Have a Better Life

We all know that a good quality wool makes wonderful pieces of clothes and other articles such as blankets. With so many brands in the market consumers can get confused and being uncertain of what to buy.

To bring awareness to the Marino wool, a campaign was launched called the ‘Merino. No Finer Feeling™’. With this campaign Merino intends to reinforce the importance and quality of the garments made with the Merino wool.

If you are looking for high quality linens then you should take a look at Sferra brand. This brand is a mixed of luxury and high quality in bedding, bath and table products.

Whether you are choosing blanket covers, throws or pillows, you can find everything you need at Fine Linens in the Sferra section. Many products are waiting for you at an incredible low price.

I can’t believe we are heading to the end of the year already. September is just around the corner and it’s time for car and house insurance, oh…and a cousin’s wedding.

Insurance bills always kill my budget. We must have an insurance for almost everything and they are not cheap. I remember when I was working I had to ask for business insurance quotes for the company. We were always looking for the lowest price.

Although I already have several insurances policies to pay, I think that I really need a group health insurance coverage for the whole family. We, the couple, have a life term insurance but we don’t have a health one. Although we have social security assistance, in case we have a serious problem that needs private surgery, we have no discount.

I have already asked for a few quotes for a group health insurance but the prices I got are still high for my budget and I want to try to get a cheaper quote with good coverage.

When I have to pay for the insurances I become aware they we might have an accident and that’s why we need the insurances. These thoughts make it easier to pay the bills.

photo credit: annia316

Dollar Stores

Many years ago, dollar stores offered only off brand products or merchandise of poor quality. Fortunately that has completely changed because now you can walk into a dollar store and find the same name brand of laundry detergent, cleaning products, clothing, school supplies, everything for half or less the price. Check out your local dollar store and enjoy the mountains of savings.

Insurance
Shop around for insurance and work with a good agent that can provide information on discounts such as good student, multi-car discount, etc. Some people think the price of insurance is the same from one company to the next. However, prices can vary dramatically and to ensure you get the best deal, you need to consider all your options. Always check what the insurance covers. For instance if it is a car/rv insurance make sure it covers for instance motorhome towing only in one state or all over the country, if you have an accident if you receive a spare car while you wait for yours to be fixed, etc.. Check all the details before buying the insurance.

I bought my Upright Freezer four years ago when my daughter was almost two years old and my son seven. I had and still have a Combo refrigerator but it no longer had space to keep all the food I wanted. We had a family of four and the necessity of food storage space was needed.

There are Freezers for every taste and we just have to choose the one that meets our needs. At the time I learned what to look for in a freezer.

Important Question: Do you have a small space or an open wide space to put the freezer?

• If you have a small space, like I have, you should buy an Upright Freezer.
• If you have an open, wide space free you can buy a Chest Freezer.

What are the differences between a Chest Freezer and an Upright Freezer?

• A Chest Freezer offers more storage capacity due to its dimensions but you should label all the items you put there and keep an inventory of what is inside so that you don’t lose track of your products.
• An Upright Freezer usually has shelves and drawers making it very easy to organize the items even without a label.

My Upright Freezer has two shelves and three drawers. I use one shelf for fish and another for meat. Than in the drawers I put packages of food I buy already frozen.

Important features that should be taken into consideration when buying a freezer:

• frost or no-frost
• automatic or manual defrost
• level of noise
• temperature alarm
• open door alarm
• energy efficiency/energy star-rated

Before buying a Freezer you should compare shopping prices because sometimes from store to store the price varies a lot. There are a lot of models and brands available in the market so the offer is huge.

To remember:

• 1st – choose the model you want based on the location you have to put the freezer.
• 2nd – check the features of the freezer, eco-friendly if possible
• 3nd – shopping comparison and take advantage of shopping deals available.

Happy Shopping.

Do you need some new items for your house like: faucets, sinks or toilets than be informed that if you buy American Standard products you will have big discounts and paying conditions.

An American Standard toilet, kitchen sink or Bathroom Sink Faucets can be bought with free shipping (orders over 99$) and some of the products have up to a 35% discount. Some orders can be payed 90 days after the bought (if $250 or over). Take a look at Faucet.com and check yourself the great conditions they have.

Speaking of starting New Year with two steady incomes and card debt under control I must say that January 5th was definitely not a good day for news about our financial life.

To explain how things work, I have a steady income from my full time work, every month the same amount, I always know how much money I can count with. My husband has a very low steady salary and receives extra hours when he do them, meaning that if he makes 50 extra hours a month he receives his steady salary plus the amount for the 50 hours. Extra hours were a constant so we always counted with them to pay our bills.

Due to the crisis that is going on worldwide, bosses are cutting all extra expenses and trying to negotiate low salaries. On Jan 5th my husband’s boss said he had no money for extra hours so during an unknown period that can be of several months there will be no extra hours and if there is a lot of work and my husband has to do extra hours to finish the work, these hours are going to be paid at very low rates or even for free.
So, starting now, I have much less money to spend on a monthly basis. I really don’t how we are going to do it because we need that extra money to pay for all the expenses we have.

Measures must be taken and shopping is going to be affected. Learning to living modestly, cutting on no essential food is one of those. I know there are great bloggers blogging about saving on shopping and I really I’ve been reading a lot about it. So I made a short list of my priorities, here are 10 tricks to make me save money:

Make a list of what I need
Arrive at the hypermarket with only the money I will need to shop. Take a calculator and don’t go shopping when I’m hungry or depressed.

Check the cashier ticket
Claims increased in the last months. I have to check the ticket before I leave the cashier to avoid problems.

The hypermarket must stick with what is written in the leaflets give away with promotions.
In case there is a difference between the leaflet prices and what are in the shelves, I’ve got to claim the lower amount.

Don’t search in places with excellent offers but low price products.
I spend gas and I probably will get the product at the same price in another place or in another day.

Prefer cheaper products
Buying white brands is a good strategy to save some money and usually they are of the same quality of the well known branded products.

Go straight ahead to the section where the products I need are
Walking along main corridors just makes me buy products I don’t need

If I don’t need, don’t buy
I can’t get tempted by promotions/sales by buying some product I don’t need but as they are on promotion I want to take advantage of it. Valuing my money and thinking twice before spending it is something I always did but that sometimes I forget and regret later.

Be careful with the Take 2 by the price of 1
These products are worth buying if I really need them and use them. I have to make sure which is the unit price to check if it’s worth taking advantage or not of the promotion.

Teach my kids to buy
If possible I always go shopping without my kids at least. They ask for everything and most of the time I end up buying products they won’t use and they don’t need. Other times I get surprised with some product that show up in the basket that I didn’t knew about.

When you finish your shopping, take a close look to your basket.
Don’t feel shy if you really that you bought a product that it’s more expensive than one you found in another shelf that has the same quality and do the job.

If you have some more tips for me just leave a comment or a link so that I can check what you do to save money.