A Maryland/DC/Virginia chili chain, Hard Times Cafe, always does this same type of promotion around the holidays and until they closed the one near us, we used to buy at least a $100 in gift certificates because it was any easy $20 off. If you live near a Bonefish Grill and you enjoy their food, taking this promotion is a no brainer. If you don’t, well… then it doesn’t really make much sense, now does it?

I also have a bonus today, as Bonefish Grill has given us a $25 gift certificate to give away to one lucky Bargaineering.com. First, check to see that there is a local Bonefish Grill near where you live. Then, if you have one nearby and you would like to win the certificate, just leave a comment below with the menu item you’d most likely get the next time you visited before Sunday, November 22nd for your chance to win.

Me? I’d probably get the Chilean Sea Bass in a Pan Asian glaze. Mmm… I do love me that Patagonian toothfish.

This contest is void where prohibited. Good luck!

Bonefish Grill’s Give, Get & Win Sweepstakes from personal finance blog Bargaineering.com.

The show will be on live at 6PM Eastern, 3PM Pacific and will be broadcast at this page, if you want to listen to it (it’s also recorded, so you can go to that page to listen in after it airs). As always, you can call in and listen live at 347-327-9144 to chat with us or just listen in the background.

Or click play on this widget (after 6PM on Mondays it will be that week’s show, before then and you’ll get last week’s show):

We are also on iTunes and you can subscribe by clicking on this link, which will open up iTunes.

We hope you get the chance to listen, perhaps call in and chat, or just pop on into the chat room to hang out. It can get a little rowdy in there but it’s good times I promise!

PFHour #27: Banks, Banks, Banks! from personal finance blog Bargaineering.com.

I don’t have a PS3 so I won’t be requesting one or reviewing it but the folks behind Hacking Netflix recently put together a review of the disc and its features. If you have a PS3 and a Netflix member, request your disc so you can get what I consider the best benefit of a Netflix subscription.

Netflix Streaming Video to PlayStation 3 from personal finance blog Bargaineering.com.

So he hired a business manager.

Wikipedia defines a business manager as someone who manages the work of others in order to run a business efficiently. In the acting and music industry, they supervise their business affairs and financial matters. It’s in that context that I want to offer up the idea that you should get your own business manager.

I don’t mean you should go out and actually hire someone and put them on your payroll. I mean you should get someone, a friend, a family member, someone you trust, to help you with your finances. If you’re struggling, and the hardest part is to realize that you’re struggling, then you need to run your ideas by someone else. You need someone who can give you a unbiased third party perspective.

Faison put it best in the interview:

FAISON: Now I have somebody who yells at me anytime I make an outlandish purchase.

Sometimes that’s all we need, a different perspective to put everything into focus.

Do you have a “business manager?”

Hire A Business Manager from personal finance blog Bargaineering.com.

Well, as it turns out, American Express also has series of tools that helps users get a better handle on their finances. It isn’t an alternative payment schedule like Chase Blueprint but more along the lines of an online budgeting tool, except it’s available only to American Express charge cardmembers (and it’s free).

Here’s a two-minute video about it:

If you have The American Express Card, Preferred Rewards Green Card, American Express Gold Card, Preferred Rewards Gold Card, Rewards Plus Gold Card, Platinum Card or Centurion Card, then you have access to the Money Manager tool. All of those cards are personal charge cards, which don’t let you carry a balance.

(Photo: thetruthabout)

Money Manager from American Express from personal finance blog Bargaineering.com.

Every tool needs differentiator, a way they solve a problem that beats the competition, and it takes only a few seconds to realize what that is for PocketSmith. PocketSmith’s claim to fame, embodied by their slogan “Forecasting Made Simple,” is that they help you manage your personal finances by helping you forecast your financial future. By accurately planning and forecasting your future spending, will remove some of the mystery and anxiety and replace it with a plan you can work towards.

PocketSmith Is Free

Before I get into the various features, PocketSmith has three levels of service and the lowest one is absolutely free. You can see all of the features I write about for yourself without paying a dime. The Free service lets you track two calendars and six events, which is enough to let you play with the system and see if it’s right for you. I like it when tools let you try them for free without a trial period, albeit on a limited basis, because then I won’t have to worry about canceling before the trial.

PocketSmith Forecasting Calendars

The first thing that jumps out at you about PocketSmith is that they focus very heavily on forecasting. The tool works off a series of calendars. You can structure the calendars however you want but the idea is that each one represents a different category in your finances. If you use envelope budgeting, each calendar could represent an envelope.

At the top of every screen is this chart:

The chart to the left shows your forecasted and actual budget. Each dot represents a week and in this particular chart, the actual and forecasted figures are exactly on the dot. The idea of showing you the whole year is so that you can see how your finances today will affect your finances in a few months. A major expense today will change your actuals for the next twelve months and this chart will show you that immediately.

Underneath the chart is the calendar (click to enlarge):

This is where you can schedule all of your transactions the forecasting tool will use to predict your balances.

Goal Tracking

You can set goals for yourself and PocketSmith will give you an indication of how long it will take to reach that goal, given your budgeting. For each goal, you simply set a title, the dollar value of that goal, a buffer, and which calendar is applies to. What PocketSmith does is tell you how many days until you have enough of an excess in your budget to pay for your goal, plus the buffer, on the specified calendar.

Pricing

They have three tiers of service – Free, Premium ($5/mo), and Super ($12/mo). The only difference between the three tiers is how many things you can track in your budgeting calendars and how far into the future you can see. The Free plan lets you track six events and 2 calendars, Premium lets you track unlimited events across five calendars, and the Super plan lets you track unlimited events over 12 calendars. There are other differences but those are the largest quantitative ones (Premium and Super let you export to CSV and PDF, whereas free does not).

The strength of PocketSmith is in it’s ability to predict and plan for the future through the use of calendars. In addition to the calendars, there’s a rich set of reporting tools that I only briefly played with. Finally, there aren’t any security issues to deal with because you never give PocketSmith your credentials when uploading transaction data.

If you use PocketSmith, I’ve love to hear your opinions of the tool in the comments. I only played with it briefly so I defer to seasoned veterans for their thoughts.

PocketSmith Calendar Budgeting Tool from personal finance blog Bargaineering.com.

Fortunately, there are a lot of alternatives in the online budgeting tool chest. After a recent Personal Finance Hour show all about budgeting, I took a look at several software tools. This post will cover all of them briefly to help you decide which might be right for you (and they are not ranked in any predefined order).

You will notice the absence of larger money management tools like Mint, Quicken Online, and a few others. The reason is because I wanted to focus just on tools that handled budgeting. If you need help budgeting, you don’t want to have to deal with a whole bunch of other bells and whistles distracting you.

Take Advantage of Free Budgeting Software Trials

I list several budgeting and planning software tools below and each one has a trial (or it has a free version), I recommend that you take advantage of the trial to see if the budgeting package is right for you. Each one also operates off a slightly different budgeting methodology. Some work off envelope budgeting, others rely in forecasting and planning, while others are a simple replication of what Excel brings, plus a few pretty graphs and reports along the way. If you have a budgeting method, you’ll want a tool that mimics it. If you don’t, find one that you believe you can stick with and use for the long haul.

Microsoft Excel: Old Reliable

No discussion of budgeting tools, online or offline, can be completely with a tip of the hat to the old trusty spreadsheet. When I track our monthly financial “state of the household,” I track it in Excel (using Quicken to pull the data for my accounts) because it’s quick, it’s secure, and it’s easy once I had it all setup. The weakness of Excel is that you don’t get any statistical or analytical tools right out of the gate. You have to set it up by hand, which can be both educational and frustrating. That being said, once you have it all set up, there may be little motivation for you to switch to an online or desktop budgeting tool, free or otherwise.

You Need A Budget: Desktop Budgeting Tool

You Need A Budget, also known as YNAB, is a desktop budgeting software application that offers both a budgeting methodology and a tracking and planning tool. YNAB works off a four rule system that moves you away from the paycheck-to-paycheck mentality and onto the right path, proactively planning your finances. The tool is a desktop application so you don’t have to worry about transmitting your financial data and it offers a rich set of reporting charts that can help you see your spending.

• Application Type: Desktop
• Cost: $49.95 (YNAB 10% off promo code bargaineering)
• Trial Period: 7 days
• Review: YNAB Review

Mvelopes: Online Envelope Budgeting

Mvelopes is the envelope budgeting system packaged up into an online tool. Envelope budgeting is the idea that you set up your spending categories, put your budgeted amount into an envelope representing that category, and only spend what you have inside. Mvelopes isn’t free but there is a trial offer so you can test it out.

• Application Type: Online
• Cost: $10.80/month (annual subscription)
• Trial Period: 14 days

PearBudget: Really Simple Budgeting

PearBudget is a “really simple budgeting” tool that does exactly that. It’s a very simple online budgeting tool that helps you plan and track your spending on a monthly and yearly basis. I think it’s a great tool for someone just starting to budget who doesn’t want a lot of up front work. It’s an online tool so your data is being saved elsewhere with 128-bit encryption (but it contains little sensitive information).

• Application Type: Online
• Cost: $3/month
• Trial Period: 30 days
• Review: PearBudget Review

PocketSmith: Budget Forecasting & Planning

PocketSmith is a budget forecasting tool that uses calendars to help you plan and project your finances. Rather than working off a month by month system, though it supports that approach, PocketSmith helps you plan out your finances across a whole year. Calendars are used to track your spending and project how you are performing against your goals.

• Application Type: Online
• Cost: FREE to $12/month
• Trial Period: None
• Review: PocketSmith Review

BudgetPulse: Free Online Budgeting

BudgetPulse is a free online budgeting application that is simple to use and secure. In addition to the standard tracking features you expect from any tool, free or otherwise, there is a rich set of reports you can use to get a better handle on your finances.

• Application Type: Online
• Cost: FREE
• Trial Period: None

Have I missed a tool that brings something new to the table? I wanted to avoid listing a million tools all doing the same thing, so I chose ones that offered something different to the conversation. There’s a mix of online and desktop tools, some that charge a fee and others that are free, hopefully I captured a nice mix of what’s available. If there is one that you absolutely love, please share it in the comments.

Free Online Budgeting & Planning Software Tools from personal finance blog Bargaineering.com.

Just this last week, a representative from Crest asked if I’d be interested in getting a box of their new Crest Whitestrips Advanced SEal and five boxes to giveaway to readers. Any time a good company is willing to send me something I can give away to readers, I take it.

Crest Facebook Contest

They’re doing a big contest on Facebook (Crest Whitestrips fan page) where fans are get a daily chance to win a box of Crest Whitestrips Advanced Seal and a pair of webcams. They want you to share a story about a “connection wish,” someone you want to visit, and you are entered to win an all-expenses-paid trip, to be announced in December. With only 12,500 fans, your chances of winning are pretty good.

How to Win a Box of Crest Whitestrips

To participate, you have to be a registered on Bargaineering.com (it’s free) and leave a comment on this post telling us why you want to win the whitestrips. Around noon on November 15th, I’ll select three commenters below to win some whitestrips.

Why do you have to be a registered user? I want to thank readers, not one-time visitors from other sites that announce these types of giveaways. If you’re not a registered user, you should consider it because there are some great benefits – like earning Bargaineering Bucks.

If you don’t want to rely on luck, two boxes are up in the Bargaineering Bucks Store and you can bid on them with your Bargaineering bucks. (listing for box 1, listing for box 2)

We recently experienced a technical difficulty that caused those two auctions to be deleted, so the auction had to be re-listed, bids were reset, and the auction will end on Wednesday, November 18th. Good luck!

Good luck!

Crest Whitestrips Advance Seals Giveaway from personal finance blog Bargaineering.com.

I hope you enjoy this week’s picks:

It’s been a while since someone has taken business analysis to personal finances but Wojciech at Fiscal Fizzle does a great job in his post send the SWOT on your finances. SWOT stands for strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. It’s a great way to analyze a project or venture. The strengths and weaknesses piece analyzes yourself or the venture while the opportunities and threats is an assessment of the environment you or the venture will operate in. Solid post, well worth reading because it gives you another way to analyze your finances. [Fiscal Fizzle]

Do you remember the first time you tried to stand up? I do. I pressed up with all my might, tried to put my little feetsies under me and promptly fell on my butt. But did I let that stop me from standing up? From walking? Heck no! I stand up all the time now! Failure is a good thing and I thought Financial Samurai wrote a great post on how to use failure as motivation. [Financial Samurai]

I wanted to talk about Thrift and the Art of Pet Maintenance not because it has tips for pet care but because those tips apply to the maintenance of anything. Preventative maintenance and regular care keeps repairs down, whether it’s your car, your dog, or yourself. [TIME: It's Your Money]

Finally, I wanted to highlight this uber-useful post by Squawkfox on how to buy a slow cooker. It’s getting to be pretty cold nowadays and, as I wrote about earlier, we’re cooking more in the recession, so finding a good slow cooker is a must. Fortunately, we already have one from our wedding so we won’t be shopping but you might – so I hope you find this useful. (in fact, we made a stew yesterday… and it was delicious).

Have a great weekend!

pfPicks: We’re Almost to 2010! from personal finance blog Bargaineering.com.

This year, the offer is for a 2009 Food & Wine Annual Cookbook that has a retail value of $29.95 (you can buy it from Amazon for $19.77 plus shipping). For the cost of shipping and handling, $2.99, we can get this book for free just because we’re a specially selected Cardmember. There is a money back guarantee on the shipping and handling costs too. If I don’t like the book, I can return it within 90 days of the billing date and get a full refund.

If you’re wondering how a Food & Wine cookbook fits with American Express, it turns out that Food & Wine is owned by American Express Publishing. American Express Publishing is a subsidiary of American Express, as you probably would’ve guessed by the name.

What’s the catch? The “catch” is that you are enrolled in their “Cookbook Series” where you will be given advance notice of future cookbooks that you can buy. If you want to buy them, you do nothing and the books are sent to you and your American Express card is billed. If you don’t want the book, you return the advance notice card within 14 days.

This is known as negative option billing. If you’ve ever had a Columbia House membership, then you’re familiar with how this works. The negative in negative option billing doesn’t mean it’s a bad program or that it is dishonest. Negative simply means you must decline an offer or it is automatically sent to you.

Is this a good offer? If you want the Food & Wine Annual Cookbook and don’t mind the added effort of declining offers or canceling the series, then it is a good offer. If you never cook or feel like online recipe websites are good enough, then it’s not a good offer.

As for us, I’ll take the Food & Wine cookbook for $2.99 please.

American Express Cardmember Gift Offers from personal finance blog Bargaineering.com.

I also want to thank the fine folks at Intuit and TurboTax for supporting Bargaineering and sponsoring this video. With the end of the year coming, you’re bound to see a lot of tax related articles everywhere as people give advice on what you should do before the end of the year, so it’s fitting that TurboTax is the inaugural sponsor of these videos. If you’re on Twitter, I invite you to follow @TurboTax for more information on tax and product news straight from the experts.

And before you go, one thing I want to emphasize was that the point of this video wasn’t to convince you to avoid making small purchases like coffee and cigarettes. You should spend your money on whatever makes you happy, but I believe understanding the full impact of those decisions is important in making that decision.

What are you thoughts on the video? If you like it, I would love it if you could leave a comment or tell Vimeo you liked it!

BVC #22: Big Impact of Small Everyday Spending from personal finance blog Bargaineering.com.

The Bargaineering Bucks system rewards you for doing things on the site such as visiting daily and commenting on posts. Over seven hundred readers have signed up and earned over 26,733 “Bargaineering Bucks” that you’ve spent in the Bargaineering Store for wonderful prizes such as ING Direct promotional referrals, popular personal finance books, USB thumb drives, copies of Quicken, and so many more wonderfully awesome prizes.

Earning a buck for logging in is a new way to earn points, made live earlier today. If you thought you were missing out before, don’t worry! We’ve been testing the feature and wanted to make sure we got it right before rolling out.

You can earn bucks just by registering for the site and doing what you do already. Right now the two easiest ways to earn points require no extra effort. For every day you visit, you earn a buck. For every comment you leave, you earn a buck. You just have to make sure you’re logged in or the systems won’t know who to award the buck to.

Is this worth the extra hassle? Yes!

Reader daemondust only recently discovered the site and has been commenting furiously, racking up 157 ββ that he’s put towards about ten ING Direct referrals in the Bargaineering Store. If you have an ING Direct account with some referrals left, then you know each referral is worth $10 to you. Daemondust has already made $100 by participating in the site and doing nothing extra, he just makes sure he’s logged in before he comments!

So the question I ask you is … are you earning your Bargaineering Bucks?

(Photo: sokwanele)

Are You Earning Your Bargaineering Bucks? from personal finance blog Bargaineering.com.

Sure, you get hands-on help from Ramit Sethi and some great guest speakers, but more importantly you are joined by people just like you. Some of them will have solved a problem you’re facing and I think that’s one of the understated things about the program.

Here’s the curriculum:

• Week 1 – Optimizing your credit cards 11/9-11/15
• Week 2 – Beat the banks and negotiate bills 11/16 – 11/22
• Week 3 – Open 401K and Roth IRA 11/23-11/29
• Week 4 – Conscious Spending 11/30 – 12/6
• Week 5 – Automation 12/7 – 12/13
• Week 6 – Investing – setting up portfolio 12/14 – 12/20

If you are the king of optimizing credit cards, you might be giving more than you get that first week. However, if you are weak with automation, that’s when you’ll learn something. Not good with asset allocation or planning your retirement? Week 3 looks like a place where you’ll take more than you give.

Here’s a little taste of what Ramit’s video presentations are like (and maybe what the boot camp will be like):

In the end, there is a 30-day money back guarantee. If you make it two-thirds of the way through and find it’s not for you, he’ll refund all of your money. There’s no risk in giving it a shot if you think it’s right for you.

I Will Teach You To Be Rich 6-Week Boot Camp from personal finance blog Bargaineering.com.

When was the last time you had a financial fire? Maybe the car broke down or you broke a window in your house. Maybe you were one of the many millions who lost your job last year. I bet, in most cases, you weren’t sure what to do afterwards.

That’s why I’m recommending that you conduct a financial fire drill.

How to Conduct a Financial Fire Drill

The first step is to list all the potential “fires” you could have, including an actual fire in your home. Some common ones are job loss, car problems, fire or flood in the home, burglary of your house or home, and minor and major medical emergencies. Everything you thought of when you set your emergency fund is in play here.

Next, you need to setup a response plan and a financial plan.

Response Plan

The response plan is the series of steps you’ll take to respond to the emergency. In the case of job loss, you might want to list steps like signing up for job websites, updating and listing your resume, reaching out to your network of contacts in the industry, and filing for unemployment. If there are any steps you can do today, such as registering for job websites, do them because it will make your life easier later.

You want to write down your response plan now, rather than when you’re emotionally charged, because it’s easier to think clearly about it now. What’s easier: finding a job or helping a friend find a job? Most people would say helping a friend. Helping someone find a job is easier in part because you’re less emotionally invested in the income. While you’d love to find your friend a job, the consequences are less severe if you fail.

Financial Plan

Setting up your financial plan is a lot like setting up your emergency fund but doesn’t stop there. First, you need to establish how much you need to save. Take stock of how much the fire will cost you and save money into an emergency fund to handle it. For a job loss, you can save 12 months of expenses to handle an extended period of unemployment. For a car accident, save enough to cover the deductible.

Then, for each of the potential fires, link your response to the financial plan and be sure to include a recovery plan. I’ll include a few examples afterwards but the important part of this step is to try to take “thinking” out of the equation. If you have a CD ladder, include instructions on how you want to liquidate the CDs, in what order, and how you’ll want to get your ladder rebuilt.

Example: Car Repairs

Here’s a sample response and financial plan for a typical scenario – a car repair.

Response Plan for Car Repair

1. Get repair quotes from at least two reputable mechanics (only one is necessary if you have a mechanic you’ve worked with and trust) in the area.
2. Try to negotiate the repair price down or personally buying the parts required.
3. If the repair is more than half the value of the car, consider selling or donating it and buying a new (to me) car.
4. If the repair is less than $500, pay through savings or with a credit card (assuming the $500 can be repaid before the grace period ends). If the repair is greater, begin liquidating CDs starting with the shortest original maturity period (6 months is best, since the penalty will usually be only 3 months compared to 6 months on a 12-month CD) and lowest interest rate.
5. Bring the car in and schedule a ride to work with a friend (or get quotes and rent a car).
6. Redirect monthly savings away from another goal to replenishing the emergency fund.

Financial Plan

Most of the numbers used are example figures used to illustrate the idea of these plans.

Deciding how much to save. My car is a 2003 Toyota Celica and we don’t anticipate major repairs on the vehicle because it’s not at the age, or mileage, where major repairs are expected. That being said, a $500 repair would be significant and so we’ve decided to set an emergency fund allocation of $500 to cover a car repair scenario. We save an extra $42 a month into the emergency fund for a year to cover this.

Our emergency fund is much larger, $2,500 a month, to cover the whole gamut of potential issues (most notably, the mortgage in case of a job loss or a major medical emergency). Our emergency fund is saved up in a CD ladder, with one rung sitting in a high yield savings account. Should we have a car accident under $3,000, we would pay for it on a credit card for the points and then pay off the credit card from savings.

Why Should I Conduct A Financial Fire Drill?

Why is this important? If you’ve ever been fired, and I have, then you know what it feels like. It’s like someone punching you in the stomach and knocking the wind out of you. It doesn’t feel good. When that pain subsides, you start feeling the pressure of having to find another job.

Having to “figure out” how to find another job is really difficult when you have to deal with all the emotional aspects of losing one. If you’ve planned ahead of time, then you can go through the steps without having to “figure it out.” This takes the thinking process out of the equation and just lets you work on executing it.

The response plan can also help you make decisions dispassionately. In the heat of the moment, your judgment might be clouded by a variety of factors. When you’re sitting at home, with a job, with a working car, and without the pressure of an emergency weighing on your mind, you can make better informed decisions. Putting those decisions on paper can give you guidance when a real emergency happens.

The response plan can help others make decisions for you if you’re incapacitated. Anytime you write down the decisions you’ve made in your head, you empower others to act on your behalf if you cannot. You should put your fire drill response plan next to the list of all your bank accounts so that if someone else needs to handle your finances, they know what to do. Without guidance, they’ll use their own judgment which will invariably be different than yours.

Have you conducted financial fire drills and put together response plans? If so, I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments below.

(Photo: mbtrama)

Conduct a Financial Fire Drill from personal finance blog Bargaineering.com.

The show will be on live at 6PM Eastern, 3PM Pacific and will be broadcast at this page, if you want to listen to it (it’s also recorded, so you can go to that page to listen in after it airs). As always, you can call in and listen live at 347-327-9144 to chat with us or just listen in the background.

Or click play on this widget (after 6PM on Mondays it will be that week’s show, before then and you’ll get last week’s show):

We are also on iTunes and you can subscribe by clicking on this link, which will open up iTunes.

We hope you get the chance to listen, perhaps call in and chat, or just pop on into the chat room to hang out. It can get a little rowdy in there but it’s good times I promise!

PFHour #26: Financial Rules of Thumb from personal finance blog Bargaineering.com.