How to get free High Definition TV thru an antenna.

My husband and I pinch pennies wherever we can.  So when he wanted a high definition television we had to find a loop hole.  So here is how we did it.  My husband shopped around for televisions, he liked Samsung the most.  We bought it on Amazon so we wouldn't have to pay tax, they also delivered it and set it up.

Then we bought an antenna that received high definition and plugged it into our TIVO.  We hooked the antenna onto our roof.  Now we get free HD.  We get all the major stations, PBS, NBC, ABC and CBS.  You need to make sure you have a tuner to hook the antenna into, I don't think you can plug it directly into the television.
Our antenna looks something like this one, it's not too big.

Another way to save a few hundred dollars :)

I just got my Home Owner's Insurance yearly policy renewal in the mail yesterday.  And of course, our policy went up a few hundred dollars.  Did you know they do that?  Every year insurance companies jack up the prices just a little hoping you won't notice or are too lazy to change policies.  Unfortunately for them, I am not to lazy and I am way to frugal not to notice.
So....if your new to all this.  Here is what you want to do.  Get out your current policy, hopefully you can find it.  Go to a website like NetQuote and fill out the form.  You will need information like, when was your house built, how old is your roof, do you have hurricane shutters, have you had a mitigation inspection and what is your deductible(usually it's about 2% of your home's value).

After researching for this year it turns out that my current policy even though it went up is still one of the lowest policies around.  If you live in South Florida I recommend checking out People's Trust out of Boca Raton. This doesn't have to be a tedious process the key is to have all of your information ready!

Sprung a leak

I heard a loud knock at the door, usually this is good sign, it means a package is being delivered.  However, when I answered the door it was not the UPS man but the man from the water company.  He asked if I had any water running....um-mm..no......I have a feeling this isn't going to end well.  

After turning  the water off to the house and the sprinkler system, we walked out to check the meter... the spinning triangle isn't good, is it?   So........ somewhere between the house and the meter we have a leak. 

So you may be wondering why I am posting this....


To make a long story shorter...our water bill for this month is rather large.   A broken pipe that you don't know about can cost you a fortune!
If this ever happens to you... here is a little tip


The water company will give you a break on your water bill once every three years if you have a leaking pipe.  They did ask me how long it took us to fix it and had me read the current meter reading to them before giving me the discount.  They subtracted $220 from our bill.  

The Minimalist Wardrobe

Money Saving Mom is one of my favorite websites.  I am so inspired by her youtube post.   She has a very small wardrobe, just a few items that she switches around.  I think it's time to follow her lead and clean out my closet :)
Just click here to see it 

Want to save money? I mean BIG money

Stop what you are doing,

YES!

Right Now...  find your last mortgage statement.

Now take a look...how much money are you paying in principle?? 

Now, how much are you paying in INTEREST! (YIKES) 

I know it's horrible isn't it!!

Let's say you owe $200,000 on your principle balance at 6% interest rate with a 30 year fixed loan.

If you never make an extra principle payment you will be paying an extra $231,677.05 in interest.    That doesn't sound like 6% to me, it sounds like 130%.

That home you thought you were paying $200,000 for is really costing you 431,677.05

Did you know you can do something about it?  

You can pay down your principle balance and decrease the amount you pay in interest.  

Now let's say you don't have a lot extra cash to add to that principle balance only $100 additional a month. 

 Over the next 30 years you will have saved $62,463.88 in interest and decreased then length of you loan by 9 years 10 months.

Isn't that ridiculous, everyone tells you 6% is a great rate, but really is it?  

There is a great calculator online that can show you how much you can save by prepaying your mortgage principle.

http://www.crown.org/Tools/Calculators/


~Lindy

Simple ways to save on groceries.

First of all saving money on anything requires a certain amount of humility.   Repeat after me, "A penny saved is a penny earned" if Benjamin Franklin was willing to pinch a penny then so can I.


1. When items that you frequently use are Buy One Get One Free (BOGO) stock up!
I am finding that Walmart isn't really the cheapest place to buy food.  Publix is much less when items are BOGO.  Sure the regular prices at Publix are more expensive than the regular prices at Walmart however, when Publix has BOGO you really save big!  Especially if you have a coupon and they let you use 2 coupons for the BOGO.


2. Know the price for items you buy frequently so when you see a good deal, you know it!
We drink Folgers coffee everyday, usually it's around $10-12 so when I see the sale price at Publix drop down to $7 a can I buy 5 cans, my bill may be temporarily high but in the long run I am saving.


3.  Shop at multiple stores- I have 3 stores I shop at Publix, Super Target and Walmart Grocery store certain items are lower at certain stores.  I am still trying to figure out which items cost less at each store so I am making a list of what cost what where.  


4.  Try not to go out to eat.  I LOVE eating out but, boy, is it expensive!  We try to eat healthy but I do keep some quick not so healthy meals at home to avoid going out to eat.  For example, we have frozen hamburgers in the freezer, going out to eat you pay about $8-10 for one meal.  You can buy a whole package of burgers for the same price and it will probably last you 2 meals.  And if you do go out to eat drink water!  Do you realize that you are paying $2.50 for a soft drink?  You can get (2) 2 liter bottles for that price, suck it up, swallow your pride and order water!  


Click here for some more ideas for saving at Publix


Share some of your favorite money saving tips and leave a comment ! :)

Considering Refinancing?

We refinanced our house back in December.  I was a little nervous about the whole ordeal.  I had heard that it was a real hassle, but went thru with it anyway.  Here is what I learned.

I had heard that if you can get a rate of 1% lower or more, than your current rate that it would be worth it to refinance.

In order to qualify to refinance, we needed to have at least 20% of the principle balance paid off of the current appraised value (please note, not 20% of what we paid for the house).

The appraiser came out and "inspected" our home and then told us it was worth the same amount as the house that had just sold across the street.  Basically, he didn't look at anything except zillow.com to figure out an appraisal .  (So if your wondering if you have paid off 20% of your home appraised value, I suggest going to zillow.com and finding a similar house in your neighborhood that has sold recently and how much it sold for).

After having our home appraised,  I've learned that you need to discuss upgrades with the appraiser. ( i.e. we have granite counters, we have a pool, a hot tub, a pool heater, a new roof...you get my drift). You want your home to get appraised as high as possible especially if your not sure you have paid down your mortgage 20%.

When discussing different rates with the mortgage broker, decide how long you are willing to stay in the home.  We didn't want to commit to staying in this house very long so we didn't choose the lowest rate because the closing cost would be higher.  We choose a rate that would only require us to stay in this home for 4 months after the refinance to cover closing costs.

We went from a 30 year fixed at 6% to a 15 year fixed at 4.75%, our payments every month went up $7.  In other words, we took 9 years off the length of our loan (because we lived here for 6 years) at the cost of $7 more a month.

We used a company called Quicken Loans.  We had a really great experience with them, everything was done online and then they sent a notary to our home and we signed all the papers at our house.  We switched from a 30 year fixed to a 15 year fixed loan.  They did require us to pay $500 to lock in a rate.  So you don't want to call them until you have figured out what percentage of your principle balance you have paid off.


Crown ministries has a bunch of great calculators to help you figure out all this mortgage stuff.
Here is the Link
http://www.crown.org/Tools/Calculators/