Frugal Living

Is your car ready for summer car trips? Here is a list of six things you should do before you hit the road for your summer vacation.You might also enjoy (Note: Some offers may have expired)7 Tips to Save Money at the Gas Pump9 Free and Low-Cost Ways to Save Money & Energy This…First Car: How to Buy a CarGUEST POST: No B.S. Financial Advice6 Upcoming State Sales Tax HolidaysThe post Is Your Vehicle Ready for Summer Car Trips appeared first on Suddenly Frugal Blog.

Estate sales are a step-up from yard sales or garage sales. Instead of selling items people no longer want, they are trying to sell a house full of possessions people actually owned and used. They are [...]Recommended For You:The Best and Worst Things to Buy at Yard Sales10 Yard Sale Shopping Tips to Get the Best Bargains8 Tips for Successful Garage Sale Shopping10 Tips to a Wildly Successful Garage SaleFrugal Home Buying Tips Read the rest of Tips for Finding Estate Sale Bargains at BeingFrugal.net.

The federal government is making huge profits when it lends money to college students and their parents. According to a recent Congressional Budget Office report, the government pockets a tidy sum for each student loan dollar you borrow. For each dollar lent, the U.S. government makes: Subsidized Stafford Loan: 12.49 cents per dollar lent Unsubsidized Stafford Loan: 33 cents per dollar lent Parent PLUS Loan: 49 cents per dollar lent GradPLUS Loan: 54.84 cents per dollar lent According to CBS Moneywatch, the CBO report attracted surprisingly little attention. Meanwhile, the press is up in arms over the prospective doubling of the interest rate for subsidized Stafford Loans on July 1. After a lot of backing-and-forthing during the 2012 election year, Congress managed to forestall the looming increase until this year. If you’ve listened to/read media accounts of this scheduled rate hike, you might mistakenly assume that this is the biggest problem facing college loan borrowers today. CBS MoneyWatch reporter Lynne O’Shaughnessy and Mark Kantrowitz, a nationally recognized financial aid expert, report that the rate hike would cost a borrower an extra $760 over a 10-year repayment period, which amounts to just $6 a week. Congress is in blinders with respect to the issue, focusing narrowly on whether the impending rate hike will happen. In reality, what Congress should be doing is taking a broader perspective of how the financial aid system could be fixed. One issue in particular should draw their attention: why aren’t the rates on federal college loans market-based? Currently, Congress sets the rates (the unsubsidized Stafford rate is 6.8%), which explains why these rates are arbitrary and attract too much political posturing. Solutions anyone? In an attempt to encourage in-depth examination of federal student aid programs, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation awarded grants to organizations that could suggest solutions. Organizations that submitted papers included the College Board, The Education Trust, the New America Foundation and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. This is actually an excellent time to be generating these proposals because Congress is scheduled to renew the federal Higher Education Opportunity Actnext year. This is when Congress is supposed to take the long view and go beyond enacting piece-meal legislation. One significant change that emerged from the last renewal was the requirement that all colleges and universities post net price calculators on their websites. This is a big deal for families: now any parent can use an institution’s net price calculator to get a personalized estimate of what that school will cost long before a child sends in an application. Some of the Gates’ grantees are urging Congress to move to market-based rates rather than letting Congress continue to arbitrarily set them. Student groups want any market-based system to include salary caps. Two other areas that attracted a great deal of attention from the Gates participants were focused on loan repayment and tax credits. Automatic repayment based on income Under current law, borrowers with federal student loans can choose several repayment plans and some qualify for the income-based repayment plan. The IBRessentially allows students who are unemployed or underemployed to repay their student debts based on what they can afford rather than what they owe. Some groups have suggested that graduates with federal student loans be automatically enrolled in the IBR program. Tax credits Eleven of the 16 Gates-funded proposals called for consolidating, shrinking or killing off education tax credits, which are controversial because they are regressive. The tax credits chiefly benefit more affluent families whose children will be heading off to college with or without these credits. Money saved from curtailing the tax credits could be sunk into Pell Grants that benefit needy families. As a political reality, however, elimin

Monday 13th + $130.95 dress refund $8.91 dinner Tuesday 14th No Spend Day! Wednesday 15th $29.61 groceries Thursday 16th $16.22 dinner Friday 17th $23.70 lunch Saturday 18th $25 brunch at Graze Restaurant Sunday 19th – Las Vegas, NV $200 cash Freelance Income: + $0 (+ $130.95 refund) Expenses: - $303.44 TOTAL: - $172.49 This was a pretty stressful week at work, so as a result I didn’t bring in any freelance income (although I did bill out), and my dining out was a bit excessive. Granted, Friday was a team lunch with co-workers, and Saturday I met up with a former editor I used to work for. On Sunday, I flew out to Las Vegas. Instead of trying to track every dollar I spend in cash (which is next to impossible in Vegas), I’m just going to lump it in as a cash sum. It doesn’t matter anyway, since all travel expenses will end up getting put into one category at the end of the month. Here are a few pictures from this past week: The post Spending Recap: May 13-19, 2013 appeared first on Give Me Back My Five Bucks.

I can't quite put my finger on why, but there is definitely something about the presence of a roof rack that screams "ADVENTURE." Quark, sporting his cool new summer haircut, concurs. Either that, or he's decided that the Vanagon is some sort of mutant sheep in need of serious herding. No way of knowing which. Regardless, my new custom fabricated solar rack is now in place, and after driving a few miles on the freeway this evening, I was relieved to find it precisely where I left it. Always a good thing. I also made some good progress on the cabinet design today, and the basic structure for both sides is now just about finished. With plenty of odd angles and contours to deal with, it's been slow going, but the results are shaping up nicely. All that aside, the real highlight of the day was when Q installed the latest addition to the workshop to end all workshops. I don't want to tempt Mother Nature, but I think the impending summer heat just got a little more tolerable...

Are you getting married soon? Be sure to check out these 7 tips for planning a wedding registry. And don't go it along. Your fiance and future husband should have a say in how you select wedding gifts for your bridal registry.You might also enjoy (Note: Some offers may have expired)$5 Off Crock-Pot Lunch CrockRefillable K Cup: How to Save Money on K Cup CoffeeFree Bridal Guide MagazineThe post 7 Tips for Planning a Wedding Registry appeared first on Suddenly Frugal Blog.

When it comes to fixed rate and adjustable rate (ARM) mortgages the standard personal finance advice is to always get a fixed rate mortgage. Most people opt for a 30-year fixed rate mortgage, but a 15-year [...]Recommended For You:When is the Right Time to Refinance Your Home?30 Year Mortgage vs. 15 Year Mortgage: Pros and ConsBuying a Home? How to Get the Best Mortgage RateWhat is a Second Mortgage? Advantages and DisadvantagesHow Much House Can You Afford to Buy? Read the rest of Should You Choose an Adjustable Rate Mortgage? at BeingFrugal.net.

When I found out Target was going to open over 100 stores across Canada this year, I was excited but realistic. Could my days of cross-border shopping at one of my favourite stores be over? Or would Target Canada fall short of the prices found in the USA? That’s what I intended to find out this past weekend during whirlwind shopping trips to my two closest Target stores. May 18th, 2013: My first stop was Target Canada, in the suburb of Coquitlam – approximately 32 km from downtown Vancouver. May 19th, 2013: My second stop was Target USA at the Bellis Fair Mall in Bellingham, WA – approximately 83km from downtown Vancouver. For my trips, I decided to compare the prices of a few common household items. These figures below don’t take into account provincial or state tax, duties charged at the border, the extra cost in gas, or puts a dollar value on the time spent crossing the border (although with the Nexus pass, it didn’t take me that much longer to get to Bellingham than to Coquitlam). Instead, I’ve chosen to focus just on the price of the products – taking into an account an exchange rate of $0.97 on the Canadian dollar. Ready? Let’s shop at Target! We’ll head to the personal care and beauty section first, because that’s where I generally start my Target shopping trips. My go-to mascara is Maybelline’s Volum’Express (The Rocket). Now to pick up some Aveeno body lotion, which is only slightly cheaper in the USA. I can’t live without Burt’s Bees lip balm, and at any given time, I have 3 to 5 floating in between my purse, home, car, and desk at work. When comparing a 24-pack of Durex condoms, I found out it was 32% cheaper to practice safe sex in America. Next up is Tylenol. There’s a small difference here: the Canadian version has the eZtabs, and the U.S. version is just regular caplets. A major expense most men complain about is the cost of razor blades. I thought they would be significantly cheaper in Bellingham. Turns out the savings is barely worth mentioning. If you’re sick of paying so much for disposable blades, perhaps an electric shaver system will be your next big purchase. Note the U.S. package also has a bonus of a few accessories (worth over $30) that the Canadian version doesn’t have. This was a bit of a surprise to me. The regular price of a 20-pack of Energizer Max Alkaline batteries in the USA is $13.79, which is 23% more than the regular price in Canada. I don’t know much about video games, but I do know that if I’m ever going to buy myself Call of Duty for Xbox, it’s going to be across the border. If you’re in the mood to hate your life, I’d recommend picking up Windows 8 Pro in Bellingham. I now know the best thing about living in Vancouver isn’t the ocean or the mountains or the abundance of delicious vegetarian restaurants – it’s the fact that Nutella is 17% cheaper in Canada. The Magic Bullet in Canada isn’t pictured with all the accessories, but it’s the same 17-piece system that’s selling in the U.S. I just read an article in MoneySense magazine about how generic baby diapers are just as good as the brand names. I wouldn’t know, because I’ve never changed a diaper in my life. But, if you must have brand name Pampers, they’re cheaper in America. Note to self: Don’t buy Calphalon pots and pans in Canada. Even the bonus Tide Pods attached to the detergent bottle can’t help out this price match. I don’t have any pets, but it’d be cheaper to feed their faces with food from Target USA. Well, there you have it! A short 16-product comparison of Target Canada vs. Target USA. What did we all learn from this? Buy your Nutella and batteries in Canada. The rest could be worth taking a trip across the border. I personally never go across the border with the specific intention of shopping. ItR

Forgive the cheesy homophonic wordplay, but it's not a turn of phrase one gets to use every day of the week – sealing the ceiling, that is, which is precisely what I finished doing a few days ago. It's no Sistine Chapel, but it does pop rather nicely now... That's three coats of Varathane satin polyurethane – no stain at all – and I'm so pleased with the results that I may just stick with this natural look for the rest of the interior. And speaking of which, I'm about thigh-deep into the cabinetry now, and though it's slow going due to my being a complete novice, I'm happy with how it's taking shape. Photographic evidence to come soon. Q is slated to be out of town for all of June, and because he handles all of the welding duties around here, we ramped up work on the custom rack that will house my solar array a couple of nights ago. Here are a few teaser photos... As I type this, fabrication work has been completed, the rack fitted to the van's gutter mounts, and she even passed a quick test drive this afternoon with flying colors. I just need to prime and paint the rack tomorrow, and it'll then be ready to receive the solar panels I picked up about a week ago. I realize that it's a bit premature to be installing solar panels when I don't even have much of an interior yet, but this is a two-man job, so I needed to get to it while Q is still around. So it is that in another week, I stand to be all alone in Q's workshop for a while, and between that, the impending summer heat, and the fact that there's still a decent amount of work to be done, I find myself increasingly thinking about the possibility of taking a break for a few months and heading to higher elevations for one last go-around in the Chinook. Nothing has been decided yet though, and I intend to keep plugging away at least until the end of the month before assessing the situation further.

Claremont McKenna College (CMC) announced it will end its “No Package Loan” financial-aid policy beginning next fall for incoming freshmen, demonstrating the uphill struggle some colleges face in providing access to some of the neediest students. “The policy change represents a movement among a lot of colleges toward more merit-based and less need-based aid,” CMC junior Carly Lenderts told Campus Progress. “That shift harms low-income students more than this specific loan policy. As a middle-class student at a private college, I’m obviously biased toward need-based aid as it allows me to be here.” CMC was among a handful of schools that instituted policies in recent years to remove student loans from the financial aid packages offered to undergraduate students in order to make college more accessible to lower-income students. The college enacted its No Package Loan policy in 2008. Instead of loans, the school pushed for more financial aid programs. But with the recent economic recession, the school’s board of trustees decided the college wouldn’t be able to sustain the policy. Research and input from the admission and financial aid committee guided the decision, which studied the effects of the No Packaged Loan financial-aid policy over the past five years. “CMC’s generous financial-aid policy is definitely responsible for me being here,” Lenderts said. “My parents never would have signed the paperwork without the promise of significant financial aid.” College President Pamela Gann announced the policy-shift in an email to the college community March 14. She explained need-based students who enter CMC in fall 2014 will be provided “reasonable loan amounts of up to $4,000 per year in the financial aid package.” And emphasized that students up to the Class of 2017 will not be affected by the change in policy. “The administration showed us the changes in college cost vs. ability to pay,” Lenderts said. “College cost has risen quickly, and ability to pay has risen slowly. A lot of that is because of the recession, and as a result CMC has overspent its financial aid budget in the past few years. Families have less money to send kids to college, but it costs colleges more to retain their competitive edge.” Other schools that have dropped or altered their no-loan policies include, Carleton College of Northfield, Minn., Cornell University, Yale University, Dartmouth College, and Williams College. Many colleges advertise diverse student bodies and try to recruit students with diverse backgrounds. “I think that’s great, but socioeconomic diversity is woefully absent at a lot of private liberal arts schools.” Landerts argued. “Regardless of other diversity factors, you can’t claim to represent a wide array of life experiences if the only students who can afford to come to your college are upper- and upper-middle class.” She continued: The debate within the CMC community is centered upon this policy being announced right after other announcements about doubling our endowment and plans to renovate dorms and build a new fitness center. Obviously, donors select what their money goes toward and financial aid is less glamorous than a shiny new building with your name on it. Hopefully CMC will focus future fundraising efforts on increasing the funds for need-based aid. With more than 38 million Americans burdened with $1 trillion of student loan debt, there’s no mistaking that student debt is a growing crisis in need of meaningful solutions. Reducing the amount of funding students are pressured to acquire through student loans was a step toward that, but as colleges and universities face the unsustainable nature of no-loan financial aid programs it’s becoming clear that other avenues are necessary to lessen the burdens experienced by student loan borrowers. The post Colleges Take Back No-Loan Promises appeared first on Frugal Dad.