How to Get Rewards for Paying Your Electric Bill — and Avoid Fees

Filed under: Energy, Economizer, Family Money, Saving Money, Credit Cards

The downside to blasting the air conditioner all summer is a monster utility bill at the end of the month. During the hottest times, a medium-sized home with central air conditioning in Phoenix, Ariz., can generate a monthly electric bill of between $250 and $300. (Check out this free tool to compare your own utility bill with your neighbors‘.) Nationwide, the average monthly electric bill is $116, according to utility analysts Chartwell.

So why not make that big electric bill work for you? Devotees of credit-card rewards programs use bill paying to their advantage, earning points for every dollar they spend.

No-Fee Payments with Discover

More than 90% of utility companies offering credit-card payment options, according to Chartwell, but most are done through a third-party vendor that charges a convenience fee, which can range from $1.50 to $6.95. Less than half of the utility companies surveyed by Chartwell offered a fee-free card acceptance program and of those, only three were large investor-owned utilities. Most were small, rural electric cooperatives or municipalities.

View Poll

Online bill-pay platform ChargeSmart, which processes payments to more than 500 utilities, is now offering no-fee payments for customers using Discover Card to pay their energy and water bills. The card’s consumer-reward program is one of the top ranking for credit cards.

But if you pay with plastic, there is one catch: Consumers who don’t pay their credit-card bill in full each month end up paying interest on the bill. Not a good thing.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

Shoppers to Name Their Own Deals on oBaz

Filed under: Technology, Economizer, Saving Money

Tired of getting offers for daily deals that have nothing to do with your real life? Now shoppers can join forces and create their own wish list of money-saving deals.

Launching Tuesday, Chicago-based oBaz (short for online bazar) gives consumers a way to name their own deals. The new marketplace reverses the standard operating procedure for businesses, which often use promotions — including special offers through Groupon or LivingSocial — to get new customers in the door or to move seasonal merchandise.

Putting Buyers in the Driver’s Seat

With oBaz, promotions filter from the bottom up: A group of moms can rally together for discounted baby gear, for example, or students can band together to get a deal on test-prep courses.

When 25 people or more join a prospective offer, oBaz’s team of hagglers get to work to seal a deal for the group. Integration with social-media sites, such as Facebook and Twitter, make it easy to build a group. Once an offer is inked, it’s available exclusively to the group members, which receive an email about the deal.

“OBaz is entirely buyer-driven. We’re here to help you find what you’re looking for, not just push what today’s advertiser is offering,” co-founder and CEO Brian Ficho says. ” It’s in our best interests [to get good deals]. The better products we get, the better redemption rates we have.”

Venture-capital group LightBank, created by Groupon co-founders, apparently sees the site’s potential. OBaz received seed funding from the group in June 2011.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

Clark Howard’s Cash-Saving Tips for ‘Living Large in Lean Times’

Filed under: Columns, People, College Finance, Economizer, Saving Money

Be still, our cheapskate hearts: Clark Howard, the HLN TV host and ClarkHoward.com founder who parlayed his frugality into millions, has come out with a new book called Living Large in Lean Times (Avery Penguin, $18).

Simply put, Howard believes you can get rich off the money you don’t spend. How deep does Howard’s thriftiness go? Well, Howard would probably rather feed a rabid squirrel than a parking meter.

The lengths he has gone to avoid parking fees constitute the “dumbest thing” he has ever done in his skin-flint life, he tells DailyFinance. In one year alone, he had his car broken into five times because he insisted on parking in sketchy neighborhoods where parking was free.

Recently, in Manhattan, the Atlanta native and resident left his car on a block in the East 80s, where the parking was gratis. That time, a thief didn’t get him. Horrible luck did. A window fell from a condo 40 stories up and smashed into his car. “If that’s not karma telling me my cheapness is too extreme, what could it be?” he says.

Howard came by his penny-wise ways as a young adult. He had been growing up on “the silver spoon plan” until his father was fired and told him he would have to earn his own way through college. He re-registered as a night student and got a full-time job.

Older, but Miser

After building wealth in the travel business, Howard began spreading the gospel of economy. He says he hopes readers of his book will immediately apply his advice to put $200 to $300 a month back into their family coffers. He lives what he preaches, too, rigging his Prius to get 110 miles a gallon. (His wife owns two Mercedes.)

Some of the bigger Living Large budget tips revolve around auto ownership, one of the great cash-suckers out there if you’re not careful, Howard warns. As a general rule, he urges consumers to hold on to their new cars for 10 years — and used cars for four years — to earn early retirement. He isn’t kidding. You’ll save so much money, he says, “You’ll have five more years of watching your neighbor go off to work while you goof off.”

Here are five other suggestions from the book, which includes includes more than 250 tips on saving money:

1. Shake the ink cartridge: Your printer’s ink cartridges often indicate they’re empty when they’re really as much as 60% full. Give ‘em a good jiggle for a few weeks’ more use.

2. Go to community college: By all means, get your four-year degree from a hoity-toity institution, but spend your first two years at a community college, where you’ll save tens of thousands of dollars. The sheepskin will still say Harvard or whatever. (Another option: Graduate in three years instead of four.)

3. Get free home-phone service for life. Ooma, a gizmo into which you plug your Internet cable and your phone, is a gateway to free phoning forever. You can get it at Costco Wholesale for $179, according to the book.

4. Dry your razor blades. It’s not the shaving that’s wearing out your blades, it’s the moisture, Howard discovered. He used one 17-cent disposable for a year, every day. Try it. Blow-dry the blades or wipe them carefully with a towel. Just what Schick (SCHK) and Gillette (G) want to hear, right?

5. Cut pills in half and ignore expiration dates, when you can. Many drugs are potent up to five years past their expiration dates, although you should definitely consult with your doctor to check on your specific expired drug before taking it, the book cautioned. And if a prescription is cheaper in higher-milligram doses, ask the doctor for the economy-size pills and cut them in half to fit your needs.

“I’m trying to get people to rethink how they can live their lives,” says Howard, a 56-year-old father of three who was diagnosed with prostate cancer in 2009.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

New York Times Pay Wall and How to Save Money Crossing It

Filed under: Technology, Economizer

We’ll look back some day at the first dozen years or so of the Internet as a golden age, when information flowed freely, even information developed at great expense from seminal sources such as The New York Times. Those times are coming to an end if the Gray Lady succeeds with a pay wall plan to begin charging for digital access to daily content.

As of March 28, the paper will begin serving up content based on this menu:

• To read it on your smart phone, $3.75 a week, billed every 4 weeks.
• To read it on your tablet (such as the iPad) $5 per week.
• To read it on both platforms, $8.75 a week.

Continue reading New York Times Pay Wall and How to Save Money Crossing It

Permalink | Email this | Comments

Shoppers Plan to Tap Daily Deal Sites This Father’s Day

Filed under: Retail, Economizer, Family Money, Saving Money

Daily deals and dads appear to go together.

For Father’s Day this year, 45% of online shoppers said they’d be perusing deal websites for Pop’s gift, according to a recent consumer spending survey by PriceGrabber.com, the price comparison web site.

Just which sites will be getting the hits? Many of those surveyed plan to visit more than one site, with 52% expecting to use Groupon; 46% planning to use PriceGrabber’s new local deals section; 29% reporting they’ll use Google Offers; 20% indicating they’d check out Living Social; and 15% planning to visit Facebook Deals.

But tapping these daily deal sites is just one facet of shoppers’ bargain hunting Father’s Day shopping strategy this year, the survey found.

Continue reading Shoppers Plan to Tap Daily Deal Sites This Father’s Day

Permalink | Email this | Comments

What to Buy in April

Filed under: Retail, Economizer

Oh, April, you cherry-blossom-imbued harbinger of summer to come. When the warmer weather hits, many of us feel the urge to get out of the house and get some exercise, and what better exercise than that American tradition, shopping? Here are some suggestions on what to buy in April.

Continue reading What to Buy in April

Permalink | Email this | Comments

5 Strategies for Saving Year-Round

Filed under: Retail, Economizer, Family Money, Saving Money

I’d been waiting for a biggish freelance check for a while and making lists of things my family needed when the money came it. So when I got it, I had some shopping to do: new organic bath towels; a new mattress and (very important given my kids’ ages and self control) a top-notch protective mattress cover; a birthday-boy bike for my youngest son; and a service provider to refinish my tub.

All this purchasing makes me queasy after months of frugality, so I had to think long and hard about spending strategies to make the most of my money and the least of my ticket shock.

So when I saw this piece from CNNMoney on ways to save on everyday expenses, I browsed through and got excited. Although none of the tips was quite right for my personal situation, a few great strategies emerged from the reader stories — strategies that you, too, can apply to spending on big ticket items, run-of-the-mill bills and the costs of every day life.

Continue reading 5 Strategies for Saving Year-Round

Permalink | Email this | Comments

Best Things to Buy in July

Filed under: Retail, Economizer, Saving Money

Ah, the joys of July, a month associated with TV reruns and lazy summer days — but not necessarily great sales.

Still, there are deals to be had this month on a very random mix of products. Here are a few you might want to try to scoop up while the getting’s good:

Computers

Computer sales are generally slow in June and July, says Brad Wilson, founder and editor-in-chief of BradsDeals.com, “[so] right now, that means good deals, whereas August pricing can be stingy.” If you’re in the market for a computer, hit stores now instead of waiting until the back-to-school season goes into overdrive and demand — and prices — pick up.

Continue reading Best Things to Buy in July

Permalink | Email this | Comments

You Know You’re Too Frugal When…

Filed under: Saving Money, Economizer

Jim Dailakis realized he was taking frugality too far by saving a few dollars riding the bus and subway to work in New York City, despite the availability of a more expensive commuter train that cut the trip’s time in half. Dailakis eventually figured out that time was money, and the extra $8 to ride the Long Island Rail Road was worth the cost.

“This was no way to live,” says Dailakis, right, of his long commute 10 years ago when he arrived in New York from Australia. Since then, the comedian has earned enough money to change his poor travel and eating habits, and has vowed to spend the extra money when needed when it comes to his health or time.

Continue reading You Know You’re Too Frugal When…

Permalink | Email this | Comments

A Better Way to Manage Your Daily Deals?

Filed under: Saving Money, Shopping, Economizer

daily deal sites, but while knowing you’ll cash in those golf lessons at some point is nice, what you’d really rather learn is how to find regular deals on things you buy regularly, like groceries and gas. Especially now that inflation fears are on the rise.

Offermatic, a new website that makes such daily deal offers more targeted, tries to lessen the load on your email in-box by only offering money back on things you already buy. By registering your credit or debit card, Offermatic gets a history of what you’re buying and gives you offers based on your purchasing history, and puts rebates directly back on your card when you use its offers.

Continue reading A Better Way to Manage Your Daily Deals?

Permalink | Email this | Comments