1badcrabs tips for debt free living

[1badcrab]

1.) saving money is like dieting, the results simply are not instant. one of the biggest drains on household income is unexpected expenses. so you must build up an emergency fund, before you try to pay off debt. I keep 5 grand in what i call emergency reserve. depending on your individual needs, it could be a lot less. I think the bare mininum is 1,000.00. this money is not used to pay off debt that you currently have or to go on vacation or any other type of luxury purpose, its purpose is to stop incurring any further unforeseen debt. for instance, if you have put all your spare money towards paying off debt and your car breaks down. you have to charge the repairs to some high interest credit card to get it fixed. and when your trying to get out of debt. taking on more doesnt make sense. 2.) dont pay for things you dont have to. once again it sounds simple. but many times i have seen people pay their house and car payments late in order to pay smaller bills on time. the problem is that those 2 charge really high late fees. I got hit for 35.00 bucks once for a late truck payment. throw in a late house payment and you just gave away 70.00 bucks. times that by 12 months and you just threw away 840.00 bucks. one girl i knew tried to argue that since she didnt have enought to make her house payment, that she wanted to make all these smaller payments on time, since she had the money. those late fees on those smaller bills didnt amount to 15.00 bucks. total. and late payment history on home and auto will ruin your credit, which in turn causes you to pay higher interest rates, which in turn costs you a crap load more money over the course of any loan.3.) make more money. sounds hard, but once again theres always money to be made. you have probably heard it many times, so i will say it again. SELL SELL SELL. if your not using it, get rid of it. i know people that hold on to stuff because they say if they are ever in a jam, they can sell it for some quick cash. which never works out. you will never get top dollar if you have to sell quickly. this is a quick way to get an emergency fund built. dont wait till you need it. 4.) get a job. any job is better than no job. remember, nobody says you have to make a career out of it, or that you have to like it. when i was young i often worked a second job. they were lousy jobs, i could usely put up with them for about a month before i quit. but that was extra money those months. then i would take a few months off and then find another. Even though im retired, i still work part time. its a crappy job, but it pays well. and since i dont have to work alot. i have lasted for several years. 4 A.) the best second job i have found was working nights and weekends as a unarmed security guard. they are always hiring as they pay crap. but since i was just going in and going to sleep most of the time. i didnt care. it always amazed me at how many times they would catch me and not fire me. ( no company ever fired me )I did this on and off for about 5 yrs. this of course isnt for people who are married and have kids. but this was a great job when i was in college. either i studied all night before exams and got paid for it. or my girlfriend would come spend the night with me. or random friends would come hang out. 5.) cost versus necessity. eating out for lunch was costing me about 5-7 bucks a day to eat out. thats $1300.00 to $1800.00 a year. doesnt sound like much when you say 5 bucks a day does it. but what can you do with between 1 and 2 thousand dollars. how about buying a bottle of whatever to drink each day at work. a bottle of diet coke was costing me 1.57 including tax each day. thats over $400 dollars each year ( how many do you drink a day ). i now buy the liter bottles of generic diet coke. cost .99 cents, i pour this into smaller bottles and it lasts me a week. total cost $52 bucks a year. about $350.00 bucks a year in savings. 6.) theres lots of great suggestions for cutting costs out there. but you have to commit to it. using a coupon once wont save you money. but everytime you go to the grocery store, it will add up. i told you that their wouldnt be alot of organization to this. and theres nothing that i have said thats any type of secret. its just common sense spending habits.

[1badcrab]

here is one i dont suggest for women. when i was young and poor, i drove alot of p.o.s. cars. they usually cost less than a grand. when they broke down. i just left them along side the road and went and bought another. usually they lasted more than a year. and i could purchase one cheaper than fixing the one that was broke. heck i didnt even bother changing the oil on them. though that occasional walk home kinda sucked.also #5, i used lunch as an example. but if you apply that mentality to every dollar you spend. you can really start cutting costs. as someone had posted about cutting out texting and such on their cell phone. if you can lower a your cell phone by 20 bucks. it doesnt sound like much, until you multiply it by 12 months in a year. 240.00 bucks is real savings.