Penny Pinching Mom

Spinning My Wheels

When I first started this blog, I had grand visions for it. I planned on turning it into an entire website, with lots of cool features and advice for moms like me who needed to get the most out of their money. I figured I would employ lots of SEO, promote the heck out of it, maybe even hire one of those directory submission services to get more traffic.

But things just didn’t work out that way. In fact, it seems that I’ve lost my focus altogether and this has become a rather general blog instead of what it was intended to be. I guess it’s because I ended up being less inclined to be a webmaster and more oriented toward being a writer over time. I like creating websites and all, but it’s turned out to be more of an occasional hobby than a passion for me.

Sometimes I feel like I’m spinning my wheels here. I guess I should probably try to create more content that relates to the site’s intended purpose, at the very least. Then again, it’s my blog with which to do what I see fit. So if I want to write about nothing but rubber chickens, I can.

I guess what I’m having here is sort of a blog midlife crisis. Just overlook me. I’ll get everything figured out in time.

Sales Tax Holiday

Well, I just did a search on it, and the North Carolina sales tax holiday is always on the first Friday, Saturday and Sunday in August. So this year it will be on the 1st, 2nd and 3rd. Here’s a rundown of what will be tax exempt:

• Clothing of any size and type, with a price of $100 or less per item. Rentals are excluded.
• Sport and recreational equipment with a price of $50 or less per item.
• Computers with a price of $3,500 or less per item. Monitors, keyboards, mice and speakers that are sold separately from a CPU are not included, nor are peripherals.
• Certain computer supplies. These include:
  • Storage media
  • Handheld schedulers and PDAs that are not part of a cell phone
  • Printers
  • Printer supplies (paper and ink)
• Most school supplies with a price of $100 or less per item. You can find a complete list here.
• School instructional items priced at $300 or less. These include:
  • Reference books
  • Reference maps and globes
  • Textbooks
  • Workbooks

Not in North Carolina? You can find a complete list of states that offer sales tax holidays, along with their corresponding dates, here.

Loving Yahoo

I have been looking for an alternative to Google lately for many reasons. Some are rather selfish, but others have to do with their search relevancy. I mean, is a search engine that doesn’t show JohnChow.com as the first result when searching for “John Chow” really worth using? That will no longer be an isolated example, either. The root of it all is Google’s decision to discount the value of certain sites. Yes, that’s their decision to make, and yes, I’m angry because some of my sites got hit. But the fact that they may not be giving me the most relevant results just because they don’t like something that a website is doing doesn’t make me want to use their search engine.

Anyhoo, I’ve given up almost everything Google. And when looking for somewhere else to do the insane amount of searching that I do, I ended up back at my old favorite from the pre-Google days: Yahoo.

I had been under the mistaken impression that Yahoo didn’t have all of the features that Google does. But it can do everything the big G does and then some. They even provide those search suggestions now, so if you’re struggling for the right words while typing or might want to expand on what you’re looking for, they help you out. And whether I type in something that is nearly in the form of a question or a more search-friendly term like “mover NYC“, I get good, relevant results.

Seeking Lower Gas Prices

Gas prices going down have been a welcome sight lately. I hope they continue in that direction, but you know how that goes.

I made a day trip up to Virginia today, and gas prices are usually about 10 cents lower up there than they are here. True to form, they were $2.79 there compared to $2.89 here. I usually wait until I’m on the way back and fill ‘er up nice and full to get the most cheap gas possible, but I was running low and stopped on the way up and got $20 worth. I figured maybe I would fill it on up on the way back.

By the time I was headed back, prices had fallen by 5 cents at the station I had gone to on the way there. I was elated… well, maybe that’s a little extreme. But it was nice. Of course I had to stop and top it off… if you call $17 worth topping it off.

A handy little website to check out if you’re traveling is GasBuddy.com. It lists gas prices at lots of gas stations in lots of cities and towns. And if you have a little spare time and would like to help your fellow travelers, you can volunteer to monitor gas prices in your town.

An Eye-Opener

How do you think you’re doing compared to other people or families regarding your income and budget? You’ve probably been exposed to poverty line figures, and wondered how on earth anyone can live on that much money. I know I have. But there’s a calculator you can use to find a more realistic measure of how much a person or family needs to survive.

The Economic Policy Institute’s basic family budget calculator takes family size and geographical location into consideration, and tells you how much your family needs to meet their basic needs. I was surprised to find out that nearly one-third of North Carolina residents were living below that benchmark. And the figures are for 2004, so that number could be even higher by now, given soaring gas prices and their after effects.

If you feel like you’re all alone in having to keep a close eye on your budget, don’t. You’ve got plenty of company.

Free Samples

Free samples are awesome! It’s great getting to try something out for free, because you can see if you like it before you shell out the bucks to buy.

I’ve been slacking on my sample-mongering for a while now, but one of my favorite places to find free samples is StartSampling.com. They have some great samples to choose from, and they also have contests and surveys you can participate in. You can even provide feedback on the samples you receive.

One of the things I really don’t like are the third-party offers they try to get you to sign up for, but you can always just pass them by. And their reward points program isn’t very good. But if you’re looking for free samples, look there. You’ll find some good ones.

Some other good places to find freebies:
• The Free Site
• WeeklyFreebie.com
• All Free Samples
• Freaky Freddies

A word of caution: Beware of sites that promise free stuff in exchange for completing “offers”. Most of the time the offer you have to complete will cost you money. At the very least, they will want to send you emails. If you do give them an email address, use one that you don’t mind receiving spam at.

eBay Deals

If you are a bargain hunter and do any shopping online, you’re probably no stranger to eBay. If you’re willing to look for them, there are loads of deals to be found there.

Don’t have the time to search for the good stuff? There’s a site that will do most of the work for you. Lastminute Auction has listings of auctions that are ending in less than one hour, and have high bids of less than one dollar. And they are sorted by category for your convenience.