the simple home - how to cut your spending by $500 a month

Like you, I'm always looking for ways to seal up the money leaks in our home. As the keeper of my home and the one who spends most of the money for home front needs, I'm compelled to find every way I can to effectively manage what God's given us.

One of my personal tips to look for leaks is to simplify, declutter, get organized and stay organized. So many times, we can't find something, head out to the store, buy it and then later on find that we actually have two of what we were looking for.

Simplify Your Life by Marcia Ramsland

Here's 7 More Ways to Save $$ from Consumer Reports Money Lab that will help you (as the keeper of your home) possibly find a few more ways to stop those money leaks.

No. 1: Find Cheaper Auto Insurance Average savings: $65
How to do it.
Start at the Web site of the National Association of Insurance Commissioners, and click on NAIC States & Jurisdictions to find your state's insurance department. Most provide comparative premium quotes based on standard customer profiles. If your state doesn't, you can get quotes from insurers by phone or over the Internet.

No. 2: Optimize Your Life Insurance Average savings: $110
How to do it.
Life-insurance premiums have dropped so dramatically since the 1990s, it will probably pay for you to replace a policy bought years ago with a comparable one. Get a physical checkup and follow your doctor's advice for shaping up before applying for a new policy. Get quotes and don't cancel your existing policy until you have a new one already in place.

No. 3: Shop Smart for Food Average savings: $200
How to do it.
Plan menus around sales on fresh poultry, fish, meat, dairy, and produce, and make use of leftovers. Avoid costly prepared meals. Try less-expensive store brands. Sign up for store discount cards. Stock up on sale-priced staples. Eat more low-priced, high-nutrition foods such as beans and potatoes, says Andrea Carlson, a USDA economist.

No. 4: Stop Paying Bank Fees Average savings: $25.
How to do it.
Bank at a large institution with lots of ATMs in convenient locations to avoid the cost of using other banks' machines—as much as $4 per withdrawal. And use the no-fee cash-back option at supermarkets.

No. 5: Call Up Phone Savings Average savings: $35
How to do it.
Peruse your last few months' phone bills to assess how many minutes you typically use on landline and wireless calls. Comparison shop among cellular service providers, the local phone company, independent long-distance carriers, and your cable TV company. Don't buy more than you need, such as an unlimited cellular plan if you rarely go over 900 minutes per month.

No. 6: Pay Off Your Credit Card Average savings: $65
How to do it.
Paying off your balance is easier said than done. The trick is to stop charging. Then pay more than the minimum required each month until it's paid off. Dig up cash for this from your U.S. Treasury stimulus check, garage sales, or extra work part-time.

No. 7: Increase Your 401(k) Contribution Average tax savings: $125
How to do it.
If you're not already contributing the maximum, put more into your 401(k), IRA, or other tax-deferred retirement account. You'll also cut the amount of income tax you'll pay each month. (Note that this does not apply to Roth accounts.)

What's your tip to either simplify, declutter, get organized and then save $$?

the simple home - how to cut your spending by $500 a month

http://lylahledner.blogspot.com/2008/12/simple-home-how-to-cut-your-spending-by_03.html

ten ways to make money

Since this hit the financial headlines, Lehman Said to Prepare Bankruptcy as Buyers Withdraw, I'm (my hubs too) ways to be a bit more financially savvy. I just ran across Warren's Ten Tips which I'll post here. The original is here.

No. 1: Reinvest Your Profits
When you first make money, you may be tempted to spend it. Don't. Instead, reinvest the profits. Buffett learned this early on. In high school, he and a pal bought a pinball machine to put in a barbershop. With the money they earned, they bought more machines until they had eight in different shops. When the friends sold the venture, Buffett used the proceeds to buy stocks and to start another small business.

No. 2: Be Willing to Be Different
Don't base your decisions upon what everyone is saying or doing. When Buffett began managing money in 1956 with $100,000 cobbled together from a handful of investors, he was dubbed an oddball. He worked in Omaha, not on Wall Street, and he refused to tell his partners where he was putting their money. People predicted that he'd fail, but when he closed his partnership 14 years later, it was worth more than $100 million.

No. 3: Never Suck Your Thumb
Gather in advance any information you need to make a decision, and ask a friend or relative to make sure that you stick to a deadline. Buffett prides himself on swiftly making up his mind and acting on it. He calls any unnecessary sitting and thinking "thumb-sucking."

No. 4: Spell Out the Deal Before You Start
Your bargaining leverage is always greatest before you begin a job -- that's when you have something to offer that the other party wants. Buffett learned this lesson the hard way as a kid, when his grandfather Ernest hired him and a friend to dig out the family grocery store after a blizzard. The boys spent five hours shoveling until they could barely straighten their frozen hands. Afterward, his grandfather gave the pair less than 90 cents to split.

No. 5: Watch Small Expenses
Buffett invests in businesses run by managers who obsess over the tiniest costs. He once acquired a company whose owner counted the sheets in rolls of 500-sheet toilet paper to see if he was being cheated (he was). He also admired a friend who painted only the side of his office building that faced the road.

No. 6: Limit What You Borrow
Buffett has never borrowed a significant amount -- not to invest, not for a mortgage. He has gotten many heartrending letters from people who thought their borrowing was manageable but became overwhelmed by debt. His advice: Negotiate with creditors to pay what you can. Then, when you're debt-free, work on saving some money that you can use to invest.

No. 7: Be Persistent
With tenacity and ingenuity, you can win against a more established competitor. Buffett acquired the Nebraska Furniture Mart in 1983 because he liked the way its founder, Rose Blumkin, did business. A Russian immigrant, she built the mart from a pawnshop into the largest furniture store in North America. Her strategy was to undersell the big shots, and she was a merciless negotiator.

No. 8: Know When to Quit
Once, when Buffett was a teen, he went to the racetrack. He bet on a race and lost. To recoup his funds, he bet on another race. He lost again, leaving him with close to nothing. He felt sick -- he had squandered nearly a week's earnings. Buffett never repeated that mistake.

No. 9: Assess the Risks
In 1995, the employer of Buffett's son, Howie, was accused by the FBI of price-fixing. Buffett advised Howie to imagine the worst- and best-case scenarios if he stayed with the company. His son quickly realized that the risks of staying far outweighed any potential gains, and he quit the next day.

No. 10: Know What Success Really Means
Despite his wealth, Buffett does not measure success by dollars. In 2006, he pledged to give away almost his entire fortune to charities, primarily the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. He's adamant about not funding monuments to himself—no Warren Buffett buildings or halls. "When you get to my age, you'll measure your success in life by how many of the people you want to have love you actually do love you. That's the ultimate test of how you've lived your life."

What are you planning to do in this season of financial uncertainty?

ten ways to make money

http://lylahledner.blogspot.com/2008/09/ten-ways-to-make-money.html

top 5 costly appliances

Love it when stuff like this pops my way. I'm always looking for money saving ways to reduce our families outgo.

By Kelli B. Grant,Senior Consumer Reporter, SmartMoney.com

SURE, RELIGIOUSLY, shutting down your computer at night and using efficient compact fluorescent light bulbs can help lower your energy bills. But such small moves put little more than a dent in your total monthly tab. Thanks to higher fuel and energy costs, the average household will shell out $2,350 on electricity and gas this year, up from $2,100 in 2007, predicts the Alliance to Save Energy.

To really make those bills more manageable, go after the biggest energy guzzlers in your home: the major appliances. Here are the five worst offenders and how to pare down their costs: .

1. HVAC System
Your home's heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) system is easily the worst offender, says Maria Vargas, a spokeswoman for the government's Energy Star program. It's no surprise: Most households employ some sort of climate control 24 hours a day, seven days a week throughout both the hottest and coldest parts of the year.

In fact, heating and cooling represent 50% of the average household's annual energy bill, a total of $1,175. How to cut your bill: Program the thermostat so that the HVAC system doesn't have to work as hard while you're at work or asleep, advises Vargas.

By Energy Star estimates, you'll save $180 annually by reducing the temperature by just two degrees in the winter, and adjusting the air-conditioner two degrees higher in the summer. (Other ways to improve efficiency include sealing air leaks and maintenance.

2. Water Heater
Your water heater works around the clock to provide enough hot water for showers, laundry and dishes, among other things. As a result, it represents 13% -- the second-biggest chunk -- of your annual energy bill, according to the Department of Energy. That's $305.50 for the average household.

How to cut your bill: Dial down the heater's temperature to 120 degrees from the standard 140 degrees, advises Jennifer Thorne Amann, senior associate at American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy. "That's a perfectly adequate temperature for all the hot-water needs in your household," she says.

Lowering the temperature 20 degrees reduces your annual bill by 6% to 10%, or $18 to $30. Another trick: Wash clothes in cold water only, suggests Amann. That alone can cut your bill by another $73 a year, while keeping your clothes just as clean.

3. Refrigerator
Is your refrigerator running? You bet -- and it periodically cycles up to draw maximum watts and keep the temperature consistent. Worse, it does so each time someone opens the refrigerator door for an extended period of time (say, to figure which foods to eat for a snack).

The fridge accounts for 5% of your annual energy bill, or $117.50 for the average household, according to the Department of Energy. Expect to pay twice that if you're one of many consumers who use an ancient, inefficient model for spare food storage in the garage or basement, warns Ronnie Kweller, a spokeswoman for the Alliance to Save Energy.

How to cut your bill: Keep it clean, advises Kweller. A refrigerator cycles on less frequently if the coils beneath and behind the unit remain clean and dust free. Keeping the fridge at a moderate temperature (36 to 38 degrees, not lower) helps, as does regularly defrosting the freezer to eliminate ice buildup on the interior coils. Got a second fridge that's been around for more than a decade? Recycle it, says Kweller. One bigger fridge is more efficient than two smaller ones. Plus, you'll knock out the $150 or more that dinosaur eats in annual energy bills.

4. Clothes Dryer
Here's a hint on just how inefficient your clothes dryer really is: "A dryer can't earn the Energy Star label right now," says Vargas. There just isn't enough information about what makes one more or less efficient than another. One thing's for certain, though -- they're all energy hogs.

Clothes washers and dryers collectively account for 6% of your annual energy bill, with the bulk of that amount coming from the dryer, according to the Department of Energy. That's $141 for the average household.

How to cut your bill: Splurge for the most energy-efficient clothes washer you can afford, advises Amann. A more efficient washer wrings more water from your clothes, cutting drying time in half. (Several states are hosting sales-tax holidays on such energy-efficient appliances, which amounts to a savings of at least 4%.) If you can't afford a new major appliance, be sure to use your dryer's moisture sensor settings. "It'll turn off as soon as the clothes are dry," says Amann. Cut your drying time in half, and you'll cut your bill in half, too.

6. Dishwasher
Loading up the dishwasher may be more efficient than hand-scrubbing stuck-on remains of last night's mac-n-cheese, but it comes with a convenience fee. Dishwasher use represents 2% of your annual energy bill, or roughly $47, according to the Department of Energy.

Cut Your Bill: Let dishes air dry instead of using the drying feature -- which doubles the appliance's power draw, recommends Kweller. That simple move could reduce your bill by $20.

top 5 costly appliances

http://lylahledner.blogspot.com/2008/08/top-5-costly-appliances.html

did you know that THIS could effect your credit score?

We hate owing anyone anything - except love. Unfortunately, due to some unexpected medical/dental expense that was NOT covered by our insurance plan, we acquired debt on credit cards.

Money and how we steward it matters. And, for the past year, Michael and I have been working (except for a minor detour) the Dave Ramsey Zero-Debt Plan.

We've been finding little creative ways to cut back so we can sink the credit card debt. Taking advantage of Consumer World's Price Checker is one way to save money and using coupons can be another. And here's another with some great tips. Stephanie, at Keeper of the Home, has a great post on her creative ways.

Something else we've done is us all zero % credit cards. The idea is to make our assets work for us. Doing that can be a good thing. But, I just read this article that describes the "dirty little tricks" the credit card companies do.

Cutting up the cards and closing out the paid accounts has also been part of our plan until I read this today. It's an excellent article by Money and Finance that lists out the "little-known" things that can hurt your credit score."

The article begins with, "You already know that the higher your credit score the better. And you probably know the basics for keeping your score high -- pay your bills on time, don’t carry too much credit card debt, etc. But you might be surprised at some little-known factors that can do some serious damage to your score."

Hmmm . . . .

Here's the facts!

Little-Known Factor No. 1
Parking Tickets And Library Fines

Yup, that $3.45 late fee from the library can single-handedly knock down your credit score. More and more local governments are reporting unpaid parking tickets, library fines and such to collections agencies and that can really hurt your score as you'll see on the next screen.

Little-Known Factor No. 2
Collections, Liens And Judgements

These have a big negative impact on your score, no matter how small the amount. And they hurt for a long time. Even if you pay off a collection, it stays on your report for seven long years -- tax liens for 15. Don't let that happen. Your payment history counts for a whopping 35% of your score, so take care of any outstanding fines, and work with creditors to avoid your debt being turned over to collections in the first place.

Little-Known Factor No. 3
Being Responsible

It's crazy, we know, but in credit score land, you are punished for being responsible with your money. It can actually hurt your score if you pay off your balance in full each month or simply don't charge things on credit. Depending on the way your score is calculated (different agencies use different formulas) these can be negative factors since 10% of your score is based on the type of credit you have and 35% is based on your payment history. That doesn’t mean you should stop paying off your balance or start charging everything!

Little-Known Factor No. 4
Shopping for a Loan

If you are shopping for the best rate on a mortgage or car loan, be sure to do all your comparison shopping in a short period of time. Every time someone looks at your credit rating at your request, it counts as an "inquiry" and stays on your report for two years. Too many inquiries lowers your score because it looks like you are about to open lots of new lines of credit. But if you complete your comparison shopping in a 14 day period, it will count as just one inquiry.


Little-Known Factor No. 5
Unpaid or Late Utility Bills

It used to be that utility companies only reported seriously delinquent accounts to the credit bureaus, but many are now reporting late or missed payments just like lenders do. Plus, utilities -- including your electric, gas or phone company -- are much quicker to turn late accounts over to collections agencies. If you are behind or can't pay, contact your utility and work out a plan before that happens.

Little-Known Factor No. 6
Consolidating Your Debt Onto a Low Rate Card

If you are carrying balances on several cards, you might be tempted to transfer them to a low interest rate card. You save money, you lower your interest rate ... and you sucker punch your credit score! The percentage of available credit used is a key factor in your score (how much you owe accounts for 30% of your score). By consolidating, you slash the amount of available credit and jack up the percentage of your credit used in one move. Keep your balances to no more than 25-30% of your credit limit.


Little-Known Factor No. 7
Closing Old Credit Card Accounts You Don't Use

You might think that closing lines of credit you aren't using sounds smart, but not so fast! The length of your credit history counts for 15% of your score, so closing older accounts is actually a negative. Plus remember how the percentage of credit used counts against you? Well, closing old accounts with no balances can increase the percentage of available balance you are using -- another no-no.

Little-Known Factor No. 8
Bankruptcy & Foreclosure

It won't come as any surprise that these are the "big kahunas" when it comes to killing your credit score. But what may surprise you is how long they will continue to hurt your score. Bankruptcy stays on your record for 10 years and can easily drop your score 200 points. That means if you are lucky enough to even be able to get a loan, you will pay sky-high interest rates for the privilege.

One That Doesn't Hurt
If you are in over your head and want to see a credit counselor for help, it won't negatively impact your credit score one bit.

did you know that THIS could effect your credit score?

http://lylahledner.blogspot.com/2008/05/did-you-know-that-this-could-effect.html

Ready to Go Out For Dinner? Check Restaurant Dot Com First

When Michael and I do go out to dinner (and these days with the Dave Ramsey $$ Freedom Plan) it's a treat. But coupons and discounts make it feel ever better. We sure like to get the deal.

So, here's a deal ~ beginning today, Restaurant.com gift certificates are 50% off! You can purchase $25.00 gift certificates that would normally sell for $10.00 for only $5.00! This offer is valid from February 15th through February 18th. 50% off at Restaurant.com. $25.00 Gift Certificates for $5.00 with code VOTE. Go '>here to get the deal.

Restaurant.com gift certificates make a great last minute gift that offers you freedom from shipping. You can buy, print and, send Restaurant.com gift certificates in minutes! Go '>here to get the deal.

Ready to Go Out For Dinner? Check Restaurant Dot Com First

http://lylahledner.blogspot.com/2008/02/ready-to-go-out-for-dinner-check.html

Dave's Thoughts on the Stimulus Tax Rebate

Months ago, Michael and I took a reality check with our Simple Home finances and
subscribe to Dave Ramsey's Financial Freedom Course.

It has, needless to say, been life changing. It changes your head - then your heart - then your hands (you figure that one out!)

Have you heard about this rebate that is supposed to be coming? I have and just today Dave has passed on his thoughts. Here you go - chew on this:

Don't wait until the check comes in the mail to formulate a plan. Putting together a good, personal plan now will help you make the money work FOR you.

Most of you are jumping with joy that you're probably going to be getting a big, fat check from the government. You may be thinking, "FREE MONEY, BABY!!!"

Well, I'm not here to totally rain on your parade, but plain and simple, I'm not lovin' this plan. This government plan to try to stimulate the economy and pull us away from a possible recession is actually straight-up socialism - just the opposite of capitalism! I don't want my money to help you (if you haven't paid federal income taxes) buy an iPhone or whatever else you have your eye set on.

"Letting Americans keep more of their own money should increase consumer spending, and lift our economy at a time when people otherwise might spend less," President Bush said. The idea in theory sounds like it will work smoothly, but I have a much better idea that will eventually increase consumer spending, and in turn, cause the economy to flourish: encourage freedom from debt!

The last time a stimulus rebate like this was issued was in 2001. A recent study revealed consumers spent two-thirds of those rebates within 6 months of receiving them. Do you have a game plan already for what you'll do with your rebate this time around?

Make the Money Work For You
Don't wait until it comes in the mail to formulate a plan, and whatever you do, do NOT spend this money before it gets to your hands! Those are just formal invitations for Murphy to unpack his suitcases in your spare bedroom! Here are a handful of ways I recommend making your tax rebate work for you, depending on where you are in the Baby Steps:
Pay off debt. This may sound like a no-brainer, but I already expect that few people will actually do it! There's really no reason NOT to throw this "free" money toward your debt snowball. It will get you one step (or maybe quite a few) closer to being debt free, and THEN you will have the freedom to buy that toy or take that vacation you've had your heart set on for quite a while! Learn how

Invest it. If you put this big chunk of change into a mutual fund for a few years, you'll actually receive TONS more money than just the initial $600 or $1,200 check this summer.
Say you get back $600 and put it automatically into a mutual fund averaging 12%. In 2018, that one-time investment will grow to approximately $2,000! If left in for 20 years, it will be worth about $6,500! For the married folks, this free money can grow up to $13,000 over 20 years - WOW! Calculate your earnings

Have some fun. I'm not a total meanie. I actually do like to have some fun with my money, and I encourage you to do the same! There's nothing wrong with taking your spouse out for a nice dinner or buying that new pair of jeans with some of this money you could be getting. Just stick within your boundaries, and remember that the quicker you get out of debt, the more fun things you can do and the more money you can give away to bless others.

Source: CNNMoney.com

Related:
The secret to saving money
Take the Free Financial Reality Check
Listen to Dave's comment from the radio show - and scroll way down
The truth about debt

Dave's Thoughts on the Stimulus Tax Rebate

http://lylahledner.blogspot.com/2008/02/daves-thoughts-on-stimulus-tax-rebate.html