If you would like to start 2012 on the right financial footing and want to do something that is attainable, consider taking a challenge.  Two of my favorite challenges are spending challenges and pantry challenges.  Take either or both of these challenges, and you will find extra money to do with what you please—to save for a new vehicle or home, to bulk up your emergency fund or to snowflake on your debt to get it paid off faster.

I have already spoken about the spending challenge, otherwise referred to as the No Spend Month as an excellent way to raise money for Christmas gifts, but it is also good to
do another time of the year.  Choose one month when you limit your spending for disposable items such as groceries, entertainment and gas by as much as 50% of what you typically spend.  You will find yourself being mindful of what you spend money on because there is very little money to spend.  If you normally spend $800 a month on groceries, entertainment and gas and you vow to slash that amount by half for one month, you now have an extra $400 available to meet your financial goals.  (I often have a no spend month in February.  The psychological boost of knowing it is the shortest month of the year makes it easier to stay the course.)

Another challenge I try to take at least one month a year, but ideally two months a year, is a pantry challenge.  All of us have some extra items lurking in the cabinet.  I often buy ingredients for a certain recipe, but then if I don’t get a chance to make that recipe, I often still have the non-perishable items on the shelf a few months later.  With a pantry challenge, you try to use up what you have.  A common misconception is that you are not allowed to grocery shop at all.  That is not true.  Just like a spending challenge, you set a designated amount you want to spend.  Say you spend $600 a month to feed your family of five.  During a pantry challenge, you decide you will only spend $200 for the month.  That means you must try to make meals from ingredients you already have on hand.  This is a great way to not only save money but also to use up food that may be nearing its expiration date so it doesn’t go to waste.

If you would like a little extra money for your financial goals this year but you don’t have the time or inclination to work more hours, having a spending or pantry challenge may be the perfect solution to generating more money in a limited time frame.

Have you taken part in a challenge before?  Were you successful?

photo credit: 401K

Ninja, over at Punch Debt in the Face, wrote an article last week about being addicted to savings that got me thinking. Or, thinking harder, I suppose.  The attitude that he talks about towards savings is one that I’ve noticed in myself and others who have gone the way of the Frugaler.  He calls it an addiction.  I think it’s something a little more sneaky.  Something that creeps up on you and then grabs hold and won’t let go.  Something many will call “Habit”.

Views vary on how we pick up habits, but, by definition, a habit is something that you do over and over without much thought.  An unconscious task that you repeat.  It’s no coincidence that many addictions are also referred to as habits.  Smoking is sometimes referred to as a bad habit.  A pot of coffee a day is sometimes referred to as a bad habit.  But, a savings habit is a good habit.  One that many will struggle to establish.  Drug habits, smoking habits, and coffee habits are all habits that are easy to pick up because they cause a pleasure response in you body.  A savings habit is a bit harder to pick up.  But, as Ninja will attest, it can be done.

How?  Repetition.  Do something repeatedly, for a long enough time period, and it becomes a habit.  Being a successful Frugaler is a product of habit.  We start off forcing ourselves to turn off lights as we leave a room, shop for good deals before buying something, save a certain amount out of every paycheck, and set aside a certain amount each month for charitable giving.  And, before we know it, those things that we started off forcing ourselves to do become habits and we do them automatically, without having to think about doing them.  If there’s one thing anyone with a bad habit will tell you, habits are hard to break.

I know that I’ve felt it.  I often spend a month or more deciding on whether to buy something or not.  Especially if it’s on that fringe where it may or may not be necessary.  I’ve spent weeks bidding on items on eBay, determined to get an item at a specific price point.  Something that I could have paid a few dollars more for and had weeks earlier.  Like the junkie looking for his/her next fix, I’ve got a saving habit that I can’t quit.  The more I do it, the harder it is to spend any money at all.

Of course, like anything that’s good for you, there is a line where it becomes slightly less good for you, and then can become downright bad too.  Saving is good.  Pushing your savings to a point where you’re taking it to extremes is less good.  And becoming a downright miser is bad. Setting savings goals is a good way to limit the extremity of your saving.

A Frugality habit will change you.  As your savings tasks become habit, it becomes easier and easier, and eventually, you hardly notice it.  What are your savings habits?  How did you establish them?

photo credit: epSos.de

Saving money isn’t the only thing out there if you want to become wealthy.  All it does is reduce the amount of money you spend.  You’ve still go to find ways to make more money through a better paying job, passive income, or a second job.  But, it’s still an important part of a well-rounded wealth plan.  One of the more popular, green, methods of saving a few dollars is to turn off your appliances.  Turning them off isn’t the end of it though.  Many of them still pull a small amount of energy from the electrical system even when they are, technically, off.  While it isn’t a whole bunch, it still can amount to enough to keep you from realizing your full savings.  In the UK, they have electrical sockets that have switches built into them that turns the socket completely off, and cuts it’s supply of electricity.  Unfortunately, here in the US, we don’t have such a thing.  But, we can buy power strips and adapters that have timers and switches to cut the supply to the sockets.

Power Strips

Power strips come in many different shapes and sizes, and almost all of them have a switch of some sort on them to cut the power.  Buying one isn’t a huge problem.  Your local Walmart likely has several to choose from.  Consider the things you’ll be plugging into the strip, however, when shopping for one.  If you’ll be plugging in sensitive electrical equipment, like computers, DVD players, laptops, and printers, you’ll want to have one with a surge suppressor, at the least.  You might even consider getting one with a battery backup system so that the equipment stays on when there’s a power outage.  If you want to get really fancy, take a look at this strip from Belkin.  It’s the Conserve Smart power strip.  It’s got a socket that can detect when the item plugged into it is turned on or not and shut off several of it’s other sockets based on that info.

Power Adapters

Adapters also come in several shapes and sizes.  If you want to get a close look at what you are using in electricity, you can use an adapter that will monitor usage and has a readout of the total usage. Something like this Kill-A-Watt energy usage monitor would do the trick.  A more simple, and elegant, solution is the Belkin Conserve Energy Switch.  It’s a simple adapter that goes between the socket in the wall and the device you’re plugging in.  It’s got a toggle switch built right in allowing you to simply flip the switch and cut the power to the device.  It should work great for devices like coffee makers, shredders, and anything else that doesn’t require multiple sockets or anything fancy.

Pull the Plug

Yes, there is an even simpler solution.  Simply pull the plug from the outlet.  No fancy adapters or power strips needed.

With any of these solutions, there’s a small amount of learning curve in play.  You’ve got to learn to remember to flip the switch or unplug the stuff when you’re not using it.  You’ve also got to learn to remember to flip the switch back on or plug the stuff back in when you do want to use it.  Not the biggest thing, and as you do it more and more, you’ll get used to it.  One small note, that I don’t think I really need to say, but I will anyways, is that this isn’t meant to be the be-all, end-all of conserving energy methods.  Making sure you’re using the most energy efficient appliances in the first place, for instance, is likely to save you a lot more on your energy costs than unplugging appliances.  Switching out your incandescent light bulbs for more energy efficient alternatives is also more likely to save you more money.  But, if you’re looking to squeeze a few more cents from your watts (terrible electricity pun, I know.), you’ll do everything you can to save some money, including unplugging or cutting the power to your appliances with a switch like those mentioned above.

Share with everyone!  What are your energy conservation tricks?  Do you turn the heat off all winter and wrap yourselves in wool blankets?  Do you turn off the fridge in the winter and simply store your goods outdoors in the snow?  Tell us!

We’re only a few days into the new year, and chances are that several of you have already broken at least one of your new years’ resolutions.  You’ve eaten way too much food.  You’ve skipped a day at the gym.  You’ve overspent on some key category.  Partially, it’s not your fault.  You probably made resolutions that wouldn’t stick in the first place.  They just aren’t specific enough.  Resolving to “lose weight”, “work out more”, or “spend less” are useless resolutions.  You’ve got to get specific with them.

Set some specific GOALS.

Instead of just making resolutions, create some specific goals to go along with them.  Instead of “lose weight”, set a specific goal, like “lose 15 pounds”.  Setting a goal not only gives you a specific benchmark to gauge your success, it also helps to motivate you to accomplish those goals.  Financially, we can use this to our advantage.  What spending events do you know will be happening in the coming year?  Maybe you’re like us, and will need a new set of tires for one of your cars before the next winter hits?  Set a specific goal to save so that the spending event doesn’t catch you with your proverbial financial pants down.  January is a terrific time to start planning your savings and spending goals for next Christmas.

Track your progress.

Setting goals doesn’t do you any good if you don’t track your progress towards accomplishing them.  Whether you’re weighing in to track a weight lose goal or tracking account balances to track progress towards a savings goal, you’ve got to track them.  There are plenty of ways to go about it.

1. Create a list of your goals – This doesn’t have to be all that fancy.  In fact, you can do it on a sheet of paper if you like.  Just list the goals, the amounts your saving towards the goal, and leave room for a running tally of how much you’ve saved towards the goal.
2. Track your progress – The accountants in the crowd will have a savings account with ledger balance entries that mark each penny for the goal that it belongs to.  If you’ve just got a list, just keep a tally on the list of how much you have saved.
3. Keep your hands off – Be disciplined about your savings goals.  That money has a purpose, and the fact that you haven’t spent it yet doesn’t mean that it’s available for other uses.  Once the money is in the savings account, it stays in the savings account until the event/expenditure that it was saved for arrives.
4. Spend what you’ve budgeted.  Saving for expenditures can be a great way to keep yourself to a budget. Once you’ve met your goal, that’s the money you have budgeted for the expenditure.  Don’t dip into your other funds to spend more on the event.  Keeping to your budget will help you reach your overall financial goals.

Setting specific goals and being diligent about tracking and saving towards those goals is a great way to improve your financial situation.  Even if you’re not sure that you can do it, I encourage you to give it a try with a few small goals.  Once you do, and you start to see your progress, you’ll find yourself making goals for all kinds of things in your life.  And, you’ll be accomplishing them more and more often.

Additional note:  I like to use my ING direct account to help save towards goals.  Their system allows for unlimited sub-accounts.  Once you’ve got an account set up, simply create a new sub-account ING Direct Orange Savings and rename it with the name of the goal that you’re saving for and the amount that you are aiming for.  e.g. “New Tires – $750″.  Once you’ve got them all set up, you’ll be able to easily see what goals you are saving for and what your progress is.  Many banks and credit unions will allow you to set up a limited number of sub-accounts, so you’ll have to ask at your institution if you don’t decide to use ING Direct, but I’ve never found another place that makes it as easy as ING Direct.

How do you plan, budget, and save for your financial goals throughout the year?

photo credit: Images_of_Money

Despite the best of intentions and the clearest of budgets, sometimes holiday spending can snowball out of control. It can start with an innocent extra box of ornaments or a gift for someone not on your list, and before you know it, you’ve charged the entire month of December on your credit cards and you’re facing the New Year with bills you’re not sure how to pay.

Even if you have gone overboard this year, it doesn’t mean you have to spend all of 2012 digging yourself out of the hole. Here’s a step-by-step and (relatively) painless plan for paying off your holiday spending spree.

1. Transfer your credit card balance responsibly. To avoid having to pay interest on your purchases, look into transferring what you owe to a 0% balance transfer credit card. This will give you a little breathing room to pay off your holiday excess—the transfer term is sometimes as long as year or more.

You will generally face a nominal transfer fee of around 3% of the balance, but that will still save you a great deal of money compared to your interest rate, provided you can pay the balance off before the 0% introductory rate expires. As always, make sure that you use this transfer along with a payoff plan (step 2) in order to keep yourself afloat. If you’re not sure about your ability to handle the temptation of a new credit card, then skip right to step 2.

2. Create a payoff plan. With your budget (you do have a budget, right?) and a calendar in hand, determine exactly how much you can send to your credit card each month or with each paycheck. If possible, set up automatic payments to the credit card for the day you receive your paycheck so you don’t even have to think about it. And to keep yourself motivated, start a debt payoff thermometer on a whiteboard or online. (Online thermometers are generally created for fundraisers, but they work just as well for debt payoff). A visual of how far you have come and where you still need to go will help you to remember the big picture when temptation strikes.

3. Find extra ways to make money. Even with a period of 0% interest and a payoff plan, a truly epic spending hangover may still take some time to recover from. If you want to make sure that this lapse in judgment affects as little of your New Year as possible, here are some ways to “find” extra money to send to the debt:

Go on a Financial Fast in January

Just as you might want to refrain from drinking for a while after an all night binge, you might also want to put the kibosh on your spending for some time after the holidays. Basically, you will choose a certain amount of time during which you will refrain from spending any money outside of absolute necessities. It’s very important to be brutal with the definition of a necessity. For example, you can eat through the food you have in your pantry, rather than go to the grocery store during your fast.

Michelle Singletary of The Washington Post recommends committing to at least a 21 day fast in order to see the best results. And after a month of excess, it will feel great to know just how little you need to spend in a month.

Sell Your Gifts

We all receive gifts that aren’t quite right. It may feel strange, but there’s nothing wrong with selling your gifts and gift cards on sites like Ebay and www.giftcardgranny.com. It means that the gift will truly be appreciated and that you can feel more financially comfortable. Just make sure you sincerely thank the giver. They are, after all, giving you an opportunity to get your financial ducks in a row, even if that’s not the gift they intended to give you.

Earn More Money

While there’s only so many ways you can cut your spending, your earning potential is virtually limitless. If you’re still not sure how you can pay off your debt quickly, try to find a second income stream that you can send directly to your credit card. If you find something that you really enjoy doing, you’ll be spending your time more wisely, as well.

The Bottom Line

We all make mistakes, particularly when temptations are around every cheery holiday corner. The bigger mistake would be to ignore the problem and let it get out of hand without dealing with it. Don’t start your 2012 in the shadow of your poor 2011 decisions. Take charge of your finances and make sure your New Year is a great one.

Emily Guy Birken is a freelance writer and regular contributor to PTMoney: Personal Finance. She lives in Lafayette, Indiana, with her mechanical engineer husband and infant son. Her musings on life, parenting and money can be found at The SAHMnambulist and Live Like a Mensch.

photo credit: faster panda kill kill

With Christmas less than two weeks away, you may be feeling the crunch to get the perfect gift in time. Or perhaps, your gift budget is running low, yet you still have quite a few people on your list to give gifts to. Here are easy last minute solutions to earn free or cheap gifts for the season.

1. Swagbucks:

Many people have mentioned the fun and ease of Swagbucks. Have you signed up already? Are you participating every day to get bucks? Spending just a few minutes each day searching, doing the daily poll, and other small and fast tasks will add up quickly. You will easily receive more points for every person that signs up under you. Once you have someone sign up under you, every time they earn a Swagbuck, you earn one too. For easy earning, sign yourself up and then have your spouse or family member sign up under you. My husband and I spend minimal time on Swagbucks and earn at least a $5 Amazon gift card each month. I know you may be thinking, “What can $5 buy me on Amazon?” With no taxes (in most states) and a prime membership, $5 can choose from a lot of small and affordable gifts for kids and friends. Also, the Amazon gift card available on Swagbucks can be combined in your Amazon account to add up to a greater amount.

2. Coinstar:

While Coinstar does not exactly reward you with free cash, it can turn your huge coin collection into real hard gift cards. When you cash in your coins to Coinstar and redeem them for gift cards, including the Amazon e-gift certificate, you do not have to pay any extra fees that are usually associated with cashing in coins for cash. Coinstar recently added gift cards for Chili’s Grill & Bar, Maggiano’s Little Italy, Papa John’s, and Toys”R”Us. You may be surprised by how many coins you have. Even cashing in enough to earn a $5 gift card puts you $5 ahead in your spending budget.

3. Homemade:

Homemade gifts can be wonderful gifts. They are thoughtful and usually cost more time than money. So if you have the time, try making things from scratch. Here are some ideas for fun gifts to make under $5:

• Make homemade caramel sauce and pair it with homemade hot chocolate mix. Place them in small glass jars with a cute note saying, “Have a sweet Christmas”.
• Pair a small bag of gummy worms with a notebook full of quotes from books, a pen, and perhaps a book (check the local thrift store for great deals). Attach a note saying, “To my favorite book worm”.
• A bag of popcorn with a handmade ticket that says, “Admission to One Free Movie Date with me” (Of course, this may cost more than $5 when they do wish to see the movie, depending on what time you go).
• Cover a wooden letter (check your local craft store) with yarn for a home decor gift great for the whole family.
• Fill a tea cup with several bags of tea and pair with a side of homemade scones or tea cakes.
• Bake bread from scratch and pair with homemade or store bought jelly.
• Homemade play dough for children.
• A big tin of homemade cookies or brownies.

Just because your Christmas budget may be tight this year, there is no reason to stress out over gift giving. Most people are appreciated at the thought behind the gift. Always pair the gift with a special card or note to really show the gift receiver how much you appreciate and care for them.

photo credit: shimelle

My family and friends can’t stand going shopping with me. I used to be easily influenced into buying anything. Now I simply don’t want to buy anything. I’m the worst person to go shopping with now. I second guess every purchase. If I do end up buying something, I ask myself, “what will I get rid of now?” You know, the one in and one out policy. I don’t like to fill up my place with stuff, I would rather experience more.

With Christmas right around the corner we’re all shopping and the malls are jam packed. It’s too tempting to bust out the credit card and buy that perfect Christmas gift for that person on your list. Financially gluttony is way too common around this time of the year. I could go in the direction of racking up massive amounts of credit card debt by buying stuff, but I’m going to go in a different direction. I wanted to get into the actual stuff that we buy. I wanted to focus on what happens with all of the things that we spend our money on.

Is your stuff owning you? How can you tell? Let’s look at a few warning signs when it comes to letting your stuff take over your life:

You can’t get rid of anything.

This is a serious problem. Hoarding is very addictive and there can be no boundaries. Once you start to hoard it’s going to be difficult to stop. You’re going to want to hold on to everything. We all know someone that has a home filled with stuff from the 70s that they really don’t need any more. If you find yourself unable to get rid of anything, this is a sign that your stuff is taking over!

You have no space in your home.

If you can barely get around your place because of all of the stuff, then it’s definitely time to let go of a few things. Stuff is clutter and clutter sucks. There’s no other way to put it. I once rented out a mini disposal bin from a friend and got rid of a whole garage full of stuff. What’s the point of a garage (or basement or spare room) if it’s unusable because there’s too much crap in it? When you have no space this means that you got way too much stuff.

It feels like you never have enough.

When you can never have enough stuff, you’re letting your stuff take over. There’s always an excuse to get more stuff. If you feel like you don’t have enough you’re going to keep on accumulating more and more stuff until you can even find your bed in the room. If you can never have enough, it’s time to break loose of your stuff.

I hope I didn’t scare you hoarders away just yet. What if you’ve noticed some of these warning signs? Is there a solution? Of course there is. There’s no need to stress because you can easily get over this little love affair with stuff. How can you break free from your stuff?

Sell your crap for money.

This is the most obvious solution to dealing with stuff. Since there’s a monetary value behind all of our stuff it makes it difficult to just throw it out. Instead of throwing it out, you can always sell it. As they say, “one man’s trash is is another man’s treasure.” There are many theories and techniques on the Internet when it comes to selling stuff. Mine is simple.

Go on Kijiji, put up an ad, and wait for the responses. If you don’t get any then re-post the ad on a few other similar sites. I’ve always found success with selling my stuff on Kijiji. Just throw something on there RIGHT NOW and see what happens.

Done your stuff to charity.

If you can’t sell your stuff or just can’t get rid of it, then you can always donate it to charity. This is what I started doing with my clothes. I purge my wardrobe every few months. As time goes on, my style changes and as does my size. I work out often so I have plenty of clothes that doesn’t fit. I either give it to my friends or donate it to charity. Clothing is meant to be worn. Not sit in a closet.

Try to experience something cool.

I find that one of the main reasons that we all spend so much of our money and time on stuff is that we don’t know what it’s like to spend money and time on cool experiences. In the last few years I started to go on more trips, look for more unique experiences, and experience more in life. Before I started spending my money on experiences I would just random buy arbitrary crap. When I started to travel I learned that there was so much more to life.

At the end of the day, it’s perfectly normal to be a hoarder. The good news is that you can break free of this habit easily!

Are you ready to break free from your stuff? Let 2012 be the year where you become clutter free.

This was a guest post from Martin of Studenomics, a fun blog aimed at helping you figure out what to do after college and how to find the best credit card for students. If you want to invest your hard earned money you can learn about screening tenants to protect your rental property.

photo credit: justinpickard

During a typical year, children get two weeks off school during Christmas break, often a week or so before Christmas and a week after.  However, this year, Christmas falls on a weekend, and if your school scheduled vacation as my son’s did, you will see kids who don’t get out of school for Christmas vacation until December 23^rd.  That leaves them with almost two weeks of vacation AFTER Christmas itself, a time that is pretty low on excitement.  (It is so much easier to have a week off before the holiday because there are so many activities for the kids to enjoy.)  You could very likely end up with bored children, especially because all of the activities of Christmas are over just two days into vacation.

However, there are plenty of frugal ways to keep the kids, especially your preschool and elementary school kids, entertained during the Christmas vacation.  Consider the following activities:

1.  Have a family play.  Take out the dress up box and let the kids come up with a play to perform for the family.  If your children are old enough, you can largely stay out of the picture and let them decide on a story, props, stage directions (even if the stage is just your living room).  Smaller children may need a bit more direction and assistance from parents.  If the kids are stuck for story ideas, they may want to act out what happens in one of their favorite stories.
2. Check out your local library.  Our local library has plenty of activities for kids during the holiday including a movie viewing night, family story hour, and a Lego building activity.  In addition to activities, most kids will enjoy spending an hour or two at the library reading books and choosing books to check out to read at home.
3. Visit a public museum.  Many museums put up special holiday displays such as holidays around the world and Christmas decorations throughout the years.  Most kids love all of the lights and decorations that go with the holiday, so take the time to visit your local museum and enjoy the display.  Afterwards, at night, take the time to drive around and view all of the colorful holiday lights and decorations on neighborhood houses.  If you have a house in your area that goes all out with the decorations, make sure to visit that one.
4. Let kids stay up late.  My kids need their sleep and have an early bed time.  However, during the holidays, we relax the rules a bit and let them stay up later one or two nights a week.  Perhaps they can stay up to watch a favorite show that they normally can’t view because it is past their bedtime or you could play games with them.  Either way, they will be delighted to stay up later than they are usually allowed to.

There are simple things you can do to entertain your young children without spending a lot of money.  Employ some of these tactics, and you will hopefully avoid the common vacation chant, “Mom, I am bored!”

photo credit: Pink Sherbet Photography

One of the most common things we hear in the computer repair shop that I work part-time in is that the computer has crashed, and could we please make sure to get the data off of the hard drive before we reinstall windows.  And, the first question we always ask is, “do you have your data backed up?”  I probably don’t have to tell you what the common answer is to that question.

Many computer users assume that backing up their data is expensive.  We see advertisements for services that cost $40-$50 a month, and for external hard drive solutions that are several hundred dollars.  But, keeping your data safe, doesn’t have to be expensive.  In fact, I’ve got all my important data backed up, and I spend less than $50 a year.  It’s not because I have some inside information, or get favors from tech companies.  You can do it too.  And, if you value your data at all, you should.

This is the set-up I currently use.

Picture Backup

Pictures are one of the top two things that people are concerned about losing when they bring their computers in.  Unfortunately, pictures are also the largest files that you’ll likely have to backup and store.  If you take a lot, you can have Gigabytes of pictures that will need to be backed up. In my set-up, I pay for a full membership to photo sharing site, Flickr.  It’s about $26 a year, and allows for unlimited uploading to the site.  The pictures are then stored on Flickr’s server, and I can get to them whenever I want.  I should note that this isn’t the most elegant solution, as I would have to download the images one-by-one if I wanted to restore them to my local PC.  I’ll go over some more efficient services at the end, but you’ll likely have to spend more money to use them.

Data Backup

For any files that are important, besides pictures, I use a service called Dropbox.  Their basic plan is free, but limits you to 2GB of data storage.  Because I backup my photos elsewhere, I’m able to store everything else that is important with them, and keep the free account.  After several years of using it, I am getting close to the 2GB max, so I may have to upgrade to the next plan up soon.  The first paid plan allows for 50GB, and is only $9.99 a month, so I don’t think I’d ever have to go above that plan.  I should also note, here, that if you have a very large music collection on your computer that you’d like to backup, you’ll likely have to look at a paid plan.

Other options for data backup

There are several other options that you could use for data backup.  The aforementioned external hard drives can be super easy to use.  One drawback to using one, however, is that the data is still physically located in the same place as the PC you’re backing up.  That’s fine if you only need to restore because of PC failure, but can be a disaster if you have to restore due to something like a fire or flood.  Ideally, external hard drives that are used for PC backup should be placed in an off-site location, but since that’s a bit cumbersome and likely to keep you from actually backing up your data, they should be at least placed in a fire-proof safe when not in use.

Another, more ideal way to back you data up, is through a service like Dropbox.  There are a few others that are specifically designed and marketed as data backup services.  Carbonite is probably the most well-known of them, but there is also ElephantDrive, and Mozy that do the same job.  Carbonite comes in at $59 a year, while ElephantDrive and Mozy come in at $9.99 and $5.99 a month, respectively.

Not backing up your data can be an expensive mistake to make.  Not only can it cost you a lot of money ($100 or more) to get your computer fixed, but you could lose all of your valuable data.  Save yourself the money of having it recovered, and save yourself from losing years of photos and information; get a data backup plan.

Do you backup your data?  What do you use for your data backup plan?

photo credit: Sim75 (Simon Lane Photography)

Holiday shopping is in full swing now, and you may be feeling the financial pressure.  Shane recently quit his job and is working on a tight holiday budget.  My husband and I are in the midst of being gazelle intense, so we don’t have much extra money for gifts.  Yet even though we don’t have much money to spend this holiday season, I feel great about what we are giving because we are not overspending.  We can truly afford what we are giving.  Instead of overspending, we are empowering ourselves by spending exactly what we are able to spend.  Follow these tips to rein in your holiday purchases this season:

-Freeze the credit cards.

Literally.  Put them in water and freeze them.  Better yet, put them in peanut butter as we did.  Vow not to use your credit cards this month.  There is nothing worse than opening your credit card statement and staring at the large number you now owe.  The presents have been opened, the holiday is over, but you still owe for the holidays.  If, instead, you put the credit cards away, you have nothing to dread come January.

-Set a budget and fund it with cash.

Determine exactly how much you have to spend and withdraw that money from your bank account.  Pay for every purchase with cash.  Feel the pain as you part from the cash.  Acknowledge what you are spending, and feel empowered that you are sticking to your budget.
If you want to shop online, get a debit card.  Just avoid using credit cards.

-Shop the bargains

There will be plenty of deals to come this holiday season.  Stay focused on the deals and only buy items you can get on sale.  Take advantage of buy one get one free sales such as buy one toy of a certain brand, get the second toy from the same brand free.

-Buy sets

For children, especially young children, buy toys that come in sets such as a baby doll with a stroller and a high chair.  Take those out of the package and break them into three different presents for the price you paid for the bundled gift.

-Look in unconventional locations

My children get presents from Santa and from me and my husband.  Since they were little, the toys that get from us are often gently used.  I shop garage sales throughout the summer and hide gifts away.  This year my three year old will get a new in the box baby doll that I picked up at a garage sale for $3.  My son will get a wooden box with five different games in it that I found at a garage sale for $5.

Obviously you may not have time to go to (or even find) garage sales now, but you can shop children’s resale stores for quality toys at a steep discount.

They say ‘tis better to give than to receive, and that is true more so when what you give is what you can afford.  Why not enjoy watching your family open their presents this Christmas without worrying where the money will come to pay for everything in January.  It is possible.  Beating Broke and I are both proof of that.

photo credit: aussiegall