A time for giving – the holiday season. This is the time to review your charitable giving for the year and consider a year end gift before the tax year is complete.

There are many worthy organizations – which one(s) hold a special place in your life and heart? This is most rewarding personally plus you know the efforts and affects the organization truly is making in there area of influence.

There are ways to give more than once, almost like a double gift! Looking for a meaningful gift for a friend, family, co-worker or business associates? Make a donation in their name to a cause you or they support.

Donations to your local educational institutions for library or playground equipment or teacher supplies for student needs is always welcomed.

For an extra special interactive charitable gift, arrange to participate with the one receiving the gift. For example, select a charity with mutual interest between you. Next contact the charity for a list of their needs either to assist with your time or supplies to purchase. Set a date for you to go together to help or shop and deliver the donation. Take pictures and make it fun as well as meaningful.

Think of the lives you are affecting – including your own.

Do you have your estate planning completed? If not, your state and federal government have done it for you – and you might not like how they have arranged your personal affairs.

Scary thought isn’t it? Especially if you have children. This is an emotionally charged issue with many of us, but please do not put off completing this task as it is most important.

All of us need to have a will, guardianship legally established, documents dealing with health issues (living will and a medical power of attorney) and additional personal estate all legally documented and established.

Research the topic (again the Dummies series has been helpful for us) and then contact an attorney who specializes in estate planning. Having a personal friend who is an estate attorney has really made me understand the enormous consequences that can, and usually do, occur when your estate has not been prepared for your personal situation.

Also discuss with your estate attorney how to approach your parents and their needs as they age and many time neglect this important preparation for the future.

This is the month I dread. Many of the financial tasks have been satisfying, but I will admit this is not for me..but we will do it anyway!

This is the month your employer distributes the insurance information with all the options listed. Your task is to seriously look it over. Consider the choices for you and your family and those you are not certain about or need more information regarding, get it from your employer, on-line research and library resources.

Consider cutting your prescription costs by using a generic version of the medication (seek your doctor’s advice, possibly a phone call will result in savings).

Look at the benefits offered at each place of employment and research your private and business  benefits verses costs. Do you have double coverage on yours and your spouses insurance? Then see which is better and discontinue the other insurance. It is amazing the cost difference for the same or better benefits from one employer to another (and private companies too).

Would a Health Savings Account for your out-of-pocket medical expenses be a savings in taxes for you?

It is time to handle this month’s task…ready, set, go!

The theme for September is Back to School. For those of you with children with college ahead, start saving now. For relatives who would like to contribute, using part of the birthday or Christmas gift money possibly (worth a try), you will need to set up a college savings plan.

To research the saving plans and the various options for college, we recommend starting with Clark Howard’s web site.

For those of us whom this is not a need, no you do not get a month off from the financial tasks we are working on this year! Our task this month, is to review any previous month’s tasks and do what you have not gotten completed. Trust me, you will feel better once it is done…

Help for Saving at the Gas Pump! With summer vacations plus daily commutes and errands, this site will give you some helpful tips and suggestions as to how to save on gas usage. The Alliance to Save Energy, made up of 18 member companies, trade associations, government agencies, consumer group and nonprofits (including the Wal-mart Foundation, ExxonMobil and the NRDC) recently joined forces to launch: http://drivesmarterchallenge.org. Focused totally on transportation, the new Drive Smarter Challenge campaign aims to help consumers cut gasoline costs through efficient driving tips and practices.

Taking the Alliance’s Drive $marter Challenge means pledging to take from one to six actions that will produce measurable reductions in gas, money, and CO2 emission.
A calculator on the site computes not only your individual savings through your own actions, but also computes a running tally of savings by everyone who has taken the challenge. It demonstrates the impact of one person’s actions multiplied by similar fuel-efficiency actions of family members, friends, and colleagues of all the people who share the tips and challenge others to participate. Once taking the challenge, the site also delivers money-saving coupons for fuel-efficient products.

The new site encourages you to:

• Check out and download money-saving driving and vehicle maintenance tips.
• Take the Drive Smarter Challenge –  choose 1-6 fuel efficiency actions – and immediately see your savings calculations (money, gasoline, greenhouse gas emissions).
• Help spread the word by telling 6  family members and friends about the Drive Smarter Challenge and become eligible for discount coupons for fuel-efficient products that can reduce gasoline bills.
• See how individual actions and those of others who take the challenge create a multiplier effect.

Also see our Managing Daily Life - Save on Gas with the Right Car for more fuel-saving tips!

The outrageous cost of fuel has got a lot of us thinking about more affordable vehicles these days, so perhaps this is timely!

CarMax recently redesigned and relaunched its used car-buying site with a new look, improved navigability, and some interesting features I thought you might find interesting, including the new Vehicle Recommender Tool.

The tool, created in partnership with MyProductAdvisor.com, allows CarMax.com users to enter data about what you are looking for in a vehicle and get a list of recommendations that’s specific to them and available for purchase through CarMax.

CarMax.com also allows you to search for vehicles based on safety ratings and customer and expert reviews and a lot more.

If you are looking for a new or used car, definitely take a look at this helpful tool!

Where have the months gone? It is mid-year and we have a financial check-up for this month.

Rebalancing can make a substantial difference in your rate of return on your investments – especially protecting in a downturn. Once you have decided your mix of stocks, bonds and cash, check all accounts and make any rebalance transfers to maintain your financial goals.

Does your retirement plan need rebalancing? Often this is sadly neglected – once in there we forget about it thinking our job is done until retirement. Not so!

If you feel like this is overwhelming, have you considered making an appointment with an independent financial planner? Personally we like a fee only type of financial planner for a once a year “get-an-expert’s-advise”. Not that we always agree, but it does get us thinking and it has made substantial increases in our financial standing over the years. For more advise on how to find this type of advice, we use and search the topics on the Clark Howard web site.

Have you taken a look at the new meal plans that E-Mealz has recently added to help you choose the right food choices for you and your family? Hopefully you read the previous post, Meal Planning and Saving on the Grocery Budget, where I share my experience with this money and time saving service – if not, please check it out for yourself right now. Personally I am so pleased and can not imagine going back to my previous method of figuring out what to have for breakfast, lunch and dinner.

The best part about using E-Mealz menu plan is less stress and time for me in planning, shopping and fixing the food for my family. At first I thought, “Ok, I’ll be paying for the convenience, but it is worth the $1.25 a week to simplify my life.” Well, yes, that has proven true – but here is the big surprise… E-Mealz is saving me MAJOR money on groceries. Compared to last year’s grocery bills, I have saved over $150 in just 2 months using their menu plans. Now given the cost of $10 for the subscription, that is good practical dollar and sense savings!

Meal Plan Options (more…)