One of the biggest mistakes you can make when planning a budget is to only budget for the bare essentials - rent, mortgage, electricity, groceries, car payment, insurance, etc.

Why?

Because you’re not going to stick to a budget like that forever, any more than you are going to stick to a diet of cottage cheese, lettuce and grapefruit forever.

So here is what you are going to do.

First, make a list of ALL the luxuries that you regularly spend money on. Be honest with yourself; look through your credit/debit card purchases from the past few months if you need to job your memory.

Some categories might be:

Beauty salon
Restaurants
Museum visits
Cable TV
Movies
Birthday/Xmas Gifts
Vacation
Clothing purchases
Children’s Toys
Lunch with co-workers
Gym membership
Videogames

This isn’t an exercise in self-torture; I’m not here to force you to look over all of the things that you are giving up.

Here’s what you do now: For every luxury that you love and can’t afford, list a low-cost or no cost alternative.

This actually gets quite fun once you get get going. After all, you are planning out how to do things that you love.

Some examples are:

Beauty salon - either switch to a cheaper salon, or check out local beauty school. They offer VERY low cost services, including haircuts, color, and manicures and pedicures done by their students on specific days. The students are generally operating under the supervision of a teacher. And visit the salon less often. Add a couple of weeks in between your usual visit time.

Museum Visits: Go on free nights.

Gifts: Keep a gift drawer. Scout out really good sales and buy things when they are at a very low price, even months ahead. You’ll never be scrambling at the last minute that way, which tends to lead to paying more than necessary. If money is really tight, make handwritten gift certificates for family members, redeemable for one “get out of chores free” night, one hour of one-on-one time with mom or dad doing whatever the child choses (within reason of course), etc.

Clothes: Consignment stores, thrift stores, and end-of-season sales.

Toys: Children’s consignment stores.

Movies: Matinees, or movie nights at home with the family. Make an event of it; make popcorn, buy a big box of candy (which will cost a tiny fraction of what it would cost at the movie theater.

Gym Membership: Quit the gym if you can’t afford it. Form a walking group with people from work, and walk 20 minutes or more of your lunch hour. Take the stairs at work. Bicycle with friends on weekends. Take the dogs on long walks.

Golf Membership: Look for a cheaper golf course and walk instead of ride. It will do your heart good anyway!

Other Ideas?: Post your personal experiences.

When you want to lose weight, you go on a diet.

When you need to trim fat from your budget, you need to do the same thing - go on a money diet.

The trick in stretching your budget lies in ‘trimming the fat.’ Recent surveys say the average debt per American household runs over $7,000, and we won’t see any debt relief until we are willing to make some significant adjustments on our spending habits.

First, you have to decide which expenses are your absolute priorities. You need to budget for necessities like groceries, rent or mortgage, utility bills, and making payments towards paying down credit cards. Pay extra, if you can, towards the credit card with the highest interest rate; if you can only afford to pay the minimum to the credit cards with the lower interest rates, do that.

You must now decide what the “fat” in your budget is. If you owe more than you can pay off every month, frankly, anything that is not a necessity is “fat”.

Gas-guzzling cars, boats, RVs and other expensive toys are “fat”.

Look to trim expenses everywhere that you can.

If you’ve been spending money on video game consoles and online games, maybe it’s time to snap out of the virtual world and, well, “get real”.

If you’ve been going to an expensive salon - find a cheaper hairdresser until you get your debts paid off.

While you’re on a diet, you would substitute fattening food like ice cream with healthy food like yogurt.

When you’re on a money diet, you need to find less expensive alternatives to all of life’s luxuries.

Buy generic groceries at the store instead of name brand groceries, and buy designer clothing at consignment stores where they’re cheaper. I have a friend who wears very nice clothes and does all her shopping at the consignment store.  And do you really need to get most of your clothes dry cleaned?

Cut back on your designer or gourmet coffee habit. Buy generic brands at the grocery store.

Do you really need cable TV and pay-per-view?

Go to the museum on their free nights.  If you must go to a movie, go on dollar night or for the matinee and eat a big meal AT HOME before you go so you won’t be tempted by the high dollar popcorn, snacks and drinks.

Remember, developing a healthier consumer habit takes practice. Once you get in the habit though, you will find that even when you’ve paid your debt down, you are very likely to maintain healthier money habits in the future.

And for pete’s sake, CUT UP THOSE CREDIT CARDS!  Save one for a “real” emergency, but put it in the freezer and don’t take it out.  Make a list of what constitutes a “real emergency” and tape the list to the credit card.  If you go to get the card out of the freezer, look to see if what you are getting it out for is on the list.  If it’s not, put it back in the freezer and close the door.

Here are three easy things you can do to brighten your day
even if it’s a bit gloomy!

You and I both know that the economy isn’t great right now.

You have to be living under a rock to have missed the news on that one!

It’s all gloom and doom but that doesn’t mean that your life has to be.

“The best things in life are free” is a comment we are all familiar
with and I definitely agree on that one. Here are 3 simple ways
to brighten your day, especially if you are having a bad one!

 1.Smile.

It’s simple but highly effective. Smiling not only makes you feel better but helps to lift the spirits of those around you and particularly the person you are smiling at.

Smile at people you know in particular like friends, family, work
colleagues. You don’t even have to say anything. Just smile.

2.Compliment someone today.

Let them know they look great. Say something nice to someone today (particular if you have children)that lets them know you are thinking about them or you have noticed something great about them.

3.Laugh.

So much research has been done about the power of laughing that
it shouldn’t be ignored. Find something that makes you laugh and laugh out loud.  Your health will thank you.

Or talk to a friend that you know is funny. If you know that making people laugh is easy for you, go out of your way to do that.

Those are three easy ways to brighten your day that you can do
with anyone at any time in any place.

If you find yourself in a negative frame of mind or your day just isn’t going great just choose to smile, send a compliment or laugh and you will find yourself feeling so much better.

Just think how much better you will make your employees, your friends and your family feel.  You might just make someone else’s day too!

If you are in debt and having trouble paying it off, obviously, raising some quick cash can take a little pressure off. It’s always good to have a stash of emergency spending money on hand, or to put some extra money towards your bills.

Here are 10 ideas for raising some extra money in San Antonio right now (not a fortune, but every little bit helps):

1.) Hold a garage sale. Organize one with your neighbors to make it even more appealing to garage sale shoppers. Check the weather beforehand to try to make sure that it will be a nice day out, and consider advertising in your local paper.

2.) Sell stuff from around the house on eBay (read up on it 1^st but you’d be surprised what will sell).

3.) Sell your books on Amazon.

4.) Consider taking a part time job on nights, weekends, or both, for a few months until you have paid down your debt and set aside some emergency spending money. Don’t do it for too long, because you’ll burn yourself out, but it can be a good short term option.

5.) Pawn items from around the house.

6.) Do you have skills that people could benefit from online? Guru, elance, Rentacoder, ODesk and many other freelance sites will let you market yourself. If you can write articles, do graphic design, have web programming skills or coding skills…there is money to be made.

7.) Sign up for a temp agency.

8.) Buy stuff at garage sales and resell it on eBay.

9.) Donate blood

10.) Sell crafts online through Etsy.

But be careful online.  Don’t get caught up by promises that don’t ring true.  You’re not going to make a quick million like some will say they can do for you.  Don’t spend more money trying to make a little extra.

And, just what does that have to do with business advertising and marketing?

Read more to find out > > >

Local Advertising in Philadelphia is a must in today’s economy!

read more > > >

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If you owe money to multiple creditors, you know what a pain it is to pay numerous bills every month. You’re also probably seeking to lower the total monthly amount that you pay.

A lot of people in these circumstances consider turning to debt consolidation loans - but there are some things that you should know before you make the decision to apply for one.

First of all, you generally are going to have to pay some kind of fee to the debt consolidation company, so you are going to owe MORE than when you started. The loan term may be longer - so you may be paying a little bit less every month, which means that you will have payments for a much longer period.

So debt consolidation loans may lower your payments each month, but in the long run you will end up paying more money, possibly a lot more.

Also, if you are late on your payments, or have less than perfect credit for other reasons, you are likely to be charged higher interest rates. The people who need debt consolidation loans the most are those who are likely to get charged very high interest rates.

There are also a number of reasons that debt consolidation loans can hurt your credit. You will have to apply for new credit to get one, and applying for new credit lowers your credit score. You will be closing a number of old established credit lines, which also lowers your credit score.

And the loan may require that you negotiate with creditors to get a “deficiency balance”. That will also count against your credit, just like late payments. That means that creditors agree to accept less than you owe them so that you will repay them something; that’s always risky. For one thing, in many states it is legal for creditors to renege on that agreement, and for another it hurts your credit.

And here’s a final argument against debt consolidation loans; they don’t address the problem that got you into trouble in the first place - which in most cases is poor fiscal habits.

So you might not have to make a payment for a month or two, and then you start paying a lower amount - and what many consumer agencies report finding is - people who take out debt consolidation loans end up getting even DEEPER in debt!

So consider all of the possible negative ramifications, and be truly committed to changing your spending habits, before applying for a debt consolidation loan.

We have heard this phrase repeated time and again, “Small Businesses in Philadelphia Want More Customers!”

The challenge we have most often found is that small business owners do not have time to learn what it takes to make sure their businesses are found on an internet search.

For instance, if someone is looking for a “dry cleaner” near their house or close to wherever they happen to be - they typically will go to their computer or mobile device and type the words “dry cleaner” into the search box .

Most often the “searcher” will go to Google, but there are dozens of search engines.

Then they will look at the first ten listings (if they even look that far…) and go to or call that business.

So there are two critical factors for the dry cleaner owner:

(1) Know which word(s) your customers will type into the search engine (KEYWORDS) and

(2) How to get placed in the top 5 spots (SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION).

We know just how to accomplish these two critical jobs - plus many more.  Partner with us and let us help you get found on the internet.  Click below - - - - - - -

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Debt collectors are not your friends. Yes, you need to pay off your debts - but you don’t have to put up with being harassed, threatened, intimidated and stalked.

So here’s some advice and a few words of caution.

If you get calls from a debt collection agency, consider asking that they communicate with you in writing. This provides you with their name, address, and telephone number. You want to be able to do a little research and verify that they are a legitimate agency. You want to have their contact information so that you can report them if they do anything illegal. It’s always better to have things in writing should matters end up in court.

NEVER give out personal financial information over the telephone. If someone calls you and starts pressuring you to give them this information, tell them to put their request in writing and mail it to you - and if they continue to pressure you, hang up.

The person calling could be an outright thief who has gotten your contact information. It could be a sleazy debt collection agency who will take money out of your account whether you authorize them to or not.

Watch out!  If a debt collection agency offers you a deal that sounds too good to be true - it just may well be.

Debt collection agencies frequently will offer to let you pay off a reduced amount if you pay it all off at once. But guess what? In some states, it is legal for them to SAY so - and then, when you have paid off the lump sum - they can sell the remaining debt to another collection agency! Yes, it’s incredibly sleazy, and it’s amazing that it’s legal anywhere for a debt collector to lie to you - but it is.

So your best bet, truly, if you are being hounded by debt collectors, is to invest in consulting with an attorney and finding out what your rights are in Philadelphia.

You may even be eligible to consult with an attorney for free or reduced cost - check with the legal aid societies in your area, such as the Community Legal Aid Society, Inc in Philadelphia. Also, take a look a the Pennsylvania Bar Association’s website for attorneys that may be available to help you. Some San Antonio attorneys volunteer their time and may speak with you for free for an hour about your legal rights regarding debt collection. This will save you the risk of costly missteps, outright scams, and even worse, dings on your credit report.

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