Small Change

Goodbye!

Fri, 07 Aug 2009 07:00:57 -0500

Dear Readers, This will be our last Small Change post, and we are sad to have to leave you to work on other projects. But we’ve really enjoyed coming up with ways for you — and us — to slog through this recession. I hope we have helped — or at least provided some entertaining company along the way! We also appreciated all of your comments. You gave us many great ideas as well. We’ve covered everything from credit cards to cheap eats together, and our posts will still be archived here in case you want to revisit your favorites. Now we will be waiting, hoping and watching for signs of the recovery. We hope you will still keep in touch and share your stories of how the economy is affecting your lives. Ylan will continue to write about consumers and retail, and Nancy will keep covering personal finance. You

Bring the Bar to Your Home

Thu, 06 Aug 2009 07:05:46 -0500

One of my favorite things to do on a summer evening is to sit outside and have cocktails with my friends after work. But hitting a bar a few times a week can be very costly in this town. Our intern Emma L. Carew has come up with some fabulous ideas for enjoying cocktails with your friends without going broke. Here they are: The weather’s nice and there are tons of great drink specials. So it’s tempting to wander from bar to bar each night. But think about this: When you get home the next day and look at your receipts, you’ll probably wonder how you managed to rack up so many tabs. One idea? Bring the bar crawl home. Sure, you can snuggle up with a case of cold ones for cheap but where’s the fun in that? Get more creative. Buy some booze, preferably in bulk for the

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Thu, 06 Aug 2009 07:05:46 -0500

More Grocery Store Tips

Wed, 05 Aug 2009 14:15:10 -0500

A couple of Saturdays ago, our frugal intern Emma L. Carew wrote about making private-label purchases at the grocery store. A lot of you commented and e-mailed Emma with some suggestions. She'd like to share them with you. Here goes: Wow, props to the commenters out there. It seems like a lot of you make your own salad dressings. I’ve never had much luck in the past with that (and I actually home cook a ton of things most people probably buy each week! Pasta sauce, chicken stock and cake frosting, to name a few), but I’m willing to give it another try. That’s the beauty of the topic, which was sorting out that each person has his or her own quirks and priorities when grocery shopping on a budget. Sharon from Gaithersburg had some thoughts about this: The one thing that I will NOT compromise with is my Hershey

Pack Your Own Lunch

Wed, 05 Aug 2009 07:01:52 -0500

Today, we have another guest post from our frugal intern Emma L. Carew. She's figured out a way to make delicious lunches on an intern's budget. Her lunches put the turkey and cheese sandwiches I often bring to the office to shame. Here's what Emma has to say: As a college student working for my campus newspaper, I frequently had 12-hour days. After rotating between Chinese takeout, Chipotle and the $5 foot-long at Subway when I “didn’t have time” to pack a lunch, I decided to get smarter about brown-bagging. It’s definitely a commitment — you can’t “not have time” four days a week. I've learned a few things along the way, which I'd like to share with you. First, invest in some plastic containers. I’m a plastic container junkie. I usually have three or four lunches worth of food in containers just waiting in my fridge. Second, devote some

Negotiating with Your Creditors

Tue, 04 Aug 2009 07:01:40 -0500

A lot of credit cardholders are finding out that their interest rates or minimum monthly payments are going up or their available credit is going down. It’s scary and frustrating when that happens. If you’re one of these cardholders, you’re probably wondering what you can do about it. Fortunately, the National Foundation for Credit Counseling, the nation’s largest nonprofit credit counseling organization, has some tips, which I’d like to share with you: Ask for an explanation. The card issuer may be doing it because of account inactivity, because you’ve become too risky, because you’re no longer profitable. Either way, you deserve to know why the terms of your agreement are being altered. Try to get your previous terms restored. If you’ve been in good standing, you should call the card company and plead your case. But remember, “in good standing” is the operative phrase here. Build your case. Arm yourself

A Credit Card Dilemma

Mon, 03 Aug 2009 09:06:58 -0500

I just came across an interesting credit card dilemma on Consumerist.com. A reader writes to say that she and her husband were trying to negotiate a lower rate on their credit card. Their rate had reached a whopping 28 percent. The card issuer, the reader said, offered them a 6 percent rate under its hardship program if they closed the card. But the reader was worried about how that would affect her credit score. From covering the credit card industry, I know that your credit utilization ratio affects your credit score. That ratio tells you how much of your available credit you have used. If you have used a high percentage, then your credit score will drop. But the calculation of credit scores is tricky and depends on many factors. So how this particular consumer would be affected by closing down the card is hard to tell definitively. Still, it's

Some Tips for Saving

Fri, 31 Jul 2009 10:01:12 -0500

I know it’s hard to think about saving your small change when you are trying to pay off debt, as many of you out there probably are. But when you can, you should set aside any extra money you have, if anything so you are prepared for an unfortunate event such as a layoff. I came across some good savings tips from Women & Co., a financial resource program offered by Citi. Obviously, the program focuses on women, but I think many men can benefit from these tips. Here they are: Examine the current state of your finances. You can’t save for the future unless you know how your finances are in the present. Set goals. Decide what your short-term (i.e. a home improvement project) and long-term (i.e. retirement) goals are. Make a so-called savings sacrifice. Track your expenses for a month, study them, and decide what sacrifices you can

Double Whammy: Higher Credit Card Rates, More Credit Card Debt

Thu, 30 Jul 2009 10:00:57 -0500

When President Obama signed legislation that restricts many credit card practices that consumer groups have long complained about, bank executives said it would force them to raise interest rates across the board. Looks like that might be happening already. According to IndexCreditCards.com, which tracks the industry, credit card rates hit an 18-month high in July. The Web site’s review of rates offered by issuers such as American Express, Bank of America, Chase and Citi found that the average rate on consumer cards was 14.94 percent, which is more than a full point higher than it was in March. Both customers with bad credit and those with good credit were seeing higher rates, the researchers found. “It’s a double whammy for consumers right now,” says Adam Jusko, founder of IndexCreditCards.com. “Card issuers were already raising rates in response to higher defaults in an unstable economic environment. Then the new credit card

How To Budget Like An Intern

Wed, 29 Jul 2009 07:00:00 -0500

Our intern Emma Carew is back again! We love to see persistence. And Emma has a lot to write about from personal experience, especially as a summer intern in Washington. She polled her colleagues for their favorite tips on living large for less that anyone can use, even if your intern days are a distant memory. We won't tell. What are your best intern-worthy tricks? Send them to Emma at carewe[at]washpost.com or post them in the comments. For the most part, we Washington interns are broke. And while we anxiously wait for pay day we have to get creative. So here are the Washington Post Intern09 tips on living on a budget. Editorial writer Alexandra Petri: * If you are at all a Starbucks aficionado, get one of their membership discount cards. It costs $20 but gets you 10 percent off, which definitely pays for itself over time. Copy editor

401(k) Accounts Recovering

Tue, 28 Jul 2009 07:00:01 -0500

When was the last time you checked your 401(k)? A few months ago, my girlfriend confided that she was scared to look at her balance after opening her statement only to find her account had nearly been wiped out. Many other workers have taken the same shut-eye strategy. It's like riding a roller coaster: If you don't watch, maybe it won't be as bad. But you may want to pry your eyelids open again. The recent stock market rally that has lifted the Dow to above 9,000, erasing its year-to-date losses, has also given retirement accounts a boost. Encouraged, I peeked at my own 401(k) balance and found that it has increased in the past three months, finally recouping my 2008 losses and then some. According to the Employee Benefits Research Institute, workers in every age group and tenure have seen improvements in their retirement accounts since the stock markets

Let Students Pamper You

Mon, 27 Jul 2009 07:00:00 -0500

We love our intern, Emma Carew, because she is enthusiastic and works hard. The same could be said for the students at local cosmetology and massage therapy schools that offer discounted services. Emma found out that these schools can help you indulge without feeling guilty. When we were kids, my brother and I got our teeth cleaned at the clinic where my mother was pursuing her dental hygiene degree. It was a great experience — it was fun, and the supervising professors spent more time with us than I’ve ever encountered at a DDS. For years I have gotten my hair highlighted and colored in salons of the cosmetology schools near my place in Minneapolis. It wasn’t something my parents wanted to pay for and the prices at the higher end salons (upwards of $75 each time) were out of my range. People have always commented that I must be

When to Make Private-Label Purchases

Fri, 24 Jul 2009 07:00:15 -0500

Every summer, Washington is flooded with interns trying to live on a budget in one of the country's most expensive cities. Cheap beer and ramen noodles seem to be staples of the intern diet. One of our interns, Emma Carew, shared her strategies for saving money when she goes grocery shopping. She purchases store brands for many items, but there are some splurges she thinks are worth keeping. Many supermarkets are trying to improve their so-called "private label" offerings. Giant Food created a brand called Nature's Promise, while Safeway developed O Organics. According to market research firm Mintel, about 1,800 new private label foods have hit store shelves so far this year. That accounted for 27 percent of all food products introduced this year. In 2005, private label foods made up only 13% of new food product launches. Here is Emma's take on the issue: One habit I’ve adopted as

Saving Money on Back to School

Thu, 23 Jul 2009 07:00:18 -0500

The end of the summer is in sight: Back-to-school sales have hit the stores. According to Google's Insights for Search, people have begun thinking about the back-to-school season earlier this year, with searches up 10 percent by mid-July compared to last year. And not surprisingly, discounted and free supplies are in the top 10 list of school-related searches. A recent survey by consulting firm Deloitte found that economic conditions are forcing 70 percent of consumers to change their shopping habits this season, including buying more items on sale and heading to less-expensive stores. About one-third plan to buy more private-label brands, and nearly half said they would spend less on shoes. To help you stick to your budget, we turned to Todd Mark, vice president of education for the Consumer Credit Counseling Service of Greater Dallas, for advice: Budget with the kids: Parents will often spend on their children even

Cash for Clunkers Part 3: Running the Numbers

Wed, 22 Jul 2009 07:01:07 -0500

Your verdict is in: We should take advantage of cash for clunkers and buy a new car. Here are some excerpts from the responses I've gotten: "Buy the new car! If you can afford to save for a new car and only finance a portion, you can afford to make the air somewhat cleaner for all of us and also to save gasoline. We all pay for the dirty air your vehicle is producing in terms of our health and health care costs." "You’d be NUTS not to grab the money now." "While I wish the government had provided me with the same incentive, my mechanic seems very glad they didn't." For those of you who haven't been religiously reading our blog (for shame!), I wrote on Monday about new federal legislation that gives consumers up to a $4,500 credit for trading in a gas-guzzling car for a new, more

Try on a Clothing Swap for Size

Tue, 21 Jul 2009 07:00:26 -0500

I swear I will never stand in front of my closet and complain that I have nothing to wear ever again. That's because I spent the weekend going through my clothes with a critical eye, pulling out items in perfectly good condition but that I rarely wear. I felt a pang of guilt as each article came out and I recalled how much I paid for it. Ouch. But the purge was all for a good cause. My good friend Angel Stone , who runs Eshe Body Center, held a "fashion swap party" this weekend, and I had a whole bag of clothes to exchange. Swap parties have become all the rage among recessionistas. We told you last week about the Greater Washington Clothing Swap, and Nancy recently wrote about people sharing and trading everything from bikes to power tools. This weekend was my first time on the bandwagon. I