Two Minute Offense

I think I’ve pointed it out before, but the GTD set usually seems to intersect in large part with the Personal Finance set…

So, here’s where I’m putting my money:
1) NetBank Checking account: 1% interest - no charge for ATMs… you can use Washington Mutual surcharge-free ATM’s for free money withdrawal
2) NetBank Money Market: 3.04% interest (minimum balance of $500) - used as overdraft protection for the NB checking… which basically means all my liquid cash goes in here with very little in the checking account because there is no charge for using the overdraft protection.
3) ING Direct Savings: 3.30% - provides easy transfer of funds from Money Market account to…
4) Emigrant Direct Savings: 4.0% !! - they just upped the rate yesterday; guaranteed through the end of December 2005. This is where my wife and I are putting our savings for the house downpayment (and, well, any extra cash we have as well).

It’s a little bit of process to get the money from the money market to the ING to the Emigrant, but the 4% interest is Definitely Worth It.

In addition:
1) Discover Card - 1% cash back with no limit. You can double for some retailers to get gift cards. Others give you a little extra (GAP gives $25 for redeeming $20, same for Bed, Bath & Beyond. Great for going to weddings… )
2) Marathon (Gas station) Credit Card - 5% back on all Marathon purchases (since they usually have cheaper gas than most places anyway) and 1% back on everything else… not sure about the limit on this one…
3) TJX/Marshall’s credit card - 5% back at Marshalls and TJ Maxx which is where my wife and I do pretty much all of of our clothes shopping. The 5% goes towards a gift certificate that they mail automatically when you get over $10 (nice to not have to request anything).

There you have it. As an added bonus, I can manage all of my finances from the Web.

Hope that didn’t take more than 2 minutes to read.

Two new search engines:

Blingo.com gives away free stuff if you do a search one of several randomly selected times during the day. It uses the search results from Google, which has never given me anything for using their search. They did give me free email though, so that’s awesome.

A9.com, Amazon.com’s search engine. It’s super-customizable, and if you use it for a while you’ll get 1.57% off your purchases at Amazon.com. It’s not much, but if you combine it with the 1% back you should at least be earning on your credit card, you’re almost up to the average inflation rate of 3%. You can also search the Yellow Pages and stuff like that… And there’s the part where it shows you the store you’re looking for with pictures all up and down the street. It’ll store searches for you, as well as import your bookmarks so you can access them from any computer (kind of like del.icio.us). It’s nice when you want to bookmark something, but don’t want the whole world to know you’re bookmarking it (useful for planning surprise parties, or purchasing gifts).

I’m posting this because it seems like a lot of GTD devotees seem concerned not only with taking control of their time, but also of their money. For other frugal GTDites, here’s a great post from the Wealthy Blogger…

The Wealthy Blogger » Frugality Versus Cheapness

It would appear that no, people do not respect frugality or consider it a virtue anymore, or at least not a certain portion of society. Instead we have started respecting materialism. We impress people with what we have, not how we paid for it. This of course explains why people are deeper in debt than ever, they need more things to impress their friends (and themselves) with.

My girlfriend and I are both of the frugal mindset, and as a result, we love going shopping with each other and getting great deals on the things we buy.

Frugal but not cheap places to shop:

• Aldi (hands down: Best. Store. Ever.)
• Marshall’s/TJMaxx
• eBay (if you know what you’re doing)
• Amazon (buy new with 1.57% off if you use A9.com [for birthday presents, etc.]; buy used from people with good ratings)
• Thrift Store (I found a LaCoste polo shirt for $1 that was almost identical to one I saw at Marshall’s for $20… which even then was very inexpensive [but not cheap])

So, next time someone at the bar pulls out a Discover to buy you a drink, give ‘em a Paris Hilton “That’s hot.”

Any other frugal but no cheap places to shop? Leave a comment!

Frugal 4 Life!