Couponing is one of the many ways to save on shopping, whether you’re buying groceries, clothing items, electronics, luxury brands, services, and so much more.
Now that the holiday shopping season is already here, it’s time to put those couponing skills to good use. But for those who have zero idea on where to get them, you can get coupons from a variety of sources – magazines, newspapers, online, a product’s packaging, etc. But aint nobody got time for searching through magazine and newspaper pages.(more…)
Traveling to a holiday destination or on a business trip can be a delightful and exciting experience.
However, every trip starts with planning chores and precautions many are loath to do. Without proper planning, holidays easily degenerate into expensive nightmares. This doesn’t have to be so, if you:
Do your homework
This is the most important part of a trip. Most people prefer exotic locations for their holidays, which inadvertently mean they have no clue about the place. It is therefore makes sense to do as much research as possible. Check with friends and family who have visited that location for tips and advice. You can also check online sites where visitors post their experiences and recommendations.
These are some of the things you need to consider about your destination beforehand.
The weather/climate
This will determine what you need in terms of clothing, transportation etc. This will save you unexpected shopping costs when you get there. For example, if you are going someplace where temperature variations are larger than you are accustomed to, plan to dress in layers.
Culture
This is important and may dictate what food or drinks are available. You may have to make other plans if you have special dietary requirements.
Average costs
Holiday destinations especially those far from cities can charge high prices for simple necessitates like sunglasses. And really ridiculous prices for such “luxuries” as a bottle of water or an umbrella.
Distances between attractions
Your glossy travel brochure may fail to mention that those historic sites are only accessible by taxi, or twice a week. This will result in costly travel expenses or cancellations. Call ahead to avoid costly hassles.
Hours of operation
Many visitors get stranded when travel schedules, especially those involving public transportation, go wrong. Do not make very tight schedules, to avoid missing a connecting flight, or the last shuttle to the secluded resort.
Book in advance
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A spur of the moment adventurous trip may sound like a romantic idea (and can even be a bargain), but be prepared for late booking fees, reservation wait lists, unconfirmed bookings, and sky high rates for “impulse” excursions. Usually, you will save a lot of money by booking well in advance. This applies to hotels, airlines, concert tickets or boat cruises. Early booking gives you choice discounts, package specials and free offers. This also avails enough time for you to research and plan every little detail of your trip.
Travel off-season
Those ancient sites or pristine sandy beaches can be crowded and expensive in high season. Most businesses have to cash in during the brief holiday weeks, and will therefore charge a premium. This includes everything from airlines to the local ice cream vendor. You can save significant amounts in hotel, transport, tours, and food charges by traveling off-season.
How you pay matters
Cross border payments are a veritable gold mine for banks, credit card companies and other payment processors. Your holiday can be much more expensive when you get hit by extortionist exchange rates, check clearing fees, money transfer charges, overdraw penalties and roaming surcharges. Credit cards are the best for making payments abroad, but be sure to use those that support multiple currencies and charge low fees. Avoid using your bank account at all costs. Paying in cash may also attract penalties in certain places, such as for train or bus tickets.
Cell phone roaming
If you are not leaving you own country, this may not be a concern. But if you are traveling to another country, you may come back to find your cell phone bill with several hundred dollars in “roaming fees” even if you didn’t make or get any calls! This is because the “smartphone” nearly everyone carries these days may automatically pick up email from any carrier it finds — which comes with hefty data charges. To avoid this, contact your cell phone provider to see what fees you may encounter at your destination. If you are planning early enough, you may be able to get a foreign SIM. You might have to “unlock” your phone first, but most carriers will let you do that if you tell them you will be traveling to another country.
It may be less expensive to rent a cell phone while you are there.
Online resources
The modern traveler has a host of resources online which can make traveling much easier to plan. Services such as Turkey Visas have also gone online, making most travel requirements accessible at a click of a button.
Use all these resources to ensure your trip turns out to be a memorable one — in a good way.
Yeah, there are always lots of Amazon ads. And there are sales and rumors of sales. So how is January different for Amazon?
Here’s how: On February 15th, FBA (Fulfilled by Amazon) sellers will be billed for something called “long-term storage.” The FBA sellers will get the warning email in mid-January — and a lot of them will panic.
Some FBA sellers with very large inventories will see long-term storage fees, which are based on volume, in the thousands of dollars. And when they see that email, they will start slashing prices to try to dump inventory to reduce that fee. Some of them, especially the ones who are seeing that fee for the first time (which happens just after the FBA seller has been in that business for a year), will actually cut prices so drastically that they will lose more money than they would by just paying the fee.
Of course, when that happens, it tends to depress prices overall.
If you didn’t get what you really wanted for Christmas, mark January 15th on your Calendar, and start looking for the bargains then.
Note: You’ll save even more if you are a Prime Member.
Are your prescription drug prices going through the roof? Do you wonder sometimes, even if you have great health insurance, whether you’re going to have to make a choice between eating well (or eating at all) and taking your medicine? Has your doctor prescribed a medicine for you that you just don’t think you can afford? Well, you are not alone.
Even in the younger set, prescription prices appear to be at an all-time high, and it doesn’t seem that there is any relief in sight. So here are some tips to help you find ways to reduce your prescription medicine costs. If one doesn’t work for you, maybe another one will. Keep going until you get some help!
Get free or nearly free prescription drugs
Did you know that doctors often aren’t aware of the cost of the medicines they prescribe? Your first step when given a prescription slip, should be to ask the doctor for some samples. They get free samples all the time from visiting drug salespeople, so there should be at least a few to get you started. That way, if you discover that the medicine doesn’t work for you, or you have a bad reaction to it, you haven’t spent any money at that point, and you can move on to the next medication
Generic pharmacy programs
Surely by now you have heard of the low-cost generic prescriptions you can buy at discount stores like Walmart or Target – usually at a price somewhere around $4.00 per 30-day supply or $10 for 90 days’ worth. Be sure to pick up a brochure in the store where they detail the generic drugs that are available at those low prices, or go online to their prescription website to either search for your medication or download a complete, up-to-date list. From that list, you can talk to your doctor to see if any of the generics can be substituted for the pricey brand-name drug the doctor already set you up with.
Online discount and bid pharmacies
Another way to lower your costs is by using online pharmacies that are known to be reliable. BidRx.com is an online pharmacy that will bid to reduce your prices for prescription drugs. There’s a short sign-up procedure to go through (when asked for a referrer, use “clark” as the name**) and an explanation of how the process works. You can enter the medication you are taking and get instant bids from competing pharmacies. You can choose the bid you prefer (shipping charges differ, so be sure to check those), and when you decide which price you prefer to take, you can Reserve the medication. If you don’t see a price you can live with, you can cancel the procedure and back out with no problems. After you confirm your prescription, there are several ways to get your doctor’s prescription and your payment to BidRxDirect.com and your prescription will be on its way.
TogetherRX Access Card
Another resource to check out if you need help with your medicines, check out TogetherRx Access Card, which offers a 25% to 40% discount on your prescription drugs. To be eligible, you must be under 65 and receive no prescription drug coverage from the government or an employer. There are some income limitations based on the number of people in your family, but you can get more detail and start the enrollment process by visiting TogetherRxAccess.com or call 1-800-444-4106.
Drug company assistance programs
Every drug company has a prescription assistance program that they administer for truly needy people that use very expensive prescription drugs. For example, I Googled “Glaxo Smith Kline free program” and came up with a list of approximately ten programs for people, both under and above age 65 to help with drug costs. That was just for one drug company, but I have heard that all the big pharmaceutical manufacturers have a similar program. Here are a few names to try: Johnson and Johnson, Pfizer, Roche, Novartis, AstraZenica. Here is a link to an article on Wikipedia that has links to all the big drug companies.
Wholesale Clubs
Finaly, don’t forget your local Sam’s Club, Costco, and BJ’s. Did you know that despite the people they have guarding the door from entrants without membership cards, you do not have to have a membership card at any of the warehouse clubs in order to use their pharmacies? Just tell the door guard that you are visiting the pharmacy and they have to let you in!
So, if you are looking at the prospect of having to pay a huge proportion of your salary in prescription drug costs, don’t despair! Get busy and see how you can help yourself. One of the programs above may be just the answer for you!
**I first heard of BidRx.com in one of Clark Howard’s excellent books, Living Large in Lean Times, available on Amazon.com. When he discussed the BidRx.com site, he said he had set up an access code of “clark.” Since he has one, and I don’t, and he shared his publicly, I am sure he won’t mind if you use it. Neither he nor I get one penny from a referral to BidRx.com (but the link to the book IS a referral link to my account at Amazon, so if you use my link to purchase the book, I’ll get a small commission.)
