Debt Help Ideas

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!

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!