November 20, 2015

Best of Blogs Week of November 20th

Every Friday afternoon I share some of the more interesting or notable posts that I have seen in the personal finance blogs and other sources for the past week

DoughRoller gives us 23 Powerful Tips and Tools to Eliminate Debt

The site ValueWalk has an interesting finding with  39% Of Stocks Have A Negative Lifetime Total Return    Seems awful, but I think its really just a reflection of the fact that a certain % of businesses fail.    The data does include delisted stocks.  Plus a certain % of active stocks are in the process of failing.


Note: due to the Thanksgiving holiday next week I don't plan to do a roll up on the 27th.

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November 9, 2015

Cherry Moon Farms Shipping Costs $9.99 or $14.99

Cherry Moon Farms sells gift basket type stuff.

I had to put an item into my cart and go all the way past entering a payment method to the last steep to find the shipping cost.   Their standard delivery charge was listed as $14.99 for the item I selected.   Buried in a discounts coupon page they have a reference to shipping starting at $9.99.
Their customer care site does not seem to do anything but point to itself.

So it seems their shipping charges are $9.99 or $14.99 for standard delivery.   The item I tested to buy was relatively small and cheap.  

The reason I'm posting this is that I didn't see anything at all on the site as I was shopping until the very last step before I hit the final 'submit order' button.

I have a code for $10 off a purchase at Groupon so I was browsing around there looking for nice deals.  I have to spend $20 to get the $10 off.  If I find the right deal then that can be a great bargain.


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November 8, 2015

GDP Per Capita By Metropolitan Area 2014

The figures below are straight off the BEA.gov website using their interactive tables.

Here is the top 20:

Area 2014 Rank
United States   $      52,526 --
Midland, TX   $     162,786 1
San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA   $     105,482 2
Bridgeport-Stamford-Norwalk, CT   $      94,349 3
San Francisco-Oakland-Hayward, CA   $      80,643 4
Casper, WY   $      76,174 5
Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, WA  $      75,874 6
Boston-Cambridge-Newton, MA-NH   $      74,746 7
Trenton, NJ   $      73,719 8
Durham-Chapel Hill, NC   $      73,523 9
Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD-WV   $      72,191 10
New York-Newark-Jersey City, NY-NJ-PA   $      70,830 11
Houston-The Woodlands-Sugar Land, TX   $      70,097 12
Des Moines-West Des Moines, IA   $      67,256 13
Boulder, CO  $      66,927 14
Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington, TX  $      66,168 15
Anchorage, AK   $      65,838 16
Sioux Falls, SD   $      65,593 17
Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro, OR-WA   $      64,991 18
Hartford-West Hartford-East Hartford, CT   $      64,946 19
Madison, WI   $      63,910 20

What I see in the top 20 is big urban areas and a few resource rich areas with mining  or oil money.

And a national map :
(click image for full size)


After I wrote this TheBigPicture linked to a graphic map created by howmuch.net

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November 6, 2015

Best of Blogs for Week of November 6th

Every Friday afternoon I share some of the more interesting or notable posts that I have seen in the personal finance blogs and other sources for the past week

MyMoneyBlog tells us the myRA Starter Retirement Account Launches Nationwide

They also give us a 529 College Savings Plans: State-by-State Tax Benefit Comparison 2015

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November 4, 2015

Amazon Subscribe and Save Filler Items Under $2 for November 2015

Updated list of items under $2 eligible for Amazon Subscribe & Save :

Pac-Kit 12-015 Antiseptic Povidone PVP Iodine Wipe (Box of 10) = $1.02

Slim Jim Giant Smoked Snacks, Tabasco, 0.97-Ounce Sticks (Pack of 24) = $1.03
(this is a 24 pack and the other flavors are over $20 so this may be a short lived pricing error)

Luden's Great Tasting Throat Drops, Honey Lemon, 30-count = $1.42

DEWALT DW4518 4-1/2-Inch by 1/8-Inch by 7/8-Inch General Purpose Metal Cutting Wheel = $1.44

Pac-Kit 1-009 Fabric Adhesive Light Woven Flexible Knuckle Bandage, 3" Length x 1-1/2" Width (Box of 8) = $1.48

Hale Tea Black Tea, Raspberry, 1.5-Ounce = $1.74
Lahaha Green Tea Leaves, Mint, 12 Count = $1.80
English Tea Store Loose Leaf, Organic Osprey Gunpowder Green Tea Pouches, 4 Ounce = $1.82

Coastal Scents Lip Smack, Oasis, 0.80 Ounce = $1.82
Butter & Sea Salt (2 oz Bag) (popcorn) = $1.82

PureBites Beef Liver Cat Treats, 0.85-Ounce = $1.89

Softsoap Liquid Hand Soap, Moisturizing with Aloe, 7.50-Ounce = $1.89
  Maybelline New York Expert Wear Eyeshadow, Pink Wink, Singles, 0.09 Ounce = $1.89 (Also available in other colors)
  Ardell Fashion Lashes Pair - 128 = $1.89
  Sam Mills Sandwich Creme Cookie, Vanilla, 10.6 Ounce = $1.90
  True Lime Limeade Stick Pack, Black Cherry, 10 Count (1.06oz) = $1.90
Dial Liquid Hand Soap, Himalayan Pink Salt & Water Lily, 7.5 oz. =$1.90
  Suave Professionals Split End Rescue Conditioner, 12.6 Ounce = $1.90
  Alba Botanica Terratints, Blaze Lip Balm, 0.15 Ounce = $1.97
  Vaseline Lip Therapy, Creme Brulee 0.25 oz = $1.70

Barilla Protein Plus Spaghetti Pasta, 14.5 Ounce = $1.90

True Lime Limeade Stick Pack, Black Cherry, 10 Count (1.06oz) = $1.90

These are over the $2 limit but they are a relatively good deal and probably something a lot of people might want :

CLIF CRUNCH - Granola Bar - Chocolate Peanut Butter, 1.48 oz, 5 Two-Bar Pouches = $2.83



I'm citing the price for each item including the 15% discount that you'd get with 5 items which is the point here.

I try to list a variety of items so you'll have a better chance of seeing something on this list that you'd actually get use out of so its not just bought and wasted.

Warning :  If you use items off this list then make sure to watch them and cancel your subscription if you no longer want them or if the prices go up.   The cheap items I find seem to change pretty quickly so they may have large price hikes or be removed from the subscribe and save program.

Prices change!   Note the list will get out of date within days or weeks.  I'll probably post a newer list before all of the above items are gone or have price increases.  But if you can't find something good here you can always go to Amazon and search for Subscribe & Save and sort based on prices and poke around to find something cheap to use as a filler.

I've discussed before how you can get a  better discount on Amazon Subscribe and Save purchases if you order 5 items at once.  However if you don't buy a lot of stuff then it can be hard to come up with a 5 item order.   However if your products are worth enough then it can be worth it to add some filler items to get up to 5 items to get the 15% discount. 

Say for example, you want to buy a couple cases of Pampers Swaddlers Diapers  that run $45.97 each with a normal purchase.   With Subscribe and save you'd get a 5% discount.to get the price down to $43.67.    But if you have 5 items in your S&S order then it is only $36.78 or a $6.89 savings.   And if you're buying two of those then thats double or $13.78.    Adding the 4 cheapest items listed here to the S&S order would only cost you $4.99 total with the 5 item discount so its worth buying those items to get you a net savings of $8.79.

Note if you don't want the filler items and only use them to get a 5 item discount then you can of course always give away the food items to someone you know or donate them to the local food bank.


--This article may contain referral links which pay this site a commission for purchases made at the sites.


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