MyMoneyMinute.com

In most cases, consumers want to pay all of their bills on time each and every month. But not all situations present the opportunity to do that. There are various circumstances that prevent us from fulfilling all of our financial obligations including sudden layoffs, emergency expenses, and just facing the facts that you’ve spent more than you’ve earned.

Whatever your scenario, the reality of not being able to pay bills is affecting more consumers than ever. Making a paycheck stretch far enough to cover debts, current bills, and having enough for the basics like food and clothing leaves consumers feeling frustrated, guilty, and oftentimes hopeless.

Keeping on the Right Path

When consumers feel down and out about the status of their finances, many will give up without a fight. They figure if they can’t pay all the bills than why bother paying anyone. This is the start of a vicious cycle where credit scores drop significantly and as a result consumers find they not only have no resources for financial assistance such as a personal consolidation loan, they also have to pay even more money for their insurance premiums, utilities, and other services.

The reality is even if you are just scraping by successfully, there may come a time in the near-future where your small cushion is taken away and you are not going to be able to even make the ends meet.

Here are some strategies to help you prioritize the income you are earning when things are getting just too tight:

Food Essentials

Even with a tight budget, you need to be able to eat. Even if the bill collectors are calling during dinnertime, there needs to be food on the table. It is important to tuck away cash used for your grocery purchases and make a concerted effort to save where you can. Consider shopping at discount stores and cut out eating at restaurants altogether. Look for online and newspaper coupons to help you stretch your dollar.

Household Basics

It is not healthy to live without basic household items like laundry soap, toothpaste, toilet paper, and other hygiene products but you can live without high-cost, brand named merchandise. Stick to the basics and look for coupons before going to the store. Check out the local dollar stores that often sell the same items as other retailers but at a significant savings.

Mortgage Bill/Rent Payment

Outside of food, you need shelter to live. It is essential that you keep up with your mortgage bills or rent payments each month in order to prevent complications of foreclosures or evictions. If you have no choice but to be late, speak with your lender or landlord to explain your financial hardship so they at least know you have the intentions of paying the bill, even if you are paying it late. It is important to then save as much as you can to ensure you can afford the payment for the next month. Not all lenders or landlords will take kindly continuous late payments.

Basic Utilities

Be sure to pay for the basic utilities you rely on for daily living including electricity, water, and heat. You certainly can function without cable television, telephones, and Internet if you have to neglect some bills. However, not only is living without the basic utilities hazardous to your family’s health, it may also be a cause for eviction in rental locations. If you are going to be late or unable to pay for basic services in full, contact the company directly to alert them of your current situation. They may be willing to work out more affordable payment options for the time being.

Legal Obligations

If you are required to pay legal obligations such as back tax bills or child support, you can get into serious trouble for defaulting on even one payment. It is essential that you work to keep up with these obligations in as timely a manner as possible. If not, you’ll face large penalties and even the possibility of jail time if you fail to stay on track.

Vehicle Notes

Most people need their vehicle to get to and from work to earn their income. This makes it important for you to pay your vehicle note each month and not fall too far behind or your vehicle may be repossessed. If you have access to public transportation, you may wish to put other priorities ahead of the car note until you can afford to pay up.

Insurance

It can be hard to justify the payments of insurance premium during times when you don’t actually need to utilize your insurance coverage. But losing insurance can make it difficult to get insurance when you have the cash. Lapses in vehicle insurance can mean other insurance companies will not work with you. Health insurance lapses can have a lot of consequences if canceled and then a medical emergency occurs, leaving you even further in debt.

Collateral-Held Personal Loans

If you have a loan that is secured with collateral like your home, your vehicle, or some other important piece of personal property, it would be in your best interest to make the note as timely as possible. Too many late or missed payments may result in your collateral being repossessed. Losing your home or transportation at this point in life could be disastrous.

As mentioned, if you are having financial struggles it is best to be honest and upfront with your creditors. Those who are able and willing may work with you on other payment arrangements until you are more financially stable, allowing you to keep the services you need. However, just because creditors and service providers are willing to help you through a rough patch, does not mean they will always be forgiving.

The biggest lesson one can learn after going through this type of predicament is that budgeting and money management should be made a priority to keep history from repeating itself in the future. After surviving a rough financial patch, it is best to continue improving your money management skills and focus on improving savings goals so money is always accessible when life dishes out the unexpected.

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This post was written by Eliza Collins, a guest writer specializing in personal finance topics like savings, debt relief as well as credit score improvement. You can read more of her articles at the debt settlement blog.

Budget, Guest Post

I hope you’ve enjoyed this series titled, “There’s An App For That”, which has given numerous ways to help find wiggle-room in your monthly budget.  In case you missed some (or all) of the series, you can read them with the links below.

Also, I checked with the Twitterverse to see what tips regular folks like us use to free up some extra money each month. I included those at the end of this post.

All together, there are over 35 real-life, tangible “Apps” to cut your monthly household budget.  Enjoy!
 

There’s An App For That: The Series

1. There’s An App For That: Series Opener
2. The Grocery Game: Review
3. The Grocery Game: Personal Account
4. 2 Ways To Slash Your Dining Budget
5. ‘Universally’ Slash Your Health Care Costs
6. Low-Cost Life Insurance
7. 3 Easy Steps To Slash Your Home & Car Insurance Premiums
8. Credit Card Interest Rates
9. How I Cut $25/Month Off My TV & Internet Bill

Twitter Tips

Here’s what my Twitter friends had to say about how they save money:

@OneMoneyDesign “Play the Grocery Game and get strategic about entertainment so that it’s not impulsive.”

@PFJourney “I cut my cable 7 months ago!”

@MattJabs “Only reason I have cable is because Comcast gives it to me free in 6 months blocks after threatening to cancel ”

@FrugalPhx “No ppr towels or napkins, reusable coffee fltr and recycle (less trash bags) ~$48/mo saved”

@BSimple “What are some ways you have trimmed your monthly household budget?  Here are mine.”  http://bit.ly/bzqlgU

@BradleyCoaching “Using cash ONLY for food saved me tons!  You start seeing how much chips and a drink cost!”

@TheyCallMeCheap “Cancel most subscriptions including cable, learn to cook, coupon, shop Freecycle, end recreational shopping, pay off debt, borrow books (paper & audio) from the library, switch to boxed wine, ALWAYS look for a coupon code.”

@RevancheGS “Trimmed budget by changing auto ins, phone & internet carriers, changing cell phone plans.”

@MomentumPFC “We have cut our budget by cooking real meals, driving one car, eating out less, using the library, canceling the home phone.”

You can follow any of these great people on Twitter by clicking their links above, and you can follow me, @MyMoneyMinute too!

Budget

$46/month for DSL?!?

When I looked at my phone bill I couldn’t believe it. We gave up the cooler, faster Internet a while back because we were on a budget kick, but now AT&T’s basic phone/DSL package was running at nearly the same levels.

E.T. Don’t Phone Home

Just call my cell instead. We technically have a home phone number, but never even physically hooked up a phone since we switched! We are truly a mobile-only family.

App: DSL Without Phone
DSL no longer needs an actual phone line activated to connect you to the Internet. So why not drop the phone? I chatted online with a service rep, who directed me to a tech line to call. After confirming my identity and an attempted up-sell, AT&T removed the basic phone charges, which amounts roughly to $15/month.

Dish Network Customers Save $10/month

In case you missed it, I wrote an article a few months ago on how I saved $10/month on my bill.  Basically, Dish changed their HD package options, rendering one option included in another. So all you have to do is go online and “fix the glitch”.  Check out the link in the previous sentence for instructions.

What About You?

Have you tried these, or other tips to save on your monthly phone, TV, and Internet charges? Let us know below!

Budget AT&T, Budget, home phone, internet

With the economy in the tank, the credit crunch has hit all areas of our lives. Included in this crunch is the credit card industry. Two years ago, the credit card industry was pre-qualifying unemployed people for $15,000 limits. Now, interest rates are hiked without any reason; and if the account is not active enough, it will be shut down, potentially affecting your credit score and financial plan.

App: Press to Have Your Interest Rates Reduced

Another tangible way to reduce your monthly budget expenses is to call your credit card companies and request that your interest rates be slashed. If you are carrying a balance, it comes with a monthly minimum payment. The higher the interest rate, the higher that minimum payment will be.

A Personal Account

A friend of mine, Stephany, recently took this application to heart. She mistakenly missed her payment due date by one day, and the credit card company immediately jacked her interest rate from 13% to 29%! Gone are the days of a free pass by the credit card company!

Persistence

The key to getting a rate reduction is persistence — don’t give up! Stephany called the credit card company three times before getting a hold of someone who was willing to work with her. The first two rejected her, but on the third call she spoke to a woman who said she could help her.

Her stragegy? Stephany explained that she was working to pay off the current balance so she could use the card later in the year for a big event. This gave the company a bit of assurance that she would be back to the trough to pay interest later. I hope Stephany isn’t back feeding at the credit trough later this year, but the prospect of future business was enough for the credit card company to lower her rate.

Success!

The lady at the credit card company lowered her rate from 29% to 9%, which was even lower than the original interest rate! It may not be a lottery windfall, but when you’re trying to scrape every extra dollar together in your monthly budget, every bit counts.

Conclusion

Have you called your credit card company to request interest rates lowered? I’d be curious of your experiences.

Budget

Who Should Get Life Insurance?

Single, Ready to Mingle
If you’re young & single without many financial responsibilities, odds are you need little or no life insurance at all. If you had student loans, car notes, or any other debts where a co-borrower is involved, they would be on the hook for your debts. When you’re young, that co-borrower is usually a parent; so be nice to your parents and take out a policy that will cover your debt expense, and list your parents as a beneficiary. And if you want to sail right through purgatory on your way to sainthood, take out a bit more to cover funeral and burial costs.

Married… With Children
If you’re married, and/or have children, take out a policy roughly 10-12 times your salary. That way the beneficiary (your spouse and kids) can live on the income generated from investing the policy pay-out.

Real-World Application: Term Life Insurance

Where To Get Term Insurance

I bought mine through Zander Insurance, an independent agency that can price shop for the best rates. For $75/month, both me AND my wife have 20-year policies that pay out $1,000,000 upon death. We’d better sleep with one eye open!


Does anyone have term, or other life insurance products? Are you satisfied cost-wise?


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Budget Budget, life insurance, term life insurance, whole life insurance

The weekend is here, so I’ll spare you a long post with detailed instructions to reduce the cost of your home and car insurance premiums.  Here’s the basics needed:

1. Review your current policy

Take a look at your current policy for the basic coverage limits, deductibles, and the policy cost on a monthly or yearly basis.

2. Identify a few other insurance companies

Find two or three companies that you would feel comfortable with purchasing insurance from — if you don’t want bottom of the barrel, pay by the month, no service insurance company, then disregard them in your search.

3. Contact them and get a quote

I could write half a dozen paragraphs on why you should get other quotes, but the bottom line is, take the 10 minutes and contact one or two other companies.  See if they can beat your current rates at the same coverage level.  It may save you hundreds of dollars each year!

Personal Application

Currently, we have auto insurance through Esurance.com.  I think the coverage is great with pretty low premiums, but I will contact a few other comparable companies, like GEICO and Progressive, to see how they compare.  I’ll report back with my results.

Your Turn

I challenge you to take a few minutes and get a quote!  Insurance companies count on your complacency, but it may be costing you big money.  Tell me what insurance company you have and whether your got a better deal with someone else.

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Budget

Don’t Wait for the Government to Fix Your Health Care!

Previously, I gave real-world applications to help trim the food & dining budget. This seems like the obvious place to drastically help your financial well-being each month, since food expenses can literally vary by hundreds of dollars each month if not held in check.

Not so obvious, but just as dramatically punishing to your budget, is the cost of Health Care. In my household, I do project-based, temporary work, while my wife has the “stable” job. Her health care is covered by the employer, but adding me onto the policy has cost us nearly $400/month. Agh!!! Talk about a budget buster!
 

Auto-Deduct = Passive Mentality

To tell you the truth, fixed costs are often harder to be motivated to fix. It comes out of your check automatically, so you never see that money deposited into your account. At least with food, you see all the restaurant tabs add up!

A New Deal: How I Found New Coverage

$400/month for a relatively healthy, 30 y/o non-smoker like me should not cost so much. I was determined to find health insurance at a lower cost. Luckily I didn’t have to go very far. 

I logged onto financial guru Dave Ramsey’s website and requested an Endorsed Local Provider (ELP) for health insurance. Within minutes I got an email from a local agent. I called him back on my way home from work, explaining my situation, and asking questions about my potential options. He was extremely helpful, and e-mailed me quotes before I even got home. How’s that for efficiency? 

Application: High-Deductible, HSA

The answer for me is to purchase a high deductible health policy, and fund a Health Savings Account (HSA) to help pay any medical costs up to my deductible amount. You can fund an HSA pre-tax, and qualified health expenditures may also be tax free. The best part about an HSA – it’s not a “use it or lose it” account, which means you can continually fund it and grow it tax-deferred, essentially turning it into something similar to a retirement account. 

My Quote

Two of my agent’s quote allows me to stay with Blue Cross:

(1) With a $2,500 deductible, policy cost is $88/month. If I exceeded my deductible in a given year, I pay 25% of the cost of the next $2,000 in expenses ($500). So basically, the max out of pocket per year is $3,000.

(2) With a $5,000 yearly deductible, the price drops to $71/month. There is no additional out of pocket expenses; $5,000 is the ceiling on your expenses.

Funding the HSA

The IRS allows you to fund your HSA tax-free up to $3,000/year. To fund at that rate, you’d be saving $250/month. Add that to the cost of the plan, and I’m still better off by $50/month. Also, once you’ve saved your maximum yearly out of pocket expense in your HSA, you can reduce your HSA monthly savings rate, freeing up hundreds per month in your budget!

Conclusion

I will purchase Plan (1), the $88/month policy with the $2,500 yearly deductible. I plan on fully-funding the HSA since we have funds available. This will leave us with $300/month savings in our monthly cash flow. How’s that for a real-world budget buster?!? 

Do you have questions, or currently have an HSA or high-deductible health insurance policy? Tell me about your experiences in the comments below!

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We all know the best way to slash your food budget is to stop dining out, make your own food, take a sack lunch, and eat at home for dinner. That’s why my first “App”-posts in this series center around cutting your grocery bill using The Grocery Game:

Part 1 – Review of The Grocery Game
Part 2 – Personal Interview with Julie, a GG user

Eating every single meal at home is not only HARD, sometimes it’s darn near impossible. Long commutes, work schedules, and social activities often get in the way of your plan. Or maybe you just want a break from home cooking and want to get a meal out.

Restaurant.com

Luckily, you have options to eat out that won’t bust your budget. One tangible way to succeed is to buy coupons from Restaurant.com!
Restaurant.com partners up with local dining establishments to provide gift certificates at reduced rates. These local shops get publicity, and the consumer gets a deep discount. A win-win all around!

A typical certificate worth $25 at a particular restaurant can be purchased for $10 – a 60% savings!  Quite often, Restaurant.com will run sales upwards of 80% off of their normal sales price. So in otherwords, a $25 certificate can cost you as little as $2 – insane!

Current deal at Restaurant.com

Currently on their website, Restaurant.com is offering certificates for 70% off regular sales price ($25 for $3) PLUS a $50 certificate off of a trip from Orbitz.com. Use the promotional code FEAST when checking out, and of course, see their website for details.

There Really IS An App For That!

I came across an iPhone app to help you find restaurant coupons, called Coups.com. Upon initial inspection, it appears not to be directly affiliated with Restaurant.com, but only provides a list of establishments listed on Restaurant.com. Basically a 3rd party app for Restaurant.com.

The Pros
It’s a free download, and can use your current location to help you find restaurants in your immediate area that take coupons. This is really helpful when you’re on the go and don’t have time to figure out what restaurants are nearby when surfing through Restaurant.com.

The Cons
They charge their own $1.00 convenience fee when purchasing a certificate through their website.  But like I said, this is a 3rd party app and they have to make money somehow.  I consider them the Ticketmaster of restaurant coupons.  If you are already out on the town and can’t use the regular Restaurant.com website, Coups.com looks like the next best alternative.

I Need Your Comments!

Have you ever used Restaurant.com or the iPhone app Coups.com? What was your experience? How else do you save money when eating out?


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Budget Budget, coupons, food, restaurant.com

Last week I reviewed The Grocery Game, a real-world application to help trim your household food budget.  To give personal insight, I recently interviewed my neighbor, Julie.  A teacher by trade, Julie has transitioned to stay-at-home motherhood with the addition of her first child.  Moving from duel-income to a sole breadwinner while adding an extra mouth to feed means big sacrifices and careful planning with your household budget.

Julie is the textbook definition of a home economist, and a big winner in The Grocery Game.  Here’s what she had to say about her experience in coupon cutting:

Why did you start using The Grocery Game. Were there rough patches initially?

I have always loved to save money and get a bargain. I had tried in the past to use coupons, and at times got great deals. The problem I ran into was that I was spending a tremendous amount of time finding the deals and then trying to find the coupon I was sure I had clipped. I had heard about the Grocery Game and a couple of years earlier I actually gave it a trial run. I wasn’t successful at it then because I didn’t have a good system for organizing my coupons, and I didn’t understand the idea of stockpiling.

So what changed where The Grocery Game became a success for your family?

Well, two years and a baby later, and down to one income we needed to lower expenses, and I decided to do it again. I did a bit of research and figured out how to set up a coupon binder, and went at it whole heartedly. I have gotten our monthly grocery bill down to $130, and in the last 5 months I have saved over $5,600 while spending under $1,500.

How do you like it so far?

I love it!!! Many people hate the idea of paying for a site to help you have money. Please, please, please believe me: it is worth every penny! The site does all the work for you, all you have to do is clip your coupons, print your list, and head to the store. The time savings is huge. I want to spend all the time I can with my daughter, not looking at sale ads. The GG has allowed me to do this. Plus, how can you not love saving TONS of money!

What were you spending on food each month, and what are your spending goals with GG?

I had a monthly budget of $500 for all food and supplies, including going out to eat, previous to GG.  I have gotten our bill down to $130/mo, and it is only that high because I choose to go to Sprouts once a week and spend between $10-$15 on fresh produce and nuts. It’s kinda like my little treat for saving so much money. My stockpile could last 3-4 months, possibly longer. We only go out to eat 1-2 times a month. Now I put $250 in my food envelope per month, and I have money left over at the end.

Was it a rough transition learning to sort & cut all those coupons?

When I began GG I was buying 4 newspapers a week. This way I could build my stockpile faster. If you have a larger family you may want to buy more, but 4 is a good place to start. Setting up your coupon binder is really important. I watched You Tube videos to get an idea and then set it up in a way that made sense to my brain. I got a heads up from other couponers to pull apart the inserts and stack them, then cut them. This is a HUGE time saver! Do this and you will never go back! It also allows the coupons to be sorted before you clip! Now I spend about 30 min. a week clipping my coupons and putting them into the binder. Not bad.

How much time per week would you say you spend preparing (coupon cutting, list sorting, etc.) and how much time actual shopping?

I spend 30 min. cutting and sorting, and shop for about 2 hours (including travel). I get my list together, and only buy what is on the list. I go to Sprouts on Wednesday’s because it is double ad day and more is on sale. This is where I am at now. However, when I began I probably spent 10 hours a week. I also spent $500 getting my stockpile going, and I would hit every store each week. There is a bit of a buy in, but just set your budget and do what you can. If I had understood CVS and thier ECB (Extra Care Bucks) program, I probably would have spent half of that. Oh well, live and learn.

What stores are in your shopping rotation?

Currently I shop at Target, Kroger, CVS, Walgreens, Albertson’s, Tom Thumb, and Sprouts. I go to Target 2-3 times, Kroger 2 times a month, CVS 2 times, Walgreens 1 time, Albertons twice, Tom Thumb once or bi-monthly, and Sprouts weekly. Of course it does vary, but I would say that is about average.

2.5 hours?  That’s not long at all!  Do you have any other tips on saving time cutting coupons?

Many people wonder how I do it in such little time. I have found sites that post the deals and then I mimic them. This saves tons of time! Here are the best sites for me:

A Full Cup (visit the forums)

Swag Grabber

Hip 2 Save

Christine’s Coupons

Happy Couponing!

Feel free to comment or ask questions below on this interview with Julie.  If you’d like to sign up for The Grocery Game, use her e-mail address as a reference: sharpjulie [at] ymail [dot] com.

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Budget Budget, coupons, food, The Grocery Game

Not but a few years ago, my wife and I would routinely eat out every meal – and I mean EVERY meal. We justified it with long work hours and longer commutes. Who wants to get home at 8 or 9pm and then make dinner, right?

An Eye Opener

We finally pulled our heads out of the sand (and other various places) and realized that 2 sit-down meals/day x 30 days/month = in the ballpark of $1,500 PER MONTH!! We were getting fatter and poorer at the same time.

FOOD – The Ultimate Budget Buster

It sounds funny, but while we graduated from grad school with the Mt. Everest of all debt, it was recognizing our astronomical food costs that finally triggered a need to trim our budget. Why? Probably because the student loans can’t be changed – we just assumed we’d make payments on them for the next 30 years just like our mortgage – it was not going to change. However, food is a cost that was out of control, but can be changed with some effort.

There’s An App For That!
The Grocery Game

We still struggle with eating out too much, but the one application that’s helped us eat more homemade meals is The Grocery Game.

The Grocery Game’s premise is simple. Each week, you buy a Sunday paper and clip coupons from ads such as the SmartSource and Red Plum, and file them away. The Grocery Game has access to pre-release weekly specials from most major grocery and drug stores. They match up weekly specials with the coupons you have on file. So not only is the product on special, you also maximize savings by adding a coupon on top of it, which many times is doubled or tripled, which magnifies the savings!

The weekly list is color coded: black means buy if you need it (only a decent savings); blue means significant deal (stock up while it’s cheap!); and green means with the sale price + coupon, that item is FREE!

What’s The Big Idea?

The idea behind The Grocery Game is that you stock up on items when they are at rock-bottom prices, so you don’t have to buy them later at regular price. For instance, we have deoderant we bought for $0.25, and several months worth of cereal and we never paid over $1.00/box. Other items like meat, toilet paper, and air fresheners were all purchased at well over 50% off. All products are major brand labels.

Cons

The cons of using The Grocery Game all are based on the sacrificing of convenience. When you eat out, you don’t have to plan a meal, or keep an inventory of food at home. It is time consuming to clip coupons and establish a filing pattern. You also spend more early on while you are building your inventory. Most of the cons relate to establishing a system, and with anything, it gets easier the longer you do it.

Pros

Since you’re trying to break your excessive restaurant habit, ANY new system will have kinks to work out. Even The Grocery Game’s own website admits it takes a few months to work through a coupon cycle and build your inventory. The savings are obvious, substantial, and forces us to eat at home more because of the sunk cost of groceries in the fridge. We also love the “thrill of the hunt” to find the best deals, and in a twisted way, provides us an activity to do each week together that saves us money, when otherwise we’d be out on the town spending money.

Cost

The Grocery Game charges every 8 weeks based on how many stores you want lists from. Weekly lists from one store costs $10 every 8 weeks. Additional store lists are $5 per 8 weeks. They carry most major grocery stores and drug stores, so for example, access to 8 weekly lists for Kroger grocery store & CVS drug store would be $15 – that’s less than $2/week!

Personal Account

Later this week I’ll post an interview with Julie, a neighbor of mine who is completely entrenched, and winning, at The Grocery Game.

Have you tried clipping coupons or playing The Grocery Game? Is FOOD the ultimate budget buster? Let me know how food fits into your budget – leave comments below!

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Budget, Uncategorized food, Grocery Game