My buddy Joe Sangl reminded me yesterday of a premise that so many people forget, “If someone is providing you a service and they fail to live up to reasonable expectaions under the circumstance you should get a deal.”

We were flying back from Kansas City and were in the Atlanta, Ga airport.  Our final flight home was delayed and then it was canceled.  It was obvious that they canceled the flight because there were too few passengers.  This greatly inconvenienced us because Joe had to be at another city later in the day to deliver the Financial Learning Experience.

What eventually transpired is that the next flight  the put us on was also delayed so instead of taking a chance of missing the speaking engagement we had to hitch a ride with my brother, Black Sheep (he may not be great at saving money but he is a great brother).  Black sheep drove Joe to Columbia, SC where he met another member of our team and rode off to Florence and then took me back to my home before driving another 3.5 hours back to his house ( a total of 8.5 hours of driving).  However, before we left the airport Joe demanded to be compensated for the inconvenience and cost that Delta had caused him.  By doing so  he received an extra $100 credit toward the next time we fly Delta.

So the next time someone does not live up to their end of the deal make sure to talk to someone who can make it right.  I saw way too many people just sit in the airport and take it instead of making Delta act correctly.

Bloom is still doing triple coupons in select areas through Tuesday of this week.  They will triple any manufacturers coupons up to 99¢.  Here is an example of my savings from my most recent trip:

Total Retail Price:            $67.72
Bloom Specials Savings:  $23.09
Regular Coupon Savings: $7.70
Savings From Tripling:     $11.40
Total:                             $25.53

This works out to 63.4% off of the regular retail price.  This ratio would have been a good bit better had I not purchased 2.75lbs of Angus porterhouse steaks, but I am willing to make the sacrifce .  So check your fliers and make sure you match the best deals (usually buy one get one free) with your coupons that are less than 99¢ so you can stock up on some great bargains.

Restaurant.com has 70% of it already discounted gift certificates using code “TASTY”.  That makes a $25 gift certificate $3.

Gamefly has 50% off of  its pre-played games with prices starting at $5.99 on xbox360, Wii, PS3, PS2, and DS games. (click on link for gamefly store on right hand side).

Amazon.com has up to 80% off men’s and women’s designer shoes.

JC Penney has 40% off original price plus an extra 10% off the sale price using code “BSOTS9″

Banana Republic has 25% off a $100 order using code “SUMMER”

ColdWater Creek has 30% off with no minimum using code “WKH4849″

Shoes.com has 20% off with no minimum using code “SALE” (some brands excluded)

After being asked over and over again I have finally caved and set up a Twitter account.  Of course you can follow me under the name SavingFreak.  There is even a lovely picture of my wife and I with one of our dogs.  I will be posting deals I find as I do my daily search for bargains.  I hope to see you guys on there and that you can save a ton of money when you follow me on Twitter.

If you are out shopping right now for a tv and you get this on your blackberry you need to put the phone in your pocket and walk quickly out of the store. Yes times are bad and deals abound but people are still buying and the Super Bowl always causes an uptick in the number of people buying televisions. This means that in a month the price of large televisions will drop because no one will be buying them.

So take one more year and watch the game on you 19″ tube or head on over to your cool friend’s house who has every gadget under the sun (plus then he has to clean up the mess). Next year you can boast the biggest, brightest, coolest tv you can afford because you waited a few weeks to get a deal.

We have all experienced the rise in prices on what seems like everything.  Though most people realize gasoline has dropped dramatically they do not realize that the prices of most consumer goods are also dropping.  A few of these are the result of outside influence (like LCD screens) but most of our goods are going down in price because the overall cost to get them to the shelves has been going down.  

What most people do not realize is that the cost of Diesel has been cut in half.  Yes, gasoline is important to the average families budget but it does not really affect the cost of consumer goods.  Diesel is the blood of the trucking industry.  The trucking industry is still the main way we deliver goods to retail locations.  So when the cost of diesel goes down dramatically (or increases dramatically) the cost of goods is directly affected.  It has only been about two months since diesel prices started plummeting (down to 2.32 from 4.76 on the national average) so we should start to really see the prices of goods start to drop sometime next month.  So not only are Americans feeling a little richer because their gas prices have gone down but the price of goods should allow them to buy more.  And you thought nothing good comes out of a recession.

Every year I end up going on a big shopping trip to get all the gifts we are going to give to our friends and family.  This happens because I always forget to get gifts throughout the year.  Both my siblings and mother are good about shopping ahead of time (though my brother is only good about it because his wife does all the shopping).  So how do I keep from overspending every year and having to turn to debt to make up the difference?  We save some money each month for gifts so that ther is plenty in our account to cover any last minute spending. 

We keep up with this money by putting it into a separate account and only touching it if we a purchasing a gift for someone (this includes birthdays, weddings, baby showers, etc.).  If you haven’t created a gifting fund then you are making life a lot more complicated. 

If you need help getting organized I would check out the mini budget form on the Next Steps site.  This site is run by the I Was Broke Now I’m Not team (the ministry of Joe Sangl).

The good news is that gas prices have gone back down to normal levels. The even better news is that most people have not gotten used to having that extra cash back in their budgets. To get a good idea of how much money most people are looking at lets crunch some numbers.

The only assumptions we need to make is that average gas tank will hold about 12 gallons and that people will generally fill up once a week. You may have a smaller or larger tank and have to fill up more often but this seems to be the norm for most people. The gas price numbers read like this: Toward the end of July average gas prices for the U.S. peaked at $4.12 per gallon and right now they are at $1.80 per gallon. So now all we have to do is figure out how much an average person is saving per week on gasoline. That is a simple math equation – price per gallon x number of gallons x fill ups per week.

$4.18 x 12 x 1 = $50.16

$1.80 x 12 x 1 = $21.60

Total saved per week $28.56
Total saved per month $114.24

THAT SPENDS JUST LIKE MONEY!! $114.24 a month is a significant amount in most peoples budgets. But since we are used to not having this money be a part of our budget maybe we should consider how we are going to use it. If you have any type of debt other than your house you should immediately start using this money to pay off debt. Imagine if you did not have all those payments going out each month. The average car payment is $370 per month. What if you didn’t have to make that payment any more? I mean $370 plus $114.24 is $484.24. THAT IS SOME SERIOUS CHANGE!! I mean you could rent your own clown to follow you around or hire a studio audience to laugh at all your jokes.

You see this whole financial crisis has been centered around the misuse of debt. If you have large amounts of debt (any debt except for house debt is bad) then you will continue to tred water for years to come. With the infusion of money into our wallets now is the time to get out of debt. If you don’t know where to start try checking out the Prepare a Plan section at Joe Sangl’s Next Steps Site. If you feel you need to sit down with someone who can counsel you through the process you can email Joe and set up a financial counseling appointment (these appointments are free if you can make it to New Spring Church’s Anderson or Greenville locations and only $200 if you cannot make it to the church)

If you are a person who who has a heart for helping people get their finances in order then you may want to offer free financial counseling at your church or business. Just e-mail Joe and write in the comments box that you want to become a financial counselor. Joe’s ministry will be training counselors across the country in the next few months so I am sure a counselor training will be coming to an area near you very soon!!

With this influx of money into your monthly budget now is the time to take control of our finances!!

Last week I made a comparison between the game of tetris and dealing with your personal finances.  To understand the further use of this metaphor check out the previous post

When playing tetris it is always nice to have an abundance of straight pieces.  These pieces make building and completing lines very easy.  These pieces represent the times of abundance we experience in our lives.

So when you hit a time of abundance that is the time to start living small.  That’s right you have to zig when everyone else is zagging.  The person who can reverse the times are good live large philosophy to the times are bad live large philosophy will come out ahead time and time again.  Just look at what is happening around you.  The world appears to be headed toward a global recession.  This means that demand for goods is going to go down.  Demand drops because most people are not planning for the future they are living for today.  So now that problems are happening people are being forced to cut back from living extravagantly and outside their means.

So the person that has planned for this bad time is now ready to strike.  Instead of taking that long driving vacation during this past summer you can take it over Christmas and save over on dollar per gallon of gasoline.  The cruise industry is having problems getting people to take a cruise so prices are dropping.  Restaurants are cutting prices because they cannot get patrons through the doors.  The stock market had dropped dramatically so you can buy stocks at lows that we haven’t seen since the 50’s.  Homes are going into foreclosure so you can buy a larger house on a steal.  The list can go on and on.

As you can see people who have planned for these economic slow downs are ready to take a bargain.  Just look at all the stock that Warren Buffet is buying up right now.  He’s been purchasing companies for pennies on the dollar.  

I hope for those who are having to tighten their belts in these times a great lesson can be learned.  Get out of debt, save up an emergency fund, and live beneath your means during the good times so when the hard times come for the population as a whole you are going to be living it up on the cheap.

Asking a persons weight is considered impolite in most circles, but so is talking about money.  So when I read that half of Americans would rather give up their wight than reveal how much credit card debt they have I was shocked.  Half of Americans, the country where obesity is running rampant, were more ashamed of their credit card debt than of their waist line.  In the last 18 years credit card debt is up 400% in the U.S. (adjusted for inflation).  We have a major debt problem and from what I have seen people are just unaware of how to manage money.  Fo for the next couple of days I am going to look at how to get started getting out of credit card debt.  The process is easy to understand but takes some guts to get going.  I hope anyone out there that is in a debt bind will take these posts to heart and will put themselves on the path to debt freedom.