credit card debt elimination
It’s Getting Closer…
Hey, thanks for stopping by, it is not finished just yet, but the ideas are coming together and this site will be up and running in just a short amount of time. You can always visit my blog for money-saving ideas.
Coming Soon To A Website Near You…
Different content. For those of you following, you notice that this website is a mirror of my blog . That will soon change and check back here for updates. The two sites will be different, and the blog will be geared mainly toward money saving and lifestyle changes that will help you to live a life in which there is less credit card debt.
Stay tuned…………
The Frugal Lifestyle
What Are You Wearing?
I would be a clothes horse if I had the money. That is only a fraction of the reason why I have embarked on a credit card debt elimination program. You can spend a fortune on clothes unnecessarily. Men who have ever shopped at places like Men’s Wearhouse will tell you that you can buy some clothes of outstanding quality, but also of less than the cost of a fine car. Truth be told, their quality is not to be beat, but since I couldn’t afford to purchase from their without using a credit card, a credit card is what I used. I have learned that people don’t really judge you completely on what you wear. I work in an office that has a dress code of business casual (although some definitely stretch the definition of casual). I may be a bit old fashioned, but I will still wear a dress shirt and a tie. The difference now is that I don’t feel as if I have to go to the high end.
Shop at discount clothiers. Watch the sales ads for places like Kohls or Target and you will save money (that you can use to pay off credit card debt). If there is an outlet mall near you, you can even save on good quality clothing without paying top dollar. What is important is that you are not spending money unnecessarily and you use the saving to build a nest egg once you have eliminated your credit card dependence. The key is to look good, but spend well.
For a great credit card debt elimination program, click here.
Savings Online
Sifting through the inbox of my email, I noticed there were quite a few on saving money online. I found some great sites that will be able to save you some money in your quest to eliminate credit card debt.
* CoolSavings.com - grocery coupons and more
* Coupons.com - more grocery coupons
* eBates.com and MoreRebates.com - ways to save with online rebates
* PriceGrabber.com and Smarter.com - online price comparison sites
* CouponCode.com - a way to find the coupon codes that are asked for at many popular sites
* MoneyMailer.com and ValPak.com - instant access to the coupons that you get in the mail, but may have misplaced.
Be sure to use the money that you save online to eliminate your credit card debt and move toward financial independence.
Shopping Tips
* Never shop on an empty stomach. You have a tendency to be attacted to a lot of different things when you are hungry. You might pick up some bakery item (and a little extra weight) or something that you really didn’t need, perhaps because something caught your eye (and you thought that advertising didn’t work)
* Have a list. One of the biggest money-management mistakes is that you could dash into the store “just to pick up a gew things for dinner” and the next thing that you know, you have a cart that is brimming and full and expensive: it is best to have a list and to stick with it.
* Look high and low. Believe it or not, the best values are not at eye level. Those are the coveted spots for items that have a high mark-up, but are not necessarily the best thing for your wallet.
* Shop later in the day for meat. Often, the meat department will mark down some of their meat if it hasn’t moved by four o’clock, They figure that some profit is better than no profit
* Plan your shopping. If you have a favorite grocery store, you probably know how it is laid out. With your list in hand, go only to the areas that you have to go to get the things that are on your list. Walking up and down each and every aisle may be good exercise, but the longer that you are in a store, the more you will buy. Grocery stores count on that.
Remember, the goal of grocery shopping should be to purchase economical foods to fuel you body. You want to save a little bit of money so that you can have more for your credit card debt elimination program. For a great program, click here.
What’s That In Your Bowl?
Food can sometimes be the area in which a person can have the greatest monthly expense, yet, if done with a bit of planning and your eye on the prize of eliminating your credit card debt, can represent the greatest area for savings that can help propel you out of credit card debt. The challenge is that many people are emotionally attached to foods and oftentimes it is with the foods that cost more money. I will admit that breakfast food is one of my greatest weaknesses. As little as ten years ago, it would not be uncommon for me to stop by Hardees or Burger King or McDonalds and grab a “meal” that included a breakfast sandwich, hash browns, and a soda. Of course, I would supersize that and it would end up costing around $5 a day easily. One might think that it is not too bad a deal to get a meal for $5 for one. Well, simply plug that into a handy calculator (with the interest of course) and out jumps a figure of $22,790.52. Believe me, when things are looked at in the long run, it can be quite the sobering ordeal.
You can go less expensive. It merely takes planning and about fifteen minutes of your time. I have looked at food for what it is: fuel for the body. Here is what I did: I bought a large container of oatmeal and a bag of brown sugar for around $4.00 at the local grocery store. That is enough for one to eat for an entire month. So, that works out to be $24 per month savings. for ten years it could generate$1,040 in five years (no interest in this example) for paying off your credit card debt. And this is just for one year. Now it is known that some people detest oatmeal, but you could find similar saving by making your own breakfast and buying soda in a two liter bottle (on sale, of course). You should ask yourself, “Why am I wasting money by eating at the drive-through? Can I make it myself for less? What are my long-term goals?” To get out of credit card debt, CHANGE YOUR MINDSET!
For a great credit card reduction plan, click here.
Ramen Noodles Are Not Just For College Kids
I can still remember 25 years ago when I was poor and in college (as opposed to being an adult and being poor). I was living in the dorms, and the dorm did not feed students on Sunday night. Several local establishments made profit on this as they offered all-you-can eat buffets on Sunday evening. Dominos Pizza did a booming business on Sundays. But soon the summer lawn-mowing money ran out and we were forced to find a low-cost alternative. To the rescue came Ramen noodles. Back then you could buy fifteen packs for a buck (now it is more like 8 packs a buck on sale). We were in heaven. We could fill our bellies with cheap food and life was good. But we grew up. We shuddered at the thought of buying Ramen noodles just to save some cash. But now, the analytical mind kicks in. Even if you only had it one night a week, there’s money to be saved there. Let’s say that a meal costs on average five dollars to fix. If you were to fix just a bowl of Ramen noodles, you could save $4.75 (that’s when you purchse them not on sale). If you were to be able to save that at 10% for twenty years, you will have saved $14,364.57. Not bac for one meal a week. For some delicious noodle recipes, you could always go here.
The point is this: sometimes making a small change can build up to big results. The key is to looking long term and keep in mind that the “expensive” dreams are really achievable with just a few moderate changes in everyday habits. It can help you to eliminate your credit card debt.
A Penny Saved…
Have you ever seen a penny on the ground and left it there thinking “it’s only a penny, it isn’t worth it”? You may want to think again. The little things quickly add up to be big things, especially when there is compound interest involved. If you were to save one dollar per week (which is a mere $0.14 a day), over a twenty year period, that would add up to be $3,276.14 (with a 10% compounded interest). Divide that amount by 14 and it works out to be $234.01. I can only imagine that if you were doing laundry and found $234 in a pocket, you wouldn’t throw it away. Saving those pennies is actually worth it. In reverse, if you were to charge a dollar or two a day on coffee and snacks, with the interest charged, it could end up costing you even more. I found the calculator at David Bach’s site to be a real eye-opener. Now I know why people use coupons, attempt to find the lowest price on things — it all adds up!
Let’s just use a simple example. Where I work during the day, we have vending machines that offer candy bars, soda, and the like. If someone find themselves hungry for a snack (or skipped breakfast or lunch), they can always find refuge in the vending machine. A candy bar costs $0.85 and a soda costs $1.10 (your findings may differ slightly). $1.95 a day for five days equals $9.75 a week (let’s round it to $10 for simplicity sake. If you were to take that $10 a week, invest it at 10% and compound it for twenty years, that candy bar and soda habit adds up to $32,761.30. Now that is one expensive habit (and you though it was trivial). We will explore little things that you can do to free up cash to help pay down your credit card debt.
More at my website.
Credit Card Debt Elimination, Part III
Even though I am confident that any person can learn to deal with the credit card debt that they have, sometimes you need a little help. A year ago when I sat down and actually figured out the amount of money I owed and my minimum payments at that current rate, I was shocked when I saw that the figure was over $72,000. You would think that I would have a fancy car to show for that, or some great clothes, or pictures of some fantastic world-wide trips that I took…no, I still drove a used car with over 90,000 miles on it (and I still do drive that same car), my clothes were, at best, clothes that came from a mid-tier department store. What I did have, was debt. I was overwhelmed, as I am sure many people are. The worse that my credit score got, the more depressed I became. Sure, I started to receive the tons of email about “We Can Eliminate Your Debt, Legally” and “Need Credit Card Debt Help? We Are There“. Like an drowning man grasping for things to help him stay afloat in an instant, I poured through those e-mails hoping to find the instant cure for my problems.
Something to Look Out For
I finally settled on a company I felt that I could trust. Their website was seemingly legitimate, so I began to do a little more in-depth investigation. First I looked at their accreditations. Check. Then I looked at the Better Business Bureau website for any complaints against this company. Check. I “Googled” their name. Check. Everything seemed in order. I contacted them. I used them for about four months, but the more that I read in books, the more I became uneasy. First, they told me not to answer my phones or to talk to the credit card companies at all. They were going to handle it. I was to continue to make one monthly payment to them and they would set up a separate account through a third party from which the payments would be sent. They would take half of their fee out of the first four months payments ($2,800) and then they would put half of my payment into the third party account and when there was enough in there, they would negotiate with the credit card company. That was all good and well, but I didn’t really appreciate the fact that after six months, I had paid $4,200, but my credit card debt reduction was not happening. By this time, I realized that they were going to be doing for me what I was perfectly capable of myself. Needless to say, that was an expensive lesson using money that I didn’t really have in the first place. This will be continued. To learn more, click here or here.
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Categories
- advertising
- blog
- blog design
- blog post
- blog theme
- choosing a domain name
- credit scores
- Debt reduction
- financial independence
- FTP program
- goals
- happiness
- installing a blog
- internet marketing
- internet traffic
- money, wealth, financial independence
- positive mental attitude
- private label rights
- saving
- success
- Uncategorized
- web hosting
- writing
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