacturers' coupons and weekly specials -- advertised and unadvertised. The Grocery Game does all the hard work and research, and presents it to you in a straightforward format.
If you don't cancel, you will begin the full membership automatically, and once your full membership is activated, you will be billed $10 every eight weeks for a single store List.
That's only about $5 a month. For each additional List add $5 every eight weeks.
Part of how this works, is that the Grocery Game not only finds the sales fliers for the stores in your zip code and matches them up to coupons from say, the Sunday newspaper, it also gives you website links for coupons you can print out, cut out, and use at your grocery store.
My problem is that the Publix where I live closest to, and have been shopping at for years now, does NOT accept any printed from a home computer coupons, due to fraud.
Apparently, these types of shopping helper websites, had so many people printing coupons in duplicate and triplicate, that the vendors were not paying the stores back on ANY of the printed coupons, because people were printing so many of them, and changing the value of the coupons using photoshop and other programs.
One of the managers at my Publix told me they lost thousands of dollars on these fraudulent coupons, so they now refuse to take any printed coupons at all.
It must be an original vendor coupon from the Sunday papers, magazines, or sales flier coupons, or you don't get to use them.
And after skimming the message board at Grocery Game, it seems quite a few people canceled their subscriptions due to how much work it was to just print out 1 list for 1 store, go to all these other websites, and print and cut out all these coupons.
And another thing I found off putting, was when you read or post to the message board, you cannot talk about anything that may be printed on your shopping list.
It's all very hush-hush information, and they have mods who will edit out any list specifics because they want to protect "the list".
O-k!
This site may be worth it to some people, but it's not something I'm going to try after reading the site over, and the message board postings from unhappy grocery gamers.
I can't use printed coupons where I shop, so most of the coupons from the internet that would be on my list, would be a total waste of my time.
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What I do to save money is to look at the Publix weekly sales ad on line, (most major grocery chains have a website with their weekly sales ad on line) and then I go through my shopping list and add a check mark next to the sales items.
Then I go through my coupons and add another check mark to anything on my list I have a coupon for.
Then I go back through the sales flier, and match up my coupons to anything else they have on sale.
When I get to the store, I grab the paper sales ad, rip out the coupons they have, and also grab the coupon fliers they have in the spinning rack at the front door, and go through my list again to see if any new coupons match my list.
If not, they get tucked in my purse for my next shopping trip.
I take advantage of pretty much every in-store unadvertised special they have going on if it's an item I use or could use.
I have tons of staples items in my cupboards at any given time.
I take full advantage of all the buy 1 get 1's too, and try to match up coupons on those items as well.
I pretty much never go to the store without coupons, and I take my time going through each of the aisles so I don't miss anything, and I also eat before I go.
I do not impulse buy if I can help it, and going on an empty stomach pretty much insures you will buy crap you don't need.
Basically, you don't need to pay a website to show you this week's sales ad, it's on line and usually sent through the mail in that big stack of ad papers that gets jammed in your mailbox on Tuesdays.
Or you can make a quick swing-through to the front door of your grocery store on your way home from work or other errand running, and just grab the ad and go back home to work out your list.
May 11, 2008
Just Answer.com
As some of my readers may know, I was growing with concern about my cat Kali's health.
While she sleeps, she sort of shudders every few minutes.
So I set about to trying to research this on line before making a call to the vet.
I found Just Answer.com, and asked my question.
You choose what kind of expert you need an answer from in a drop down box, which is a HUGE list, and are connected to those experts who are on line.
There were 9 feline experts on line at the time I asked my question.
It is a pay to use site, but you only pay if you are satisfied with the answer of the experts who are online.
Your questions are answered by real people, experts in their field, in real time.
It can take up to an hour to get a response, but it's usually within 30 minutes according to the "waiting room" page you get after asking your question.
The fees are $9 if you are on a budget, $15, and then $30.
You can also pay them a bonus amount of your choosing, if you really liked the answer.
They also credit your account with 10% of what you pay, so if I ever need to ask another question, I won't have to pay as much.
Between my question and subsequent replies, I have a credit of $2.90 in my account.
Lori was the feline expert who answered my question.
She has 14 years health care mgmt & issues relating to cats, reproductive issues and multi-cat environments.
You can see her profile by clicking the link on her name.
This is what I asked.
I have a 10 year old female long hair cat. While she sleeps, her body sort of shudders, like little shivers every few minutes. Should I be concerned and take her to the vet?
There is probably nothing at all wrong. What you are seeing is quite common, HOWEVER, it can also signal possible neurological issues, so it definitely wouldn't hurt to have your vet check your girl out, especially since she is getting older. After age 7 or 8, it's a good idea to take your pet in for a checkup ever 12 to 18 months, just to make certain all is well.I wouldn't make an emergency appointment, but I would definitely schedule an appointment for a checkup in the next week or so, just to give her a clean bill of health. Make sure you let your vet know your concerns. Please let me know how things turn out and if I can help further!
I was very pleased with Lori's very fast reply to my concern, so I accepted her answer and the $9 deposit I had made using paypal was accepted and transferred to their accounting.
They accept paypal and all major credit cards.
I will call our vet in the morning to schedule her for a check up, but I do feel a lot better now knowing that this is quite common in older cats, but also to not just brush it off.
I would definitely recommend this site to anyone who has cats and has a concern, or anyone who has a question about just about anything.
That list of experts is really long, so you're sure to get the answer you are looking for.
April 29, 2008
Pinch the Penny.
I was asked to review a site, Pinch the Penny.com, that says it can help you with money saving ideas that could help you save hundreds of dollars each month.
Considering the state of our nations economy right now, a site like this could be very beneficial to most of us, if not all of us.
They have a 6-point savings plan mapped out.
Those 6 points are, credit cards, home phone, auto insurance, cell phone, internet access and coupons.
They also have a price comparison search engine, broken down by various shopping categories, or you can just search for your needed item, and find the best possible deals.
I tested the search engine by looking for an item I do need, a new HDTV antenna.
It broke down the price comparisons by each style of item, and then showed how many different prices are available for that item at the different stores.
For this review, I chose the very first antenna on the list, and it compared the 3 best deals from 3 different stores.
Two of the stores had the same price, one was slightly more expensive, but it also showed me the stores ratings based on other shoppers.
The price comparison search engine does exactly what it says it will, and works very quickly.
Each of their 6-point savings plans is broken down on the front page with their own subsections. You can click on the box for the area you'd like to find ways to save money in, and see how much money per year you could end up saving.
Each of those sections is very thorough, each service provider is rated according to quality and pricing, it's glance-easy to see which service provider could help you save the most money.
They also have a weekly deals page for internet specials, and on sale page to find price reductions and sales, and a printable coupon section along with an on line store coupons page.
There's also a way to find on line stores that are offering free shipping.
The site is well laid out, easy to navigate, and easy on the eyes.
No harsh colors or animated cursors.
There's a lot of information provided to help you save money.
I found some great prices on the things I have on my list of need to get items, and when the time comes to buy that new antenna, I will definitely be checking for the best possible prices.
I think Pinch the Penny.com is a great site for anyone looking to find more ways to save their families some money, especially now.
April 8, 2008
The Choice Personal Loan Center review.
I was asked if I would review a site for Personal loans, and provide my honest feedback, and after really looking at the site and the pages they want looked at, here's my thoughts.
The site looks good and functions very well in both FireFox and IE.
Navigation is easy, there is a site navigate link at the bottom, which shows every single page of the site.
The colors work very well, nothing glaring, no flash, no scrolling marquees to distract the reader.
Now for the content.
One of the first things I noticed was that you can contact them to ask any questions you have, how the loans work, and whether or not a loan for you is possible.
A lot of loan places and websites say that they guarantee that every applicant will get a loan, so people apply, and they do indeed get approved, but are hit with extremely high interest rates they may not be able to afford.
Finding out ahead of time with no obligation to take the loan at a high interest rate, is fantastic in my opinion.
So many people get in over their heads and then it's too late.
Choice Personal Loans wants you to be educated and credit smart, so they offer a ton of links to information on loans, fixing your credit report, and how it's important to get a copy of your credit report before applying for a loan among many other things.
They want you to be smart, know what you are doing, how to fix things, and do the right thing for your family and finances.
The section on bad credit loans is just as informative. It's a short and to the point page, but again, they recommend getting a copy of your credit report first, tell you how to borrow and for how long, personal loan tips, and a link on personal loans for getting rid of bad credit.
The links to the educational material is all over this site, and there is absolutely no obligation if they offer you a loan and rates that are just not right for you.
They also offer no obligation debt consolidation loans too.
They can help you combine all your debts into one payment with the possibility of a lower rate of interest, and those rates are once again up front with no obligation.
They also offer a debt consolidation program with qualified counselors who can help you manage your debt and finances, so you don't get into more debt problems.
There's more related reading links on this page as well, they really do want you to know what is going on at all times and how to manage your debts, good and bad, and even offer some early warning signs of debt trouble.
I read through that section and saw signs that I have done in the past, and came close to making again in the last few years.
I would tell friends to check out Choice Personal Loans just for the information in the links they offer.
It's excellent reading material for everyone, not just those in debt.
I'm someone who has debt and credit issues, my credit report is littered with old debts and ID theft debts, and so being able to read this information, talk to someone about a bad credit loan with no obligation to take it, is something I personally find extremely valuable.
I love how they are upfront and honest with you to the point of telling you that if you have excessive debt, taking out a loan could be a financial disaster.
They are in the loan business, and they are telling you that this may not be for you, but if you want to know, they'll be honest and tell you what type of loan and rates you would qualify for, with no obligation, and even tell you that this may not be right for you, but they can offer you help and advice to manage your debts and start healing your finances.
My opinion of the Choice Personal Loans website is that is extremely informative, honest, and a great place to start looking for information if you are thinking about taking out a loan no matter what your credit history is like.
I think that anyone could get a lot of value out of reading through all of the links they provide.
The credit help info section is just chock full of links to reading material about loans and credit, and I know I'll be bookmarking it and reading all of those links.
I want and need to get a better handle on my money and credit report, and it doesn't hurt to find out where I stand.
