Debt Help Ideas

The housing market is down, the cost of food is up. Recession, depression, high debt – unsecured debt, credit card debt, tax debt, you-name-it-debt – is up, jobs are gone! Listening to the news can definitely be depressing these days! I make sure I balance it with a healthy dose of God’s Good News, complete with His promises of provision!

Over the years, I’ve learned that provision can come in many forms , depending on our particular needs at the moment. One means of provision that is readily available is all the great money saver websites and newsletters available to help us get the most bang for our bucks, save as much as possible, which then lets us have a bit more to apply to our loan payments. Of course, that then brings us one step closer to our goal to eliminate debt!

If you spend $3 on a dozen eggs and I spend $1 on a dozen eggs because I checked for sales that day, I’ve made an excellent “return on investment” (ROI), wouldn’t you say? The best part, I don’t have to pay any taxes on that $3 because it’s savings! 

Here are four of my favorite sites to learn creative tips to save money on everything including eggs  :

Cheapskate Monthly – lots of valuable information plus she has written several great books including ones to use for teaching your kids how to be frugal.

Clark Howard – great resource in a wide variety of areas. He also has a radio show which you can listen to online.

Living on a Dime – I love her cookbooks. They have yummy money saver recipes for tiny budgets. Right now, if you sign up for a free subscription, she has a great free e-book for you as well

Refund Cents – This is my favorite, I must admit. There is a subscription cost for this one but I’ve always saved way more than the cost making it well worth it! They offer a print magazine OR an online-only option which is what I use. It’s well organized, well-run, and great! I’ve been a member for years. Sometimes I use it a lot, sometimes a little, but it’s always a big help! Talk about excellent money saving ideas, it’s got thousands. It offers a list of all the coupons every week, and ways to match those coupons to sales at Walgreen’s, Rite-Aid, etc. to make even bigger savings. Plus they do offer a free email newsletter for anyone, even non-subscribers

Well, time to go. I’ll find more for a future article, but these are great sites to get started on! Between them we can find plenty of great money saver tips, pay off all that unsecured debt, and keep working towards our goal to live debt free!

Since I have to travel fairly often, I am always on the lookout for helpful travel solutions, especially when they offer ways to save money. Here’s four that have helped me:

If you are flying my favorite airline, Southwest, and want to have a snack on the plane but don’t care for peanuts, or worse yet, are allergic to them, just ask the flight attendant. They almost always have pretzels available as well, even if they don’t mention them. I would ask for them right away though, as they do occasionally run out of them, especially on long flights.

And by the way, if you are allergic to peanuts, I would strongly encourage you to bring your own snack. I read the small print on each of the six different snacks I got from them and three out of six of the packages mentioned they had been packaged in the same plant as peanuts. The other three didn’t have any comment either way. If it was me, I wouldn’t want to take any chances! Even though it definitely saves money to use their snacks, it’s not worth it if it could cause a health problem!

If you are trying vainly to open any kind of package on the plane – pretzels, peanuts, etc. – try using your pen. Just carefully stab it into the top corner, then use the hole it makes to successfully open that irritating yet tasty little treat.

If I am flying for several hours, I always sit in an aisle seat in the back so I have easy access to the restrooms. If I am on a short hop or have to make a connector flight with not much time to get to it, I try to sit in an aisle seat close to the front. For those trips, I make sure my carryon is small enough to fit under the seat in front of me. If I have to get it from the top luggage bins, I’ve found it slows me down and makes me feel totally awkward as well due to all the other travelers who are in a rush and not always patient at waiting for me. That definitely makes for a more frustrating flying experience. By having my carryon in front of me, it’s much easier to just pull it out and plop it in the aisle all ready for me to hop out and head out the plane to the airport. By sitting close to the front, I ensure that I make my connections on time which probably makes it one of the best ways to save money in the long run!

Blog Carnival FUN! Debt Help Ideas is participating in its very first blog carnival – The Festival of Frugality! What a lot of fun for me, and what a lot of great tips to save money for you. The Festival of Frugality Blog Carnival is being hosted by Always the Planner , a kindred spirit who is also seeking to save money along life’s journey and share the process with her readers. I hope you’ll check it out and would love it if you’d come back and share your favorite tip with us when you’re done

Two articles I especially enjoyed reading:

Ginger Beat has a delicious recipe for a yummy salad along with a great way to prepare it so you can make it in the morning and take it to work with you. And it’ll stay fresh all day! Great idea and great way to save money!

Improve the Quality has an interesting article about saving money and NOT ending eating out. Being one who has to eat out a lot due to outside needs, I appreciated the good tips and think you will too. Be sure to read the comments as well as you’ll find some good tips there too.

Last, but hopefully not least , there’s an article about saving money with green frugal gift wrap from Debt Help Ideas .  

What to do with all the money we’ll save from all these great ideas? Apply it to our lowest balance loan and keep on heading towards our goal to eliminate debt, of course! How fun!