: Ideas for Women Money and Finance Blog

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May 16, 2012

Free Things to Do with Your Kids This Summer— A Day at the Theatre
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By: JL Lopez — Category: general

I have already given you some good ideas of what to do with your kids this summer that won’t cost a fortune. Well, did you know that some movie theatres offer FREE or greatly reduced movies to kids during the summer?

Now these movies may not be new releases, but they could be kid-appropriate movies that your kids may or may not have seen (FYI—kids often don’t mind seeing the same movie again). Some movie theatres will have these movies one or two days per week in the morning during the summer (often before they start their regular movie schedule).

Here are some movie theatre chains that offer free or reduced priced movies:

Regal Summer Movie Express
Cinemark Summer Movie Clubhouse
Classic Cinemas Wednesday Morning Movie Series (locations throughout IL)
Clearview Cinemas Kids Club (locations throughout NY and NJ)
Cobb Theatres Free Summer Kids Shows
Harkins Theatres Summer Movie Fun
Aliance Entertainment/The Great Escape
Marcus Theatres Kids Dream Summer Film Series
Storyteller Theatres

There may be other movie theatres that participate in free or reduced movie programs for children during the summer. Please contact your local movie theatre to confirm participation.

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May 15, 2012

Free Things to Do with Your Kids This Summer—Good Grades=Good Games
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By: JL Lopez — Category: general

So your kids are going to be home for the summer soon (mine get out May 21^st). They got some good grades, but you know that boredom will set in soon. You can’t afford to send them away to summer camp. What to do?

Let your kids’ good grades translate into some good games. Chuck E. Cheese’s offers FREE game tokens with their Tokens for Grades program. When your child brings in their most recent report card, Chuck E. Cheese’s will give them up to 15 tokens per child to reward them for their hard work. All grading systems are accepted, but the offer is only valid with a food purchase (why not grab some lunch or dinner while you’re there?).

If you plan to go back to Chuck E. Cheese’s throughout the summer, I would definitely recommend that you sign up for their email newsletter to receive money-saving coupons on a regular basis. If you want more free tokens at a later date, encourage your kids to do what they are supposed to by using Chuck E. Cheese’s Rewards Calendars. Whether they complete their daily chores, get dressed on their own, or are on their best behavior, track their progress, and then take the completed calendar in for 10 free tokens.

With these fantastic opportunities to save money at Chuck E. Cheese’s, summer can be all fun and games with minimal change from your pocket.

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May 14, 2012

Free Things to Do with Your Kids This Summer—Let’s Go Bowling!
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By: JL Lopez — Category: general

Depending on where you live, your kids may be coming up on the end of the school year either this month or next. For many mothers, this can present some difficulty as to how you can keep your kids busy while still keeping your budget intact.

But there is hope, and I want to spend this week focusing on some free or cheap activity ideas for your kids. One of my personal faves is KidsBowlFree.com. This is one that you want to sign up ASAP for, as it starts pretty early.

Once you register your kids for the summer (you have to register annually), your kids get 2 FREE games of bowling everyday all summer long. You can look up your local bowling center to find one in your area that participates. If your favorite bowling alley is not listed, you may want to recommend that they join.

If you will be going with your kids to bowl, KidsBowlFree.com offers a discounted Family Pass for $24.95 that covers 2 games per person per day and covers up to 4 adults per pass. Shoes may cost extra for both kids and adults or you can bring your own bowling shoes (varies according to each individual bowling center).

Free bowling all summer? You can’t beat that. Make sure to sign your kids up and pass this blog post along to your friends who are parents. They’ll thank you for saving their dollars and sanity this summer.

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May 11, 2012

Basics of Budgeting: Bringing It All Together
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By: JL Lopez — Category: budgeting

As we are wrapping up the work week on this Friday, it only seems appropriate to wrap our discussion on the basics of budgeting. We have discussed how to build a budget by assessing your income, identifying your bills, and evaluating your expenses. Now it’s time to pull it all together.

Though you can create a budget using a pen and paper, I recommend using an Excel spreadsheet, money management software, or an online application. I use an Excel spreadsheet and set it up to automatically calculate how much money that I have available each month after paying all bills and expenses.

I would recommend updating this budget on an ongoing basis as things change. Use it to look at your bills and check off each one as you pay them every month. Use it to remember which automatic deductions need to be jotted down in your checkbook. Use it to evaluate your expenses to see which you can cut down on or cut out completely. Use it to evaluate whether you have the available income for that next large purchase, vacation, or other unanticipated expense that pops up. Use it to figure out how much that you can devote to savings or investing (it’s up to you whether you choose to include these amounts as part of your set expenses or wait to see how much that you have left every month to decide how much to devote to savings).

It may sound like a negative thing, but a budget can actually make your life a whole lot easier, smoother, and more prosperous. Remember that knowledge is power.

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May 10, 2012

Basics of Budgeting: Evaluate Your Expenses
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By: JL Lopez — Category: budgeting

We have covered our first two basics of budgeting in the previous posts—assessing your income and identifying your bills. Now, we are going to move onto the slightly tougher step of evaluating your other monthly expenses.

These expenses are ones that can vary, including food/groceries, gas for your car, transportation costs (public transportation/car repairs), child care, health/medical costs, home maintenance/repairs, clothing, entertainment, gifts, etc. These expenses can be somewhat flexible in nature, meaning they may change over time, may be modified or reduced, or may be eliminated altogether.

Figuring out these expenses can be a little more difficult, because they may not be paid all at once like your other expenses. You may need to check previous receipts, bank statements, or credit card statements to determine the amount spent on a monthly basis. If you cannot go back in time to figure these costs, you may need to go forward by marking down amounts spent in each category for a month.

Don’t forget to monitor all payment sources, including cash, to make sure that you are getting the whole picture. One easy way to do this is to use a financial software program or application, particularly one that automatically downloads all of your transactions, that can help to keep track of and categorize all of the expenses.

Although the process of evaluating these expenses can be a little tedious, your hard work will pay off when you are able to establish a detailed and accurate budget. These flexible expense categories are often the most important, as this is often where we hemorrhage money in ways that we may not realize until we complete this step.

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May 9, 2012

Basics of Budgeting: Identify Your Bills
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By: JL Lopez — Category: budgeting

In the previous blog post, we discussed the first basic of budgeting, which is to pinpoint how much money that you make.

The next step in the budget process is to figure out what your monthly routine bills are. These should be your fixed expenses—your housing (mortgage or rent payment), auto loan payments, utilities (gas, electric, water, telephone, cell phone, Internet, television, etc.), insurance payments (don’t include premiums deducted from your paycheck that already should have been reflected in your final net pay), loans and credit cards, and any other regular expenses. These are your definites—we will discuss other household expenses later.

Don’t forget the bills that you have automatically deducted from your bank account or charged to your credit card. While you are putting together this information, it is helpful to note the vendor name, amount per month, and monthly due date for future reference. Since some routine expenses can vary slightly from month to month in amount, consider a budgeting option for utilities that will ensure the same payment every month. Or for credit cards, factor in the minimum amount due or the minimum that you personally want to pay every month. If you are still having trouble establishing a monthly amount, consider going back to previous months for the bill and averaging.

The key is to be as accurate and thorough as possible. Knowing what bills that you owe and when they are due can help you to pay your bills in a timely manner. It can also make it easy to evaluate your expenses to see how you can trim them down.

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May 8, 2012

Basics of Budgeting: Assess Your Income
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By: JL Lopez — Category: budgeting

Take it from me—I have not been the best at budgeting. There’s this aspect of having to document everything that I never seem to do so well at unless I have a nifty accounting software system to use.

But budgets do have their purpose, and can be vital to reining in an out-of-control financial situation. Why, you may ask? A budget can help you to know how much money you make, how much your expenses are, how much disposable income you have available, how much that you can devote to saving and/or investing, and how various life changes will affect your finances. Even though you use a budget to assess your current situation, it often serves as an important planning tool for the future as well.

The first part of a budget is pretty elementary, but extremely important—how much income do you make? In other words, how much money do you have to spend each month? You need to figure out how much pay that you bring in on a monthly basis from all available and routine sources. If the number varies from month to month (as in commission or project-based employment situations, for example), you should use an average, or even to be safe, the lower side of the spectrum. Make sure that the number you use is your net amount, and not gross. It does not matter if you technically make $4,000 per month (gross pay) if, after taxes, insurance premiums, and other paycheck deductions, you are only left with $3,000 to actually spend (net pay). Accuracy is important here, as, if your income amount is incorrect, your whole budget will be off.

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May 7, 2012

Why It’s Important to Pay Your Utilities
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By: JL Lopez — Category: general

We all know that it’s important to pay your auto loan, mortgage, student loan, and credit cards in a timely manner, as otherwise you will receive a negative strike on your credit report. While it may seem like utilities like your gas, electric, water, and technology services are not as high of a priority, the opposite may be true.

I recently moved out of state and had to sign up for utilities at our new location. Both the new gas and electric companies expected a cash deposit of $75-$150 to secure each new account. The only way to get the deposit waived was to request a letter of credit from a previous utility company that indicates a positive payment history. Because I had been paying on time, I was able to get letters of credit from both of my previous companies, and therefore I was able to skip the costly deposits.

Whether it be to your benefit or detriment, some utility companies do report to the credit bureaus on your payment history. If your utilities are not listed on your credit report, but you know that you have a good payment history, you may want to ask if they will report it for you.

Many phone, Internet, and television providers check your credit report to determine if you must pay a deposit or what promotional offers that you are eligible for. Many providers will also report your payment history with them to the credit bureaus, so take care to pay on time.

If you are a renter, lack of payment to your utility providers may be reported to your landlord or a past due water bill may be reflected on the landlord’s annual property tax bill, so this is yet another reason to keep up on your utility payments.

If you ever find yourself unable to pay on time, contact the provider. Many are willing to set up a payment arrangement that can help to salvage your good name and credit. There are also social programs available that can help to lower your bills through weatherization or payment assistance.

Your current payment behavior can have an influence on your financial future—it’s up to you to make sure that it is a positive influence and not a negative one.

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May 4, 2012

Keys to Your Personal Financial Success—Don’t Just Survive: Thrive
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By: JL Lopez — Category: general

Especially in this recent rough economy, with many facing cuts in pay or in jobs altogether, families have been forced to fall into a survivalist mentality regarding their finances. But experts insist that the outlook is starting to improve, so it may be time to break out of the survival mindset.

Regardless of your income level or financial situation, it is important to learn how to make the most of what you have to work with. We should not learn just to survive, but rather to thrive with the resources that we do have.

Since the amount of our means can change over time (hopefully for the better, but that is not always the case), knowing how to maximize our resources can help to ensure our long-term success and financial stability. This involves being intimately aware of our assets, liabilities, and how we may increase the former while decreasing the latter. It also involves constantly thinking of new ways to save and extend our financial resources.

I call this being savvy—devoting one’s self on an ongoing basis to constantly thinking of fresh methods to achieve “life lived better.” Consider it a lifestyle decision which is guaranteed to reap valuable benefits. Being savvy means that you will always be able to “roll with the punches” and adapt to life’s changes. A positive, can-do attitude of creativity will help to keep your finances on the right track, ultimately leading you to where you want to be in life.

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May 3, 2012

Keys to Your Personal Financial Success—Do with Less to Have More
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By: JL Lopez — Category: general

“You can do without the necessities but you can’t live without the luxuries.”

–Hattie Sederhom, mother of famous actor Alfred Lunt

I was visiting Ten Chimneys (the renowned home of Alfred Lunt and his wife actress Lynn Fontanne) in Wisconsin when I heard the quote above. I was struck by it and remembered it all of the way home, as this mother of his was a gal that I could have gotten along well with. I am that weird gal that will deal with few groceries in the house or less heat in the winter or thrift store clothing if it means more vacations, more eating out, and more fun overall. To me, those “luxuries” are worth more than the everyday necessities.

In today’s world, with so many demands on your limited paycheck, sometimes sacrifices have to be made. For many, those sacrifices involve giving up the things that make life so special—the rare experiences that are ultimately the most memorable. For me, I know that I will forget all of the days that I had a larger meal cooked at home or lived in a bigger house or avoided sweating because I blasted the A/C. But I will remember the adventures, the trips, the dinners out at a nice restaurant, the handmade craft bought at that unique store. I personally value the luxuries more than the necessities, and sometimes in order to get what you truly want, you have to make do with less in order to have more.

If you have financial goals or things that you want to obtain, work towards them. Spend less on those things that really don’t mean as much to you as may think. Where can you start trimming the fat and excess? Your sacrifice will prove worth the reward, and you will experience what really makes life worth living.

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