The Blonde Diaries

Who doesn’t love saving money?! Ever since I knew that I would be moving into a house this year, I started weekly visits to Crate and Barrel online. One thing I fell in love with was their pantry storage jars. Clean, simple, and gorgeous. They would be lovely to store my flour, sugar, rice, and oatmeal in. Unfortunately though at 9.95 (.5 gallon), 11.95 (1 gallon), and 19.95 (2 gallon) a piece, it was just not reasonable to get them all at once.

So while making my Christmas list in December, I ended up on Target’s website and found the same exact jars for about $5 cheaper per size. After recieving a 1 gallon and a .5 gallon from Crate and Barrel for Christmas, I decided to fill in with the look-a-like jars from Target. They were an exact match in look and style. The only problem was that I ordered them online rather than purchasing in the store. I received the jars as promised but along the way UPS used them as hockey pucks and I ended up with glass shards rather than jars. So my suggetion would be to hit your nearest Target STORE to pick up the jars rather than order online.

Crate and Barrel Jars

Target Heritage Hill Jars

I never understood the importance of a local insurance agent until Mike needed to put in a claim and our old company was worthless. After that incident I went shopping for a company with local agents who I could drive up to their offices and discuss things with when I needed them. While shopping for new auto insurance companies I decided I might as well change my renters insurance and bundle it all together. Luckily I found a great local agent in no time and she has been wonderful to work with. She has made the process of switching companies and buying a new house super easy. I’ve learned my lesson, no more online or over the phone insurance companies. The small savings just aren’t worth it.

Mike and I have made the most common mistake ever – we did not put enough deductions on our W-2s last year. We updated our status as marrieds but kept the deduction at 1. With no heavily taxed bonuses for us this year and no mortgage interest to deduct we are realizing our mistake. Our tax bill is outrageous.  I am so so happy that we kept to a budget with this house purchase.  What we saved on the house is going to this tax bill.

Since we are now updating our W-2s and rechecking our 401k contributions, I am thinking it would be good to go over all of our monthly bills and see what we can decrease. Last week I was able to decrease our cable bill by moving from AT&T Uverse and going back to DSL and Direct TV. Even with adding a landline phone, it still comes out cheaper than Uverse cable and internet. Tomorrow we are heading to Verizon to combine our individual lines to a family plan to save a little money. After that I think I’ll be calling for new auto insurance quotes on our cars to make sure we are saving as much as we can. I recently read about a plan that is being proposed to allow you to buy insurance based on mileage driven. Basically every time you drive you are covered but anytime you aren’t then you don’t have the full auto insurance on your car. It seems like it could be a good deal and save some money for not driving but 2 miles a day.

LivingSocial.com is having a sale on Amazon.com gift cards. They are 50% off today with a limit of 1 per person. So for $10 you will receive a $20 Amazon.com gift card in your email box tomorrow. That will buy a lot of kindle books or anything else on your wishlist.

Check it out here Living Social Amazon.com Sale

It seems like there is a “warranty” or “insurance” for everything now a days. When I bought my Kindle back in August I was given the option to add a service warranty. I ended up opting against it only because I couldn’t see needing it. Same thing with my cell phone. I opted against it since it was a free phone and I could just go back to my old phone. But then I started wondering what I did consider important enough to buy the insurance or warranty. I bought it for my car but not for my computer or television. Should there be a standard dollar threshold where I should buy the coverage or just extra large ticket items like a car or home?

I am wondering what other people do? I remember hearing quite a few people talking about buying iphone insurance when they bought the iPhone. I think those retail for $400 so is that a good threshold? Or $500? Or is it not about the value but what the product actually is? How critical it is to your life. Maybe that is how people decide what to do and what to buy. What do you base your decisions on?