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Newsletter to Your Friends (Use this link only if you receive this newsletter by email) Week of May 24, 2010This is an OPT-IN list ONLY! If you feel that you have received this message in error, please follow the directions at the bottom of this email to unsubscribe. Thank you.Click Here to view this newsletter online. Navigate This ColumnGrandpa Terry's Update Welcome to The Budget Stretcher! I receive a lot of email asking if there is anyway that they can help promote Budget Stretcher. A few years ago I developed some flyers that can be printed and placed on billboards in your town. To view and print the flyers just visit one of the below links: Color: http://www.homemoneyhelp.com/colorflyer.html Black & White http://www.homemoneyhelp.com/BWflyer.html If you would like to get really fancy I have made some of those cutoffs with the web address on them that you can place next to the flyer. Here is the link: http://www.homemoneyhelp.com/cutoffs.html Last week I listed several gas prices from different locations around the country. This week I received a few more and even one from Canada. There is still time to submit gas prices in your home town. Just list the City, State(country) and Gas Price in an email to tre2000@midwest.net Kelowna, BC, Canada were at $1.089 per liter (which is about $4.017 per gallon) Lafayette,LA - $2.69 a gallon Magnolia, TX - $2.69 a gallon Morganton, NC - 2.79 a Gallon!!! Rockingham,NC - $2.89 A Gallon!! Dillon, SC - $2.59 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 If you know someone that may be interested in subscribing to our newsletter just copy and paste the below link into an email to them and have them subscribe: http://www.homemoneyhelp.com/confirmsubs.html Have a great week, Grandpa Terry Sponsor AdvertisementGrandpa Terry's Tip of the WeekDebt Settlement and Debt Consolidation? If you are like most people, then the answer is no. Debt settlement and debt consolidation are both viable options for handling your debt but which one is most appropriate for you? The first step is realizing that you need help with your debt. Ask yourself, how did I get into this situation in the first place? Sometimes it can't be helped. The loss of a job or unexpected medical problems can be the last straw for some people. Hardships of this nature can send your once manageable debts spinning out of control. If the circumstances above apply to you, then debt settlement may be your best option. So what is debt settlement? While debt consolidation is simply the restructuring of your original debt, debt settlement is the process of negotiating with creditors to settle for less than owed. Successful negotiations with creditors require a legitimate financial hardship (loss of job, medical problems, divorce etc). Instead of paying back the full debt amount, you'll probably end up paying only 35-50 percent of what you currently owe. Debt settlement doesn't happen overnight. Settlement can take at least 6 months or more to reach an agreeable settlement. Most quality debt settlement programs will take 24-36 months to settle all the debts you've enrolled. Once enrolled in a debt settlement program, you will set aside a monthly payment that works best for you. Since creditors make their money from incoming payments and interest, they will only consider settlements on accounts that will or have already fallen behind. During this time, your debt settlement company is negotiating with your creditors to reduce the actual amount that you owe. When enough money has accumulated in your settlement fund to settle an account, the account can be settled for about 35-50% of your original debt. This process will be repeated until all accounts are settled. Debt consolidation, on the other hand, is the practice of combining multiple monthly debt payments into a single monthly payment. Sometimes a single payment can be filtered through a third party who then distributes payments to multiple creditors. This often is done with a consumer credit counseling (CCC) agency. These programs can take as long as 5-7 years to complete. The CCC company may be able to lower your credit card's interest rates to a pre-determined rate agreed upon with the creditors. However, if you complete the CCC program, you would still have actually paid more than what you originally owed. Both debt settlement and debt consolidation programs, like any other debt resolution program, can have a negative effect on your credit rating temporarily. In most cases, your credit rating would have already been affected by your inability to pay the debt. Your focus should be on getting out of debt quickly rather than worrying about the temporary affects to your credit score. Now that you know the difference between debt settlement and debt consolidation, what decision will you make: consolidation or settling the debt? Sponsor AdvertisementPaying highest-interest debt first is the SLOWEST way out ... You can laugh at money worries - if you follow our simple plan. Discover savvy consumer money secrets your friends don't know and banks won't tell you. Limited time only. ACT NOW: ///////////////////////////////////////// Grandpa Terry's EmailHi Grandpa Terry,I have recently paid off my last credit card and am not just letting the money sit in my checking account as you suggested. I am using to it pay down my mortgage. It also gives me some extra cash if I want to give one of my children a helping hand. Beware of the free $250 gift card to your supermarket. Friends on Facebook suggested that I do that - they were very pleased. Well, I went from one level to another always have to chose two offers. I took a sneak peak at the last list of offers and there was nothing I was willing to try. I ended where I was but still have to be very careful to cancel the offers I accepted as soon as I can. For me, another way to stop spending money is to not sign up for offers from stores and other retail sites offering "bargains". It is too easy to buy something you don't really need because it is at a great price. I found that my email box was too full and I was missing some really important messages. If course, I can always created another email account just for the sites I really want to know about. They just bombard you with sales and more emails to let you know that the sale time is almost up. Take care, Grandma Hannah Featured Articleby Tawra Kellam Lisa writes: Hello ladies, I was wondering if you have any wise tips on reducing our utility bills? Our utility company just raised their rates, and we received a $300.+ electric bill this month.Hi Lisa! Here are few tips that we use: Keep your thermostat at 78-82 in the summer and 60-65 in the winter. For most people, this is the other way around. If you currently keep it much lower than this, try changing it over a couple months so you can get used to it. Move down to the coolest part or up to the warmest part of the house. In the summer move all your beds and/or the TV down to the basement. In the winter your upstairs room maybe the warmest so move up there. Don’t move everything twice a year. We have a bi-level house and immediately after moving in, we realized that even though a bi-level has bedrooms on both floors, it works better for us to live during the day all on one floor. We moved all of the sleeping arrangements downstairs, even though it meant that we used the downstairs family room for our bedroom. In the summer, open windows in the opposite corners of the house to “draw” the air through first thing in the morning. Then close them later before the heat of the day hits. Use fans instead of central air or even air conditioners. We don’t turn on the air conditioner unless it is more than 80° F (27° C) * Put fans in your windows backwards to draw hot air out. If you want the cooler outside air to blow across you in one room, place the fan in a window directly across the house to suck air out. Then, the cooler air will be pulled into the window where you are. * Use attic fans to draw hot air out too. Don’t underestimate how much an attic fan can help. Consider that a 125° attic next to a 78° house can raise the temperature, even with good attic insulation. It can literally drop your homes temperature’s several degrees. Do things that require you to be up and moving around during the coolest part of the day (dusting, vacuuming, cleaning the bathroom). Do the things that are less physical and more stationary in front of a fan during the hotter part of the day (washing dishes, folding clothes, paying bills). Plan ahead for baking. In the summer when it’s hot, only bake on the cooler days, ideally when you don’t need the air conditioner and can keep the windows open. If you can plan ahead for the week, bake what you can in advance so that if a really hot day comes, you can avoid using the oven that day. Keep an eye on your appliance operating costs. * Sometimes, you will save money on energy use by replacing an inefficient appliance. Most of the time, it will take a while for the cost of replacing the appliance to make the energy savings worth it, so don’t replace something expensive just to save on your utilities unless you do the math. If you find that you need to replace an appliance soon, replace it now if you can save on energy costs since you will have to incur that cost anyway. Our air conditioner costs us about $150 per month to cool our 1600 square foot house in the summer which is twice that of a friend with a similar sized house in town, but because of the high cost to replace one and the relatively few number of months we use it each year, we will probably wait another couple years to replace it. * Test your power usage if you can. There is a company that makes a device that is like a plug adapter that you can use to test the power usage on any appliance that plugs into a wall. Test any appliances you can. I thought that our refrigerator was using a lot of power and then I discovered it was actually the lights. * Don’t use appliances that you can avoid using. I like line dried clothes because of the fresh smell, so I try not to use the dryer much. This helps keep the cost down and also saves money because the dryer reduces clothes’ life span. For some appliances, reducing your use won’t save much. Unless you own a malt shop, go ahead and use the blender as much as you usually do.  Tawra From: Dig Out Of Debt |
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