Archive for December, 2006

Some people use sealing fans for show, others use them as a cool refreshing breeze in the summer heat. But did you know that have a ceiling fan running in the winter can keep your heating bill down?

Hot Air Rises. Why do you think you’re supposed to crawl along the ground in case of a fire in your house. The hot smokey air rises and you need to get under it to stay out of trouble for as long as possible. Well now you can put this life saving tip into your money saving tips category as well.

While you’re heating your house the hot air rises to the ceiling. That’s why a lot of homes have cooling units up above and hot air vents on the ground. If you have a ceiling fan you may want to think about turning it on while your heating your house, at a very low setting. That way you’ll keep the hot air circulating and heating up the room faster.

In the end you’ll save money because your furnace won’t have to run as long to keep you warm.

If you’ve ever wanted to take that $2000 that’s been burning a hole in your pocket and play the markets, now may be your best shot.

TD Ameritrade is offering 45 Days of Free Trading if you open an account with them and fund your account with $2000.

I personally don’t use TD Ameritrade so I can’t attest to their services but I’ve read many reviews about them having just as good a service as E-Trade trading services. If I had the money I’d think about signing up. But my money’s tied up elsewhere.

However, If you’ve thought about trying your hand at day trading (a very risky venture and not all that recommended for the frugal money saving type) then you might want to check them out. I poked around their website demo area and it looks like they have tons of interesting tools you can use.

You’ve heard people talk about the real value of a company. You’ve heard about value investors like Warren Buffet, and maybe even Benjamin Graham. But what is intrinsic value?

Intrinsic value is simple by definition. It’s the actual value of a security (stock or company) taking into account everything. The intrinsic value can be found differently and may have different values for the same security for different people. But when talking about the intrinsic value of something your sayings it’s true value, not the market value, and not the book value, accountants have a very specific way of getting at the value.

The reason intrinsic value has a different meaning for different people is because you may value the companies Trademarked name differently than I would. I might not think the Golden Arches are worth much while you may think they’re worth all the money in the world.

The same goes for the companies equipement, it’s product inventory, and even the land it’s sitting on. Each investor must find a way to value a security based on his or her own weighting of these factors. But there’s no denying that intrinsic value really means the actual value.

We recently wrote about how you can save money by sealing off rooms in your house from unwanted heating. Keeping heat from getting into rooms you don’t use just makes sense. Why waste the energy and the money.

But what about all the possible leaks you have in the rest of your house. You surely don’t need to be heating the biggest room of them all, the outside!

That’s right, leaks around your doors, your windows, and even in your walls can cause all sorts of unwanted heating to raise your energy bill and loose you some precious dollars.

You can read all about how to stop leaks and seal up your house over at energystar.gov’s sealing tips page.

Many people remember the great “re-gifting” episode on Seinfeld, with the label maker and Elaine. It was a funny episode and, what I thought at the time, killed the re-gifting.

Most people joke about the crazy uncle who re-gifts blatantly and you probably have joked about him before. But what’s so wrong with re-gifting.

Now it depends on what you’re re-gifting. If you’re re-gifting a gift that had sentimental value to the person who gave it to you in the first place, chances are you’re re-gifting wrongly. But what if you really don’t need the label maker. Giving that away to someone who does need it would be reducing not only the clutter in your house but the clutter in landfills and at the same time saving you money.

You don’t have to be ashamed of re-gifting if you do it properly. That’s where this article on re-gifting comes in handy. There are 12 easy tips to help you learn about proper re-gifting.

Here’s a quick little savings tip for all you coffee lovers out there.

Do you stop and get a cup of coffee everyday? Whether it be from Starbucks or McDonald’s all those coffees add up. If you get one cup of coffee every single day of the year, at an average price of $2 per cup, that’s 365 X 2 = $730. Now we know you won’t have a cup everyday, but wherever you get your coffee probably doesn’t cost $2 per cup either. We’re guessing it’s a little more.

Now lets say you instead buy a single coffee cup maker like the one pictured here for $35. Now you buy a pound of Starbucks coffee from your local grocery store, ground, at $12 per ground pound. We’ll now say you can get 30 cups of coffee out of a pound of coffee. Now 365 / 30 = 12.16, So you’ll need 13 bags at the most, 13 X 12 = $156 +35 = $191. 

That means you’ll save $730 - $191 = $539 a year if you just spend the money on a coffee maker.

With the rising costs involved in heating your home you’ll need to figure out as many ways as possible to cut that heating bill.

One way you can save on heating this year is by blocking off rooms that you aren’t using. Why heat a room if you’re never in it. It’s wasted BTU’s which translates into wasted money. Money you could be saving.

To fully block off a room that you never use in your house from sucking up extra energy and raising your heating bill this year you’ll need to first close off any vents in the room. Chances are a little heat will still leak into the room but that’s good, you don’t want to turn it into an ice box.

Next remember to close the door and keep the door closed. Opening and closing a door to a room you never use would really make that a room you do use and it would be pointless to apply this money saving method to that room. But if you don’t use the room you can close the door and even throw a towel down on the floor to stop air from leaking in and out. That’ll keep the heat out and reduce the space you need to heat.

You’ll have to make sure you aren’t doing this in a bathroom you don’t use. I’m unsure if the pipes would really freeze but you can never be too careful. Check with a plumber before closing off rooms with pipes.