According to statistics released by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control, four of the five top causes of death in America — heart disease, stroke, cancer and lower respiratory diseases — can be exacerbated by stress. Paying off your debt means reducing the financial stress in your life.

Man Vs. Debt has an older (but good) article about saving money in your fridge, which happens to be a hefty money drain for most Americans.

From Heather: Freeze them and then reheat for lunch or dinner on a day you don’t feel like cooking.
From Lara: Freeze! Right after I get done cooking, sometimes before eating, I pack it up and freeze the extra.

The Simple Dollar posts about how to effectively reduce your food budget.

Use a meal plan. A meal plan is the easiest way there is to make sure you’re constructing a sensible grocery list. A meal plan is just a list of the meals you intend to have over the next week or so. From that, you can figure out what items you need to make all of those meals possible.

Credit Sesame posts about how to manage multiple sources of debt.

The first thing you should do when thinking about taking out another loan is to determine your total monthly payments for current outstanding debt and the amount you’re looking to borrow. Then, figure what percentage of your monthly income would go towards paying off that debt.

MSN Money posts an article about Social Security Disability running dry by 2016. I’ve had a lot of people debate with me on Social Security, some saying it’s fine, others saying it’s in dire straights. What are your thoughts?

What wasn’t reported so much as glossed over was the fact that the Social Security Disability Insurance program’s trust fund will be exhausted by 2016.

The post Money in the News: Money and Health, Saving on Food, Manage Multiple Debts, Social Security Disability Depleting? first appeared on The Money Drain.

In college I frequented several book stores like Barnes and Nobles. I thought to save money I would agree to a membership to one of these book stores because I was always looking at books and music. After a time I was decidedly more frugal than before and stopped most of my spending except for necessities. What I didn’t do, however, was remove one of my auto-renewals, namely the book store membership. When renewal came around, I only had a few bucks in my account (poor college student), and the renewal came through, overdrafting my account. Not realizing this, and next day being pay day, I had a few other scheduled transactions come out on top of the overdraft, resulting in 2 more overdrafts complete with fees. Overall it cost me about $90 for a subscription I no longer use, and was certainly not getting my moneys worth now

– Submitted by: Emily K

Lesson Learned:
Auto renewals can be tricky. On one hand, I have no problem with them because I keep track of all auto-renewals in my MS Money. Things like, domain renewals, hosting fees, car insurance premiums, etc. On the other hand, if you don’t keep track of them, they can really bite you in the butt unsuspectingly. So really the advice here is, if you keep track, then auto-renewals are fine. If you don’t keep track, then it’s certainly not in your best interest to participate in them.

Amount Flushed Down the Money Drain: $90

The post Money Drain: $90 Lost by Forgetting About an Auto-Renewal first appeared on The Money Drain.

This is an article written by a good friend of mine, Tim.  As long as I’ve known him he’s been sort of a meat and cheese connoisseur, and he’s always looking for ways to save money on bulk meat purchases.

Time to cut the fat.

One easy way to save money on beef is to spend a few minutes with a knife. No, robbing people as they come out of the store is not an efficient way. Knowing how to trim primal cuts of meat yourself is much better, and much less likely to result in jail time. Buying a primal cut means the butcher doesn’t have to spend time trimming the meat down, and the savings gets passed down to you.

For instance: I saw beef brisket on super sale the other week for around $5 a lb. That’s about the best price I’ve seen around here for “trimmed” brisket. Alternatively, I decided to pick up a whole brisket the other day for the USUAL price of just over $2.50 a lb. I spent about 15 minutes with a knife at home, trimmed out just over 5 and a half pounds of fat, and even assuming I just throw away the fat (instead of making it into tallow), that means I’ve saved just over 80 cents a pound over the super sale prices.

Now imagine I was a smart consumer and shopped around for deals on the whole brisket so that we were comparing sale prices to sale prices, and the savings would be even larger. That’s also ignoring the fact that I would probably have ended up trimming down the store bought cut even more because I’m picky like that.

Another great example of a cut that you can save a lot of money on is beef tenderloin. Costco sells the PISMO (peeled, side meat on). Cut tenderloin? ~$19 a lb. PISMO? just over half that much. Again, that’s without doing any real shopping around.

The list goes on and on. Do a bit of research, watch a youtube video or two on how to trim primal cuts, and you’ll be amazed at how much money you can save.

The post Money Tip and Guest Post: Time to Cut the Fat. How you can save over 80 cents a pound by cutting your own meat first appeared on The Money Drain.

If a destination wedding is going to break your budget, simply send your regrets, along with a gift, she said. And if you do decide to attend, it’s always acceptable to give a less-expensive or homemade wedding gift.

Mint.com posts about how frugal shopping doesn’t necessarily mean you can’t eat healthy.

If you want to save on your produce, check out your local farmer’s market or pick-you-own place. While farmer’s markets are often thought to be more expensive than the grocery store, they are usually considerably more affordable.

CNN Money also posts about how over 900k foreclosure victim borrowers were shortchanged in their mortgage settlement.

Checks meant to compensate mortgage borrowers who fell victim to foreclosure abuses have finally started arriving in mailboxes — but many of the checks have come up short.

And because I found this interesting, despite being another CNN Money Article, apparently Tesla paid their federal loan back nearly 10 years early.

Tesla Motors announced Wednesday that it has repaid a $465 million loan from the government nearly a decade before it was scheduled to do so.

Mint.com posts about the top 10 mortgage misconceptions.

Mortgage rates are only released once per day. Mortgage rates for all types of mortgages can change frequently, sometimes dramatically, throughout the day.

The post Money In The News: Wedding Guest Debt, Frugal Healthy Eating, Mortgage Foreclosure Victims, Tesla Pays Off Federal Loan, Top 10 Mortgage Misconceptions first appeared on The Money Drain.

I don’t do a whole lot of travel, occasionally some through my work, and of course family vacations. Sometimes when I do travel I get a rental car if it’s somewhere I have to fly to. I’ve never purchased the rental car insurance, because I figured my car insurance was good enough. Technically this is true, but once I had to deal with the situation face to face, I realize I could have saved money by getting rental car insurance instead.

On one of my trips, the rental car I was driving had been victim to a hit and run while parked. The damage was close to $600, and my insurance deductible was $500. Needless to say I was out of pocket $500 for the insurance deductible through my own insurance, when I could have paid a much lower sum for rental car insurance.

– Submitted by: Andrew

Lesson Learned:
I could honestly go either way about rental car insurance. It is probably best to get the insurance no matter what, simply because it would not only save you deductible money if you were to get into an accident, but it would also (in theory) not affect your insurance premiums by counting against your insurance. So really there are two pluses to purchasing rental car insurance.

The only downside I can think of would be shelling out the extra money for the insurance, and then not needing it. If you rent frequently, this could certainly add up.

So I would say the usefulness depends on how often your needs are for rental vehicles. If I used rental services a lot, I might just go ahead and make sure I have my deductible saved up in my emergency savings account as a safety net. Eventually it will surpass my savings of having to purchase rental insurance frequently.

Amount Flushed Down the Money Drain: $500

The post Money Drain: $500 Spent on a Deductible for a Rental Car Without Insurance first appeared on The Money Drain.

Once I get a refinance on my mortgage done, get a few other financial bits squared away (like paying a friend that I owe money to, buying dad a new used truck, etc.), I will tackle the mortgage head-on and try to get it paid off ASAP.

So that’s the good. Now the bad.

I was laid off at the end of March.

I got two weeks severance, I had a small emergency fund, and I qualify for unemployment, so it’s not a total loss I guess. But anyone who knows me knows how devastating being unemployed is for me, considering how much pride I take in my work and my personal success over the last 8 years. Not to mention I take care of my disabled father, and my #1 fear in life is not being able to support him. That’s a worst-case scenario, and not likely to happen, but the fear is still there. Quite frankly I am glad that it is. I’d rather be someone who worries enough to prepare than someone who is complacent enough to let everything just slip away.

So anyway, being unemployed for a month today, I figured I’d write about what I’ve done so far on unemployment, and what I suggest others start doing if they find themselves in a similar situation.

My recommended steps when you find yourself unemployed:

1. File For Unemployment Immediately If You Qualify.
A relative of mine also lost their job this week and assumed you have to wait a week to file for unemployment. That is not the case (at least around here), so file right away to get the ball rolling. Even if you get a severance pay that would prevent unemployment from kicking in right away, file anyway (including webcerts) because then unemployment will start immediately after severance runs out.

Not sure if you qualify? Apply anyway, they’ll tell you one way or the other.

2. Update Your Resume.
Theoretically you should be updating this consistently already whenever you feel you’ve developed a new skill, launched a new project, received a new certification, etc. That way you don’t have to scramble to remember all of this all at once. Especially since job loss tends to create panic, and we don’t always think clearly in that scenario.

I keep my resume in Google Docs so I can update it anywhere I have internet when I have something new I can add or change. This also lets me share it with people I want opinions from in regards to the content, and it lets me download various file types of my resume (PDF or .DOC for example) to send to employers.

3. Create a Cover Letter.
Even if you just have a basis of content for a cover letter that you can fill in per job, having one prepared and ready to use when applying will make job applications a lot easier. It will make you look more professional and like a serious applicant if you use cover letters when applying where applicable.

4. Create or Update your LinkedIn Profile.
I’m not a HUGE fan of LinkdedIn, but I know a LOT of job recruiters or potential employers will look at your LinkedIn Profile on their own to get a feel for who you are and what you know. In fact I had an interview this week from a recruiter that said he did just that. In the age of technology, you want to be “in the know”, and LinkedIn is the employment hub of the web it seems. Don’t miss out just because you don’t have an account.

Not to mention, LinkedIn allows colleagues endorse your skills or write reviews on your abilities, which just makes you look good.

5. Start Applying For Jobs, Even If You Don’t Have All The Qualifications.
A lot of places are willing to train if you don’t have every qualification listed in their ad. You might be surprised, and you might get some paid training out of the deal.

Since I am in a technology field, I find that Indeed.com and occasionally Dice.com give me the best results in job prospects. My boyfriend is in more of the labor industry, which Craigslist produces the best results for him in regards to job listings. But we’ve both had success finding our types of jobs on all of these, so don’t focus on just one job board. I tend to use as many as possible.

Some additional job boards are: SimplyHired, LinkedIn, CareerBuilder, Monster, Glassdoor, TweetMyJobs, and reddit /forhire.

6. Don’t Just Rely On Job Boards, However.
I’ve noticed there are some companies out there that don’t like to list their jobs on job boards because they don’t want to go through potentially hundreds of applicants. Instead they’ll either go through a recruitment company, or they will just list the jobs on their own website under a “careers” or “jobs” link.

The recruitment company is SUPPOSED to be useful to filter through applicants that might better fit what they are looking for, saving them time and filling the position quickly. This benefits both the company and the potential employee because recruiters are supposed to help create the “perfect marriage” between the two. So don’t be afraid of recruiters either, they may have access to jobs that you don’t, or more quickly than you do.

Alternatively, companies will just list the jobs on their own website where only people who may be passionate about the company, or know that the company fits their needs and might apply. This also helps filter out people mass-applying for jobs. So think of companies in your area that match the type of work you are trying to do (or look them up), and go to a companies website and look for job listings.

I recently did this for a company in the area called Graphcom, who is the ONLY company within 30 miles that I know of that does web development work around here. It just so happened they had two listings I qualified for, but were not listed on any online job board, so I applied. Unfortunately they had already been filled, but I would have never known about them if I stuck to job boards.

7. Keep Track Of All Jobs You Apply For.
I find that keeping a numbered listing in a google doc is the best method for me to keep track of the jobs I apply for. The boyfriend has also adopted this method for his job searching.

This is an important record to keep because:

1. You don’t want to apply for the same job twice. And if you’re anything like me, I’ve applied to over 70 jobs in the last 30 days, and that would be a lot to “remember”.
2. Unemployment requires you to keep track of all job correspondences (MD requires you apply to at last 2 jobs a week or every 2 weeks), this way you’ll have those records handy
3. You want a place to keep notes on interviews, points of contact, etc.
4. You want a way to acknowledge which jobs have turned you down and which you may want to follow up on after you’ve had an interview.

The format I personally use in my Google Doc of jobs applied is:
1. Name of Position, Name of Company, Location
URL to job ad link
Date Applied
Notes of interview dates, when I followed-up (including date), if I received a turn-down notice (also dated)

So 4 lines of information, numbered and dated, and I have everything I need for my personal record, and unemployment should they audit my job applying process.

Another small thing I do that helps me filter through all of my 70+ job applications, is colorize my job listings between applied, turned-down, and interviewed. For example, when I get a turn-down letter I will gray out the text so it sorta looks hidden from the other listings. And when I get an interview set up I make the text bright pink (or red) to make it stand out so I know to follow-up with these people I’ve got interviews set up with.

The final bonus to keeping track of jobs you’ve applied for, is each week I submit my webcerts for unemployment, I am given a processing number. I can stick that processing number in this listing between the “weeks” the processing number is supposed to account for, so I know which jobs counted for which unemployment week.

8. Network With Friends, Family, and Colleagues
I’ve been blessed in my field to have worked and met with many web developers. When I made it known that I was looking for work, many of them started sending potential points of contact my way with companies that might be looking for work. Keep in touch with people in your field for this very reason.

It’s also important to network with new colleagues and companies as well. There are technology “meet-ups” that I attend and have met new people in my field that I can network with. I’m sure there is something similar for a lot of different fields (shows, job fairs, etc). Most of these are free, and a way to get yourself out there and mingling among potential employers.

9. Reduce Your Expenses.
Naturally this is something we should all be doing all the time anyway, but it’s even more necessary when you don’t have a steady income. No more eating out at restaurants, unnecessary expenses, etc.

Go through your finances for the last month (you do keep track of this, yes? If not, you and I need to set down and have a talk), and discover which items you don’t absolutely need. If it’s not shelter, minimal food, or transportation for work, throw it out until you have a steady income.

10. File Your WebCerts!
You don’t get your unemployment if you don’t file your webcerts. And you won’t keep your unemployment if you don’t apply for jobs and keep track of which jobs you’re applying. So do all of these things And keep doing them until you have a job.

11. Start Looking For Freelance Jobs, Even Ones You Never Thought Of Before.
I’ve been helping friends and family update their resumes lately, and they all seem to think I am good at it. Maybe it will become a side thing for me, maybe not. But I’m willing to be open-minded about something I could bring in some extra cash for.

I also let my colleagues know to send potential clients my way for web work, and so far they’ve come through pretty nicely where someone just needs a small project done that they don’t want to pay (or can’t afford to pay) a big company for.

But what if you are in the construction and general labor field, or something not as easily networked? I’ve seen plenty of “day” jobs on Craigslist where someone needs a fence built, or a tree cut down (a lot of these, actually), or someone with a truck to haul away debris. It may be a day job that pays cash, but it’s still considered “freelance” work.

Additional freelance boards you can consider utilizing are: freelancer.com, fiverr.com, guru.com, reddit /forhire, elance, and oDesk.

12. Invest In Your Skills With Education
This is another thing I decided to take on while job hunting, seeing if I can get a certification that will help make myself more marketable as an employee. And since I don’t do loans (I hate owing money, even for education), I applied for a Pell Grant (and was accepted). I am still going through the motions for this, but having grant money that I can put towards my self-education is a great investment of my time while job hunting.

Don’t disqualify the benefits of online self-education as well. I taught myself everything I know about web development and have never been to college. There are a lot of free resources out there that you can use to improve your skills and quality of life. Whether it’s learning a new spoken language, updating your knowledge on a programming language, watching YouTube videos on construction ideas and projects that could potentially turn into a freelance or “side job”, etc.

Budgets Are Sexy has a series of blog posts on “Side Hustles” and how people created side jobs to bring in extra money. Some of them are off-the-wall, and most of them are things I had never thought of getting into before. But they are all suitable side hustles you can take advantage of to make ends meet while you’re in-between jobs.

13. Sell Your Crap
So you’re unemployed, now you have a lot of extra time to do things you’ve been meaning to do. This could be anything from a project list to cleaning your house. How about making a list of things you’ve been meaning to get rid of either in a yard sale or by donating and see if you can’t sell it for a few bucks? I’ve been going through things like jewelry, my piano, an electric guitar and making a list of things I can or have been meaning to sell and didn’t get around to doing it. But now that I have extra time, it’s the perfect opportunity to knock out my todo list and purge items.

Where to sell?
If you have something to give away for free, Freecycle is your best bet. As far as selling to make money, I’ve had pretty good success with Craigslist, and a local Facebook group in the area for selling goods.

There is also ebay, amazon, Facebook marketplace, and Etsy for any hand-made or vintage items.

14. Don’t Stop Any Of The Tasks Above From #2-#13.
Your new full-time job is job searching and networking. I don’t know how many times through friends or family or what-have-you, I’ve seen people sit back and expect jobs to come to them or for people they know to help them find a job. Alternatively they will stop applying when they get a good feeling about a job they are applying for, and then don’t get an offer for that job.  They’ve wasted all that time when they could have another job interview lined up if they had kept applying no matter what.  You simply have to apply non-stop until you get a job offer you want.

You get what you work for, and if you want a job you have to do the work to get it.

Apply, Apply, Apply!

The post Money Tip: Unemployed Or Looking For Work? Here’s What You Do Next. first appeared on The Money Drain.

A number of high profile names were linked with offshore trusts and accounts, based mainly in the British Virgin Islands, including presidents, wealthy individuals and families, government officials, a British millionaire, and the eldest daughter of former president of the Philippines Ferdinand Marcos.

TMZ reports that Game of Thrones Star, Queen Cersei, is pretty much broke (not sure of the validity behind this entirely, but I know she is going through a divorce).

Actress Lena Headey — aka evil Queen Cersei from “Game of Thrones” — claims she’s dead broke with “less than $5 in her bank account” … and she desperately needs her tax refund to cover her living expenses.

Marketplace Economy posts about Unemployment falling to 7.6% with 88,000 jobs added to the industry.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports the economy added 88,000 jobs last month, falling below analyst expectations. The unemployment rate ticked down to 7.6 percent from 7.7 percent.

Mint.com posts about 6 steps to starting your emergency fund.

Make saving a non-negotiable expense.

Most people wrongly believe that they don’t have any income to save, because they expect the money to appear out of nowhere.

Savings is a process that you must be proactive in directing. Build the “expense” of saving into your budget, just as you’d approach a utility or credit card bill.

If you knew that going out to dinner with friends would make you unable to make your monthly car payment, for example, you’d have no choice but to postpone plans. Be just as disciplined about saving.

Generation X Finance posted an article about 9 crazy tax deductions that actually worked (Some of these make me go wtf?)

1. Cat Food
The Seawrights were allowed to deduct $300 for cat food. Yes, food for those fuzzy four legged pets that think that bringing their owners dead rodents and birds is the “cat’s meow” of a gift for a loved one.
The Seawrights argued that the deduction of the cat food was a legitimate business expense because they fed some feral cats on a regular basis, and the kibble kept the cats around the junk yard that they operated. Because the well fed cats regularly roamed around the junk yard, they hunted and killed rodents and snakes; so the cats were a natural source of pest control that protected their business.

The post Money In The News: Game of Thrones Star Broke, Unemployment Rate Down, Deducting Cat Food on Taxes, Starting an Emergency Fund first appeared on The Money Drain.

How I was scammed from my auto insurance policy

Over the years I have always heard about how some insurance companies have scammed their customers in one way or another. Even though I have always been a smart shopper when it comes to my insurance coverage, especially auto, I was recently faced with a nightmare of an ordeal related to my auto insurance.

Prior to being scammed, I had been with the same insurance company for over ten years. When I decided to buy a home, I price shopped for home insurance policies and found that there were cheaper rates elsewhere. I also discovered that combining my policies together would lower the overall rate and make my premiums lower. I finally found a company that would save me money and offer the best coverage available for the premium cost. Little did I know that they were not all they said they would be and there were several loopholes in my policy that cost me a lot more than just the cheap premiums each month.

Last year, I had a driver pull out on in front of me and because the roads were slippery. I was unable to stop and ended up broad siding the car. While no one was hurt in the other car, my passenger had to have several surgeries on his lower extremities. When my insurance company was contacted by the hospital everything seemed fine. But when I called a few hours later to report the accident, I realized that my policy was basically not as broad as I thought it was. Initially, they told me that the policy canceled out the month prior because they did not receive payment until 3 days after the due date due to a computer glitch. I checked my records and reassured them that the automatic withdrawal was taken it out, in fact, a day earlier than expected. It was almost as if they were making excuses as to why they didn’t have to pay the claim. They argued with me that there was a short lapse in coverage and they would not be able to cover my entire claim because my rate would increase and the dollar amounts were different than in my original policy. They also said that if I turned in the claim to be processed that my rates would go up and my monthly premium would rise. My passenger ended up paying a lot of out of pocket costs because the insurance company refused to pay.

The next issue I ran into was the replacement value of my totaled car. A few days later when I talked to an insurance adjuster, they came back with a considerably lower amount to replace the vehicle than I thought I would get. My car was only a year old and they only wanted to replace around $5,000 worth of damages. The car only had 26,000 miles on it and was in excellent shape prior to the accident. They stated that this was company policy and the dollar amount was based on other vehicles that were comparable in value to mine. They didn’t even ask about the overall condition of the car before it was in the accident or how many miles it had on it.

I was stuck paying over $3,000 out of pocket and that was not including the insurance premium that skyrocketed an extra $140 a month. In order to prevent this from happening again and to prevent it from happening to others, it is important to check over all of the clauses in an insurance policy or contract before continuing the policy. Don’t always ask about the cheapest policy but inquire about what all is covered on the policy and any limitations that may be involved.

– Submitted by Alex G

Lesson Learned:
Insurance is a complicated beast. Alex is right in a lot of his sentiments regarding saving money on car insurance such as saving money by combining car insurance and house insurance with the same carrier. There are several ways to save, but all of it is for naught if you don’t have what you need when the time comes.

The first step is determining how much car insurance you actually need. The Wall Street Journal gives a good break-down of how much car insurance you need, and what each policy means or what it covers. Obviously the more extensive the policy, the more expensive it is over time. For older vehicles (like my 1978 Ford Bronco), I usually get liability only. My bronco is a tank, so I’m not as concerned about personal injury (plus most of us have health insurance), but it can also do a lot of damage to fiberglass automobiles, so liability is crucial (and the minimum generally required to legally operate a vehicle).

The second step is to shop around and find a reputable insurance company by doing your research. Read reviews, don’t hesitate to shop online, read their policies to make sure it covers everything you need. Be pro-active and ask about discounts they might have available. Skip items you don’t need, or can get cheaper elsewhere (such as towing insurance).

And of course, get at least three quotes from different agencies, maybe one from a direct seller like Progressive, another from a large brand like Allstate, vary it up a bit to get an idea of which direction you want to go.

There are also a lot of tips that people don’t realize when utilizing your car insurance.

For example: Did you know that your credit history can affect your insurance premium? Not all of them do, but some insurers will assess an insurance risk score based off of your credit history.

In addition to that, some states will even allow you to stack your coverage, most don’t, but a couple will let you collect from multiple policies you might hold.

Either way, insurance is a nasty beast You should do your research, and regularly reassess your insurance to see if you can get a better rate somewhere else. My future father-in-law recently saved $1500 a year by switching his insurer, which may be a success story here shortly

Amount Flushed Down the Money Drain: $3,000+

The post Money Drain: $3,000 Lost by not having the correct auto insurance coverage first appeared on The Money Drain.

What? The Holidays? We just FINISHED the holiday season, why are you talking about it again already??

Well, simple really. By planning now, we’re taking out all the headache and stress out of later. And it’s so simple, ANYONE with determination and a little organization can do it.

Learn how I plan for the holidays each year, a year ahead of time

Since Donald and I moved in together, I had to adjust my usual Christmas planning budget to account for the additional family, and now the new travel expenses we’ll have to visit his family in Texas every year. But the bonus of this is, he’s also taking on half of the budget from his own salary.  That way we’re both planning ahead and sharing in the expense.

It’s truly a simple concept to save for expected expenses.  People should take more advantage of this method for things they know they’ll have to have money for in the future.  Some immediate examples I can think of include:

• Car insurance dues
• Needed automobile maintenance such as new tires
• Holidays (or birthdays and anniversaries)
• Fuel oil fill-ups or septic clean-outs
• New used vehicle (or brand new vehicle, if that’s your thing)

A lot of these you can get a really close estimate to how much you’re going to need to budget for.  For me, I know where I buy my tires from a wholesale tire joint, and I know the type of tires I’m going to need.  I called ahead of time to get a price, and maybe budgeted for $50 more than that, knowing I would want to replace them in 2 years.

So I had my price, my time-frame, and could easily figure out how much per paycheck to put away.  Once the time came for the new tires, I already had the money available, so no debt is accrued.

Easy Steps, because who doesn’t like lists?

1. Make a list of an item or items you know you’re going to need or want in the future.  You can just use Google Docs or a simple Word file for this.
2. Figure out or call for estimates for these items, add it to your list
3. Calculate when you plan to get these items (tires every 2 years?  Holidays once a year?)
4. Decide how much per paycheck based off of that number that you’ll need to put away to reach your goal.  For example, if I need $500 for new tires, I divide that by 12 months.  If I get paid twice a month, I can divide it by 24 instead to account for the two paychecks each month.
5. Start auto-saving!  I put all of these in their own separate savings account so I know not to touch that money   By the time I’m ready for the tires, I can pay for them upfront without the stress or worry.

It really is just that simple, and it’s the same approach I use towards all of my regular bills, from life insurance payments, taxes, holidays, maintenance, etc.

What sort of methods do you have for planning future expenses?  I know my method may not work for everyone, but it’s done wonders for me.

The post Money Tip: Christmas and Taxes Don’t Have to Empty the Piggy Bank first appeared on The Money Drain.

A lot of people who fail to file their taxes each year do so because they assume they will have to owe money or won’t be getting anything back. But the IRS says there is nearly a billion dollars in unclaimed returns from 2009, and that it needs to be claimed by April 15, 2013, or it goes into Uncle Sam’s pocket.

Mint.com posts about 3 little-known facts about Student Loan Debt.

In June of 2010, student loan debt made headlines when it surpassed credit card debt here in the U.S. Since then, outstanding student loan debt has surpassed the $1 trillion mark — making it the single largest form of household consumer debt outside of home loans.

There’s no question that student loan debt continues to be a growing concern — not only for students and graduates, but for parents, grandparents and policymakers alike.

CNN Money posts about an 89 year old grandmother who raised over $3k to hit her Kickstarter goal. Crystal note: Go Granny go!

Malkin this week reached her target of $3,500 in startup capital for her first-time business Happy Canes, a line of walking sticks she decorates with artificial flowers.

She debuted the Happy Canes project on Kickstarter in late January and needed to reach her goal by March 23.

Said Malkin, “I want to be an example to young and old people that age shouldn’t be a barrier for what you want to do in life.”

Bargain Babe posts about the 9 most common tax deductions:

Health Savings Account Deduction – Like the tax deduction for tax-deferred retirement accounts, contributing to an employer-sponsored health savings account, or HSA, reduces your taxable income. Just make sure that you’re not over-contributing to your HSA, as most come with a “use it or lose it” policy. This is another “above the line” deduction.

Lastly, Mint.com posts an infographic on how much Americans spend on St. Patrick’s Day Partying. Excuse me while I go drown my sorrows in Jamesons

Click to view

The post Money in the News: $900,000,000+ in Owed Taxes, Student Loan Debt, Grandma Meets Kickstarter Goal, 9 Common Tax Deductions, St. Patrick’s Day Money Drain Infographic first appeared on The Money Drain.