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!

Working towards the goal to eliminate debt doesn’t have to mean no traveling . Vacations can be an important part of a family’s life.  For that matter, many of us have to travel for non-vacation purposes, such as business and family needs. Travel can be expensive but there are some great ways to save money. Here are three:

1.  Try to fly the same airline every single time. Unless you are traveling weekly, if you use several airlines, you will probably not accumulate enough frequent flyer miles to do much good. It’s better to pick one airline and see those miles go up, up, up. I personally love Southwest. I have earned several free trips thanks to their generous frequent flyer policy. They are very customer-service oriented. One time, we were diverted overnight to another state and didn’t land at our destination until twelve hours later. This was caused by circumstances beyond their control (not weather). I was thrilled to get a letter from them a week later, explaining what happened and that, even though it wasn’t their fault, they were giving us a free round-trip ticket as an apology! As you can imagine, I was definitely impressed even more with them. Their prices are great and they are definitely a good choice offering many ways to save money while traveling.

2. Once you make your plane and car rental reservations, don’t stop there. Check the prices of each a couple of times before the trip. Several times, I have been able to change my reservations in order to take advantage of a price drop. I was able to do this with both Southwest, and a couple of car rental agencies. I’m not sure which other airlines allow this, although I believe there are at least a couple that do. Call the airline reservations desk to see what their policies are. On a trip I took last December, I saved over $150 with this simple travel solution.

3. AAA is a great resource to help you when your car breaks down while traveling . I occasionally have to drive long distances from my home, so I pay extra for their premium service, which means I will be able to have my car brought home even if I am far away when it breaks down. Not only do I save money using them for car travel, they also are a great resource for other types of travel. I have been able to take advantage of Hertz’ wonderful #1 Club Gold Membership for free because of my AAA Premier card. This saves me  time, stress, and money. I can also use my AAA card to get discounts at hotels, motels, and amusement parks.

These three travel solutions are very useful ways to save money. And think how fun it will be to for us to take the money we saved and apply it to a loan payment as we “travel on” towards our goal to eliminate debt .

Here’s some tips to save money that are also green friendly. The next time we have to give a gift, whether it’s Mother’s Day, a birthday, or even Christmas, we can wrap it uniquely in a reusable shopping bag. Whether we pick a favorite store or just go by whichever bag we think is cutest (I like Trader Joe’s bags), our recipient will end up with a sturdy reusable bag. Not only that, we will usually only have to spend 50 cents – 99 cents which is cheaper than most of the dollar stores around.

To dress it up, we can use white or colored shades of crumpled tissue paper. After they’ve “opened” their gift, we can carefully fold the tissue paper to re-use it for the next gift giving project. It will fold nicely and doesn’t take much space. Another fun idea is to save the kids’ colored construction paper after they finish a project that they did NOT want to save. Run the paper thru a paper shredder, then stuff it on top of the present in the bag. This could get a little messy though, so we’ll have to be sure to have the kids help clean it up after the present is opened.

This works for all holidays including Christmas. Target’s red bags are especially good for that holiday. I’ve also seen green bags that would work nicely. Kids birthdays are another great occasion to put to good use these ways to save money. They always love having cute bags to carry all their prized possessions in. A sturdy reusable bag would be right up their alley!

The really fun part will be tallying up all the money we save by not buying  bags, ribbons, paper, and bows. I know I’ve spent as much as $5 on gift wrap before. Applying the savings from these tips to save money towards our lowest bill’s next payment will take us a step closer towards our goal to eliminate debt AND we get the satisfaction of knowing we did it in a fun, frugal, and green way!

Do you love to give and receive flowers? I know I do! Especially roses. They aren’t cheap though, are they? A great frugal investment we can make is to purchase and plant rose bushes and other perennial flowers around our house. Granted, there is an up-front cost involved, but in the long run this is definitely one of those multi-tasking tips to save money.

One thing I learned to do after buying a house that left me cash poor was to watch for sales at places like Rite Aid and Walgreens. They often get a big batch of plants in for spring, then put them on sale in mid-summer once most of them are gone.

Depending on the area we might even be safe buying plants looking a bit wilted. When I lived in Northern California I bought many roses for a fraction of their original cost because they looked like they were almost dead – wilted leaves, no flowers. With some careful pruning and great compost, they perked up wonderfully. The East Coast has not been as kind to me, but I’ve also had less time to try.

If we are able to do this, we can buy these plants for pennies on the dollar and then enjoy many years of gorgeous, wonderfully scented flowers in our homes as well as use some as gifts for others. I love ways to save money that smell good! Not only that, they add value to our homes, so when we go to sell them, we might actually get a higher price because of all the flowers growing! Now you know what I meant when I told you this was one of those multi-tasking tips to save money

In addition, I love applying the money I saved to my loan with the lowest balance as we march on together towards our goal to eliminate debt!

If you send books, CDs, and/or DVDs to friends or relatives (great ideas for long distance grandkids or elderly shut-ins), you are eligible for one of the best ways to save money on snail mail. And saving money is a great way to work towards our goal to eliminate debt!

Media Mail is ultra cheap and quite easy. Just package up the books, CDs, and/or DVDs in a sturdy box. Don’t include anything else, especially not magazines or personal letters. The post office does do regular spot checks and if you accidentally include those, your package might take a lot longer and will cost a whole lot more! Wrap the package and address it. I usually write Media Mail in big letters on both sides of the package.

Take the package to the post office and request that it be sent via Media Mail. As an example of the savings you will see:

2 pound package from the West Coast to the East coast

Parcel Post would cost $6.97 whereas Media Mail is only $2.58

For a 7 pound package:

Parcel Post would run $12.81 while Media Mail is only $4.33

That’s definitely a great way to save money and work on our debt problem!

Debt Consolidation. You know what I mean. Taking all that unsecured debt and lumping it all together into one loan so you only have one payment. It seems so logical, so easy, so wonderful! We thought so too. Then we discovered the dark side of this option.

It’s just too easy to borrow more. Those paid off credit cards will be calling your name, begging you to use them. Needs will arise like you wouldn’t believe. Before you know it, your unsecured debt will have doubled and you will be miserable!

You’ll be a lot happier and a lot better off if you sit down and make a plan to eliminate debt safely and sanely, one bill at a time. I like the “debt snowball” idea that many financial counselors recommend. You start with the lowest bill and pay it off using any extra money you can. That’s where all the great ways to save money that you will find on this site will come in handy. Pay as much as you can on the bill, not just the minimum. Once it’s paid off, take all the money you were paying towards it and add it to the payment you are sending for the next lowest bill. Before you know it, your unsecured debt will be gone, and you will have gotten so much closer to your goal to eliminate debt!

Always being on the lookout for ways to save money is a great tool to help you eliminate debt.

One of the best ways to save money is to look at your car servicing habits. Here are four tips that may help you:

• Make sure you get the oil changed regularly. Taking good care of your car will save you money in the long run.
• Don’t, however, service it more often than you have to. For awhile, I kept reading recommendations that people should change their oil every 3000 miles. Car experts have discovered, however, that this is more often than necessary. 5000 miles is a better rule of thumb according to various sources, including my own car dealership. (Of course, you need to double-check this with your own car repair site as different models do vary.)
• Before taking your car into a dealer or other business for servicing, check their website. You may discover, as I did, that they offer coupons online for various services. These can save you anywhere from $5 – $100 or more depending on what you need to have done.
• Ask your repair business if they offer coupons via email. One dealership I went to regularly started doing that. It was so handy to have great ways to save money arrive in my inbox. Not only that, they’re a lot easier to find than in the piles on my desk.

Taking good care of our cars while keeping our eyes open for new ways to save money is definitely a great way to work towards our goal to get debt free! We need to make sure we take the money we save and add it to our lowest bill’s payment each month. Eventually we will succeed at our goal to eliminate debt!

As a Christian, one of my top goals is to eliminate debt. I take Romans 13:8, “Owe nothing to anyone except to love one another; for he who loves his neighbor has fulfilled the law,” very seriously.

I have heard a couple of pastors, who I trust and respect, explain that passage refers to unsecured debt such as credit cards. They believe that careful debt on real estate property is acceptable as it is a business transaction. I pretty much agree with them, however in light of the current economic turmoil I am seriously rethinking that policy!

Unsecured debt is definitely one of the worst types of debt to have, though. Credit cards can be great tools if used wisely, with much self-control. You can actually save money with a free, frequent-flyer credit card if you pay off the debt each month.

If you don’t pay it off monthly and instead have to pay interest charges on the monthly balance, I would encourage you to put the card in a plastic container full of water and pop it into the freezer. You’ll still have it for emergencies but it will make you slow down and think through whether you really need what you want to buy.

This is one of many great tips that can help you eliminate debt!