Winning the Credit Card Game

This is so new that I haven’t even read my copy yet. I’ve been waiting for weeks for Tawra to finish this ebook and her timing is perfect.

Fortunely our family no longer has any credit card debt. We have been blessed to learn our lesson many, many years ago. I hope the information in this article and/or the eBook will offer help to many who are struggling with consumer debt.

Blessings,
Susan

PS Please, please, please heed Tawra’s warning about maxing-out your cards again.

  

Winning the Credit Card Game
By Michael and Tawra Kellam
http://www.LivingOnADime.com

We were able to pay off $20,000 in debt in 5 years on $22,000 a year income by taking advantage of low interest rate credit card offers. We saved $67,000 in interest on that $20,000 by using low or no interest offers to our advantage.
All it took was a few 5 minute phone calls. Making the calls and getting lower credit card rates can be a great help to getting your debt paid off fast. The only catch is you have know the game and how to play it.
Please note: This is only going to work if you have your spending under control! If you don’t, then don’t bother messing with it. In other words, if you freed up some credit and then couldn’t resist going out and maxing-out your cards again, then don’t waste your time with this because you will make your situation worse.

Step 1: Don’t become overwhelmed by the amount of your debt. Take it one day at a time. You have no doubt heard the saying, “How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time.” Concentrate on the bite you’re chewing on right now. Don’t worry about contributing to your kid’s college fund when your house is about to be foreclosed.

Deal Updates

Finally I’ve started to receive sale updates from some of my favorite sites.  I was beginning to think everyone was on coupon and sale strike. 

This is a great offer for Photo Books.  These are extremely easy to make.  Basically it’s just a click and drag of a photo onto a page.  You find the template you like with the background that suits your taste or a theme for the picture. Add a title and some text for a caption or journal a short story if you like to write. Create several pages like these and submit them with a simple “click”.  Picaboo will print, bind, and ship you the book. These make extra special holiday gifts for parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, coaches, teachers and just anyone special in your life.  

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While web-surfing I found a site where you great rebates sent to your PayPal account when you shop online with certain businesses.  These are national retailers, (Target, Office Depot, Sears, Dell, and hundreds more).  I was pleasantly surprised to find many of my favorite stores including the store where I purchase my make-up. Get $5 in your account just for signing up. It’s worth noting though that they do not make a PayPal deposit until your account has at least $5.01, (With Christmas coming up that shouldn’t take long. Some companies rebate up to 10% or more of your total purchase). If you use this link I get referral credits.  Ebates.com  

Have a GREAT day!

Blessings,

Susan

Learning Disabilities

I’ve always disliked that phrase; preferring “Teaching Disabilities” instead. My oldest daughter KC has a “proving what she learned” disability. The info goes in just fine but she can’t seem to get it out on paper. This is the reason we began homeschooling in the first place. By second grade I was absolutely convinced my daughter was not going to receive an education unless her father and I gave it to her ourselves. I think we’ve done a wonderful job. My daughter is happy, well adjusted, well liked, friendly, giving, loves the Lord, I could go on but it would sound like bragging, (Which I’m doing but I wouldn’t want readers to get that impression).

Recently KC started taking college classes. She is really struggling and feeling like a failure plus she’s not interested in taking anymore classes in the future. She asked me if we could talk to somebody about her difficulties. She said, “If I know what’s wrong then maybe it can be fixed”. After some discussion she realized that there’s no pill or cure for what’s going on but I promised I would talk with someone. So I did, talk with someone that is. My mother sees a neuropsychologist from time to time for testing. Mom has Mild Cognitive Impairment and the testing has been done to first, diagnosis and second to gauge the effects of the meds she takes. Sorry, got off track. Anyway, I talked with mom’s doctor and she encouraged me to bring KC in for a consult. She did tell me ahead of time that even having answers may not settle things for my daughter. According to her, a life-long struggle causes a person to compensate. At 17 years, KC probably has done all the compensating and coping possible. Makes sense.

Yesterday KC had her consult. The interview was interesting. The doctor asked questions that first called into question my daughter’s habits and personality. Something I did not expect but understand why it’s necessary. This doctor doesn’t know my daughter and she needed to evaluate her from all angles. Is this kid failing to pay attention, is she lazy, apathetic, or disorganized? If not, then why does she have trouble remembering what she read without having to reread the material? Why can’t she correctly transfer information from a book to a piece of paper? Why does it take so long for her to answer a question that she is reading but if asked the question directly her verbal response is correct? I certainly can’t answer these questions and my daughter wants satisfaction. By the end of the session I think the doctor had an idea of KC’s personality. I believe she saw KC for the hard working and determined young lady that she is.

We’ve decided to go ahead with the testing. I hope and pray we will find solutions, but realize, as the doctor said before, KC probably does all she can to cope. On an extremely positive note, just with the one visit KC has decided, on the advice of the doctor that she will at least hold off on her decision to quit until after her testing is completed. KC has also been resistant to letting her father or I help her study. She seems to think that asking for help is an admission of failure. The doctor was able to convince KC that everyone needs help from time to time with school and family is the best place to begin receiving it. She also complimented KC on her articulation, telling her it’s been a very long time since a 17 year old communicated with her on an adult level. She even went so far as to tell her she could see her arguing in a court of law. This was a definite ego boaster for KC.

The rest of the evaluation, the actually testing, won’t be completed until the week of Thanksgiving. I’ll let you know how things go.

Blessings

Susan

What to Do With Leftover Halloween Candy

I received the following email from my frugal friends at Living on a Dime. You must think I only get frugal advice from Living on a Dime.  Not true.  They’ve just had a lot of great ideas to share lately. 

Leftover Halloween Candy
by Tawra Kellam
To prevent sugar shock, have a big bag of popcorn waiting when everyone comes back from Trick or treating. It’s easy to fix and will counteract some of the sweet stuff.
Here are sone tips for using all of that extra Halloween Candy!
You can freeze candy up to a year in the freezer.
Don’t forget to buy discounted Halloween candy for Christmas stockings and parties. Most kids don’t care if their Christmas candy is orange and black or if it has silver and gold wrappers instead of red and green.
Use leftover Halloween candy in Christmas baking and for making gingerbread houses.
It is easier to cut candy into pieces if you freeze it first.
Break Butterfinger candy bars into peanut butter cookie dough.
Sprinkle chopped chocolates on a white or chocolate frosted cake or use them to top ice cream and cheesecake.
Mix leftover chopped chocolates into cake mixes.
Cut a hole in the center of rolled out sugar cookie dough. Place a hard colored candy into the center. Bake as usual. The candies will create a stained glass look.

Shop and Give to Others

I’ve scoured my inbox for two days now for some wonderful deal that I might have tucked away somewhere.  Can’t find a thing and nothing new has come in.  This mean I’ll have make suggestions instead of windfall deals. 

Since we are about to enter the holiday season I thought I would share info on some programs that benefit others when you shop. I’ve found two ways to shop online and give at the same time.  First is www.goodshop.com and www.goodsearch.com.  This program gives about a penny for every search and a percentage of their profit from every sale to a non-profit.  There are hundreds of non-profits listed and you’re bound to find a group or two that tugs at your heart strings.  You might even find a local group to aid.  All my Ebay shopping and several other online purchases are made by going to GoodShop first.  All my searches, (I do a great deal of online searches each day), are done through GoodSearch.  I designate my local homeschool support group as “My Charity”.  Once a year the group gets a small check from GoodSearch/GoodShop.

Another online company where shopping will aid others is Goodwill Too!, (www.goodwilltoo.com).  This is an honest to goodness Goodwill store in St Petersburg, FL.  They sell new and donated items. All donated items are labeled as such.

Hope you find some deals and save some bucks.

Blessings

Susan

Freezer Cooking – Once a Month or Once a Week

A couple years back my friend Cheryl took me on a field trip to a, for lack of a better word, kitchen. This was no ordinary kitchen. It had no stoves or ovens, just lots of refrigerators and small work stations that looked like salad bars. The work stations were full of chopped veggies, spices and other ingredients. Measuring cups and spoons were laid out and meats were stored in family size portions in zip lock type bags in a small refrigerator beneath the work station. Each station had menus or list of ingredients posted. In this kitchen you did no cooking, just the combining of ingredients for storing in the freezer. The entire experience was great. In about one and a half hours I put together 12 meals for my family of four all while fellowshipping with my friend. I assembled the ingredients, wrapped them up, and stored them in the fridge until it was time to leave. Once the freezer meals were at home, in my own freezer, all I had to do was decide what’s for dinner, thaw the meat and cook it, (most of the meals had a 30 minutes or less cooking time).

Candy Wreath – Another Freebie

I’ve got a freebie for those of you who are crafty.  Actually, this is an easy project, even the not-so-crafty among us will have fun with this. How about a Christmas decoration that you don’t have to put away after Christmas.  What’s with that anyway?  It’s so much fun to decorate for the holidays but such a chore to take everything down after the first of the year.  Oh, and the best part of this decoration is that it’s made of candy. Sorry, I digressed.

The free project is available at my favorite frugal site, Living on a Dime. While your there be sure to sign up for their free newsletter.

Blessings

Susan

It’s the Little Things That Count

Let’s face it.  Most of us don’t live within our means.  Consumer debt from credit card usage is at an all time high, people have purchased houses they can’t afford to own, and our desire for the “good life” no longer means keeping up with the Jones’. Now we try to keep up with the Brad Pitts, Madonnas, and Katie Holmes’; all at the expense of our savings and retirement accounts. With savings accounts being closed and retirement plans drying up, the future is looking a little bleak.  For many of us big changes have to be made in our spending habits.  These changes don’t have to be painful to be drastic.  Sometimes it’s changes in the little things that make all the difference.

Start with your grocery shopping habits.

Did you know that many of us spend as much as 25% of our grocery bill on beverages?  Expensive fruit juices, sodas, coffee, and bottled water can quickly max out our food budget.  Maybe giving up just one regular beverage purchase could put a small dent in your grocery bill.  Our family has cut way, way down on sodas and we never buy fruit juices.  

Can’t part with potato chips or other snacks, then try cutting out just one bag of chips from each shopping trip?  If you usually buy two, buy just one. Look at alternatives to packaged snacks. For instance, preparing popcorn can be a little time consuming but a bag of popcorn can last for weeks compared to a bag of chips that can easily be gone in one sitting.

Halloween Savings

For some extremely low cost Halloween ideas, download a free ebook from Living on A Dime.  From fake blood to costumes, (there’s even instructions for dressing up your stroller to look like a race car), it’s all there.  You probably have on hand many of the iingredients and materials.  Have fun.

Halloween on a Dime  

Sticking to a Budget

I’m so frustrated. I’ve been working all day on links to the freezer cooking website. Currently the source I use is moving their site to a new server and seem to be experiencing problems today. I’m going to hold off on posting that blog until the links will work. I don’t want you to get frustrated too by clicking dead links. Thanks for your patience. In place of the freezer meal info I’m adding an article written by the wonderful folks at Living on a Dime.

I promise to post the freezer cooking info just as soon as all the bugs are worked out of the links

Blessings

Susan

*******10/27/2008 Update – The links are working and the freezer meals blog has been posted.

Sticking to a Budget

In response to a recent Living on a Dime story about budgeting, Yvonne writes: My problem is not setting up a budget but sticking to a budget. Gas costs what it costs. Groceries – It is expensive to eat healthy. Do you have suggestions for how to live on a budget? We don’t do a lot of things but we seem to overspend our budget each month. And I know there is no way my husband is going to keep track of every penny he spends. Please help!

Tawra: This is a question that I receive frequently. Many people feel that the thought of budgeting is too daunting. My first thought is that if you set up a budget and can’t stick to it, either your budget, your spending or both are not realistic.

One thing I should mention up front is that there are several reasons why you might make a budget and how you handle your budget depends largely on why you have one. Here are the main two groups: