Thrifty Femme

Thrifty Thursday: Groceries

Thrifty Femme — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 10:01:03 +0000

My Groceries Deals is a website that collects the weekly sales for major grocery chains across the country. You enter a zip code and then select the stores for which you would like to see deals. If you register with the site you are able to enter dietary restrictions and limited allergy information.

The search results are sorted by grocery category (i.e. Baking Goods, Beer/Wine/Spirits, etc) by default, although you can also view by store. There are options to find coupons using Smart Source and there is an option to view the nutritional information for each search result. You can also make a grocery list and it will keep a running total of your savings and the amount you will spend as well as organize the list by store. You can either print this list or email it to yourself.

Although the user interface could use some web 2.0 bells and whistles, My Groceries Deals will definitely could streamline the time it takes peruse the weekly circulars and compile your grocery list.

Mid-year Goals Review

Thrifty Femme — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 01:58:49 +0000

Personal Goals 2008

~~Transfer Roth IRA, old 401Ks, and old pension to discount brokerage firm~~
~~Contribute maximum limit to Roth IRA for 2007 by April~~
~~Become credit card debt free by July by paying off credit card #1 before the 0% intro rate ends – on target~~ Pay off credit card #1 before the 0% intro rate ends
Pay down car loan by 90% by December 31
Continue to contribute 401K to employer match percentage
Research long term investment options

*This got revamped because I remembered I have another credit card balance with a 0% interest rate that ends in Feb 2009, so I won’t be credit card debt free until Feb 2009.

Short Term Goals

~~Determine personal net worth – in progress~~ – Done 04/2008!
~~Track aggregated expenses for 2007 – in progess, gotta create more meaningful subcategories to get the unreconciled percentage down O_o~~ – Done 04/2008. I used this budget template from Microsoft to determine better categories and subcategories.

Family Goals 2008

Rebuild family emergency fund to ~~20K by December 31~~ ~~24.5K by April 2009~~ 25.5K by May 2009
Pay off credit card #1 before the 0% intro rate expires in October
Budget for 2009 vacation(s)

Short Term Goals

~~Determine family net worth~~
~~Track aggregated expenses for 2007~~
Tentative 2009
- Pay off credit card #2 before the 0% intro expires in February
Long Term Goals
- Make some!!

Sorry for the unexpected hiatus

Thrifty Femme — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 01:00:40 +0000

Real life has been a royal pain and rather depressing. I will be posting regularly beginning tonight.

Thrifty Thursday: The Discounts Edition

Thrifty Femme — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 10:24:30 +0000

Bank of America has expanded it’s Museums on Us program. This program provides free admission to select museums across the nation on the first weekend of each month all year long with a BOA debit or credit card, although there may be other associated fees.

$10 off orders of $60 with Google Checkout for select stores, including Buy.com and TigerDirect. This promotion is good until June 23, 2008.

Starbucks has kicked off a card rewards program. Join before July 14, 2008 to receive a coupon for a free drink.

Things on my mind lately

Thrifty Femme — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 19:43:30 +0000

Whoa, I come back from vacation and find I have feed subscribers! Hello to both of you!
Wondering how it is possible to spend 7k on bingo in a year. There’s definitely a post coming on this one.
Life insurance
Refi postmortem
Mid-year goals assessments
Estimating expenses for next year’s vacation(s)

Personal Finance Basics: Credit Scores

Thrifty Femme — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 09:11:38 +0000

What is a credit score?
Your credit scores are numbers generated from your credit reports using a secret algorithm created by the Fair Isaac Corporation. These numbers, called FICO scores, supposedly correspond to the likeliness you will pay your debts in a timely manner. Your FICO scores are important because they directly affect your insurance premiums, the interest rate you will pay when you obtain a loan, and whether you are eligible to be hired for employment.

A word brief about debt
Let’s talk about debt for a moment. Debts are not the same as bills. A credit card or a loan is a debt, while your electric bill is not. Missing single a electric bill will not show up on your credit reports; however, if you stop paying your bills altogether, they become debts because you didn’t pay them and the fact that you didn’t pay in a timely manner will eventually show up on your credit reports.

What factors determine my FICO scores?
FICO scores range from 500 – 850, the higher the better. The pie chart below illustrates the weight of the factors that determine your score.

As you can see Payment History is the most important factor of your FICO scores, so at least pay the minimum payments for all your debts and bills.

From where does the information behind FICO scores come?
In the United States, three consumer reporting agencies are Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion. These for-profit corporations collect information from credit card companies, financial institutions, and collections agencies to build your credit report. Since there are three consumer reporting agencies, you have three different credit reports and three different FICO scores.

Where can I get my credit reports?
The best place to get your credit reports is from Annual Credit Report because you can get all three credit reports for free once a year. Notice I said credit reports for free not credit scores for free. You are entitled to view your credit reports from all three consumer reporting agencies under Federal laws (long pdfs warning). Since there are three credit reports I recommended checking one every four months. This way you can look for errors or identity theft all year long instead of once a year.

Unfortunately the Federal laws don’t include free FICO scores, and the three consumer reporting agencies don’t sell FICO scores anyway. They each sell their own proprietary scores known as FAKO scores. FAKO scores are basically fake FICO scores that have a numerical range similar to FICO scores. Basically the three consumer reporting agencies are trying to oust FICO in favor of their proprietary scores by making it difficult for consumers to access their real FICO scores. Regardless of these shenanigans, lenders look at FICO scores and will continue to do so for the foreseeable future.

Where do I get my FICO scores?
The only place you can reliably get your Equifax and Experian FICO scores for a reasonable price is from MyFICO.com. For your TransUnion FICO score MyFICO or TransUnion Consumer Solutions are your only hope.

Lending Tree does offer a 30-day credit monitoring trial that provides an Experian FICO score and credit report, but then it’s $12/month until you cancel. MyFICO offers a 30-day credit monitoring trial that provides an Equifax FICO score and credit report, but then charges an annual payment of $89.95 if you don’t cancel.

FYI, it is highly unlikely all three of your FICO scores will be exactly the same, since all three consumer reporting agencies use their own slightly different rules to build your credit reports. Don’t freak if they vary rather significantly. Potential lenders will pull all three scores and take the middle score.

Controversy Time
Ok, I’m going to be fairly controversial for a moment and say don’t worry about your FICO scores. There is no reason for you to shell out money to track your FICO scores unless you are applying for a loan or seeking employment that requires a handling money or a security clearance. If you aren’t doing these activities, who cares what your scores are? You won’t get any prizes. The most you’ll get is bragging rights on personal finance blogs Note I said FICO score and not credit report.

If you have been consistently paying your debts (mortgages, credit cards, other loans) on time for several years, your FICO scores will be in decent shape. If you want excellent FICO scores, continue consistently paying your debts on time and reduce the amount of debt you have.

Let’s recap:

FICO scores represent the likeliness you will pay your debts in a timely manner
Payment History, Amounts Owed, Length of Credit History, New Credit, and Types of Credit in Use are the factors that determine your FICO scores ranked in order of importance
FICO scores come from information contained in your credit reports from the three consumer reporting agencies
Always obtain your credit reports from the Annual Credit Report website
You can only get your FICO scores from MyFICO.com or TransUnion Consumer Solutions
Don’t worry about the scores if you aren’t looking for a loan or seeking employment that has to do with money or security clearances

Thrifty Thursday: ShareBuilder Offer For Costco Members

Thrifty Femme — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 10:42:44 +0000

ShareBuilder has a limited offer for Costco members that open a new account before 08/24/2008.

Executive Costco Members will receive

a $90 account bonus
25% quarterly transaction charge rebates*

Gold Star and Business Costco Members will receive

a $70 account bonus
10% quarterly transaction charge rebates*

in addition to ShareBuilder’s normal account benefits

No account minimum
No inactivity fees
Invest any amount

*Be sure to read the fine print.

May Financials – Part 1 Expenses and Income

Thrifty Femme — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 09:43:58 +0000

Personal

Income and Expenses:

May Notes:

I made three auto loan payments
Got paid three times this month
Made $35 in free money.

Emergency Fund Progress:

Family

Income and Expenses:

May Notes:

Paid Mortgage #1 on May 30 since June 1 fell on a weekend
Getting stimulated, receiving three pay checks, and getting some free money explains the increase in Wages.
Turning off the heat, not turning on the air, no income taxes due, and a mysterious credit on the electric bill, explain the massive decrease in non-credit card bills

Emergency Fund Progress:

Thrifty Thursday: Cheap Southwest Airlines Flights & More

Thrifty Femme — Thu, 29 May 2008 12:36:33 +0000

Southwest Airlines is offering $29 one-way flights (not including taxes and fees) with a 21-day advance purchase to and from select cities including Chicago and Houston. This is a great deal if you are near one of the qualifying cities.

Update:
Here’s a Walgreens coupon that gives you $10 off if you spend $30 or more.

Pay PMI Out of Pocket or Roll It Into the Loan?

Thrifty Femme — Thu, 29 May 2008 02:36:28 +0000

We have decided to refinance our mortgage to a 5.875% 30 year fixed. We currently have 80/20 mortgages, which probably wasn’t the wisest choice in retrospec. C’est la vie. Our 80 mortgage is 30 year fixed at 6.375%; however, our 20 mortgage is 15 year balloon amortized over 30 years at 10.25% because we wanted a fixed rate. We have been in our house for 2.5 years and live in an area of the country unaffected by the housing bubble property value-wise, so our house has appreciated about 4.5%. Clearly we don’t have a lot of equity in our home, so we are required to have PMI.

For those that don’t know what PMI is Private Mortgage Insurance. It’s required for those that have less than a 20% down payment to protect the lender against a default. In our case PMI will be approximately $2800. If we were to pay it out of pocket, we would take it from our emergency fund even though this obviously isn’t an emergency. I admit this probably is not a good idea.

I used this fantastic home mortgage template from Vertex42 to look at the interest after 80% LTV, using a 2.5% rate of appreciation, is achieved and the monthly principle and interest payment for each scenario. I am looking at the LTV because you can stop paying PMI once you achieve an 80% LTV.

For paying the PMI out of pocket:

it would take 8 years to achieve an 80% LTV resulting in $85.7k in interest
the monthly P&I payment would be $1136

For rolling the PMI into the loan:

it would take 9 years to achieve an 80% LTV resulting in $95.8k in interest
the monthly P&I payment would be $1147

Based on this information the P&I monthly payment isn’t worth raiding our eFund. However, after the eFund is fully funded, I think we’ll consider making addition principle payments.