Thoughts on Debt

These days I think that everyone is becoming more conscious about how they are spending their money.  The companies who have the necessity items and have them for less are about the only one’s that are profiting, as a matter of fact, it seems that overall most companies are really hurting and reports show that we are not buying anything extra these days.  This includes items like clothing, jewelry, electronics and so forth.  We are instead, looking for new and better ways to hang on to our money, and miscellaneous spending is becoming a thing of the past.  There are some very simple ways to go about saving some money, and so here are just a few of the ways that cutting back a little can save you a lot in the long run:

1. Make coffee at home rather than buy it every day. You’ll save about $2 a day or $40 a month. This is $480 a year, and that can be money in the bank.  Depending on where you go, it could be a lot more. 

2. Bring in lunch from home instead of buying it. You’ll end up with at least $5 - $7 dollars a day in your pocket.  That is a $25 per week savings at least, and a savings of $1300 per year.  Now that would make a nice vacation don’t you think?

3. Stop getting delivery of magazines and newspapers at home. Most of the content is available online and you can read it everyday—for free!

4. Shop around for credit card interest rates and consolidate credit cards, if you keep a balance.

5. Use cash or debit cards instead of credit cards and incurring interest charges.  Not only will this save you more money on the interest charges, but you will also be more aware of what you are spending your money on, and how fast it goes.

6. Save your stamps and pay bills online, usually for free.  Most companies will allow you to make payments right on their web site, either using a check or debit card, and most banks offer online bill pay services for nothing as well.  This is a very convenient way to pay your bills, and you can also put them on automatic payment, which is great because this way your bills will get paid on time, without missing payments and accruing late charges.

These days every little bit of savings helps.  It is nice to see the gas prices come down, but who knows when they will go back up again and grocery prices are still high.  So be sure to keep a good handle on your spending the rough economic times are not gone yet.

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.