Tracking My Finances In 2011: December Week 2
I have decided to post my weekly spending for the previous week on Fridays so you know how my cash has been flowing for the week. Please note that I get paid on the last day of the month so my cash flow net effect will usually be negative until the last day of the month.
This does not mean that I am adding to my debt, it just means that the money coming in is less than the money going out because bills are due starting on the first but I don’t get paid until the last day.
‘Frugal’ Tips That I Will NOT Try: Taking Cold Showers Year Round.
This blog is mainly about how I find ways to save money and I have tried a LOT of different things in the past. I read other blogs to look for tips on things I can do to reduce my expenses so that I can work on reducing debt and building wealth.
I have found a few frugal tips out that have been great and there also a few that really freak me out!!!! I decided to start a little series of Frugal Tips That I will NOT try so you can get a better idea of some of the things I think are too extreme.
Monthly Financial Check Up: November 2011
This month I came in at $2870.05 in the red as I expected because I have not been working. This was actually a lower figure than I originally predicted because I got a little more in advertising than I expected. Things are looking a little better for December so I should not be too far in the red at the next posting.
Slight Tweak To The December 2011 Budget
I tweak my zero based budget every now then when there are circumstances that I feel make it necessary to do so. I am making a small tweak in December and will not be making some of the transfers to my ING sub accounts that I normally make.
I paid off my car in full a few months ago but still keep a figure for a car ‘payment’ in the monthly budget. This money gets sent to my ING account so that I can save up for a new car….but I will not be making that ‘payment’ in December this year.
Adventures In Couponing
I went to the store with a very simple purchase of less than 10 items and only ONE coupon. Some people say they give the coupons to the cashier at the end of the transaction so that all the coupons can just be scanned back to back.
I prefer to give my coupon with the item because that way I can identify what coupon goes with what (for a program I am enrolled in that asks to track that kind of thing). It also makes it easy to identify when I have a coupon for a “buy 3 get 1 free” or “only valid on X size or larger” item. That way the cashier does not have to go digging through the bags at the end to find out if the coupon actually matches the item.
Thanksgiving Is Over…Now On To Christmas
Thanksgiving went by quietly for me as I spent time with friends at home instead of getting into the shopping madness. We cooked a LOT of food, ate at different houses, watched television and talked.
We talked A LOT!!!
This year everyone was being a little more aware of the bad financial situations that others faced so the focus was on sharing food and spending time with each other instead of giving the fanciest gifts. I think that was very nice but I also think that some of them will lose their minds when it comes to the Christmas gifts.
The Black Friday Madness Has Started
So a friend of mine asked what I would be doing this Black Friday and I said NOTHING.
I will be staying safely in the confines of my home and will NOT be among the thrashing hordes at the mall and various stores trying to score some kind of deal.
I worked in retail in the past and I must say it was a nightmare. There are people camped outside the stores way before they open and sometimes even employees have a hard time getting through. I just found out there is a lady camped outside a Best Buy four days in advance to get some toy for her child.
How Credit Repair Software Works (Guest Post)
Repairing credit can be an involved process for those who don’t know how the credit reporting bureaus work. You can automate many repair and dispute tasks with credit repair software. Enterprise-level credit repair programs work differently from software meant for regular consumers. The main point is to remove as many manual steps in the process as possible, so that as much of it as possible happens automatically, which saves you money.
Consumer Features
At its very basic level, consumer software will have a customer enter information from their credit report and then generate dispute letters for individual report items that the customer wishes to have taken off of their report by the credit rating bureaus.
