A Friendly Reminder
Christmas gifts do not always have to be about getting the latest, best, or most expensive item you can find.
If you have finance problems be conservative in your gift giving. Over extending yourself at holiday time can only hurt you more trying to make payment for the whole rest of the year.
People will understand and sometimes you can give something that a person really wants and/or needs that is inexpensive.
Getting Used To Using Cash
I speak from experience when I tell you that when I had credit cards I used them, a lot. Then, later when we got into financial trouble, the cards were gone and we had to wait for what we wanted to buy.
I found that having to wait and earn the cash to make a purchase left me feeling lighter and guilt free.
When you have to save up your hard earned money you are much more careful about what you spend it on, impulse buying is out, and smart shopping is in. An added plus is after the purchase you’re done. You don’t have to worry about extra payments and how you’ll make those.
Try it, it’s good for your pocket and your soul!
The Little Things
I think a lot of us believe getting our finances fixed is almost impossible, because we are looking at the big picture all at once. What we really need to do is look at the little things.
For instance, instead of getting coffee on the road, get a thermos and make a pot at home. If you smoke and can’t or won’t quit start rolling your own instead of buying packs. Just those two things can add up at the end of the month.
If you look I’m sure you’ll find many little things you can either eliminate or substitute and watch the savings add up, which you can then apply to bills.
Getting Better
Although it can take only minutes to get yourself into deep debt, climbing out of debt can take years.
It’s difficult for the family to understand this concept, when the person in charge of paying the bills keeps saying, “it’s getting better”, yet it’s such a small amount better each month they usually won’t notice.
I was quite proud of the fact that I had gotten to the point where I was paying bills a week late rather than three or four weeks late. I could see this was a substantial improvement, when all my family saw was the bills were late before and they’re still late. When they stop believing and supporting you it’s hard to keep moving forward.
50 Money Saving Tips
Especially this time of year, many of us need to remember what saving is but we don’t. This timely CNN article, part of their recent 50 Smartest Things To Do With Your Money series, has seven different ways you can start saving for your future and your children’s future.
My favorite tip involved paying a little more at a hotel…
Take advantage of the concierge Book a room on the hotel’s concierge floor. It’ll cost $20 to $40 more than the same digs on another floor, but consider the freebies: drinks, hors d’oeuvres, dry cleaning, shoe shining and help with reservations.
Don’t Refinance Your Home
So many families are deep in debt and falling deeper and a go to option that too many choose is to refinance their home to help pay off those rising credit card statements. However there are better options that you can look into and this article talks about one which is debt settlements. With debt settlement you can get the bills bundled into one and have it cut down as much as 60%. There is no need to risk your home to pay the bills.