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September 30, 2011 • Posted by Sarah FossSeptember Trivia Contest Winners!
Today we gave away three $100 Smartypig Gift Cards in our monthly Facebook and Twitter trivia contest. If you want to get in on the fun next month, make sure to become a fan on Facebook and Twitter.
Today’s question: “Incomes fell 0.1 percent in August. When was the last month incomes fell?”
The answer: October 2009
After we collected all of your entries (over 100!), we randomly narrowed the list down to the top 20. To choose the top three, we decided to challenge Ingrid’s putting skills.
Watch the video to see who won a $100 SmartyPig gift card as their prize:
Congratulations to our winners: Kathryn Stabrawa, @RJ_Reid1, @NeilBode
Save Four Figures For the Holidays
The average person spends about $650 on holiday gifts each year. And that doesn’t even include winter parties and seasonal travel. It’s no wonder scrooge started reciting, “Bah humbug.” So when Kiplinger’s challenged me to save $1,000 for this year’s holiday season, I did what any other debt-fearing gal would do… I kept reading.
Kiplinger Finance Expert, Cameron Huddleston skips the tired, “dine out less” and digs right into the big money. First up, adjust your tax withholding. The average refund is more than $2,500. Stop paying Uncle Sam and add some of that to your holiday goals. Next? Increase your home and auto deductibles. This could decrease your premiums by $150/month in a snap! Other suggestions include dropping your gym membership, telephone land line and buying regular (not premium) gas, and my favorite: Eliminate bank fees. That’s right, some banks are charging up to $30 a month for miscellaneous charges. Keeping your funds safe with SmartyPig nixes these fees entirely!
The holidays are less than three months away! So get started saving today with tips from Kiplinger’s and cash back and competitive interest from SmartyPig! It’s the winning combination to a debt-free January!
Wishing you successful saving.
Sarah Foss, SmartyPig’s Media Mad Woman SFoss@SmartyPig.com
Hot Holiday Deals! Come and Get ‘em
Despite unemployment being up and the volatile market situation, people are still shopping, and shopping often. Holiday shopping rose nearly 6% last year, and forecasts indicate a significant jump again this year. The caveat is, people are shopping with deals, discounts and bargains in mind. And retailers are obliging. My inbox displayed a “cyber September” deal this week asking customers to get a leg up on their holiday shopping… in September. It’s early, but if you know who and what you’re shopping for, you can save yourself a bundle.
So, while you’re saving for holiday gifts, parties and travel with SmartyPig keep in mind some of our incredible offers. Guys, use SmartyPig’s Cash Rewards card to save 5% on gifts for the kids in your life at Target.com, 5% on clothes for your wife at Nordstroms.com, and use the cash back to reward yourself for a “deal done well” at one of our many golf or fishing retailers. Ladies, buy your hard-to-shop-for girlfriends or husband a gift card from one of dozens of Retail Gift Cards we offer like Best Buy, Macy’s or Pottery Barn, and receive up to 14% cash back. The best part about these deals (besides the obvious, of course) is that they don’t end! Access them today or at the last minute. You choose. Just know that when you save and shop with SmartyPig you always get the most money for your money!
Wishing you successful saving.
Sarah Foss, SmartyPig’s Media Mad Woman SFoss@SmartyPig.com
Dream Big, Save Big
Walt Disney once said, “If you can dream it, you can do it.” There are dozens of famous quotes with this same meaning. We hear them in athletics, in business, and in relationships. The problem is that most dreams require resources. A lot of resources. And I’m not just talking money, but time, energy, and certain skills. Typically, though, money is the most difficult to come by.
You want to retire at 50, or have your wife stay home with your kids, or maybe it’s just a vacation, or a debt-free holiday season. Whatever it might be, “Aim for things that really matter to you, but don’t set yourself up to fail before you ever start,” writes “The Napkin Guy,” Carl Richards. If you want to take your family to Disney World next year, it’s the saving that begins today that will get you there. Be realistic, contribute often (and easily with SmartyPig) and lastly, make the balance that goes into achieving those goals work for you. Don’t cut back on every single thing you enjoy just to fund your goals. You an have it all, if all of it is reasonable.
Richards closes by saying, “It’s amazing the changes that I see in people once they figure out how to match their dreams with their resources. They worry a lot less day-to-day about things they have no control over. They spend more time with the people they love and doing things that make them happy.” Make the changes that work for YOU today. Then start saving with SmartyPig and we’ll help you get there fast, with plenty of rewards along the way!
Wishing you successful saving.
Sarah Foss, SmartyPig’s Media Mad Woman SFoss@SmartyPig.com
Multi-Saving Made Simple
I’m caught in a triad of savings goals today, with two vacations and a pricey new bike making up that list. One vacation in January, a second this summer, and the bike? Well, that’s a ways off. Needless to say, I’ve struggled a bit with prioritizing my saving. Lucky for me, personal finance expert Trent Hamm of The Simple Dollar tackles this tough task by answering the question: “How exactly do I save for multiple goals at once?”
Hamm being the smart man that he is, suggests you begin by selecting a bank to best facilitate this process, like SmartyPig. “With SmartyPig, you actually create savings goals within your account. You can create as many as you’d like,” writes Hamm. And once you’ve created your goals and know the timeframe in which you’d like to reach them, well, then begins the difficult part. Except, Hamm zaps most of the difficulty out of that task with simple formulas and tips for priorization. Check them out for yourself here. Personally, I will be using Hamm’s method for prioritizing by closest deadline. Which means I will be skiing in a few months, but probably not cruising on a new bike for a couple of years. But at least I know what (and when) to look forward to.
With Hamm’s method for computing and SmartyPig’s sure-fire saving system, you are now well on your way to hitting all of your goals easily!
Wishing you successful saving.
Sarah Foss, SmartyPig’s Media Mad Woman SFoss@SmartyPig.com
