Home Made Gifts - Gift Baskets

Gift Baskets can be very versatile Home Make Gifts. They can be customized to suit any taste.

Below are some of the examples of various gift baskets. And quick and easy tips about how to make them yourself. With very little effort you may turn simple and easily available items into Classy Gift Baskets.

Lets start with basic items needed to create a gift basket.

• Container - Wicker Basket,Planter,Tray etc. There is really no limit to what you may use as container. You may even use a cup or mug as a container for a small gift basket. !
• Filler Material and Shreds - To fill bottom of the basket and to put between gifts.
• Small individually wrapped gift items
• Ribbon,Bow, Gift Card
• Some small decorative items
• Cello Bags or Plastic Wrap - This wraps are not necessary but if used, they give Gift Basket very classy look.

Now simple technique to assemble the gift basket.

• If container is too deep, place some filler material like brown paper or flower foam etc.
• Place shreds between individually wrapped gift items. Use transparent tap to keep them in place. Based on the type of the gift basket different shreds might be used.
• Gifts can be purchased or even home made.
• Tie bow and small decorative items around the container to give it final touches.
• Finish off the gift basket with Cello Bag or Plastic wrap.

Enjoy.

Tips to Save More and Live Better

In this difficult economy, it is easy to get carried away and to think that you will have to give up your life style. But if you really think about it there are ways that will help you keep your life style and still save a bit for future.

1. Purchase gift cards for less and use it for yourselves !!

I just bought Talbot's gift card from http://www.plasticjungle.com/ . It was 317 dollar worth gift card and I purchased it for 219 dollars !!. ie. almost 30 % less.
You may purchase 25 dollar worth Panera Bread gift card for 20 dollar. ie. 20% less!

2. Use Coupons.

Combine cheap gift cards (as mentioned above) with coupon for the same store and you got your self a great deal. You may get stuff for almost 50% off.

http://www.coupons.com/
http://www.valpak.com/

are some great source for coupons.

3. Shop at consignment stores.

Consignment shops don't only carry used items. They carry items that department store needs to get rid of to make space for new items. Perfectly new items marked down almost 50-70% . You may find cloths,furniture, appliances , jewellery at consignment shops.

Burlington Coat Factory and SteinMart are upscale consignment stores. This is where you may purchase CalvinKlein, Donald Trump, DKNY brand clothings for at least 50% off. Sometimes even 70% off. Ross and marshalls are also simillar consignment stores. Not that upscale though. All these stores also carry wide variety of baby, maternity and house hold items as well.

You may find simillar consignment stores for furniture in your area as well.

Shop for floor models while purchasing appliances, electronics etc. They are slightly used and most of the time look new. You can easily get 20-30% off on floor models.

4. Credit Card for Cash Back

If you carry balance on your credit cards and best bet is to transfer your balance on credit cards charging low interest. If you do not carry balance then it will be good idea to use credit cards that provide cash back. Many credit cards provide cash back between 1-5%. Sometimes during some promotional period they provide even 10% cash back !

http://www.creditcards.com/ is a website that will let you compare credit cards side by side for options such a cash back, rewards, yearly fee etc. Make sure you do not use any card that charges yearly fee.

5. Brownbag at least twice a week
A family of 4 can save up to 200 dollars per month by either eating at home only twice a week or brownbagging. Eating at home/Brownbagging does not really mean you have to cook at home. You may do that, and that will save you even more. But you may just as well get frozen family meals from wholesalers like COSTCO or SAMS club. Here is the math. You spend at least 20 dollars for family of 4 every time you eat out. And this is like cheapest thing you can get. You may end up spending even more. If you get a 10 dollar worth frozen ravioli from COSTCO, it will last two times for dinner. Thus making it little over dollar per meal per person. You may add a little home made salad or soup and make it a complete meal.

Saving Money Paying Off Debt - 0% APR Balance Transfer Credit Card

How much money you are spending every month carrying balance on your credit card. I read somewhere that if you make only minimum payment it will take you at least 7 years to pay off 2000 dollars !! You are just paying interest most of the time. This money can be very well used some where else.

Monthly Payment: Pay more than minimum required payment. So that you make sure you are paying something toward bringing down principle and not just paying interest.

Balance Transfer: Using 0% APR balance transfer credit card is another good thing. Search on Internet and you will find many card with 0% Balance Transfer APR, no yearly fee and maximum 75 dollar balance transfer charge. (There are some that charge as much as 300 dollars. You do want to avoid them.) Usually they provide this rate for 6 to 12 months. Once this term ends interest rates do shoot up. You do want to make sure that this new interest rate is not higher than your current credit card. Or you may just want to move your balance on another card after the end of the free term.

We have a friend who used this card to pay off almost 10000 dollars debt without paying almost nothing in interest.

Lower Interest Rate: If have been paying regularly and not been late, you may also work with your credit card company to lower the interest rate. That could slash your interest payment as much as 50%.

Loan Modification - Frauds and Follow Ups

Since I wrote about loan modification some time back. (http://consumerzoneblog.blogspot.com/2008/10/loan-modification-reduce-monthly.html)

I was thinking should not banks be making it much easier to do loan modification? Why ? Because they want our interest money. They do not want to foreclose our house. And guess what, just some time back I saw this announcement from some of the biggest US banks.

http://money.cnn.com/2008/10/31/news/companies/jpmorgan_mortgage.ap/index.htm?postversion=2008103114

It says JP Morgan will modify mortgages. They would like to avoid foreclosures of about $70billion worth loans !!

They are going to open couple of counselling centers across the nation and provide most needed to relief to their customers . The most hurt are the customers who had ARM loans, which has adjusted to a very high APR in recent times.

So now that banks are making it easier to do Loan Modification, there is still no limit to scam artist would do to part you with your hard earned money. One simplest thing to keep in mind is, anyone offering help for upfront money are worth keeping away from. Actually better yet, just run away from them.

There is this article that talks about simple steps you may take yourself to apply for loan modification of you bank does not have any direct program.

http://www.zillow.com/blog/mortgage/2008/10/25/the-new-breed-of-scam-artists/