I’m what you might call a serious couponer. I’m not the kind of woman who subscribes to one issue of the Sunday paper, cuts out four or five or ten coupons, and tosses the rest. That’s too easy for people like me. Instead, I get my coupons out of recycling bins. Once a week, I haul my kids to my in-laws, then head to the local recycling center with a huge crate to store my newly-found inserts. I’m agile, athletic, and fairly young, so it’s usually not a problem for me to scramble into those big metal recycling bins (by the way, they are NOT dumpsters, there is almost nothing in them but newspapers!). I used to carry a flashlight, but it was too hard to work efficiently.

For Christmas, my husband bought me a flashlight that straps to my head, freeing up my hands and enabling me to dig, dig, dig for coupons. I look like a misplaced miner, and tend to scare the bejeebers out of folks who plan to drop off their papers. For some reason, people don’t expect to find someone sitting inside a huge metal bin filled with newspapers. Consequently, I have been smacked in the head by thrown papers on multiple occasions, usually scaring the thrower more than me. My husband says this only contributes to my mental problems.

Once I have obtained my coupons, I need to be certain I can find them as needed. No sissy envelope or 3×5 card holder for me! No sir, I have a large filing cabinet dedicated to my coupons. When I come home from my “dives”, I file each insert uncut. Usually, I get 20-30 of the same insert, which translates to 20 or 30 of each coupon. When I need the coupon, I open my Excel spreadsheet, where I have typed up each individual coupon and its location, find the desired coupon, and pull the file of inserts from my drawer. That’s when I cut them out. Believe it or not, this saves me time - otherwise, I would be cutting and filing about 200-300 coupons each week, and run the risk of losing them.

People (usually my mom) often wonder why I go to such extremes for my coupons. It’s simple - coupons can be a major money-saver if used properly. There are many coupons that, when combined with sales, net me free or dirt-cheap items. I frequently go to the grocery store, fill up two carts, and pay less than $25 for the whole thing. And I never buy just one. Instead, I buy thirty of the same item (or however many I have coupons for), almost guaranteeing that I never have to pay full price again. This is called stockpiling. Right now, I have about 70 pounds of white rice, another 50+ pounds of flavored rice (yellow rice, Uncle Ben’s, Rice-a-roni), around 45 pounds of pasta in various shapes, 20 packs of Keebler Fudge Shoppe Cookies, 100 packs of Gerber baby food, 18 gallons of apple juice…..and on and on and on. All of these were free.

In fact, my biggest problem is storage. Right now, not only are my kitchen cabinets filled to the brim, I also have three bookshelves packed tightly, my entire laundry room occupied by shelves, half my linen closet stacked with personal items, and the underneath of both bathroom sinks chock full of other goodies. I used to keep my toilet paper (30 4 pks) under my living room credenza but then we got rid of that piece of furniture.

Many stores do promotions where they give out free movie tickets using totals before coupons. I have 40 boxes of Raisin Bran, all of which I paid about .50 a box for (and thanks to a site called Upromise, I will be making about .10 a box for my kids’ college fund). Every 7 boxes or so netted me a free adult movie ticket. I hate to pay over a dollar for a box of cereal, but sometimes I do it - I recently paid $1.50 for Cocoa Puffs and got a free child’s movie ticket with each box. I also participated in Walgreen’s movie ticket special over the summer and got about 10 free movie tickets. So my grocery shopping frequently nets me free entertainment!

The big kicker is the coupons that say “any” or “any size”. Believe it or not, these really do mean ANY size - including the trial size. Consequently, I have about 200 trial size toothpastes scattered around my house, and another 100 trial size shampoos. These are great for traveling, but honestly I tend to give them away. I keep a box for charitable donations, and usually throw at least a tenth of my freebies into it - and almost all of my trial size items (I do save a few for travel and “emergencies”). This means that not only am I helping myself, I am also able to help others, despite the fact that we are on a shoestring budget.

Most people - especially my mom - think I am nuts. My best friend tells me she just doesn’t have the time or dedication to mess with coupons the way I do. To me, it’s not about time, it’s about money. With two kids in diapers (only one of which is on baby food, thank goodness), I have spent less than $1200 on groceries, cleaning supplies, and personal stuff (shampoo, soap, etc) this year (that’s just over $100/month). My cupboards are bursting; if I had to, I could buy only milk and bread for the next three or four months at least. That gives me a feeling of security that more than makes up for the time and effort I have put into my coupons.

Nola Redd is an author on http://www.Writing.Com/ which is a site for Fiction Writing. In addition to couponing, she is also a freelance writer. You can view more of her fiction and nonfiction at http://Writing.Com/authors/scottiegaz

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Personal Financial Management is not easy and you have to learn what it means to better manage your finance.

Here are 5 tips to better Personal Finance Management:

Teaching children about money management

Do you find your children often want things that are expensive and out of your range for any budget? If you find that you don’t have the money to buy your children everything they want, you need to teach your children a little more about money. Children should be given an allowance, but only for the chores and things, they help you do around the house. Simple things like folding the clothes, sweeping the floor, doing the dishes and feeding the pets. As your child earns money, and receives money for their birthday or special occasions, they can then buy their own things they want. As they realize how long it takes to save that money they will treat it better, and they will appreciate it more. Money management can start at a young age, and children will learn easily, taking their habits to their older years.

Money management and your home

Do you need to save money in the home? Managing your money is all about saving money, finding more money to do things you want, and to create savings accounts for rainy days. If you need to save a little more money and to spend less on household things, you can start with your utilities. Shut off the lights when you are not using them, and shut down that computer when you are not working on it. This will lower your bill a little. Look at the lights you are using in the house, if you have forty or sixty watt bulbs you are using less energy than seventy five and one hundred watt bulbs in all the lamps in your home. Cut costs by starting with the electric bill. Manage your budget; manage your money by adding more to your monthly household budget.

Saving for a rainy day

The basic thoughts behind any type of savings plan is that you should have at least three months savings in the bank, or at least have access to three month of your pay in case of major disaster or problems in the home. Right now, if you were unable to get to work for three months, how would you survive? Prepare for the future and start now. Your personal finances demand that you prepare to protect yourself. You can start by putting just ten dollars a week in a savings account. If you find this is easy, up that to twenty dollars per week. If you have the money taken out before you get your paycheck, you won’t even miss the money. When you are putting, at least $200 a month away you are preparing yourself for a great savings and in the long run, you will find it easier and easier. Yes, it is going to be difficult to start, but after a few weeks, you will adjust and your household budget will as well.

Spend less on entertainment

Are you finding it difficult to pay your bills on time all the time? If you are not paying your bills, your heat, your credit cards, and your utilities on time, you are putting yourself at risk for bad credit, and a lower credit rating. To keep your personal finances on track you should sit down and write out a list of all the bills you have every month. Next, you are going to write down everything that you spend other money on. If you are not able to pay all the bills every month, you need to find where you can cut back on money spent. Generally, this is going to be in gifts, gas, going out to the bar, to the movies, renting movies, your television channels, the subscriptions for your cell phone, and the long distance bills you pay for your landline. Review your budgets, cut back on expenses so you can afford your bills, and when they are paid off, you can get back out there, and have a bit of fun!

Personal money management and your future

Your personal life involves more than the job you are working at, but also the welfare of your family. If you were unable to work, or if you died, how would your family continue on, paying the bills and getting groceries? If you don’t have an answer, you should look to personal lines of insurance. Insurance policies are a form of money management that will protect your family in case of emergencies or in case of death. Many families find that disability insurance comes in very handy when someone breaks their legs, or perhaps needs an operation and can’t get back to work for a few months. Insurance in the case of an accident, for a disability or in case of death is going to protect your family and everyone’s financial future. Get some amount of insurance and protection for the future.

Joseph Then will create a financial genius in you. Get a FREE report on Personal Finance Management Success. To receive it, please visit:
http://www.easypersonalfinance.com

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Every home seller wants to get the highest price possible but setting the price too high, even if you are willing to take less, may not be the best strategy.

As an example lets assume we have a seller who is working with a good Realtor and through reviewing comparable homes that have recently sold and those on the market it is determined the value of the home is $500,000. The seller may even agree with the agents’ assessment of value but feels it is worth trying to get more. So he requests the house be marketed for $550,000 knowing if he accepts a lower offer it may be higher than the $500,000 originally suggested by the Realtor. The agent does their job, places the home in MLS, provides online photos, prints flyers, advertises in the newspaper and even does open houses. The seller sits and waits to get offers he can negotiate.

At the same time buyers are out looking at homes to buy. They are qualified to buy homes in the $550,000 range and they see the listing and compare it with other similar priced properties. These potential buyers see our example listing is not as large or does not have the number of upgrades or features as other homes selling for $550,000. When there are plenty of houses to look at, buyers will skip some listings and only look at homes where they feel they are getting the most for their money.

They buyers who are qualified to by a $500,000 home are looking in that price range and generally do not want to look at homes much more than $525,000. Taking negotiations in to consideration prices above that amount are likely going to end up being more than they can afford and/or qualify for. These potential buyers will probably not see our example listing priced at $550,000.

In today’s market this situation seems to happen more often than it should and causes homes to sit on the market for long periods of time. With our market of growing inventory levels, listings can become stale very quickly. The first two weeks on the market is the time listings generate the most interest and activity. When homes are on the market for longer than the average time, for a given price range, buyers start feeling hesitant to consider them. It is like the early days in the video rental store where people crowd around the “new release” section and some great movies in the drama isle get no attention. In this situation, it is my experience, even if the seller elects to lower the price to something closer to the market value, they will likely receive less than if they had started with a lower price.

There is a fair amount of research that indicates pricing a home at its market value from the start will generally result in getting an amount closer to the asking price. Sales prices of homes in the Sacramento area have been averaging higher than 97% of asking price. Getting the highest price for a home is best achieved by maximizing the number of potential buyers who see the home and that can be accomplished by avoiding overpricing.

A recent National email survey conducted by House Hunt, Inc and reported in a story by RISMedia indicated that overpricing was the number one mistake home sellers said they made when listing their homes. The margin was nearly three-to-one over the second choice which was “dealing with the same agent who represented the buyer.” That and potential conflicts of interest are good subjects for a future article!

The bottom line in setting the price on a home is to set it within 2 to 3 percent of the market value. This increases your opportunity to sell at the highest price possible and in the shortest amount of time.

To learn more about Julie Jalone take a look at her website, www.jalone.com where you will find additional articles, monthly market analysis and her daily blog, “Keep it Real in Sacramento.”

Julie Jalone is an experienced professional Realtor serving the needs of both buyers and sellers of residential real estate in the Greater Sacramento, California area. Communities she serves include, Sacramento, Roseville, Lincoln, Rocklin, Granite Bay and cities located in Placer, Sacramento, El Dorado, Yolo and Yuba counties. To learn more about Julie and see a complete line of real estate resouces visit her site at http://www.jalone.com. Be sure to check out her daily blog, Keep it Real in Sacramento.

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