The Clunker Bill

I am reading this email from Benjamin Bankes a little late since I bought a new car last week. I ended up with a new Escape. I really do like it and it does get better gas millage than my old one. My husband is taking the old one back and forth to work since it was not worth trading it in. Back to the Clunker Bill. This bill allows you to trade your old car for a more fuel efficient car and receive a discount for $4,500.

There are rules of course.

• Your vehicle must be less than 25 years old on the trade-in date
• Only purchase or lease of new vehicles qualify
• Generally, trade-in vehicles must get 18 or less MPG (some very large pick-up trucks and cargo vans have different requirements)
• Trade-in vehicles must be registered and insured continuously for the full year preceding the trade-in
• You don't need a voucher, dealers will apply a credit at purchase
• Program runs through Nov 1, 2009 or when the funds are exhausted, whichever comes first.
• The vehicle that you are trading in is required to be destroyed. Therefore, the value you negotiate with the dealer for your trade in is not likely to exceed its scrap value. The law requires the dealer to disclose to you and estimate of the scrap value of your trade-in vehicle.

While the CARS Act makes transactions on and after July 1 potentially eligible for credits under the CARS program, interested dealers and consumers may want to wait until all of the detailed issues that must be addressed in the implementing regulations are resolved and the final rule is issued. Issuance will occur around July 24. CARS.gov

So if you are looking to buy a new car and need to get rid of the old clunker, check out CARS.gov before November when the deal ends or when the money runs out.

Staying Put

I finally took some time to see what is going on in the news today. One news article that stood out for me was "One casualty of the recession: U.S. mobility". The article is about people who would usually sell their home and move, are now staying put.

I know that I have so far successfully talked my husband out of moving at the moment. My Mother-In-Law has been looking for a new home, but is also delaying a move due to the economy. We both have the same issue. Concerned that our current home will not sell and neither of us can afford to pay for two houses at one time. There are other issues as well, but this is at the top of our list. I just don't feel comfortable buying a new home right now even though the prices are right to buy, but not to sell.

I did buy a new car last week, but was even concerned about doing that. My new job seems secure, but who knows what the future holds. Right now I think we are at our limit in loans even though we don't have that many. Just the house, truck, and now my car loan. No credit card bills and a good chunk of money in saving for emergencies.

There are many reasons why people are staying in their homes instead of moving:

• "Many homeowners can't afford to sell their homes because property values have tumbled, causing millions to owe more on their homes than they’re worth. “It seems like only the really motivated sellers are coming out,” said Lydia Lin, owner of One Realty in Denver.
  
• Other people can’t get financing to buy a new home and so are stuck in their current residence.
  
• Still others can't move to take new jobs until they sell their homes, or they’re staying put because the economic outlook and the job outlook are so uncertain.
  
• And, finally, some people have deferred their retirement and decided against moving to a new home in a retirement spot such as Florida. That’s because they watched their retirement savings plunge with the collapse in the stock market last fall and early 2009."

Many Economist are saying this can cause even more problems for the economy. No new loans, and no money exchanging hands. Which means people are spending less and more jobs being cut. The economic downward spiral that doesn't look like it is putting on the breaks anytime soon.

Even though I have a new job, I am going to try to delay buying a new house for a while. We are lucky and owe a lot less that the house is worth and I would like it to stay that way. The house does need a lot of work, but it would cost a lot less to fix or replace items than buying a new home. Now if I could just convince my husband to hire someone to do the work, I would be happy. Otherwise nothing will get done because he is to busy helping his mother.

K-Mart double coupons this week (again)

K-Mart is having a double coupon promotion this week. They are doubling coupons up to and including $2, but are limiting it to 10 coupons per customer per day. See this weeks ad or website for more details.

I am back with a different new job

Things have been crazy at my house the last couple of months. The job I started in May didn't work out very well. I do have a new found respect for people working at help desks. It is very stressful and you never stop working. At the help desk I was working, there were so many calls, emails, and voice mails that we just did not have enough people to keep up. We could work 24/7 and not get to all the emails.

Now I have a different new job that I started a couple weeks ago. I am very excited about the job. I am back working on web development. The office atmosphere is so much more relaxed and it is a lot less stressful. The work is still challenging, but in a good way.

I will be very busy this next week and will not get back to posting on a regular basis for a little while. At this time I am taking 3 summer classes, working my new new job, and working part time at the help desk job to be nice since I didn't really give them a two week notice. I am glad that Margaret has had a chance to post some articles while I was going crazy.

I have a lot of good information to pass along, so don't give up on us. I will get new articles posted as I can.

Interesting Little Tidbits

So here are some interesting things I came across today while listening to my podcasts and talking to people at work.

For those of us in the St. Louis Metro area, radio station Y98 has partnered with Sonic restaurants and they are giving away free 14 oz. root beer floats if the temperature outside reaches 98 degrees. You have 98 minutes once the temperature at Lambert International Airport reaches 98 degrees to get to a Sonic in order to get your free float. See website for official rules and patrons are still responsible for tax.

I was listening to Blog Talk Radio: Personal Finance Hour with Jim Wang and JD Roth, and their guest this week was Liz Pulliam Weston. They were discussing credit scores. I jotted down some points she made about how Fair Isaacs calculates credit scores. Weston says that 35% of your score is based on your payment history (whether you pay your bills on time) and 30% is based on your credit utilization (how much credit is available to you vs. how much you are using). If you are 30 days (or more) behind in any payments, your score could be reduced by 100 points. Your score will be reduced by at least 10 points for inquiries made when you apply for credit, but it takes up to 30 days for it to affect your score. Listen online or download with itunes for more on the interview.

Frugal Friday

Happy Friday Everyone! I hope you all are keeping cool. It is 95 degrees here today. So in honor of our super hot weather and to kick off Frugal Friday, I am going to give tips for keeping cool while saving money during the summer.

Check out your local public pools to see if there are free days or discount days. You can also look for deals on those inflatable pools. I found a 8ft by 4ft deep pool on clearance for $25 3 years ago and it still works great.

Make your own Popsicles by freezing kool-aid or fruit juice in ice cube trays.

Freeze grapes or banana's for a different kind of frozen treat.

Keep your thermostat set above 75 degrees and run your ceiling fans(if you have them) to circulate the air.

Try not to use your oven. Cook as much as you can using the microwave or outdoor grill. The oven will heat up your house causing your AC to kick on too often.

Keep your shades closed and your lights off on sunny days. Unless you have blackout curtains, you should still have enough light to see what your doing.

Do you have any additional tip? If so, add them in the comments.

Menu Planning Monday

Wow! I am actually getting my menu posted on Monday! We ended up not going out to eat last week so we have moved that to this week. We also didn't eat the breaded fish so that is getting carried over too. I did manage to go grocery shopping last week, so we have plenty of food in the house.

So, here is the menu for the week:
Monday - Hamburgers, shells and cheese, and salad
Tuesday - Pizza (carryout)
Wednesday - Chicken Fettaccini and broccoli
Thursday - baked breaded talapia, asparagus, mashed potatoes
Friday - Chicken lo mein
Saturday - fish sticks, butter noodles, peas
Sunday - Dinner with Dad

K-Mart double coupons this week

K-Mart is having a double coupon promotion this week. They are doubling coupons up to and including $2, but are limiting it to 10 coupons per customer per day. K-Mart is also offering 2 free tickets to see Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen it you purchase $50 or more in menswear. See website for more details.