After all these years, flowers, chocolate, perfume, and a new vacuum cleaner are all old and cliche. I really struggle each year to come up with something new. Lately I’ve notice my wife drinking a lot of sparkling water. Then, she seemed particularly interested in a device that a friend recently showed us at a dinner party. It was a home Soda Maker, or more simply a way to carbonate water. It is made by a company called SodaStream.

Sleek and stylish, the home soda maker is a counter-top appliance about the size of a coffee maker that transforms water into fresh, fizzy seltzer/sparkling water at the push of a button. Soda makers operate without batteries, electricity or plumbing, so they are simple to use in a kitchen and great for bringing along on a boat, RV or to a second home. Making seltzer and soda takes just seconds and requires no clean-up.
A reusable, one-liter carbonating bottle (provided by SodaStream) is filled with water and screwed into the machine fitting. A CO2 carbonator, housed
inside the soda maker, adds carbonation at the touch of a button – as much or as little as the consumer prefers. After carbonating the water, the soda drinker simply adds a capful from one of over 25 soda mix flavors to make his or her favorite, great-tasting soda.

Fresh Soft Drinks In Seconds… Without Lugging Or Storage Hassles!
	With a SodaStream soda maker, you’ll transform ordinary water into the freshest and best-tasting seltzer and soda anytime, at the touch of a button, with no clean-up.
You can check it out and get a discount, by clicking on this graphic:
NOTE: Use this link to help you choose the right model for you.

These specials range from buy one, get one, free deals to free coffee and free meals.

I do not have a complete list, but here are a few of them.  Your best bet is to go to your favorite haunts and check them out.

Free Coffee – Free brewed coffee all day at Starbucks if you bring your mug.
Free Cupcakes – From 6 pm – 8pm today, you get two free bite-sized cupcakes at participating Cinnabon mall locations.
Free Ice Cream – From 3 pm – 7 pm today, you get once free slice of ice cream pizza (pizza made to look like a slice of pizza.) at participating MaggieMoo’s.
Free Massage – Today through Sunday, you can get a free massage participating Hydromassage mall locations.  Call ahead to book an appointment and visit www.hydromassage.com/taxday.
Free Meal – Today through Sunday you can get one free meal for each one you buy at Boston Market.  Use this coupon.
Free Meal - From 4 pm – 10 pm, all month long, you can get one free kids (12 and under) dinner for each adult meal purchased at IHOP.
15% off – get 15% off food (not alcohol) at P.F. Chang’s.
$10.40 Dinner and Drink specials – At McCormick & Schmick’s you can get a $10.40 dinner and drink special in the bar. You can also get a gift certificate worth $10.40 for a later visit.  If you are a tax professional working until midnight, you can get their freebie Friday dessert plus a $10.40 certificate.  Get it?  $10.40 — tax-day (form 1040)!!

Please let us know if you know of any other great deals for Tax Day.

Cheers,
Richard

A friend just showed me a great deal, that is only available for a limited time.

You can save $100 on the purchase of an iPod Nano! Or, a Kindle, a GPS, or almost any other MP3 player.

Does it sound too good to be true?  It’s not.  Okay, there is a little catch.  This deal is not for everyone.  But if you like to listen to books while driving, running, taking a walk, or sleeping this is for you.

The catch is very simple.  Sign up for a subscription to Audible and you get $100 off any qualifying product.

Just click on this picture of an iPod Nano. It will take you to a new page. Scroll down to the Special Offers and Product Promotions section for details. I hope you find this useful. Please continue to let me know of any special deals you come across.

Cheers,
Richard

I recently was watching TV and came across a show that is tied to a website that is a great way to save money.

It is called WatchHalfOff.com.

It is a TV show that shows you some limited time great deals in the San Francisco Bay area.  You do not have to watch the show, but it is entertaining and helps explain some of the great deals.

You then go to the website, WatchHalfOff.com and pick the savings you want – usually half off a restaurant or service in for a limited time.

This is great if you live in the San Francsico Bay Area and want to try something new or are just visiting and want to save money.

Cheers,
Richard

I know, this is not the most exciting topic. You have heard it a hundred times. Probably every summer when gas prices go up you hear this again. But it is really worthwhile to go through this simple checklist. Though each tip will only save you 1 or 2 miles per gallon, when you put them together, over the year they will really add up. You’ll be surprised. You might not need that new car after all!

Money/Gas Saving Tips:

1. Drive Slower – match the manufacture’s recommendations.  If you look at the brochure when you bought the car, it will have a little graph that shows you the ideal performance range.  Even driving too slow can be less efficient than the ideal.
2. Watch Your Weight – That is the weight of all the stuff in your car. Remove all excess objects from within your car that you do not need to carry around. You’ll be surprised at the crap that can build up over time. Everytime you accelerate your car this excess weight burns more fuel.
3. Keep A Constant Speed – This is one of the most significant gas saving tips.  Driving at a nice steady pace is very important.  It takes much less energy to keep a car moving than to accelerate it. Pay attention as you drive: does your speed change slowly, do you tap your gas pedal to the music, does your speed mimic the tone of your conversation?
4. Avoid Sudden Starts – Do not slam the gas when starting from stop lights and stop signs.  This is related to #3 above.  A nice steady and firm acceleration will get you going nicely, without wasting a lot of gas.
5. Windows Or Air Conditioning – One of the biggest questions people ask is it better to use the air conditioner or keep the window open on a hot day?  The answer is simple: neither and both. Actually, the answer is very simple.  At low speeds, it is more efficient to keep the windows open.  At high speeds, the wind resistance is greater than the drag of the air conditioning and therefore, the air conditioning is better.
6. High Octane Gas – One of the biggest questions is do I really need to use the High Octane gas as the manufacturer says is required? According to all reports that I have read, the answer is NO.  Unless your car is knocking or your are experiencing problems, it is NOT necessary to use the higher octane gas.  You might, let me emphasis might, get slightly better performance using the higher octane gas, but I really do not think it will be enough to overcome the higher cost.
7. Roof Racks & Accessories – Anything that you do to the outside of your vehicle will disrupt the finely tuned airflow that the manufacturer has worked so hard to optimize.  That means that roof racks, wider tires, or any bling added to your car would be less than desirable.  I think judicious use of bumper stickers would be acceptable.
8. Tire Pressure – Make sure that your tires are always properly inflated.  They will lose pressure over time.  Check the owners manual, the data plate inside the driver’s door jam, or on the tire.  Remember, always check the tires when they are cold and use a good quality pressure gauge.
9. Clean All Filters – Very simply, regularly check your air filter, oil filter and all other filters.  It is obvious. If a filter is dirty, whatever is flowing through it will not flow as smoothly and easily and therefore efficiently.
10. Cruise Control – To cruise control or not, that is the question.  Cruise control is great if you use it under the right conditions.  Cruise control is great at helping you maintain a constant speed.  It is ideal if you are driving a long distance on a relatively flat road without traffic.  However, cruise control is not good if you need to adjust your speed due to traffic conditions.  Also, it is not good if there are a lot of hills.  You can see the hills and slowly compensate for them.  The cruise control will work hard to keep your speed constant and therefore will use excessive gas and brakes to maintain your speed.
11. Bonus Tip – This is the super secret tip that you won’t see elsewhere:  Don’t drive.  okay, aren’t you glad you got this tip.  That’s right, before you get in the car, ask yourself if it is really necessary?  Can you walk, ride a bike, use your kids scooter?  Can you combine this trip with other errands?

I hope you find these tips useful.  They are meant as a guideline to help you.  Don’t drive yourself crazy trying to follow all of these.

And for those of you who care (which should be all of us), you are not only saving money, you are helping the environment.

This one is a little harder to implement than it sounds, but if you need to be frugal, it is worthwhile.

There is an old saying: It is hard to soar with eagle if you work with turkeys.

What the heck does that mean?  It means that if you want to be a success, you need to surround yourself with successful people.

Group mentality is very strong.  We are social, community-oriented people. We are strongly influenced by the people around us.

It is extremely hard to break away from the influence of the people around us.

Think about it, if everyone around you has a lot of money or is living beyond their means, then it will be very hard for you to do differently.  Who wants to wear secondhand clothes when their friends are wearing the latest designer clothing?

Do you want to eat-in when your friends are dining at 4-star restaurants?

Don’t get me wrong, there is nothing wrong with re-purposing clothing and there is nothing wrong with occasionally rewarding yourself with designer jeans. However, if you consistently live the highlife, you will find yourself  helplessly getting in over your head more and more, going further and further into debt.

Here is another thought, another way to look at it.  No matter how good your intentions – if you are doing something different from your friends, they will make fun of you. They will pick on you and convince you that your ways are wrong. Right or wrong, your family and friends, thinking they have your best interests in mind will tell you what they think is right.  It will be hard to see that they are just set in their ways.  In reality, as long as you use your best judgment, will know what is really best for you.  You can do the same as them and end up like them, or break away and find your true future and success.

If you are satisfied with they way things are, great! Don’t make any changes.

However, if you are not satisfied, reconsider who you spend the majority of your time with. (Don’t abandon your family or friends, just adjust who you spend most of your time with.)

These are little tips that you can start implementing immediately. As usual, I invite your feedback and your own money saving tips. Although many of these tips will seem so obvious, sometimes it takes a simple reminder to get you motivated to make a change.

Look for those recurring expenses.  Take a very close look at your credit card bills and checking account statements.  You will probably be surprised at all the little recurring expenses that you have.

$5 here and $10 there can really start to add up. The simple tips listed below can easily add up to saving you over $2000/ year! As I mentioned in previous posts I started with the big expenses such as changing  gym membership and where to get a hair cut.

Here are hints for some other recurring expenses to analyze:

• Alarm Monitoring System – Do you really use your alarm monitoring system?  If not, cancel it (but keep the signs posted).  If you are still using it, try renegotiating it.  I called to cancel. When they asked why, I said it was too expensive, so they offered me a 20%+ rate reduction. This alone, saved me over $100 a year for a 15 minute call.
• Cable / Satellite Service – Do you really watch all those TV channels you are paying for?  Do you need the high end box in all the rooms?  I am somewhat of a TV addict and thought I needed everything.  I sat down and looked at what I really watch.  It turns out that there about 10 channels that I watch repeatedly, but I am paying for several hundred.  Part of that is the way the cable company has it set up, but I found that without giving up much, I could reduce my plan.  In reality, I could find most shows that I like to watch by going to the TV station’s website on my computer.  Also, I only need the DVR functionality in one room, not all the rooms. Savings over $60 / month.
• Pool Service – Are you lucky enough to have a pool?  Do you pay a service to maintain it?  Try doing it yourself.  It really isn’t that hard.  If you do not want to test the chemicals and figure out what to put in, simply take a sample of water.  Most pool supply stores will test the water for you for free and tell you what you need. At $100+ per month, you can save over $1200/year.
• Subscriptions – Look closely at what subscriptions you have.  There are the obvious subscriptions, such as newspapers and magazines, do you really have time to read all those periodicals that get delivered to your front door or your computers in box.  Many of us get the newspaper everyday of the week, but only read the Saturday and Sunday editions.  We get the rest of our news online.  Many of us also have 4 or 5 magazine subscriptions, but really only read our two favorite ones.  Not only does this cost money, but it is a huge waste of paper. Save $5-$45 / month.

HINT: Look through your credit card bills and checking account statements closely to see if there are any subscriptions or recurring expenses that you are not even aware of.  Chance are you signed up for something on the internet or elsewhere and unknown to you, it started a monthly or annual subscription.  Maybe it made sense when you signed up, but no longer need that service.  This is especially true on the internet.

Please share your other hints with us.

These are little tips that you can start implementing immediately. As usual, I invite your feedback and your own money saving tips. Although many of these tips will seem so obvious, I will try to pick tips that are a bit more unusual. Also, and even more importantly, it is amazing how much we ignore the obvious until someone or something points it out.

TODAY’s TIP:
Getting Your Haircut.

First, I want to point out that some people do not get their “Haircut”. They get it “Styled”.

Right there, that is part of the distinction. Where do you get your hair cut? Do you go to a high-end stylist that is one step away from “Stylist To The Stars”, do you go to a local barber who knows nothing more than a military crew cut or the proverbial bowl cut, or some one in between?

I have two friends who at first glance lead very different lives, yet upon closer look, they are really very similar. They are both work-at-home dads with internet businesses who take care of the kids and tend to take care of most of the household chores. But the real similarities are with their wives. Both wives work corporate jobs, neither wife understands what their husband does (I won’t go into the ramifications of this), and most notably; both wives LOVE soccer. Each wife plays on at least three teams – three or four times a week. At times it appears soccer is their number one priority. No matter where they are, they have to make it back home for the next soccer game.

Now get this: Even though they live in different cities over 40 minutes apart, they both drive all the way to San Francisco to get their hair cut (er, I mean styled) at the exact same place! However, there is one big difference. Despite all the similarities I mentioned (and those that I didn’t), there is one big difference, and this is the whole point of this tip: One pays big bucks (over $100) to get her hair styled by an experienced professional while the other gets her hair cut by a stylist in training and pays less than $25.

As it turns out, the one who pays $25 is actually happier more often with her haircuts than the one who pays over $100.  I kid you not.

Which do you do?

For now, I am going to give you a link to several of the best I have found so far. Please let me know which you like and why. Also, please feel free to let me know of any others that you particularly like.

Here are just a few to get you started. Stay tuned for more in the future.

These are little tips that you can start implementing immediately.  As usual, I invite your feedback and your own money saving tips.

TODAY’s TIP:
Switch your health club membership to a simple gym.

I canceled my membership at the full featured Health and Athletic club to a small focused local gym.

As it turns out my wife never used the full featured Health Club, so why pay for her?  Instead of $150 + mandatory $25 minimum Food & Beverages fee every month.  I now pay just $34.  That is a savings of $141 / month.

Not only is it much less expensive, but it is also much closer to my home.

Being closer makes it much more convenient and saves me money and travel time.  Best of all, I can go at any time of the day or night – especially when no one else is there.

The Full Featured Health Club has everything you could possibly need, including the crowds and limited operating times.  It had a ton of exercise equipment, hot tubs, steam rooms, saunas, rows of showers, a well stocked locker room and more.  I loved all those features, but in reality, I just wanted to work out then go home shower in my own bathroom and get on with my day.

By comparison, the local gym is very clean, very conveniently located, I can go any time of day or night, I avoid the crowds, and it costs much less.

Which sounds better to you?