Saving on Necessities

STOP PAYING TOO MUCH FOR INSURANCE

Below are tips to help you save money on your insurance. Following this advice will only take minutes of your time, but could save you hundreds of dollars annually. I don’t know about you, but I think $100+ an hour is pretty good money.

1) Use an independent agent. Independent agents write insurance policies for several companies. So they can find the policy and company that best fits your needs with the lowest premium. Independent agents shop multiple companies to save you both time and money.

2) Take advantage of multi-policy discounts. Having one insurance company insure all of your policies will give you a possible discount of up to 30% per policy. So if you insure your home and auto with the same insurer and each policy premium is $750, you receive a multi-policy discount of $75-$225 per policy. That is a total savings of $150-$450. You also receive discounts for having other insurance policies with the same insurer as well. So keep this in mind when considering umbrella and jewelry insurance.

3) Be sure to get credit for education. Many insurance carriers give discounts to people who have degrees. In addition, a master’s degree might give you a higher discount than a bachelor’s degree. Make sure your agent has this information.

4) Shop early. Many insurance carriers give you discounts if you shop at least 8 days in advance. Contact the prospective agent 15-30 days before your policy expires.

5) Do you have a teenage driver? If you have a teenage driver in the house and they have a 3.0 grade point average or higher, be sure your agent gives you the good student discount.

6) Consider your method of payment. Most insurance carriers will give you the best deal if you pay your policy in full. If it is not possible to do that, consider paying electronically. If you choose to be billed monthly your carrier will charge you a service fee of between $5-$10. If you choose to pay by electronic transfer of funds, many carriers will not charge you a fee at all or the fee will be very nominal. Paying an extra $10 per month in fees equals $120 per year for insurance.

If you are in Virginia, I’d be happy to give you a quote. Contact me (Missy) at 540-631-0045 or stoverins@gmail.com. Currently I save my clients an average of $950/year.

Challange Results

I was able to stretch the $50 I started with for 16 days before I ran out! I was very, very happy with this. My new goal will be to try to remain under $50 per week throughout the summer. To feed my family of 5 on $50/week I think is very, very good!

Missy's Challange Part 2

O.k. I started this week with $50. On Wednesday I got 50 bottles of salad dressing and accumulated $30 in catalina coupons (good for my next grocery purchase) and only spent $4.10 out of pocket. I am now down to $28 and $2 in catalina coupons. Above are pictures of my other purchases this week and my total out of pocket for the week is still only $22. I now have lunch meat to run me through part of June, Of course plenty of salad dressing, produce for the week, parmesean to last me 6 months, Mac and cheese to last a few weeks, camping supplies, cookies for snacks over the next few weeks.

I love Kraft and Food Lion this week!

Missy's Challange

As you guys already know, I spend very little at the grocery store. However, we have had many expenses lately, as everyone does from time to time, so I am challanging myself starting Wednesday to see how far I can stretch $50 at the grocery store. This will be tough because my family consumes 5 gallons of milk a week and we eat lots of fresh produce. My garden will not be of any help until July either. However, doing this will help me balance how much I stock pile versus how much we need. I will start with $50 on Wednesday, May 26th. The only cash money I will add to it will be money that I make off of selling some of the foods I stockpile. For example, I intend to buy a lot of salad dressing on Wednesday. If I sell some of that salad dressing to friends, I will put that money back into my grocery fund.

What am I starting with? I have an ample supply of toilitries with the exception of sunscreen. I have plenty of cleaning supplies and plenty of rice/pasta and other starches. Weekly, I will have to have bread/milk/eggs and produce. I am also not fully stocked on meats either. So I will have to add some of those as well.

Let's see how far $50 will go! Will I make it 1 week, 2 weeks, 3 weeks?

How to get a Discount on Paint

So I am painting my Living Room/Kitchen/Foyer and Hallway. I needed a lot of paint. So the Paint is $24 a can which works out to be about $150 total. I went to Lowes yesterday and they were running a special where you can get a $5 rebate on each can of paint you buy. That rebate ended yesterday, however they run this promotion about once every 6 weeks or so. So here is what I did:

6 cans of Paint x $24 = $144
-$5 on $25 Tru Value coupon found in Family Circle Magazine (competitor's coupon)
-$30 Rebate for buying Lowes paint
-$7.50 (the amount of rewards Discover Card is paying me to use their card to buy purchases for my home) This is part of their quarterly 5% back promo. YOU MUST SIGN UP FOR THIS AT THEIR WEBSITE OR OVER THE PHONE.

Total discounts: $42.50
After all the discounts, I will wind up paying $101.50

$30 in coupons mailed to your house

Go here to sign up for a booklet with $30 worth of savings. Sometimes they have coupons for a free item and often have a coupon worth $1 off Dawn dish soap that makes it free when it is on sale.

Super Couponers

Hey guys a few posts ago I told you about the site www.weusecoupons.com. Here is a Nightline segment on the guy who runs the site. It is well worth watching: 'Super Couponers' Clip Their Way to Savings at the Grocery Store - ABC News