Not Made Of Money

For the most part, I don’t usually mind when my spending habits vary from those of my friends and family members. My experience has been that everyone has different priorities when it comes to money. One person may live very frugally but be inclined to splurge on family vacations. A person who really enjoys cars might be okay with spending a disproportionately large amount of his monthly budget on car payments. I always say, “to each his own.”

I draw the line, though, when it comes to late fees. Because I hate the idea of throwing money away, late fees are particularly abhorrent to me. Think about it; late fees are one of the few things that people pay without having anything to show for their purchase. Ugh!

Before you pay one more late fee, please check out these tips to exorcise late fees from your budget. Believe me; you can find something better to spend your money on.

Bank online. You can cut the processing time of most payments down to a day or two by paying your bills online. Those extra days can make a huge difference when you’re on a tight budget. Some online bill paying programs also allow you to set up reminders to tell you when a particular bill is due.
Set up payment reminders. Even if bank online, I would still suggest setting up some payment reminders that exist outside of your bank’s website. If you use Microsoft’s Outlook for your email program, you can set up reminders for each due date in the calendar function. If you’re more old-school, you can write notes on a traditional calendar. Just do something that will tickle your memory when a payment is due.
Grovel a little. Okay, I don’t really mean that you have to grovel. I do think, though, that you shouldn’t feel ashamed about asking your creditors to remove a late fee from your account. If you typically pay your bill on time and an accident causes your payment to process late, don’t be bashful about calling your creditor’s customer service folks and asking for a little forgiveness. Many times, if you ask nicely, they can remove those fees as a courtesy.

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Being in debt stinks. I’ve always felt that owing the bank (or some finance company) money is like having something hanging over your head. If anything goes wrong and causes you to miss your monthly payment, your whole world could quickly come crashing in around you.

I do understand, though, that debt is a necessary tool for many families. Let’s face it; many of us can’t afford to pay cash for a car. And how many of us can pay with cash for a house? Debt it just a part of life for many people.

All of that said, debts or loans should always be repaid as quickly as possible. The sooner you can pay that loan off, the sooner you can remove that weight hanging over your head. To help you along, I’ve come up with these five tips to help you pay your loan off early.

Round up. The easiest way to pay off a loan early is to pay a little extra towards your principal amount every month. If your monthly payment is $192, you could simply pay $200. You won’t notice the extra $8, and you’ll accelerate your payment plan.

Keep steady payments even if your loan isn’t. Sometimes mortgage payments change. Your escrow amount might vary, for instance, from year to year. When your payment goes down, don’t adjust down to it. Instead, keep paying the payment you already budgeted for. The extra will just go towards paying your loan off early.

Earmark extra money for your debts. When you receive an unexpected windfall like a bonus at work, you should send those in directly to your lender. You can direct the extra payment to be applied to your principal balance. Since you weren’t expecting the money, the extra money won’t be missed from your budget.

Make biweekly payments. Many lenders will set you up on an accelerated payment system like making biweekly payments instead of monthly payments. Each year, you’ll end up making an extra payment.

Take the money from your savings. Although I would never suggest emptying your savings account to pay off a debt (that’s a whole different kind of thing hanging over your head), there’s nothing wrong with removing some money from your savings to pay off a loan. You can quickly rebuild your savings account after you don’t have to make those debt payments anymore.

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When I think of winter and the holiday season, I have to admit that my mind usually turns to holiday celebrations and cozy nights with the family. Practical, financial matters are often the farthest things from my mind. I should, however, make a little time to think about our family’s insurance needs.

You see, in our household (like many households) our medical insurance features an open enrollment period for a few weeks each year. This open enrollment time gives us the option to change our plan (between an HMO and PPO option), change our contribution to a flexible spending plan, and to add or drop dependent coverage. Since we have to live with our choices for an entire year, we have to give the matter careful thought each year.

We usually begin our evaluation by looking back over the previous year and thinking about what worked and didn’t work in our healthcare needs. Did we contribute too much or too little money to our flex-spending plan? Did we visit a doctor that wasn’t in our HMO plan and get hit with a big medical bill? This open enrollment opportunity gives us the chance to change our plan to fit these types of situations.

Next, we try to think about upcoming changes in our family. Do we see large medical or dental bills coming this year? Maybe one the kids will need braces. If so, we should increase our flex-spending contributions to cover these increased costs. Will one of us be traveling a great deal this year? In this situation, coverage in a PPO plan may be a better option in case that person gets injured while away from our HMO’s coverage area.

Spending a little time evaluating your insurance needs before your open enrollment period begins allows you to get the most out of your insurance coverage. Rather than sticking with the status quo because the deadline is looming and you don’t know what to do, you can take advantage of your head start and investigate your options. Asking a few questions and spending some time thinking about the answers you get could save you a lot of money over the next year.

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We love to entertain. Nothing makes us happier than having our home filled with friends and family members. Some days I think the only reason my husband wanted to buy a house was so that he would have a place to entertain.

Since entertaining is so important to us, we have always known that we would need to make room in our budget for entertaining costs. A budget that didn’t include these costs would just be unrealistic for us.

We also knew, though, that we would have to set some limits to our entertaining budget. We didn’t want our entertainment spending to be out of proportion with the rest of our expenses, so we started hunting for ways to save on entertaining costs.

Go potluck. The real fun of entertaining doesn’t come from physically preparing meals for all of your friends and family. The fun comes from interacting with the people you care about. Rather than spending the whole day in the kitchen, why shouldn’t you share the work of entertaining? If everyone contributes a little something, no one will feel a pinch in their wallets.

Plan some type of entertainment. What types of things do you and your friends like to do? Are you board game people? Ask everyone to bring their favorite game so that you have a wide selection of games to choose from. Do you like sports? A game of touch football in the backyard may be the perfect way to spend an afternoon. Just be sure to plan entertainment ahead of time so that you are not tempted to run out and buy something at the last minute to entertain your guests with.

Skip excessive decorations. With the exception of Christmas parties (and possibly Halloween parties) most adult gatherings don’t need a lot of décor. Don’t spend a lot of money of cheesy extras. Instead, focus your energy on cleaning and preparing your home for the big day.

Forget paper invitations. Most family gatherings don’t require you to send out formal invitations. (There are a few exceptions, of course.) Rather than spending money on invitations and postage, why not invest a little time and call or email all of your prospective guests.

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Chicken can be a versatile component in a family’s menu plans. Less expensive than beef, I’ve found that using chicken as my main meat allows me to stretch my grocery budget much farther than I could otherwise stretch it. Using chicken a great deal, though, requires me to have a large arsenal of chicken recipes in my recipe box.

Fortunately, I have found many different recipes that my family loves. Some are traditional, all-American recipes. Others, however, are a little spicier. Rotating all of these recipes into my meal plans keeps me from ever having to hear my family groaning, “Ugh! Chicken, again?!”

Fried Chicken – My mom’s friend chicken was always one of my favorite foods growing up, so it’s no wonder that I prepare it for my own family. I simply coat the chicken in flour a fry at a low temperature. This meal does take some time to prepare, though, so I don’t recommend trying to cook it on a night filled with other activities.

Chicken Enchiladas – My husband loves spicy foods so coming home to find that it’s enchilada night totally makes his day. Add chili pepper, a sliced green onion, a chopped tomato, and shredded cheese to cooked chunks of chicken. Spoon the mixture into enchilada shells, roll the shells, and drizzle them with your favorite taco sauce. Add a little more cheese over the top and bake the entire creation in your oven until the cheese is melted.

Chicken Pot Pie – No food is as comforting to me as a chicken pot pie. You can make small ones for each member of your family or cookie one large to dish up cafeteria-style. Flour, salt and shortening are all you need to make a fluffy crust for the top of your entrée. Place a layer of crust into your pie pan and cover it with the yummy filling. Chicken chunks, two cups of mixed veggies, and salt and pepper are all great filling ingredients. Add anything else you like and cover with another layer of crust. Bake the entire thing at 425 degrees for around thirty-five minutes.

Asian Chicken Salad – For a totally different take on chicken, my family enjoys an Asian version of chicken salad. I begin by coating chunks of boneless, skinless chicken breast with a ginger-sesame dressing. A cup of Bisquick mixed with a quarter cup of coconut serves as a breading for the chicken. I pour the dry ingredients into a baggies, drop in a few of the coated chunks of chicken, and shake the bag until the pieces are coated. Continue in this manner until everything is coated. Next, you should cook the chicken chunks in a skillet until they are browned and cooked throughout. Finally, add the chicken to a mixture of salad greens, snowpeas, radishes, mandarin oranges, and anything else you like. Top the whole thing off with a sesame salad dressing.

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Having good home organization tools in place is a huge part of what makes my household run smoothly. When clutter or messiness takes over the house, nothing seems to go right. Is that how it is in your home? Maybe you’re hoping to create a little more organization in your house with some new organization techniques.

Don’t rush to the nearest home organization store the next time you decide to organize all or part of your home. There’s no need to spend an exorbitant amount of money to make your home organized and attractive. With a little hard work, some creativity, and frugality (always!) you can keep the clutter at bay.

Purge the things you don’t need. De-cluttering your home is one of the most powerful things you can do to help you get it organized, and it doesn’t cost a dime. Clearing out the things you don’t use or want anymore will allow you to see and use the things you do want. Throw away things that aren’t useful to anyone. Sell things that others might want, and donate whatever is left.

Sort and display things where you can see them. Many of my unnecessary purchases have been caused by my inability to determine what I need. For instance, as a crafter, I can’t tell you how many times I’ve bought a new bottle of craft glue simply because I wasn’t sure if I had any at home. Create attractive (and free) displays from your collections or supplies by sorting them and arranging them in groups together.

Use items you already have for storage. Ordinary items like glass jars and shoe boxes are like gold when it comes to home organization. Soak the labels off glass jars to create great display storage. Small items like paper clips, buttons, ribbon scraps, and even kitchen utensils can be attractively arranged within these stylish, classic containers. Shoe boxes fill in nicely for larger storage or storage that isn’t as attractive. You can always cover the boxes with fabric or paper to help them coordinate with your room’s décor.

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Everybody loves to get a bargain. I collect coupons for my favorite stores, shop clearance aisles regularly, and keep an eye on sales ads all the time just to save a little money on my purchases. Each of these ideas, though, doesn’t take advantage of the easiest way to save while shopping. If you want to save money while shopping, sometimes all you need to do is ask.

Asking for a discount can be a little awkward at first. I know it took me quite a while to get comfortable with the idea. I always felt like I was being pushy or rude. That’s not true, though. I am always polite; I simply make a request and make my purchasing decisions based on the answer I get. Now that I’ve had some practice, I’m ready to share some tips with you.

Ask the right person. The person who is stocking the shelves at your favorite shop probably doesn’t have the authority to give you a discount on that pots and pans set you’re looking at. Instead, look for the store’s manager (or assistant manager) or someone working in the specific department that you’re shopping in. These are the people who are in a position to bargain with you.

Ask the store to price match. When my husband and I were shopping for furniture for our living room, we wanted to patronize a local furniture store rather than the big name store in our city. The local store’s prices, however, were much higher than the prices in the big name store. We selected the furniture we wanted at the big name store, noted its price, and paid a visit to the local store. After explaining that we really wanted to shop there, but couldn’t afford to pay extra, the local shop was more than willing to match the big name store’s price.

Point out defects. Purchasing floor models may require that you put up with a few blemishes or defects. If you don’t mind them, though, you can get a pretty hefty discount. Ask the salesperson if you can take the floor sample off their hands at a discounted price.

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