Free Money for your School

Did you know that you can link your Stop & Shop card to your school? I was just surfing their site looking for deals when I stumbled upon the program.

To learn more about this program and to register your card to your local school, click here!

If your school is not registered, make sure to contact your principal to make sure the school gets registered fom the 2010-2011 school year.

Harder than I thought

Just for the record, saving money is a job. I feel like every time I save a few bucks, something comes along and my efforts get trampled over. For example, I just had to drop $400 into my car. It is at 100k (well, just about there) and of course there is a list of what needs to be done to a vehicle after the owner has used and abused it for that long. I only did half the list, partially because I had some of it done not too long ago when other issues came up with my vehicle. So, next oil change I will have to go back in for another $400 adventure. I hope that this is the end of the major maintenance upkeep for a bit. I intend on driving this car until I am forced to get a new vehicle - let's just hope my plan works!

I also installed a new bay window and new slider door about a week ago. The old ones were very inefficient, not to mention an eyesore. Oh, and the back door didn't lock very well. I had planned on doing this for a few years, so it is great that it is finally done. Cost a pretty penny, but with the amount of heat/cool air we were losing I am sure it will be worth it. Plus the resale value just increased a few bucks on the house for doing that.

I am just finding it harder and harder to save money. I have an auto save plan of $600 a month, but like I said... something happens and I have to end up removing that money from my online accounts to pay for some "emergency".

Hopefully things turn around soon!

ALLY bank

Have you see commercials for Ally bank? It is an online bank, like ING. I have seen more Ally commercials popping up recently. Perhaps it is because they are trying to attract people to put their tax returns into an account. Or maybe they just want to get the word out that they have great rates.

Speaking of great rates, I do currently use an ING account as my $10k challenge account. I have had it for years - I think I was still living in VA when I opened it. ING has great rates compared to my local credit union. No, I can't get my money on the spot with ING, but I have not had a need to do that in the past 6 years or so. I think I am good on that front. ING does offer a checking account where you can have an ATM card, etc., I just don't use their services for that.

This morning I decided to check out what this Ally bank was all about. I went to their website and they have better rates than ING. Hmmmm... I dug deeper. Ally not only has better savings and CD rates than ING and my local bank, but also better checking account rates. In fact the rate is about double that of my local credit union. Ally also has no minimum balance required on their accounts.

So what did I do? I opened an Ally savings account and an Ally checking account. I will not use the checking account for bill pay and such yet, but the option is there if I choose to do so. I also get an ATM Debit card for free and I can use it at ANY ATM and they refund all ATM usage charges.

I hate to say this, but I think this might be a better situation than my local credit union. I might actually try to use the Ally account to it's full potential for a bit to see how it goes.

Check out ING and Ally to see if they can help you save more money!