Guest Post by Christian Gordun

The holiday hangover is not over yet – most of us still have a stack of holiday shopping bills piled up on our coffee tables or desks to deal with. In a recent post, we addressed one way people can rebound from the holidays and start anew this year, but just like any hangover, the ultimate cure involves more than just one simple trick.

Let’s take a look at some reasons why shoppers often end up with a massive debt headache and arm you with some simple but effective money-saving tips that will help you stick to your budget and avoid the infamous holiday shopping hangover.

The Cause

During the holiday season, shoppers are often rushed to check off all the items on their list and will forgo some of the easiest ways to save money such as checking out competitive prices or using coupons. As they get caught up in the holiday buying frenzy, many are forced to make impulsive purchases while last-minute shopping at stores, instead of researching different options online. The holiday rush causes consumers to forget how much they are spending and rack up massive credit card debt, which has shoppers making New Year’s spending resolutions they know they’ll never keep.

The Cure

Instead of making all those impossible resolutions, we’re going to let you all in on a little secret that will leave you debt-free after every holiday shopping season: you never have to pay full price for anything again! As a result of the recession, more retailers than ever are giving you the chance to save money via online coupon codes and deals. It’s simple, just follow these rules:

1. Go Online: Stop printing and start clicking! If you come across an invalid coupon, it’s easier to find a replacement when you’re shopping online rather than when you’re at a store.
2. Think Outside the Grocery Cart: Step away from the idea that coupons should only be used to buy groceries. There are coupon codes for almost every item that you can buy online – from magazine subscriptions to electronics and flowers.
3. Time it Right: The best online deals are offered three times a month: the very beginning, the very middle and the very end. Online stores post fresh coupons the 1st-3rd of the month, the 14-16th, and the 28th through the end of the month.
4. Avoid Shared Coupons: Avoid using sites that let users post coupons because the likelihood they will be faulty or expired is much higher. Instead use sites which ONLY post coupons that are approved by the retailer.

Coupon Craze is an online coupon code and deal site that will help you follow these coupon commandments. Like we said last time, if you’re hungover, you take aspirin, have a greasy breakfast, get hydrated and sometimes swear that you’ll never do that again! Treat a financial hangover the same way. Create a budget and then stick to it by using online coupons.

Are you ready to make online coupons a part of your shopping routine? Let us know!

About the Author

Christian Gordun is the founder and CEO of Coupon Craze, a free consumer resource with online coupon codes and deals from over 10,000 retailers. He founded the company in 2000 as a hobby, and prior to taking it on fulltime, spent five years as a senior programmer and technical project manager. He received his master’s degree from London Business School in 2008.

1. New Car
When: November or December
Why: Don’t, as many experts advise, buy this year’s model in late summer when next year’s models hit. There’s a year of depreciation on it already. Instead, wait a few months and buy the new model late in the year, when dealers are antsy to hit their year-end numbers. “Look for the vehicle in the far corner of the lot that hasn’t been washed,” suggests Jack Nerad, the executive editorial director for Kelley Blue Book. That means the dealer doesn’t consider the car a profit maker.

4. Jewelry
When: Monday morning, in summer
Why: You’ll be the only customer. “You can always save 10 percent on jewelry,” says Ken Gassman, president of the Jewelry Industry Research Institute. “But you can save as much as 20 percent if you negotiate when you’re alone.”

5. Clothes
When: January 31 or August 31
Why: “Retailers are looking to make their monthly sales numbers and clear inventory to make room for new spring or fall lines,” says Marshal Cohen, chief retail and fashion analyst with NPD, a research firm. Shop when the store is empty and you’ll save up to 75 percent, Cohen says.

Get the whole list at Men’s Health Lists : MensHealth.com
Technorati Tags: learn to bargain, haggle, shop, bargain, get a deal

Plus, you gain more exposure, too! And that’s really why you’re here. To be heard (or read, as the case may be).

Christopher B Williams presents Getting the Bait on Good Home Loan Terms Despite Bad Credit Score posted at The Real Loan Solution.

Barry presents Tips To Curb Impulse Buying posted at Associate Money.

Lee McCoy presents Opportunity.com Review posted at The Secret Affiliate Society, saying, “Opportunity.com Review by a user of the system”

Chris McClelland presents 10 Reasons Your Bank Never Wanted You to Read This posted at Lucrative Investing.

Ted presents Saving Money: 50 Tips for College Students posted at CampusGrotto.

John Russell presents No-Fault Auto Insurance Basics posted at The Low Cost Auto Insurance Guru, saying, “If you live in a state with no-fault auto insurance, you need to understand what it does and doesn’t do.”

Dr. Alan Singer presents When Mom is on Your Daycare Payroll by Dr. Alan Singer posted at FamilyThinking.com, saying, “Imagine the effect of paying your Mom to be your live-in Nanny for your twin girls like Dave and Kelly did. There is a lesson for kids, in that it’s better care (for the same money) to have Nanna look after you both than to drop you at a Day Care center each day.”

I can totally relate to this one. We’re in the process of choosing (again!) another day care center. We want our children (almost 2 and almost 4) to get the socialization and structured (somewhat) learning that a “pre-K” school offers, but man o man, none of them are close to ideal.

Chris McClelland presents The Best Places in America to Starve posted at Lucrative Investing.

Chris McClelland presents College graduation: A diploma in one hand and a mountain of debt ahead. posted at Lucrative Investing.

While an education is a great differentiator, it’s not worth going into debt. Financial aide, scholarships, and very low-interest loans (as a last resort) are all viable means of funding a college education. Consider community colleges for a couple of years and finishing off at a state college or university. Live and eat at home. Commute.

Chris McClelland presents The Most Financially Productive Areas to Live posted at Lucrative Investing.

Chris McClelland presents Income Streams for Life posted at Lucrative Investing.

Chris McClelland presents Signs a Stock is Going to Fall posted at Lucrative Investing.

Chris McClelland presents Can 18 wheelers be a sign of the economy? posted at Lucrative Investing.

KCLau presents The Most Common Habit of Rich People posted at KCLau’s Money Tips, saying, “About the common habits of the rich`”

jim presents How to Save on Primary Education posted at Blueprint for Financial Prosperity.

Dan at Everydayfinance presents New Discover Current Card – Like Spying on Your Kids? posted at Everyday Finance, saying, “A new card out there allows parents to track their kids’ every move. This has mixed implications to consider.”

Donald Latumahina presents How to Make More Money posted at Life Optimizer.

Jack Schmidt presents How to Know When You Need A Vacation posted at SectorMatic Money Journal, saying, “Personal Finance – Everything for the Big Spender on a Budget. Now you can live like a fat cat, even if you’re on a money diet. Laugh all the way to the bank with Jack Schmidt and SectorMatic. It’s for you!”

Bank Champ presents GMAC Bank Becomes Ally Bank posted at Bank Champ.

Patrick @ Cash Money Life presents Baby Coupons, Free Samples, and Discounts posted at Cash Money Life, saying, “Discounts, freebies, and coupons for baby items – including magazine subscriptions, diaper coupons, and more!”

Silicon Valley Blogger presents TradeKing Review: How Does TradeKing Measure Up? posted at The Digerati Life, saying, “Where should you open a new investment account for your child? I would suggest this brokerage because it has a wealth of investment materials and free tools that you can use once you sign up. It provides an awesome resource for budding investors to learn from!”

I agree. TradeKing is simply awesome. Very low cost, good tools, great resources…

Ryan Suenaga presents Finding Three Dollars posted at Uncommon Cents.

nickel presents The Worst 529 Plans – 2009 Edition posted at fivecentnickel.com.

The Smarter Wallet presents Kids and Money: Answering Your Children’s Money Questions posted at The Smarter Wallet, saying, “Thanks!”

freesoftware presents List of Best Free Software for New Computer posted at I Love Free Software, saying, “Here is a nice way to save some money in this economy – get all the software for free. This is the list of the best free software that you can install on your new computer. We searched all over the web, and compiled this list of best free software. Each one of these is best in its class, and still totally free. You are going to love these!”

Brian McKay presents Teen Drivers Are Hitting The Road posted at MonitorBankRates.com, saying, “In this country, cars kill more teenagers than cancer, gang violence, suicide, or drugs and alcohol. Hard to believe?”

Nope, not hard to believe at all. No doubt you, like me, know quite a few families devastated by this fact. Drinking and driving too fast are most often the culprits.

costseg presents cost segregation form 3115 | Society of Cost Segregation Audit Techniques Guide posted at Cost Segregation Audit Techniques Guide, saying, “read about form 3115 that is used in filling out segregation audits that are lately more and more popular on real estate market”

endowments presents Endowment Life Insurance Policy posted at Endowment Policy, saying, “What is endowment policy surrender value and how to make use of it to earn more money.”

Don presents Teaching Kids to Save, Start Early posted at Corvus Financial News Wire, saying, “I only wish someone would have taught me this habit”

No kidding! But you’re doing your part here. Let’s keep on passing along the “I wish I had known…” advice!

That concludes this edition. Submit your blog article to the next edition of Kids and Money using our carnival submission form. Past posts and future hosts can be found on our blog carnival index page.

Technorati tags: kids and money, blog carnival.

Once in a while I come across another author’s post that is so good that I have to share it with you. This is just that occasion.

Recently featured on MSN’s MoneyBlog, Frugal Dad presents 75 Tips to Survive a Down Economy. These are absolutely outstanding tips and tricks to get your spending down in a down economy.

Try just a few of these at first; you’ll soon be addicted to saving money. Don’t go nuts though. Using the same towel for 3 months in a row is really gross. I did that in high school and wondered why I never got a date.

It probably wasn’t the towel, but I can believe that.

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#1

In a previous post, I joked about how my family of four eats on $1,000 a month because I had read a number of stories about how families larger than mine ate on as little as $60 a month (and here’s one on a family of five eating on $250 per month). It’s astounding to me how these folks do it. In short, it takes a methodology that I’m quite sure nobody in my family will ever master. But the families profiled in these stories have a plan, they stick to it, and they’re extremely serious about their shopping. They use coupons and store “bonus bucks.”

I strongly suggest you read both of the stories above. They offer numerous tips on how to save money on groceries and other necessities. One of the stories even goes into detail about Tip #2: The Drugstore Game.

#2

The Drugstore Game. It sounds like something a meth addict might do, but it’s not. It is a serious use of in-store incentives, manufacturer’s coupons, and shopping skills. I’m not even going to try to explain it, but I think I might try it.

Here’s one example from a shopping outing at CVS:

Adidas deodorant was $4.99 and if you bought it, you’d get back $4.99 in Extra Bucks. They also had some toothbrushes that were $3.99 and you would receive $3.99 back in Extra Bucks. “By splitting it up into several transactions, I can take the extra care bucks I get and use it to pay for the next (items).”

Don’t forget, Crissy also had coupons for most of these products. “That’s the best when they have anything that’s free after the Extra Care Bucks because when you have a coupon you’re basically getting paid to buy the product.”

She rolls the savings of one transaction to the next, to the next, and so on. Amazing. This is ingenuity at its best.

Here are a few posts on how the “game” is played.

Creative strategies for coping with rising costs – Part Two: The Drugstore Game
New to The Drugstore Game? You’re in luck!
Super Savings Saturday at MSM
Play “The Drugstore Game” to Cut Monthly Bills (read the commnets)

So, try your hand at the Drugstore Game. It looks very promising, if not fun.

That’s it until next week. I hope your shopping improves after you implement some or all of these tools.

#1

Everybody knows by now that I like free better than I like pay-for, especially if the service is equal. Well, in the case I’m about to bring up, you get FREE and BETTER service. The telephone companies make a ton of money on “Directory Assistance” or 411 calls; they’re pure profit for the telcos.

Google, in their quest for world domination, has come up with a free version of 411 that involves no human interaction. Hence, better service than the drones at the phone companies can deliver. I’ve used GOOG-411 for a year or so now and I love it. It’s saved me countless dollars in fees (compared to the telco’s charge of $1.50 to $2 or more a pop), time, and frustration (“I said, ‘Sweet and Savory’”). Something that will always boggle my mind is how Google’s voice recognition technology is better than a human at understanding me.

Sure, there are other free directory service companies, but I don’t have any experience with them. I’ve found something that works, that’s free, and that’s super-easy to use. What more could I want?

#2

I’ve grown sick and tired of paying $100 a month for a family cell phone plan. My wife, her mother, and I rarely (okay, have never) use the full complement of minutes we get with our Verizon Wireless plan; there isn’t even a plan that would suit our minimal cell phone usage. None of the main players in the cell phone arena (Verizon, AT&T, T-Mobile, Sprint) offer plans that suit us.

For those of you who use only about 200 minutes a month, a pay-as-you-go, or prepaid, plan is the way to go. There are a few players in this area (all the major cell phone companies listed above have their own prepaid plans), but the one that is most intriguing is Virgin Mobile.

First of all, 200 minutes costs $20. Yes, that’s 10 cents a minute, which sounds kind of high. But when you compare that to the 200 minutes a month I use and pay $40 to get (that’s 20 cents used minute), it seems downright cheap.

Often, Virgin Mobile has promos or coupon codes that you can use to get minutes at a lower unit cost. You can also “top up” (is that a British term?) at any time, and if you don’t use your minutes in a given month, they roll over to the next month (of course, there are limits and stipulations to this, buyer beware.

The one shortcoming is the lack of choices for phones (and, unlike the non-prepaid plans, these phones are rarely free). But I use a phone for calling people. I don’t need a camera (I have one) and I don’t need an mp3 player (I have one of those, too). Bluetooth is mandatory (I live in Moscow, I mean, California, where hands-free calling is the law). But what else is necessary?

Call quality, ease of use, battery life, and price, in that order. You will find a phone that meets those requirements.

There’s a few really good posts by The Happy Rock about how he ditched Verizon in favor of Virgin Mobile, where he talks about the great deals he’s found. Here are two of his posts:

Setting Up a Prepaid Virgin Mobile Cell Phone Account
Virgin Mobile Deal: $60 For One Year Of Prepaid Virgin Mobile Service

That’s it for now. Until next week…

Coupon Codes Mall All Coupons, Discounts and Promo Codes | CouponCodesMall.com