I have been noticing something in our area recently – there have been several “grand openings” of Second Hand Stores / Thrift Shops recently. I count at least three in the past month or so – and those are just the ones I happen to know about! Somebody out there must think there is a demand for more of these types of stores. I have also seen more advertising for pawn shops – never used to see that in our area. Interesting?!?

While we were on vacation two weeks ago at Ocean City, New Jersey, noticed that there were more sales and deeper discounts than we traditionally see in the shops (we go every year at the same time). Also noticed more for sale signs on properties, and fewer people at the beach overall. Definitely had a feel of an “economic downturn”.

I have also seen a trend of friends / acquaintances wives who are either going back to school for education in a specific field (i.e. nursing) or are looking for part-time jobs. We live in a pretty conservative and “traditional” area so this is a big deal. Another sign that times are tough.

Of course all the media economic news is depressing, but I try to filter out the hype with what I see going on around me. Unfortunately what I see happening is echoing the news!

Hi there - could you help spread the word about A Penny Saved? We rely on word of mouth to get new readers. If you would send someone a link, email, or even mention it to your friends, I would truly appreciate it. Signs of the Times is a post from: A Penny Saved, the best darn personal finance blog around.

ING has announced that it is adding paper checks to its services. Personally, I just received my email confirming this last week. Some of the details:

• You must order your checks through ING (no 3^rd party checks)
• $5 for 50 checks
• Before using a check you must “activate” your checkbook (security feature)

I have wondered for a long time why they didn’t do this, so I am glad they are adding this feature. This was one of the things that kept me from having them be my main checking account. There are still several places that I have to use checks (remember I am in Amish country!).

I thought briefly about maybe switching everything over to them, but I still like having a local bank in the area, so I think I will keep my PNC account. I like having access to the ATM machines for free (since I don’t usually carry cash this can be handy), I do like having a personal relationship with a branch bank just in case I need some personal attention. And since I live in a rural area, when my internet goes down (which it does occasionally) I can still get access to a bank.

So for right now I will probably not order any checks from them, but it is something I may do in the future.

 

Hi there - could you help spread the word about A Penny Saved? We rely on word of mouth to get new readers. If you would send someone a link, email, or even mention it to your friends, I would truly appreciate it. ING Adding Paper Checks is a post from: A Penny Saved, the best darn personal finance blog around.

About a month ago I tried to burn the house down! I was burning some brush on our property, the wind kicked up and blew the fire toward the house. In between the fire and the house was our Coleman Pop-up trailer. I was able to get the fire under control, but not before there was some heat damage to the camper. Basically there was a damaged side panel, and the roof on the one side had bubble marks (about a dozen large bubbles!).

I called the insurance company right away. They told me there was no hurry to get an estimate of the damage. That was good, because of all the rain we had and my crazy work schedule, it took awhile to get the camper to a shop for a quote of repairs. I got the quote back last Thursday – it was for over $11,000! We only paid $12,000 for the camper when we bought in new back in 2002!

The problem is the roof. Coleman does not make that type of roof any more, so you have to find it used somewhere – and of course if there is a demand for something because of scarcity the price skyrockets. So I called our insurance company and faxed over the repair estimate. The next day they had an estimator over to check out our pop-up. He agreed with the assessment of the shop that the roof needed replaced. He said basically although our camper is 95% undamaged and probably usable, it will have to be totaled. So he is going to get two quotes from local dealers of what our camper model and year would cost to buy, then average them, and that is what we will get.

So now we wait to see how much we will get from the insurance company. They said it might take a few weeks to get the prices from the dealers. While we are waiting, we will spend the next few weeks emptying the camper of all our personal belongings and getting it ready for the junk yard. Totally not what we expected!

Hi there - could you help spread the word about A Penny Saved? We rely on word of mouth to get new readers. If you would send someone a link, email, or even mention it to your friends, I would truly appreciate it. Update on Pop-up Trailer is a post from: A Penny Saved, the best darn personal finance blog around.

Several guys came out from our church on Friday and Saturday and we now have a new roof! We started at around 2:00 p.m. on Friday and worked to about 6:00 p.m. and then we started at 7:00 a.m. on Saturday and finished at 11:00 a.m.

It looks great. We have a new attic fan, an ice shield at the edging (very important in our neck of the woods and something that wasn’t on before), and some new pieces of decking were the old had gotten wet from leaking – we did the roof just in time!

What a wonderful gift – all the labor was volunteer, and the materials were donated or were purchased with gifts given to us. This was a real budget saver. More importantly it was a great act of love from our church family.

Words cannot express how happy and grateful we are!

Hi there - could you help spread the word about A Penny Saved? We rely on word of mouth to get new readers. If you would send someone a link, email, or even mention it to your friends, I would truly appreciate it. New Roof! is a post from: A Penny Saved, the best darn personal finance blog around.

If you are financially able, consider making a donation to one of the many organizations that are helping in the relief effort in Haiti. If you are not sure where to give, one good organization is Samaritan’s Purse. If you know of other’s, feel free to leave a comment and a link. Thanks.

Hi there - could you help spread the word about A Penny Saved? We rely on word of mouth to get new readers. If you would send someone a link, email, or even mention it to your friends, I would truly appreciate it. Haiti Donations is a post from: A Penny Saved, the best darn personal finance blog around.

Our family was planning on camping next week. But when I went to set up the pop-up (folding trailer) to prep it for the camping trip it took me twenty minutes to crank it up! There is definitely something wrong with the gears or cables that lift the top. There is no access box to that area so you have to take apart a huge section of the camper to get to it – definitely not part of my skill set.

So we had to cancel our reservations with the campground. Fortunately it was over a week out so we got a full refund minus $15. Not too bad. We will now spend the week at home and go to some local attractions.

The big question now is what to do with the camper. We would really like to upgrade to a nonfolding camping trailer, maybe something like an ultralight. But that will cost about $15,000 and that is definitely not in the budget right now! To fix the current camper will cost hundreds of dollars, but we really don’t want to invest any more money in this camper right now. But to sell it you need it fixed – and campers are not selling very well right now with the economy.

So what to do? We will probably do nothing in the short run and think through our options over the winter. Right now we have it set up on our side yard (we live in the country) on its stone pad. The girls are loving it – we had a sleep over Tuesday night in the pop-up – 6 girls all 9 and under! Dad needs some rest!

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The letter said: “We’ve UPDATED YOU TO CHASE FREEDOM. Now, there are UNLIMITED REWARDS that NEVER EXPIRE. Wow – sounds like a deal! However, they just have a great marketing department.

It really is a downgrade in benefits. Although your points never expire, you get fewer of them. Instead of 5 points for every $1 spent on gas, groceries, and pharmacies, you now only get 3 points on gas, groceries, and fast food purchases. Also, even though the banner says unlimited rewards, the triple points are limited to your first $600 of purchases. After that everything is just 1 point.

Further, they are now charging a $30 fee for “all the benefits” of this new card.

I had been expecting changes – there were rumors flying around that Chase was going to change this card. And with the government beginning to act on laws to rein in credit card companies, I expect quite a few other companies will be changing their cards before the laws take effect. They will make their money, one way or another!

I will probably be canceling this card – I do not pay membership fees for credit cards. Since there is no fee for the first year, I will keep it until I can trade in my current points for cash, then cancel. I will then probably put everything on the other card that puts money toward my mortgage – it’s also only 1%, but at least every dollar they put toward my mortgage saves me 4.75% interest on that dollar, and I pay my mortgage off quicker. Yeah!

Hi there - could you help spread the word about A Penny Saved? We rely on word of mouth to get new readers. If you would send someone a link, email, or even mention it to your friends, I would truly appreciate it. My Credit Card is Changing! is a post from: A Penny Saved, the best darn personal finance blog around.

Whatever your thoughts on the stimulus package, it is now law. Beginning around June (or thereabouts – the details are still being worked on), tax cuts / rebates will start kicking in for many families. What will you do?

For me, it will not have much of an impact. Because I am a pastor, the church doesn’t have to take Federal Taxes out.  At the church I am at now, they graciously take out whatever I designate for Federal Tax (this way I don’t have to file quarterly payments).  Anyway, I probably won’t change my withholding. Most of what I have taken out goes to pay not my Federal Tax but my Social Security Tax (Pastors are dual status–employees for Federal Tax, etc., but Self-employed for Social Security – and no, it doesn’t make any sense to me either!). So if anything, I might get a little bit more back when I do my taxes next year. We will see.

Hi there - could you help spread the word about A Penny Saved? We rely on word of mouth to get new readers. If you would send someone a link, email, or even mention it to your friends, I would truly appreciate it. Plans for your piece of the Stimulus Package? is a post from: A Penny Saved, the best darn personal finance blog around.

I’ve been thinking about starting my own personal finance blog for a long time, but was worrying that it might be too time-consuming, as I already work full-time, manage a business website for my dad, and am trying to get my own webcomic/writing website off the ground. So, when I saw yesterday’s post, I just had to apply right away. After all, I feel I have something to say about personal finance. I certainly spend enough time thinking about it!

So who am I? I’m 22 and I just graduated from a very expensive liberal arts school with a degree in English and $50,000 in student loan debt. In retrospect, my choice to attend that particular college was not the smartest decision I’ve ever made, but that’s part of the reason why my resolve to make better financial decisions in the future is so strong. I live in an area with a weak job market and as an English major, I was worried that I might be doomed to working at a coffee shop forever. Fortunately for me, I took a bunch of computer science courses when I was still in school, so I managed to get a job in tech support for a small software company. It’s a very laid-back company with a casual dress code, so I didn’t even need to buy a new work wardrobe. My co-workers are fun, friendly people; I’m making a decent entry-level salary and have good health insurance; so, in short, I’m thrilled with it!

My main goal is to pay down my student loans in less than eight years. But it’s also important to me to save for my future. So, two secondary, more immediate goals of mine are to build up an emergency fund of $3,000 (I already have $1,500 in a high interest savings account) and deposit $1,000 into a Roth IRA by February 1st. My posts in the this blog will be an effort to record my “adventures” in meeting these goals and a place to share my thoughts about the world of personal finance as I encounter it as an adult for the first time.

Hi there - could you help spread the word about A Penny Saved? We rely on word of mouth to get new readers. If you would send someone a link, email, or even mention it to your friends, I would truly appreciate it. New Blogger, New Perspective is a post from: A Penny Saved, the best darn personal finance blog around.

The next time you’re in a GM dealership, you might have the ability to try one of their cars and then try one of it’s competing models from another car maker.  Why?  Because GM has decided to give their customers a easy way to compare.  And it’s brilliant.

Besides the fact that customers seem to prefer the GM models in test runs, the customers no longer need to go to the competition to compare models and makers.  And if you never leave the GM dealership, chances are that the salesperson will be able to work his/her magic and get you to buy a GM car from him/her.

It may seem like a bad business model, but I think it really makes sense.  It’s why WalMart keeps getting bigger and bigger.  If you only have to go one place for everything on your list, why go elsewhere.  The same goes here. If you only have to go to one place to test drive all of the cars your interested in, why go to the trouble of going elsewhere if you don’t have to.

Sure, sometimes the customer will like the competitors car better and go to buy one elsewhere (GM can’t legally sell competitors cars in other than a used capacity).  GM also has no plans to give comparisons for certain models like the Yukon since it has a high market share for SUV’s and the extra exposure wouldn’t necessarily help their sales much.

What would you do?  I know I’d just test drive them while I was there rather than drive to a different car dealership.

[tags]car dealers,test drive,GM,Yukon,comparison,compare[/tags]

Hi there - could you help spread the word about A Penny Saved? We rely on word of mouth to get new readers. If you would send someone a link, email, or even mention it to your friends, I would truly appreciate it. GM offers competitors cars for test drive is a post from: A Penny Saved, the best darn personal finance blog around.