If you are looking to save money you may want to checkout Billy.com.  Billy.com offers members exclusive deals and sales when they become available.  To get the deals and sales, you simply register at the site to join their savings club.

Billy.com also offers a wealth of advice on how to save money on bills we all have to pay, which includes:

• How to Save on Heating Bills
• How to Save on Cooling Bills
• How to Save on Phone Bills
• How to Save on Car Insurance
• How to Find Affordable Life Insurance
• Five Easy Ways to Save on Grocery Bills
• Nine Ways to Save on Cell Phone Bill
• Ten Ways to Save on Clothes (and Still Look Great)
• Eleven Ways to Save Money on Entertainment
• How to Increase Your Fuel Efficiency Without Buying a New Car

The site also offers financial calculators which includes Mortgage and Loan, PayScale Salary and Cash back or low interest.

There is also a blog that is updated frequently with advice on how to save money.

For more information visit Billy.com.

I just got back from a 2 day conference (Affiliate Summit East 2010) in New York City.  It’s a trip I planned over 2 months ago, where I booked my flight and hotel.  However, I didn’t register for conference which initially would have cost me $99 for the cheapest pass.  

To my surprise when I went to purchase the pass the price jumped to $249.  I didn’t realize the price would change and wasn’t too happy about it.  On top of that, the website claimed that there was only 2 more days to purchase the pass.  I also quickly found out via a few blog visits that every year the conference gets sold out so to buy your pass early.

I wasn’t happy about paying the $249, because last year I attended free by winning a pass.  So I began to search the internet to see if I could find a free or discounted pass.  I was able to find a coupon code that took 10% off, so that would drop the price to $224.  I still wasn’t happy and started to search forums and tweets (at Twitter.com) for anyone willing to sell their pass or had an extra pass they wouldn’t mind giving to me for free (yea right)!

I was able for find a couple of people on Twitter who was giving away extra passes they had, but I was too late.  I also found a few people on Digital Point forum who wanted to sell me a pass.  But I didn’t have to pay for a pass because I ended up getting one for free!

How did I get it for free you ask?  One tactic I decided to try was to call the company and simply ask very nicely to buy the pass for $99.  I’d tell them I’m in a financial crunch and didn’t realize the price of the ticket would more than double.  It didn’t work, however, during the conversation, the lady told me to enter their sweepstakes to win a pass.  She mentioned for the next several days, they’d give away 1 free pass everyday.  The same sweepstakes she mentioned I had entered several months before and of course I didn’t win.  So I decided to enter the sweepstakes again.  After a trip to the gym to release my frustration, I was greeted by an email that I a won a pass.  This was a more expensive pass valued at $549.  That made my day!

So the lesson to this story is to always try for a discount before paying full price.  I’ve been surprised on several occasions to get a discount on purchases just by asking.  Additionally, many times I’ve searched the Internet for coupons / discount codes to save on purchases.  

I recently read an article about saving money by watching movies/TV via the Internet.  I decided to look further into this.  

After a little research I decided to purchase the Roku HD-XR box.  This small simple device allows you to connect your TV and high-speed Internet to access video content via the Internet.  You control the unit via a remote control.

Roku offers 3 different models (Roku SD ($70), Roku HD ($90), and Roku HD-SR ($120).  I decide to purchase the Roku HD-SR because I have a HD TV and I wanted to connect to my router wirelessly.  The other 2 models do not include wireless connection to your router.  Connecting the device is extremely easy.  I just plugged the power in and plugged the HDMI cord into the Roku box and TV.

Roku claims you can setup the unit in 5 minutes.  This took me longer because I couldn’t get the unit to connect to my router.  It took me a few minutes to figure it out, but once I got it working, I was very impressed.  For one I was surprised that the videos streamed with no hesitation (or buffering).  When starting a video it does take several seconds to load, but once the video starts to run, there is absolutely no hesitation.

I currently have AT&T FastAccess DSL Xtreme service which claims download speeds up to 3 Mbps.  However, download speed in reality averages about low 2+ Mbps. This seems to be fast enough to watch HD videos with no hesitations.  When I watch HD videos on my laptop, sometimes there is hesitation (buffering) but with the Roku box, there is none which was surprising.

When initially viewing a video on the Roku it will state video quality from 1 to 4.  Most of the time my video quality is 4, sometimes 3 but rarely 2.  A video quality of 2 or 1 isn’t good.  One occasion when video quality was 2 I unplugged the router and modem to reset the connection and video quality jumped to a 4.

As far as HD is concerned, HD is only for 720p.  There are no 1080p HD videos available it seems.  So if you have a 1080p HD TV, watching 720p HD videos will not be as sharp.

I also decided to try Netflix free 2 week offer which includes watching videos via the Roku box. For $9 per month, I think this is a great deal.  You have access to many movies online and DVDs by mail.  The newer movies are still by mail, but there are quit a few movies/TV shows available online.  Again I was impressed with the video quality and streaming with Netflix.

Purchasing the Roku Box included a $10 credit from Amazon Video on Demand (AVOD).  However, when I tried watching HD movies on AVOD it kept telling me I wasn’t setup to watch HD movies because my speeds was too slow.  However, the movies streamed well and the video quality was acceptable.  I’m not certain if HD videos from AVOD come in 1080p but if you don’t have fast enough speed it drops to 720p.

The Roku box also allows you to access numerous channels if you don’t sign up for Netflix or AVOD.  

So in conclusion, I highly recommend the Roku boxes and Netflix service to watch videos and movies via the Internet.  This can save you tons of money my reducing or eliminating your cable/satellite service.

Roku is currently offering 10% off their players. 

Groupon is a service that provides daily deals that save customers money. Every day they feature a new deal at deeply discounted prices.  However, you will only get the deal if enough people take the offer.  See the video below for a detailed description of how the service works.

Citibank is currently offering a $50 credit with their “back-to-school” promotion (ends 9/30/10) for College Students.  Customers receive the $50 credit in addition to standard card features for the Citi Dividend Platinum Select Card, the Citi Forward Card, and the Citi mtvU Platinum Select Card.

The Citi mtvU and Citi Forward cards offers 5x rewards on bookstores (includes Amazon.com), movies, music, and restaurants, which amounts to 3.45% cash back or 5% gift card credit from certain retailers.

The mtvU appears better if you get good grades and are willing to send/fax in a transcript every semester, while the Forward card has a better sign-up bonus and ongoing rewards for simply paying your balances on time.

Card features include:

• $50 statement credit when you make $50 in purchases within 90 days.
• No annual fee.
• No cosigner required.
• 0% intro APR on purchases for 7 months.
• $0 liability on fraudulent charges (as with other credit cards).

With the recent reports of Toyota’s suddenly accelerating, Consumers Report released a video of how to stop your car if it suddenly accelerates.  Very good advice given in the video.

Lexington Law is offering a free eBook titled, “Credit Revolution- Path of the Smart Consumer“.  The eBook offers numerous tips for dealing with creditors with real life stories and free consultation.

The eBook is written by three heavy-hitters in the Credit Repair field with over 40 years of combined experience. The eBook pulls back the curtain on the inner workings of the credit reporting world and outlines what you can do to make it work for you.

This eBook is an exclusive offer and is available for a limited time only.

Some of what’s inside of the 151 page book includes:

• Page 10 – The truth behind statements like “Only time can cure bad credit”
• Page 41 – Six real-life stories prove credit reporting is not black-and-white
• Page 73 – Four tips for dealing with creditors while you repair your credit
• Page 94 – The real reason why bad credit can stay on your reports 7 years
• Page 104 – Three things you think would raise your credit score but do not
• Page 111 – Five life events that can unfairly destroy your credit rating

Download your free ebook.