Hillbilly Housewife

This has to be one of my favorite sites for saving money on groceries. Great recipes, great ideas and they work. My family loves the recipes and the kids have no idea how easy it is to save money on groceries by using these ideas.

Great budgeting ideas and lots of creative sites link to this site. Under new management and better than ever!

Making it Work

Its all falling into place. My debt payments are finally going down as are the credit card balances. I have been diligently applying all extra funds to the balances and making bigger payments as much as possible. The result? The minimum payments are going down and the balances are slowly going down.

I have carefully created a budget and am staying right on track. Anytime I wind up with a few extra dollars I am applying it to my debt.

We are still eating well and I have not scrimped on our grocery budget but rather made sure to purchase wholesome foods that though not pre packaged convenience foods I have learned to prepare enough that we have extra for another meal and by buying bulk we are able to save even more.

My family loves homemade bread so I have taken advantage of that and started making bread a few times per week. Saves on the (not so low) price of $2.50 per average loaf and when I add that savings up I can buy more of something else on sale and stock up.

How ever you are able to cut corners, cut them and get rid of the debt. Your life will be so much more stress free and your family will be so much happier.

For ways to earn extra cash check out my other blogs (go to "about me" and then select "view my complete profile" to see a listing of my other blogs). I also have inspirational blogs, more about my family and some great recipes depending on which blog you are reading.

Keep up the great work everyone! Thanks for all the great messages I have been getting and for the great suggestions.

Lets make 2008 the year that we all get out of debt!

How often should you review?

Another question I am frequently asked is, "How often should I review my debt?" For each person this may be different. But on the average, I would recommend that you review your bills on a monthly basis. I check each of my credit card statements. Having been the victim of identity theft I want to make sure that there are no unauthorized charges on that bill. If there are, I want the opportunity to dispute them immediately. If there are late fees I want to work on paying on time and not adding to those! If at all possible I want to pay before the due date to prevent any near misses by their processing department. Review...Review......R E V I E W. Are you being charged for services such as a "credit alert" or "Credit Protect" on more than one card? Why? If they cover all of your cards you don't need to be paying it on all 4 or so cards. Choose the card with the lowest interest that you are paying for said service on and cancel it on the rest (this is of course assuming that all of the cards are listed on the alert on the first card...check the fine print and ask if in doubt).

So You Want to be Debt Free

Getting out of debt is a life changing decision. You will find you have so much more freedom in the long run. One of the first things to do in order to get out of debt is to set up a personal budget. This can be kind of frightening at first but it is the key to your financial freedom. In order to do this you will need a few things. A copy of all the bills for at least 2 months, Pen and paper and perhaps a calculator. Now, in one column jot down each and every bill. From your rent all the way down to your mad money that you spend on that soda you ran out for on break. Include each and every credit card in this column, even if you don't owe a dime on it! EVERY CENT needs to be accounted for so jot them all down. Total this at the bottom of the page.Set that aside. Now jot down all of your income, whether it be your job, interest paid to you on stocks, child support, alimony payments, anything that you receive on a regular basis goes here. Not total that at the bottom of the page. Now compare the two columns. Is one bigger than the other? Which one? Oh dear, the expenses are larger than your income? This is scary indeed. Where can you cut back? Can you eat out less, can you cut back on those soda's at break? Keep trimming, Are you paying late fees on those credit cards? Lets get rid of those and pay on time. Is your payment too high? Call the company right away before it gets any more out of hand and talk to them. See if you can negotiate it down to a lower price for a few months until you get caught up. Most credit card companies are very willing to work with you on reducing your payments for a short time. Agree to what you can afford only. Don't let them bully you into what you cannot afford. Keep it realistic. Offer to send them in a copy of your budget. Explain in writing that you owe "X" amount to various companies and show them what you are paying each company and let them see that they too are having reduced payments. Negotiate negotiate negotiate. Now take a short break. Breathe....doesn't that feel a little better? Continue re evaluating this ever few months. Slowly you will see your debt going down. Make a chart and write down each payment. Cross it off once you are out of the red so you can see that you have met your goal of reducing payments and getting out of debt. Seeing is believing. So you really want that latte. Allow yourself a little indulgence once per month. You choose the day. Maybe one day you just really need that pick me up. Don't deprive yourself but be realistic. Can you manage with creamer and the office coffee pot most of the time? Then do it. Commit yourself to these little goals and watch your money increase and watch your debt decrease. Now don't you look smart!

How are you planning to get out of debt?

Getting out of debt takes a plan. One cannot just wake up one morning and say, "I'm going to be out of debt today". It takes some planning and the use of a strict budget to get out of debt. Sometimes it takes more. An extra job, getting rid of satellite television, getting rid of some luxury that we can do without for awhile. But it is not going to happen if we just sit around starring at the ceiling. In order to get a better handle on my debt I joined some GPT sites and some PTC sites and several writing sites. I write, they publish, they pay, I collect the money and pay another bill. Sometimes it seems like a vicious cycle but all in all, it is working very well so far. For more ideas or to join any or all of the sites I listed above please see my website and lets get out of debt together....one bill payment at a time. My website is located at: http://www.freewebs.com/countrymom1

Please feel free to take a look around, sign the guest book. If you join up under me and you have a site I am not already on please let me know and I will join up under you. Thanks and have a great debt free day.

Debt

Debt....suddenly, its hits you. Oh no, it didn't really happen all at once, it just seems that way. Actually, you have been getting there all along. I sat back one day after paying the bills. I was staring at a pile of credit card debt that seemed to just keep growing. Well, okay, it was growing. By only paying minimum payments I was never going to get out of debt. I had to do something, and I had to do it quickly before my debt became unmanageable. I had a car that barely ran. I had a job that paid minimum wage. I had a lot of other things going on and the debt was getting deeper. As per the norm with things like this, my car gave out completely. It was the dead of winter and I was sick. I began to walk to work. It only took 15 minutes each way. I continued to walk telling myself how great the exercise was (I know, it really really was good for me!) Unfortunately, I continued to get sicker. I wound up spending 12 days in bed sick. I no longer had my job, I had more debt (now it included a major hospital Emergency trip bill....2 trips to the emergency room are very expensive even with insurance!) I was desperate. I was in debt. I began to research ways to get out of debt. Working from home was part of the solution. I did a lot of research. I found some great websites that have helped me to make a major dent in getting out of and staying out of debt. I hope this site will help you in your debt free endeavors also!