The Savvy Life

By Melissa Tosetti

The simple habit of planning your purchases to coincide with seasonal sales can help you save 20% - 80% on just about everything. The key is to know what goes on sale when.

Just a few examples of seasonal sales on items for your home include:

December and January – Large Appliances
January – Towels and Linens
February – Furniture and Electronics
March – Spring Cleaning Items, Garden Products
July – BBQs
August – Garden and BBQ Clearance Items
September – Home Office Supplies

Seasonal shopping can be fun. Think of it like a Bugs Bunny episode: “It’s Duck Season” - “It’s Rabbit Season”

But instead, “It’s Linen Season” - “It’s BBQ Season”.

For more information about timing your purchases, read Liz Weston’s article, Save Big Bucks, One Month at a Time.

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Casting Call for Money Makeover

Teresa Riccobuono, Professional Organizer, Business Consultant and Work/Life Satisfaction Expert, and Financial Lifestyle Expert Melissa Tosetti, author of the international bestseller Living the Savvy Life are seeking candidates who live in the San Francisco Bay Area for a brand new Money Makeover web series.

The focus of the financial lifestyle show will be to take individuals or families who have found themselves in difficult economic situations and show them how to make the changes necessary to get back on track, create a strong financial foundation and enjoy life to the fullest.

If you find yourself in one of the following financial situations and are serious and dedicated to making changes in your life, you are a potential candidate for the web series.

Family in need of a budgeting and savings plan.
Engaged couple on a budget, who need to figure out how to combine your household and finances.
Older parents supporting grown children.
Primary bread winner who lost your job recently and needs help reducing expenses.
Family wanting to avoid the possibility of bankruptcy/foreclosure, or wanting to start over after experiencing one of these scenarios.
Low income individual or family.
Elderly individual or couple on a budget, may be the victim of a scam on the elderly.
Former victim of domestic violence getting back on your feet.
Recovering from a significant health issue that has impacted your finances.

To participate in the program, you must be:

Willing to be open and honest about your situation.
Willing to share your circumstances with the general public through video.
Willing to stick with the program to the end.
Committed to making potentially difficult decisions to improve your circumstances.

To apply for the web series, click here to download the application and return it to This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it by February 18, 2013.

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Savvy in Norway

I experienced a very cool "first" this week - fan mail from Norway!

Debora wrote telling me how Living The Savvy Life helped her begin to declutter her home. I asked if I could share her email and she was kind enough to agree…

Hi Melissa,

My name is Debora and I live in Norway. I bought your book on Amazon 3 days ago, and I love it.

Looks like you wrote it for me, LOL, because I found myself in a lot of the pages of your book. The advice is amazing. I’m uncluttering my house.

Melissa do you have more books to sell?

Thanks so muchhhhhh! You helped a lot. My house finally is starting to "breath".

Have a good New Year.

- Debora

Well Debora, one of my resolutions for 2013 is to finish our next manuscript for publication by the end of the year. Now that I've announced it here on The Savvy Life, I better get writing!

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4 Tips for a $avvy New Year

By Melissa Tosetti

1. Know where your money goes:

The only way to truly know where you stand financially on a daily basis is to track your spending.

As much as I love writing and talking about money, I’m unable to keep track of my spending in my head. I easily forget that I bought a second bag of dog food because it was a really good sale or that I used an extra tank of gas driving to Fresno to see my family.

Track your spending on a daily basis and you will know exactly how much discretionary income you have to spend as you please. Using a tool like personal finance software Quicken, will help you do it quickly and easily. You can even track your spending as you go with Quicken’s new mobile app.

2. Savvy Leftovers:

As you know, the Golden Rule of Finance is to spend less than you make. How do you do that? Strive to have left over money in your checking account at the end of each pay period. Even if it’s only $5, that means you have successfully spent less than you make.

Once you get into this habit, make a game of it and try to have more and more left over at the end of each pay period. You can then transfer that money to your emergency savings account if you are working on building that, or to something fun like your vacation savings account.

3. Turn Debt Into Wealth:

One of the most satisfying ways to increase your savings contributions is by turning debt into wealth. As you pay off credit cards or student loans, funnel the money you were paying to your debtors into your retirement and savings accounts.

You became used to having to pay that money toward your debt. Now that the debt is paid, focus it on building your wealth.

4. One Percent at a Time:

One of the goals of Savvy Living is to: Save 20% and spend the rest with abandon.

Keeping in mind that the average savings rate in the U.S. is currently 3.7%, getting to that 20% goal may feel like an overwhelming task... but it can be achieved! The trick is to get there 1% at a time.

Start, by taking a look at your last paycheck and calculating how much 1% equates to. For example, if your paycheck is $2,000, 1% of that paycheck is just $20.

Now ask yourself, if you set up an automatic transfer of $20 from your checking account to your savings account each payday, will you really miss that money? If you can still put gas in your car and food on the table, set up the transaction right now.

The next step is to put a note in your calendar for two months from now to see if you can bump up your savings amount by another 1%. In fact, make it a habit to check in every other month to see if you can increase your savings amount.

Initially, your contributions will feel small, but you will have the opportunity to build on success and your savings will grow.

Don't wait for the magical day that you can start saving 20% all at once. That day is not going to come. There will always be something to distract you from your goal... especially when that goal is to start saving $400 all at once.

Even if it takes you 2 -4 years to get to that 20% goal, you will get there... and have had 2-4 year’s worth of savings built up along the way.

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Facing Your Financial Hangover

By Melissa Tosetti

Tomorrow morning I’ll be doing a satellite media tour offering tips for Facing Your Financial Hangover. I don’t have times for the appearances, but most of them are morning talk shows.

I’ve pasted below a list of the television and radio stations that I’ll be on. If one of the stations is in your area, I hope you’ll tune in! I have lots of easy-to-implement tips to get your finances back on track for the New Year!

USA RADIO RADIO National

WIS-TV ABC Columbia, SC (79)

WNNK-FM RADIO Harrisburg, PA (39)

KCMN-AM RADIO Regional CO (18)

KHGI-TV ABC Lincoln, NE (102)

KOKI-TV FOX Tulsa, OK (59)

WJHL-TV CBS Tri Cities, TN (96)

WCIV-TV ABC Charleston, SC (98)

KMTV-TV CBS Omaha, NE (75)

WFTX-TV FOX Ft Myers, FL (62)

WNEM-TV CBS Flint, MI (66)

WDIS-AM RADIO Boston, MA (7)