Earlier in the year, I happened to look over my budget for last year and was shocked to see how much I’d spent on presents for birthdays and Christmas. Having made a big effort to tighten my belt in 2010, I knew that I just couldn’t justify spending the same amount again, but at the same time, I don’t want to look like a miser when I’m handing over the presents. My compromise has been to look into making my own gifts in the hope that the extra effort will save me some cash and still look like a great present. Here are some of the ideas that I'm putting into action in my quest to save a little bit more money:

Personalized Gift Sets

Gift sets of toiletries are often given to females based on the assumption that you can’t go wrong with bath stuff. I’ve been guilty of doing this myself on many occasions with no real thought for whether the recipient will actually use the contents. After an enlightening conversation with one particular friend, it dawned on me that I was effectively wasting my money by buying her gift sets when she was only ever going to use the shower gel (she’s not one for baths). With these gift sets not being particularly cheap unless you can get them when they’re on sale, I wanted to find a way to buy something that would be better received without breaking my meager gifts budget.

My solution has been to put together personalized gift sets of toiletries that I know the recipient will definitely use. Over the last six months or so, I’ve been taking advantage of in-store and online offers on toiletries like shower gels, bath foams, and body lotions, and putting them aside for gifts. The idea is that I’ll only buy items that I know will be used, and because I’ve spread the cost throughout the year, it’s a much more financially manageable way of doing things. Once I’ve got everything I want to include in the gift sets, I place the items in a large sheet of cellophane wrapping and scrunch the top together to create a gift package (sometimes with a pretty ribbon or bow to finish the look).

I recently got the chance to put this to the test with a friend’s birthday gift and she was thrilled that I’d taken the time to put together half a dozen items that she genuinely enjoys using. I was initially worried that she’d think that it looked cheap or tacky but this wasn’t the case at all.

Baking Yummy Treats

If you’re looking for a present for someone who’s got a sweet tooth, you could do worse than turn your hand to baking. Even if you’re not the best at this, you can still bake a batch of muffins or cookies and present them in a basket. Here are two great recipes:

Blueberry Muffins Recipe

This is the recipe that I followed for my trial attempt and it worked well, even for a less-than-expert cook!

You’ll need: 1 1/2 cups of all-purpose flour, 3/4 cup of white sugar, 1/2 teaspoon of salt, 2 teaspoons of baking powder, 1/3 cup of vegetable oil, 1 egg, 1/3 cup of milk, 1 cup of fresh blueberries, 1/2 cup of white sugar, 1/3 cup of all-purpose flour, 1/3 cup of butter (cubed) and 1 1/2 teaspoons of ground cinnamon.

1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F/ 200 degrees C, and grease the required number of muffin cups (or use muffin liners).
2. Add 1 1/2 cups of flour, 3/4 cup of white sugar, salt and baking powder, and mix together.
3. Place vegetable oil in a measuring cup and add egg and milk. Add this to the above mixture and fold in the blueberries.
4. Fill the muffin cups to the brim.
5. Mix together 1/2 cup of white sugar, 1/3 cup of flour, 1/4 cup of butter ,and 1 1/2 teaspoons of cinnamon to make a crumb topping and sprinkle over muffins before you put them in the oven.
6. Bake for around 20-25 minutes.

Extreme Chocolate Chip Cookies Recipe

This is the recipe that I followed:

You’ll need: 1 1/2 cups of all-purpose flour, 1 1/2 teaspoons of baking powder, 1/4 teaspoon of salt, 2 cups of semi-sweet chocolate chips, 6 tablespoons of butter (softened), 1 cup of white sugar, 1 1/2 teaspoons of vanilla extract, 2 eggs and 1/2 cup of confectioners’ sugar.

1. Mix together flour, baking powder, and salt.
2. Melt 1 cup of the chocolate chips over a low heat.
3. Cream the butter and sugar.
4. Add the melted chocolate chips and vanilla.
5. Beat in eggs
6. Add flour mixture and the remaining cup of chocolate chips.
7. Wrap in plastic and freeze for around 20 minutes until the mixture becomes firm.
8. Create small balls of around 1 inch and roll in the confectioners’ sugar.
9. Place on an ungreased cookie sheet and bake for 10-12 minutes at 350 degrees F/ 175 degrees C.
10. Leave to cool.

These are a few of my ideas that really help to save money when buying presents, but there are lots more ideas that you can use if you’re good at crafts. What are your tips for saving money with homemade gifts? Have you ever tried any of the ideas discussed here?

(photo credit: Sarz.K)

Before I get started, let me say this: buying and caring for a dog is a big responsibility. Although there are ways to save money when purchasing a dog, I don’t want anybody to believe that they should be “bargain shopping.” It is fine to search for the best deal on vet care, food, and toys. But when it comes to buying an actual dog, you want to do your research to ensure that you get the right pet for your family at a price you are comfortable with. Also, this post is not to advise against adopting a dog from shelters; it is specifically written for those who have decided that they want to buy their pet.

Here are several tips to follow if you are thinking about buying a dog and are interested in saving as much money as possible on the purchase:

1. Negotiate. Who would negotiate on the price of a dog, you may ask? While this may sound silly on the surface, it is something that you should be doing no matter if you purchase at a pet store or a breeder. No matter the seller, they are going to have a price in mind. It is your job to “talk them down” if you are interested in saving money.

Unfortunately, there is no “going rate” for dogs. It is often times difficult to look at the market and make an accurate determination on what you should be paying. For this reason, all you can do is feel out the seller and work together to decide on a price that is mutually acceptable.

2. Shop around. This can be the most difficult way to save money because you are dealing with a pet, not an inanimate object. It is easy to become attached to one dog in particular, and you may therefore not want to visit another breeder or pet store for price comparison purposes. This is why you should attempt to gather as much information as you can before visiting any location. For instance, you could call several breeders on the phone for an idea of how much they are selling their puppies for. This way, you can first visit the breeders that are offering the best price. This doesn’t mean that you have to buy, but if price is on your mind it is a good starting point.

3. Breeders are almost always cheaper than pet stores. Early in the year, I spent several days with a friend who was searching for a Labrador Retriever puppy. In our part of the country, these dogs are very common. Not only are they sold in pet stores, but there are breeders from one side of the city to the next.

Soon enough, I realized a huge discrepancy in price when comparing breeders to pet stores. Most breeders were asking between $500 and $1k based on the lineage of the puppy. For example, those with championship bloodlines had a higher price. Pet stores, on the other hand, were asking anywhere from $1,800 and up. As you can imagine, he ended up purchasing through a reputable, local breeder. Not only did the breeder have more puppies to choose from, but the price was three times less than the closest pet store. This is party because pet stores have much higher overhead costs to account for than breeders.

Don’t buy a dog just because it is cheap. Instead, do your homework to determine which breed is right for you as well as your options for breeders and pet stores in your area. From there, you can use the advice above to save money.

Do you have any tips on saving money when buying a pet? Does the very idea of trying to save money bother you?

(photo credit: delta16v)

A couple of weeks ago, I caught up with some friends over pizza. Although we each had drinks and a decent-sized pizza, our total bill only came to $6. Short of throwing a few coins on the table and hot-footing it out of the door before security gave chase, you’re probably wondering how we got away with paying so little. The answer is very simple: we used vouchers to cover the bulk of the costs and only had to pay the difference. We do this every time we eat out now and very rarely pay full price on any meal.

Before I go any further, I should clarify that this post will be predominantly about informal restaurants (fast food type places, if you like) as these are the most likely to offer voucher deals. So, how do we get our hands on these cost-cutting vouchers? Finding the vouchers usually comes down to me, because I’m the one who tends to organize our get-togethers. The options that we tend to use the most are:

Check voucher/deal websites. My first port of call is usually specific "voucher" websites that collect together deals and present them in one place. These are some of my usual haunts:

• Retail Me Not - http://www.retailmenot.com
• Coupon Codes 4 U - http://www.couponcodes4u.com/
• Pizza.com - http://pizza.com/pizza-coupons

If I don’t see anything using this strategy, I’ll move on to some other options.

Look for newsletters. You may be able to sign up for newsletters or emails that contain links to vouchers that can be downloaded, printed, and taken to the venue. These are pretty commonly offered. All you need to do is sign up for the restaurant's email list and they'll send you random discount vouchers as well as free birthday meals.

Trawl the net. Sometimes, it can just be a case of doing a Google search for the restaurant that we want to go to. Because we’re so keen to use vouchers to cut costs, we’ll make plans around the deals that are on offer. That said, there are a handful of places that we know are likely to be offering vouchers at some point in the near future, so I do periodic Google searches every couple of weeks to see what’s being offered and when the vouchers will expire. A simple search phrase like “[Restaurant name] voucher deals” or "[Restaurant name] discount" will often bring up something relevant and timely.

Survey rewards. One of my friends is a member of an invite-only survey panel and receives reward vouchers a few times a year as a thank you for her ongoing participation. Sometimes she can choose to redeem them for specific restaurants (usually big names with branches all over the country) or sometimes they can be used at a range of places (not just restaurants).

How I Do Things

We plan where to go according to what vouchers we can get. Because of this, we’re unlikely to go to the same place two months in a row unless they’re offering continuous deals to draw customers in over a longer period of time. More likely, it’ll be a different venue each month depending on which vouchers are available at the time. As well as eating in, some of the vouchers that I come across are for deliveries. If the voucher gives us a good deal, we’ll often go with that option and go to someone’s place rather than go to a restaurant as it makes more sense and it's a nice changeup from going out.

If you’re someone who likes to eat out a lot, you’ll probably struggle to cover all of your costs with vouchers. Those that come via email promotions are likely to be a one-time only download relating to the email address that you signed up with. That said, there's nothing to stop your friends from also downloading a voucher so you can all make use of the same deal as long as you use them on separate occasions (most vouchers specify that you can only use one per order).

Do you take advantage of vouchers and coupons when you eat out? Do you have any additional tips for saving money when going out for food? Your feedback is always welcome!

I've always been very careful to live within my means and not take on any significant amount of debt but around six months back, I learned the hard way that this isn’t always enough to keep you in the black. My beloved cat suddenly got very sick and I instinctively knew that I’d do whatever it took to help her. Everything seemed to happen all too quickly and she passed away a couple of weeks later, at which point I’d charged my emergency-only credit card for $1,500 on tests, treatment and medication for her various ailments.

For most people, the prospect of paying this off wouldn’t be a huge problem - you’d just work out how much you could take from your monthly paychecks and throw that at the debt, right? Unfortunately for me, I’m self-employed and don’t have a set income. Sure, I have a few clients who pay me regularly but generally speaking, I can’t say with any certainty how much I’ll earn month to month. Even worse, being self-employed means that it’s not always in your hands even if you’ve got a great idea of how much you’re going to be invoicing for. If a particular client is late paying up or doesn’t want to pay at all, it’s even more difficult to find available money to pay off debt. In that kind of situation, even paying your rent/mortgage bills and putting food on the table can be challenging enough.

Still, it’s by no means impossible to get out of debt when your income is all over the place. My debt isn’t yet fully paid off but I’ve cleared all but $150 of the original total by utilizing the following methods:

Budgeting. Once my regular expenses were accounted for, I intended to throw literally every ‘spare’ cent towards the credit card debt. In the short term, that would obviously mean no scope for luxuries and treats that aren’t strictly essential, but it’d be worth it to know that interest payments are reduced. Of the five months that I’ve been repaying the debt, the joys of being self-employed means that only two of these months have left me with surplus cash to actually follow through on this plan.

I have a separate account that I treat as being somewhere between checking and savings and which I use to take care of regular expenses if my income for that particular month doesn’t stretch far enough. For three of the five months, I’ve borrowed money from that account to use towards debt repayments. Obviously this isn’t an ideal situation but I prefer to do that than let interest build up and prolong the debt even further.

Second income.  In the early days of repaying the debt, I searched high and low for a part-time job that I could fit around my freelance work to secure a bit more money to throw at the debt. I found some work as a bartender and this worked well for a couple of months, until the onset of a recurrent family illness forced me back to working solely from home again. Even though it didn’t amount to all that much in comparison to my freelance work, the fact that it was regular and fixed was a huge help towards the debt repayment.

Other options

Using savings. If you can take money out of a savings account without incurring penalties, you can use this for debt repayment and pay yourself back once the debt is cleared. This would have been my top choice if I hadn’t tied up the bulk of my savings. Needless to say, I’m on the hunt for a savings account that offers easier access now that I’ve been burned with unexpected debt and know how easy it would be for a similar medical expense to crop up in the family.

What are your tips for paying down debt on an erratic income, particularly long-term debt?

I’ve spent the last few weeks trying to pin myself down to one cell phone provider after my previous contract came to an end. I’m not one for fancy cell phones so all I was really looking for was something with a reasonable amount of airtime that wouldn’t leave me out of pocket. Here are some of the things I had to think long and hard over before choosing which provider to go with:

How much airtime I'll really use. I don’t tend to spend a lot of time on my cell phone so I have no real need for a contract that offers 1000 minutes or unlimited texts. Several of my friends are tied into contracts of this nature and never manage to use up all of those minutes or texts, making me wonder exactly why they consider it good value for money! On the other hand, another friend repeatedly exceeds both the minutes and texts on her contract and gets hit with additional charges. On the face of it, none of them seem to be getting a good deal so I was keen to assess exactly how many minutes and texts I use on average and to choose a plan fits my needs. It’s common sense really but you’d be surprised how many people get sucked into a particular cell phone plan without thinking about how much it’ll actually benefit them.

Who I call most. If most of your calls are to people who live in your area, you might want to think twice about any long distance add-on that may be part of a contract. The same goes for an international add-on if you don’t tend to make calls to anyone outside of the US. As I rarely ever make international calls and the majority of my calls in general are to people who live near to me, I wasn’t in favor of having things like this bump up my monthly bill when I was barely ever going to use them.

What I chose in the end. After I compared a lot of contract plans, I ultimately rejected them all. I don’t spend much time at all talking on the cell phone and most of my communication with friends and extended family is through email and social networking sites. Because of that, I went with a pre-paid option, which I decided would give me more flexibility. I can buy a block of minutes that I know will correspond with what I’m actually going to use and there’s no leftover minutes down the drain. This kind of set-up probably wouldn’t suit those of you who use more airtime than me. For texts, it seemed as though they would be more expensive on the majority of pay-as-you-go plans so I’m sticking to instant messaging or social networking sites. Most of my friends (who are the people I’d usually send texts to) regularly check their Facebook through their cell phones so there’s a very good chance that they’ll read the message sooner rather than later even if it’s fairly urgent.

What to do if your contract doesn’t expire anytime soon. If you can’t get out of your current contract in the near future, it’s not a total disaster. Try calling your current provider and seeing whether they have any plans that better suit your situation. Also, don't forget to check out some of these other tips on getting the best deal on your cell phone plan.

Do you have any additional tips that I might have left out that people often gloss over when choosing their cell phone plan? I'd love to hear some great advice from you.

When the topic of making extra money comes up, taking online surveys is often one of the ideas that is put forward. This is something that I do myself after I read about it on an online forum, but it’s by no-means a “get rich quick” scheme. If you’re thinking about signing up for a host of survey websites, it’s best to know what you’re getting involved in so you can decide if it’s going to be worth the effort.

What Are The Reward Options?

For the most part, you’ve got the choice between cash and vouchers. Cash may come in the form of a Paypal payment or in some cases, a transfer straight to your checking account. Vouchers tend to be of the gift variety and can be either a paper voucher that you hand over in a store or an e-voucher to redeem at online retailers like Amazon. Some survey sites only offer one or the other so be sure to check this out before you sign up. Some survey sites make it easy to work out how much you’ll get by paying a designated amount (say $0.50) per survey. Others pay in points, so it’s a case of earning so many points and having that converted into earnings (for example, 5,000 points may equate to $5 in cash or a voucher worth the equivalent of $5). Again, read the help or FAQ sections to see how easy (or otherwise) it is to redeem your earnings.

How Much Can You Make?

There’s no easy answer to this question because a lot will depend on whether you fit the demographic for the surveys that you’re invited to participate in. You’ll get survey invitations, but this doesn’t necessarily mean that you’re eligible to actually complete the survey. For example,  the people behind a particular survey may be looking for views from a thirty-something woman with multiple kids, and if you’re a single guy (with or without kids), you’ll be “screened out” of the survey once this becomes apparent and won’t earn anything. Don’t automatically assume that just because a few surveys out there screen you out that there are no options for you. There are a lot of surveys out there and you’re bound to fit the profile for some of them.

If you’re interested in my personal “earnings,” here they are. I earn around $80 worth of vouchers over the course of a year, which I put towards birthday and Christmas gifts or spend on treats for myself. In terms of cash, it’s more like $60 per year. Before this year, I did earn more from paid surveys but I decided to become more picky about which surveys are worth my time. I might be making less but I’m happier that I’m not spending a disproportionate amount of time for what I get back.

So, are these figures good? Considering that I’m not signed up to every survey site out there and I don’t spend every waking minute completing surveys, I see this as being pretty good reward for the time I do spend on surveys. To give you a rough idea, I complete (by that I mean, I get all the way through a survey and have points or earnings credited to my account) 2-5 surveys a week on average and never spend more than twenty-five minutes on any particular survey (25 minutes is on the very high end), purely because the rewards rarely match the effort required for those. If you’ve got more time to spend or you fit the profile for more surveys, you could potentially do better than that.

Survey Sites With Good Reputations

Global Test Market. I know some people who have had good success with this survey site but it's one that I ditched early on. I didn't qualify for many surveys so the high number of points needed to cash out seemed a lifetime away. If you do decide to join, they have an excellent reputation for paying out.

Pureprofile. This survey does pay out by all accounts, but it takes forever to build up your earnings enough to get there and that's the main reason why I stopped using this one. If you've got the willpower to persevere, I've never heard complaints about this company in terms of getting your money.

Survey Sites With Poorer Reputations

Surveyhead. I used to really like this survey site despite the fact that it had some less than stellar reviews. I got a lot of survey invitations for good rewards (up to $4 for a single survey rather than the $1 offered by a lot of survey sites) and qualified for around three-quarters of them. I cashed out in a Paypal transfer a few months after signing up and it didn’t take long to get near to a second payout. Then the problems started. I have enough in my account to cash out but one particular survey has been “pending” for months. I can’t request my money until it’s approved and repeated emails have failed to get the situation changed. On this basis, it’s moved into the “one to avoid” category.

Toluna. This survey site has had a poor reputation for sending out vouchers and often takes far longer than the two months it claims that this process will take. I received two vouchers from them (both of which took three months to arrive as an e-voucher) and who knows what happened to the third, because it never arrived at all despite me emailing them four times about it. Needless to say, I can't recommend this one!

The Bottom Line

Doing paid surveys isn’t an easy way to make lots of cash, so you’ll be disappointed if you’re expecting that to happen. It’s also hit-and-miss due to the fact that you need to fit the profile for a particular survey and if you don’t, you usually get nothing or perhaps a small number of points as an appreciation for your time. It can be a good way to get some extra help towards Christmas, birthdays, other celebrations, or just for a little extra spending money for treats and luxuries, but it's best not to expect any more than that.

Have you had any experience with survey sites? Any thoughts or feedback?

Most dorm rooms are on the basic side and all you'll usually get is the bare minimum in terms of furniture and decoration. They tend to be impersonal but putting your own stamp on the place can quickly become a challenge for a couple of reasons. Firstly, there's the all-important money issue. Most students are not exactly rolling in dough and are unlikely to have the funds to spend on decking out a dorm room. Secondly, there's the space aspect to consider too. Dorm rooms are invariably rather small and don't lend themselves to hosting much more than the furniture that is already there, so this is something to bear in mind when you're deciding how to furnish a dorm room. Here are some tips for giving a dorm room the personal touch, even when money isn't plentiful:

Spread the word. Before you head off to college, make everyone that you know aware that you're on the lookout for affordable dorm furniture. Chances are that someone will have at least one item that they'd be happy for you to take off their hands, if not for free then for a cheap price. Note: Some college dorms will be 100% furnished so make sure you look into this before you invest in any furniture, though often there will always be at least a few things you will need to add.

Look for bargains. Even if you're not restricted by budget, the open nature of most dorm rooms means that it doesn't make sense to fill your space out with expensive items that could potentially be trashed or stolen. Check local classified adverts for second-hand bargains or even look around the campus to see if anyone is looking to offload their own dorm furniture. Looking on eBay and Craigslist are other options. For the latter, you can always post your own advertisement as well as see what's being offered by others.

Throw a dorm shower. This works in much the same way as a bridal shower or baby shower in that guests bring gifts. In this case, the gifts would be the kind of things that you'll need to take with you to college. Throwing a dorm shower can be a great way to receive bedding, dishes and other items that can soon bump up the costs.

Buy functional items. Because space is usually tight in your average dorm room, there may be literally no scope in either the room itself or your budget for stuff that doesn't serve a specific purpose. Some of the practical things that you'll probably want to get include rugs (to make the room look more cozy and to cover up cold floors or carpets that have seen better days), a dorm fridge (which can often be rented on campus), a futon (this can be very space-saving if there's not enough room for a bed and a couch as it can double a both) and bookshelves (somewhere to store your many textbooks while you're a student!).

When it comes to filling a dorm room, there's no need for brand new furniture. You can easily create a comfortable and homely environment with used furniture, and your wallet will certainly thank you for it! Second-hand items may not be exactly what you're after but you can always customize them to your own tastes.

(photo credit: prayitno)