Although medical and dental insurance will cover a vast majority of your health care expenses, it still is a wise move to examine your bills carefully. With multiple different rules and regulations enforced by the various insurance companies it is close to impossible for medical and dental professionals to guarantee that your bill is exactly as it should be. I am speaking from personal experience on this one.  By carefully examining the charges billed to my insurance and comparing the insurance allowed maximums to what was billed to me as the patient for my share, I found a difference of …

September shopping trends are for the most part predictable, despite changing economic circumstances. Knowing what these trends are, and which merchants are usually faithful about adhering to them, give a shopper a leg up on getting the best deals available. It’s a great time to catch late-season clearance sales on clothing.  Given that in our area, we should have many more warm days ahead, it makes it easy to transition into a new fall wardrobe by mixing late summer and early fall fashions. You may even find online discount codes that will save you an extra 30-35 percent off already marked …

There are many ways to save money by using less costly alternatives to everyday products. Here are five to get you started. You likely buy some sort of shaving cream or gel. While these products aren’t terribly expensive, they can add up over time.  Another option is to use hair conditioner. It forms the same barrier between your skin and the razor blade and it moisturizes your skin as an added bonus.  If you shop with coupons and drugstore sale matching, you can get free hair conditioner several times a year.   Perhaps you buy fancy body scrubs to exfoliate skin cells to get that new-skin …

If you are an avid reader, I’ve found a deal for you! Amazon has knocked down the price of the refurbished Kindle 3. This is the Wi-Fi ad-free version, and the new price is $99.99. The 3G ad-free version is now $129.99. These are marked-down prices of $30 and $50, respectively. The Wi-Fi ad supported version is currently selling at $114 brand new, so that makes the refurbished models quite the deal. The refurbished Kindles are factory serviced and come with a full warranty. You can find them in the Warehouse Deals section of Amazon.com. There is, however, speculation in the blogosphere that …

While shopping online is easy, fast, and fun - unless you are able to find a free shipping deal, it can get expensive. Often, free shipping offers require you to make a minimum purchase. Sometimes, the merchandise you receive turns out to be a dud and you need to return it. That means standing in line at the post-office or arranging for pick-up and paying return-shipping fees as well. Well, there’s now a way to avoid costly shipping fees and simplify the process of making returns as well. ShopRunner is a membership-based website that offers two-day free shipping, free returns, and member only…

Happy August! Here are five suggestions for items that can be purchased this month:    With no sentimental holidays on the horizon just yet, there isn’t a big market for jewelry this month. That means jewelers have sales and discounts galore. This is a great time to buy jewelry for yourself, or to buy ahead for the coming holiday season. If you do buy for the holidays, please take my advice and don’t hide small items in a so-called safe place, one that you may very well forget. Come holiday time, if you can’t find those expensive earrings or tie clips, it won’t be pretty. Keep a list or just …

Here are five quick and easy, pain-free and zero- calorie ways to keep your pennies in your piggy bank and your bills in your wallet where they belong. Take a look at your collections. Be it comic books, Beanie Babies, clothes, cat figurines or whatever it is you’ve collected for years. Does it still bring you pleasure to add to this collection or are you only doing it out of habit? If the answer is habit- give it up. You might even consider selling your vast collection of whatzits to make some fast cash. Become the master over your impulse purchasing urges. That little voice that screams “oh…

There is a learning curve to successful coupon shopping. Once you’ve mastered the basics, you may find yourself itching to get every single deal out there and allow the coupons, deals and money saving opportunities to take far too much time and way too much effort. But it doesn’t have to be that way. I’ve learned the hard way that almost every deal will come around again. Exceptions to this happen, and they are usually free or nearly free deals on brand new products. The manufacturer in cahoots with the stores will give away products in the hopes of getting you, the consumer, to try them and …

Lots of things go on sale in July, but these made my Top 5 list this year. Brand new furniture hits the showrooms in August, making July a fantastic time to find low prices on the items they need to move out quickly. You don’t even have to watch sale flyers for these; just head on into your furniture dealer’s showrooms and you’ll be amazed at the markdowns you’ll find this month.  Many stores even have a clearance room for display models that offer even better discounts. Men’s suits are often marked down by at least 30 percent in July, to make room for the new fall fashions and to get the …

In the past two Save Me The Money columns, we’ve covered how to determine your average monthly income, and your absolutely necessary monthly expenses.  This week, we’ll turn our attention to money you spend on non-essentials. The goal here is to take an honest look at what you spend and to assess your financial weak spots, and then to eliminate or at least reduce them. Each person or family will have their own list of "extras" that they spend on each month, so you will want to tailor this to suit your actual spending patterns. List every amount, no matter how small it is.  Even those daily …

Desperate times call for desperate measures. The world economy continues to be in trouble. It is vital that each household know exactly what it will cost for survival month to month. If you are fortunate enough to have a savings cushion, now is not the time to touch it. So let’s work on figuring out current absolute necessities budget. It’s not hard to do, but is a very important step towards financial health. First, make a list of your monthly costs for shelter. This is your mortgage, rent, electric, gas or oil for heat, water, and condo or homeowners fee if you have one. This should be a …

I won’t make setting a budget and living within that budget sound like fun.  There will be no sugar-coating or laughing matters discussed this week. The fact of the matter is: we should all learn to budget when we are young, but most people, even if they learn how, don’t do it, or do it once and never update it. Budgeting is one of those hard facts of life (much like dieting, exercise and visiting the doctor) No one looks forward to it, but once it’s done, you will feel better. I guarantee you’ll feel better because you’ll have a handle on your finances and won’t be in for any big surprises …

There is a surprising number of free (or close to free) things for kids and families to do this summer. I’ve been able to round up several of them with thanks to Kaley at Cha Ching on a Shoestring and other sources, such as Highland Street Foundation. TD Bank has a summer reading program for kids. All they have to do is read 10 books this summer and write down the names on this Summer Reading Form. Then, take it to the nearest TD Bank [Locater] and $10 will be deposited into a new or existing Young Saver Account.  Kids can sign up for Lowes free Build and Grow workshops held every other …

Couponing has become a really hot topic these days and quite often people who coupon shop and manage to get their grocery store bills down to mere pennies are featured on television. The Learning Channel (TLC) has run a series called “Extreme Couponing” for a couple of seasons now. I watched the show one week, mostly out of curiosity, and found myself shaking my head at what I saw. People were dumpster diving to get coupon inserts, buying an outrageous amount of one product that couldn’t be used by the expiration date, and shelf-clearing so that nothing  was left for anyone else to buy.  It …

The description  got your attention, didn’t it?  While I can’t say for sure that anyone rich or famous uses these secrets, I can’t say for sure that they don’t either. So let’s just go with it, shall we? 1. Stay out of the stores; don’t shop online; don’t browse the mail order catalogs. At all. I can hear the chorus of “WHATS?” out there, but really it works. If you aren’t tempted, even by the best of sales, you don’t spend any money. This is what the wealthy are doing now; sitting on their cash and consuming less.  2. Take a planned spending hiatus once a month. Plan for a series of weekdays…

CVS has joined the ranks of retailers who now offer the opportunity to consumers to have coupons electronically loaded onto their loyalty cards. These coupons work differently though — the program involved is the SavingStar plan and although the coupons you select and upload to your CVS card are just like regular coupons, you won’t see a reduction in your amount due at the cash register. Instead the value of the coupons is added to your SavingStar account, which you easily sign up for at SavingStar.com. Once you’ve accumulated $5, you can request your money be sent to you via a bank deposit, …

By now most people are familiar with eBay and likely with several other online auction sites. A few months ago I found one, quite by accident, that was new to me.  I found myself drawn to visiting it over and over again because you just never know what you will find there. The auction Web site is Shopgoodwill, yes that Goodwill Industries. It is run by Goodwill of Orange County, Calif. and features items from many participating Goodwill shops around the country. The items are all culled from donated merchandise and the revenue is put towards education, training and job placement for people …

SplitStuff is a fairly new Internet-based tool that, according to its Web site, aims to help “reduce waste & pollution due to unused capacity, clutter, consumer excess, transportation, inventory & packaging.” Available to both individual consumers and to businesses in the United States and Canada, the service is free, although there may eventually be nominal fees for business splits. The concept is simple: prices for goods both durable and non-durable are frequently reduced when items are bought in bulk, and through collective bargaining as a group, many times manufacturers will work with the…

Weddings are on people’s minds this week after the lavish and beautiful Royal Wedding of Prince William and Katherine Middleton on April 29. It was spectacular and of course no expense was spared. While I can’t suggest ways to plan your own wedding and have the event be as elaborate as their’s was, there are several things any bride and groom can do to cut expenses and still have a magnificent wedding and reception. One easy thing you can do is to enter every wedding contest you can find. Many are on the Internet and the quick way to find them is to use a search engine and type in “Wedding …

Decorating a new home or apartment, or redecorating your existing home can get expensive. Sure, you could save quite a bit of money buying furniture or decorative items that are mass-produced, but wouldn’t it be more fun and make you happier in the long run if your home could reflect your own unique style with one-of-a-kind pieces that still come in under budget? I have an answer to your dreams today, and it’s not a secret, but it is.  It’s a Secret is a fantastic small business, located at 100 Conant St, and is owned by Kimm Tremblay. Tremblay can take just about anything and give it a new …