Live Flight Tracker: Flightlite

Flightlite is a live flight tracker that allows you to track in the air flights around the world. This is a very useful website to find out whether a flight you are waiting for, has taken off and en route as scheduled. All you need to do is enter the flight number or airline name into the search box and flightlite will either track the specific flight you entered or show you a list of the flights you can track if you enter the name of the airline.

Link: Flightlite

Free Classical MP3s from Amazon.com

Are you a classic music lover?

Amazon is offering the following completely free albums of classical mp3s for your downloading and listening pleasure:

• X5 Free Classical Sampler - The Romantic Era
  
  
• Eternal Baroque


• I Love the 80s, Vol. 1 (1880s)

Enjoy!

My Frugal Living Tip #11: Using FatWallet to search for Coupons, Clearance & Freebies

Keeping track of coupons, clearance deals and freebies can be a challenging and insurmountable task. Rather than googling for them, I find myself heading to FatWallet's forum to check out the latest coupons, clearance offers and free stuff.

How do you find the coupons you want on FatWallet's forum without searching every thread? Here is FatWallet's Official Master Thread of "Official Store Coupons & Clearance" -- where you can find coupons and clearance sales for major retailers and stores, ascertain which coupons are valid and which ones have expired, etc.

If you are looking for freebies, you should visit the Free Stuff section on FatWallet's Forum. If you are a Twitter user, you should also follow the FatWallet's Free Stuff on http://www.twitter.com/freestuffrocks

Links:
FatWallet's Official Master Thread of "Official Store Coupons & Clearance"
FatWallet's Free Stuff (Follow on Twitter)

Like this article? Read the other entries in my Frugal Living Tips Series.
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My Frugal Living Tip #8: Useful Resources for the Frugal Consumer

Roundup of useful resources for the frugal consumer:

• Amazon.com's Textbooks Trade-In
  No-hassle way of unloading unwanted textbooks and getting some money for it.


• Freecycle.org
  The granddaddy of recycling stuff you no longer need by giving them away to others within your community. Read my earlier blog post about Freecycling.
  


• Kashless.org
  Takes the Freecycle idea one step further to provide a one-stop site for getting free stuff. Besides member submitted offerings, it also aggregates postings from the "free stuff" section of Craigslist and also partners with Recycle Bank to offer a rewards program.
  


• Measy.com
  Excellent one-stop online search tool for researching products before you buy. Allows you to limit by price, brands, needs, etc.
  


• Toolzdo.com
  Allows you to swap, exchange or give away stuff with other folks in your community.
  


• Groupon.com
  Social networking meets bargain hunting. Lets you hunt for deals with a twist: you must find enough friends/strangers to join you in order to meet the deal's minimum number of folks who sign up for it. Great way to make friends, renew friendship and save money in the process.
  

Read the other entries in my Frugal Living Tips Series.

Consumer Action Website & Handbook

Funded by your tax dollars, the Consumer Action Website is filled with useful information on your rights as a consumer. It provides information and templates for filing reports of defective products, complaints of shoddy products or services, buying resources, etc., many of which are available for download as convenient PDF files.

You can also pre-order the 2010 Consumer Action Handbook, which is available for free and mailed to your house.

Links:

• Consumer Action Website
• Download Useful Guides/Templates/Forms in PDF format
  
• Pre-Oder the 2010 Consumer Action Handbook
  

Are Free Checking Accounts Going the Way of the Dodo Bird?

Do you use a free checking account? I do. In fact, I have free checking accounts from three different banks, one national and one regional brick-and-mortar bank, as well as one online bank (ING Direct Electric Orange Checking). Why do I like free checking accounts? For one thing, they don't have minimum balances. I'm also one of the very few who religiously balance their checkbooks every night to the one cent and I'm proud to say that I have never had an overdraft. I also avoid ATM fees by withdrawing at my banks' ATMs. Better yet is a free checking account with tiered interest, which is the case with my ING Direct Electric Orange Checking.

How long will free checking accounts be around? This walletpop.com blog article, "Free Checking Accounts Aren't Long For This World" suggests that free checking accounts are slowly but surely vanishing. The main premise in this article is that banks need to make money in this new business environment and free checking isn't going to cut it if folks keep only a bare minimum in their free checking accounts and start being more careful about avoiding overdraft and fees.

What do you think? Do you use free checking accounts? Are you able to avoid the various fees (overdraft, ATM, etc) that banks use to make a profit off free checking accounts?

Article Link: Are Free Checking Accounts Vanishing?
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A Penny Saved Is A Penny Gained #01

Today's roundup of my favorite money saving tips:

1. I borrow books, magazines and DVDs for free from my local public library instead of buying new, subscribing or renting.


2. I reuse plastic grocery bags as liners in my trash bins.


3. I buy machine-washable clothes to save on dry cleaning.


4. I mixed vinegar, water and baking soda as homemade natural cleaner instead of buying commercial products.


5. I brownbag my own lunch to work.


6. I eat my breakfast at home instead of making impulse breakfast purchases on my way to work.


7. Whenever possible, I buy gently used stuff at consignment or thrift stores.


8. Whenever possible, I double my savings at supermarkets by combining coupons with sales.


9. I watch over-the-air HDTV broadcast and catch up on movies and TV shows for free online using Hulu and Boxee instead of paying for cable.


10. I take advantage of free or discounted promotions for various services and cancel before the various promotions end.

Free 49-page Personal Finance E-book from The Simple Dollar

The Simple Dollar is offering a free 49-page personal finance e-book (in PDF format), Everything You Need to Know About Personal Finance on Just One Page, which collects and discusses Trent Hamm's favorite ideas and strategies about good financial planning and frugal living in one highly readable book. Here you will find Trent discussing in detail, his five-point plan for personal finance success:

1. Spend less than you earn (My comment: how true! Frugality and saving is still the best way to personal finance success, and not leveraging and gambling).


2. Earn more (Trent offers lots of strategies to increase your income and earning potential)


3. Life Frugal! (My comment: my sentiments exactly!). In this section, Trent outlines 100 great tips for frugal living, as well as things to avoid.


4. Manage your Money! Here Trent outlines all the steps you can take to manage your money well, e.g., pay off high interest debts, build emergency fund, etc.


5. Control your own destiny! How true.
   

In addition, Trent also includes his recommendations of personal finance books and blogs that you could read or follow.

In short, this free e-book is worth your time, not only because Trent has so generously shared it for free under the Creative Commons license, but his ideas and strategies are commonsensical yet ignored by many folks who fall prey to shortcuts that only lead to financial ruin.

A Golden Age for Cheapskates

Today's Washington Post's article, A Golden Age for Cheapskates and its companion piece, Deals are Just A Click Away both speak volumes about how more and more Americans are rediscovering the joys of frugality in this depressed economy. Landing freebies has become the national pastime and businesses are taking notice. As the main article explains:

The recession has emboldened a certain kind of consumer: The mooch. With dwindling retirement savings, a higher cost of living and wobbly job market, they don't just want discounts on items they used to pay full price for without a second thought. They want freebies -- meals, magazine subscriptions, toiletries, you name it. They scour the Internet, make clever use of coupons or simply take advantage of struggling shops and restaurants that are increasingly giving away free things to lure customers.

"One of the things that makes us feel smart is getting something for free," said Matt Wallaert, a behavioral psychologist at JustThrive.com, a free online personal financial advisory service for people in their 20s and 30s. "During a recession, frugal is not a bad word. It's a good word. This is something that people are supposed to be doing. So people think, 'I've got to get on board.' They're searching for free more than ever because it's a symbol of financial savviness."
...
Another sign that consumers are increasingly searching for free items is the growing popularity of coupons. Coupon redemption on consumer packaged goods increased 16.7 percent in the fourth quarter of 2008 from the same quarter a year earlier, according to Valassis, a media and marketing services company. Savvy shoppers know that using coupons on days when stores have double or triple coupon promotions can lead to free goods.

Frugal Living & Compact Fluorescent Lamps (CFLs)

Compact fluorescent lamps (CFLs) have been in the news lately. Columnist George F. Will wrote a recent op-ed piece on CFLs in the Washington Post (April 2, 2009). A week earlier, the New York Times discussed the challenges of using CFLs in an article, Do New Bulbs Save Money If They Don't Work? Depending on who you're talking to, CFLs are either praised or villified.

I have been using CFLs in my home since 2003 and haven't encountered the problems that are highlighted in the Washington Post and New York Times articles. Here's how I use CFLs in my house:

• CFLs are not meant to be used in areas that are exposed to the elements outside one's house. Neither would they work work in temperatures below freezing. Extreme moisture from the rain and cold weather would significantly degrade the built-in fragile electronic ballast that lights a typical CFL, thereby shortening its lifespan. Hence, I continue to use incadescent lamps outside my house.


• Standard CFLs do not work in dimmers. As I am too frugal to buy the more expensive CFLs that would work with a dimmer, I continue to use incadescent bulbs in fixtures with dimmers.


• I use CFLs in the kitchen, in table lamps and floor lamps in living areas, and in the bathroom. Notwithstanding the advice not to use CFLs in three-way floor lamps, I have not had any problems using CFLs in the three-way floor lamps that I bought from Target.
  


• I have been using GE CFLs exclusively (no, I don't work for GE). GE CFLs are typically more expensive than store-brand CFLs from Wal-Mart, Home Depot, etc. I buy GE CFLs when they are on sale at Target and using manufacturer coupons to lower the price. I stocked up on GE CFLs when I combined the then $2.00 off manufacturer coupons (no longer available now) with Target's sale on their buy two get one free pack of CFLs a few years ago. I bought enough CFLs then to last for a long, long time.


• The GE CFLs that I have been using last any where from 3 to 4 years. I never had any CFL failing before 3 years. So long as I do not use them in enclosed fixtures (where temperature in the electronic ballast could build up and shorten its lifespan) or in outdoor fixtures (where rain and extreme cold would likewise shorten the ballast's lifespan), I see no reason why CFLs wouldn't last their advertised lifespan.
  


• I think more could be done to educate people on how to use CFLs. CFLs are not always appropriate for all fixtures and locations. I am not sure whether labelling is the solution, since most folks don't read the fine print.


• As for the color, I haven't had any problems with color. Most complaints about the color stem from a misunderstanding about color temperature of CFLs. Here is how color temperature works. Color temperature is measured in Kelvins (K). The lower the number (2700K), the yellower the color. The higher the number (6000K), the bluer the color.
  

1. Standard incadescent "warm bright" color: 2700K-3000K


2. Cool white color: 3500K-4100K


3. Standard white fluorescent color: 5000-6500K
   

• I have CFLs that are 3000K-3500K. At 2500K, they almost replicate the warm bright color of incadescent bulbs. I think the problem lies in the fact that most CFLs do not come labelled with their color temperature. One has to do some sleuthing over the internet.
  


• As for the question of mercury, I have always recycled my used CFLs. For a while, I recycled my CFLs through my employer, which has a contract to recycle the fluorescent tubes used in the office. Although I haven't had the occasion to do so, I am happy that Ikea, Home Depot and WalMart have drop-off CFL recycling programs. I may take advantage of these opportunities.

FREE OFFER: Home Depot is offering a free CFL (available in-store only) on Sunday, April 19, 2009.

For more information:

• Tips for using Compact Flourescent Bulbs (via New York Times)
• Energy Star's CFL Buying Guide
  

Free access to Wall Street Journal via iPhone app

If you are a regular reader of the Wall Street Journal (whether print or online), you would know that the Wall Street Journal, unlike its competitors, charges for access to digital/online content. There's a way to save money by accessing WSJ's digital content for free via WSJ's iPhone app. Find out more in Wired.com Blog's article, Wall Street Journal iPhone App Sets Content Free. If you own an iPhone, this could be a way to save money accessing WSJ's digital content.