==== ==== Thrifty Living Info You Need to See Visit: Thrifty Living ==== ==== By John T Jones, Ph.D. This article tells you how to get out of debt in a systematic way. Most Americans are in debt to some extent especially if high educational cost occurred. Medical expensive can devastate a family as can loans generated to buy a too expensive home. Most folks generate debt because they don't realize that they need to manage their income by using a budget to control expenditures. Some unfortunates do not have enough money to live above the poverty level. They need vocational guidance and training to change that situation by obtaining betterpaying employment. Many newly weds are not equipped to deal with financial matters. They have no training in such matters and they actually have little interest in the subject. Then they find themselves in debt, start arguing about finances, and too many of them break up. Financial problems are a major cause of divorce. I was born in the worst year of the Great Depression so I watched my folks struggle to take care of seven children. Strangely they never argued about finances or anything else. The depression brought on poverty but both of my parents were raised in poverty. Dad was an accountant and he gave my mother whatever money he could spare to operate the household. As they came out of the depression they stocked up on food supplies and increased food canning activities. They were always afraid that the depression would come back. My son and his wife are raising 15 children several which are married and attending college. They must regulate their money. My daughter-in-law was a farm girl so they produce a large amount of produce which they preserve. I suggest that they add fruit trees to their two acres and so now thy are producing fruit. I live on a city lot but I have eight fruit trees. Usually I get a good crop but last year we had a late freeze and I got only peaches from one protected tree. I don't can but sometimes my daughter-in-law cans for me. If you can produce some of your own food you will not only have lower food cost but you will have better food. I store food in case of an emergency. I always by major items by the case to cut cost. I store some wheat but I have never had to use it. I also store beans and other items including soap. I recently planted some grape and berry bushes. I'm 79-years-old but I still look ahead. When we are gone whoever buys are property will have the benefits of our efforts to produce food. I don't have a lot of room for a major garden such as my son has. But I do raise tomatoes and sometimes other items. I plan to increase vegetable production in the future. Many folks shop at big box stores to buy groceries and such. I find the packaging fine for big families and businesses but I don't need twelve jars of anchovies. So I don't find those stores as convenient as discount grocers. Some people save by using coupons. They clip them and save then and before they go to the store they make a list of what they are going to buy and pull the coupons as needed. You can make significant savings in this way. Just don't buy because you have a coupon. You might buy one of those cardboard folders to keep your coupons.
Stores are continually having special sales. You can ask them when they will be having a sale on specific items. Perhaps you need linen and towels. When is the annual sale? Most stores run newspaper ads. Look at them just for the heck of it. You can save a lot of money. I returned a clothing item I bought my wife for Christmas because of size. They refunded my money and then told me they had one in stock of the proper size. It had been discounted so I saved about $25.00 because I bought the wrong size. Interest is that never-sleeping killer. I bought a television the other day and the clerk said I could have it interest free if I paid it off for a year. I decided to have my bank to send in automatic payments keeping the principle in my hands instead of the stores'. Also, I am building a room on my house. The material seller offered me the same deal. I am having that paid off by my bank the same way. This means I don't have to pull money out of my IRA to pay for the room. I won't have to pay interest either. Get rid of your credit cards if they are killing you by putting you in high-interest debt. Pay off your loans by listing them in a table, the loans across the top, the months down the left column. Place the loan with the shortest loan period on the left, the long-term loan like your home loan to the right. Say you have 5 months left on your left loan, perhaps your clothes washer. Say the payment is $150.00 each month. When that loan is paid off add it to the payment for the next loan, perhaps your car payment. Say the car payment is $300.00. Add the $150.00 to your car payment. When the car is paid off the combined amount of the first two loan payments to the next payment. You would be adding $450.00 to the next payment. Repeat this until you are adding the combined payment of these loans to your house payment. You will not only pay off your bills rapidly you will save a bundle in interest. Fly Old Glory! Article Source: http://www.streetarticles.com/debt-relief/how-to-get-out-of-debt
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