Save your money on balance transfer

Credit card industry shows a boom period between November through February. This is the time when almost every credit card company will give variety of offers to attract large number of consumers. They will do endless marketing to target the new customers, besides trying to keep their existing customers on the roll.

The balance transfer option seems to be on the high during this period. You can easily get a check that offers 0% interest. If this is not available, you always have the option to transfer your balance at a decent interest rate between 3.99% to 6% and no balance transfer fees incurred. You may get a good deal from the various options depending upon what you have decided to do.

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A lot of people lose their comforts in life and remain stressed because of their financial worries. If you are one of them, you might be feeling shaky and naturally tensed. There was a poll recently conducted on 1000 US citizens and the statistics showed the following results.

Almost 15% of the people were not able to make the credit card payments in time and 9% of the people were not able to pay their mortgage, rent or other loan payments.

18% of the total population has concerns regarding their job stability and 8% out of them are running through the fear of a job loss probably in the next few months.

65% of the total individuals in the poll believe their economic condition getting worse.

57% of the people believe that US is heading into a recession.

48% have been cutting back their spending.

This is a small survey based on 1000 people but I am sure that most of us are going through the same discomforts closer to home. Please take the following tips and know how to survive in the current climate and moving ahead with optimistic thoughts.

• The key is not to panic: Don’t make nasty decisions that can ruin the overall financial picture. Be very careful with your job or your investments and remain focused on the long term. The normal trend of life is what goes up comes down again and vice versa.

• Do not focus on bad stuff: The present economy is a little shaky but if purely focus on this will only make the situation worse. You need to set your goals and consistently work on accomplishing them. Most of the things that you see in the media are often hyped anyway and the negative things are always reported first before the positive.

• Don’t be too rash with yourself: Whenever you get the chance to make savings, do it. Don’t lose any opportunity to make money. There are a lot of things that we actually think we need, but the fact is that we can do without it and save unnecessary spending. If you are able to save more, you will get a financial cushion and you will feel more secure in your life. This way, a positive cycle will be formed to keep your life in balance.

If you exercise the following ideas in your life, you will practically see most of the situation that could have otherwise kept you worried and tensed, been taken care of.

Month after month, we have been spending on our groceries and it can average to around $400-500. This is spent only on food and dining, and not on household items. For our family of three, I know we can spend a lot less than that.

There are free sites that can help you with your grocery shopping and finding good deals. But unfortunately, for us due to our location, those sites do not have any affiliates with our local grocery store. We don’t subscribe to our local newspaper as it’s too expensive. So, to get those flyers, it means a trip to the grocery store and pick the flyer. Then, we have to come back home, review the flyers and creating a grocery list, and go to purchase items. With our schedule and the time when the flyer comes out, the time doesn’t adjust too well for us. So, here’s what we are trying to do.

Once a month, we purchase all the inventory items of our food. I have made a list of all the necessary items that we will need during the month to make meals and I mark those items that have to be fully stocked up. Then we head to Wal-Mart to do shopping. Wal-Mart has some items on sale that our local grocery store will not usually put. Last time, when we came to Wal-Mart, we had a cart full of groceries for $150. I am not sure if we have ever spent that much on one trip before.

Now, we have the normal items that will stay for the whole month. Then it’s the small weekly trip to the grocery store to buy fresh fruit, milk, bread and meat on sale. We don’t buy fresh meat from Wal-Mart anymore because it can get quite expensive for us and our budget is not to exceed $50 each trip during the weekend. So, here’s what we have spent at the end of the month.

$150 + 50 + 50 + 50 = $300/month

So far, it is working awesome. One major problem that we faced was that we were making too many trips to the local grocery store during the week. All those little trips can add up quickly and result in buying items that we really don’t need like frozen pizzas for a quick dinner. This is an unnecessary expense that can fully be avoided. Once we have limited the number of our trips, we are more focused with our purchases and we are getting a little more creative with our meals to use what we have and saving money from our budget.

Limiting our grocery store trips is challenging us and I like it. After some time, I would like to plan our menu also. I used to do that before and this saved a lot of money. But because of my work, I couldn’t devote much time on it. I will have to start doing it again.

The main thing is about saving money. There are many strategies of executing it. You have to spend some time looking at your spending and figuring out the plan that works well for you.

With the growing number of bankruptcies, mortgage foreclosures and rising prices, it’s very important to know useful ways of managing personal finance. Recent statistics show that many people can manage their finance very nicely if they keep their expenses within their income. But unfortunately, many people are not aware of the ways to do it and don’t know how to recover once they have overextended themselves.

Personal money management is not a one step process. It’s not just enough to have your budget in place or keep a check on your checking account. You need to follow set guidelines that cover several aspects of money management. The basic of the process are discussed below.

• Set Your Goal

Most people think that their objectives are accomplished if they have planned their retirement and college for their kids. These are very important goals but they are just the beginning. You have to think about what you and your family need in future and make financial decisions on that basis. This may include keeping money aside for an annual vacation, repairing your car or purchasing a home in the future.

• Find Out Where You Stand Now

You have to have a complete understanding of your total income and expenses. Prepare your monthly budget on a piece of paper and stick to it. Give a detailed description of your bills and expenses in one column and your total income in the other column. Add up everything and see if your expenses are lower than your income. You will know at a glance if you are going through any money problems or it might come unexpectedly in the near future.

• Develop a Budget You Can Live With

Budget sample forms are available very easily and most of them turn out to be very effective. Many people maintain 50 different categories of expense items but it’s important that you know how to manage it. It’s better to have less number of categories of expenses and have all your attention on it when you have your paycheck.

• Cut Expense in Every Budget Category You Can

There are hundred different ways to cut your expenses without changing your lifestyle. For example, if you are using several mobile phones, you can stop them from using and stick to one phone only. This way you can reduce a certain percentage of your expenses and use it for other important purposes. There are many tips available on the internet for those who don’t know how to get started.

• Set Up a Debt Repayment Plan

A large number of people are losing their hard earned money just in interest charges and late and over limit fees. Your main priority should be to eliminate all the debts from the past and do it at the earliest. By following the process of snowballing, you can pay off your debts much earlier and save a lot of money that could have gone just in interests and fees.

Snowballing is the process where you add up all the amounts having the minimum payments and choose one bill to add extra money to the payment until it is paid in full. Then you can take that extra portion of money and the payment you were making on bill 1 and add it to the next bill and so on. You don’t have to stress by putting a higher amount. Just adding $25 will pay down your bill much faster because the amount in the bill is not going to be the same until paid off.

• Know Your Credit

You need to have your credit in good standing before applying for a loan. If your scores aren’t good, you will have to pay higher interest rates and it’s the opposite if your scores are better. Get a copy of your credit report and know how your credit looks like before you shop with any lender.

• Look For More Sources of Income

If you are not able to cover all your expenses from your paycheck, look for different ways to earn money and make your life comfortable. Everyone has specific talents. Use your skills and you will realize that people are ready to pay for the product or services that you can offer.

Once you know the art of managing money, you will have perfect control over any financial problems that may arise in the future. You might even be surprised that the solutions were never far away from you.