Frugal Babe

I got an email from a reader over the weekend, asking if I knew of any credit cards offering balance transfers without a fee, and zero percent interest on the transfered amount. I did some searching this morning, and every offer I saw for zero percent interest on balance transfers includes a balance transfer fee, although there are still some really good balance transfer offers out there. I suppose it doesn’t hurt to see if you can get them to waive the fee for you – the worst that will happen is that they’ll say no. I’ve seen some cards that have a max of $75 for balance transfers, and others with a max of $90. If anybody knows of one with no fee for balance transfers, please leave a comment!

If you’re considering balance transfers, there are lots of issues to take into account. How much debt to do you want to transfer? If you only have $500 in credit card debt, it’s probably not worth the hassle and transfer fees (likely $15, as most cards seem to charge 3%). But the more debt you have, and the longer the zero percent interest period lasts, the more likely it is to be a good deal. Here’s a site I found that shows a comparison of several balance transfer credit cards, with the interest rates and balance transfer fees for each one. It looks like Discover has several good offers – one of the balance transfers we did several years ago was to a Discover card, and it worked very well for us. We got the zero percent rate for as long as we liked, provided we made one purchase each month on the card. So every month we’d buy something for a dollar, and keep extending our balance transfer offer. We did have to pay interest on the stuff we bought, but even after a couple years, it was only adding up to about a dollar a month. That balance transfer saved us hundreds of dollars in interest, but it did require diligence on our part to make sure that we kept the deal going. Obviously the savings depend on how high your interest rate currently is, how long the introductory balance transfer offer will last (try to get at least 12 months), and how high the interest rate will be once the real rate kicks in. Finally, I would say that once you’ve done the balance transfer, do everything you can to pay off the balance by the time the introductory rate expires. And whatever you do, don’t be late with a payment – all bets are off if you don’t live up to the terms of the deal, and you could find that all of a sudden you’re paying double digit interest rates along with late fees. Of course this can happen with any credit card, but it’s especially painful if you go through all the effort of a balance transfer, get the zero percent interest rate, and then lose it because you miss a payment.

I’m trying to find the best deal on getting digital pictures printed.  Any thoughts?  I’ve used Snapfish, Flickr, and Shutterfly in the past, as well as taking my chip to Walmart, Target, and Costco.  Everyone has different prices – Shutterfly is good for 4 x 6 prints, but their 8 x 10s are a lot more expensive than Costco and Walmart.  I don’t want to drive all over town with my chip, getting different size pics at different places.  I love to scrapbook, and I just sorted out 100 shots that I want to print in various sizes for my son’s book (I know, he’s only 2 and a half months old, and I have way too many pictures already, and his baby book is going to be six inches thick, but I’m sure we’re not the first new parents to go a little overboard on pictures).  I’ve used so many picture printing services that they’re starting to blur in my head… so let me know your favorites – I need a good one that won’t break the bank.

Today we had our first experiment with giving our son a bottle of pumped breast milk.  I pumped about three ounces, and he drank almost two before pushing the bottle away, so we’re considering it a success.  As soon as I pumped, I left to go run errands on my bike.  I was gone for about two hours, so my husband got to spend lots of quality time with our little one, and got to feed him for the first time.  We’re going to give him one bottle every few days for a while, just to get him used to it.  We bought a glass baby bottle (BPA-free) yesterday.  It cost $11, which was pretty pricey, but we decided it’s worth it to not be using plastic.  We’re trying to avoid plastic wherever we can, and the baby bottle seems like an important thing to be free of chemical gunk.

I spoke with my supervisor at the library today, and she mentioned that she’s seeking approval to create a 12 hour circulation desk position – two six hour shifts per week, which would be perfect for me, assuming our little guy is ok with a bottle of breast milk while I’m gone.  The job wouldn’t start until mid-late August, so he’d be nearly four months old by then.  He’ll still be needing to eat more than every six hours, and won’t be on any solids by then.  So for a few months I would need to pump a bottle for him before going to work.  Once he gets a little older, he could have some blended veggies as a snack while I’m gone, and just breastfeed before and after my shift.

Going back to the library for 12 hours/week would give us about $150/week in additional income.  Of course some of that goes to taxes, but I could use the rest to fund my Roth IRA.  I love working there, but 32 hours/week was just not something I wanted to juggle with my other job and my new job as a mother.  12 hours/week would be much better, so I’m hoping that the position gets approved.

Stefanie at Focus Organic has given me an Arte y Pico award – Thanks Stefanie!  This award was created to honor other bloggers who inspire us with their creativity, in whatever form it may take.  Now I get to choose five blogs whose authors show creativity and talent and deserve to be recognized for it.

I have to start with Crash Test Mommy.  Her blog never fails to make me laugh.  She has a fantastic talent for writing, and manages to slip in the funny parts when you’re not looking.

Kristen’s Raw deserves the award too.  I just discovered this blog recently, and I love all the ways that Kristen makes raw food exciting and tasty.  Way beyond salads.  And her blog is just inspiring in general – I dare you to read it and not want to go for a run and eat a bowl of strawberries afterwards.

Next up is On Purpose Living.  Alissa is a creative mom who inspires me with her sewing and her compassionate outlook on life.

Andy at Tight Fisted Miser definitely deserves a creativity award.  He’s going to live in a van to save money on rent – that’s thinking outside of the box.  And he’s starting a frugal blog network… stay tuned, as it’s going to launch on Friday!

And last but not least, I’d like to give this award to Mrs. Micah.  She’s wise well beyond her years, has a great personal finance blog, and started the Finwikian.  She has great posts all the time and never seems to run out of ideas.

I love all of these blogs, and hope that they will enjoy choosing other blogs to pass on the arte y pico award to.  And I think my readers will enjoy visiting these blogs and getting some good ideas.

Over the last few weeks, as I wrote about making cloth diapers and reusable nursing pads, I’ve had lots of people comment that I might also want to make/buy reusable menstrual pads.  Hmmm.  Not something I had ever considered before, but hey – we can all change.  I change and wash cloth diapers all day – a few days a month with washable pads ought to be doable.

I came across this website, which not only has a ton of resources with info on making your own reusable pads, but it’s also a darn good cause – helping get these supplies (which we totally take for granted here in the US) to girls in Africa so that they don’t have to miss school during their period.  Any sort of grass roots support for Africa is always close to my heart.  So not only can we use the multitude of patterns on the site to make our own pads, we can also make some to donate to girls in Africa.  This could be a great way to practice with my sewing machine…

Just came across a blog that I already love – Barton Family Values. Thanks to the guest post on Lynnae’s blog, I have found a new blog to read! Michelle has a beautiful baby girl who is just a few weeks older than our little boy, so I know we have a lot in common right now! She’s breastfeeding, using cloth diapers, etc. And check out this belly band that she and her mom made. Very cool. If I ever have a next time, I think I’ll do that too. It goes right along with the cloth diapers and nursing pads that my mom and I made.

I also found a post on Nature Mom’s Blog about The Creative Family, which I thought was great, and very appropriate timing since school’s out for the summer now. I think our little guy might still be a tad bit too young for the soy crayons, but I’m filing that away for future use! I think it’s a great idea to have all sorts of crafting, make believe, dress up, and creative play stuff around the house. My family has pictures of all of us when we were little, sitting on the kitchen floor with the entire contents of the pots and pans cupboard all around us – and of course at least one pot being used as a hat. It’s amazing what sort of creative play little kids can come up with if you supply them with the right environment. You don’t have to spend big bucks either – cardboard boxes from Costco can become boats or train cars… and sheets draped over furniture can become “Bunny houses” (always a favorite around our house when I was a child). It’s just a matter of not being too bothered by a few messes, and encouraging creative play. Think of all the money you can save if your kids spend the afternoon making collages out of scraps of old paper and building a “fort” out of couch cushions, instead of watching 700 commercials on TV and then convincing you to take them to the mall to go shopping for whatever was on the commercials.

I saw an ad today for the new iPhone, coming out next month.  The G3 is billed as being “twice as fast, half the price”  I assume they’re comparing it with the original iphone – already outdated after only a year.  This is why I don’t buy the latest and greatest of pretty much anything.  The Razr that we got for $10 the last time we renewed our cell phone service works just fine.   Next time we renew our contract, who knows – we might just  splash out another $10 for an upgrade to what is now a hot phone, but by then will be the bargain model.