Thoughts on Debt

Now is the time to tighten the belt and to try and set aside some money each week for the future. How is it going? Overall, I do think that people are trying to save some money, but for many people they are not instituting the changes they need to survive. Many people I speak to on a regular basis are complaining about the prices on most items and are talking about cutting back, however, what I am finding is that most people don’t know how to even save some money. In speaking to a woman who has kids and works a regular retail job and so does her husband, she was talking about how even the discount stores are starting to charge really high prices for the everyday items and so she has stopped going to them. She was in the middle of having her lunch and was eating a pre made, store bought lunch in one of those little plastic containers, and I was thinking to myself, you can’t really afford to eat that for lunch. I could buy a pound of lunch meat and a loaf of bread and eat lunch for a whole week, on just what she spent on that one meal. People really need to realize that it is time to start making your own food, bringing leftovers for lunch, and saving money where ever you can. For instance, Food Lion has a commercial on TV that shows a mother and daughter looking at the ad and getting all excited about the $10 meals for four, premade at Food Lion. Now the mother was going to buy fast food. Well, fast food for four people would have run her about $20.00 at Food Lion she can get a spaghetti dinner for 4 for $10. Well, if you bought a box of pasta that costs about a buck (usually less) and another $3 for the sauce (it would be less if you made the sauce), so really you could make this simple dinner, which really only takes about 15 minutes to make for about $6 if you include salad and a drink. The point is, I guess that we really need to start thinking about making meals on the weekends and freezing them, things that are easy to fix and can just be thrown in the oven or something and we could save a huge amount of money. Also, shopping the sales and stocking up, and using coupons. These are all things that can start to add up to big savings. Get the whole family involved, have a weekend cook off and get the meals done for the entire week, plus reap the savings of not settling for fast food or premade, prepackaged meals. You must eat, but you must find ways to cut back the cost of it all. Cutting back means changing our lifestyles and our sloppy ways. We know we will have to eat all week, so we need to learn to plan ahead.

In understanding the title of this blog one of the most important things to understand currently is that this maniac is spending through this country’s money for what will require about a 50 year payback period. Now, it is not bad enough to say that we are still spending endless amounts of money on this war which to say the least is never ending in a country whose name we don’t even pronounce correctly. Don’t get me wrong, I realize that these people might have needed our help in the beginning (the verdict is really still out on this fact) but the war is basically killing the economy in this country and still we are fighting it and at home people are struggling just to survive. As if the war was not bankrupting us enough, Bush is now running around and bailing out all the big finance companies to make it look in the numbers that we have money that we really don’t have. He currently has a bill in Congress to allocate $700 billion more dollars to failing companies over the next two years. Well, that’s great people but didn’t anyone tell him his term is up in about 3 months. Realize that he is spending money that we don’t have, and where is it going to come from…US. That’s right we are going to be paying off all this debt because, let’s face it, we can’t spend money that we don’t have right? Is anyone really seeing this besides me? I don’t know but I wish when I was running a little short that I could just print up some more money and go spend it with no financial backing. Oh, that’s right, we can’t just print money that is illegal. Well, I guess it isn’t if you are the President of the US then it is okay to make more money if you need it. Don’t we have enough debt already. Making these companies look better is just making our economy worse. Don’t buy into it, you can’t fix this country’s problems by spending more money we don’t have. Don’t worry though, the bread lines won’t be forming until after George W. Bush leaves office, this way he will still look like the good guy and the poor President who takes over is going to be sunk by Bush’s two year plan to bankrupt us. Keep saving those pennies people, we are gonna need them.

These days it does seem that overall we are questioning everything and I want you to know that we are all doing it. Take for instance the fact that on Friday morning my car needed gas, so I stopped and put gas in the tank, regular unleaded of course, after all who is paying for the premium gas anymore. I paid $3.51 for a gallon of gas. Then it was Friday evening and I had to run out to the store and my boyfriend’s car was parked behind mine, so I took his. It needed gas, so I stopped to put gas in the tank at the same station and paid $3.99 per gallon. Then on Saturday morning we were out and the gas station sign said that same gas was now $4.09 per gallon and by Sunday morning it was up to $4.29 per gallon. Now I hear that the gas companies felt that this was warranted because there was a storm coming through Texas - Hugo I think, but who can keep them all straight anymore. You must think though, why must we pay for assumed potential future damage from a perspective storm? I mean it really doesn’t make any sense except as another excuse to hike the price of gas again. You must wonder how they can get away with this? I know I do especially when I hear that gas in Iraq costs about .39 a gallon. Maybe we should all move there, after all we own it now, in more ways than one.

Everyone thinks that using a debit card instead of a credit card, is the wiser, less expensive way to go.  Well, let me state it very frankly for you, this is only true if you are using your debit card wisely.  Let’s say that you have a credit card and you make 10 charges on that card then you will have to pay off the balance in about a month and the interest won’t accrue very much at all.  But let’s say that you have made those same 10 charges on your debit card and you haven’t correctly balanced your account and then you receive return check fees on those 10 items in the amount of $35 per item, then that would be $350.00 for charging those 10 items, so quite frankly it can cost more using your debit card if you are not careful with your money.

This quite frankly goes back to the old philosophy that the rich get richer and the poor get poorer.  Honestly, have you noticed that when you don’t have money, they charge you more money.  If you don’t pay your bills on time, they make them bigger by adding late charges and/or interest.  If you don’t have money in your account and a check comes in they charge you a fee.  Sometimes the fee is actually bigger than the item.  So the fact is, if you want to hang on to your money, then don’t buy what you can’t afford.  This can be difficult in trying economic times or when things come up, but quite honestly, this is the only way to get more money.

If you see yourself in this situation, work hard to rectify it.  Keep good records of what you have spent and what is in your account, and keep at least an extra hundred dollars in your checking account just in case you forget about something that you paid or have an automatic withdrawal that you forgot about.  These can be deadly if you don’t keep up with what dates certain things get withdrawn.  In any case make a plan and stick with it.  Good record keeping is the key, so stay on top of it and don’t be caught short, it will cost you big time.