State Farm Credit Card- Looks Like a Good Deal!

State Farm Credit Card Offer

State Farm Credit Card- It's a Good Offer
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I get several credit card offers per week in the mail- sometimes even more than one per day.  Today I received a credit card offer that is a really a good deal.  It is a Visa State Farm Credit Card.  The offer was 2 years at 0.9% interest on balance transfers AND there is no balance transfer fee AND there is no annual fee.  Almost all of the credit card offers I get have a 3% balance transfer fee.  This would mean that if you transferred a $10,000 balance the fee would be $300.  I recycle any offers that charge a balance transfer fee.

The rate on purchases is 12.9% and the 0% introductory rate goes up to 12.9% after 2 years.

The State Farm Credit Card also has a benefit that you can get cash back if you use the State Farm Credit card to pay your State Farm Insurance bill.  The offer I received was a "pre-screened" offer that came in the mail.

Save Money on Your Insurance Bill- Use a State Farm Visa
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Of course, 0% interest would be even better than 0.9%, but you wouldn't pay much for interest compared with a $300 balance transfer fee.  The interest on a $10,000 balance transfer would be about $90 for 2 years if you pay it off.  If you check my math, it might not look like this adds up, but if you steadily pay down the balance over 2 years, the average balance would be $5,000 for 2 years.

This Is What a Good Credit Card Offer Looks Like...
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Seeing this credit card offer reminded me of a good way to save money on high interest credit cards- transfer balances with high interest rates to cards with low- or zero- interest and get them paid off.  Watch out for the transfer fee, which is typically 3% of the balance.  Also watch out for annual fees- some cards charge an annual fee of $50 or more, which I try to avoid unless the card has a really good points or travel miles program that offsets that cost.

If you have a credit card balance with a high interest rate, look for a deal like the State Farm Credit Card with $0 balance transfer fee, no annual fee, and a low interest rate.

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Almost Free Lunch- Only 4 Cents!

How Did I Get Lunch for 4 Cents?  Better Oats!

It is true that you can't get much for a penny these days, but I have my lunches taken care of for several months at only 4 cents each!

The cheap price is not the only good thing about my lunch plan for the new year- it is also quite healthy.

While picking up a few things at the grocery store for my wife's homemade chicken pot pies, I came across some boxes at the back of the grocery store with a sign that caught my attention.

Clearance Better Oats Oatmeal!
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I checked this out carefully to make sure each BOX with 5 packets of BetterOats oatmeal was being offered for 20 cents, rather than 20 cents per bag which would work out to $1 per box.  But the offer was in fact 20 cents per box, which is only 4 cents per bag of oatmeal.

The next thing I checked was the expiration date on the boxes.  Some expired in 2 months and others in 3 months.  I figured that I could eat quite a bit of oatmeal in 2 or 3 months and my kids like oatmeal as well.  My parents eat oatmeal every day too, so I decided to load up the cart.

Bulk Oatmeal is a Cheap Lunch and Snack!
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Cheap, Healthy, and Easy to Make at Work or at Home

I sent 10 boxes (50 packets) home with my parents and had about 15 boxes left.  After trying the blueberry muffin flavor, my kids informed me that 15 boxes would not be enough.  This was really high quality oatmeal with nice packaging and good ingredients like whole blueberries and flax seed.

I figured that the bargain oatmeal would be gone right away, but I happened to be in the store a few days later and there was still a good supply so I picked up about a dozen more boxes.

I have found that it is easy to make oatmeal at work.  Just pour the oatmeal in a paper cup, fill the bag with water (these bags have a mark for the correct amount of water), and microwave for about 65 seconds.

Check out this deal on Amazon for 52 packets of oatmeal:


I have been eating more than one packet of oatmeal per day, typically 2 or 3 packets so far this year.  There are several flavors including:

• Blueberry Muffin
• Apple Cinnamon
• Chai Spice
• Cinnamon Roll

The lesson I take from this is to keep an open mind about discounted items at the grocery store, but make sure you can use the clearance stuff before it gets too far "past code".

Plus I was reminded how much I like oatmeal and how healthy it is for you.  See if you can find some good deals on oatmeal- happy hunting!

Penny Pincher Journal

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Work at Home as a Professional Penny Pincher!

Work at Home as a Professional Penny Pincher!

Work as a Professional Penny Pincher- the Money is Real!
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Surfing around on the Internet, I see all kinds of offers for programs to work at home and make some extra money. Most of the concepts I see seem difficult and may or may not work. For example, not everyone is cut out to sell things, make phone calls, or write marketing copy. I suspect many of the work-at-home schemes make money for the people selling the scheme, but not for the people who pay for the program and try to make money.

Here’s an easy work at home plan: make your second job focusing few hours a week on spending less money. Now that I think about it, I am a professional penny pincher! If getting paid to do something makes you a “professional”, then I am a professional penny pincher since I save money every day.

This article describes my daily routine that adds up to over $17,000 of savings per year. That works out to nearly $1,500 per month. You may be able to save this much or even more if you are willing to work at saving money for a few hours per week- think of penny pinching as a part-time job. This sounds like a good opportunity to me!

I’ll go ahead and put out an advertisement for professional penny pinchers, I think this would be a better way for people to end up with extra money each month than most of the work-at-home schemes out there. Of course, I’ll need to describe this work at home plan in flashy marketing language to compete with the fancy advertising for other work-at-home plans out there. Here goes:

Now Hiring: Professional Penny Pincher

Work at home, set your own hours, and make hundreds- or even thousands- of dollars per month. No experience required. No need to purchase any program or start-up materials. Become a Professional Penny Pincher- start today for free!

Find Ways To Spend Less Money as a Professional Penny Pincher!
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Is Professional Penny Pincher the Right Job for You?

So let’s review. You are interested in working at home a few hours a week to make extra money. You want something easy to do that doesn’t require spending money to get started. The opportunities out there seem to require purchasing a program or doing work that you would rather not do. Plus it seems questionable how much money you could make at the work-at-home jobs.


Now you have come across an ideal work at home job: Professional Penny Pincher. You don’t need to buy any program or start-up materials to get going. You don’t need any particular skills or experience. You can choose how much time to spend working as a penny pincher. Your time spent working as a penny pincher can make a lot of money for you with only a few hours of work each week. I think we have found the ideal work at home job for you!

Your Time Spent Saving Money Pays Well as a Penny Pincher
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How to get started as a Professional Penny Pincher

Here is a list of some expenses that many people can cut to get a jump-start on saving money immediately. Many people could cut thousands of dollars of expenses per year without much effort.

So you are ready to sign up- great! How do you get started? As with most things, getting started is the hard part. What should you do on your first day of work as a penny pincher? Since you are working at home, we can skip the tour of the building and showing you where the coffee maker and bathrooms are located...

The place to start is by thinking about your spending and attempting to separate spending into “needs” and “wants”. This task is difficult because there is often not a clear line between needs and wants, and also because you may view some of your “wants” as “needs”. You may be able to think of some expenses you could cut to spend less money with only a few minutes of thinking.

Since you are a “professional” penny pincher, you may want to go further and make a list of your expenses for the month. Some of the bigger expenses will be easy to list and you may even know the amounts already.

The quickest opportunity to save money right off the bat is often in the smaller expenses and unnecessary purchase you make out of habit. Since you have spending habits that are set, it may be difficult to see which purchases are unnecessary. Check out Penny Pincher Journal for specific ideas on ways to spend less money every day.

Some ways to spend less money do require effort, such as packing your own lunch or keeping track of coupons and shopping lists- but the payoff is high considering the amount of work required.

Over time, you can work at reducing your larger expenses. I have been able to move to a smaller house to save money on mortgage payments. You may also be able to get your car paid off and eliminate car payments as well.

Here's Where You Make Your Money as a Penny Pincher...

Next, bring income into the picture. As you find ways to spend less money, you will have more of this income left at the end of each month to save or invest. This is your payment for working as a professional penny pincher. If you calculate your hourly rate by dividing how much money you save by the number of hours you spend working at pinching pennies, being a penny pincher may be one of the highest paying work-at-home jobs around.

Working as a professional penny pincher has benefits that go beyond making money. You may find that you are eating healthier, have reduced stress, and have less clutter in your house. Good luck on your new part-time job as a professional penny pincher!

Penny Pincher Journal

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Penny Pincher Skills- Improve Your Ability To Save Money

How Can You Improve Your Penny Pinching Skills?

Improve Your Skills at Saving Money
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It takes skills and abilities to be good at saving money instead of spending it.  Some abilities are more at the innate end of the spectrum, for example you may naturally be a patient person, or you may naturally be impatient.  However even something like patience can be improved with practice if you work at it.  Determination is another example of an innate trait that can be improved with work and through your circumstances.

Skills that can help you save money can be learned and improved.  For example, when I bought my first house I had no plumbing skills at all.  Over time, I learned to do more plumbing work.  Last week, I cut off copper supply pipes, removed a kitchen sink and sink base cabinet, and sweated on new shut-offs and installed new drain lines for the new sink.  I bet I saved well over $500 on plumbing bills by using skills to do something myself instead of paying someone else.

What Skills Help You Save Money?

If I were training you to improve at basketball, I would teach skills like passing, dribbling, shooting, and defense.  What skills can you work on to become a better penny pincher?  Here are some that come to mind:

Negotiation Skills:  There are many situations where having good negotiation skills can save you lots of money.  When buying a house, car, furniture, or other big ticket items there is often a lot of room for negotiation in the price.  The keys to successful negotiation are to understand the realistic market value of what you are buying and try to understand how you can sweeten the deal for the seller in ways other than paying more money.

Budgeting Skills:  Are you good at keeping track of expenses and how much you are spending?  Do you know where your money is going?  Some people seem to be naturally good at doing this, while other people struggle with keeping track of expenses.  No matter what your current skill level at budgeting, improving you budgeting skill can help you become more effective at saving money.

Home Improvement Skills:  There is a lot of opportunity to save money on maintaining and upgrading your house if you develop some home improvement skills.  You can save money if you can do simple electrical repairs and upgrades such as changing a faulty light switch or replacing a light fixture or ceiling fan yourself.  Plumbing skills, such as being able to replace copper fittings and install new sink drains, can save tons of money if you are planning upgrades to your kitchen or bathroom.  Painting yourself- both interior and exterior- can save you lots of money if you are able to do this work yourself.  The more landscaping and yard maintenance you can do yourself, the more money you’ll save.

Improve Your Home Improvement Skills to Save Money
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Couponing Skills: Coupons represent a lot of planning and work that people put into saving money.  It takes some time, effort, and organization to use coupons effectively- but the payoff is well worth the effort.   I would say that I use some sort of coupon of money-saving program almost every time I buy something.

Improve Your Skill at Using Coupons to Save Money
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“Smart Shopping” Skills:  I describe this skill as being able to accurately identify things that you need and obtain them at minimal cost.  This may involve shopping at clearance sales, or purchasing used items at consignment stores and thrift shops.  For example, today my wife found a pair of dress pants she can wear to work for $7 at a clearance sale.  This is a lot better than waiting until new pants are urgently needed and then risking paying full price for them.  A couple years ago, we had no chair in our living room and picked one up at a consignment shop for $38.  We would have paid 10x more at a furniture store.

Cooking Skills:  I’ll admit this is an area where I have a lot of room for improvement!  Fortunately my wife is good at cooking and enjoys doing it.  If you get good at making food at home, you can save a lot of money on eating out and eat healthier as well.

Gardening Skills:  Growing your own food provides a great feeling of independence, as well as an opportunity to save money on buying groceries.  If you are good at gardening, you can produce a lot of food using few resources.  If you are lucky, you grew up helping in the garden and know how to do it.  If not, you’ll need to read books and get tips from others who are good at gardening to increase your skills.

In the past, car maintenance skills may have made the list, but cars are so complex now that it is hard to work on them at home.  You can find coupons and get an oil change for under $20 which is hard to beat even if you do it yourself.  The oil change shops like to get your car in the door with a cheap oil change so they can recommend other repairs you may need while you are there.

Improve Your Penny Pincher Skills

So how can you improve your penny pinching skills?  Practice to improve your skills by taking on small projects or tasks and challenge yourself to see how well you can do.  Get some books at the library or read articles on the Internet to get up to speed on the knowledge required.  Choose a problem and see how well you can solve it while improving your skills at the same time.

Penny Pincher Journal

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