We all know that perception and reality are often disconnected. For retailers, the former stands to bring customers in, or drive them away, much more so than the latter. With so many retailers going under, speculation about who will be next has added to the downward spiral. Perceptions affect more than just the consumers on which retailers rely. Their lines of credit, supply chains, and investor contributions all stand to suffer from negative press as well.

According to a USA Today report, Rumors about retailers can be very bad news for their health, gift card sales are one area where significant declines can occur amid rumors of a store’s bankruptcy. As I mentioned previously, in Another Downside of Gift Cards, gift cards may become worthless once a company goes bankrupt. The reason is that companies aren’t required to keep gift card proceeds separate until the cards are redeemed. So it’s not surprising that people wouldn’t want to purchase gift cards at stores that are seen as a bankruptcy threat.

The USA Today article mentioned quite a few retailers which often end up on published lists of companies likely to go bankrupt, even though their financials appear strong.

The takeaway seems to be that retailers would prefer that you don’t avoid buying gift cards simply because of speculation about a potential bankruptcy. Unfortunately for retailers, there are many other reasons to avoid gift cards, such as those I covered in The Gift That Keeps on Taking.

Do you have any gift cards that have become worthless either through bankruptcy of the issuing company or due to excessive fees, inactivity or otherwise?

Having a corporate credit card through your employer is often a necessity and may even have some personal benefits. In many cases, though, employees are required to pay the credit card bill out of their own pocket and are then reimbursed by their employer. This scenario has a few downsides.

First, it disrupts your personal cash flow by tying up your money until the reimbursement occurs.
If your employer doesn’t approve a particular expense item or becomes insolvent before it can repay you, you could be out for the amount that you cover. Even if your company is just slow to process payments, this system could cause you to cover for your employer’s expenses for months at a time.

Second, it gives you the possibility to pay late or less than the full amount, exposing yourself to interest and penalty fees. We all know that the responsible use of credit means regularly paying our credit card balance in full and always paying on time. When the responsibility for those actions shifts to employees from employers, it’s more likely that an improper use of credit will occur.

Lastly, it adds more complexity to your budget. Since transactions are intermingled with your own personal money, you’ll need to track them closely. To handle this scenario, I have an expense category called Reimbursed Job Expense. I capture both corporate credit card payments and reimbursements received under this category. Ultimately this category should balance to $0 as I am reimbursed for my corporate purchases. Until that occurs, I can track the amount I have spent, which is also the amount I am owed.

Making your employer aware of the downsides of your current corporate card payment method might inspire your company to change. An alternative method is to have employers handle corporate credit card payments directly. That shifts responsibility back to the ones who are mandating the expenses.

How are corporate card payments handled by your employer?

Like most people, I love a great deal. Unfortunately, there are times when an apparent deal is not a deal at all. Here are some typical types of non-deals.

When You Spend More to Save

Many deals only come into effect when you spend a certain amount of money. Saving $20 off a $100 purchase is great if you were planning to spend $100, but doesn’t make sense if you have to buy more than you want to get the deal. The same holds true when shopping sales. If a store is having a 20% off sale, should you buy what you would have bought without the sale (and spend 20% less) or buy even more so that you spend the full amount you intended, or more?

When Non-Deals Are Less Expensive

A coupon that reduces the price of a movie rental from $4 to $2 sounds pretty good until you consider that Redbox, or a similar alternative, may offer the same movie for $1. The important thing is not how much you save over a regular price but the reduction in spending that a deal offers when alternatives are also considered.

When it Generates Waste/Lacks Value

At fast food restaurants, you are typically offered a larger drink for only a few cents more. An extra 20 cents for a significantly larger cup sounds great, but only if you actually want the extra amount and you are going to drink it. If you end up throwing it out, the deal leaves you worse off. Even if you don’t plan to waste it, the value you get might be reduced by taking the deal. Many places offer unlimited free refills on fountain drinks. If I can refill my small cup as often as I like, I can get just as much as someone with a larger cup, for less money.

When You Know It’s Too Good To Be True

This is a case I covered in How Good a Deal Can You Ethically Accept. When you know a deal is only due to cashier error, computer glitch, etc., you may only be able to accept so much of a discount before you start to feel guilty.

What other examples of non-deals have you encountered?

Excessive debt can be just as restrictive on spending as responsible use of credit. Coupled with the reduced freedom that accompanies debt, lowering – or eliminating debt – is a worthy goal.

Consider two different people, one who pays her credit card balance in full and another whose credit is maxed out. The first lives within her means by choice and the second is forced to live within his means because he can’t tap into credit for more wasteful spending. Both are basically in the same situation, but the first person has significantly more freedom.

Which person has the flexibility to take a much needed vacation or effortlessly handle an unexpected repair bill? The first person could use her credit card for either purpose. That probably isn’t necessary, though. Her lack of debt probably also let her build an emergency fund and perhaps a vacation fund. The second person would be stuck. Since his money was mostly going to the high interest and fees of his credit card, he probably has little savings and no way to pay for either expense. He may have to forgo the vacation and turn to a prohibitively expensive payday loan for the car repair.

The liberation that comes with lower debt extends beyond credit cards. Making a significant down payment on my house did more than allow me to avoid PMI. The equity I started with as a result, plus the additional equity prepaying added, made it so that I didn’t have to worry about declining home prices when it was time to sell. If I had less equity, I might have been forced to stay in that house even though I wanted to relocate.

To accelerate your own plan towards more freedom through lower debt, you can consolidate your existing debt with a P2P loan from Lending Club. By considerably lowering the average interest rate on your debt, you’ll be able to pay it off much more quickly. As your debt melts away, so too will your stress, as freedom returns to your life.

Is a high level of debt restricting your freedom?

There are many different ways to save on food expenses, but one of the simplest is to plan your meals ahead of time. This straightforward process will save you both time and money.

Planning your meals saves you time in many ways. First, you reduce the overhead of deciding what to cook. Rather than having to think about what to make, checking for ingredients, and shopping on a daily basis, you can batch those tasks into a more efficient timeframe, such as a weekly basis. It’s a great feeling to simply look at your meal schedule in the morning, instantly know what will be for dinner, and be confident that the ingredients are already on hand.

On way meal that planning allows you to save money is that you can plan around the items that happen to be on sale that week. You can take advantage of the items with the largest discount. Browsing the store circular will also inspire menu ideas to help make the process of planning your meals quick and easy.

As an added benefit, meal planning lets you further employ one of the secrets of lower grocery bills: shopping to a list. Since you’ll know what you need to buy to make all of your planned meals, you can easily create an efficient shopping list. Sticking to that list allows you to buy what you need and nothing more.

If you like to eat out, meal planning can help you save there, too. By planning ahead of time, you can make your night out fall on the day that a particular deal or special promotion is offered at your favorite restaurant.

Having a plan always leaves you better prepared than if you have to make decisions as you go along. There’s nothing to say that you can’t deviate from your plan as circumstances evolve, but having an idea of what you’ll be eating and when forms a basis for an efficient and inexpensive allocation of your food budget.

Do you plan your meals ahead of time?