Thoughts on Debt

Many people are faced with debt and are doing what they can to get there heads above water.  With the economic trials people just can’t afford to spend the way they used to.  Hanging on and trying to put aside a few dollars here and there has become near impossible, so how do you address this, especially with the holidays quickly approaching.  Honestly, the best way to approach this is to try and buy now.  I know that sounds difficult to do, but for many people who are in this spot, what happens is you hold off on spending the money for the holidays until the very last minute.  Unfortunately, what happens in this case, is that you wind up spending way more this way on everything and leave yourself in a financial hole.  Last minute shopping leaves you settling for what is left and paying full price.  Spending a little bit each week towards Christmas is a great way to chop through that Christmas list in a hurry, while coming up with some really cute and creative ideas.

Look on the internet and try to come up with cute homemade ideas for holiday gifts.  For instance, the older relatives in the family always love something with a picture on it, or artwork done by their grandkids, so put some thought into it.  Make a picture collage, Holiday Ornaments, or a tee shirt with the kids hand prints.  All of these gifts will provide treasured memories for the family for years to come, and even better yet, they can be made for under $10 each. Make gifts for the neighbors and teachers at school. Try some homemade cookies in a cute cookie tin.  It is a great way to let people know that you are thinking about them this holiday season, without spending a fortune.

Being creative and smart will help you to shop the sales and clearances, get some great inexpensive ideas, and in the long run not only reduce your amount of holiday debt, but also reduce your stress going into the holidays.

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.

The financial pains of our country are being felt in every household across the board. Money that used to be spent more frivolously is now being spent on the necessities such as food, clothing and gasoline. I have heard many people ask are we in a Recession? A Depression? Well, financial analysts are referring to this as a financial slow down, but is that just a way of saying that what we are going through now has yet to be experienced by those before us. Well, it doesn’t seem that having the correct term for it is going to help us any. We all seem to think that they would tell us that we were going through a depression, even if we were, they can’t say that. To say that would bring spending to a halt, and that would further slow down the economy, so to put it bluntly, they won’t tell us either way.

As I see it, it is a time to buckle down and save anyway that you can. Reducing the extra expenses is one way to cut back spending. Entertainment is an area that we as American’s spend a lot of money on. With the average adult movie ticket going for about $9 and the cost of a soda and popcorn reaching about $8 per person, isn’t it maybe time to sign on for one of these online DVD delivery services. That would not only save you gas, but they also don’t have any late fees and they pick up and deliver at your door, how’s that for convenience? Then you can buy your own soda and microwave popcorn and the whole family can go to the movies for about $8. That is an amazing savings.

Actually, this economic “slowing” as the experts like to call it, may be the best thing that has happened to us in a long time. It will cause most of us to find ways to cut back, have less waste, and to stop living completely above our means. Also, by less spending companies will have to drop prices on non-necessity items to stimulate buying, so in the long run we may actually get the deals. Also, with the rising prices of gasoline, we will all need to stay closer to home and spend more time with family and friends and less time out spending. This will be a good thing for the moral fiber of our country as well.

I guess there is so much negativity about the economy, that I just thought it would be nice to hear some of the positives about the rising prices.

The best way to stay one step ahead of the rising cost of everything is to budget. This has been something that I have always struggled with, so I went online to find some tips on how to create a budget, and came up with a realistic way to do this.

You must first take a look at what you are spending so that you can adapt it accordingly. Unfortunately this is not always easy. We can all account for how much we spend on utilities every month, but figuring out the smaller more trivial amounts that we spend each month can account for a lot of our missing money, and we don’t even account for it. In order to take a good hard honest look at your budget, you must first account for every dime you spend in a month. Now, I have found that tracking your spending from one end of the month to the other is easiest if you do it all out of one account, on your debit card or credit card. Otherwise you must save every receipt in order for your assessment to be accurate, let’s face it for most of us keeping track of each receipt can be tiresome. Some people say that you can just keep track of your spending for a week and then figure out a monthly budget, but I prefer doing it for the month. Sometimes there are expenses that occur at different times of the month and so I have found that looking at my monthly expenses gives me a little better overview.

Now, once you have tracked your spending for an entire month, put it down on paper into categories. Monthly bills on one side, these are the expenses that you may be able to cut back on a little, but they are necessities like house payment, electric, fuel oil, water, basically all the things that must be. On the other side make categories such as entertainment, dining, cigarettes and/or alcohol, clothing, and any other category that applies to your life. Lastly, make sure that you include your monthly grocery bill and auto gasoline bill on the other side, as these are necessities that can be reduced, but more than likely can not be eliminated.

Now, on the top of your page write down your take home income, how much you cleared after taxes. In an ideal situation you will be able to save 25% of your salary. If the amount that you have spent is more than 75% of your take home, then it is time to start cutting back.

The more you can save, the more you can spend. Now is the time to really tighten the belt and cut out all but the necessities and if you can use coupons, shop sales, and shop around for the services that you need such as car insurance and phone services, do it. The more money that you can keep in your pocket the better.

I was watching television and there was a woman on there who claimed that she was able to get her weekly grocery shopping done on the average between .02-$25 per week. She said that she cuts out coupons and shops the sales with the coupons and sometimes even gets money back on items. Like for instance she would go into a store and buy an item that she has a $3.00 coupon for if she buys two of the same item, and then when the store had that item for a $1.25 a piece she would actually put .50 back into her pocket. She said that she hasn’t paid for pasta in about 10 years, as she can always find a deal and a coupon on it. I found this very interesting but I also do know that certain items like milk, very rarely come with coupons or go on sale. My concern is, is she sacrificing the nutrition of her children to get the deal. Also, she buys whatever items are on sale, and I am just a little bit brand happy about my purchases. I like what I like, however on Friday, when I was in my local grocery store and I wanted to buy a regular sized jar of Helmann’s mayo and the price was $4.74, I thought maybe this woman has the right idea. This price was too high just for a condiment, and honestly I so firmly believed that I didn’t buy it. I just think that these companies are excusing away their enormous prices with the gasoline crunch. I have a hard time believing that the cost now of producing one jar of mayo has gone up about $2.00 just because of the rising fuel costs. I think that we are being taken full advantage of and it is time to fight back.

Okay, so I don’t really think that I will be coming home with $100.00 worth of groceries for .02, but I do have to say that this woman has inspired me to try and see how low I can take my food costs without sacrificing nutrition or quality. I really think that is a great way to put some money into savings without missing it. I just take what I saved at the store with coupons and grocery deals and put it aside. After all, it is money that I would have spent on food if I hadn’t been so frugal…Right?