Are you and your significant other in need of a night out on the town?  Do you need to go to an appointment and can’t bring the kids?  If you are a parent, especially if you don’t live near family, you will inevitably find that you need a babysitter, at least every once in awhile.  However, babysitters are expensive; in our area they can run $15 an hour.  At that price, enjoying a night out is hard to do.  Yet with a little creativity, you can find ways to save on the cost of having a babysitter.

Swap with another parent.  If you have a friend with kids close in age, you may want to consider a swap.  She watches your kids for 3 hours one day, and you watch hers for 3 hours another day.  You each get some time away without spending the $45 it might normally cost to hire a sitter, and your kids get to play with other kids their age.

Start a babysitting co-op.  If you have a group of parents you are friends with, perhaps from an organized play group or preschool, consider setting up a babysitting co-op.  Every time you babysit kids from the co-op, you get a “credit” in your account.  Then, when you have someone from the co-op watch your kids, the hours are deducted from your account.

Consider bartering.  If the other party is receptive, you may be able to barter part or all of your child care costs.  If you love to cook, perhaps you can supply your babysitter with meals for a few days.  If she is single, you may need to supplement the meals with pay as your meals for her probably won’t add up to the equivalent you would pay her per hour.  If she, too, has a family, she would probably welcome taking a few nights off for cooking for her family if she watches your kids for two or three hours one night.  Another alternative might be to change her car oil when she needs it, assuming you know how to do this and already do this for your own car.

Set up a traveling “school”.  If you are a stay-at-home parent and live in an area with several stay at home parents with kids the same age, consider an educational swap.  Maybe on Mondays, from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. you host the kids and have an English theme—you read them stories and play games with nursery rhymes.  Maybe on Tuesdays, another neighbor has a science theme and takes the kids on a leaf finding expedition and teaches them about how leaves lose their color.  If you have three families involved, you host one morning a week, and two mornings a week your kids go to a different location.

While hiring a babysitter can be expensive, there are creative ways to save on this cost while still providing your child with a good care experience.  The key is to make friends with other parents and set up a mutually beneficial situation.  Just make sure that you know the parents well and are comfortable with them watching your kids.

Baby pools are a fun way to get your friends and family more involved and excited about your new baby’s birth.  They’re pretty easy to run and you can even outsource the details if you don’t feel like running the pool yourself.  Here’s how to get your baby pool, also known as a pregnancy pool, up and running.

The exact rules of the baby pool are up to you to decide, but typically you allow your friends, family, and co-workers to guess on the date and time when your baby will be born.  For each guess they make, they have to chip in a dollar or two for the pot.  When your baby little one arrives, whoever’s guess came closest to the actual delivery time wins the pot of money.  Some baby pool winners are required to split their winnings with the new parents since they’re going to need lots of baby stuff!

Of course you can add lots of other details to your baby pool to make it more challenging and fun.  In addition to guessing the date of birth, some baby pools also let you guess on the baby’s gender, height, weight, or even how long labor will last.  If you have a lot of friends who like to gamble they might really enjoy this!

 How to Organize Your Baby Pool

In the old days, all that was needed to run a baby pool was a piece of paper.  The organizer kept a master list of all the guesses made and also tracked the total amount of money received for the jackpot.  The problem was that guessers were in the dark as to what everyone else picked.  Things improved a bit in the computer age as most baby pool organizers starting tracking everything in Excel.  Guesses and results could be emailed out to participants regularly, though that was still far from perfect.

These days there are websites that allow you to run your baby pool completely online and in real-time.  Participants can set up their own free accounts and log in to see what kind of guesses everyone else has made before making one of their own.  They even let you send an invitation email out to your friends so you can get as many people to sign up as possible.  This system is much more user-friendly and it almost feels like you’re taking part in a fantasy baseball league and not a baby pool.

Whatever method you choose to set up your baby pool, you’re bound to have some good laughs and enjoy spreading the good news about the new addition to your family.

Have you ever thought that you know all there is to know about saving money and being frugal? You probably clip coupons, buy your clothes from thrift stores, and reuse before you buy new. You may not take it to the next level, as the people do on Extreme Cheapskate, but you save a lot more than you spend. However, I can guarantee you can learn a thing or two from a stingy scoundrel like Phil Villareal.

Author of Secrets of a Stingy Scoundrel: 100 Dirty Little Money-Grubbing Secrets, Villareal takes us into a new realm of saving money, one that may or may not cross your ethical lines. The book’s cover boasts an evil looking image of George Washington on the dollar, and promises to teach you how to save money on eating out, watching movies for free, and gaining easy swag. It’s not your average frugality book. In fact, it hilariously challenges everything you thought you know when it comes to cutting money corners.

The Obvious

Phil gives us some advice that we’ve probably all heard of at one point or another, otherwise known as common sense. Advice like “don’t become addicted to cigarettes, you moron” hits home for more people than you’d think. Do you know how expensive a pack of cigarettes are nowadays? Smoking is a very expensive habit, especially if you smoke a pack a day. Cutting that out can save you between $1,730.10 and $4,343.50, depending on what state you live in.

There’s also a tip on cutting your landline, something my husband and I decided to do when we moved in together. Since we both have cell phones, we figured we didn’t need a landline, when our family and friends had each of our numbers. That’s a simple cost to cut right there. One less bill to pay each month. Sounds easy enough, right?

The Cheap

There’s some tips in the book that will have you thinking “that’s pretty cheap” but chuckling all the same. Villareal suggests breaking up with your significant other just before birthdays and holidays in order to save money on gifts. It’s not a new concept, but it’s cheap all the same. Would you go that far to save money? A stingy scoundrel surely would!

Although money and friendship don’t usually mix, Phil highly suggests borrowing from friends before borrowing from the bank. Could your friendship possibly be in jeopardy if you don’t pay the money back? Of course. But it definitely won’t affect your credit like if you defaulted on a bank loan. Think that’s the worst of it? Things get better.

The Unethical

Are you above anything that helps you save money? What about taking supplies from your office’s supply closet? Would you dress up as a homeless person to get some free food? How about refusing to tip your waiters and waitresses? Phil is willing to avoid weddings, having children, and paying for dates in order to get by. Is it worth it to save a couple dollars? Of course it is!

If you don’t have a sense of humor, chances are you’ll be offended by the bluntness of this book. However, if you love a good laugh, and you’re willing to push the envelope a bit in order to save a couple bucks, this will be one of your favorite reads. Learn to mooch, scrape, and borrow with no intentions of giving back from the best of them. Want to save money on this book? Buy it, read it quickly, and return it. At least, that’s what Phil would do (just kidding).

If my son had his way, he would be taking tap dance, playing soccer and baseball, and taking piano and guitar lessons.  However, we simply don’t have the money or the time to put him in that many activities.  If you have children who want to explore many extracurricular activities, here are some ways to keep them active without spending more than you can afford.

1. Institute the one activity rule.  Allow your child to participate in only one activity that costs money at a time.  I instituted this policy because, while I want my son to participate in activities, I don’t want it to be a financial strain.  We have two little girls who will soon also be participating in extracurricular activities, and another motivation for this rule is so I won’t be spending my entire day in the car driving from one activity to another.
2. Pay upfront and save.  Some places allow you to pay for the entire season upfront and receive a discount.  My son is currently taking tap dance, and the dance class for nine months cost $500, but because we paid that all upfront, we received $50 off, bringing the cost down to $450.
3. Explore free options in school.  Even in elementary school there are plenty of free extracurricular activities such as choir, band and sports.  Of course, you will have to pay for the instrument or the personal equipment, but there will be no fee for the actual activity.
4. Look into park district services.  Our local park district offers many classes for kids from dance to karate to soccer at a very reasonable price.  However, I have found that you often get what you pay for.  In my experience these classes are best for small children who are just beginning to explore their interests.
5. See if you can barter.  Though many of us don’t feel comfortable doing it, bartering is alive and well.  Seeing if you can barter may be worthwhile.  When I was a teenager, I used to take piano lessons from a woman with three young kids.  I watched her girls for a few hours a week in return for free piano lessons.  At my son’s old dance studio, I used to clean the studio for two hours one Saturday a month in return for getting his lessons for free.
6. Use daily deal sites.  Many people are familiar with using daily deal sites such as Groupon and Living Social for restaurant deals, but these sites do occasionally have deals for kids’ extracurricular activities.  These vouchers can give your child the chance to try something new at a fraction of the cost for you.

Having well-rounded kids is important for both their personal development and their future college applications.  Most kids are interested in learning and practicing new activities.  As a parent, you can foster their interest without breaking the bank by using some of the strategies given.

What are your favorite ways to save on kids’ extracurricular activities?

I’ve been a fan of The Simpsons from the very beginning when they started out as a cartoon short during the Tracey Ullman Show.  The characters have changed quite a bit over the years and none more so than Homer Simpson.  In early episodes, Homer was a hard-working father with good intentions who just never seemed to catch a break.  These days he’s little more than a buffoon bouncing from one comic adventure to the next.

But there is one character trait that Homer has managed to maintain through it all and that is his entrepreneurial side.  Time and time again Homer has started his own business venture to help support his family and get rich.  Sure, they pretty much always fail miserably (and are sometimes blatantly illegal), but at least he’s trying!

Here are my ten favorite Homer Simpson business ideas:

• When Homer discovers his neighbor Ned Flanders has his own home-based internet business, he decides he wants a piece of the action too.  He launches his own internet company called Compu-Global-Hyper-Mega-Net.  Before long Bill Gates shows up with a few of his goons, and despite the fact that he can’t even figure out what Homer’s business does, he decides to buy Homer out.  Unfortunately for Homer, Gates’ idea of “buying out” is having his goons destroy Homer’s office and snap his pencils, stating “I didn’t get rich writing a bunch of checks.”
• When Homer’s dad invents a tonic that promises to put the spark back in your sex life, the two of them go from town to town selling Simpson and Son’s Revitalizing Tonic.  All goes well at first but their success quickly fades and the tonic business comes to an abrupt end as they get into a big argument and Grampa tells Homer he was an accident.
• After wrecking both his cars in a snow and alcohol induced accident, homer ends up buying a truck with a plow attached.  Homer then starts his own snow plow business called Mr. Plow and even goes on public television with a commercial and catchy jingle. His business is booming until best friend Barney decides he wants a piece of the action by starting his own business called Plow King.  A bitter competition drives them apart until Barney is trapped in an avalanche.  Homer bravely saves him and the two promise to reconcile their differences and work together, with Homer saying, “When two best friends work together not even god himself can stop them!”  An angered God sarcastically says, “Oh no?” and promptly causes a heat wave that melts all the snow and effectively puts them both out of business.
• When Homer finds an auto-dialer in a trash dumpster he uses it to annoy the population of Springfield with his Happy Dude telemarketing scam.  His scam, which offers the true meaning of happiness to anyone who will send him money, ends suddenly when Chief Wiggum kicks down his door and repeatedly shoots the auto-dialer.
• Bart wins a radio contest and the prize is a real, live elephant.  Of course elephants have quite an appetite and the Simpsons soon find themselves going broke trying to keep him fed.  In an attempt to raise money, Homer starts selling rides on the elephant but his outlandish prices ensure that this business venture is destined to fail.
•  After fighting with his wife, Homer wanders into a bar and meets a waitress named Lurleen Lumpkin who sings a song on stage.  Homer connects with the song and before you know it he’s taking her to a recording studio to record a CD.  Her song is an instant hit and he becomes a country music star manager, Colonel Homer.  Once he lands her a gig on a country western television series it seems like they’re poised to achieve greatness together.  But when Homer realizes that Lurleen wants to be more than just business partners, he is forced to end the relationship to protect his marriage.
• Homer enrolls in a clown college and after graduating he begins impersonating Krusty the Klown at various events.  At first he loves the praise and freebies he receives but things take a bad turn when he is kidnapped by the Springfield Mafia, who mistake him for the real Krusty.  Eventually the real Krusty arrives and they both narrowly escape with their lives after performing a complex loop-de-loop trick on a tiny bicycle.
• When a prohibition movement takes hold in Springfield the sale of alcohol is outlawed.  But when Homer stumbles onto all the barrels of beer discarded by authorities, he sees an opportunity.  As the bootlegging Beer Baron, Homer secretly supplies beer to Moe’s Tavern (now disguised as a pet store).   When he runs out of beer he starts using stills to create his own brews and delivers them to Moe’s inside a bowling ball.  Eventually the town decides it has had enough of prohibition and lifts the ban on alcohol, putting an end to Homer’s bootlegging venture.
• After learning from Apu that he can sell grease for a profit, Homer begins frying up bacon at home so he can sell the leftover grease.  Realizing he needs larger amounts of grease, he recruits Bart and the pair drive to Krusty Burger to try and steal the grease from the fryers.  Unfortunately, their big score is promptly stolen by a pair of goons from the Acne Grease and Shovel Company, who claim they control the grease business in Springfield.  Undeterred, they go for the mother-load…the fryers at Springfield Elementary.  This time they are foiled by Groundskeeper Willie, who is relying on that grease to be his retirement plan.
• Homer comes across a sugar truck that has crashed and spilled its load on the road. He quickly hauls the sugar home to his backyard and decides he can get rich selling sugar door to door.  When Marge tries to discourage him by telling him the supermarket already sells bags of sugar for much less than he is charging and that their sugar isn’t full of rocks and glass, Homer argues “Those are minerals!” and continues his plan.  But he soon becomes obsessed with protecting his precious sugar from thieves.  Soon, the sugar attracts bees from a local apiary.  The beekeepers offer Homer $2,000 to buy back their bees, but a sudden rainstorm washes it all away before the transaction can be completed.  Homer is left with no money and no sugar.

Dave Ramsey made the term “gazelle intense” common vernacular among those who follow his advice and want to get out of debt.  Gazelle intensity means to work as hard as you can to throw as much money at your debt as possible to get out of debt as quickly as possible.  Often, to do this, people must take on an extra job (or two), in addition to selling things around the house.

Gazelle intensity works because as you pay off your smallest to largest debts, you become encouraged to see that you are making progress.  It is supposed to be difficult, but the motivation is that you only need to be gazelle intense for a relatively short period of time and at the end, you will be debt-free.  However, gazelle intensity may be required for anywhere from a year to several years, depending on how large your debt is and how much money you are able to make.

While the strategy is great for your financial life, it can wreak havoc on your personal life if you are not careful.  Here are some strategies to maintain your relationship while being gazelle intense.

1. Make sure both parties agree to be gazelle intense.  Having one or both spouses work extra jobs can create problems, especially in a family with young children.  Making sure you are both dedicated to becoming debt free as quickly as possible can help avoid resentment and anger when you are both exhausted from working so hard.
2. Have a positive mindset.  Sacrifice is required when working so hard.  You may be short on sleep and energy.  Feeling sorry for yourself is easy when you are in this state.  Instead of having negative thoughts, turn them into positives.  “I am working hard to improve my life and my financial situation.  I am lucky to have the opportunity to work so hard; many people can’t find jobs.”  Remember, you and your spouse ultimately made the choice to become debt free in an intense way.  As Dave likes to say, “Live like no one else so later you can live like no one else.”
3. Be open to changing course, if necessary.  Working hard for 18 months to become debt free rather than paying the debt off slowly over 10 years is usually the smarter financial decision.  However, being debt free quickly does no good if it leaves your relationship in shambles.  If one spouse decides they can no longer handle gazelle intensity, slowing down the debt snowball for the sake of the relationship is important.  You may be able to pick up your speed again later.
4. Make time for one another.  If you are both working crazy hours, it can be hard to make time for one another.  Although it may not sound romantic, if you are both short on time, make sure to schedule time to both talk and have romantic evenings together.  You may not get to go out on the town and spend a lot of money, and you may not get to spend as much time together as you would like while you are being gazelle intense, but being together to reconnect is important.
5. Sit down together to review your progress.  Dave Ramsey says that there is always one financial geek in the relationship and one who is not so interested in the mechanics of the family budget.  Regardless, make sure you both sit down together monthly to review your debt snowball and see how much debt you have paid off.

Many people know about gazelle intensity, but not many people talk about how it may ravage your personal relationship.  There is no point being gazelle intense if you destroy your relationship in the process.  Follow the suggestions above to both eradicate your debt and maintain a loving relationship with your partner so you can emerge debt free and happy together at the end of your gazelle intensity.

Whether you’re joining a new company or if you’ve been at the same one for years, there are certain things you should keep in mind when interacting with your peers. Here are 8 things you shouldn’t do at work.

1. Gossip: It happens at every job, has been happening and will keep happening. Whether at the water cooler or via instant messaging, he-said she-said always gets around the office. It can backfire on you in no time. Instead, distance yourself from the people who are constantly spreading someone’s business (truth or lies), and keep your personal information to yourself to avoid getting involved.
2. Micro-manage: Micro-managing is not fun. As adults, you should be able to trust someone to do their job. Constantly checking in, giving instructions, and always being around can actually decrease performance instead of increasing it. In the beginning, of course, training is necessary. However, if your employee has proven that they can be trusted, give them the opportunity to do things by his or herself.
3. Hover: One of my biggest pet peeves when I’m working is when people hover. I don’t like for people to read over my shoulder or stick around when I’m on the phone. It’s very awkward and it can be interpreted as rude. Instead of just sticking around, you can leave a note or just ask someone to come see you when they’re done. Hanging around and hovering can make people uneasy and seems as if you’re rushing them.
4. Stay on social networks all day: Facebook has killed productivity in the workplace. Whether it’s stalking exes, catching up with friends or family, or working on your farms and mafias, we can spend a little too much time on social networks. Twitter is another time sink. Don’t forget you’re at work, meaning you have work to do! Your zombies can wait, and so can your followers. Save your social networking for your breaks and do it on your own time. You’re not getting paid to tweet (unless you have a job like I had as a Social Media Coordinator).
5. Come in tardy constantly: Little is more distracting than when someone is constantly late to work. It’s understandable if you come in late occasionally. You can’t control traffic, maybe the kids were slow to get ready for school, and sometimes we simply oversleep. However, someone who is regularly tardy has no regard for the importance of their job. If you’re really having trouble getting to work on time, make arrangements to either change your shifts or work on whatever it is that’s making you late.
6. Reply all: Reply all is probably one of the worst things you can do at your job. Some people send messages meant for just one person and it ends up arriving in the inbox of all of your coworkers. I’ve seen this happen and had to silently laugh to myself. I’ve seen it where it was relatively harmless (just annoying), and I’ve seen it where someone was being talked about, and tension was very thick at work afterwards. Be sure to double and triple check that you’re simply hitting “reply” and responding to one person.
7. Take things personally: At my last job, the office culture was based around the principles in the book The 4 Agreements. One of the agreements is to not take things personally. I think this should be a universal agreement at all job sites. When people mix business with personal things, nothing good is achieved. When someone is criticizing your work, do not feel as if they are attacking your personal character. Take it as constructive criticism and move on. Don’t take work problems back home.
8. Handle personal business: You may be at work for the majority of your day, but it’s not the place to handle your personal business. This means you shouldn’t be holding personal conversations, scheduling appointments, having arguments, etc. If you absolutely need to handle personal business, you should make arrangements to take care of it during your breaks. If that’s not enough time, talk to your supervisor about handling emergencies. Just don’t make it a habit.

What are some other things you shouldn’t do at work?

Week two of the NFL playoffs are about to get started!  Last week my NY Giants utterly dominated the Atlanta Falcons (sorry Evan) and this week they’re up against the reigning champion Green Bay Packers.  My nephew is a Packer fan so that adds a little extra something to the game for us…but if you’re not a football fan then here are some great articles to keep you busy this weekend…

Frugal Zeitgeist – Cheapest Places to Live in America
Budgeting in the Fun Stuff – Learning to Manage Your Finances Early
Free From Broke – Three Stories that Prove Consumers Still Have Power
Budgets Are Sexy – Stuff New Home Owners Never Think About
Stupid Cents – Games That Taught Me About Money
Canadian Finance Blog – Is Gold in a Bubble?
Planting Money Seeds – Eating Chocolate: The Key to Financial Success?
Everyday Tips and Thoughts – Comparing the Real Costs of Driving vs Flying
DDIY – Building AdSense Revenue – An AdSense Tutorial

Go Giants!!

There is an image of the 1950s housewife, complete with her red and white ruffle apron, presenting her husband a nice roast fresh from the oven after he has returned from work and had time to read the paper.

Obviously, we are now far from those days; in many families both parents work and the six o’clock hour is a busy one filled with tired, hungry kids and parents stressfully finding a way to put dinner on the table quickly.  Even if one parent stays home, life can be busy with extracurricular activities and other events.  While there are pre-made foods you can buy to feed your family, it is healthier and cheaper to make your meals from scratch.  By utilizing intentional leftovers, you can present a healthy dinner quickly, making both your budget and your family happy.

Intentionally using leftovers only requires a bit of advanced planning.  Often, you can do the prep work on the weekend, making weeknight meals even quicker

Rotisserie Chicken

Buy a rotisserie chicken on Sunday afternoon and remove all of the meat from the bone.  That night, place all of the bones and extras in a slow cooker with 10 cups of water, 2 carrots, 2 celery stalks, 6 cloves of garlic, a quartered onion, and a squirt of lemon juice.  Let it cook over night and strain in the morning.  Put the broth in ice cube trays to freeze for quick, homemade chicken stock.

For one meal, simply mix some chicken with salsa, heat and serve on tacos with cheese, lettuce and tomatoes.  This meal can be on the table in less than 15 minutes, and it is cheap.

Later in the week, make a simple tortilla soup.  Saute a diced onion, diced red pepper and garlic in olive oil and then add the chicken, some of the chicken broth, frozen corn, black beans, a can of diced tomatoes and spices such as cumin, red pepper.  Simmer for 15 minutes and serve.

Pork

One morning, place a pork tenderloin in the slow cooker along with diced sweet potatoes and a diced onion.  Add a can of diced tomatoes mixed with some brown sugar.  Pour over the tenderloin.  When you come home, you have a complete meal waiting for you.  Save some of the pork for later in the week.

A few nights later, simply mix the shredded leftover pork with bbq sauce and heat on the stove.  Serve the pulled pork on buns with the side of your choice.

These examples are just a few of the infinite possibilities.  Eating healthy, homemade food doesn’t have to be time consuming or expensive.  Take a little time on the weekend to do some prep work, always plan your first meal with an idea of how you want to re-purpose your leftovers for another meal, and take advantage of your slow cooker.  You may not be cooking for hours as a 1950s housewife might have, but you will still be able to feed your family nutritious meals in about as much time as it takes to go through the drive thru.

This is a guest post by Darin Sewell

When it comes to fixing bad credit most people have no idea what they need to do or where to start the process. Many simply give up and do nothing hoping the problem will go away on its own, it rarely does. Others turn to credit repair companies that charge a lot of money for their services hoping they do some secret step to make a bad credit score jump overnight. But what most people do not realize is that they can easily fix their own credit, though it will not happen overnight and will take some effort and dedication. Let’s take a brief look at what is required to increase your credit score in the article below.

The Very First Step You Must Take

First, you need to get yourself in financial shape so you can make all of your bill payments on time and also save a small amount each month for emergencies because if you cannot do this then you might as well not even start. I know paying your bills sounds like a no brainer but you would be surprised how many people skip payments to pay for other things that pop up. This is where saving comes in, if you have no emergency fund when you get in trouble you are going to charge it to your credit cards. This just adds to your problems and keeps you not only in debt but also in the vicious circle of bad credit.

Where to Find These Savings

I know what you are going to say, “I have no extra money to save”. While this might be true for a small amount of people, the average person wastes a lot of money every month that they could easily save. For example, if you cut back your cell phone package or take basic cable as opposed to the ultimate package that’s money you can save. Cutting expenses like this does make living a little less luxurious but the payoff is worth it!

You Have To Budget Yourself

Once you find the extra money you need to apply to your debt and savings, sit down and budget your bills. Figure out what you will pay extra on each bill every month and stick to it. Many accounts now allow auto pay and you can set this up so the amount is automatically paid every month. This keeps you on track and your debt levels going down. To make the balances go down faster I like to attack the account with the smallest balance first. Once it is paid off take the money you used to pay towards it and apply it to the next largest account. Once you pay of two or three accounts like this your payment amounts snowball and your debt drops quickly.

The Second Half of Credit Repair

Keeping yourself on track financially is however only one part of the credit repair process, you also have to make sure your credit report is free and clear of errors and damaging information. This is the part where it can get a little tricky and where the real work comes in. This is also the part many people choose to pay to have a company do for them. This is fine, but just make sure you use a nationally known credit repair company with a good BBB rating as the credit repair industry is overrun with fraud and fly by night companies.

Where to Start the Credit Report Clean Up Process

The first thing you need to do is buy a copy of your credit report. Do not take a free copy as these do not show your scores. Instead purchase a copy of your credit report from each of the three bureaus Experian, Equifax and Trans Union. This lets you see what each of them is reporting about you, and trust me they all report different stuff!

Go through the negative accounts and look at what is being reported. Look at the balances, the credit limits, the date of late payments and anything else that you can find. Chances are something will be reported incorrectly and when it does you can dispute them with the credit bureaus with the goal of getting them removed. Also keep a watchful eye out for any items that are not yours or blatantly false information.

The credit dispute process is a very easy process to carry out and I will go over it lightly below. In a nutshell all you need to do is write a hand written letter to the credit bureaus explaining why the account is incorrect and ask them to remove the information. They will generally launch an investigation into the matter and if the lender who is reporting this information cannot verify it with documentation then the bureaus will remove it for you! The process takes about 45 days to complete for each item and it is wise to only dispute 1 or 2 items at a time or it may make you look suspicious to the credit bureaus and they will stop accepting your disputes.

What Credit Repair Really Boils Down To

Paying your debt down and paying your bills on time while removing negative items on your credit report is the core tactics to credit repair and they take time. There are no magic steps to give you a 200 point jump overnight or give you perfect credit when you have a 500 score. There are courses and software programs out there that can assist you in your efforts but none of them will give you that upper hand or eliminate the need to do the basic groundwork I have explained above.