Another Amazing Benefit from USAA

Just when I thought that USAA couldn't think of any more ways to support their members, they came up with a new one.  USAA is reimbursing the overseas transaction fee for deployed military members who use their USAA credit cards while they are overseas.

From the press release:

Deployed Servicemembers to Save Money on Credit, Debit Purchases Overseas
USAA bucks industry trend, refuses to pass costs on to military members

SAN ANTONIO, Texas – USAA military members deployed overseas will be reimbursed a foreign transaction fee for MasterCard and Visa credit or debit card purchases made overseas. While MasterCard and Visa will continue to charge USAA these fees, USAA will not pass on the costs to its deployed members.

The new benefit applies to USAA members for up to 12 months from when they notify USAA in advance of deployment to an overseas location. It is in addition to the many products and services USAA provides its members that demonstrate their commitment to serving those who serve our nation.

“Waiving these fees for our service men and women deployed abroad is clearly the right thing to do,” said USAA Bank President David Bohne. “Those on duty around the world, already sacrificing time away from family, friends and the comforts of home, should know that they won’t be further burdened for serving their country when it takes them overseas.”
USAA constantly looks for solutions to help address the unique financial needs of its mobile membership--especially when they’re deployed. Visit usaa.com: USAA / Deployed Member Benefitsto learn more about the special auto, homeowners and life insurance, investment, and banking benefits USAA offers to support deployed members and their families.

What an amazing way to support the troops.

Quotable: Mme. Riccoboni

"Money does not change men, it only unmasks them."

The Freezer Menu

Let me guess...at least one night in the last month, you have ordered pizza, driven through a fast food place or picked up take out when you hadn't planned to, right?  That is pretty common.  Life is moving fast and sometimes the thought of preparing dinner is just overwhelming.  Eating out or ordering in is expensive and not very healthy.  What's a solution?

Here's what I do...I have what I call our "freezer menu."  It is a list of five or so days of meals that are quick and easy to make, and will last a long time in the cupboard or freezer.  I'm the first to admit that they aren't the most healthy or glamorous meals, but they are better than nearly everything from a restaurant and the price is right.  What kind of things might you put on a freezer menu?  Here's what we have:

• Frozen chicken patties and frozen french fries with frozen edamame
• Boxed scalloped potatoes, frozen green beans and a ham slice.
• Macaroni and cheese and fish sticks with a veg
• Spaghetti with jarred sauce and turkey meatballs.  Add frozen bread if you want to be snazzy.
• Kielbasa or Smoked Sausage with boxed rice:  spanish, saffron, whatever you like - Yum

 

I'm pretty sure that you all have some variety of freezer menus in your minds, or maybe even in your freezers.  Please share your ideas!  For those of you who haven't tried this trick, give it a try.  If it is too much to buy a week's worth of meals at once, just add one meal a week.  The first time you manage to avoid Dominos or Burger King, it will pay for itself.  Your wallet and your waistband will thank you!

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From the Military Report

Lots of good financial information from this week's Military Report:

Housing Assistance Program

Tuition Top-Up Program 05-25-09

Value-Added Whole Life Insurance for the Entire Family

Exchanges Cancel Money Order Program

ThanksUSA Scholarships for Military Families

Military OneSource Expands Counseling

AF Clubs Offer Free Membership

Military 'Portable Lifestyle' Website

There is so much to learn and read - thank goodness Military.com puts it all together in such a neat little package.

What The Grocery Store is Thinking

I spend a lot of money at the grocery store.  Granted, there are usually six of us, and I try to buy quality food.  I also occasionally fall prey to the super sale, the "ooh, I'll try that" trap, or the pleas of small and bored children.  It's even worse when I don't have a meal plan or a shopping list, but even with those two tools, I often end up making some unplanned purchases.

One line of self-defense is knowing the strategies and tricks the grocers use to lure you into making those extra purchases.  The grocery stores are trying to make a profit, and even the not-for-profit commissaries are competing to keep your business so that they remain viable.  I've recently stumbled across a variety of articles that discuss different ways that supermarkets work to make your trip more expensive and more complicated.

At Bankrate.com, Cynthia Brodrick exposes some Grocery Store Ploys.  I thought I knew a lot about the ways that supermarkets seduce their customers, but I'd never heard of some of these.  Who knew that certain music makes you buy more?

At the Greenest Dollar, Heather lists some Grocery Store Tricks and How to Avoid Them.  I love the IPod idea!

In Grocery Store Tricks and How to Avoid Them, Mrs. Fussypants at Divine Caroline reminds us to check those prices when they ring up, especially on the items that are on sale.

One tip I'll add:  be scrupulous in checking your prices at the commissary case lot sales, especially if you are a serious couponer.  There are great sales to be found at the case lot sale, but there are also many items that aren't much of a savings, and are actually more expensive if you could have used a coupon in the regular store.

Learning about grocery store strategies will help you resist the lure of the fresh bread, pretty flowers and so-called sales.  A little reading can help you save some serious dollars.

Financial Roadshow Dates

As part of the Financial Readiness Challenge, Military One Sourcehas been putting together these great Roadshow events at locations across the country.  Upcoming dates include:

Nellis AFB, Nevada, Saturday, June 13, 2009

Bolling AFB, Washington, DC, Monday, June 22, 2009

Peterson AFB, Colorado, Week of July 19, 2009 (TBA)

Fort Hood, Texas, Friday, July 24, 2009

Goodfellow AFB, San Angelo, Texas, Friday, July 24, 2009

Pentagon (courtyard), Wednesday, August 26, 2009

Fort Sill, Oklahoma, Wednesday, September 9, 2009

Fort Carson, Colorado, Thursday, September 17, and Friday, September 18

FE Warren AFB, Wyoming, Tuesday, September 22, 2009

Buckley AFB, Aurora, CO, Friday, September 25, 2009

Walter Reed Army Medical Center, Washington, DC, Tuesday, September 29, 2009

 

Scott AFB, Illinois, Wednesday, October 7, 2009

 

Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri, Friday, October 16, 2009

 

MCAS, Yuma, Arizona, Thursday, December 3,  and Friday, December 3-4, 2009

 

If you are near any of these locations, I strongly encourage you to attend.  They are fun and informative, plus highly motivating! 

Estate Planning Webinar from USAA

USAA - man, I don't think that they ever sleep down there in San Antonio!  On Wednesday night, May 27th, from 7 - 8 CST, they are offering a free webinar (internet based seminar) titled An Estate Plan:  Everyone Needs One.  From the registration page:

"Topics include how the current economy affects your estate plan, minimizing taxation and estate costs, efficient management of your estate, lifetime giving techniques, and more. "

Sounds interesting to me!  Click on over and register today.

Williamsburg Memorial Day Discounts

Colonial Williamsburg is offering free admission for active duty military, reservists, retirees, veterans and their families.  The offer is available today, May 22, through Monday, May 25.  Honorably discharged veterans will have to bring a copy of their DD214.  The passes are only available at the on-site ticket windows.  For more information, you can call 1-800-HISTORY.

While you are in Williamsburg, you may also want to take advantage of Anheuser-Busch's Hero's Salute program.  Once again, Anheuser-Busch is offering free single-day admission for the service member and up to three direct dependents to any Anheuser-Busch theme park, including Sea World, Busch Gardens, Water Country USA, Sesame Place and Adventure Island.  My family has taken advantage of this fantastic promotion the last several years, going to Water Country USA in Williamsburg.  It has been so much fun for many reasons - we get to spend an enjoyable day playing together, and Mom isn't stressed out by the cost of the food because we didn't have to pay the admission fees.  I would say that our times at Water Country USA have been some of our best family memories and I truly appreciate the generosity of Anheuser-Busch.

If you can pull together a last minute trip to Williamburg, or you live in the area, these are fabulous discounts on great experiences that might otherwise be unaffordable for many families.  I hope to hear that some of you are able to enjoy them!

Quotable: Franklin Jones

"A bargain is something you can't use at a price you can't resist."
 

Hoses...

I was over at USAA's new online community, What's On Your Mind, and I noticed an excellent reminder about washing machine hoses.  You know, the plastic or metal hoses that get the water to and from your washing machine?  Did you know that they don't last forever?  My godfather learned the hard way when his 2nd story laundry room flooded due to a broken hose.  In the 10 or so hours before he got home, the water soaked pretty much his entire house, and he had to move out for months while they rebuilt everything.  Shazaam!  Fortunately, most broken water hose stories aren't quite that exciting, but the average damage from a broken hose is around $6,000.  Ouch!

New hoses cost less than $10 for plastic and a little more for metal.  I try to replace them every PCS - it's just easy for me to remember that way.  When was the last time you replaced yours?

NMFA E-News

From the May 19th NMFA E-News bulletin, the following issues of financial interest:

• DoD Releases Fiscal Year 2010 Budget Proposal

• More Guidance for DoD HAP Provided

• DDESS Enrollment Policy for Fallen Warrior Dependents Changed

• Work-at-Home Career Opportunities

The National Military Family Association does a remarkable job of keeping up-to-date on all the many facets of military life, and they advocate for military families in an amazing way.  Thank you, NMFA!

Memorial Day Discounts

Once again, our friends at Lowes and Home Depot are offering military discounts for the Memorial Day weekend.  The details are a bit different at each store but the general idea is the same - get 10% off your purchase!

At Lowes, the offer is good Thursday through May 25th and the maximum discount is $500 ($5000 purchase).  It is only valid for in-store purchases and is not good for gift cards, online purchases, previous sales or the purchase of services.

At Home Depot, the discount is good Thursday through May 27th.  The maximum discount is $200 ($2000 purchase.)

These two home improvement stores are offering the discount to Active-duty personnel, National Guard and reserve members, retirees, honorably discharged veterans and immediate family members of all those groups are eligible. Customers who request the discount should show a valid military ID card or other proof of service.

 

Why USAA?

You've probably heard about USAA, and you may use them for your insurance.  Lots of military families have also started using USAA for their banking needs.  You may be saying, "But USAA doesn't have any branches!  What a pain."

I admit, I still don't use USAA for my primary banking, but I do have both a checking and savings account with them.  At various times, I've thought about moving all our accounts there, and it may still happen.  If you are considering USAA Federal Savings Bank, you will definitely want to check out this link from David Bohne, President of the bank:  A Bank You Can Count On.

I am a huge fan of USAA, as I'm sure you've noticed, and I feel confident that their banki is the right choice for many people.  If you are searching for a new bank, click on over to USAA and see if their products are right for you.

Around the Blogosphere

In the "better late than never" edition of Where's the Paycheck Chronicles, we have these offerings:

The Money Hacks Carnival, hosted by My Life ROI, includes Busy.

The Festival of Frugality, hosted by Savings Not Shoes, features Four Financial Lessons from A Six Year Old.

Elsewhere around the internet, some of my favorite posts:

Jeremy at GenerationXFinancewrites Where to Go for Help With Getting Out of Debt.  When you can't do it yourself, it is time to get help.  There are good choices and bad choices - make sure you make a good decision.

Just in time for PCS season, My Two Dollarsoutlines 5 Ways to Start Decluttering Your Life and Home.  If you don't know where to start - start here!

One effective way to lower your monthly bills is to slash those phone, internet and cable TV bills.  20Something Financeis delighted to find Comcast's Kryptonite Discovered.  Use his techniques to lower your bills, too.

Hope you had an excellent weekend!

NMFA News

The National Military Family Association offers up it's hottest news on E-News:

1. Chairman Recognizes National Military Appreciation Month

2. AWAG Holds 53rd Annual Conference

3. Money Available for School and Portable Careers

4. VA Budget Released

5. Two More States Adopt Compact

6. TRICARE Publishes New Behavioral Health Resource Guide

7. H1N1 (Swine) Flu Update

8. Old Navy Offers Military Appreciation Discount

A New Sort of Auction

An online friend told me about "this great new auction site" where you can win gift cards for mere pennies.  This sounded too good to be true, so I checked it out.  What I found was very interesting.

The name of the site is DFWBid.  It has even been featured on a local CBS News broadcastas a fun way to get gift certificates at a discount.  You register at the site and look at the current auctions.  To give you an example, right now they are running 6 auctions.  One is for a Nintendo Wii (currently $118.37) and the other five are for $50 gift cards:  TJMaxx (currently $16.91), Barnes & Noble (currently $25.17), Target (currently $9.55), DSW Shoe Warehouse (currently $15.86) and Chili's (currently $15.67).  Sounds like a good deal so far.  It gets even better, because the auction amount can only be increased in one cent increments.  Every time an item is bid up one cent, the timer clock is reset (in today's auction, it is was 1 minute, 15 seconds.) In addiiton, there is an unusual twist...if you click on a particular button during a "penny buy" period, and are the first person to answer the two questions correctly, you can win that gift card for just one cent!

Obviously, the website isn't just giving away gift cards and losing money.  Here's the lowdown on how it is works for the auction owner:  

First, there is a $4.99 shipping and handling fee for each item that you win.  As you know, a gift card can be mailed on a regular stamp.  Even if you throw in insurance & delivery confirmation (I don't know if that is included, but we'll go out on a limb and assume that it is), shipping isn't going to be more than a dollar.  Therefore, the first $4 of the cost of the gift card is coming from the shipping and handling charge.  Then, In order to bid, you have to buy into the auction for $2.99.  Once you buy in, that money is not returned to you.  There are numerous people buying in to each auction.  If we take a $50 gift card and subtract the $4 in excess shipping, that leaves f$46 that the auction owner needs to make up in auction entrance fees before he can make a profit.  At $3 an entry, that means that the auction owner needs to have sixteen people enter each auction in order to break even.  (This is just on the gift card and shipping, I'm not factoring in any overhead costs.)

Just to see if this was profitable, I spent a little over an hour just watching the auctions this afternoon, and I counted the number of different bidders on each item.  I was amazed!  While the Wii had a low number of bidders (only 20), the gift cards had lots of bidders.  For example, the TJ Maxx gift card had 54 different bidders during the time I was watching.  That means that 54 people paid $3 each for the right to bid on the auction, netting the auction owner $162 in entry fees on an auction for a $50 gift card.  From a business standpoint, it is brilliant!  From a consumer standpoint, not so much.  Sure, one of those bidders could win a gift card at half it's face value, but the rest of them have just wasted three dollars.

Even more amazing is that I saw 54 bidders during just the time that I was counting.  From my observation, there were about two bids being placed every minute.  Therefore, that $16.92 TJ Maxx, which had been bid upon 1692 times, had been listed for nearly 850 minutes - over 14 hours!  If there have been the same bidders for the whole 14 hours, then the auction owner has already made over $100 in profit on that auction.  However, if the bidders change throughout the life of an auction (and you've got to figure that they do), then he's making many times that in profit on each auction.  A pretty good deal for the auction owner!

As for the "penny buy" aspect of the auction, I don't know.  During the several hours that I was on the site and then writing this article, the penny buy feature was never active on the item I was bidding on.  (I did participate in one auction so that I could write about it.)  I don't know how frequently the penny buy feature is active, or how hard the questions are, or how often someone wins.  I didn't see any evidence that any of the other auctions were won by a penny buy during the time that I was watching, as the items being auctioned didn't change during my visit.

In addition, during the hours that I observed this (off and on), none of the auctions were won.  Obviously, someone will eventually win these gift cards, but when?  Hypothetically, a single auction could last over 30 hours.

As enticing as it sounds, I will be staying away from this auction and any other copy-cats that pop up.  I would rather keep my $3 entry fee, and $5 postage and handling, and use those same hours to do something useful.  I don't see how this is a good plan for anyone (except the owner.)

Quotable: Philip Gibbs

"It's better to give than to lend and it costs about the same." 

Inexpensive Bowling With Kids

My kids always want to go bowling.  I like bowling, too, but I hate bowling prices.  Our nearest base doesn't have a bowling alley, and the next base over has an alley but even at base prices, taking four kids bowling can get expensive.  Fortunately for us, this summer, many civilian bowling centers around the country are participating in a promotion called Kids Bowl Free.  After online registration, each child will receive two free games of bowling every day this summer (from June 1st to August 31st).  That's a pretty amazing offer, since bowling runs $4.75 per game at my local bowling center.

Of course, they are hoping to make money off of this deal.  For starters, shoe rental is not included.  I've heard that is free in some places, but at our nearby bowling center, it is $4.72 per pair.  I have four kids, so that would be nearly $20 a day just in shoe rental.  I did some searching online, and I can find kid's bowling shoes for about $25 each.  If we plan to go at least five times, it would be less expensive to buy them bowling shoes.  That is my plan.

In addition, the bowling alleys will hope that you patronize their snack bars.  We'll have to set up some sort of budget for snack bar spending so that we don't make this good deal into a bad deal.

After signing up the kids, there may be an offer to sign up the older children, parents, grandparents or babysitters for a complimentary promotion.  You may register up to four people for two games a day for $23.95 total for the whole summer.  Since my husband is deployed, I registered myself, my mother, my best friend and her husband.  If each of those people goes with us once, and I play a few times, it will be easily worth my $23.95!  You do have to provide a credit card number to pay for the adult program, and they say that there are limited family packages at each location.

Each location can make its own restrictions.  For example, at my location, it can be used 7 days a week but it must be before 5 pm each day.

Here's how I see the math working, bowling 1X per week for 13 weeks (the duration of the offer):

Five pairs of bowling shoes at $25 each =     $125

Family Package= $23.95

Snack bar budget=  $130 ($10 per week)

Total cost=  $279 divided by 13 weeks = $21 per week for five people to bowl two games each

This is definitely doesn't equal free, but it is a lot cheaper than it would cost to play at the regular prices (which equal over $70 per week for the same bowling & shoes.)  If you are looking for an inexpensive way to bowl this summer, or your kids have been bugging you to bowl, this may be just the offer for you. 

BooksAMillion Celebrates Armed Forces Day with a Discount

In honor of Armed Forces Day, BooksAMillion is offering active duty military a 20% discount off their entire store purchase on Saturday, May 16th.  Find out more at this link:  BooksAMillion Armed Forces Day promotion.

Financial News from The Military

Financial News from The Military Reportat Military.com:

Deal of the Week: FREE Trial Men's Health

Find Your New GI Bill Tuition and Fee Rate

Featured Job: Government Law Enforcement

Education Xpo May 21 

Browse Millions of Homes for Rent

Post-9/11 GI Bill Rules Explained

VA Accepting GI Bill Applications

AF Offers Cash for Ideas

Bonuses for Some AF Re-enlistments

I learn so much from these Military Reports.  There's lots of other good stuff there besides just the financial news...be sure to check it out! 

The Minimum Payment Trap

Carrying credit card debt?  Making just your minimum payments?  While minimum payments can be a great way out of a rough patch, or a default payment for when things are going wacky, regularly making only your minimum payments on credit card debt is a dangerous habit.

Over at The Digerati Life, Silicon Valley Blogger has written an excellent post discussing the costs of making minimum payments on a larger debt (her example uses $37,000.)  While the results are scary, most people's debt doesn't start out at that size.  The  average credit card consumer has a debt of $5,710 (per TransUnion, December 2008.)  So let's look at the minimum payment on a debt of that size, and assume that you've taken advantage of USAA or a military-affiliated credit union to get an interest rate of 8%.

From Bankrate.com: 

 

 

Oh, my gosh...that $5,710 will take you 303 months to pay off...that is over 25 years!  And what if you can't get that great 8% interest rate, or you have it now but it resets to a higher rate?  Tack a few more years on to the time for repayment.  Ack!  But what if you could kick up that payment to 150.00 per month, and not add anything to the card?  You'd be done in 45 months - that's less than four years!

There are numerous credit card calculators available online to help you plan your escape from credit card debt.  You know I'm a big fan of visual reminders - if you need to make a chart and put it up in your room, do it.  Tell your friends that you plan to be debt free and ask them to keep on you about it.  Promise yourself a great reward when you're done.

Do whatever it takes, just don't fall into the minimum payment trap.  You'll be paying that debt off until your kids are your age!

Four Financial Lessons from a Six Year Old

Six Year Old:  "Mom, can I get my allowance for the whole month like my sisters?"

Mom (thinking that she is tired of keeping track of allowances):  "Sure.  Here's your $6.00 for the rest of May."  (She gets $1.50 per week, and there were four more Sundays in May.)

Mom returns to her activities, and then the six year old shows up crying.

Mom:  "What's wrong?"

Six Year Old:  "I had to pay back my sister for the money I spent at the yard sale, and now I only have one dollar and twenty-five cents left for the rest of the month!"

Mom:  "What did you buy at the yard sale?"

Six Year Old:  "A teddy bear."

Mom, alarmed:  "How much was the teddy bear?"

Six Year Old:  "Five dollars.  But my sister told me she would buy me a stuffed animal at the yard sale."

Big Sister:  "I said I 'might' buy you a stuffed animal.  When you bought the teddy bear, you 'borrowed' five dollars from me.

The conversation went downhill pretty quickly from there, with other siblings adding their opinions about how the situation had occured, and Mom (me) being pretty much disappointed at the whole thing.  There is good news, however.  While I wasn't able to turn back the clock, at the end there were several learning moments.  What's amazing is how much they apply to adult life as much as six year old life.

1. Make sure that the price is right before you buy.  Your right price might be different than someone else's right price, and that's OK.  What is important is that you understand the cost, that you are happy with the price, and that you are focusing on the price and not the other issues, such as financing arrangements, rebates, or other benefits.  Car dealers are notorious for focusing on the monthly payment and not the price of the car, but cars aren't the only place where it is easy to get distracted from the bottom line.

2. Make sure all the parties understand and agree to the details in a financial deal.  In my family's situation, there seems to be a lot of confusion about the negotiation and it's outcome.   All aspects of any agreement need to be clear to all the parties involved.  It is always wise to have a written document that lists all the terms of the deal - don't rely on verbal agreements. 

3. If you owe someone money, you'll have to pay it back, and then you won't have as much money in the future.  There are some times when a loan might be necessary (like with a mortgage), but keep the repayment in line with your budget and make sure that it is completely manageable.

4. Don't borrow or lend between family and friends.  There are certainly situations where this is either desirable or inevitable (you go to a restaurant and discover that you left your wallet at home), but make sure to pay your personal debts as quickly and directly as possible.  It is so sad to see friends or family members who aren't enjoying their relationship because of a loan between them.

Who knew that a yard sale transaction between a six and eight year old could provide so many educational opportunities?  I hope that my kids have learned a little from this experience (and I'll be telling the story many times in the future).  I also hope that I can keep these lessons close to my heart and use them as well.

Busy

I've been busy lately - really busy.  My husband is gone, I'm working a little over half-time, and one of my daughters has injured herself, requiring a crazy number of doctor's appointments.  One of the glaring results of all this business is that I'm not watching my money as carefully as I should, and I'm not planning ahead to save money when I can.  It's so frustrating

1. Not planning my spending before it happens.
2. Not reading sales ads to search for the best price.
3. Not cutting coupons and taking advantage of stock-up sales.
4. Not choosing budget-friendly meals.
5. Not being prepared for things that happen, then spending more at the last minute because I'm not prepared.

 

I've been trying not to let this bother me, but it has been anyway.

Fortunately, I read this post at Leaving Excess:  Is There A Secret to Consistantly Making Dinner at Home?   Obviously, it was the title that originally pulled me in, but the meat of the response is truly great:  We all have 24 hours in a day.  Yes, you will need to make the most of those 24 hours in order to live a frugal life, but you can't do it all.  When you add to your plate, something are going to have to go.  Maybe it is OK to give up a little bit of sleep, or a little bit of quiet time, but basically any wholesale change in one direction is going to require a similarly sized change on the other end.

In my own case, doing the single-parent thing, working, and spending an inordinate amount of time in doctor's offices means that I'm not going to make it to CVS some weeks, and sometimes coupons aren't going to get used when I buy groceries.  And that is OK!

More importantly, you can extend this to other areas of your life as well.  Does it matter that your house isn't super clean?  Not really.  Maybe you didn't get the trash out last Tuesday?  The trash will come again.  Sometimes we just need to cut ourselves a little slack and realize that there's only so much one person can do.

An important factor in that is making sure that what you are doing is in line with your priorities.  It is more important to me that my kids eat healthy meals than that I save money.  It is also not worth it to me to spend our limited family time schlepping around to various grocery stores chasing deals.  In that regard, I guess I'm doing well.  And making sure that my actions are in line with my values is way more important than the bottom line.

Quotable: John Nelson

"More and more these days I find myself pondering how to reconcile my net income with my gross habits." 

Case Lot Sales

May is Case Lot Sale month at the military Commissaries.  Good deals can be found but be sure to know your prices - they aren't always the best prices, and you don't want to stock up if you are PCSing this summer!

Click here for the list of sale dates.  If you click through, you can see if it is being held at the store itself or if it is being held a separate location.  If you are travelling a distance, call before you go.  Case Lot sale dates sometimes change unexpectedly!  Also, you can sometimes get an advance list of products and prices at the commissary the week before the sale.  This definitely makes it easier to comparison shop.

$1 Active Duty Airfare: Virginia Only

Oh my goodness - Jet Blue is offering $1 airfareto and from Washington - Dulles and Richmond International airports.  Book by May 7th (tomorrow) for travel in May only.  There are taxes and booking fees but still a good bargain!

I've heard some griping that this is such a limited offer, but I hope that some people are able to take advantage of it.  Maybe they'll be so praised that it will be extended to other parts of the country, as well.

Free Kentucky Grilled Chicken

Click on over to Oprah.com to get a coupon for a free KFC Grilled Chicken meal.  The download will be removed from her site tonight, May 6th at 11:59 pm, CDT.  From the small print, it looks like you might be able to print up to four of the coupons.  If you've wanted to try the new grilled chicken, this might be a good way to do it.

Military Report

Financial highlights from this week's Military.com Military Report:


DoD Defines New GI Bill Transfer Rules

Deal of the Week: Coupons and Discounts for Military

Find Your New GI Bill Tuition and Fee Rate

Your 2009 PCS Checklists

Military Discounts at Liberty University Online 

Online Mall Accepts Used Electronics 

DoD Expands Spouse Career Program

Navy Exchange Rolls Out Uniform

AF Changing Financial Services Delivery

Mortgage Refinancing Increasing 

Military.com Welcomes New Benefits Advisor 

Mother's Day Frugal Five: The Local Edition

Being near your family brings different opportunties (and challenges, as well).  Fortunately, being close presents lots of opportunties for thoughtful and frugal Mother's Day celebrations.

1. Picnic:  Mother's Day often brings great weather.  Invite your Mom for a picnic at a local park or even in the living room.  You can get take out from the grocery store or make it yourself (if you have the facilities.)  It doesn't have to be complicated to be great. 

2. Plants:  Live plants look great and last longer than cut flowers.  If you can, work it out so that you can plant them (with or without your mom) as part of the gift.  One of my most successful Mother's Day presents was the year I noticed that my mom hadn't yet put out her usual impatients in the spring.  I bought a flat, planted them, and she thanked me all summer!

3. Helping out:  Depending on your relationship, you might be able to help your Mom by taking care of some things on her "to do" list, or working with your siblings to accomplish a large project, such as landscaping or painting.

4. The gift of time:  When was the last time you spent a chunk of your day alone with your Mom?  What sort of stuff would she like to do?  Movies, flower gardens, shopping or even playing bingo can be a great way to show Mom that you care.

5. Clean her car.  Think I'm kidding?  No way - who doesn't like to have a clean car?  Put air in the tires, wash the windows, and fill up the tank for an extra bonus.

Of course, people who are nearby can still take advantage of the ideas in yesterday's post, Mother's Day Frugal Five:  The Remote Edition.  Be sure to add your great ideas in the comments.

Mother's Day Frugal Five: The Remote Edition

Mother's Day is always challenging, but especially when you are far away from home.  Still, there are plenty of ways to celebrate Mom (and your kids' Mom) without going over budget.  Most of them will require you to get something in the mail today or tomorrow, but some can be done as late as Sunday.

1. Flowers.  I'm usually against flowers because they are so expensive, but I understand that they are a lovely gesture when you are far away.  Plus, they look and smell fantastic.  Click through USAA for 20% off on all Teleflora orders.  You might also want to go through Proflowers...they have some excellent prices.  And even less expensive option is to ask a brother, sister or friend to pick Mom up some flowers and deliver them for you!

2. Cards.  Play like you're in elementary school and make a unique card.  I treasure the handmade cards my children have made for me.

3. Photos.  Make your mom a slide show with pictures of what is going on in your life.  Put it on a disk or upload it to a photosharing site.

4. Music.  If Mom likes music, make her a compilation CD or MP3 playlist of special songs.  Songs that have family memories, songs from your childhood, or songs that she really likes will all be appreciated.

5. Memories.  There are lots of creative ways to share your memories.  Write or type a letter telling your mom why you love her - you might think she knows but it is always nice to hear it.  Put together a memory jar, with little slips of paper with thoughts on them, or make a video of you talking about your mom.

This list is designed for gifts than be given from far away.   I'm sure you have lots more suggestions - please add them in the comments.  Mother's Day:  The Local Edition will be available tomorrow, so check back.

Shopping at Sears? Do it Sunday night to Save

I recently received an email advertisement from Sears, promoting their Sunday night sale on May 3rd.  According to the website, from 6 to 9 pm, they are offering 5 to 15% off the current price of everything in the store.

I'm probably not going to go over because we don't need anything now, but I am quite a fan of Sears.  They are huge supporters of the military, their stuff is often well priced, and they carry Lands' End merchandise (my favorite!)

If you have some items that you need to purchase, and Sears carries them, tomorrow night might be the night to do your shopping.