Sunday, September 27, 2009

USE CASH OR CHECKS INSTEAD OF CREDIT CARDS

One method to keep your hands off the credit cards is to switch to using only cash or checks (or a debit card) for all of your purchases for a year.This forces you get in touch with your money again. Without plastic, you are forced to carefully consider each purchase that you make and verify that you do in fact have enough money for that purchase before you make it.  Here are some suggestions:

  • Do not destroy your credit cards, but instead freeze them in a block of ice. Just pour a small pan about a third full of water and freeze it. Then toss your credit cards on top of the ice and pour some water, then freeze it again. Your cards will be frozen in the middle of that cube, inaccessible unless there is a real emergency; any time you think about getting them, you will have a long time to consider it as you melt or break the ice.


  • Remove your credit card numbers from any online sites you use regularly. If you use credit card for billing on some merchant websites, remove your credit card number, if you must, replace it with a debit card number instead so the money comes straight from your checking account.

Tuesday, September 22, 2009

START YOUR OWN GARDEN


If you have a bit of space where you live to break ground, gardening can be an extremely cost -effective hobby and can be as good as putting money in your pocket. You have to make some up front investments - the cost of hoe or other equipment to break ground, and the time investment needed to tend to your plants - but you will earn a nice harvest at the end of the period. You will have spent a lot of time in the garden on a very frugal activity, time you might spent elsewhere engaging in an expensive hobbies. In some fruitful seasons, you will more than break even with the value of the procedure you grow, and you have the freedom to grow the foods that you like. Don't have space? Try starting a window garden or a box garden. You can grow a small amount of food in one of these in even the tightest of spaces.

You can grow your vegetables in a box garden.

Sunday, September 20, 2009

EAT BEFORE YOU GO GROCERY SHOPPING



One of the most dangerous expenses in the grocery store is the impulse buy, and impulse buys are often directly caused by hunger. When you are in a grocery store and you are feeling hungry, many more items are going to look tasty to you and are thus much more likely to sneak their way into your cart. There is a simple way to suppress this grocery shopping impulse: Eat a small meal just before you leave to go grocery shopping. That way you are not hungry, but you are also not bogged down with a heavy meal in your stomach. This will allow you to keep your energy up and get finished with shopping quickly, but not be tempted to throw extras into your cart just because you are hungry and impulsive.

GO GROCERY SHOPPING ONCE A WEEK AT MOST


Think about your average grocery store trip. You wind up buying mostly stuff you need, but a few odd and unexpected items always wind up in your cart. You have usually got enough fortitude to keep the items to a minimum, but they wind up in there each trip. The simplest way to curtail those extra items, and to save on gas and time as well, is to get into a routine of going to the grocery store less often. You should go once a week at most. Not only you will save time and gas this way, but you will also cut down on the number of extras you dump into the cart.

DON'T EAT OUT AS OFTEN


Eating out on a regular basis can get very expensive. Aside from low-end fast food, there is almost no meal you can eat outside the home that's not far more expensive than a virtually identical fish you can prepare for home. You can usually prepare it much faster and with healthier ingredients. The only way to get good at this, and to reaaly reap the cost benefits of eating at home, is to do it all the time. Reduce eating out and ordering delivery or take out to special occasions only and start busting out the pots and pans more often. Not only will your wallet thank you, but your taste buds will, too. As you gain more practice at cooking, your dishes will become more delicious.

Saturday, September 19, 2009

STICK WITH FRUGAL FRIENDS




It is hard to live cheap if you are surrounded with friends who constantly encourage you to spend money. How can you save money if your friends constantly visit the mall? One way is to simply look for new friends who share the same interest with you. Look for activities that might attract prudent people like those you find at a bookstore, library or in a voluntary project. Get to know people and suggest frugal social opportunities with them to build a friendship. It is a lot easier to be cheap if you have friends who share the same philosophy; you can regularly help each other and encourage each other to make sound financial choices.

LEARN THE TEN-SECOND RULE


Whenever you are in a store and you pick up an item, hold it for ten seconds. During those ten seconds, ask yourself if you really need it and also if that money wouldn't be better used somewhere else. You will almost always find yourself putting that unnecessary item back on the shelf and walking away, quite proud that you did not waste your money on something so unncessary.

DISCUSS MONEY MATTERS WITH YOUR SPOUSE


Many couples and families have chaotic approach to money, with each person doing their own thing financially without understanding their spouse's goals, desires, and challenges. Often, this results in spouses hiding information from one each other, such as high credit card statements and other debts, and this is not only damages a family's financial situation, but can also damage a marriage. Take the time to sit down for an hour every month or two and go through your complete financial picture with your spouse, including both your successes and mistakes. Plan goals together, and actively support each other.

RECORD EVERY AMOUNT YOU SPEND


Money slips through our fingers in simple ways. We spend a little here on something forgettable, spend a little there on unnecessary thing, and at the end of the month, it's PANIC time - we are left with very little or no money at all. Keep track of every money you spend, noting how much you spent and what you spent it on. At the end of the month, go through it and note which expenses are actually essential and which one is not. You will find two things: The need to write your spending down makes you more vigilant against wasteful spending, and at the end of the month review your records will surprise you when you see how much of your spending was nonessential. Use that information as a springboard to see what you need to work on.

Friday, September 18, 2009

CALCULATE HOW MUCH YOU REALLY MAKE


Experiment on this:

a. First, calculate how many hours you work in a year. Include the hours you spent in driving to and from work, the hours you spent working on some chores at home, the hours spent entertaining your depressed coworker and etc.

b. Next, compute how much money do you earn in a year including the fringe benefits you are currently receiving. Based on that amount, deduct the taxes, the cost of commuting, the cost of working clothes and other maintenance, cost of caring for a child and so on. Subtract anything you buy for your present job.

c. Last, divide the amount you actually earn by the number of hours that you really work.

How relevant is the rate?

You can use the figure for comparison on everything you do. If you are thinking of purchasing something expensive and unimportant, use the hourly rate to figure out how much of your life you are giving to your job just to get that thing. Huh! this is really a painful process

SPEND LESS THAN YOU EARN


A lot of us today are used to spend more beyond our means. We are lured with unnecessary expenses like spending too much for designer clothes, bags, techy gadgets and dining out in an expensive restaurant. With the help of our best friend credit card we can purchase anything we want, failing to realize that every swipe of it means an obligation.

Our main goal each month is to spend less than you bring in. If you do this on a regular basis, your finances will improve. There are many ways to do this like having the old fashioned budget, abstinence from credit cards and placing your hard earned income into savings quickly before you start spending it.

For more tips check this out:  
http://www.colaycofoundation1.com/index.php
 

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