Posts Tagged ‘saving money’

How I Cleared My $10,000 Credit Card Debt in a Year

June 26th, 2011

Like many Americans, I had a ton of debt that seemed to pile on month after month.
Between credit cards, car payments and suchlike, my debt situation was hopeless. One Visa card had a $1,250 balance and another $5,000. I had a MasterCard with a $1,250 balance and a Discover Card with about $2,500. Enough! I decided to take steps to eliminate my debt without having to make more money. All it needs is a little sacrifice and discipline. Here’s what I did to all but eliminate my debt within one year.

What Is Necessary
I cut the coffee shops in the morning and made my own cuppa. The saving, to my amazement: about $4 per day or $28 per week, for a total of $1,456 a year. I used this to pay off the $1,250 balance on my Visa and even had a couple of bucks to spare. I could have saved that amount by brown-bagging as well.

Downgrading
We went from a two-car family to a one-car family. We sold the car that had payments and kept the one that was paid off. As our car payment was $450 per month that meant we saved an astounding $5,400 in one year. Include the money we saved on insurance at $70 per month or $840 per year, plus what we saved on gasoline at $25 per week or $1,300 per year. In total our downgrade saved us $7,540 for the year. Goodbye Visa Card No. 2 and Discover Card! It was inconvenient, sure, but it saved us tremendous amounts of money each month that we could apply to our debt. We are now back to two cars again, both paid for.

Cash Is King
My new motto is, “If I don’t have enough cash to get something I want, then I don’t need it.” This can be hard as credit cards allow you to make purchases that you otherwise couldn’t. However, they catch up with you, and bring debt.

Top of the Line
You don’t always have to have the best of the best. My cell phone is nice, but not too nice. I also ended my long-term contract with a major cell carrier and now use a prepay service. While my phone doesn’t do all the latest and greatest things, it still makes calls and texts, which is really all I use it for anyway. Besides, not having the “newest and greatest” cell phone is saving me over $80 per month or $960 per year. Nearly enough to pay off my MasterCard.

What’s important
When cutting debt you need to decide what is important. With a little sacrifice and discipline, I have been able to get rid of almost all my debt in one year’s time and sock away a few bucks. At the end of the year I paid off $9,956 of debt. Now, I use my credit cards only to secure a hotel room or a car rental, and I’ve learned the value of what is important over what is wanted. What’s more, I did this without making any additional money; actually it feels like I make more since I actually get to keep some of it now.

Since I’ve cleared my debt I’ve started a new business with a little help from a business incubator.

Tags: Cutting costs, Debts, Getting out of debt, saving money
Posted in Credit Cards, Economy, Employment, Finance, Money, Personal / Internet | No Comments »

Cutting Costs at Home

June 18th, 2011

Do you have a spare room you can rent out?
Millions of Americans are looking for ways to shave dollars and dimes from their household budget. It is possible to make savings on everything and here are some ideas to get you started.

Boiling water
Use up to 60 percent less energy by boiling water in a microwave rather than on an electric stovetop. When you do use the stovetop, make sure pots and pans fully cover the heating element. A 6-inch pan on an 8-inch element translates to an energy waste of more than 40 percent.

The freezer
Improve freezer efficiency by keeping it as full as possible, with bags of ice, for instance. But keep a 1-inch open space on each side of the interior for better air circulation.

Heating
Lower your thermostat in the winter. For each degree that you drop, you cut your heating bill by 3 percent. To feel more comfortable at lower temperatures, place pans of water near heating outlets or radiators. Water-filled air retains heat better, and the added humidity reduces itching and dry skin.

In the garden
Mix your own garden dirt. Those “enriched” bags of soil boost flower and vegetable growth at about $8 a bag. Instead, for each one part of dirt or topsoil mix in about two parts of compost, shredded from leaves and branches and available for free at many municipal recycling centers. Buy torn bags of mulch. Home centers usually set these torn bags aside, then sell the day’s mishaps at a big discount. Your best chance to get these deals is at the end of a weekend shopping day. Bring duct tape to close them, and a tarp to keep your car trunk clean.

Toilet flushes
Save on every flush in your toilet by putting a plastic bottle full of water, weighted with pebbles, in your tank. You could use a brick or two as well.

Rainwater
Get a rain barrel and connect it to your home’s storm gutters. It will collect water for later use on your lawn, vegetable garden or for washing the car.

Dripping faucets
Stop that dripping faucet. Sixty drips a minute will waste about 6,428 gallons of water per year, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.

The shower
Shower quickly and save. A 15-minute shower a day costs about $310 a year, even with a low-flow shower head. Cutting the time by a third will save about $100 annually.

Spare rooms
Consider renting that extra room or space in your garage, basement, backyard. Visit sparefoot.com or storeatmyhouse.com to list its availability and your asking price for free. SpareFoot gets a transaction fee equal to half the first month’s paid rent (a spare bedroom can fetch $150 a month). The site also sells legally vetted lease agreements for $19. Be sure to check out the laws, building codes and zoning rules that affect you; in many communities, renting out your extra space is generally not legal and could result in several thousand dollars in penalties.

Do it yourself
Do it yourself or hire someone? You can get estimates of the difference in cost for a home improvement project at diyornot.com, as well as advice on whether you should go it alone.

Tags: Cutting costs, Do it yourself, Household budget, saving money
Posted in Economy, Employment, Finance, Money, Personal / Internet | No Comments »

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