Viewpoint Bank is giving away free Ipod Shuffles when you sign up for their free checking account.  You must have at least 2 minimum direct deposits before December 31, 2007.

Viewpoint Banks Free Checking Offers –

Free Unlimited ATMs (no matter what machine you use)
Free Online Banking
Free Billpay

$100 is required to open the account and you must direct deposit at least $600 a month to get your Ipod Shuffle.

Free Ipod Nano with ViewPoint Bank

The holidays can be tough when it comes to find finding extra money.  We compiled a simple list of ideas where you can make extra money around the holidays.

Sell Items on Ebay

Babysit

Shovel Snow

Setup Christmas Decorations for Neighbors

Donate Blood

Get a Seasonal Job

An exclusive gotalkmoney.com article goes into more depth here with our 7 ways to create income around the holidays.

Flagstar Bank has been making noise in the CD Rate industry.  All of their CD’s are currently ranked in the gotalkmoney.com top ten charts.  What makes Flagstar’s rates great are that they only require a $500 minimum.  This is very low compared to most of the other CD’s on the market.

6 month - 5.11%

18 month - 5.00% (#1 Leader)

2 year - 5.00%

3 year - 5.00%

5 year - 5.00%

Besides having great CD rates, Flagstar bank is also offering a very competitive money market rate at 5.10% with a $1 minimum deposit.

Note:  This contest is open to canadian residents, not USA residents

ING Direct is at it again with a new contest that they have launched.  If you haven’t heard of ING Direct, they have been a leader in the online banking industry with very competitive money market rates.  Like their last contest a few months ago, where they wanted contestants to submit an essay, this contest is a little different, where they want you to submit a video via youtube.com.

The contest has a very simple concept in where you will submit ideas on how you go to certain extents on saving money.  Whether you save money cutting your own hair or making very inexpensive dinners, they want to know about it in a form of a video.  According to this website, your video can be in any creative way.  From a rap video to a simple poem, they will accept.

If you have the creativity and you know of funny ways to save money, this will be a very easy contest to enter.  ING Direct is going to take 10 finalists from youtube and from there; people will be able to vote.  The nice thing about this contest is that not a lot of people know about it and you have until January 18, 2007 to enter.  The thing is that as of November, not that many people have entered the contest.  We don’t know whether it’s the lack of advertising by ING direct or people just don’t care about the $10,000.

Some of the videos that were submitted entailed a lady cutting her own hair, a girl supplying her bathtub with shampoos from hotels she has attended, a man hanging up we paper towels on a clothes line to dry, and another guy filling up his own ketchup bottle with ketchup packets from fast food restaurants.

While the ideas are endless, we highly recommend that you at least try entering the contest.  It doesn’t take much to videotape yourself and put up a little skit.  ING Direct isn’t looking for anything fancy, just a simple money saving concept that’s unique and creative.

Some of the idea’s that we have come up with can be used by you might entail the following –

Going to those free credit cards signup booths using the t-shirts as your wardrobe.

Eating your lunch and dinner at the sample stations at your local grocery store.

Turning off all the vents in your house except the one you’re in

Feel free to take some of our ideas.  If you decide you want to use one, let us know by dropping us an e-mail!

Paying off your credit card debt can be a big pain in the butt.  As you may already know, you’ll need focus and a lot of money to attack your debt.  Debt always puts people into stressful situations.  That’s why we’re here to help!  We wrote down a few ways to budget your money and save each month!

 Instead of going out to the movies, make popcorn and rent a movie.

Don’t eat out for lunch at work, pack it!

Instead of buying expensive ingredients for dinner, make something cheap like ramen and tuna fish sandwiches.

Be creative with gifts, make a homemade card.  People always love things from the heart!

Get rid of services such as lawn maintence, beauty parlors, etc.

Just imagine how much you can save a month if you cut back on a few of those things.  Your total would be well into the hundreds.  Remember, only you can be self-motivated.  Be sure to check out our more detailed article on fighting debt.