Free From Broke

Festive Link Love Carnivality #8

Posted on May 11, 2008
Filed Under Blog, Carnival, Personal finance | 2 Comments

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Welcome back to the Festive Link Love Carnivality. It’s been a pretty exciting week here as I hosted the 58th Carnival of Money Stories - Dollar Coin Edition. This was my fist hosting. I have a lot of respect for those who host. It’s more work than I thought! I’ve also been getting a ton of Stumble Upon visitors for my article 7 Credit Card Tips From ING Direct. And if you haven’t already seen it I signed up for Twitter this week.

This week’s Carnival of Personal Finance was hosted by Alpha Consumer at US News & World Report. My post 15 Things To Do With Your Economic Stimulus Check was included.

The Money Hacks Carnival #11 - Ebb And Flow Edition was held over at Save And Conquer. Missed It By That Much - You Gotta Pay Attention was included.

Now for some favorites from my Google Reader:

The Soggy Hotdog: A Personal Finance Wakeup Call at Frugal Dad. A great story on Frugal Dad’s realization that he needed to do something about his finances.

Top 10 Interesting Facts About The Brain at Life Optimizer. There’s so little that is actually known about the brain.

Should Public Broadcasting Receive Federal Dollars at My Two Dollars. It’s a shame that the government is trying to cut the budget on public broadcasting.

16 Ways To Keep A Razor-Sharp Focus At Work at Zen Habits. I tend to lose focus at work from time to time. These are good tips.

Top Ten Tips To Overcome Obstacles To Success at My Super-Charged Life. Ten great ideas to get past situations.

Financial Advisers Are A Dime A Dozen at My Investing Blog. Financial advisers don’t always have your best interests at heart.

There you have it for this week. Enjoy!

photo by Torley

Sign up with ING Direct and get a $25 bonus. See here for details.

Don’t Waste Money On Oil Changes

Posted on May 9, 2008
Filed Under Frugal, Money, Saving | 1 Comment

Nice Car

That sticker has been staring at your for a couple of weeks now. You see it out of the corner of your eye. Right there in the upper left hand corner of the windshield. It’s telling you that you need an oil change every 3000 miles or when your mileage gets up to xx,xxx. “Are you really due again?” you ask yourself. So you wake up early Saturday morning and head off the the local mechanic for another oil change.

But did you really need one?

See, those handy reminders that the mechanics put on your windshield for you are more helpful to them then they are to you. These days most cars can go longer than 3000 miles between oil changes yet every reminder sticker I’ve seen says it’s time for a new oil change at 3000 miles. In fact my Toyota Corolla’s owner’s manual says I would need an oil change every 7500 miles. If I followed the sticker I would be getting more than twice the oil changes than I need (that means spending twice what I should)!

Don’t let this happen to you. Check your owner’s manual or look up your car online to see what the recommended oil change mileage should be for your car. [Online I have found the common suggestion for oil changes to be around 5000 miles.]

So you can’t trust that sticker, now what? Here’s what I do: My car has two trip odometers. I use one for gas tank fill ups to see how much mileage I get on fill ups. The next one I use for oil changes. Every time I get an oil change I reset the trip odometer back to zero so I can see how many miles until the next oil change. When the meter hits the recommended number I’m ready for an oil change.

How do you keep track of your car’s oil changes?

Sign up with ING Direct and get a $25 bonus. See here for details.

Free From Broke Now On Twitter

Posted on May 9, 2008
Filed Under Blog | 3 Comments

Not sure if you’ve noticed the little Twitter box on my right sidebar. I’ll wait while you scroll down to look at it… Whaddya think? I signed up for Twitter and you can follow my tweets (twitter thoughts) in the sidebar or check out my Twitter profile if you already have an account. Feel free to “follow” me on the site.

But wait, what is Twitter? Basically it’s like a mini-blog in an instant message form. You send out “tweets” that are no longer than 140 characters. These are real quick thoughts here. Maybe a question. Nothing too in depth. Basically fun.

I’ll be posting thoughts there occasionally. Check them out and follow me on the Twitter site. I’d love to build up some interaction with readers or fellow bloggers here.

It’ll be interesting to see how this develops. It should be fun as I’m able to tweet from both my Gmail account and from my cell phone.

So go check it out and tell me what you think!

Sign up with ING Direct and get a $25 bonus. See here for details.

Beware Deceptive Gas Prices

Posted on May 8, 2008
Filed Under Economy, Frugal, Money, Saving, credit card | 2 Comments

Gas DescriptionsSo I’ve seen this now at two gas stations: You drive up and see a great price on gasoline (ok, maybe not great but better than the competitors in the area). You’re about to start pumping and then BAM! you realize that great price is for cash only! How do you know it’s cash only? There’s a very small sign attached to the price sign that says so, located in such a way that you don’t notice it from far away.

I usually pay for gas with either my credit card (to get points) or with my debit card (as credit). I rarely have enough cash on me to buy a tank of gas. Especially not now when a full tank costs more than ever.

GasBuddy is a site that can tell you cheap gas prices in your area. MapQuest also has a resource that will map out gas prices.

As I mentioned in a previous gasoline post you have to pay attention. Retailers and such will do whatever they can to get you in their doors (or in this case to their pumps). Make sure you read the fine print and understand the prices.

How are gas prices by you?

Sign up with ING Direct and get a $25 bonus. See here for details.

photo by debaird

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