A great benefit of creating a zero-based budget is that you are forced to look current state of your finances, because you have to assign each dollar of income to a category. Although sticking to the routine can be hard the first few months, if you stick with it you’ll notice that your mindset will change over time, from casual spending to one of deliberate spending.

Three Category Types

Before we start you need to know the category types and the differences between them:
Fixed categories – payments that you have to make or can’t easily be changed. For example a mortgage payment.
Static categories – payments that look fixed, but you can change them, for instance by canceling them. For example Netflix or golf course membership.
Variable or Fluid categories – payments that can be different each month. For example entertainment.

Creating a Zero Based Budget

1. Start by listing ALL your source of income. This means that you need to list all of your household income and not only a paycheck, also investment dividends, bank interest, etc.

2. The next step is listing all your expenses. Usually this is the hardest step, because you need to find all the expenses you pay each month. And this can be a real eye opener!

Also you have to remember that some expenses aren’t paid monthly, but also quarterly, semi-annual or on annual basis. Make a category in your budget for quarterly and annual payments and break the amount into monthly payments. This way you put money aside (open a separate saving account for this money) each month, until it’s time to pay the quarterly or annual bill.

Make a category for all your expenses (mortgage, taxes, insurance, retirement fund, car payments, clothing, household, entertainment, savings and so on.) Make sure you find them all, but don’t make the category’s to general. With this I mean that you don’t put everything little thing under the same category, example groceries will fall under the household category, but clothing should not fall under household. Also the opposed is true, you don’t want to have for example 100 separate categories. Your categories should be balanced.

3. The next step is to allocate income for all your fixed expenses. Fixed expenses are those payments that you have to make or can’t change for example mortgage payments.

A gym membership is not a fixed expense, because you can cancel the membership and train in the park! See the difference? These expenses will fall in your static categories.

4. Try to make adjustments to fixed or static expenses. This way you’ll have more money for your fluid categories. For example you make fixed payment for your families insurance, maybe you can get a better deal somewhere else.

I know, I know, changing your insurance will take time, so you can’t adjust it right away. You don’t have to do this right away, you can create your budget first (by making the adjustment that you can do now) and after you have made the adjustment you change your zero based budget.

Another thing, you don’t have to cancel everything, if you have enough income. But if you cancel things because you have to then make sure that you also need certain things for the quality of life. With this I mean the following: if you really like your gym membership then try to find something else you can cancel.

5. Start allocating to fluid expenses. This can be a hard one, so make an educated guess if you have to. Use what you think is a reasonable amount.

6. Zero your budget. Now that you have all you income, expense and categories start playing around until each dollar is assigned to a category. Add more money to savings or discretionary balances or some other category. (If I where you, I would put additional money in the saving category or retirement fund.)

7. Now the hard part, sticking to your budget. Track all your spending during the next month and stick to your budget. At can be hard in the beginning, but if you stick with it, it will become easier each month and it will pay dividends down the road.

At the end of each month you can make minor adjustments, but you have to make sure you reach zero.

Original post by MoneyAside.com

Building a Zero-based Budget

• If you have a steady flow of income then you are in luck. If you are a salaried person check whether your job offers raises or overtime payments. Make the most of all the extra money making opportunities at work.
• A part time job always works. Devote a few hours at nights or on the weekends and earn some extra bucks. During summer you can certainly make extra money by mowing lawns, and around Christmas, you can easily work a few extra hours in retail. Since these jobs are short-term, they won’t interfere much with your regular job in any way. You can look for a temporary or seasonal position at a department store or a grocery store and raise cash to pay off your debts.
• Look around intently and gather excess items which you no longer use. By selling them on eBay.com and craigslist.com you can always make some quick bucks . If you are not a fan of e-business you can always conduct a yard sale or a big rummage sale at your house during the summer.
• If tax season is coming up fast and you are about to receive a pretty decent tax refund then you can easily repay your debts by using a portion or all of the funds you get back from the government
• If you can curtail unnecessary expenses and save well you will be left with more disposable income which can be further devoted towards your debt repayments.

Follow the above mentioned ways and eventually get rid of your debt problems with ease.

Original post by MoneyAside.com

5 ways to make money and combat your debts

1. General Rule

Before we give some example of products we start with the general rule when to buy. You should buy when demand is low or supply is high. For instance: clothing is cheaper when it is “out of season ” (demand is low). Certain fruits are cheaper when they’re “in season” (supply is high.) This is the general rule you should remember is you want to save money on your purchases.

2. End of Season

In most cases you can find good deals at the end of season, because the retail businesses inventory is usually ahead of the actual season. Which means that they buy early to be ready for the next season and this means that “out of season” product get cheaper, because they want to get rid of their “old” inventory before this season is over. Example: winter coats in January and February (they are getting ready for the spring/summer sales.)

Some other examples: sporting goods at the end of a certain sport season. Swimsuits in September. Gas grills or patio furniture after Labor Day. Chocolate and flowers after Valentine’s Day. Christmas cards in January. End so on.

3. Old Inventory

Retail business always want to get rid of their “old” inventory. Some examples when this “old” inventory becomes cheap: furniture in July and white sales in January.

4. Back to School

Of course you can find some good deals during the back-to-school retail blitz in August, but certain things (for example clothes such as jeans) you can buy cheaper in September and October. Another thing to do is to buy certain school supplies in bulk and at the end of the season when they are on sales. (For instance buy enough paper for two school years.)

5. Electronics

For electronics you have to remember this rule: electronics become cheaper when the new models come out. And the good thing is that in most cases there is almost no difference between the older and new models. So why not buy the “old” and cheaper model TV, computer or cell phone and save some money.

6. Shoes

Buy sneakers in April or November.

7. Weddings

You might dream of a June wedding but a winter one might mean more cash for the honeymoon.

8. Grocery Shopping

Store sales often start on Wednesday but coupons to match some sales don’t come out until the Sunday newspaper circular. Stacking coupons with sales leads to the best deals. Also in some stores a lot of items go on sale a couple of hours before the week ends.

9. Vehicles

Always buy a car after the new model has come out. In general you can save 15 to 20 percent on previous year’s models. Remember that a lot of salespeople need to make certain quotas at the end of the month, so this is a good time to buy a car.

This are just some examples of timing purchases to save money. Please leave a comment if you can think of other examples.

Original post by MoneyAside.com

Time your Purchases to Save Money

First things First

For the readers that don’t know, the term ‘Black Friday’. Black Friday is a term for the Friday after Thanksgiving in the United States, which is the beginning of the traditional Christmas shopping season. Because Thanksgiving falls on the fourth Thursday in November in the United States, Black Friday occurs between the 23rd and the 29th of November.

Bad Economy

Unemployment rates are the highest they’ve been in nearly three decades, and retailers are worried that consumers will be frugal for the holidays. The result could be that more and more people would hunt for bargains. This means more competition for those cheap Blue-ray, net-books or laptops on Black Friday.

Wal-Mart

The world’s biggest retailer Wal-Mart says day-after-Thanksgiving sales will begin at 5 a.m. Nov. 27, but most U.S. stores will be open 24 hours to prevent a mad dash. (Note: there are already Wall-Mart Super-centers that are open 24 hours a day, but this Black Friday, Wal-Mart will add another 800 stores to that list.)

Laptops and Netbooks

The early Black Friday ads available show some real bargains from large retailers. Some examples for laptops or net-books are:

• $250 Acer 11.6-inch net-book (Intel Atom Z520, 2GB RAM, 250GB hard drive) from Radio Shack
• $380 Acer Aspire 15.6-inch laptop (AMD Athlon X2 Dual-Core L310, 4GB RAM, 320GB hard drive from Office Depot
• $400 Toshiba 16-inch laptop (Intel Core 2 Duo chip, 3GB RAM, 250GB hard drive) from Best Buy

Make you go to these stores early, because as most other retailers, these store will probably will have limited quantities of these loss leaders.

Macs on Sale

Normally Apple doesn’t anything on Black Friday or Christmas. But that doesn’t mean that there are no deals to be found. For the Mac fans: Best Buy will give a $150 gift card to shoppers who will buy a MacBook with 13.3” display. Of course other retailers will have their ad version for cheaper Macs, so look around before you buy!

$3 Appliances

Yes, you read it right $3 appliances. Target will practically give away some ChefMate appliances, for instance sandwich makers, toasters and coffee makers.

HDTV s

The high-definition TVs are looking economical this season. Some examples of this are a $590 Toshiba 40-in 1080p LCD set from Sears and a $663 Sony 40-inch LCD 1080p HDTV from Best Buy. (Of course, these are not the top models of these brands, but for that price, they are good for a few years of fun.) Even the LED TVs are getting cheaper and cheaper, so watch for bargains!

Conclusion

These are just some examples of the bargains to be found on Black Friday. Will the bad economy spoil it for the retailers, we will have to see. But there are enough shoppers left that are looking for a bargain, bad economy or not. So search for ads online of things you are planning to buy and make sure you are early at the store. Happy shopping, everyone!

Original post by MoneyAside.com

Are You Ready for Black Friday?

Before you start you have to make sure that you keep track of your savings and your spending’s. You can find free software on the Internet that can help with this, but writing down your savings in a little notebook (that you can put in your pocket) works just as well.

Scale Down to One Car

Of course not everyone can do this, but more and more families have more than one car, so they can do this. It takes it little planning and time to lay out a schedule, but the savings are worth the effort. You’ll save on car payments, insurance, gas and of course maintenance. You will see that you will save a lot of money.

Stretch Liquid Makeup

All the women know that makeup can be really expensive, but good quality makeup is usually worth the price. Of course you can buy cheaper line of makeup, but you can also do what the pros do at the makeup counter. And it is very simple; just apply your makeup with a Q-tip. You save not only by using less with each application, but you can also reach every last bit in the bottle.

Bargain with your Hairdresser

You don’t have to always pay what they are asking for. So try to bargain with your hairdresser for the price. I know, some of you are a little scared to hackle, but you can save a lot of money. What do you have to lose? Just ask for an reduction in price on a thing you always have done, for instance on highlights. Just say you can’t afford it no longer and ask for a lower price or ask if they use a different product to lower the price. As we said before; what do you have to lose? Just give it a go!

Money Saving on Pedicures

Try saving money on pedicures by stretching the time between pedicures by doing touch ups yourself. Instead of once every two weeks, try to go once every 3 or 4 weeks. Of course, you can do the same as with your hairdresser and that is asking for a lower price.

Another thing you can do to stretch the weeks between getting pedicures in the salon, is too host a “pedicure party.” Just ask some close friends and with some wine/snacks and talk of course, do each others nails. Fun and it will save you money!

Taste Wine for Less

Not everyone drinks wine with their dinner, but for those that do know that drinking wine can be come quite expensive. To save money you can buy those little 4-packs of wine. Instead of spending $20 dollar on a bottle, you can buy a four pack for only $7,99 which will last two meals. Note: it may some time before you’ll find a brand that meets your taste.

Save with NetFlix

If you go a lot to the movies than you can save money if you join Netflix (especially if your family has a lot of members.) Go only to the theater when it’s a movie you want to see right away, otherwise wait until its on DVD.

Own Drinks at Work

If you are a smart saver, then you are probably taking your lunch to work. Do you also take your own drinks or snacks to work? Everybody knows that all the things in the vending machines are overpriced if you compare it with the price of a bulk-pack in the supermarket. And even little savings can add up overtime.

You can also drink coffee before you go to work instead of buying those expensive coffee from a coffee-shops. If you don’t buy at these places, then you’ll save a couple of dollars everyday. And this can add up!

Phone Bills

If you’re such a person that is constantly talking on your cell phone, then this solution isn’t for you. But with some discipline, you can save a lot of money. A lot of people don’t use all the minutes on their monthly plan and in turn are wasting a lot of money. Look at your minutes that you call and see if you can’t save money if you change to a different contract. Only buy what you need, can save you a lot of money.

Using Coupons

Of course you know that you can save money by using coupons, but have you ever one into a store and kicked yourself because you don’t have the coupons with you? A tip: keep all your coupons in the car, because in most cases you’ll take the car to the store, so you will always have them.

Save Money on Long Distance

A lot of people have a cell phone and a land line. If you don’t like paying for long distance service, you can buy phone cards. The cost can vary, but it will be around 2.90 cents per minute. Another way to save money is to cancel one of the phone service (cell or land line.)

Note: if you cancel the land line, make sure that your cell phone is always charged, in case of emergency you need to be able to call the emergency services.

Original post by MoneyAside.com

Save $2K in one Year With These 10 Tips

Operating System

If you are a student then it is possible to a so-called Microsoft Windows 7 student license for only $29.99. A normal home premium version costs $199.99. (You can do the math!)

Of course, if you don’t like to pay for an operating system you can get a Linux distribution for free. For instance Ubuntu is a distribution that is easy to use for beginners.

Security

Especially if you run Microsoft Windows, you need protection against threats like viruses and Malware. There are free security suites that can save you $50 to $100 a year. For instance free anti virus (scanners) like Avast (home edition), AVG or Avira AntiVir.

You can use e-mail Spam filter to filter Spam e-mails that could form a threat with Spamfighter Standard.

You can use Spy-bot Search and Destroy to scan for malicious software that commonly is missed by normal virus scanners.

Of course, you also need a firewall if your PC is constantly connected to the Internet. Luckily nowadays, most operating systems offer a free version of a firewall.

Office Suite

Everybody knows that the MS Office suite isn’t cheap. An alternative is to make use of the free alternativeOpen Office. The interface and the features are similar to MS Office. This can save you up to $300 depending on the MS Office version. (Note: there is also a portable Open Office available!)

If you only need a word processor, spreadsheet and presentation tools then you also can use web-based options like Google Docs.

Web-based

There are a lot of free web-based applications available that can replace commercial software. Examples are: Gmail, MS Live, Google Calendar and Google Docs

Other Free Programs

Other useful free programs where you can save money on are:

• Thunderbird a free off-line e-mail client.
• GIMP a photo editing tool
• Audacity a free audio editing tool

These are just a few. Also take a look at the post 150 Essential Business or Freelancing Tools and Resources. This post contains a lot of useful tool and many of them are free.

As you can see if you take the time to look around then you can find tools that are free, thus saving you money.

Original post by MoneyAside.com

Save Money by Using Free Software

1. Emergency Appliance Fund

It can be very expensive to replace some of your appliances and if you are as most people you probably didn’t save money up-front to replace these broken appliances.

It’s a good thing to start saving up-front for appliance repair or replacement. Open a savings account (note that you receive high interest) and start saving $25 or $50 a month. This savings account will be your appliance emergency fund. Make sure that you only use the money on the savings account for appliance repairs or appliance replacement.

2. Appliance Budget

But as with everything in live, all things come to an end, an appliance need to be replaced. So before you go out and buy a new one, it is better that you determine what you want or need. For instance: what features the appliance needs to have or does it need to have an energy savings hallmark.

After you determined what you need or want you should determine how much you want to spend. In other words determine an appliance replacement budget.

You need to have this budget in your head before you go shopping. This way you don’t spend more than you want. (Don’t give in to shop assistants that want you to buy a different appliance (usually more expensive) than your budget allows, you need or you want to buy.)

3. Sales

Besides an appliance budget, you should also watch for sales before you go shopping. Pick a brand you want, then call at least three stores that sells the brand (research Internet for prices and which stores have which brand) and ask the store the following questions:

• What is the lowest price for model xy?
• Is there a sale in the near future for model xy?
• Is delivery included?
• If yes, how much does delivery cost or if you pick up the appliance yourself, how much will you save on delivery costs?
• Are there installment fees?
• Will there be additional repair fees that are not included in the warranty?

Note: It is always possible to negotiate about a price, but you need to go to the store. Haggling over the phone doesn’t work. If they don’t want to reduce the price then ask for free delivery, free/reduced installment fees, extended free guarantee or xy additional feature for free.)

4. Energy Efficient Model

Saving energy will save you money, so try to buy the most energy efficient model that comes close to your feature wish list or the brand you want. You can check recent issues of “Consumer Report” magazine for brand comparisons. (Check the appliances for the energy saving label before you buy it.) Energy efficient models will save you money in energy costs over the lifetime of the appliance.

5. Older Models

Some stores have “no frills” models or have a special area in the store with last year’s models. Consider buying such model, because they will cost less than most of the recent versions of an appliance.

Note: you should ask if the guarantee is still valid on these older models!

We hope you’ve learned something and that you save money on the next appliance that you buy!

Original post by MoneyAside.com

How to Save Money on Appliances

And the best thing is that most of these little Green home-improvements you can do yourself.

Below you will find two YouTube video of how to install a programmable thermostat and low-flow shower-head that will help to save you money.

The YouTube videos are produced by Owen Bailey and the Sierra Club.

Installing a Programmable Thermostat

Owen Bailey shows you how to install a programmable thermostat so that you can reduce your families energy consumption on heating.

Installing a Low-Flow Shower-head

Owen Bailey shows you how to install a low-flow shower-head to reduce water consumption and energy use.

Original post by MoneyAside.com

Save Money with a Programmable Thermostat and Low-Flow Shower-head

Super Therm paint is designed with three separate ceramics. Two are reflective and the other acts as a dead air space between the coating surface and the substrate. The result is an actual insulating coating (not just a reflective coating) that will help reduce your energy costs on heating and air-conditioning. Of course you to make an investment, but after some time you will save energy and money.

Note: in some countries you need to have special permission to make changes to your house (even if you own it!) So check local rules before you pick up the brush!

Edmund Haemmerle of NJ Renewable Energy made a YouTube video of his paint-job. Watch it and see how much it helps:

More info on Super Therm paint can be found here.

Original post by MoneyAside.com

Save Money with a Super Therm White Roof

A great way to save money and to do something for the environment is to reduce your energy bill. So before you start changing things in your home, a great way to start is to do an home energy audit. At the end of the audit you get a report with things you can change to help reduce your energy bill. Of course improvements cost money, but they will tell you exactly which things have a quick ROI (return of investment) and when you start saving money on the energy bill.

Edmund Haemmerle of NJ Renewable Energy provides a detailed tour of his home weatherization project on Youtube. Take a look below:

Original post by MoneyAside.com

Save Money with a Home Energy Audit