Google Strikes again-Free calls to information

How many of you know the feeling when you’re trying to find a restaurant sans your iPhone or GPS and you need to call 411 for info, but think, $1.99 just for 20 seconds of someones time to HOPEFULLY find you the right number?

Do I have the greatest thing ever—call 800-GOOG-411…it’s a free 800 service that is all voice activated and will get you where you need to be phone number in hand and all.

What savvy person can’t live without that?!?!

Wine Review: Paso Creek Cabernet

For any wine lover out there, the words ‘savvy’ very rarely come up when talking about a good wine (trust me…had my fair share of Boone’s Creek ‘stuff’ in my college days and now savor every last drop of my 98point bottles of wine.)  However, spending $50+ for a bottle of wine at home isn’t really my style (thanks to nice friends, we get those, but this savvy-nista can’t justify a bottle of $50 wine over a pair of fab shoes!)

However, in one of my new blogging sections I’m going to start sharing some of my favorite weekend sips and tastes that don’t break the piggy bank!  And to start it off Paso Creek…

This was a Cab that we ran into in our local HEB (Grocery store in Texas)—who has a wonderful wine selection.  Personally I picked it up because I liked the funky looking tree on the label (I know, I just blew my whole thing of ‘liking fine wines’…but yes, I do go towards a good label.)  Brought it home, forgot about it in the wine cabinet and pulled it out a few weeks ago—and can’t stop thinking about every delicious sip!

It comes from the Santa Barbara area of California (one of my favorite areas to go wine tasting—and where the film Sideways was filmed.)  It has a wonderful soft taste and goes down very smoothly.  It definitely has an oaky, rich and dry taste to it, yet I felt it was very smooth—hint of vanilla in it and goes SOO well with a piece of dark chocolate.

Just last weekend I opened a more expensive bottle of Cab (still remembering how great the Paso Creek was and thought that due to the price tag this ‘other’ one could only be better)—wow, was I wrong.  Paso Creek now makes it to my ‘staples’ to have in the house at all times—for around $12.99 a bottle ($10.99 when I find it on sale) it’s a great savvy buy for any wine-o!

Savvy=Busy; Keeping it in check

WOW—do I deserve the worst blogger of the year award—literally; so much for my back to blogging…not a single one yet in 2009.  Being savvy comes at a price…being busy.  From work, volunteer work and family life, to taking up new hobbies, teaching myself that running is fun and that  I need to take a chill pill from time to time, life is non stop.

But, I’m back!  And my thought of the day is how to keep it all in check.  Lately I’ve been working through that one with my forever long ‘to do list’…how do you get it all done and still be sane at the end of the day?

My 2009 resolution was to put more ‘fun time’ back in my life—teaching myself new things, challenging myself and learning to say no to more things that were making me such a people pleaser (no, not saying that I’ve turned into a negative nell, just saying we all need to keep it in check.)

Have you ever been in that place (for me it’s in bed at 1am in the morning trying to fall asleep for the 3rd hour in a row) while your mind is going a million miles a minute of things that need to be done, worry, stress, you name it—BINGO that was (and sometimes is still) me.  What I’ve learned to do may be one of the most savvy things yet—two wonderful letters; N-O.  My dad used to tease me about, ‘what part of no don’t you understand?’ but it’s true, saying no is a pretty powerful and savvy tool.  Despite not all of you are working women reading this, for those of us who are and trying to balance a household, no is a HUGE word.

Around my office we’ve had some changes as I’m sure many people have gone through in the past 6 months—I’m lucky enough to still be around, but now it’s me…and only me…one person to do what three used to.  Get my drift?  Nice to be appreciated, but ‘no’ has been a very important new word for me to use (as I used to be ONLY a people pleaser).  Trust me, still want to help out in every way possible that it pertains to me, but sometimes your day is so hectic that you just have to say ‘no’….and what a stress off my shoulders.

What is it that is your savvy technique to keeping it in check?  Is it running/working out?  Reading a book/being quiet in your own place?

Blogs will get back to the savvy tips (hello, 3+ months of not blogging, I have PLENTY of things with this recession to be savvy on to share).  So hello world, send me some some of your savvy thoughts for the year and how you’re making it through the recession—til next time y’all

Re-Fi Virgin! 4 Reasons to Refinance now

Eeekkk…so has anyone out there jumped into the world of re-fi (re-financing) now that interest rates are so much lower?  Personally, I’m a re-fi virgin and looking for some goods (ok, all you with dirty minds, dig them out of the gutter!)

During a great segment on Good Morning America this morning about ways to take advantage of the struggling economy, they talked about if you have good credit and some money to spare or stashed away for a rainy day, today it’s pouring!  Now is the time for the deals out there in planning for your future.

So I called up my mortgage broker today and got the ball rolling.  Taking a look at a few things to put it into perspective, we have a 6.5% IR (after 20% down on our home and paying bi-weekly…which, if you don’t know about bi-weekly payment benefits, more to come in another blog).  I asked our mortgage broker to crunch some numbers for me, first he came back with a shell shocker, nearly $5k would be the fee to re-fi our place!  WHAT!?!?  $5k!  So I challenged that (in this economy, everyone wants a sale, so ask if they can make a better deal) and we got the fees down to about $4k..which still seems high to me.

But knowing how ‘cash is king’ right now, I didn’t want to shell that out of my pocket up front, so I asked him to spread that out over the period of our new re-fi quote to see what it’d be.  Sooo (drum roll please), including the fees for the re-fi being included in our new monthly payment, we’ll still be able to save $101 a month!  That’s $1,212 a year (and that’s a lot of shoes at Marshall’s…haha, I mean savings!)

Now to some people (not me though) a $100 doesn’t really matter and they’d rather spend that than have to go through all of the paperwork and time it takes to re-finance…yes it take some time, but maybe only an hour or two I’ve been told.  But do the math and that’s a lot of money to save over 10 years (over $12k!).

Few tips when looking to re-fi, you should only seriously consider re-financing if:

1) you can lower your interest rate by 1% or more

2) you’re planning to live in your house long enough to reap the benefits of paying back the cost it is to re-fi (for example, if you’re only going to live in your house another year, it doesn’t make sense to spend $4k to refinance your house when over a year you’ll only save maybe $200/month on your re-fi…or $2,400 in a year).

BUT…there are more benefits in my mind than not to re-fi now.  Below are my 4 Reasons to Refinace your house now (of course, the decision is yours and it always pays to do your homework):

1)  Rates are low; once rates are under 6% it normally is pretty good; and right now you can get rates for around 5.1% for a re-fi

2)  Save Money: sometimes it’s these simple things that we don’t see.  It’s almost too easy and we pass it by.  Yes, you may have to spend money in order to save it, but if you’re staying in your house for a while, that savings of $100 a  month will add up real quick over 5-10 years.

3) Investments-take that extra money and place it in a high yield savings account that is dedicated to saving for your next house.  Say your savings is $1,200 a year, compounding daily in a high yield savings account (which means your cash will still be liquid if you need it) at ~4% over 10 years, that’s a heck of a lot of savings.

4) Enjoy Life today- yes, you all know I’m a savvy saver in everything I do, but it’s my sweet husband that reminds me to enjoy life and treat myself to nice things that I really like.  Well of course, I always think about how much those nice things are going to cost (for whatever reason, I never seem to ‘really like’ the things that are inexpensive!) so for me in order to treat myself every now or then, I need to have security.  So take that extra money every 3 months and treat yourself or your family to something.  A nice dinner out, a day at the spa, whatever it may be…I’m not saying spend it all, you always have to save, but have some fun…enjoy today!

So re-fi virgin…not for long, hope to lose my virginity to those sucker in the next few weeks; what are your re-fi stores?  What should I know about as I make these changes?  Fill me in, need to know what to expect or any secrets of the trade!

5 Secret Savvy Web tricks to strike a Deal on everything!

As my hubby chuckles that I find another ‘savvy deal’, I say the Coupon Queen strikes again!  With today’s economy, finding deals are around every corner.  From basic groceries to gourmet dinners (we just received a FREE $25 gift card in the mail for Fleming’s…a 5 star steak house!) there are savings every where.

But the question so many people ask me is, where?  How do you know when you can save money, where do you find the deals?  Hold on now…really, it’s not that tough (trust me, I don’t have hours of time to just watch burn away and so I look for coupons…full time job, my own at-home business on the side, keeping up with blogging…I could go on…so, I’m sharing just some of my Secret Savvy Tricks…and today it’s on the web:

1) Wow-coupons.com Love it!  This was one of the first websites I started using back in my college days of needing to find deals.  Although they have coupons for literally every different thing you could think of (Groceries, Restaurants, Travel, Shopping), I use them most for restaurants and shopping.  I constantly find $10 off a $30 buy at New York & co or if I threw out my Michael’s or Ulta coupon for the week by mistake, they have them on there too

2) Google Shopping I always suggest before you buy something, go to Google Shopping and try to find the product online—you can enter in restrictions on what you want to spend and volia, you have a point of comparison (I even have my hubby doing it now before we buy anything and he’s impressed how the same item can cost significantly less at certain stores online)—but beware, make sure to always calculate the shipping fees (those too vary by company)

3) The Clearance/Sale parts of your favorite website.  Do you ever go onto Victoria’s Secret, Nordstroms or Macy’s and just skim by the Sale button?  DON’T!  (Or do for us savvy shoppers!)  You’d be amazed at what you can find…I’ve found items that are on the shelves of the store for 30-40% off just becaus their inventory was low so they’d put the last few online to empty inventory.  Hello!  That’s what I can Fantastic!

4)  Your local online ‘re-use’ site.  Some people refer to this as Craigslist.com only, but in the town that we live in, we have a local website that people (no joke) put their BRAND NEW-tags still on items (things like Genuine Coach bags to clothes by designer name brands) online ‘just because they don’t want them any more’….now, I know this isn’t for every community, but search, a little homework can go a LONG way!

5) Regular Google.  I know I mentioned Google shopping cart, but now I’m talking about regular Google.  It’s not uncommon for me to jump on the computer before we’re about ready to go out to, say for instance, TGI Friday’s for dinner and I’ll Google, “Coupons for TGI Fridays” or “Buy one, get one TGI Friday’s”.  Not always will I find a coupon, but about 70% of the time I’ll find a ‘free appetizer’ with purchase of two entrees (perfect, we were going to get two entrees anyhow, and now we’ll bring home part of one of the entrees– since we’ll get more food with a free appetizer, so there’s lunch the next day: double bonus–I don’t have to cook one of us lunch too!)

So there are my 5 Secret Savvy Web tricks for today.  Keep coming back as my Secret Savvy Tips are going to become a feature  on my blog to help y’all save more and spend more on what you need/want every day!

Ciao 4 now!

Free Shipping & discounts are only a click away

HOWDY Y’all….been busy but it’s back to being Savvy.  No more blogs on elections, etc. etc. (ok, won’t promise forever, but for now).  But being that it’s BEGINNING TO LOOK A LOT LIKE CHRISTMAS (my dear hubby is dreading the fact that I’m getting out Christmas music already), I figured we all need some super savvy shopping tips for the season….so I’m going to try to post at least a few of my savvy shopping tips every week for y’all as you start making a list and checking it twice.

Tip of the Day for Today: (drum roll please)……….

Don’t pass up free shipping, discounts and coupons when you’re buying online.  You know how SO many times when you get to the checkout on a website it says “If you have a coupon code, please enter it here”…doesn’t it dawn on you, DARN, where’s my coupon code?

Well low and behold, my savvy trick for all of you….the wonderful world of Google.  Next time you’re on a site and it says enter coupon code, open a new page in Google and enter “coupon code for (enter name of website”.  MANY MANY times you’ll come up with a coupon code.  Some are free shipping, some range from 10% off to 75% off sales items.  (And I’ve even gotten my purchases for free a RANDOM now and then.)  

Now I won’t say that when you Google the coupon code it’ll be the first one that comes up, sometimes you have to click through a few websites and try different codes (and sometimes they won’t work at all)…but when you can save a buck, isn’t it worth the extra 3-5 minutes to try?  What are your tips to finding online coupons?  Any good websites you suggest?  Post them here, we’re all looking for a savvy deal!  Happy Online Shopping!!!

Palin’s Red Shoes–Middle Class American? Gimme a break! Click your heals & go home Dorothy

We all know it’s the hottest topic around right now—politics and the economy.  Normally I’m very conservative about expressing my beliefs and views on political issues but like many Americans, think this year we’re all taking a bit firmer stand for our views.

I could go off on a tangent for what I support for this election (mind you, both parties have had some strong reasons you should really like them) but that’s not the purpose of this blog—and not to seem like I don’t care about foreign policies (or the fact that the US is so close to Russia) but I bring up a topic that links to my blog…Savvy.

Anyone else notice Sarah Palin’s red patient leather shoes last night during the Vice Presidential debate?  I know I sure did, and guessing that most women who are like me and looking at what she’s wearing, this isn’t the first time she’s sported red heals.  Like I say in the title of this blog—click your heals and go home Dorothy! 

Please don’t get me wrong—yes, I think she dressed very nicely and I personally think some of her clothes are fantastic and wish I had them for my corporate waredrobe.  But Gimme a Break when we’re debating about middle class and the economy and Sarah Palin is trying to push on us that she and her family are ‘middle class’ and have had to live under that $150k/yr line.  Yet, she can sport designer duds every time she comes out on stage.  Don’t think that’s exactly how the savvy middle class woman really is trying to live.

I mean, take Sarah Palin’s glasses they’re $375 just for the frames!  Um, hello, what middle class family (yet a lone a middle class family with 5 children) really purchases $375 frames!?!  For those of you who don’t care about the cost and just want to look like her, here’s the “specs” on her frames:

The $375 frames are by Japanese designer Kazuo Kawasaki, and are made from titanium. They are from a collection entitled the 704 series, and her specific style is the 34 grey.

Point being, if she’s going to stand up there and try to make us believe that she’s ‘one of us’ and is that real hockey mom that knows how hard the economy is and that she and her “maverick” of a running mate are going to save us from an economic meltdown, then really show us that.  Don’t go walking out on stage every day with designer duds on….go to The Gap or The Limited and find something nice and professional looking to wear on stage and then tell us that you really understand and live the middle class lifestyle you say you do.  I highly doubt that with her ‘middle class income’ we’d find Sarah Palin shopping at an outlet mall or Marshall’s trying to find a deal off her middle class income—(which I’d like to see what she’s considering middle class income–maybe she has a view on it like she does her foreign policy experience because Russia is so close to Alaska). 

Common now, gimme a break, I can’t be the only one seeing through this!!  Todo is waiting for you Dorothy…off to Kansas you go (let’s see what foreign policy experience you can muster up from Kansas–maybe you can see Europe from there!!)

Barack Obama Rocks the House at DNC in Denver, CO

Democrat or Republican; savvy or a big spender, I can’t help but to blog about Barack Obama’s speech tonight at the DNC in Denver, CO.  WHAT A SPEAKER?!?!?  (and to follow up with my blog from the other day, didn’t Michelle look great tonight???  What a smashing first lady!) 

If anyone can argue that Barack isn’t a good speaker, I’d like to challenge them.  Barack Obama rocked the house tonight with powerful words of encouragement of good will, economy, tax breaks and a better quality of life for Americans.  Who doesn’t want to believe in that?

I’m not going to say who I’m voting for or what side I’m leading towards, but it’s a hot savvy topic this week about the DNC and well worth blogging about.  Barack and Michelle are two ‘ordinary’ people (which aids in their like-able-ness from all) they come from poverty stricken families and have made their own way (debt, hard work, frustration and all)…that’s what makes them truly American.  Barack’s mother suffering from cancer, raising her children off of welfare and connecting to those people who can’t take a day off of work to care for a child.  Equality for women, cost savings you name it, he mentioned it tonight? 

His speech writers and his ideas a genious!  You’d be crazy to not believe that!

From a savvy perspective, a smart educated woman, don’t you think that America is responding differently to our elections this year?  Don’t you think that America is finally realizing what a hole we have to dig ourselves out of? 

Give me your comments…I’m interested to debate/hear and talk about change and the difference that our candidates are proposing..to me, the freedom of America is one of the most savvy things out there!

Hurricane Season–Savvy Tips for Survival

With Hurricane Gustav on it’s way into the Gulf you have to start to think about yet another hurricane warning.  Having been a Cali girl my entire life (practically) and living through the big Northridge Earthquake in addition to a zillion others, I think natural disasters can really be blown up in the media.  (Now I need to take personal protective gear here because I went to school for broadcast journalism and know the tricks of the trade for ‘hooking’ the viewer).  Make it sound bad and boy will they be GLUED to the TV.  (Not ALL TV—don’t start sending me hate mail please, but a LOT of TV.)

Hurricanes rank up there with North East Snow Storms.  “Fill your cabinets with food; bottled water; plan to be without electricity for YEARS…” the list goes on and on….don’t get me wrong, I know that there are serious precautions you need to take for any natural disaster….which I’ll give you a Hurricane tip list later…but the way that the media freaks us out, can be a bit much sometimes.

I’m sure the many survivors of Hurricane Katrina would argue here with me and say that you should always take these items seriously—I mean, yes, look at what happened as the ramifications of the hurricane in New Orleans…I’ve been to the 9th Ward since and it’s horrible…I’d never wish that on anyone.  But if the media would sizzle down a bit on the things that really aren’t that bad, maybe we’d be a bit more prepared when the bad ones really do matter.

But with all this being said, for those of us in the hurricane zone, be savvy please, be ready (even if we only get a rain storm…which happened here a few weeks ago and the schools closed/offices closed…and the only thing that happened that day was a bad rain storm.)  HOY!  But here are some savvy Hurricane ready tips!

1) Have a mini-safe with all of your important papers/passports and a video of every nook of your house (we just did this because about 2 months ago, our neighbor’s house got struck by a random bolt of lightning and they lost most of their possessions and the insurance company said that without photos or proof of what they had in the house, they couldn’t give them the full value…that bites; and taught me a quick lesson!)

2) Keep extra canned food, crackers, cereal, (things that can be snacked on without any heating elements) in the house…dont’ need to be excessive, but keep them handy; and be sure to have a can opener in that same pile of 100′s of cans! 

3)  When a storm is on the way, don’t worry about buying up 20 gallons of bottled water.  Instead, fill your pots/pans with tap water and store them in the fridge and/or oven.  It’ll be just fine for a few days and you’ll save not only money by not buying lots of bottled water, but you’ll also keep the earth eco-friendly by not wasting the containers of the bottles.

4)  Check the weather periodically and have a plan—when hurricanes do get bad, it’s good to have a plan.  What if you’re at work and your hubby is on the other side of the city—have a check list of where you’d meet, who would go get what stuff from the house, etc.  And keep a cell phone charger in your car…for times like this, the last thing you want is your phone dying.

5)  Fill up with gas EARLY!  People FREAK at the fact that there’s not going to be any gas left.  A few weeks ago when we had a tropical storm heading towards us, we had to stop at 3 different major stations before we finally found gas…it was nuts!  And it was priced at a premium…so when you hear a storm is somewhat near, do yourself a favor and stop to fill up on your way home.

These are just a few of my savvy tips to surviving a hurricane…but really, it’s too bad the media hypes up absolutely every storm and then we never know when the ‘real’ one is going to hit…but it’s always better to be safe than sorry, so get packing, planning and prepping….Hurricane Gustav is on its way!

Michelle Obama–Fashion Icon at the DNC

Who ever thought that fashion and politics could bring so much news than the 2008 elections?  It’s more like the 2008 Political Fashion Olympics….and the Gold goes to______

The anticipated Michelle Obama speech last night was superseded by the hot topic on every station from CNN to Good Morning America of, ‘what will she be wearing?’  It’s turning into a red carpet event—what happened to what they’re saying?  Don’t get me wrong, as a savvy girl, I LOVE fashion (and I too was wondering all afternoon what Michelle would be wearing), but are we making out the elections (and the involvement of women) to be too much like the Oscars?  What about the topics, the policies?  I think in the last 48 hours I’ve heard more news reports on Michelle’s fashions than on her speech (which I thought was fantastic!)  Where’s the emphasis on the strong woman that she is? 

Just because we’re women, and in Michelle’s case a supporting wife role, doesn’t mean that all we should be focused on is our look.  For example, take today’s news…we’ve been hearing all about Hillary Clinton’s speech tonight and how her portion of the democratic party needs to get on board, what she’s going to say, why she wasn’t nominated, etc….but has ANYONE heard about what she’s going to wear?  NO!  So then why such a big deal for Michelle?  Just because she’s in a supporting wife role she should ‘appear’ different? 

In my mind we need to get more smart savvy and stop giving these titles to women that we’re only fashion icons.  There’s nothing wrong in making Michelle a fashion-forward icon like Jackie O (because she does dress very well), but in today’s age, we need to encourage media to put more focus on her intelligence, her motherly love to her family and to what she can do, not what she can wear.  What sort of example are we setting for women, for African Americans and for our nation?  We’re already the leading nation for plastic surgery and being so obsessed with our looks…what about our intelligence?