Posted by M.S. on May 29, 2009
I LOVE to save money every way I can and that includes on cosmetics!
Many years ago, a frugal friend of mine told me she used a brand of cosmetics called “Wet & Wild”. They make a full line of cosmetics including foundation, eyeliners, lipsticks, nail polish and mascara. They work great, are super economical and I have used them ever since!
The lipsticks and eyeliners are what I use the most and they are each only 99 cents a piece!
The regular price is a super bargain- but you can get an even better price this week!
This week at Rite Aid you can get 1 Wet & Wild item for full price, for only 99 cents and get the second one at half price, that’s only 49 cents.
That works out to only 75 cents an item! Compare that to the price of some of the fancy brands of cosmetics! What a deal!
This best part is, as you can see on my receipt, I used one of the $25 Rite Aid gift cards that I had received FREE for transferring a prescription to Rite Aid! Getting these items on sale, leaves me with extra money on the card to buy other goodies!
Another great tip I received from a thrifty lady was for hairspray that is also just as effective as the expensive fancy brands! It is called Rave and is about $1.29 a bottle! I plan to get some of that with my FREE gift card too!
That’s money I am saving to build my wealth! I want to make ME rich–not the cosmetics companies!
And don’t you feel much more beautiful knowing you have money?
Let me know if you have other tips like this please!
Posted by M.S. on May 26, 2009
If you could pick up a prescription and get a $25 gift card for FREE at the same time, would you be interested? Would you like drugstores to be fighting for your business and giving you more FREE $25 cards? That’s what happened to me and I’ll tell you how you can do this too!
Recently I saw a sign in the window of a local Rite Aid drugstore that said you could get a FREE $25 gift card for any transferred prescription. The pharmacist told me I just needed to give them the prescription number and location of the pharmacy that had my prescription–and they would handle the rest.
I gave them my info and later picked up my prescription and got my FREE $25 Rite Aid Gift card! That gives me FREE MONEY, so I can invest that money instead!
Actually, you can transfer up to 4 prescriptions and receive a total of $100 worth of FREE Gift Cards! What a deal!
A week later, out of the blue, I received a $25 check from Walgreens in the mail that I could redeem if I transferred a prescription to them! I believe that was in response to my transferring a prescription away from their store.
Being a person that always loves FREE MONEY, I did just that! I now have $50 worth of FREE gift cards I can use to buy anything I want. The cards do have some restrictions. You cannot use the gift cards to pay for prescriptions or co-pays, stamps, tobacco, and other items.
But–anything else in the store you need including cosmetics, household supplies, even food you get for FREE!
I took the $50 I would have spent on these drugstore items and I invested it in the Vanguard S&P 500 Index Fund–to make myself MORE MONEY!
Use this calculator to see how that $50 will grow over time and how it will help you build wealth! Every little bit helps!
Posted by M.S. on May 13, 2009
Want to pay off debt and start to accumulate savings, but you don’t know where to start? Let me tell you about the technique we used many years ago when we wanted to save for our first piece of real estate.
Determine the exact amount of money you want to accumulate per month. Earn that extra money and along with your reduced expenses, pay off debt, then start SAVING and Investing it. Then, Get Rich!
There are so many ways to increase your income that you might not have considered! Keep an open mind!
My Absolute Favorite: Sell on eBay www. eBay.com There is a market for practically everything on eBay! Clear out your closets, go to Spring yard sales, or offer to sell things for other people and make a commission! I will talk much more in depth about this in future posts and give you tons of ideas to get maximum money for your items.
Check out Amazon. com to see how easy it is to sell current books, tapes and DVDs. Amazon.com
You don’t even need to take pictures or write descriptions! Simply enter the name of the item you want to list and Amazon will bring up all the information. Along the right hand column, look for More Buying Choices. Below that it says “Sell Yours Here”. Click that and fill out your info–and the item is listed!
Are you crafty or artistic? Check out www.Etsy.com This website allows anyone to sell their handmade items! I know 2 gals that are making great money by selling their handmade yoga bags, totes, and clothing!
The beauty of the Internet is that you can make money online with NO childcare costs!
Learn how to do something that other people want to know about–then teach others how to do it!! Call community colleges and continuing education departments at local universities, as well as senior centers! That’s what I did after becoming a successful eBay Powerseller! Now, I am trained by eBay & teach folks how to become successful sellers on eBay!
I wanted a website and didn’t want to spend thousands of dollars to get one, so I took training and learned how to build my own FREE website. Now, I teach other people how to build their own Free websites!
There are teachers for everything from painting to auto mechanics to cake decorating. Anything you can think of could be offered as a class! Learn something!
An added bonus of my teaching gigs is I get a gift certificate from the school that allows me to take 2 FREE classes each year! I receive that just because I am a teacher!! How awesome is that? Ask your school- maybe they offer teachers free tuition too! What a great way to learn more skills to make you extra money–at NO cost to you!
Take look at this fabulous list of 52 other ways to make extra money. 52 Ways to Make Extra Money
Now–get going!
Posted by M.S. on May 12, 2009
As we mentioned in the last post, I’m Drowning in Debt, What Do I do Now?, there are 2 components in the plan to eliminate debt. They are: spend less of what you currently earn and make more money.
Today,we will look at the expense side of things. Remember, this is about building an exciting future, not about dull budgeting and deprivation!
To keep you motivated, I highly recommend cutting pictures from magazines so you know what you are aiming for and to inspire you to stay on track when the going gets tough or you feel deprived.
Long ago, I cut out a picture of a beautiful home as a short term goal and a beautiful beach as a long term goal. The beach photo reminded me that I want to be able to sit on the sand some day and NOT work hard every day.
I decided to sacrifice spending now for financial freedom and life at the beach later! Now that you know what the goal is–you can determine how to get there!
Simply–Eliminate every expense you possibly can!
- Drive an inexpensive car Save with a Cheaper Car.
- Eat at home and bring your own food to work. Muffin Calculator
- Quit buying junk you do not need!
- If you need clothes, buy them on sale or at the thrift store or at a garage sale. I buy almost brand new clothing that way! Don’t knock it till you’ve tried it!
- Adjust the the thermostat to save energy costs.
- Cancel Cable TV.
- Do not smoke!
- Get your books and movies FREE from the library!
Cutting these expenses will give you cash to pay down your debt, so you can begin to save and invest.
If that sounds extreme or harsh–ask yourself these questions: Do I really want to be rich or don’t I?
Will spending on this item get me closer to being rich or keep me poor?
You get to decide!
Posted by M.S. on May 3, 2009
Dr. Mehmet Oz, the bestselling author and health expert on “The Oprah Winfrey Show” came to North Carolina recently to raise money and awareness for a local health clinic.
According to the Charlotte Observer Dr. Oz said ” The reason we cost 50 percent more to care for than Europeans is because we’re 50 percent sicker. We need to walk more, eat high-fiber, high-protein breakfasts, get more vitamin D and omega-3 and trim our waists, he said, rattling off dozens more health tips.”
2/3 of Americans are either overweight or obese and it is getting worse! “Forty percent of our kids will be diabetics if we don’t do something about this!” Dr. Oz said. Forty percent!
The line that struck me was this one: “Are you willing to admit that your life is so out of control that you can’t carve out 20 minutes a day for a workout?”
People that take care of their bodies have much lower health care costs and take less medicine– so they have more money!
A woman recently told me her doctor scolded her at her latest checkup and said “If you don’t want to have to pay for expensive blood pressure medicine, cholesterol pills and diabetes treatments, and possibly end up in an expensive nursing home, then stop treating your body like a garbage can!”
There are many parallels between taking care of our physical health and taking care of our financial health. It is actually very simple. Eat less and exercise more. Spend less and save more.
When you love yourself enough to treat your body well, you also will treat yourself well financially and believe that you are worthy of being financially secure.
Start today and do a little something in both these areas to make some progress. Go for a little walk, choose not to buy one small item and save that money.
Look what eliminating one gourmet muffin or latte can save you and what it will add towards a fabulous future.
Muffin and Latte Calculator
You deserve it!
