I came across a great source of ideas for saving money on your food budget.

A good book to get is Saving Dinner by Leanne Ely. The website has cheap, easy recipes, menus, shopping lists. She also has a variety of weekly menu mailers available on a subscription basis. Now, tens of thousands of kitchens across the world are busy creating simple, delicious meals with her weekly Menu-Mailers, freezer dinner kits, and best selling cookbooks. Sign up for her free newsletter.


Photo credit: Sunshine Hanan

Labels: hack, money saving tip

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Posted By: Joe on Tuesday, August 05, 2008
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A desperate family with a baby on the way are living in their car after their home was repossessed because they could not afford mortgage payments.

A couple became the latest victims of Britain's credit crunch when they could no longer afford to pay their $125,000 mortgage.

Laura Whitney, aged 28, who is four-months pregnant and her partner Richard Webster, 32, have spent the last two weeks crammed in their family saloon with children Jessica, seven, and Jack, two.

The family could no longer pay their mortgage, which has an interest rate of 10.9 per cent, when their sub-prime lender increased payments by $360.

They were forced from their house at Batemoor, Sheffield, and moved straight into their car.

Laura claims her family had not been given priority for housing by the local council. They were turned down for private-rented housing because the repossession gave them a bad credit rating.

Increasing payments strained the family budget and in December, Laura and Richard had to choose between a mortgage payment and buying Christmas presents for their children.

Laura's former husband agreed to lend them the money for a month's installment, while she contacted the Citizens' Advice Bureau who advised her to ask for an interest-only mortgage. It took two further months for the mortgage provider to respond and they refused the request.

Labels: Debt, Sub-Prime Mortgages

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Posted By: Joe on Monday, August 04, 2008
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I just read in PC Magazine that TiVo is teaming up with Amazon to provide its own shopping channel. This will turn the average TV watcher (with TiVo, of course) into the stereotypical QVC-junkie.

If you are one to spend a lot of time in front of the ol' boob-tube and you have a TiVo, watch your wallet closely. Have a financial plan to keep you on track and to keep impulse buying in check.

As Dave Ramsey says, "the average millionaire can't tell you who got thrown off the island."

I'd go so far as to say that if this kind of spending is a problem, the root problem is spending too much time in front of the TV. Spend your time reading good non-fiction books, interacting with people... being human - not a broke couch potato!

Labels: Impulse Buying, Over Spending

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Posted By: Jim on Friday, August 01, 2008
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Read on for a free ride for college.

Through Project Working Mom, eLearners.com will be a catalyst for communities to come together to help establish resources for the working mother population. There are three barriers associated with moms returning to school: time, money and confidence.

The full-ride college scholarships through Project Working Mom 2 are for online programs from the associate's to Ph.D. level at American Sentinel University, Ashford University, Capella University, Everest University and Penn Foster College. To apply for the scholarships, working moms submit a short application and an essay with their life, education and/or career goals, and explain how an online education will allow them to achieve those goals.

If you are interested in applying, you have no time to waste. The deadline to apply for a scholarship at Project Working Mom is August 31, 2008. The recipients will be announced in September. This program could really fit into anyone's budget.

Labels: college

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Posted By: Joe on Friday, August 01, 2008
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Please tell me with all the technology and resources available why the government, the fed or anyone could not tell in advance that all the easy money the last seven years was a recipe for disaster?

In this article, it discusses that credit card companies are having to make up for losses by raising interest rates and lowering limits.

No one should feel sorry for these credit card companies or these banks. They make an unbelievable amount of money from the interest everyone has to pay each month as well as every time someone swipes a credit card for a purchase. The person at that cash register has to pay a percentage from each transaction. The "life takes visa" commercials are briliant for acheiving their goals. It is obviously working at getting everyone to just pay with plastic instead of cash. Everytime that card is swiped they make money from that transaction as well as from the interest you pay every month on your credit card bills. They also raise the interest rate when ever they want without telling you.

Labels: Credit Cards

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Posted By: Joe on Thursday, July 31, 2008
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I came across a post that gives 7 steps to raise your credit score.

OK, here are the highlights of this post I found entitled 7 Tips for Raising Your Credit Score:

1. Pay your bills on time and every time.
Nothing wrong with this, that is one of the ways to stay debt-free.

2. Dispute inaccurate information on your credit report.
According to author, up to 40 percent of people have bad information on their credit reports.

3. Monitor your credit report regularly, at least once a year.
Just head over to AnnualCreditReport to review your free annual credit report from the Big Three. You will have a lot of pop ups and offers, just say no thanks.

4. Do not close old accounts, even if you no longer use them.
As long as you are not paying yearly fees on a credit card, then you could leave it open. But if you are on a budget, you shouldn't be using a credit card.

5. Do not try to open too many new accounts at once.
As I said before the idea of being on a budget is that you do not spend more than you make. Therefore, there is no reason for you to open ANY accounts.

6. Never charge more than 30% of your available credit on any of your cards.
This is one of the reasons why there is a subprime mortgage market. People with bad credit, looking for more credit.

7. If your credit score is low, consider getting a secured credit card.
A good budget with a fully funded emergency fund, can keep you away from credit card use and debt. I was looking for work for four months after retiring from the Navy last year and I was still able to support a family of 11 on our regular budget amounts because of a full emergency fund.

Don't even be tempted to sign up for a credit repair company, the only things that you can remove from your credit report are inaccuracies. If something is not right, you have the right to challenge it by writing to that credit bureau that reported it and say the item is inaccurately reported. The Federal Fair Credit Reporting Act gives them 30 days to fix the item or remove the entry. You can send a letter certified mail to take care of it.

Do you know what your credit score really is? It is your "I Love Debt" score. The only way you get a big FICO score is to get in debt, stay in debt and make a lot of debt payments.

Labels: credit, credit score, Debt, emergency fund

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Posted By: Joe on Wednesday, July 30, 2008
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Dave Ramsey speaks of gazelle intensity when trying to tackle your debt. Apparently this man making about $100K in NY is a good example.

In a report issued Monday by the NY inspector general's office says a maintenance man who earned $100,000 working at Rockland Psychiatric Center has been living for free in a paint shed on company grounds and even had his mail delivered there. It says he had some of the creature comforts; he had a couch, microwave and refrigerator.

The worker is being charged $2,500 for the time he lived there. Now he's living with his wife at a home in Pearl River, about 3 miles away.

I am sure there is more to this story than poor reporting. It would be worth knowing his reason(s) for living there, debt maybe?

Gazelles learned that the cheetah is only the fastest animal on earth while running in a straight line. So when being chased, the gazelle bobs and weaves and runs in circles until the cheetah gets tired and gives up.

When dealing with debt, it is time to think like a gazelle. If you are a gazelle and the marketing and credit card companies are cheetahs, bob and weave and run; do whatever it takes to get away. When you get that new credit card application in the mail, you know, the one that promises low introductory interest rates and lots of bonuses, scream CHEETAH! and destroy it as quickly as you can!

Labels: Debt

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Posted By: Joe on Tuesday, July 29, 2008
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