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Fox10 - KSAZ TV
Arizona Morning News

August 10, 2006

Back To School – Clothes

Pictured from left to right: Lauren (Abbey's best friend, Joe, Abbey, Diane Ryan, Annette, Steve, Roy and Becky. We're all standing inside one of our favorite thrift stores — Savers.
The national average for buying grade school kids Back to School Clothes is about $300 per child. This includes all clothing and shoes. We took our kids (and one friend) shopping at Savers Thrift Deparment Store for an hour and a half of bargain hunting for back to school clothes. The results were stunning. Each of the kids found several complete outfits in that time.Roy's outfit (L.L. Bean jeans and a Quicksilver Tee shirt) retailed for over $60 and was purchased for just $5. Everything you see the kids wearing in this photo were purchased at Savers. The most expensive outfit . . . just $12 for jeans, a top and a sweater. That's a real deal, but what makes it even better is that this whole trip didn't cost us (Annette and Steve) a penny. That's right, the kids use their own money to buy their clothes. Our kids start paying for their own clothes at age 11. To learn more about this system read about our MoneySmart Kids Training Program.

Download your Free list of Arizona Thrift and Consignment Stores

For more information about saving on kids clothes order our January 2006 back issue (Kid's Clothing Wars). Back issues cost $2 each.

August 2, 2006

Back To School – Supplies

The national average for grade school back-to-school supplies is $75 to $100 per child and another $300 on clothes and shoes. You can save a ton of money and time by reviewing the ads and buying supplies at the lowest price possible.

On the set at Fox10 in Phoenix, Arizona with morning host, Rick D'Amico, Annette, Co-Host Linda Williams and Steve.

Cell Phones These little conveniences / toys in the hands of an financially irresponsible kid can spell disaster for your family budget. If you're looking for a better way to control your cell phone costs and usage consider giving your child a pre-paid cell phone plan. The minutes are paid for in advance. It may cost a bit more per minute, but you'll control your monthly expenses much better. And your child will eventually learn to budget their minutes over the course of a month. This is a great learning tool. (This works even better if you let the kids pay for their own phone bill).

Most cell phone companies offer this service, but TRACFONE.com was the first and the largest provider. For more information Google: prepaid cell phone.

For more information on cell phone savings order our September 2004 back issue (Talk Isn't Cheap). Back issues cost $2 each.

July 19, 2006

Cutting College Costs

On the set at Fox10 in Phoenix, Arizona with morning host, Ron Hoon, Annette & Steve and Associate Producer, Alexxa Tavlarides.
The average college student is graduating with $20,000 worth of debt. Most graduates take 10 years or more to pay it off. If you spend a little time applying for scholarships you can trim or eliminate what you need to borrow

There are always ways to save on college costs from scholarships to lodging to books. We cover lots of these strategies in our January, February and April 2005 back issues.

1) Financial Aid — get thousands even now

  1. FAFSA  Free Application for Federal Student Aid www.fafsa.ed.gov. This is a two step process: First you'll also want to register for PIN number, which will take a few days to receive—do that at this web site FAFSA Pin Number. Second, You'll need income tax and savings information for the student and parents. Allow about 90 minutes to complete the online application. The deadline is September 15.

  2. Financial Aid Visit your university's Web site or financial aid office. They should provide you with a packet of information on specific scholarships they have available. Be careful . . . if you indicate that you are willing to take out loans, most financial aid staffers will stop looking for scholarships and just submit your application for a loan. For more information on this, order our February 2005 (Finance College the Prospector's Way) back issue . (Back issues cost $2 each).

2) Don't Pay Retail for Text Books
 The average college student is paying between $500 to $900 per semester for books. By doing a little sleuthing, we found savings as great as 87% on books needed for this semester.
Get our January 2007 issue for a list of places where we found huge savings on books.

3) Get Quality Instruction

With the average class costing anywhere between $185 at community colleges to $900 at some universities, be sure to get your moneys worth. You are purchasing a service, so get the best quality you can.

  1. Go to www.RateMyProfessor.Com This is a free Web site where students can rate their professors teaching ability . . . and looks. There are more than 700,000 professors from 6000 schools represented on this site.

    www.RateMyTeachers.com for K-12 This is the same type of Web site as RateMyProfessor.

    Read our January 2005 (Navigating College) and April 2005 (College Wrap-Up) back issues for more information.

 
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