Sometimes, when I have a few spare seconds in my day, I let my mind wander about various things financial.  Recently, I was looking back on how things were for me, in general, when my finances were a mess.

Of course, the biggest motivating factor in getting myself out of debt was me. Had I not had the internal willingness and desire to do it, it never would have happened.  However, running a close second in the motivation department was my mother.  Maybe it was out of filial love, or maybe it was because I owed them (my parents) a boatload of money!

But what I remember the most is that in tandem with giving me some pointers on how to get out of debt, she always made sure that I was organized.  She told me, “If you can’t manage your time, how can you expect to manage your money?”

So as my mind was looking back on these great and wonderful days, it made me think…

How many people do a great job of managing their time but do not manage their money well?

I think the answer is self-evident. As I see it, it is virtually impossible to do one well without doing the other well. They go together like hand and glove.

I guess one thing that I never thought of was this-if managing my money took some huge chunk of time out of my daily/weekly/monthly life, would I still do it the way that I do?  I think the answer is a resounding NO.  The reason I say that is because I know there are some things that I could do a better job of but don’t because of the time factor. No need to mention them, but at this point in my life, there are other things I would rather spend my time on.

So, if you are going to take the plunge and finally fix your finances, keep in mind that some time management skills will need to be factored in as well.  If not, I would imagine there would be a greater chance of one giving up. Simply because, people feel, it would take too much time.

Just a few quick steps here on some things I see as necessities to managing your time in this day and age (as it relates to financial management):

First, organize your bills.  A basic accordion file might do or a small filing cabinet.  In addition to physically organizing them, try organizing your payments as well.  It took me a little time, but I adjusted my payment dates to where I only pay my bills one time per month.  This is huge compared to the hodge-podge way I used to pay them.

Second, eliminate ALL unnecessary things from your life.  This includes unnecessary phone calls (solicitors come to mind), unnecessary emails (your Spam folder and Empty buttons are your friends.  Plus, these emails could be security risks as well).

Third, limit your social networking time.  Unless you have all the free time in the world, this will probably need your attention.  I have a simple question to ask-how was your life before Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, etc?  Did you still have friends?  Were you still able to keep up with what was going on in their lives?  OK, then limit that stuff.  Personally, I think it is all mindless anyways.

Organizing and impacting you finances will take a decent amount of time in the beginning. And lesser amounts as time goes by.  However, if you see it as some cumbersome process or something that you don’t have time for, if you ever do start, you’re re likely to give up.  Follow these steps, and it should free up enough time for you to give you the time you need.

As always, your comments and suggestions are greatly appreciated.

Hey guys…because of the resounding   success it has had, I have decided to extend the special offer for my book to my readers and visitors.

If you haven’t checked it out yet, I wanted to spend just a few minutes on why I think it can add value to your life.

Don’t Be a Mule is written in a down-to-earth, easy to understand voice. It is based purely on personal experience.  It briefly details my not-so-wonderful plunge into the depths of credit card debt, and the road I managed to take out.

It offers ways to improve your personal economy in three key areas:

Saving More Money

Spending Less Money

Generating Extra Income

The biggest problem that I had when I was looking for answers about how to get out of debt was that I could never find any real, practical advice.  I either came up against debt consolidation companies who I think were just out to screw me (or at the very least, put me deeper into debt), or I got a bunch of “book” answers from people who had never really been in my situation before and therefore could not relate to it.

Then I thought that if I asked rich people about it (who would know more about money, right?) then I might be able to find some decent advice.  Wrong again.  Most of them had forgotten what it was like NOT to be rich and therefore were not of much help.

Writing Don’t Be a Mule was a joy for me because it made me realize that getting out of debt is so NOT about some ABC list of things to do.  Rather, it is simply about changing your mindset and attitude about how money comes in and goes out of your life.

My journey out of debt was not an easy one and it was not a short one.  But once I got on track with the right attitude, and a true willingness to get out of debt, it was then merely a matter of staying on track.  And there was much less actual “sacrifice” involved then I would have thought.

Once I finally managed to get completely out of debt.  I was at a crossroads.  I didn’t know what to do.  But, after I realized ALL the avenues that become available for generating income for people that are not in debt, and that have good credit scores, I kept the momentum rolling.

I currently own and maintain this blog and have another successful side business.  None of this would have been possible were I still struggling with debt.

My book is currently available here for the recession-busting price of $2.99.  Add shipping and you can get your hands on a copy for $7.  And it ships straight from me, so I promise to get it to you fast!

If you decide to check it out, I sincerely hope you like it and it provides value to you.

As always, comments and suggestions are appreciated below.

As you know, I am all about finding the best deals that are out there for just about everything you buy.  Recently, I have come to fully understand the true power of EBay when it comes to my purchases.  Obviously, I m not referring to things like groceries and so forth, what I am referring to is just about everything else.

 I am not here to promote EBay.  What I am trying to do is to explain to you that you can save a lot of money by checking out EBay before buying a lot of the things that you buy.

Before we continue, I want to let you know that quite some time ago, I was very leery of buying anything from EBay.  They had quite a few problems in the past (a lot of them valid) and had gotten a lot of bad press and had really developed  quite a BAD reputation.  As far as I can tell, most of these issues have been solved.

The  biggest concerns I previously had regarding EBay were as follows:

Buying on EBay is not safe.  Actually, it seems to me that it couldn’t be safer now.  Any purchase done thru PayPal is fully protected and EBay itself offers buyer protection.

You cannot trust sellers on EBay.  I have bought numerous items on EBay over the past several months.  By numerous, I mean hundreds.  During that time, I had a total of ONE problem with a seller, and had I checked his feedback more closely before buying, I would have known better.  This problem was fixed almost immediately by PayPal.

PayPal is too difficult to set up.  In all honesty, a PayPal account can be set up in about 5 minutes.

EBay is best used whenever you are buying anything that cannot be found just about anywhere.  It is difficult to explain, but most of your out of the ordinary things that you need can usually be found at a cheaper price on EBay.  Especially specialty items.

Once I started researching different things, I came to find out a lot of things about EBay:

They have almost EVERYTHING for sale there.  Type in just about anything, and I’ll be you can find it.

They have things you never would have thought they would have.

Their prices are almost shockingly less expensive.

I think your chances of finding something for a cheaper price on EBay goes up depending on the availability of the item in mainstream retail outlets.

The best example I can give you is that a friend of mine recently was trying to purchase some waterproof seat covers for his SUV.  If I were buying those, my first thought would be the only place to go to find them would be a car dealership.  My friend priced those at the dealership and a set of four would cost him a little less than $400.

He was able to find the same set of four on EBay for right around $50.

In the past, I have used EBay to find great deals on almost all computer accessories (laptop chargers, mouses, etc).  In addition, books can usually be found at very reasonable prices too.

And honestly, just about everything else.

I could go on forever with this post, but let’s leave it at this.  When you are buying just about anything in your daily life that is not groceries, I would at least check out EBay.  What can it take—2 minutes?  You will probably be very surprised at what you find.

As always, your comments and feedback are greatly appreciated.

Do you currently have a membership to a fitness club?  If so, that’s a great start for your physical health!  But the more important question is…do you use it?

I would love to know the statistics on the number of people who sign up for a gym membership with every intention of getting into shape and losing weight and then at some point in time afterwards losing the motivation to do so.  Or falling back into their old habits.  Regardless, they end up in a contract for a membership that they are no longer using, or even worse, not even in a contract but still getting charged a monthly fee.

I know many people like this personally.  I can also attest to what happens every January at the gym I attend.  Every January, I guess because it’s tied in with New Year’s Resolutions, attendance at my gym spikes up.  There are all kinds of new faces there, people brimming with the anticipation of turning over a new leaf and shedding those unwanted pounds.  January turns into February, and these faces slowly start to disappear.  By the time Spring arrives, the gym is for the most part back to its same attendance level.

But how many of these people either signed a contract, or will still pay the monthly fee and never go?

The easiest way to save money on your gym membership is just as the title states-use it or lose it!

If you are paying for a membership, then go!  Go to the gym!  If you are paying for a membership and not going, then get out of it!  Close your membership or find out when your contract is up and get out then.

I think the worst example are the people who have the membership, don’t use it, but when asked about it or when they themselves think about it use the lame rationalization that “I’m going to start going next week…or next month… or next whenever.”

These fitness clubs must be getting rich off of these rationalizations.

Personally, I pay $35 per month for my gym membership.  Of course, by trying to live my life as frugally as possible, I could easily give this up and save the $35.  I could find a way to get my exercise outdoors in some fashion for free.  However, I keep it for the following reasons:

–I view it as an investment.  An investment in my physical health.  This should lead to less medical bills and a longer life. Two things which can save me money or even make me money.

–My visits to the gym (4 times a week) I actually do on my lunch hour.  I could not do outdoor exercise during this time unless I had somewhere to shower afterwards, which I don’t.

–Finally, as long as I stay on my schedule of four times per week, this works out to about $2.19 per visit to the gym. I spend 40 minutes there during each visit, which I think is a steal of a price. So, rather than being a waste of money, I look at it as a great deal!

If you currently have a gym membership and are not using it, you need to take a good long look in the mirror and decide…are you going to get up off your behind and honestly start using it?  If so, then do it.  If not, then cancel it.  It’s as simple as that.

If not, you’re just giving your money away every month, and not doing anything about health-a lose-lose situation if I ever heard one.

As always, your comments and suggestions are appreciated below.

Looking back on things, I basically categorize my life into two main sections-BD and AD.  Before debt and After Debt.

When I was in debt, I managed to motivate myself to get out of debt by using simple logic.  I knew that if I didn’t do something about my financial situation, that I would struggle with my finances for the rest of my life.  I also knew that if I fixed my finances, there would be a tremendous strain lifted off of my shoulders.

I knew I would have more freedom to do the things that I wanted to do, but I never really knew what that feeling was going to be like

I wish I could have gotten a little taste of it back then…

I guess what I am trying to say is that if I knew how many doors of opportunity would be opened up to me once I solved all of my debts, then I would have motivated myself to get debt-free much quicker then I was able to.

It is a shame that the “non-debt” people couldn’t invite the “debt people” over to their side of the fence just to sit down and have a chat. I bet the “debt people” would really see the light.

They would see that by being out of debt, you obviously create more income for yourself (i.e. no money paid in interest and fees, etc).  They would see that you save yourself money through lower interest rates on just about everything.

They would also see the other opportunities that come your way in the ability to MAKE money from your credit cards.  By signing up for a credit card with a cash back option, you can get your credit cards to actually generate income for you, rather than costing you money.

They would also get a true sense of the phrase “stress free financial living“.  Although living on this side of debt does not have its challenges, it is nothing compared to the monthly strain of waiting till payday so you can pay your bills at the last minute, always running behind on things, etc.

I really wish I had gotten the opportunity to just spend a few minutes on the right side of debt way back then.  It would have been exactly the kick in the pants that I needed to do something about my financial woes much earlier.

If you are less than thrilled with your state of financial affairs at this point in time, why not sit down and talk with someone who is?  Better yet, talk with someone who used to be in your shoes that is not any longer.

I can guarantee you that they will have a wonderful story to tell.  They will be able to see things through your eyes, but they will also be able to explain to you how much more fun life in general is without all of the constant  worrying and stress that comes with living in debt.

As always, your comments and suggestions are appreciated below.

I wanted to speak a little today about the mindsets and attitudes that go along with living a solid financial life.  Back when I was in debt, in the beginning, I thought I could solve my debt problems by simply creating some A B C list of things to do.  Complete the things on the list and boom; I’d be out of debt.

Eventually I came to realize that this is not the right way to go about doing it. Rather, it is by changing our thought process and our handling of how money comes into and goes out of our life that will bring us real, long-lasting financial success.

I could write on this topic for days (and did so extensively in my book) but for today, I just wanted to outline a few of the behaviors that I began to put into place in my life that made for some real financial progress.

Here we go, in no particular order:

A Willingness and Desire to Get Out of Debt.  This is first on the list for a reason.  You could follow a hundred other steps to get out of debt, but if you don’t  really, truly want to get out of debt, it will never happen.  This includes a willingness to put measures into place in your life, and sticking with them, which will solve your financial shortcomings.

Some degree of organization.  I would say it’s a pretty fair bet that most people whose finances are a mess are not very organized by nature.  This was definitely the case with me.  Note, I did not say something like “Be Completely Organized”.  Simply getting some sort of organization wrapped around your finances would be a good enough start.  Specifically, organize how and when you pay your bills, organize how and where you file them, etc.

Improved Attention to Detail. The statistics are shocking at the number of people who don’t even look at their credit card bills or their utility bills before paying them.  They don’t even look.  Are you kidding me?  In the beginning, you have got to take a good hard look at all your bills to make sure there are no hidden fees that you shouldn’t be paying for, that they aren’t services on your bill that you’re paying for and not receiving, and that there are not charges on your credit cards that don’t belong there. Once you get used to doing this, the process really turns into a quick scan of them, but you’ve got to know what you’re looking for.

Increase Your Awareness Level.  What does this mean?  Let me pose some questions to you.  Is there a cheaper gas company out there that you could get your gas from? A cheaper internet company? Cable TV? When you shop, do you know a good deal when you see one?  Or, do you mindlessly wander the aisles, casually throwing the same overpriced stuff in your cart as you did the week before.

And finally, the Ability to Act. If you can find a cheaper way to get internet, will you take the time and energy to call up and switch?  Or will you maintain your status quo because of laziness or apathy or whatever?  If you see a charge on your credit card that doesn’t belong there, will you call up and dispute it?  Or just let it go because the thought of standing up for yourself scares you to death?

As you can see, this is a list of behaviors and habits, rather than a concrete list of things to do to solve debt. I learned early on in the process that by instituting one of these behaviors in your life is the same as doing ten things off of some laundry list.

Please comment below on my words and tell me what you think.  I always appreciate your honest and direct feedback.

OK everybody, here goes. This is another one of those “make at home” type things that I found somewhere on the internet and actually tried out.  I can give you some actual, real feedback on its effectiveness and savings.

Just last week, I tried out some homemade toilet bowl cleaner.  And believe it or not, it worked out quite well.  I found the benefits to be many, the user-friendliness of it to be wonderful, and the savings seem to be there as well also.

This is what I found.  The list of ingredients for my homemade toilet bowl cleaner call for:

1 ½ cups of white vinegar

1 cup of baking soda

¼ cup of salt

5-10 drops of essential oil

Basically, you pour everything in, mix it up a little with your toilet bowl brush, and then let it sit for 20 minutes.  Then, go back, scrub down the bowl and flush.  It’s that simple.

Before I get into the cost breakdown of this, let me tell you something. The “amounts” on this recipe simply seemed to be way too much to for one cleaning of your toilet bowl (unless of course, you have an extremely large or extremely dirty toilet bowl).  Therefore, I eyeballed it pretty much, but I basically cut the amounts on this recipe in half. 

Oh, and the essential oil thing really only seems to be for fragrance purposes.  It says it serves an antibacterial purpose, but I would imagine that you could eliminate this as well and still have the same effect.

So, according to my calculations, using the homemade recipe would cost you about 24 cents per use.  Using a store bought brand of toilet bowl cleaner would cost about 63 cents. This works out to approximately a 62% savings on your toilet bowl cleaning.

Now, in terms of dollars saved, is this going to make you a million dollars over the course of a year?  Absolutely not.  However, below, I listed out all of the benefits that I came across during the use of this homemade stuff.

–Ease of use. As opposed to other homemade recipes that you actually have to mix up, with this one, you’re just pouring the ingredients into your bowl, so there is really no preparation time to make it or storage of it.  This was a big plus to me.

–Also, now, rather than polluting the environment with an empty toilet bowl cleaner container every month or so, you will now only be throwing away the big gallon jug of white vinegar about once every three months.  A benefit for the environment.

–Third, a lot of the commercial toilet bowl cleaners (especially the blue ones) can do harm to your toilet plumbing and pipes.  Obviously, these ingredients are all natural, so you can eliminate that issue as well.

–And finally, the savings involved.  Again, I won’t break the bank with this savings idea, but every penny helps.

Overall, I’d give this recipe an A+.  I think the savings are minimal, but when you add everything up, it has many other benefits to be reaped.

Comments, suggestions and feedback are all appreciated below.

Before we get going, I wanted to let you know that since I have started this venture, I am grateful for all of the things I’ve been able to learn about finances and saving money.  I thought I knew a lot when I first started writing–that knowledge has probably doubled since then.

One of the things that I read about a lot is how you can make a lot of products you use in your household at home for much less money.  Some of these things look like great ideas, some of them do not.  Some of them I would consider trying, some I would not.  For example, making homemade laundry detergent looks like it is too time consuming and so forth to be worth my time.

However, I recently tried making my own dish soap at home and I wanted to let you know how I fared.

Actually, I would grade it at an A- if I had to do so.  The process is simple, and the finished product works quite well.

In order to do it, the only thing you’ll need is one bar of bar soap and some hot water.  That’s it, really.  The “recipe” that I found says to grind up a bar of soap into little pieces.  Believe it or not, what I did was get out a cheese grater and ran the soap through that.  It worked out great (just be sure to scrub down the grater when you’re done).

Then, it says to take 3 cups of hot water.  Actually, I probably almost doubled that, and when they say hot, I would probably say “real” hot.  I doubt I’d boil it, but I might heat it up on the stove a little before I added it to the soap.

Then, I just put the hot water and the soap in a big bowl and waited for the soap to dissolve.  About an hour later-voila!  I was done!  And there I had it, about 6-7 cups of homemade dish soap, which probably  cost me 50 cents-or whatever I paid for that bar of soap.

As far as user-friendliness, it really does great.  You do have to shake it before each use, and it does look at times like it won’t work too well, but it creates almost as much “suds” as store bought soap, and it cleans dishes just fine.

And, as a matter of fact, I plan on replacing my hand soaps in the bathrooms with this recipe as well when I get to that point-increasing my savings.

So, out of all the things that they say you can make at home, I’d give the homemade dish soap big sudsy thumbs up!!

Has anyone out there tried making other cleaning products at home?  Let my readers know your stories below.

 I straightened out my finances and have been on the path of frugal living for about a year now, which is great.  However, as I begin to really get into the topic of “frugal living” it did occur to me that there is the very real possibility of going overboard with this.  As a matter of fact, I know a few people that I would consider to be a “slave to saving”.

First of all, I guess I should give you my definition of both.  Frugal living I would define as obviously, living within your budget, eliminating all unnecessary spending from your life, and getting the best deals that you can on the items that you do buy.  Of course, this is a very relative and subjective definition, but it is what it is.  A “slave to saving” I would basically define as someone who lets their desire to save affect the quality of life that they live.  Again, a subjective definition, but I think it will work for the purposes of this discussion.

I do not think I have ventured into the area of being a “slave to saving” but I have gotten close.  I think these are dangerous grounds.  What I try to remind myself of is that I live my life frugally so I can increase the quality of it.  When I find myself negatively affecting the quality of life that I live by my frugal living measures then it is time to stop and take a good look at what’s going on.

Let’s jump into some specifics:

–Spending  two hours a week clipping coupons just to save $5 on your weekly grocery bill to me is too much… it simply not worth it.  You could find better uses for these two hours.

–People whose conversations are simply inundated with “I got this for such and such a price” and “Oh yeah, well I only paid this much for this the other day” to me are affecting the quality of their lives.  It’s a minor point, but c’mon, can’t we find something better to talk about?

–Those who buy items not because of any current specific need, but only for the amazing savings they can get on them are really off the chain!  If I wanted to, I could get the best deal on just about everything and my house would be full of stuff that I might or might not need or use in the next ten years.  If you don’t need it, then buying it is a waste of money, no matter how little you spent on it.

–Being focused 100% of the time on price price pirce is not the way to go either.  For example, vacations.  If I can’t let go and eat at a restaurant I know is too expensive when I know I could go down the street and save a buck or two, then what’s the point on going on vacation?

I guess it comes down to knowing “when to say when”.  Keep in mind your goals.  Is your goal is to be able to brag to your friends how much you save on things?  Is it to save every single solitary penny that you can, no matter how much time it takes out of your life?

Or is it more realistically, to be able to live your life at the highest quality level that you can on the current income that you have?

To me, I’ll take the last one any day of the week.

 So, are your living frugally or are you a slave to saving?  Let my readers know below…

I have spoken a lot in the past about how much legwork it takes to truly “fix” your finances.  There is a lot of organization involved; there is a lot of analysis (of your finances) involved.  There is a good bit of discipline, but not as much actual sacrifice as you think if done properly.

My biggest point is that if you change your mindset towards the way money comes in and goes out of your life, then you can do a lot of “fixing and forgetting” with your finances.  By that I mean you can analyze a particular area, eliminate the unnecessary spending, and then simply move on.

However, one thing I also wanted to touch on is that you do have to take a step back and review your financial “picture” every so often.  Personally, I try to do it every six months or so.

The reason for this can be described in one word: change.  There is constant change in our lives.  Change in our spending habits (what we spend money on), change in our interests (regarding hobbies and projects) and also, change in the amount of free time that we have in our daily lives-which does affect what we spend our money on.

It is for this reason that about twice a year I put myself through a “financial physical”.  This involves taking a step back and reviewing how you spend your money on a monthly basis.  I think if I give you a few concrete examples of what I am talking about, then you’ll get a pretty good understanding of the whole process.

This physical mostly involves looking at your bills.  I think that things like grocery shopping and so forth are simply adjusted on as “as needed” basis.  If your household decides to stop eating red meat, I think you’d have sense enough to stop buying it form the grocery store. If you make a commitment to more fresh vegetables, then obviously, you’re going to buy more of them too.  But you could take a look at things like gym memberships (and any other memberships).  If you’ve stopped going to the gym, why are you still paying for it?

But what about bills?  Let’s take a quick peek.

Cable/Satellite TV:  If you currently have the 300 channel package and two movie channels, ask yourself-do you really need 300 channels?  Also, do you really watch those movie channels?  You might be able to do a little slicing and dicing here.

Cell phones-take a look at your minutes usage.  Can you get on a lower minutes plan?  Better yet, can you possibly switch cell phone providers to save some money?  There are always better deals and programs out there, and it is good to keep up with them.  Personally, I just call my provider every six months or so and come right out and ask them.  It s not like if they have a cheaper plan that you qualify for, that they will call you and tell you about it.

Internet-same premise.  There are always new and cheaper companies and programs that can give you the same coverage for a cheaper rate.  It’s not a bad idea to investigate this every so often.

Gas-the gas industry in our state was de-regulated several years back, which has created tremendous competition. I have saved myself quite few dollars by switching companies, and they usually offer some pretty good incentives for doing so.

In closing, with regard to all of these things it is imperative that you never ever sign a contract with your cell phone provider, or cable or internet for that matter.  You need to keep your freedom in this area.

I go through this process only about twice a year.  Most of it is a mental checklist that I complete to see if there is anything I can eliminate.  There may be some research and phone calls to be made if I decide I am going to switch, but going through this from time to time can keep you as financially sharp and fit as you can possibly be.

Your comments are welcome below.