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Rent / Mortgage, Vehicle and Food are usually the biggest expenses that we have to deal with every month. And while you can live without a car, food you definitely can’t live without. And since starving is also not an option, let’s see how you can reduce your grocery bill by becoming a smart shopper.

Coupons are a great way to save money. Your Sunday newspapers had a ton of them. Most stores also have free programs that you can join and either receive cash-back or point, which are then translated into valuable discount coupons. Of course, don’t just buy stuff because you have a coupon. You can also look-up coupons online, before you go shopping. Have your list ready, and before visiting the store Google the products that and check for coupons online.

Bulk shopping. Bulk food is always cheaper and it also save you gas and time, since you don’t need to drive to the store often to buy it. Try to concentrate on non-perishable items. A good idea is to repack bulk foods into smaller packages when you get home. If you are buying perishables, freeze them.

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‘Overtime r us’ is about to become every American family’s slogan soon. Everybody does overtime – my neighbor, my colleagues, my friends. The 40-hour workweek is something that seems long gone, lost in the past. The trend is that overtime is on the rise – employees worked 10% more hours in 2005 than in 2004 and 12% more hours in 2006, compared to the previous year. And how not to – bills are piling up, employer requirements are higher and higher, inflation increased, eating out worker’s paychecks.

Long working hours have a list of negative effects, associated with them. The high levels of stress lead to the so-called burnout where individuals are simply not able to perform on adequate level, they turn into workaholics. Just like an overworked old car, their “engine” – the brain needs it’s “oil changed”.  And sleeping 4-5 hours doesn’t work. These employees often lose interest in their social lives, drop exercising, eat junk food, smoke excessively and consume tons of caffeine in forms of coffee and chocolate. More hours however are not always equal to more money: overtime-exempt employees are often working for the benefit of keeping their job or to satisfy the demand when it pikes up. People are often required to work OT to cover for their absent colleagues.

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Definitely take a look at what Philip Brewer @ WiseBread has to say about 401(k)!

Here’s an excerpt:

‘The twin advantages of tax deferral and a corporate match make the 401(k) the foundation of most people’s savings plan. Putting in enough to get the maximum corporate match is almost always the right choice–a good corporate match is so much money, funding your 401(k) usually even comes ahead of paying off debt. Sometimes, though, it makes sense to put money other places.’

Read When NOT to put money in your 401(k) on WiseBread

Each one of us spends an average of 14 hrs per week on the Internet according to a recent research, done by the University of Texas at Austin. And besides the “Buy Viagra” spam, we also are often bombarded by many ‘Get Rich Quickly by Working from Home’ emails.

You will typically recognize them right away – the subject of the message is usually something like ‘Make millions in your pajamas’, ‘Make money online’ or even ‘Start your home business on eBay’. If you visit the scammer’s website, you will usually encounter a narrow page with a photo of the alleged ‘home working millionaire’ on top, lately they even started including video and voice as well. That is followed by a bunch of text and ‘customer testimonials’ and of course finally, the ‘limited-time’ offer. You may see a line, which will say that the ‘special offer’ ends on … today’s date! Sometimes there is even a countdown for 10-15 minutes.

Why is this scam? First of all, here’s how the trick with the ‘limited time offer’ works. The date is called and displayed automatically, by a simple script. It always will display today’s date. Visit the website tomorrow and you will see that the offer magically extended itself with another day. The countdown? That’s another script. Refresh the page and voila, your countdown started again. This is all done in effort to trick the visitor, that he / she has found something special, moreover, it’s on sale! Let’s buy it now! Try to Google the names of the ‘satisfied customers’ from the customer testimonials section. I bet you that you will find nothing.

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USAinDebt is hosting the next edition of Carnival of Credit Report Stories - November 5th!

Submit your blog article to the next edition of credit report stories using our carnival submission form.

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We use more and more energy as days go by. One hundred years ago there were no computers, videogames or DVDs and VCRs to plug-in, no cell phones, PDAs or laptops to charge. The new electronic devices & appliances era has brought up the consumer’s energy consumption to unseen levels. And the higher the demand, the higher the cost of that energy. And it is not just about your bills, it is what it costs to our environment what matters as well.

You have most likely seen the Energy Star symbol already, and although many people are familiar with it, they actually don’t know what it means. As per Energy Star’s website, “ENERGY STAR is a joint program of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Department of Energy helping us all save money and protect the environment through energy efficient products and practices.” This program awards different products with the Energy Star badge, which indicates that those appliances, office equipment or electronics help you save money and the environment by consuming less energy than ordinary products. The Energy Star website also has a whole section with great tips on how to save energy by learning to do simple things such as turning off the lights while we are not in the room, changing the air filters regularly, replacing high-wattage bulbs with Energy Star ones and many more. An excerpt from Energy Star’s website shows how important those energy-saving practices are: “If every American home replaced their 5 most frequently used light fixtures or the bulbs in them with ones that have earned the ENERGY STAR, we would save close to $8 billion each year in energy costs, and together we would prevent the greenhouse gases equivalent to the emissions from nearly 10 million cars.” That’s a lot of money, isn’t it?

So, if you are looking into saving some cash on your bills, why not take a couple of minutes to review Energy Star’s website? Remember, you are not only saving green on your monthly bills. You are saving the environment for yourself and for your children.

Tags: energy star | save money on bills | energy | environment

You have probably heard the 501(c)3 expression already, and you were wondering what it is. Well, simply put, the 501(c) is a condition of the United States Internal Revenue Code, which allows incorporation of charitable, or otherwise called non-profit associations such as Labor Unions, Credit Unions, Mutual Insurance companies and Veterans’ organizations. Those companies are exempt from Federal income taxes and their main purpose is not acquiring profit, but helping the public. 501(c) organizations are prohibited from participating in various political activities.

Tags: 501(c) | credit union | mutual insurance | debt | labor union | charity | non-profit

You basically have two options when filing: you can either file for Chapter 7 or Chapter 13, depending on your situation. The main difference between the two is that Chapter 7 involves liquidation of property as opposed to Chapter 13, which works more like a repayment plan.

Chapter 7 Bankruptcy, also know as a “straight bankruptcy” or “liquidation bankruptcy” Chapter 7 is the most common in US. About one million Chapter 7 bankruptcies were filed for the year of 2006. A filing under this chapter could be done either by an individual, a partnership, or a corporation or other business entity. Individuals with higher income will most likely not qualify for this type of filing. Chapter 7 does not offer a repayment plan, instead the debtor surrenders all non-exempt property to a bankruptcy trustee, who sells it and puts the proceeds towards repaying the debt. It is possible to discharge certain debts when filing under Chapter 7. You won’t be able to discharge taxes, spousal and child support, student loans. This one stays on your credit report for up to ten years, even if your case is not approved. Filing fees are different for different states, but you should expect to pay a sum above $1000. Cost could be higher for businesses. Debtors must attend obligatory credit counseling within 180 days prior to filing bankruptcy petition.

Chapter 13 Bankruptcy, or a “wage earner’s plan” offers a 3-5 years debt repayment plan to the debtor, and it also allows a defaulter to keep their property. About half a million Chapter 13 filings were done in 2006. This bankruptcy is meant for individuals with a steady income, who can afford to make monthly payments towards their debt. A 3-year plan is proposed if the debtor’s income is below the state median, and a 5-year plan is proposed if the earnings are above the state median. A Chapter 13 filing stays on your credit report for up to 7 years. Debtors must attend obligatory credit counseling within 6 months prior to filing bankruptcy petition. Chapter 13 doesn’t let you discharge family support, restitution, student loans, old taxes and DWI judgments. Filings under Chapter 13 are usually more complicated than Chapter 7 therefore this plan is associated with higher filing costs. You must not miss a single payment, skipping a disbursement will dismiss your case.

Filing for bankruptcy is a tough step to take, but unfortunately sometimes individuals have no other choice but to go that way. Even though, before filing you should re-check all your options again. Remember, bankruptcy will stay on your credit report for up to 10 years, and this move should be your last resort.

Tags: bankruptcy | chapter 7 | chapter 13 | debt | credit

Collection agencies can be a real pain in the neck. Their representatives are annoying, rude and they won’t leave you alone until you pay them. Besides that, a collection agency is capable of ruining your credit profile for up to 7 years and that can really hurt you in many ways. So if you have one of the abovementioned annoying persons calling you, read on.

Before anything else, let’s clear up what is a collection account and what is a collection agency. Simply said, a collection account is opened on a bill that you haven’t paid for a while. Like your cell phone bill, or your credit card payment – if your cell phone carrier or bank for some reason haven’t received any payments from you over an extended period of time,  they will do a couple of things. First, they will try to call you. Second, they will mail you. And third, if they still haven’t heard from you, they will sell your bill to a collection agency. What happens is that the collection agency pays the money you owe for you, and takes over your bill. So now you owe that money to a collection agency. They will open a collection account under your name, get your credit reports and post a collection record on usually all three of them. Then they will get your contact information and start harassing you by phone and mail.

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We all have heard how important the credit score is how good credit history is going to save you money and how a higher credit score will make our life easier. However there are still people out there how don’t really understand how important is to take care of their financial profile and keep it in good shape. Maybe this article will give them the boost they need to start paying more attention to their credit history & score and start paying less to the creditors.

So what is the real cost of bad credit? Besides financially, bad credit will hit you with a lot of stress as well. You can barely get a normal credit line, your low score will prevent you from financing your car, your house or your education.  And if you have a family on your back, that could really hurt your household. A 2006 survey by DivorceMagazine.com showed that 18% of the divorces in young families are caused by financial problems. You can even be denied a job on the basis of your credit report. Bad credit will really force you to flush money down the toilet. For nothing. Higher fees, high interest rates and low credit lines will keep you in the same circle and you will need a ton of green to get out of it.

Poor credit profile will cost you more on everything: you mortgage, your car, you credit cards, your school loans. Consider this: Based on your score, a $150,000 mortgage can cost you anywhere from $926 to $1411, a $485 difference per month. In a matter of fact, most of the auto insurance companies also check your scores and keep them in mind when calculating your premium. That’s right . Bad credit equals higher insurance premium. When you are looking into renting a new apartment, the landlord or the broker also checks your report. You may be denied to rent if it doesn’t satisfy their requirements.

My thoughts: make fixing your credit profile a priority. There are numerous ways you can help yourself and all that it will cost you is nothing more but a little bit of your spare time. Check the “Debt” section of this website, read the articles that are posted there. You will get many ideas and tips on how to start managing our debt and your financial profile, which will ultimately result in money and nerve savings.

Tags: score | fico | credit | loan | debt | bad credit