Free Financial Tools
This post was written by Mengmeng Wang, Contributing Writer on June 18, 2009 Posted Under: Cheap Living Tips
In a nutshell, I took 10 of the 190 best budgeting tools, deals sites, rate comparison engines, and personal finance resources (as declared by Wise Bread) out for a spin. Here’s my thoughts:
The Consumerist
Equal parts snark and informative blogging, The Consumerist delivers news bites on anything and everything consumer-related, from morning deals, to the woman whose life savings got thrown out with her mattress, to the latest innovation in toilet paper handling (I have no words).
While I think it might be a stretch to call the blog a financial tool, The Consumerist does manage to keep you entertained while keeping you informed, which is a very good thing.
CouchSurfing is like crashing at your friend’s for the night, except instead of scrolling through your address book thinking who to call, you find people from all around the world on the site willing to host you wherever you may be.
CouchSurfing seems to rely on a network of references and vouching, so that members can weed out the psycho serial killers and whatnot. I can definitely see this as a money-saving alternative to hotels and hostels, as well as a really great way to meet new people and get to know a place better. At this point, I really have more questions about how to get in on the action than any hard-hitting review insights. Like, will someone with zero references and zero friends be able to find anyone brave enough to host her? Getting into the community seems to me to be the hard part. But, apart from that, CouchSurfing is, in a word, awesome.
Covestor allows investors who are performing well to essentially charge a fee to share their trading data. Other investors can choose to follow these top performers’ investment decisions and even replicate their trades exactly in order to profit off of another investor’s insights.
Covestor seems to me to be like walking into the classroom on the day of a test and being told that for five bucks, you can cheat off of anyone you want in the room. As someone who knows absolutely nothing about stocks, I can apparently still do really well if I only pick the right person to cheat off of…
GasBuddy helps you find the cheapest gas prices in your area by letting you compare prices across gas stations. The concept is simple enough, but even ten years ago, I don’t think it would have worked. Whenever I need to fuel up, it’s usually unplanned, so I’d only really need to use GasBuddy from my cell phone. Without easily accessible internet access, it’d be much harder to incorporate GasBuddy into your routine. Luckily, in a time of wireless awesomeness, accessing the site is something quick and simple that you can do to save you money over time. GasBuddy even has an app, as well as a free text messaging service.
Craigslist is essentially an online classified, with sections for jobs, personals, for sales, housing, etc. While people have managed to do some truly sick things with the help of Craigslist, it’s still a really powerful resource to find great deals, and a pretty good place to find a job.
Gazelle will give you money in exchange for your unwanted electronics, or help you recycle used electronics that no longer have any market value. All you have to do is find your electronic device, answer a few questions, and Gazelle will offer a price accordingly. Gazelle then sends out prepaid shipping labels (and sometimes the box), and all you have to do is send it out and wait for your payment.
I checked out what some of my old things are worth to Gazelle. Apparently, most of my cell phones are considered worthless now; the most I was offered on any one of them was $2. I very quickly realized my problem with Gazelle: I’d rather have my things sitting in my room gathering dust than sell them to Gazelle for the prices they were prepared to give me. While Gazelle is indeed quick and easy to use, I have a hard time convincing myself to sell my PS2 for a measly $10.
HIF is a site devoted to freebies, from Forbes magazine subscriptions to Orange Julius to socks. At first glance, most of the freebies weren’t anything I’d actually wanted to own. That is, until, I stumbled across Burt’s Bees’ lip balm giveaway. True, it is only $3, but from now until June 20th, I will try my hardest to win a tube of minty awesomeness. HIF may not be the answer to all your money problems, but, if nothing else, it is, unexpectedly, very entertaining.
Indeed is a job search engine that pulls listings from other websites and compiles them all in one place. Indeed pulls from the bigger job sites, but it also lists jobs that you would never be able to find on Monster or CareerBuilder. And not only is it really easy to use, but it’s also comprehensive and free, and you don’t even have to sign up.
iStorez is an online shopping service that takes sales and promotions from popular brands and puts them all in one place. I spent the last ten minutes building my virtual mall, and came up with a crazy collection of sales that I will soon be browsing through. Perhaps not the best site for my wallet, even if I’m only shopping sales.
Another aggregator, Kayak pulls from airlines and different travel sites to help you compare flights and find the cheapest prices without having to shop around.
