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Great articles about managing debt

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I think at some point in everyones life they get in to debt. By this I mean the natural debts like owing car or mortgage payments of course. Unfortunately, a large percentage of people also fall into debt that they likely could have avoided. I know that I certainly did!

When I was younger I had my own business and while I was struggling to establish the business I lived on my credit cards because I simply had no cash to pay for things. I suppose in some ways that debt was more understandable than if I’d had a good income but didn’t control my credit card and cash spending because I was buying items I really didn’t need.

I know it’s easy to get carried away with spending. The way items are marketed these days with “buy now, pay later” slogans it’s easy to think “yeah, I could get that nice TV that I really want, I’ll be able to pay for it in 6 months before they start charging me interest.” However, other expenses often come up and you end up paying the high interest anyway. If you’ve done that with a lot of things, the next thing you know you’re in over your head and in debt.

If you’ve had trouble managing your money or paying off debts you might be interested in visiting Careonecredit.com as they have some fantastic articles on managing debt. Articles about Bankruptcy being the last resort, and and another about whether bankruptcy is really a good idea, another about either paying of debt or investing in savings, and yet another great article about whether debt relief is a myth or a reality. The articles are well written and very informative.

You can even learn more about credit counseling if you’ve let your credit cards and borrowing get you into financial trouble.

Considering that there’s so much good information on the site if you aren’t already in debt I’d still recommend that you visit the site and do some reading as you might learn some things about how to keep yourself out of debt too!

This is another site that I’d recommend bookmarking. As I said, at some point we all get into some kind of debt – good or bad, and the more we know about managing our finances and debts the better.






Online purchasing makes credit cards a necessity

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I really do feel that owning a credit card is becoming a necessary evil. I mean, how many of you shop online? I know it took some time for people to start trusting online stores, but I think we’ve embraced it as a whole now and there’s no looking back. Which of course means, that in most cases, in order to purchase items online we must have credit cards.

For those who are able to budget themselves and are good with money this isn’t a big problem, but we all know people who, once they get a credit card, begin spending and spending and soon buy themselves into debt.

I was looking at all the UK credit cards available at CardGuide.co.uk and you know what? The have a great article about why a prepaid credit card might be a good idea for those who have trouble controlling their spending habits.

To use a prepaid credit card you’ve got to have money in the first place. You must load the card with that money before you’ll be able to buy anything with it. Say good bye to late payments and creditors calling at all hours!

Those of you who are able to use credit cards wisely might do better with one with low or no balance transfers. There’s quite a selection of credit cards at CardGuide. You might be interested in visiting the site to compare credit cards and see what’s right for you.

While you are visiting the site have a look at their article “Earning with Credit Cards” as it offers some insight into the type of person who should use cards with rewards built in and other ways to earn or save money with credit cards too.

How Green Are You?

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As gardeners we have the ability to grow a good portion of our own food items. Just by growing our own food and or by eating locally grown unprocessed food items we can save 2,268 kg in CO2 emissions over the course of the year? Let me correct that … just by eating these types of foods once a week you can save that amount of C02 emissions. Just think of how much more you could do to help protect the planet if you ate home grown or locally produced food daily?

How did I come up with that figure? Well I was reading an article about reducing C02 emissions and it had 20 great tips that are easy to follow and that I’m sure many people would be able to follow. If you were able to do even some of the suggestions listed in the article you’d not only reduce a substantial amount of C02 emissions, but you’d also lower your energy consumption and save a lot of money. Perhaps savings in the $1000’s each year.

When you don’t eat food that you’ve grown in your own garden, or that’s unprocessed and locally grown, you have to add in the toll on the environment that processing food items, and then transporting them, sometimes as much as much as 2,500 km costs in C02 emissions, not to mention fuel and energy usage as well.

I know that not all of the gardeners who read this blog grow vegetables or fruit as well as their flowering plants and perennials, but if you don’t, please think about supporting your local agriculture. If you do have room, you can grow some veggies in containers, or in a small area of your flower beds. I grow strawberries, raspberries, tomatoes, peppers, carrots and some leafy greens between many of my flowering plants and you know what? They blend in just fine and oh … they are so tasty! I also grow beans, cucumbers and tiny tom tomatoes in containers on my patio, herbs and even more leafy greens, radishes, and peas in window box like containers on a platform outside my back porch.

I have purposely utilized my gardening space so that I can grow food and lovely, lovely flowers. You can too!

Now that it’s getting warmer in most areas there are other ways to reduce C02 emissions such as washing your clothing in cold water and putting them out on a clothes line to dry. Almost all of the appliances in our home are new and built to save energy, but we still need to get a new washer and dryer. We’ve still got the same ones that were here when we moved in and they were said to be 25 years old when we got the house so I guess our elderly appliances are going on 31 years of age! There’s no way that they are energy efficient. I know that. So I always wash in cold water and a good portion of our loads go out on the clothes line to dry. Not in the dead of winter, but we do have a clothes line set up in the basement so we still save some energy and C02 emissions in the winter that way too.

The clothes that I do hang out on the line always smell so nice and fresh when I bring them in. I don’t know why everyone doesn’t do this more often.

The dryer is apparently one of the worst household offenders as far as C02 emissions go, and ours being so old must be the worst of the worst. Just by hanging the clothes out on the line for 6 months of the year you can save 318 kg in C02 emissions, and at least €55 (£37 or $73 USD). By hanging our clothes outside and not using our ancient machine I probably save three times that!

Please do take a look at that article and see what you can do to cut the C02 emissions that you produce in your home. Remember, many of the suggestions will also lower your energy bill and save you money too. It’s worth taking a peak at.

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