Are you moving into a new house or apartment soon? Or maybe you want to redecorate a room in your house? Don’t feel the pressure to go out and buy all new decorations. First, look at what you already have and start from there, you’ll save a lot of money in the long run.

For instance, in the kitchen, make it more homey by adding old colorful dinner plates to a neutral color wall. This will save you money and the wall will have a sense of depth to it. Another place to work on is a small bathroom, if you have extra paint from previous decorating phases, then paint one wall a different color to make the bathroom look bigger. There are simple ideas that you can add to any room without blowing your budget. Look for more at HGTV.com to get do it yourself ideas and cheap ways to decorate!

Routinely maintaining your house is a must for everyone who wants to save money and not be surprised when an emergency happens. But are you following a scheduled maintenance for your car? Most people rely on their car to get them to work, the grocery store, grandma’s house, school, and about every other place you would want to go. Scheduled maintenance for your car is also a must to not only save money, but to not be stranded!

This article from Edmunds.com tells you why it is so important to follow the maintenance schedule in your car’s service manual book and how to not get overcharged by the dealership. So if you don’t want to be pushing your car into an open parking lot any time soon, then you better be ready to save a lot of money in the long run!

If you haven’t watched TV in a while or driven around town for a couple of weeks, then you haven’t seen all of the marketing for back to school savings! Wasn’t school just let out for the summer? Yes, but stores are starting extra early with back to school savings this year just for you!

There’s only a couple of weeks left of summer until school starts, so have you thought about what your children need or where the best place to shop is? Here’s an article written by Andrea Woroch, a consumer and money-saving expert, that includes tips for saving money while shopping for back to school items on a budget.

Happy Shopping and Saving!

As you’re packing or unpacking from your last vacation, are you feeling a little overwhelmed with the things you’ve kept over the past years? Well you certainly don’t want to end up on TLC’s reality show Hoarding: Buried Alive, so maybe it’s time for a garage sale!

A garage sale is no easy task; it takes a lot of effort and help from others to pull off a successful garage sale. You’ll want to plan in advance if you want to sell a lot of your treasures. Plan to have your garage sale on a weekend and if possible, on a Saturday. The garage sale could fail just because of the timing, so make sure you open up at 6 or 7 a.m. and end around 2 or 3 p.m. One of the best times to hold a sale is on one of the few weekends leading up to the beginning of a school year. For more tips on garage sale planning and doing visit Get Rich Slowly, a personal finance blog. This blog post may be a few years old, but it still holds true today.

Good luck with all of your future sales!

For this July 4th weekend I’m traveling up to Michigan with my family to see my grandma. We would normally drive the 12 hours to our destination and take the dogs in the car (let me tell you how fun that is), but this time I convinced my mom that we should fly. Taking a plane can be a hassle these days, but it can also save you a lot of time and maybe some money if you buy your ticket at the right moment. If you’re going on vacation this weekend or maybe you’re wanting to plan a last-minute trip, then check out this article from Good Housekeeping about ways to save on your family vacation.

Also, keep in mind that we’re offering DOUBLE ScoreCard Bonus Points for our Visa Platinum credit card holders when purchasing in any summer travel category until July 31. Purchases include airline tickets, lodging, car rental, bus lines, cruise lines, gas, railways, travel agencies, and RV rental. When purchasing in any of these summer travel categories, you’ll get two points for every dollar you spend! Click here for a schedule of our ScoreCard Bonus Points. This is just another reason why we have the best credit card around.

We hope you have a happy and safe 4th of July!

After helpful points in a previous post about saving in your twenties, I found a very helpful article from Dave Ramsey that might help you too. It explains why so many young people are in debt, how to get out of debt, and stay debt-free!

LifestyleTipNo.43: Living on a budget is freeing. By placing boundaries on spending categories, you give yourself a limit to know how much you can spend without stressing.

fol.low.ing [fol-oh-ing] noun:

The first word that comes to my mind (and maybe yours) after hearing the word following – is Facebook.

How many businesses are you following on Facebook? On Twitter? Have you ever asked yourself why you are following them? I may follow businesses through social media because I simply like what they do. Other people may be following businesses because they want faster updates or first chances at new products.

From www.socialmediatoday.com, here are 10 reasons why consumers are following businesses on Facebook:

1. To receive discounts and promotions

2. To show support for the brand/company

3. Hope to get free samples, a coupon (a.k.a. freebies)

4. To stay informed about the activities of the company

5. To get updates on future products

6. To get updates and information on future sales

7. To get fun and entertainment out of it

8. To get access to exclusive content

9. They were referred by someone to follow this brand/company

10. To learn more about the company

On our Facebook, we give our fans quick updates, small contests they can participate in, fun facts, and more! Are you following NWGACU?

The first day of June is a hot one and we’re still three weeks away from the first day of summer. There’s a chance we may even break the record high today! I’m not sure if I should be excited about breaking a record or upset about how hot I know it’s going to be when I get into my black car with black leather seats.  How can we stay cool this summer? Or better yet, how can we stay cool this summer without breaking a record high on our electric bill?

Here are 10 free or cheap ways you can cool off your house and yourself:

 1. Hold Off On Cooking — Any time you turn on your stove or oven while your air conditioner is running, you’re raising the electric bill. Using the microwave to heat up meals will save you time and money. Also, try eating cold meals you don’t have to cook.

2. Close The Blinds — Close the blinds or curtains in the rooms that get the most sunlight and rooms that you are not using. The heat from the sun radiates through the windows, adding heat to your house and making your air conditioner run longer. The curtains and blinds act as a barrier to keep the heat out, reducing your electric bill.

3. Stock Your Fridge — Having lots of food in your fridge keeps it from warming up too fast when the door is open. So your fridge doesn’t have to work as hard to stay cool.

4. Turn Off The Lights — Turn off the lights during the day and use natural sunlight whenever possible. Keeping the lights turned off will also reduce the amount of heat added to your house so your air conditioner doesn’t have to run as long.

5. Raise Your Thermostat — It sounds crazy but it’s recommended that you set your thermostat at 78 degrees during the summer. This is a pleasant temperature, but isn’t necessarily the cheapest setting. If you can handle it, raise your thermostat by one or two degrees and save about six to seven percent for each degree above 78.

6. Air Dry Your Dishes — Wait until your dishwasher is full before you press start. Also, instead of using the dishwasher’s drying cycle, air dry your dishes. Run the dishwasher at night instead of in the heat of the day. You’ll save your cool air and your money.

7. Do Laundry At Night  — Your dryer is a huge heat source, as you might imagine. Much of that heat will be vented outside, but some will still leak into your house. The later you wait to turn it on, the better chance you have of not working against your air conditioner as much. If possible, try to air dry your laundry by hanging it up outside or inside.

8. Plant Trees — When planting trees or shrubs to shade air conditioning units, be sure to not block the airflow. A unit operating in the shade uses less electricity.

9. Turn On The Fans — Constant air flow in your home will make it cooler and bearable when turning up the thermostat. Also, turn on the exhaust fan in your bathroom when taking a hot shower. This removes much of the humid air produced by the shower.

10. Be Aware — Know where your heat is coming from. Don’t put lamps, televisions, or other heat-generating appliances next to your air-conditioning thermostat because the heat from those appliances will cause the air conditioner to run longer. The heat they produce will make it think your house is warmer than it really is, and your system will run harder than it needs to.

These tips can be useful when on a tight budget or when you’re sick of the heat. Do you have any tips on how you or your home can stay cool this summer?

Have you seen TLC’s Extreme Couponing?

On this reality show, everyday people save up to hundreds of dollars when going to the grocery store. They are ecstatic when the total goes from $630.00 to only $6.00. Some may even end up with a total of $0.00, that’s correct - they are getting everything for FREE. The catch is – they’re buying massive amounts of products at a time. An extreme couponer could get 50 bottles of mustard for absolutely free. So who really needs 50 bottles of mustard? Some of these extreme couponers stack up their “stock-piles” for 3 to 4 months then go

An Extreme Couponer's stock-pile.

shopping again with their coupons. Other extreme couponers donate to local charities in their cities. These everyday people can spend up to 40 hours a week finding (some are even dumpster diving for coupons), clipping, and organizing coupons. Now I know you must have 40 hours of spare time on your hands…

Here are 5 pieces of advice from the Extreme Couponers:

1. Start buying your local Sunday paper, you’ll find great coupons inside.

2. Just because you have a coupon doesn’t mean you should use it. Wait until the item is on sale and then use your coupon to maximize the savings.

3. Start off with a small shopping trip of 10 items or less and see how much you can save.

4. Stack coupons – you can use an in-store coupon and a manufacturer coupon on one item.

5. Have a system for your coupons and always be organized.

Even by following at least one of these pieces of advice, you could save money wherever you shop!

So in honor of NWGACU’s 50th celebration this year, we will be giving you daily money-saving tips over the next 50 days starting today! The new tip will move everyday to one of our social media sites: Facebook, Twitter, or our blog. You’ll have to follow us everywhere in order to receive these fantastic tips that could save you a lot in the long-run!

GroceryTipNo.29: Grocery shop on a full stomach. Anyone else drawn to junk food in the store when they shop hungry? A bag of sweets, potato chips, and soda look that much more tempting on an empty stomach.

Look for more money-saving tips tomorrow!