Advice from Edmunds

Here is some advice from Edmunds regarding calculating lease payments.

Car Woes

So how expensive would it be to rent a car for a few months? The problem. Our plan was to lease a car for another three years. We did budget for the monthly payments of around $240 per month. What we did not budget for was the $3700 down that we paid last time. Opps!
Our options are lease something lease expensive or finance a used car.

Quotes to date for leases:
Minivan midlevel -$379 per month; plus inception fees (15K per year for 3 years)
Minivan base model -$259 per month (additonal $12 for 15K); plus $2400 down plus inception fees

Day before Tax Day

Funny how so many people wait until April 15 to get their money back. Everyone works with deadlines so this is not uncommon.
Credit Addict hosted this week's Carnival of Debt Reduction.
If time permits, please check out the great posts throughout the week.

Credit Card statement for March

Boy for someone who does not normally eat pizza I sure have been ordering alot of it in March. Our fast food bill for March was pretty high just over $110.
Here are our percentages for the month based on only our credit card spending.
Gifts 30%; Gas 21%; Holiday (Easter) 11.7% Groceries 11%; Scrapbooking 10%; Fast Food 8.6%; Stores 4.5% and Haircut 2.7%.

$6,000 per year to save

Can we save $6,000 per year extra to pay towards our mortgage? In April 2009, April 2010 and April 2011, I would like to have 6 grand set aside to pay down our mortgage. Can this be done or is it too hard of a concept to grasp? Certainly if I wait until April 09 I will not have the money saved. But if I break it down to a weekly amount of $115 per week I think it would be more doable. Yeah! Paying off the mortgage even faster would be exciting. $115 is really not a lot of money. If needed it could come from savings but better shopping practices, eating out less often etc. will help also. I easily paid off my car lease and car loan but the mortgage is a much longer and harder to stick with goal.
I currently have $250 per week being sent electronically to our mortgage company to pay down the principal. I could add the $115 per week to this or save it in a separate account. If I save it in a separate account I might decide to use the funds elsewhere. Not a good plan. The best way to handle it would be to use existing paychecks and pay it at the same time as the other principal payment.
Any ideas?

Movie Mania

Nim's Island is a worthwhile movie for families. Nim is growing up with her Dad on an island. Her Dad is unexpectedly delayed in his return. Nim turns to her favorite author to save the day.

Links from the Carnival

Wow. I have 10 links to the Carnival.
Thanks to everyone for the exposure into the PF world!
It was very fun doing the carnival.
Here is the carnival for this week hosted by RealWorldReally.com

This looks like a great post from
Finance Girl regarding snowflaking

Carnival of Debt Reduction #133

Welcome to the 133rd Carnival of Debt Reduction!
Beginning January 1st of this year, I started my blog regarding personal finance specifically about debt reduction and frugal living. I have had the pleasure of reading many of the PF blogs and have been enjoying it a lot.

This is the end of the first quarter of 2008 so I decided to share with you some of the headlines from these past three months along with the great debt reduction articles.

So onto our carnival.

Editor's Choice
NCN presents Moving Debt Is Not The Same As Paying It Off posted at No Credit Needed.

Editor's choice
paidtwice presents Small Changes Make a World of Difference posted at I've Paid For This Twice Already....

1st Quarter -January 2008
source wikipedia January 2008
(If you want to see the articles you might have to click the navigation Current Events or Portal Current Events on the Wikipedia page.)

January 3: Caucus vote in Iowa (BBC)

The Happy Rock presents Why APY Matters And The APR Lies posted at The Happy Rock.

January 6: Greece is hit by an earthquake 6.5 magnitude (RTE News)

Steve Faber presents - How to Get Out of Debt Fast posted at Debt Free.

January 13: "A team of researchers from the University of Minnesota announce the creation of a beating rat heart using cells from the heart of newborn rats and a heart structure from a dead rat." (The New York Times)

Praveen presents IVA - British Alternative to Bankruptcy posted at My Simple Trading System.

January 26: "The United States government warns that a spy satellite is losing power and propulsion and could hit the Earth in February or March." (BBC News)

Jim presents 7 Steps to Debt Consolidation Using Balance Transfers posted at Cash Back Ideas.

1st Quarter -February 2008

source wikipedia February 2008
(If you want to see the articles you might have to click the navigation Current Events or Portal Current Events on the Wikipedia page.)

February 21: "Singapore is elected by the International Olympic Committee as the first city to host the Youth Olympic Games in 2010." (IOC)

Debt Freedom Fighter presents Debt Advice: How to Defeat Your Debt Once and For All. posted at Discover Debt Freedom!.

February 24: "A Virgin Atlantic Boeing 747 becomes the first commercial aircraft to make a flight powered by biofuel flying between Heathrow and Amsterdam." (CNN)

FMF presents 790s Credit Score Barely Enough In Today’s Loan Market? posted at Free Money Finance.


1st Quarter -March 2008

source wikipedia March 2008
(If you want to see the articles you might have to click the navigation Current Events or Portal Current Events on the Wikipedia page.)

March 4: "A manmade flood is created in the Grand Canyon in Arizona in an attempt to replenish the ecosystem in the gorge." (CNN)

FIRE Finance presents Three Quick Steps To Get Out of Debt! posted at FIRE Finance.

March 12: "The total amount of digital information is estimated at 281 exabytes in 2007, exceeding available data storage for the first time." (Ars Technica) (IDC via EMC)

Helen Anderson presents 8 Easily Avoidable Causes of Business Debt at Personal Finance Blog, Budgeting, Debt @ Bankaholic posted at Bankaholic.

March 16: "Italian airline Alitalia is purchased by a consortium of Air France and KLM for €138 million." (BBC)

sara l presents $500 Phone call posted at paying off my future.

March 17: "World War II Royal Australian Navy warship HMAS Sydney is discovered off the coast of Western Australia after being missing for 65 years with the loss of all 600+ crew." (ABC News Australia)

Broke Grad Student presents How To Quickly Pay Off Student Loans posted at Broke Grad Student.

March 24: "The Olympic Flame of the 2008 Summer Olympics is lit in Olympia" (CNN)

glblguy presents Gazelle Intensity: How fast is it? posted at Gather Little by Little.

March 27: "The oldest known recording of a human voice, created with a phonautograph by Édouard-Léon Scott de Martinville on April 9, 1860 is replayed by American researchers." (The New York Times)

William Blake presents What Does Your Debt Ratio Mean? posted at Becoming Debt Free.

Have a great spring!!

Carnival of Debt Reduction

This is the Sub Prime Crisis editon of the Carnival of Debt Reduction. Enjoy!.

Next Host for the Carnival of Debt Reduction

Motherhood101Aplus will be hosting the next edition of the Carnival of Debt Reduction. Please submit your posts if you are interested in participating.

Not All Homeowners in America have a Mortgage

This sounds like good news. Normally I feel that I am in a very small majority trying to get my mortgage paid off while my children are still in grade school.
Gallup has a few polls regarding Mortgages and Home Equity Loans and Lines of Credit.

The first one that I wanted to mention says that "59% of the people have a fixed rate mortgage and 9% of the people have a variable rate mortgage." (April -May 2005)
http://www.gallup.com/poll/16468/Should-Consumers-Wary-Home-Equity-Lending.aspx.

Another Gallup Poll indicates that "85% of the people aged 30-49 have a 1st lien mortgage; 78% of the people aged 18-29; 61% of the people aged 50-64; and 24% of the people aged 65 or older." (October - December 2006)
http://www.gallup.com/poll/26488/Americans-Hooked-Home-Equity-LoansLines.aspx.

The Power of Paying Off a Mortgage Early

We have been in our home for 10 years. Our principal has really not gone down very much each year until now. Last year (April 07-April 08) we reduced our principal by 12K. If we follow along using our debt reduction snowball, we will reduce our principal by 14K next year and an additional 16K the following year.
Each year the amount of the principal reduction will be more because our interest owed will not be as high.

Home Equity Going Down

Apparently the equity in your home is related to the amount that your home is worth based on the housing market rather than the original purchase price of your home. So what is going to happen to the home equity loans when the market price of people's homes goes down? Will the home owners no longer be able to sell their home for a profit but instead will need to take a loss b/c they have essentially two mortgages that add up to more than the selling price of their home?

Debt Reduction 101

1) Don't get into debt in the first place
A) Normally that advice comes too late
B) Debt comes with living in America
C) We all want the American dream of being mortgaged to the hilt

I have been trying to figure out the history behind how the home equity loan got started. Did someone realize that home owners actually had some equity that they could borrow against? How is this good for the consumer? The home owner already has a mortgage and then they get a home equity loan.
Several times we have been approached to get a home equity line of credit "just in case" it was needed.

Self Esteem

Information from the University of Texas at Austin
The Counseling and Mental Health Center
Healthy Self-Esteem
Childhood experiences that lead to healthy self-esteem include-
being praised
being listened to
being spoken to respectfully
getting attention and hugs
experiencing success in sports or school
having trustworthy friends

Low Self-Esteem
Childhood experiences that lead to low self-esteem include-
being harshly criticized
being yelled at, or beaten
being ignored, ridiculed or teased
being expected to be "perfect" all the time
experiencing failures in sports or school
People with low self-esteem were often given messages that failed experiences (losing a game, getting a poor grade, etc.) were failures of their whole self.

http://www.utexas.edu/student/cmhc/booklets/selfesteem/selfest.html#anchor963911

Step 3: Get Help from Others
Getting help from others is often the most important step a person can take to improve his or her self-esteem, but it can also be the most difficult. People with low self-esteem often don't ask for help because they feel they don't deserve it. But since low self-esteem is often caused by how other people treated you in the past, you may need the help of other people in the present to challenge the critical messages that come from negative past experiences. Here are some ways to get help from others:

Ask for Support from Friends

Ask friends to tell you what they like about you or think you do well.
Ask someone who cares about you to just listen to you "vent" for a little while without trying to "fix" things.
Ask for a hug.
Ask someone who loves you to remind you that they do.

new week

Well it is a brand new week. Hopefully all will go well this week.
Organizational purchases made yesterday:
Hanging folders, regular file folders, half sheet envelopes, and 2008-2009 small date book.

Easter Egg Hunt

Dear Baby Michael and Baby Kathleen,
We had a fabulous day today. I wish you both were there to celebrate LIFE with us!

Love,
Mommy

Spring is just around the corner

Wouldn't it be nice to put everything out for a yard sale and it all just be wisked away. Why have a yard sale when you can just donate and take a tax deduction? In reality you will only get about $6 off for every $100 of stuff overall but it eliminates all the extra work. We just have too much stuff. Which makes things impossible to find but also impossible to know where to begin. There is not one area of our house that does not need improving.

I feel that I am just going from event to event and holiday to holiday and trying to cram in more and more stuff into the same square footage of house.

I guess it is time to do some spring cleaning!

Kitchen Challenge

Awesome video from Organized Everyday on her before kitchen.
Video takes less than 5 minutes to watch.
http://organizedeveryday.blogspot.com/2008/03/organizing-roundup-in-kitchen-before.html.

new look

In case anyone notices the new look I was mainly trying to change the size of the font. I was looking at this blog late at night and the type looked way too small.
Have a great day!

How to Save for a future expense

We have three large expenses that we are saving for each year.
1 and 2) two tuitions each year
3) pool membership
4) we should also be saving for gymnastics since that is about $900 during the school year

We have a separate savings account that we make automatic payments to on a weekly basis. If we did this manually there is the chance for user error, I forget to make the transfer or the funds are already spent.
Currently we transfer $90 per week to the savings account. Starting in 2009, this will change to $120 per week.

The trick here is that we are using current paychecks to make these future payments without having to dip into any additional savings.

No Credit Needed

No Credit Needed has complied a list of personal finance bloggers best tips on frugality, saving at home and personal finance. There are over 40 tips included.

Pool Expenses -Does the wording make a difference

Our pool membership dues are due before May 1. If we pay on or after May 1 there is a penalty. My husband mentioned that people will forgo a discount but do not want to pay a penalty. Does the wording make that much of a difference?
For example: pool membership dues that cost $1,000 and are discounted to $900 if you pay before a certain date is the same as $900 with a $100 penalty if paid after a certain date.
They also have another way to get your money even earlier. If you pay by March 15 you will rec. 5 guest passes for free.
Wait there is more. You can prepay for guest passes, 5 for $20 rather than 5 for $25 later.

Firsts

Here are some of my daughter's firsts.

Dec. 27, 2007 -sat up on her changing table
Feb. 21, 2008 -crawled from the livingroom to the end of the diningroom
March 5 or March 7, 2008 -clapped
March 13, 2008 -1st tooth appeared on the bottom; 2nd tooth towards the end of the month
March 16, 2008 -crawled on hands and knees alittle
March 30, 2008 -said duck when we gave her a duck at church
April 1, 2008 -can try to get up without assistance but is not able to stand yet, getting there; has been crawling more on hands and knees
April 19, 2008 -top two teeth appeared; has been standing on one foot and kneeling on the other leg for awhile; stood holding onto the couch today; has also stood holding on to other items; no cruising yet; does not like the feel of grass on her feet or legs;
May 14, 2008 -crawled up the stairs
May 18, 2008 -stood by herself; said duckie when she picked up a duck off the floor

Congratulations to Life in the Hundred Acre Wood

Congratulations to Anjali and Brian on their new addition!
Life in the Hundred Acre Wood.

Here is the list of future hosts for the Carnival of Debt Reduction:

Mar 17, 2008 Ask Mr Credit Card
Mar 24, 2008 Debt Reduction Formula
Mar 31, 2008 Motherhood101Aplus
Apr 07, 2008 RealWorldReally.com
Apr 14, 2008 No Debt Plan

Happy Birthday my child in Heaven

Dear Baby Michael,
Happy 2nd Birthday to you my son! March 15 was the day you went to heaven two years ago. Too bad we can't plan a party for you here on earth.
We deeply miss you always.
Love,
Mommy

Inspiration

Alot of times I read blogs for inspiration. Not for inspiration for what to write but for what to do. Reading the organizing blogs sometimes I see something and I say, yes that would be a good thing to do.
Nothing is inspiring me today. The weekends are normally fun. I think up tons of things to do. Things to fill my week days are harder.
Maybe tomorrow my inspiration will come; since it is the weekend.

Sometimes it is hard to be the one planning all the activities. Hint, Hint.

OKAY. I just read something to inspire me.
change is good.

Now how to implement it is the question.

Medical Expenses Not Covered

One thing that I would like to start evaluating is why so many medical bills are not being covered in full (less the co-pay). Particularly dentist bills. Even my daughter's weight check was denied. Eventually it will get paid. We get 6 well visits the first year and the others need to be because of an issue.

Home Ownership Acclerator -Helpful or Not

I am excited about researching this brand new concept to me. Paying down your mortgage in a unique way using Home Ownership Acclerator or a Money Merge Account from United First Financial.
The Home Ownership Acclerator appeared very interesting until I hit upon one of the FAQ.

"4. What is my “credit line”?
Your credit line is the maximum amount you can borrow under the terms of the agreement. This is usually higher than your first draw amount, which will typically be used to pay off an old mortgage (in a refinance) or complete a purchase transaction. Your credit line will remain the same throughout the 10-year interest-only period, and then it will decline by 1/240 per month throughout the subsequent 20-year repayment period, reaching zero at the end of the 30-year term. You’ll need to keep your principal balance below this line throughout the term of the loan, meaning that you’ll at least need to be making progress against paying down principal during the final 20 years."
http://www.myhoamortgage.com/FAQS.htm.

The interest only portion of 10 years is what has me questioning.

Oh well, I guess back to the drawing board. What seemed very interesting is that using this Home Ownership Accelerator your funds (such as your paychecks) are deposited into an account to reduce your daily balance which in effect reduces your daily interest owed on your mortgage.

Next idea is the Money Merge Account from United First Financial. This software program cost $3500. You also need to get a Advanced Line of Credit to utilize this mortgage paydown method.
http://thejubileeproject.com/learn--index/learn-indepth-index/in-depth--how-it-works-together.htm.

Call in from Dave Ramsey's show
call regarding Money Merge Accounts.
http://www.daveramsey.com/etc/askdave/?intContentId=8082

Nursing woes, Nursing successes

To my financial blog readers, don't worry I will be back to posting financial type posts.

My first and second son did not successfully nurse. I did pump for a week after having my 3rd son (now in heaven). I did rec. a pretty good milk supply. So with my daughter I pumped for the first month and gradually switched over to full nursing. At 3 1/2 months, I was told that she needed more and cereal would be the best b/c she might not accept nursing if she was eating solids, bottle feeding and nursing. At each subsequent doctor appointment, I figured that I would be told to stop nursing but luckily all weighins were good. So why does the scale mean so much? Why does that decide whether my daughter gets to nurse? Now at 8 months, the question arises again. Is she getting enough? No, but my milk is still available to her and she can supplement with real food including soy formula in her cereal.

I would just like to have one child where nursing is not this huge problem.

Praise filled comments appreciated. Constructive criticism try to avoid regarding this matter. Thanks for your understanding!

Carnival of Debt Reduction #125

The Carnival of Debt Reduction #125 was hosted by
Broke Grad Student

How The Money We Saved From Our Italian Holiday Helped Pay Down Our Mortgage Principal

In May of 2000, we traveled to Italy for a week. We had an independent tour of Vatican City, Rome, Venice, an evening trip to Pisa and a day trip to Turin.

After arriving home, we put our lira away as souvenirs or to use on a future trip. By the end of February 2002, lira was no longer legal tender. During 2004 or 2005, I went to the bank to convert lira to U.S. dollars. I used the money to make a principal payment to our mortgage company.

Saving your money to put towards an emergency fund or paying down your debt is a good way to use the extra funds from a vacation, from coupon savings or just some extra money burning a hole in your pocket.

More Ways to Save Money

Is it easier to save money or to spend money? When I was younger, I enjoyed saving money. If I rec. a gift of money, the money went into my bank account. At some point, when someone gave me money I felt that it was neccessary to explain what I used the money for. Not sure when this happened. I know my Uncle got tired of hearing that I put the money into the bank. He started getting me gift certificates for a particular clothes store.

There is a huge amount of gift cards that went unredeemed last year. This year, I tried not to contribute to that by giving people cash or checks rather than gift cards.

1) Gifts of cash -put the money into the bank rather than spending it right away.
The problem that I have had with giving cash in the past is that I figured that it would not be used for something special. Ladies and gentlemen, I am now over that concern. If someone needs the cash to buy dinner for the next night that is great. I don't care if they bought gas or used it to go out to dinner.

2) Don't save gift cards for special things
In the past I have saved gift cards for that perfect thing. Now if I make a purchase at a store and have a gift card, I use it for the purchase even if it is for something as simple as socks or a DVD for my kids.

3) Why do we need to justify that we bought this great thing with our giftcards? It would be nice but in reality we need trash bags and cat food.

4) My husband and I both rec. universal type gift cards this year. I used mine towards buying groceries. I had the gift card and our next purchase was food. Yes, I could have saved it for something great but that is not what I needed.

Challenge: 10 Things to do for $10 or less

(each item cost $10 or less)

1) Have a movie night at home
or Go to a movie at the AMC theater on Sat or Sun before noon for $5 a ticket

2) Have a picnic at the park

3) Go out for ice cream
Go to the playground
Take a walk

4) Site seeing
Watch a parade

5) Jump rope / exercise

6) Go to the library
Bring home a magazine, a book, a CD or a DVD

7) Have a pot luck picnic

8) Do a puzzle, play a boardgame, learn a new card game

9) Buy a craft kit

10) Visit a friend

What are your top 10 ideas?

Are Outlets Worth It?

The problem I see with outlets is that they are too far away. I end up buying more than I plan because I don't know when I will make it back. We used to regularly go to the Osh Kosh Outlet for clothes for our boys. This time, we went for my daughter with one goal in mind, long sleeve dresses in size 12 months.

Well, there were no long sleeve dresses in size 12 months or 9 months. Apparently, they don't sell any or I should have shopped in November. Of course, other sales were possible but if I bought the dresses I probably would have skipped the other items.

Leaving the Osh Kosh store, I thought it would not be a wasted trip because there was probably another children's clothes store. On the way to The Children's Place, I saw a shoe store. I did purchase a pair of shoes but I didn't give the store more money buying the 2nd pair of shoes for half price. In reality, I would have saved $10 for each pair of shoes, so I saved my extra $20 by not buying a 2nd pair, which I really did not need.

Next, skipping The Children's Place because I forgot, I went into the Kitchen Store and then the toy store. By the time I got back to the car I realized that I skipped the other clothes store. The store was still open but I decided to skip it. Again I thought I would have skipped the Kitchen Store and the toy store if I went to the children's store, probably not, right.

This is an example of a simple shopping trip going into disarray. I had two thoughts before going to the outlets. 1)Dresses for my daughter and 2) take out cash so we could limit our spending. End result we used the charge rather then cash and we bought several extra items.

Outlets are a place to get good deals but how many good deals should you get at a time? Answer, just what you need. I would argue that yes, I did want shoes, I did want kitchen items and I did want birthday gifts for my son. When we buy things we do not intend to purchase is where we get into trouble. So while needing or just really wanting these things, they were not items that I needed that day.

I do enjoy impulse buying. My solution is to stay out of the stores when possible.

Anyone care to share their needs vs. wants stories or their outlet experiences?

My $2,000 Cat

If you went to a pet store to buy a cat you would probably pass by the cat that cost $2,000. Advance 4 years, you already have adopted the cat and the cat gets sick. Now what? You take the cat to the veterinary. My almost four year old cat starting getting sick in the house multiple times. A visit to the vet turned out that she was now dehydrated from getting sick. In addition, she was no longer getting fluids and in a few days would need IVs and hospitalization. Now my inexpensive cat was in need of tests and hospitalization.

This is an example of the need for an emergency fund that would have been very hard to plan for in advance. First visit on 6/20/07, the cat had an exam, blood tests, hydration and x rays.($273.05) Second visit on 6/21/07, the cat just rec. hydration. ($15.38) Next visit (6/22-6/26/07), the cat stayed for hospitalization. ($880.61) Then the cat needed to be transported on 6/25/07 to another place for an ultrasound to rule out any problems. ($285 -cost of test, we transported the cat)

My sister recommended capping the expenses at a certain amount. The cap in my head was $2,000. But how do you explain to your children that for the price of blank we were not able to save the cat. What if it happens again, has the cat already reached its medical limit or would it be $2,000 for another occurrence?

I can say that if we knew up front how much the cost would be it would have been better. Next time x rays are suggested, I would probably skip the x rays and just opt for an ultrasound.

Our cat has survived its ordeal. We are grateful our cat is okay and thankful that it did not bankrupt us to get there.

Do you have any experiences where the unexpected costs got out of hand very quickly?

Upromise Withdrawals

I really have to thank No Credit Needed for his info regarding Upromise Accounts. I have not seen anyone actually get any money to pay for college from the Upromise Accounts so I have not been to focused on using this loyalty program. As mentioned by No Credit Needed, you can obtain a check from Upromise rather then putting the money into a 529 Account.

Great news! Here is the link for a withdrawal request of at least $200. http://www.upromise.com/pdfs/fund_withdrawal_request.pdf

Debt Free

Debt free. No. But in some people's minds we are because we don't carry a credit card balance and we don't have a car payment. In addition, we don't have a cable bill. But we do have two tuition bills and we belong to a pool each summer. So how do we do it living on one income?

I believe that we as a family tend to spend what we make so we need to lock the money away and make it work for us. Prior to stopping working, I started investing in 529 plans and a Roth IRA for myself. I wanted to save money while we had two incomes.

In May 05, we leased and purchased two new cars. At this point, both cars are paid off, the lease and the financed car. We did a snowball payment to pay down both debts. Now we are paying down the mortgage the same way. I continue to need encouragement in this endeavor because I hear negative things about paying off my mortgage. The comments don't make a lot of sense to me because 1) it can't be that much of a tax break having a mortgage and 2) I would like to own more than just one brick of my house.

My Financial Plan Part I
1. Cut out cable? Not really, we never had it in the first place.
2. Buy lottery tickets? No, that did not seem to be a good option if we were trying to save money.
3. Invest more? Nope. Not that either.
4. We looked at all our debt and decided to do a debt paydown or a debt snowball.We had three main debts.
A) leased minivan
B) financed minivan
C) mortgage on our home.

I. Each month we applied extra payments to our leased minivan until it was paid off.

II. When the lease was paid off, we took the extra payment, the leased minivan payment and the financed minivan payment and paid off the financed minivan.

III. Next we applied the extra payment, the leased minivan payment and the financed minivan payment to our mortgage.

Part 4 was not the hard part. The hard part was getting the money together for the extra payment.

Carnival of Debt Reduction #122

Debt Free Revolution hosted this week's Carnival of Debt Reduction .

Utilities under $300

I just saw an interesting older post at Boston Gal's Open Wallet.
She had a spreadsheet where she was trying to keep her utilities under $300 per month.
That is not a bad goal.

Wordless Wednesday -January 9, 2008

Carnival of Debt Reduction

My post regarding Credit Card Grace Periods was included in the Carnival of Debt Reduction for January 7, 2008. This Carnival was hosted by No Credit Needed.

Menu Planning

Here are some meals that our family are having this week.

Chicken, vegetables and salad; dessert strawberries or apples
Spagghetti and meatballs with Garlic Toast; dessert graham crackers or pears
Hamburgers with rolls and salad; dessert mandarin oranges or Jello
Grilled Chicken Salad; dessert Dole Frozen Fruit or Frozen Yogurt

With the help of coupon mom http://www.couponmom.com/indexd.php?cid=4 and our local grocery store website I was able to plan these meals at an inexpensive price.

For example
Chicken (boneless, no skin) 1.99 a pound
Strawberries on sale 2.99
Apples (not available but on sale)
Garlic Toast (never tried but only 1.19 on sale)
Pears 99 cents a pound
Mandarin Oranges container for $2
Dole Frozen Fruit bought two with $1.50 coupon
Frozen Yogurt -still working on

Free Calls to Directory Assistance

Are you still paying for Directory Assistance calls from your land line and your cell phone? Stop. Call 1 800 FREE 411 to obtain the phones listings that you desire. These calls are free. The catch is that you need to listen to a short advertisement. The ad is no big deal. It sure beats the $1 or so that you will be charged by your service provider. This service is made available from Jingle Networks. http://www.free411.com/

Credit Cards -Grace Period

I have an urge to discuss credit cards since the holidays are passing and the UPS truck will be now be delivering the credit card statements. Did you ever notice that those bills get bigger? Too bad it is just not the type got bigger. My husband suggests that we try to keep the spending under $1,000. He would rather not see the commas on the credit card statements.

But here is my real message. Pay off the credit card statements each month and don't finance. It is a very big hole to dig out off. The credit card company will put on an extra charge every time you purchase an item when you are carrying a balance. While this does not seem fair that is what is done. So if your credit card is not paid off in full each month start paying cash and pay more than the minimum to pay it down each month. With the finance charge percentages in the double digits it is really really hard to pay off the credit cards.

This is the fine print on the back of one of the credit card statements regarding Grace Periods.
"You get a grace period of 20 days if you pay the New Balance in full by the due date every billing period. If you do not, you will not get a grace period until you pay the New Balance in full for two billing periods in a row."
Bottom line, please don't finance. Start paying cash for things until you can pay down the balance.

A thirty dollar belt is going to get thrown away before you pay it off.

Credit cards are for convenience. Don't let them become a burden. If you don't finance on credit cards congratulations but it is easy to fall into the trap. I was surprised reading the fine print that you need to pay the full balance on time twice in a row to not be charged finance charges on current purchases.

Annual credit reports

Check out this site to obtain your annual free credit report from all three companies. You can request the reports at the same time or go back throughout the year and order one from the next company. https://www.annualcreditreport.com

Wordless Wednesday -January 2, 2008

2008 -Saving Money

Gee. Wouldn't that be nice. Start 2008 by saving money. Hum. Let see. Oh I know, don't spend any money. Okay, that worked for today. We were all home but eventually we need to leave our happy home and be innudated by consumerism. Well I almost bought a blender the other day or was it a toaster oven. Either way for $5 it appeared like a pretty good deal. Until I found out that I would have to wait 6-8 weeks to regain my original $25 that I paid to begin with. Next. How about a Christmas gift for my father-in-law. A calendar that will work. They suckered me there for an extra $2 because they said it would be printed faster. Oh well. I wouldn't make the same mistake on my next photo purchase. I will just have to explain to my nephew that even if I paid the extra money it still would not have arrived on time. My birthday card to him came early though.
Okay back to the reason I decided to blog. It looked like fun and maybe it will help with my memory in the future.