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Week of March 8, 2010

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Grandpa Terry's Update

Grandpa Terry's Tip of the Week

Grandpa Terry's Email

Featured Author's Article

Grandpa Terry's Update

Welcome to The Budget Stretcher!

Straight Talk From
Discover Financial

In today�s changing financial environment, it�s important to know where you stand when it comes to your use of credit. The articles on the below page will help you navigate the new credit card landscape in America.

Straight Talk

Security Alert: U.S. Census Scam

Here are some tips to help you recognize fraudulent activity or unofficial data collections.

U.S. Census Scam

Gas In Fredericktown MO - $2.52 a Gallon!!!

That's all for now. Remember, I really enjoy hearing from you folks. If you have any comments, complaints, suggestions or just want to say Hi, please send me an email to tre2000@midwest.net

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Have a great week,
Grandpa Terry

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Grandpa Terry's Tip of the Week

Quick Money Tips #1
from Budget Stretcher

This is the 1st in a series of articles that provide helpful money tips that you can use to stretch your budget.

1. Don't use your credit cards unless you intend to pay off the balance at the end of the month.

2. Prepare a simple budget that you can stick to.

3. Organize your bills and receipts so that you can lay your hands on anything you need within 60 seconds.

4. Use your checking account only to pay bills. Use cash for everything else.

5. Control your impulse spending.

6. Don't spend more than you make each month including credit card purchases.

7. Plan all of your purchases no matter how large or small.

8. Set your financial priorities keeping in mind you and your family's survival.

9. If you are having money problems, find out how you got there so you can make a plan to get out.

10. Set aside some money for a crisis fund you can use for unplanned and unexpected expenses.

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Grandpa Terry's Email

Hi Grampa Terry,

Your tips for being agressive with credit companies worked well for me. They had changed the "due" date for my payment so I was 1 day late. I immediately called about their $39 late charge.

I was polite, but stated that I was a good customer and paid on time and was loyal to them but..felt this was unfair and just hated to have to transferr to another card..It worked, the late fee has been canceled and the due date arranged for my convenience.

Thankyou for all your advice and tips and the jokes too. I hope you are doing well.

Great Gram Joan

My Response:

Hi Great Gram Joan,

Way to go! That $39 means more to you than the credit card company. By the way, under the new credit card law they are not allowed to change due dates.

All the best,
Grandpa Terry

Featured Article

Surviving Unemployment:
What do I do now?
By Jill Cooper

It is difficult and frightening to be without a job. I know. I have been there and done that a few times. So have my son and my son in law. We aren't strangers to unemployment. I don't want to bore those of you who know my past history already, but since we often get accused by some of our readers of failing to understand what they are going through, I thought I wod give you a little of my background first.

My husband and I had only been married a few years when he was laid off for the first time. He went to work on Monday morning and came home a couple hours later with his things, but with no severance pay. We had already spent every penny of his previous paycheck two days earlier and had nothing in a savings or checking account. We had nothing. We had no credit cards to use and nothing but a little cash in our pockets.

Talk about scary. These days, most people have some sort of credit card to use or at least the possibility of going to a food bank or social service organization. We had none of those. For 4 months, we lived on the $40 a week that my husband made teaching piano.

Guess what? We lived through it.

A few years later my husband left my kids and me. We had the house, but it was mortgaged to the hilt with tons of debt. I had no job, hadn't worked for 12 years and had no marketable skills. I didn't have a husband's paycheck to fall back on. I had no family members, church or friends to ask for help. We were only just making ends meet when he left, so I still didn't have any credit cards, a checking account or savings.

We didn't really even have many garage sales or thrift stores to go to. They weren't the "in" thing in those days and very few people had them.

On top of that, I received a foreclosure notice from the bank saying that we had two weeks before they wod take our house. That's when things got really interesting. I had no government bail-out offers and wodn't have even thought about asking anyone else to pay my bills and debts.

I had to hold on to my house. My house payment was so low that, if they took my house, rent for a studio apartment wod have been more expensive than my house payment. In other words, if I lost the house, my kids and I wodn't even be able to afford to live in a studio apartment.

But once again I survived.

At this point, I thought I had been through the worst of it, but I was wrong. A few years later, I became sick and cod no longer work and I still had 2 kids at home. Do you know what it feels like to be so sick you can't even feed yourself when you have no spouse, family or friends to help and are laying there desperately wondering how are you going to take care of your kids?

Oddly enough, in one way, it was the easiest time I had had to go through. Why? Because, by that point, even though I didn't have an income, I had my finances under control enough that, even though it wasn't fun, I was able to cope without fear. I had been there more than once before and each time I went through it I learned how to deal with it better.

I don't say all of this to feel sorry for myself, but to assure you that I do know what it feels like. In some of your cases, your situation isn't nearly as bad as what I went through but, even so, I know it can be scary, uncertain and discouraging. The good news is that it isn't the end of the world and it is fixable. Let me give you a few ideas that will hopefly make things easier for you.

You just lost your job. Now what?

The most important thing is not to panic. I am not very good at dealing with medical emergencies. When I see my child with a crushed finger, I tend to go to pieces. My husband who had been a nurse told me not to panic unless they stop breathing.

That re applies in any situation. You may have lost your job, but it isn't as if one of your children has stopped breathing. Put it in perspective. It is not fun. It's a pain, but it isn't a life or death situation, even though it feels like it.

Panic is the timate form of fear and it will paralyze you. When you are paralyzed physically, what happens? Nothing-- you can't move. The same thing happens when you panic. You become emotionally paralyzed. That is not the emotional place you want to be when you need to be up and out looking for a job.

When you are physically paralyzed you will try and do everything to overcome it. You need to do the same thing when you are emotionally paralyzed. Don't let your emotions like discouragement, frustration, anger, and of course fear overrun and re you. You will experience these emotions, but they don't need to control you and your actions.

This is not the time to waste your energy on negative emotions. In the same way that you use work and activity to exercise your physical muscles, you need to actively work with your emotions to get them under control. Think with your head. Ask yourself, "What are the real facts?" Get away from the TV, your computer or the phone and get moving.

If you can't look for a job at this moment for whatever reason, then at least do something constructive. Get those home repairs done (the ones you can do without spending money), spring clean the house, have a garage sale, help a friend or family member with something or volunteer.

Stop your spending immediately. Cut back on everything but the bare essentials. No one needs new clothes right now unless you have a child who has outgrown his only pair of shoes or something like that. If you have to replace things like this, buy the least expensive you can find. Now is not the time to be fl of pride. Hit garage sales and thrift stores to save.

You must be ruthless when it comes to halting the spending in a time like this. No more spending for hobbies, sports activities, junk food or entertainment until the situation is resolved. Don't go to the malls, Wal-Mart or anywhere else where you will be tempted to spend money. Only go shopping when it is necessary. When you get gas, pay for it and leave. Don't go near the pop machines. Go as little as possible to any places that you normally spend money.

Take little things into account. Don't buy that newspaper. If you need it to look for work, borrow one or read it at the library. Cut out the expense of taking your child to every birthday party and instead, let them only go to 1 or 2 of their best friends' parties. Cancel cell phones, cable, and all extras. (Yes, these are extras.)

Remember this is just for a season until you start working again. It won't kill you to give up a lot for a while.

I don't have room in this article to go into details on all the ways to cut back on spending, but you can learn more about this on our web site, blog or in my e-book Penny Pinchin' Mama, where I cover thousands of ways to survive with no money.

Stop using your credit cards. If you use them, you can get into a royal mess that will continue even after you have a job. If you don't have money to pay your house payment and bills, what makes you think you will have money to pay a credit card bill? If you think you can put things like creditors off by doing this, think again. Procrastination is never the answer.

If you do use a credit card under these circumstances, it is like robbing a bank. You are taking money from a bank that you can't pay back. That is wrong.

Put pen to paper, be honest and figure out exactly where you stand financially.

As I said earlier be active. Don't sit at home each day on the phone or computer bemoaning your situation and whining all day to friends and family about your poor lot in life. It is not attractive for anyone to do this, especially a man.

Hit the pavement every day for several hours trying to find a job. Politely and not with pity let everyone, including strangers, know you are looking for a job. I know that sounds strange, but once I was at a fabric shop with a woman was looking in the same area I was for something to clean her iron. She asked me if I knew what she shod use. I told her and explained that I took in ironing for a living. She was so excited and started bringing me her ironing, which I did for years. I have had this type of thing happen often. You just never know.

Get your resume in order and out there.

Think "out of the box". Don't just look for the same kind of job you have always had. Check all areas, even things you don't think you are qualified for. Don't assume anything like, "I can't do that job because I don't have a degree in it."

My son loves computers and is a genius with them, but he doesn't have a degree in that area. Recently, his company had an opening in the computer department. He stepped out of the box and asked them to consider him. He had never asked before because of his lack of a degree.

It turns out that they want him, even without a degree, and it is a manager's job on top of that-- even better than he dreamed.

This may be a time for drastic measures but don't let that frighten you. If your unemployment lasts too long, you may have to move to a less expensive house, sell your car or even move out of state to a place where it is less expensive to live and there are more jobs.

I know that sounds like too much, but lots of people have done it and survived. My family is all in Colorado. I wod love to live there, but I can't afford to, so here I am in Kansas. Many areas of our country were settled by very brave men and women who had no money or jobs and headed across the country in covered wagons to move some place they cod afford. Often, they left their families who they might not ever see again. You're not the first one (and you won't be the last) to lose a job.

Make money where you can while you are looking for a job. Take a part time job at McDonald's in the evening so you will have days open to look for other jobs. Mow lawns, bag groceries at a grocery store, do handy man work, take in ironing or do something else to bring in some money. Don't be too proud and think that any job is beneath you.

Go to temporary services or employment agencies. They often have temporary jobs that can lead to permanent ones. Don't go to employment agencies who ask you to pay them. It is not wise to spend money that you don't have, especially when so many agencies don't charge the applicant.

Do employment research on the Internet. You may need to get rid of your home Internet to save, but you can use the Internet for free at the library. Job Service offices (where people go for unemployment) usually let you use the Internet for free to look for jobs, too. Where there is a will there is a way.

Don't listen to the media or follow any news. It will only depress you. The media is making things out to be worse than they are. Well over 93% of the people in the US still have jobs. I have lived long enough now to know that people lose jobs all the time. In my life, I have seen economic conditions that were better than today, but I have also seen them far worse. Things aren't that bad. We aren't in a depression. During the depression the unemployment rate was 25%. Sorry, but we have a way to go yet before we can say we're in a depression.

Don't forget to laugh. Focus on what you do have, not what you don't have. Don't let this be a time that you lose your integrity. A person's true character comes out during hard times. It isn't so important what happens to you, but how you react when it does.

Spouses, you need to support each other at this time. It isn't time to be playing the blame game. You are a team. Work together, not against each other.

Lastly, don't look at this as the worse thing that has ever happened to you. It might be the best thing. You might find a better job than your last job. Maybe you'll find a whole new career. With my husband and I, it forced us to start our own business, something we wod have never done if he hadn't gotten laid off.

Jill Cooper is a frugal living expert and the co-editor of http://www.LivingOnADime.com/. As a single mother of two, Jill Cooper started her own home business without any capital and paid off $35,000 debt in 5 years on $1,000 a month income.