Storage Containers vs Zip Lock Bags

On a previous blog I had talked about using storage containers for cereal to allow it stay fresher for longer. I didn't start using storage containers until only about a few months ago when I realized the full benefit that they can provide.

The question would be whether storage containers can replace zip lock bags or not. I have found they can and actually do a better job in most cases. In the past year since I stopped using zip lock bags I have not once said to myself that I wish I had a ziplock bag. 

First some things to keep in mind about storage containers when purchasing them:

• Get a good quality set. A good set of containers will last a long period of time if they are well cared for.
  
• When buying a set make sure you have a way of organizing the lids and containers. This was my biggest issue because I could never find the lid that fit the container.
• Look for ones with interchangeable lids. This will make your life so much easier.
• Get sizes that will meet your needs. Do you make sandwiches for work? Do you make meals with massive amounts of leftovers...or just alittle?
  

I finally found the Gladware Interlocking Lid containers. They are amazing for their organization ability but they are really cheap quality so I personally wouldn't recommend them. My girlfriend picked up a set of Rubbermaid Stain Shield containers that are really good quality but are a mess to organize since it comes with 10 sizes and there are 6 different lids. Although they are all different sizes and shapes so its easy to tell them apart. If these ever go bad I am going to look for the storage containers that are easier to organize and possibly have interchangeable lids to make it even easier to

Prosper

I am always looking for easy ways to make money and save money. Investing is quite possibly the easiest way to make money without doing anything. I happened to come upon the site Prosper which offers great rates on very small investments. You can start with as little as $50 and you can control how much of a risk you are willing to take. Its very straight forward and there is even a $25 sign-up bonus when you begin lending if you click the ad below.

Making things last longer by freezing them

When exploring my girlfriends parents freezer I have found lots of interesting things that I never thought of putting in a freezer. I wrote an article earlier about freezing meat to make it last longer. Meat isn't the only thing that you can freeze though. Here is a run down of some of the things that you could look into freezing. This can save you some money if you want to buy larger quantities of items to save money.

• Cheese (Some kinds, not soft cheeses)
  
• Pies (No custard fillings)
  
• Pancake mix
• Leftovers
  
• Candy (buy the big bag to save some money)
• Chocolate chips
  
• Bread/Bakery goods
  
• Butter (I have 3 sticks in my freezer now because I don't use it often)
  

There are some things to avoid freezing at all cost though.

• Greasy or fried foods
  
• Anything with potatoes in it
• Mayonnaise
• Sour Cream
• Raw fruits
• Cooked Pastas
• Garlic
• Onions
• Green Peppers
  

Its good to look at what you don't use on a regular basis that ends up expiring and check to see if it can be frozen. Remember that you don't need to freeze the entire contents. For instance if you buy a 4 stick pack of butter you can keep 1 in the fridge and 3 in the freezer if you happen to not use butter very often, but it's still available for you to use if need to use it.

Saving money on food expenses: Meat

Meat is probably the most expensive thing that I buy at the grocery store on a regular basis. It doesn't need to be so expensive though. If you have a freezer then you can save a lot of money on meat if you buy it on sale or on clearance when its near the expiration date. Remember that if you freeze meat you can use it months after the expiration date. Its not uncommon for me to see certain meats in my freezer that have expiration dates that have passed months ago. I have never been ill due to expired meat, I doubt you will get sick from it.

Things to keep in mind when freezing meats.

• Make sure that the meat is wrapped well. A little extra tin foil never hurts.
  
• Don't skimp on freezer bags, get the good ones to avoid freezer burn.
• Write the what its is and the date purchased on the packing.
• Don't leave the meat in the white paper. Its best to wrap it up in something better if you plan on saving it for a long time.

Another thing that I found to cut down on meat cost was by purchasing ground turkey instead of ground beef. I use this very often in making hamburger helper meals. No one can tell the difference.

Wal-mart is not the cheapest place in town!

I just got back doing some grocery shopping. Before I did some grocery shopping I had to stop by Wal-mart to pick up some things that I thought my grocery store didn't carry. Being the money saver that I am I always like to compare prices between Wal-mart and the Hy-Vee down the road. On this particular trip I made a note of 5 random items that I knew both places carried. Wal-mart was atleast $0.50 more expensive on every single one of those items. Thats atleast $2.50 on only 5 items! Imagine how fast that can add up. That just goes to show you that it really pays to shop around.

Saving money on food expenses: Water

I love water. Between me and my girlfriend we drink at least a gallon of water every other day. If I bought bottles of water that would be roughly from 3 to 5 bottles a day. Water is a very healthy liquid to drink but it also can be a very expensive beverage if purchased individually. Lets do some math:

• One 16oz bottle of water costs roughly $1.00 or about $8 a gallon.
  
• One 24 pack of 16 oz. bottled water costs roughly $5.00 or about $1.67 a gallon.
• One gallon of spring water costs roughly $0.65 or about $0.65 a gallon.
• One gallon Wal-mart refill costs roughly about $0.30 or about $0.30 a gallon.
• One gallon Water refill with own filter costs $? or about $? a gallon.
  

Here is an idea on what you can do to save money on drinking water expense. First buy a gallon container of your favorite drinking water. When you have finished with that gallon bring it into your local grocery store and refill it. The cost is very minimal with most grocery stores being around $0.25 to 0.30 per gallon. We normally fill up 5 single gallon jugs on a single trip and that can last us for a good while. Then you can use that water to refill bottles, cooking, or just plain drinking. Enjoy!

Saving money on food expenses: Cereal

Being in college one of the biggest expenses I had on food was cereal. Its a quick and easy meal that just can't be screwed up. Its also very easy to clean up after. You can't go wrong. I don't know if you have notice but the price of cereal is insane and the boxes are only getting smaller. As noted by my kitty Tux in the picture above. This particular box of cereal is one of the smallest ones I have seen and its also one of the most expensive sold by Wal-mart. For some reason my girlfriend likes to purchase this type and I am not quite sure why...it looks like dog food to me. But thats beside the point.

One thing that I never quite understood is why cereal came in a bag inside of a box. Not only that but the bag was insanely hard to open and never sealed up afterwards forcing you to use a shitty cardboard box to seal in your food. I got sick of this! I went looking for solutions and found a great one I want to share with you all.

I found that the bagged cereals made by Malt-o-Meal are actually quite tasty...sometimes even more tasty than their boxed counterparts. There are also different versions that I have found that only Malt-o-Meal makes...ie Blueberry Muffin Tops (pictured above). Plus an advantage of the bagged cereals was a zip-lock seal!!! But I found this not good enough for me. I went one step further and purchased a plastic container to seal up the freshness of the cereal. This was the single best investment I have made when it comes to food storage. Not only is it easy to see if I am running low on cereal but it seals the cereal's freshness in for as long as I might have the cereal. So now I can stock up on cereal when its on sale and not worry about it going bad on me. Plus this is a lot easier to store than plastic bags.

If you haven't ever tried bagged cereal, give it a shot. Most people can't tell the difference if it depended on their life...I know I can't.

Learning to Research.

Learning how to research items before purchasing is one of the hardest things to do. Seriously who wants to spend waking time researching something when I can just go to the store and have someone tell me everything there is to know?

Well think of this...have any of these things ever happened to you?

• The product ended up being junk.
• You couldn't find anyone to help you.
• What you bought wasn't what you wanted.
• You didn't actually need what you bought.
• You would have been fine with a lesser model.

Most of these situations can be solved simply by doing some research online. By working in retail I can't tell you how many times people came in looking for things expecting me to know something that I really have not been trained on but need me to give them an answer.

There are a lot of resources for people if they want to do some research on products. Here is some great areas to start.

• Google Products (Formally know as Froogle). This is a great overall site for getting an idea of how much a certain product should cost.
• Consumer Reports. This is an amazing resource for buying big ticket items. Use it.
• Epinions. Consumers can create and read reviews of products.
• Online Retailers. The knowledge that is included by online retailers is usually very helpful in product purchasing. It is very common now for online retailers to offer comparison shopping, reviews, and specs that you just can't get in traditional retail stores.
  
• Buying Guides. Try this...in Google, type what your looking for followed by "buying guide" and look at what you find. I have found so much useful information on what to buy and what to avoid.
  

These sources are a start for anyone to at least get an idea of what they should be looking for when looking at purchasing their next big ticket item. By spending more time now it will save lots of headaches in the future.

Advice on Saving Money

Advice on Saving money: I have learned a lot about how retailers work from my experiences in life.

• Its not aways a deal if its advertised. I have seen many companies spend lots of money advertising things which aren't even on sale. Some products even Walmart can't put on sale because of required retail prices.
  
• Suggested Retail Price/Manufactures Retail Price means nothing. If a sale is based on a savings from the Suggested or Manufactures retail price then its not likely a sale at all.
  
• Research Research Research. How often do you buy a new car, tv, stereo, or computer for example? I can tell you right now you will get a much better deal if you spend even 10-20 minutes researching a product before going in to buy it.
  
• Look at the clearance/open box/refurbished section. I have found many great deals on products in these areas of stores. Sometimes it doesn't hurt to even ask employees about special deals like these. Many times warranties will be the same on these types of products as they are on brand new products. Or even better...for the same price as a brand new one you can add an extended warranty for the same price as a brand new item.
• Beware of too good to be true deals. Advertising mistakes happen. Also so do misrepresentations. An informed consumer should be able to tell what is truly a good deal though.
  

Finding Coupons and savings.

There is a lot of money to be saved by people if you take the time to find coupons. Since I moved away for college I had to be able to locate coupons in a foreign area. I have compiled a few different ideas on where you might be able to search for savings.

• Newspaper ads - You would be very surprised at how many ads can be packed into the Sunday papers of many metro area newspapers. Many times I have found that the small price of a Sunday newspaper can be made up for by the amount of savings that can only be found in the ads contained within.
  
• Mailers - This is that stuff that appears to be junk mail. It seems to me that 90% of the time it is junk mail but every so often there will be some really good coupons included in mailers. I normally find coupons for all sorts of random things in these mailers...ie oil changes, carpet cleaning, and over various services that people normally pay full price for.
• Online coupon sites - I have found these to be very quick and easy to use. Here are a few to check out. These are just a few that I use. There are others out there if you don't feel satisfied with these.
  
• Coupons.com
• Coupons Inc
• Wow-Coupons
• Online Deal Site - The place where I saved the most of amount of money on purchases has got to be SlickDeals. I have found many great deals on thing that I needed/wanted to buy. Its one of the first places I look if I need a great deal on almost anything imaginable. The layout can be difficult to get use to but once its mastered it is a very powerful tool for saving money.

Controlling Expenditures

This is one of those things that is so hard to do because we always feel the need to buy things. Well what can we do to stop or slow the spending down. Well first have you ever looked at how much you have actually spent per month on certain things? I actually didn't start looking at the numbers until I started using Quicken. Up until then I had no idea what I was spending on things like food, gas, and school. I still was able to budget myself and rationally think through things to see if I really needed to buy this.

Here is what I do in my head before deciding on a purchase...

1. Do I need it?
   
2. Do I want it? (Silly question but I do ask myself...I have said no.)
3. Can I substitute it for something else? (Do you really need another purse?)
   
4. Is it going to last? (Will spending the extra $5 be worth it if it doesn't break?)
   
5. In a year will it still be the best out there? (Will they come out with a new design?)
   
6. Do I already have it? (I have done this way to often.)
   
7. Can I borrow it from someone else? (Do I need a truck when I can borrow my dads?)
   
8. Can I get it cheaper? (Yes...yes you can.)
   
9. Is it going to go on sale the day after I buy it? (Probably...just come with a coupon though)
   
10. Is it going to be outdated in a few months? (Can you wait a few months to buy that new piece of technology?)
11. Is your old one broken? (If its not wait until it is.)
    
12. Is it really worth my money? (Can you really justify spending $100 on a pair of pants?)
    

Money and Credit Cards

Some people can fear or love credit cards. Its all depending on how you use them.

I love them!! I get paid to use them!! I'll tell you why.

First of all take everything you know about credit cards out of your head. You need to understand that there are two ways to use credit cards the good way (credit card companies hate this) and the bad way (credit card companies love this).

To start off let me tell you that credit cards should not carry a balance from month to month. I have never carried a balance on my credit card longer than the grace period. I have never paid a cent in interest. I use credit cards for only select things.

I actually get a check every few months from my credit card company for about $50. Here is how.

To let you know I don't work for any one...currently unemployed so no one is paying me to tell you this.

Certain Cards like the Dividend card from Citibank offer cash back rewards for purchases. I get 1% cash back on every purchase and 3% back on select purchases like gas and drug store purchases and whatnot. There are actually quite a few cards out there that allow you to do this. All you need to do is wait for your balance to come due at the end of the month and pay it off. If I am going to buy gas anyways why not charge it on my card and make 3% cash back? The thing to keep in mind though is that if you miss a payment or don't pay the balance off in full you defeated the entire purpose of the card and the credit card company has just won the game.

You need to do research on any credit card that you do get and only get the ones that are the best. I personally did lots of research and ended up with a Citibank Divident Student Card and an American Express Blue Student Card. These might not be the best choices anymore but they are certainly one to look into.

Also something to keep in mind is to know that Congress passed laws not long ago that now don't allow you to walk away from credit card debt while in bankruptcy. So if you bought it on a credit card you need to pay for it....end of story.

Money and Savings

Money:

• Most people know how to make it.
• We all know how to spend it.
• We don't all know how to save it.
• The few that do save it don't always save it efficiently.
  

I am going to give you some ideas on how to save money efficiently and help to create a budget that is super simple and you can live by.

Here are some very important things that are absolutely necessary to do to be able to manage your money and even have your money make you money.

1. Get a checking account. I am surprised how many college students don't have one. Most of them do and that is awesome. But some live on a cash only basis...bad idea...I will explain later.
2. Get a savings account. If you don't have a checking account then you probably don't have a savings account then...so set them up at the same time while your at the bank.
   
3. Get a high yield savings account. I actually have two of these high yield accounts. I have one at Citibank (its called an Ultimate Savings Account) and also one at HSBC (Online Savings account). The interest rates on these accounts are amazing. As of 11-8-2007 I am making 4% on my Citi bank account and 4.5% on my HSBC account compared to 0.01% on my U.S. Bank Savings Account. There also is a minimum balance of only like a dollar so don't be afraid to drain these high yield savings accounts down if you absolutely need to.
   
4. Setup online bank transfers between all 3 of your accounts. This is super easy nowadays. It takes about a week to fully setup the accounts but only about 20 minutes of actual work and part of that was calling my bank to find my routing number. It takes me normally 3-5 business days to transfer money from my high yield account to my checking account so keep that in mind.
   
5. Since my checking and basic savings account are at the same bank it makes transfers instantly between the accounts. I use this savings account as an emergency savings fund. I keep the balance at $150 incase of any emergency that happens.
   

Okay so thats all done? Well lets start off by setting some ground rules. First if you are like me and you get a large lump sum of money at the beginning of the year you absolutely should deposit that money into your high yield account. I normally start with $1200 a semester for spending cash. I normally keep my monthly budget money in my checking account, emergency money in my basic savings and every thing else in my high yield account. I normally make about $4-5 a month in my high yield savings account...not bad for not doing anything at all.

This is a super easy setup that almost anyone can do. There is absolutely no reason why people shouldn't be using a high yield savings account. The worst thing about them is the fact that it takes a few days to transfer the money to your checking account. The plus about them that counters that is the fact that they do include ATM debit cards so you can easily access that money if an emergency happens to come up and you happen to not have a credit card.

Introduction

This is my first blog posting to my new idea of how I can help people in college live a better life while being able to save some money in the long run. At the time of this posting I am midway through my Junior year of college and I believe I have gained enough financial backing to be able to allow myself to give some advice to would be college students and people who are looking to save money in there lives.

While in college most of us faced economic hardships. Some people being lucky enough to have parents pay for their college and living expenses. Others of us have to live off of loans or part-time (even full time jobs) to get through college. I am here to help make the most out of the limited budget of college students and those who aren't fully financially secure just yet.