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EPISODE 54~ FIND YOURS: Could Your Sorority Have Unclaimed Money?

Find unclaimed money with The Easy Money Show

Hello, pledges! How “in” with the sisters would you be if you found money that belonged to the house? All you do is go to MissingMoney.com OR unclaimed.org —Note that’s .org— and type the name of the sorority into the last name box or try different combinations in the first AND last name boxes.

I did an experiment myself. I was a member of Tri-Delt, when I was at Berkeley, before I, ahem, deactivated —which sounds so weird. (I just wasn’t the sorority type, but they were great women….) Anyway, Delta, Delta, Delta can I help ya help ya help ya with 62 different unclaimed money accounts in multiple states? I found those on MissingMoney. Then I searched in California, because it actually lists the amounts of unclaimed money owed. California had 18 accounts for the Tri-Delts in LA and Stockton. None in Berkeley. Maybe the Berkeley Tri-Delts are too brainy to lose their money? But anyway, the unclaimed money accounts for Tri-Delts in California ranged from 57 cents on up to $2,198… with several in between. That’s just one sorority. Were you a DG? Or a Kappa? Or a Theta? Take 5 minutes to search for unclaimed money for your sisters and make their day! And, of course, in the spirit of equal timne, in the next few shows I will search for some fraternities and see what I can find for the frat boys!

Search for your unclaimed money: missingmoney.com

Find your unclaimed property: www.unclaimed.org

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EPISODE 54 ~ GUEST BLOG: The Art of Profitable Dumpster Diving

M.A.C. (Moves Adds and Changes)
Change is good. If a store is moving then more than likely they will be disposing of any unwanted items, such as shelving, storage, old equipment, etc. anything that may be easier to replace than transport. These items can be useful in your own construction and storage products or resold.

Retail stores are constantly updating and adding space. Construction on these stores can also mean demolition and clearing out of unwanted items.
When a store is making changes to the items they stock they may be shedding some of the older, outdated stock. This is especially true with computers and electronics. People don’t want to pay full price for outdated cameras, laptops and such but will pay decent prices for them on the secondary market. Retail stores love to make changes and some of those changes can be very beneficial to the trained dumpster diver.
Let’s not overlook damaged items either. Some of those items may be an easy fix or can be sold for parts. Keep the spare parts and hardware as these can be used to repair similar items from other dumpster dives.
One last tip is to find out when your city has bulk pick up days. Most towns have at least 2 or 3 days a year when residents can discard their large, bulky items such as furniture, construction materials and so on. You can usually call the city sanitation department to find out when they pick up these items.

The easy part is over, you have found your discarded treasures and now you need to figure out what to do with them. The chart below shows the typical flow of the items. The first thing you want to do is to make sure you have a place to process the items. A shed, garage, or even a storage unit are good places. You want to have plenty of room to sort and store your treasures. Keep in mind that some items may need repaired or cleaned up. Don’t automatically throw it away just because it is broken. You might just be able to fix it. If you can’t fix it the item just might become part of an art project ore serve another purpose. Whatever you choose not to keep for resale make sure you dispose of it properly, after all one of the reasons to dumpster dive is to keep things out of the landfills.

OK, so you have your stuff, it’s fixed, cleaned, and ready to go, but who’s going to buy this stuff? The answer is there are plenty of people out there looking for bargains. The trick is knowing how to reach those potential customers. The most popular places are Craigslist, eBay and Amazon, but let’s not forget the old fashioned yard sale. There is plenty of money to be made by having a yard sale and there is almost no out of pocket cash.

Guest Contact:

Website: AsseroSecurity.com

Youtube: www.youtube.com/channel/UC_bPpFJd80xgjtMYX4S3auw

LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/matt-malone-41a70b10/

Facebook: www.facebook.com/matt.malonetx?fref=search

Guest Bio:

Security specialist by day, professional dumpster diver by night. It’s hard to imagine that Matt Malone makes more money “digging through trash” than working at Slait Consulting, cashing in six-figures a year. It all started 12 years ago when Matt was hired by an Austin based company to hack into their system. Part of this required going through the clients’ trash to find information. Upon discovering many valuable items, Matt began to take the valuables home for his own crafts, shortly realizing that dumpsters don’t hold as much trash as they do treasure; treasure that he could resell and make a hefty amount of money off of. Thus, adding professional dumpster diver to his resume!

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EPISODE 53~ TOP TIP: Smart Toys Could Be Putting Your Children At Risk

The FBI wants you to know that internet-connected toys, sometimes called “smart toys” are vulnerable to hackers. The FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center lists a litany of problems in its release, saying strangers can pinpoint your address, get childrens’ names and birth dates, download your son or daughter’s photo and even listen in on your conversations and record your child’s voice. In Europe, where they worry more about new technologies, some countries have even warned parents to destroy toys with proven vulnerabilities. What to do? One solution is to skip high tech internet-connected toys altogether. But if you are a tech-friendly parent, there is another option: Look for internet-connected toys that are certified by the FTC’s Safe Harbor Program, which means they are guaranteed to protect childrens’ privacy. I will link you to that program from EasyMoneyShow.com/53.

FTC Certified internet-connected toys: www.ftc.gov/safe-harbor-program

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EPISODE 53~ MAKE MORE: Solar Panels Not Only Save You Money But Can Make You Money

Solar panels can now pay for themselves in as little as five years, depending where you live. I will link you to an article of mine that helps you figure out if you live in a good location for solar panels. If you do, you won’t need much, if any, power from your electric utility. And, in fact, that mammoth utility might even buy power from little old you!
First question to ask: Does my state have net metering? This is government speak for any state where if you generate more electricity than you need, the power company will buy it back from you. This can be a nice little money maker for you. And fortunately, it’s pretty common. 38 states and the District of Columbia offer net metering. I will give you the link to Look up whether yours is one of them.
Second key question: is my state a SREC state? SREC stands for Solar Renewable Energy Certificate. About 30 states plus the District of Columbia mandate that electric utilities must generate part of their power from renewable sources like —bingo— solar. And yes, power companies will pay you to help them do this. For every 1000 kilowatt hours of solar power you generate, you earn one SREC. Your utility will buy that credit from you —for as much as $480 in some areas. The value of these SRECs varies dramatically from one state to another, and DC where I live, is one of the most generous, but I can tell you that my neighbor Mark makes about $2500 a year by selling these solar credits back to our local power company. Nice!
I promised you SEVERAL links as part of this “make more” segment and I will have those for you at EasyMoneyShow.com/53.

Good locations for Solar panels: www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/home/considering-getting-solar-panels-here-are-the-right-questions-to-ask/2018/03/09/3190c71a-20c0-11e8-94da-ebf9d112159c_story.html?noredirect=on&utm_term=.f0b735ccd311

Net metering policies in your state: www.ncsl.org/research/energy/net-metering-policy-overview-and-state-legislative-updates.aspx

Solar renewable energy certificates: www.energysage.com/solar/cost-benefit/srecs-solar-renewable-energy-certificates/

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EPISODE 53~ SAVE MORE: Grocery Shopping on a Budget By Stockpiling Items When They Are Cheapest —Instead of When You Need Them

Save more money with The Easy Money Show

What is the idea behind stockpiling?
The idea is to buy enough groceries when they are at their lowest price to last you until the next time those same items are at their lowest price, usually 3 to 6 months. So you will have 6 months worth of some items in your home. And you’ll “shop your pantry” when you need something.

What can you stockpile? Nearly everything, right?
Everything except fresh produce and eggs. You can even stockpile and freeze milk and cheese, if you want.

How much storage space do you need and how did you find the room?
From book: The easiest way to create extra storage space is to clea out thing sthat are no longer being used. For example, do you have things in your kitchen cupboard that you never use? You can pack away or donate things like small appliances, extra silverware, expired spices and specialty baking dishes, whatever your family doesn’t use.

OK, time to stockpile. You say to stockpile coupons first. Is it necessary to use coupons to stockpile?
You don’t have to use coupons. If you do, it deepens your discounts, but its on necessary.

Next, you say to make a “Focus Item List” for your family. What is that?
It’s a list of priciest things you buy and also the most frequent items you buy. That way you know you are stocking up on things you actually need and use. We have a form on our website, BeCentsable.net, to help people create this. For example, my family uses a lot of shredded cheese, which is expensive, so I want to get that whenever it’s on sale and freeze it to last until the next sale.

This brings up another step: people need to know what regular prices and what good prices are for the things they buy most often, right? Because otherwise, you don’t know when a sale or a coupon is just a “meh” deal or an amazing deal.
It’s important to know what the rock bottom price is for a specific item on your stock up list. So if cereal is normally $2.50 a box, then the rock bottom price is hopefully about half off or $1.25.,

How do you find the groceries you’re going to buy to start your stockpile?
Look through your grocery store’s weekly ad and find things that are on your stockpile list that are on sale, ideally at 50 percent off. Focus on products you already use —or substitutes you’re willing to try.

You can also go higher tech. Tell my listeners about CouponMom.com and what it does for you.
This website matches sales with coupons and calculates the percentage off of the regular price so you know when sometihng is an amazing deal worth stocking up on. You can even sort to only see deals that are at least half off.

Another revelation for people interested in stockpiling is that sales come in cycles. Explain.
Yes, certain products go on sale at predictable intervals, which helps you know how much to buy to get you through to the next sale.

There’s also seasonal savings, certain products that go on sale at a particular time of year. Give us a couple of examples.
January: Bread, cereal, Quaker products.
March: Cleaning supplies, eggs, Kraft products.
And so on.

Is it expensive to build up a stockpile? 6 months worth of groceries sounds like a lot.
You will not be buying any more of these items than you usually do. You will just be purchasing them at a different time: ahead of time.

Are we talking about just food? Or household supplies and personal care items too?
ALL of it. In fact, non-food groceries are even easier to stockpile and there are some great sales.

Master stockpiling: BeCentsable.net

Sort through deals and price check: CouponMom.com

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EPISODE 53~ FIND YOURS: Keep an Eye on Your Unclaimed Money Before Your State Snags It

Find unclaimed money with The Easy Money Show

States first became the custodians of unclaimed money back in the 1960s or so. Their argument was that they were more trustworthy than businesses when it came to safeguarding citizens lost accounts.

Back then, the states would let dormant accounts sit there for a good long time —maybe ten years— before considering them unclaimed money and forcing banks and other financial firms to turn the money over to the state. But soon state legislators realized holding unclaimed money was a benefit to THEM, not just you. They deposited these millions or billions worth of unclaimed funds in interest bearing accounts and the STATE’s kept the interest. At first they used the interest just for good causes like education and crime fighting.

But then, like so many things, the original, pure purpose eroded. States started using the PRINCIPAL, not just the interest to pay for things. And they started using it to plug gaps in their general fund rather than just for special, select programs like education.
The states got addicted to these big pots of money and wanted more! They started shortening the number of years before dormant accounts were considered unclaimed. In California, for example, financial firms used to have to turn unclaimed accounts over after 10 years. Then the state shortened that to 7 years. Then to 3 years. There was even legislation trying to shorten the time period to 1 year! Ridiculous! If you didn’t interact with a financial account of yours for a year, would it really be lost or unclaimed? Unlikely. Luckily, that effort failed and California stayed with the 3-year plan.

Why am I telling you all this? SO you can keep an eye on your state AND on your accounts. Make sure to do something to keep them active at least once a year.

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EPISODE 53 ~ GUEST BLOG: Stockpiling: The Easiest Way to Cut Your Grocery Bill

Guest Contact: Founder of BeCentsable.net, a free savings website with tips and tricks.
Find @BeCentsAble on…
Facebook
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Guest Bio: Chrissy is a stay-at-home mom with two girls from Missouri. Chrissy has helped thousands of subscribers save money without giving up “extras” like travel and entertainment. She shows how anyone can save thousands of dollars on cleaning supplies, toys, travel, groceries and more.

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EPISODE 52~ TOP TIP: Sheet Manufacturers Could Be Skipping You on Thread Counts!

Here is a top tip about something you sleep on: Your sheets! The little-known U.S. International Trade Commission recently found that foreign sheet manufacturers were shorting consumers on thread counts and issued what’s called a general exclusion order banning companies from importing sheets with inflated thread counts.
Thread count is a measure of the number of threads per square inch in a fabric and higher thread counts have long been associated with softer sheets. How inflated were they? ITC investigators found that some sheets labeled 800 thread count, were actually just 250 thread count. These problem sheets mostly came from India, Pakistan and China. New imports are banned, but existing sheets will be on store shelves for a few more years to come.
So don’t rely on a sky-high thread count when you choose sheets. The Good Housekeeping Institute says most consumers actually prefer sheets of 300 to 500 thread count.

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