Sunday, January 18, 2009

Top 5 Financial Secrets You Must Use

These steps started my debt relief. I am not saying these will work for you, but they have made dramatic changes in my finances.

1. I Cut up My Debit Card: Cutting up my debit card allowed me to stop overdrawing in my checking account. I would use my debit card to purchase things I wanted, needed, and sometimes things just to soothe that spending urge. I would sometimes owe over $200.00 in overdrawn fees. That's ridiculous, once I cut it up I started to get money out of my account for two weeks at a time. Once that money was gone, I don't get anymore out. This has also stopped impulsive spending and wasting money on useless items.

2. Fill Up on Gas at Half a Tank:
I usually have to fill up on gas once every week and a half. When I fill up I spend $65. Filling up at half a tank, I spend $20 every week. Even though I am filling up more, I am still saving cash. For instance, filling up I would spend $195 for the month. Filling up on half a tank for 4 weeks would cost $80. For the month it is a total of $115 a month and $1380 for the year.

3. Anytime I Withdraw Money from my Checking Account I put Equal Amounts Towards a Debt:
I try not to take out large amounts of money whenever I withdraw from my account, but when I do I put equal amounts toward Liam (99 Land Rover). This insures that I put money to good use and it will help eliminate debt faster. If I just withdrew money and let the other money stay, I would withdraw it and use it toward something useless. Putting money toward Liam will cut interest and cut the length of time I will be paying on him.

4. Eating all the Food I Cook: Have you ever thought about the food that you waste daily? I know, I cook and yes, I do eat left overs, but sometimes I just don't want that anymore. I have started taking my lunch to work daily and making my lunch for a few days. This saves time and energy. I also cook 2 or 3 meals at a time to give variety.

For example: For Christmas we had a fried turkey, we ate on that for a few days, but it got boring. I made turkey a la king. That was something different and I reinvented the turkey. Instead of throwing away the remaining turkey I created a totally new meal.

Now, that I have been stretching meals, I am not spending money on eating out and not wasting food (that is throwing away money that could be put toward debt).

5. Turn Cooper into Silver: Whenever I go to the grocery store, drive through, or spend cash period, I give them the dollar amount plus pennies too. Example: My food cost $4.27. I give $5.02 and get $.75 in return. I turned cooper into silver. Sometimes they look at me like I am crazy, but it makes sense. I may only have had $.02 in my wallet, now I have $.75. I thought that was neat. The extra change that I make I put it in my Tootsie Roll bank. When the bank fills, I take it to my bank and cash it in. That money is used on a debt.

I don't claim to be a financial advisor, but these are steps that I have taken to help me in my financial journey. I have a plan and I know it will work with determination, support, reading, and interacting with others that are doing what I set out to do. I know I will make mistakes, but I will achieve financial success.


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