Jill Russo Foster

Save Money with Vinegar and Tomatoes

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I am always asked for money saving tips. I’ve mentioned common tips like eating at (and from) home more often, using cash whenever possible, and buying off-season or used. But, what if you do all of these already, and you still want to save more money?

At a recent speaking event, I decided to share my more creative ideas – things I actually do myself – that might not be so common.

So, here are those two tips:

Produce Garden – yes, you heard me. If you’re a long time reader, you know that I’ve always gardened and feel that there’s nothing better than picking something right off the vine to eat right away. I’m not certified organic, but I don’t use chemicals or questionable practices. Let’s just say that if someone wanted to certify me, I’d be fine.

Even if you don’t have room, or interest in working in a garden, you can grow lettuce. It’s probably the easiest produce to grow and can be grown in a pot pretty much anywhere (even indoors). A pack of seeds costs about $1.50 and can give us (a family of two) lettuce for about 6 weeks. That’s a lot cheaper than buying a head of lettuce each week.

If you don’t eat salads at home, just because you feel bagged lettuce is expensive and doesn’t keep well, this is your solution.

Someone raised an objection about time. Lettuce is not time-consuming or fussy. You’ll need to thin the leaves out during the growing stages, but you’ll be eating it as baby micro lettuce – so it’s not like it’s fussing just because it has to be done.

This year I am trying vertical gardening. My whole garden, once it’s planted, takes me less than 30 minutes a week to maintain, and I have many plants – tomatoes, peppers, zucchini, squash, green beans, peas, a few types of lettuce and herbs. This year I am trying corn, blueberries and butternut squash.

Cleaning Products – make your own – I do! I use vinegar diluted with water in place of glass cleaner. Works great. I use baking soda with water to make a paste to clean the bathroom. These home-made products are completely safe, effective and chemical free and cost pennies.

What I haven’t yet found is a replacement for dishwasher or laundry detergent. Although, I do know that vinegar in the rinse cycle can get rid of excess detergent in your towels and get rid of that moldy smell if your towels have been out by the pool too long.

Ideas for home made cleaning supplies can be found on the internet, but make sure you’re looking at a trusted source for reputable information.

Let me know how you save money.

Maybe my garden photos will inspire you.

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Ghosting the deceased: Identity Theft Prevention

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Even after a loved one dies, they’re still not safe from identity theft or more specifically “ghosting.”

It’s reported that $2.5 million deceased Americans become victims of fraud – anything from new credit cards and loan applications to new utilities and cell phone accounts. Just when the family is dealing with their loss, before they’ve even touched the probate issue, they now have to take additional steps to protect their loved ones.

How does it happen?

We give our loved one’s identity to the world on a silver platter. For starters, most of the important identifying information can be found in the obituary.

Full birth name and married name
Mother’s maiden name
Home town
Date of birth
Nearest relatives and their relationships to the deceased
Last place of employment

It’s been reported that thieves take this information and purchase the deceased’s social security number for $10 from the Social Security Office’s Death Master File. With that, they have everything needed to set up new accounts, all while the family is still grieving.

You might be thinking, “Why do I care? It can’t come back on us because the person is dead.” Well, by using your loved one’s information, they can take yours as well. Remember, your name is in the paper too, listing how you’re related to everyone in your family, your probable home town, and your approximate age. At the very least, it will cause the surviving family members stress when new bills arrive at the house along with collection calls.

What can you do about it?

Limit the information listed in the obituary column – in this case less is more

Send copies of death certificates to all three credit reporting agencies, as well as to the banks, investment firms and credit card companies used by the deceased. Ask them to place a “deceased alert” on all accounts – this is especially important if they’re going to stay open until probate is completed.

When closing accounts (including utilities, phone, cable, rental services, etc.), ask them to tag the account as “account closed – holder is deceased.” That way, the account will be flagged as permanently closed. Closing an account may seem final enough, but it’s not. All paid services want you to continue service, so they won’t question a reopen request unless the word “deceased” is on the file.

Report the death to Social Security. If you let it go through normal processes, it can take months – in that time, an identity thief will have set up hundreds of accounts in your loved one’s name.

Cancel the deceased Driver’s License through your state’s Department of Motor Vehicles, so that duplicates will not be issued

Since deceased people don’t check their credit, I would recommend that you request a copy of their credit report from one of the three credit reporting agencies about a month after you’ve taken the above steps – just to double check their account status. Then check again a few months later.

Zip Code Harvesting

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Ever wonder why the cashier asks for your zip code? Maybe you thought they needed it for credit card approval (like a gas station). Maybe you thought they were looking to open a new store closer to the people who actually shop there.

Most of the time, they’re collecting zip codes so they can target you with marketing or to sell your contact information.

When you pay with a credit card, they can keep your full name in their records – add the zip, and they can find your exact address. They’re determining who their customers are, where they come from, what types of products they purchase, etc. They can develop a whole file of information about you with those two pieces of information which they can use themselves or sell to retail partners.

You may have noticed that some retailers will ask for your zip code no matter how you pay. They’ve asked for my zip code when I pay with cash. They might not know my exact address, but they may choose to target my neighborhood with flyers.

You can choose to be a part of this by giving the cashier your zip code – you’ll most likely get more mail and/or coupons. Or, you can decline to give your zip code to the cashier. I am vigilant about my mail (and privacy), so I personally choose not to give out my zip code. The choice is yours to make.

Note – this is not the case with unmanned transactions, such as self-service gas stations. In an unmanned transaction, you may be required to enter your zip code on the key pad to authorize the credit card transaction. In this case, the credit card company itself is attempting to verify your identity. This is NOT zip code harvesting because the gas station isn’t keeping your information.

Remember the choice is yours.

Credit Report Reminder from Jill Russo Foster: Enjoy Summer with fresh financial information

It’s May! Relax this summer knowing you’ve checked your credit! This month use Equifax

Hello, it’s Jill again, reminding you to get your finances in order so you can enjoy a nice summer vacation.

Order your credit report from www.AnnualCreditReport.com. This is the ONLY authorized source for the no cost annual credit report that’s yours by law. You have the right to know. Exercise your rights! Learn more.

When ordering online:

Select your state, then click Request Report.
Fill out your information, then click Continue.
When it asks you to select a service, select Equifax.

Not comfortable ordering online? There are three ways you can order your report:

Order online at www.AnnualCreditReport.com. By ordering online you can have your report back in minutes!
Mail your postal order by downloading the form at www.AnnualCreditReport.com
Call in your order at 1-877-322-8228

It doesn’t matter how you get your report, the most important thing is that you do! Then…

Review it for accuracy!
Follow the instructions with the report to correct any errors.
And, always remember to keep copies for your records.

Were you hoping to get your credit score instead? Try CreditKarma.com. CreditKarma does not supply a FICO score, but it does provide scores from TransUnion and VantageScore. And, there’s no charge for you. CreditKarma funds their service through website advertising.

May you have a sunny and profitable summer!

P.S. I’ll give you another reminder in September so you can get up-to-date on your credit before the holidays.

Our Financial Literacy Month tips were from Thrive in Five

I was so happy to give you a month of savings ideas for Financial Literacy Month. I really hope they inspired you to think about your future and what you can do today to make your dreams a reality.

Every tip I shared with you was from my book, Thrive in Five. In Thrive in Five, I suggest improvements you can make to your finance situation in just 5 minutes a day for 1 full year. I ask you to take a hard look at how you do things and to make small changes with big impacts.

Each chapter is a month in the year.

January – Analyzing Your Bills
February – Reduce or Eliminate Expenses
March – Saving More
April – Organization
May – Clutter Cleaning
June – Selling or Donating
July – Credit
August – Debt Reduction
September – No Spending Month
October – More Income / Planning Ahead
November – The Holidays
December – Money Drains

Because I wanted you to focus on your savings, I gifted you March for Financial Literacy Month. If you want to make big improvements with small steps, do get the book!

Another day to catch up on saving money

Financial Literacy Month is almost over! I can’t believe it myself.

This has been a jam packed month. I’ve really worked hard to push money saving ideas your way so you can afford to retire, have an emergency savings account, or just take a vacation without touching your credit cards. Today and tomorrow should be used to catch up on anything that you haven’t completed or something that you need more time to research. You should take extra time on retirement planning.

Tomorrow while you’re catching up, I’ll introduce you to another important step you should take soon.

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Keep Your Savings Accounts Away from the ATM

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One thing I’ve learned over the years is not to have my savings account linked to my debit / ATM card. If I want to make an impulse purchase, I have to put some thought into it and move money either online or at the bank. This delay gives me time to talk myself out of wasting my savings on something I don’t really need.

An added benefit to keeping your accounts separate, is that if your debit card is stolen, the thief cannot access the money in your savings.

Transfer to Savings Automatically

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Have you struggled to save money because there never seems to be anything left over? Big surprise! We tend to spend the money we have in front of us. Getting a raise never seems to help, because that money disappears, too. There’s always something we think we need right now.

The best way to grow the money in your savings account is by setting up an automatic deposit from your paycheck. That way you never see it to spend it. If your company doesn’t offer this, that’s not a problem. Have an amount set up to be transferred automatically from your checking account to savings on a regular basis. The benefits here are that you are saving without any effort on your part and the money isn’t in your checking account to tempt you.

Make Payments towards Your Retirement

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Making payments towards retirement doesn’t have to be difficult. Remember what you’re saving money for. You want to retire some day, so you can enjoy some golf and vacations when you get older without having to work.

There are few ways to fund your accounts. If you receive large bonuses, you could simply deposit them into your IRA or 401K and just live within your regular paycheck. That won’t be possible for everyone. Most of us calculate the amount to pay by dividing our maximum contribution amount by the number of pay periods per year. Basically, we’re taking the money out of our paychecks.

The key is to act like it’s not yours to spend. This is your fun money, so you can take the grandkids to Disneyworld and finally take the European cruise, without having to worry about where you’re going to live or how.

The Biggest Savings

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The Biggest Savings

In honor of Financial Literacy Month, I want to show you the biggest savings we’ve come across in our family. Any guesses?

It’s lunch! We used to eat out for lunch every day. Who has time to make lunch before work, right? But we gradually learned that we could save a lot of cash for things we really want if we could just get used to bringing our own food.

Lunch shouldn’t cost that much. It’s not dinner at a nice restaurant – it’s a sandwich at the cafeteria or a McD’s. But, it does add up. Let’s say you spend $10 a day for food at work or school, combining lunch, a vending machine snack, and coffee, bottled water or pop. It’s just a few little items throughout the day, but let me show you the numbers.

$10 x 5 days a week = $50
$50 x 50 weeks a year = $5,000
$25,000 is what it will cost you for 5 years

And that’s for one person. If there are two of you in the household, then you can double the numbers. I bet you can find something better to do with $5,000 or $10,000 a year.

I used to have all the excuses – not enough time to make my lunch, it’s too boring, etc. Well times have changed.

Part of that change was accepting that we like different types of lunch foods. He’s a sandwich person and makes his lunch the night before. Sandwiches keep well in the fridge overnight. That doesn’t work for me. I like leftovers, soups and salads. I might make extra for dinner so I can have leftovers for lunch the next day. Or, make soup on a Sunday, then have soup for a few days. I like combining my leftovers with salad greens to make a fancy salad. My lunches need to be freshly made in the morning. Because I have the ingredients, and a plan, it takes less than 5 minutes.

What about beverages? My husband is a coffee drinker. He makes his coffee the night before with a programmable coffee pot. The money savings made the pot a really good investment. I’m a water drinker, so I use a washable metal water bottle. I just refill and put it back in the fridge when I get home from work, so it’s ready to go in the morning.

Just by taking these little steps, we are able to save money and use it for other purposes. How about you? Are you ready to try bringing your lunch to work? What system would work for you?