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Week of September 28, 2009

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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!

Subscriber or Member?

I receive a lot of email wanting to know what the difference is between being a Subscriber to Budget Stretcher or Being a Premium Member. The answer is that there is a big difference.

If you are receiving this newsletter you are a Budget Stretcher Subscriber. Your benefits include this newsletter and a Subscriber Benefits Page with several downloads and information to help you manage your money. This is free and totally supported by advertising.

When you become a Budget Stretcher Premium Member you instantly have access to a weekly newsletter and a special web site that contains absolutely every possible money management tool available on the web plus so much more. There are absolutely too many benefits to discribe here but I have developed a site map that you can show you exactly what you will receive as a member. View your site map here

Also, when you become a member you never have to pay a renewal fee!! You make a one time payment and have access to all of the current and future benefits of Budget Stretcher Premium. Premium Members never pay for Budget Stretcher products. Learn more at my BSP Information Page.

Free Downloads

I would like to remind you about a couple of downloads that won't cost you a cent but could save you quite a bit. I've mentioned these before but we have a lot of new subscribers.

The E-Cookbooks Library Sampler

Money For Life

Gas In Fredericktown MO - $2.16 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

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Grandpa Terry's Tip of the Week

I received this by email this week and thought you may enjoy it as much as I did!!

Grandparents
1. She was in the bathroom, putting on her makeup, under the watchful eyes of her young granddaughter, as she'd done many times before. After she applied her lipstick and started to leave, the little one said, "But Gramma, you forgot to kiss the toilet paper good-bye!" I will probably never put lipstick on again without thinking about kissing the toilet paper good-bye...

2. My young grandson called the other day to wish me Happy Birthday. He asked me how old I was, and I told him, 62. My grandson was quiet for a moment, and then he asked, "Did you start at 1?"

3. After putting her grandchildren to bed, a grandmother changed into old slacks and a droopy blouse and proceeded to wash her hair. As she heard the children getting more and more rambunctious, her patience grew thin. Finally, she threw a towel around her head and stormed into their room, putting them back to bed with stern warnings. As she left the room, she heard the three-year-old say with a trembling voice, "Who was THAT?"

4. A grandmother was telling her little granddaughter what her own childhood was like: "We used to skate outside on a pond. I had a swing made from a tire; it hung from a tree in our front yard. We rode our pony. We picked wild raspberries in the woods." The little girl was wide-eyed, taking this all in. At last she said, "I sure wish I'd gotten to know you sooner!"

5. My grandson was visiting one day when he asked, "Grandma, do you know how you and God are alike?" I mentally polished my halo and I said, "No, how are we alike?'' "You're both old, " he replied.

6. A little girl was diligently pounding away on her grandfather's word processor. She told him she was writing a story. "What's it about?" he asked. "I don't know, " she replied. "I can't read."

7. I didn't know if my granddaughter had learned her colors yet, so I decided to test her. I would point out something and ask what color it was. She would tell me and was always correct. It was fun for me, so I continued. At last, she headed for the door, saying, "Grandma, I think you should try to figure out some of these, yourself!"

8.. When my grandson Billy and I entered our vacation cabin, we kept the lights off until we were inside to keep from attracting pesky insects. Still, a few fireflies followed us in. Noticing them before I did, Billy whispered, "It's no use Grandpa. Now the mosquitoes are coming after us with flashlights."

9. When my grandson asked me how old I was, I teasingly replied, "I'm not sure." "Look in your underwear, Grandpa, " he advised, "mine says I'm 4 to 6."

10. A second grader came home from school and said to her grandmother, "Grandma, guess what? We learned how to make babies today." The grandmother, more than a little surprised, tried to keep her cool. "That's interesting, " she said, "how do you make babies?" "It's simple, " replied the girl. "You just change 'y' to 'i' and add 'es'."

11. Children's Logic: "Give me a sentence about a public servant, " said a teacher. The small boy wrote: "The fireman came down the ladder pregnant." The teacher took the lad aside to correct him. "Don't you know what pregnant means?" she asked. "Sure, " said the young boy confidently. 'It means carrying a child."

12. A grandfather was delivering his grandchildren to their home one day when a fire truck zoomed past. Sitting in the front seat of the fire truck was a Dalmatian dog. The children started discussing the dog's duties. "They use him to keep crowds back, " said one child. "No, " said another. "He's just for good luck." A third child brought the argument to a close.

"They use the dogs, " she said firmly, "to find the fire hydrants."

13. A 6-year-old was asked where his grandma lived. "Oh, " he said, "she lives at the airport, and when we want her, we just go get her. Then, when we're done having her visit, we take her back to the airport."

14. Grandpa is the smartest man on earth! He teaches me good things, but I don't get to see him enough to get as smart as him!

15. My Grandparents are funny, when they bend over; you hear gas leaks, and they blame their dog.

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Grandpa Terry's Email

Hi Terry,

I was just curious on your thoughts about Chapter 13 bankruptcy. I am looking into the advantages and disadvantages. If you have any literature that you could forward that would be great.

Also, any advice you have on the filing Chapter 13 (assuming we would qualify) would be appreciated too. We have really good credit (we always pay our credit card bills on time) and make good income but have too much credit card debt. We would be able to pay our mortgage, second mortgage, car and student loans easily but cannot seem to get control of the balances owed on credit cards.

Thanks in advance for your help.

My Response:

With the new bankruptcy laws the process has become extremely confusing. I want to refer you to the actual site for the US Courts. This will give you all the information you need. Just visit:

U. S. COURTS Bankruptcy Chapter 13

If you have any other question please let me know.

All the best,
Terry

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Dear Grandpa Terry,

I agree wholeheartedly with Susan about the federal takeover of our medical care system. When AMTRAK, the USPS, Hurricane Katrina, and others come to mind (lately I've been worried about FIDC). Anyway, next June I'm going to be forced to take Medicare, and I wish I could keep my old insurance company. With a $100 or so premium and a $350 deductible, I'm very happy. I seldom meed my deductible, as even at 64, I take no medications.

It seems the power elite want even more power by tackling the whole health care system at one fell swoop instead of trying one piecemeal thing at a time to see how it works. How about trying an "urgent care" center a few steps away from an emergency room? Anyone who can walk into an emergency room can probably be served just as well at an urgent care center at a reduced cost. When I go to the emergency room (maybe one a year) I could just as well be served by urgent care, since I use my primary doctor for all but middle-of-the-night stuff. They make me pay $75 up front, which I think is fair. An emergency room making patients pay $75 up front or walking a few steps to an urgent care center makes sense to me.

Anyway, it seems like a whole lot of things could be tried, as they have in Texas with tort reform, before they upend our entire medical care system. Thanks for letting me vent, and keep up the wonderful work with Budget Stretcher.

John

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I'm a little shocked at some of the opinions you've been posting about health care reform. I can't understand why this is such an emotional, hot-button issue. It seems pretty simple to me, health insurance is NOT serving the needs we have now. Premiums are too expensive for most people, lots of jobs are no longer offering health insurance as a benefit, people with long-term health problems or pre-existing conditions are not covered, and the insurance company gets to decide whether you get the care you need.

The result is that fewer people than ever are insured, including millions of children. It's easy to be smug about health insurance if you have good benefits, I know this. I am covered by my own insurance as well as my husband's union benefits. But when I was in a motorcycle accident and broke my arm, my emergency surgery was not covered, as "out of network." When I had to go in for a follow-up surgery, my claim was denied again, because they didn't view my second surgery to remove the screws that were damaging nerves in my wrist as "necessary."

What are we so afraid of? People with Medicare universally love the coverage they have. Do you think insurance companies are going to lower their prices and become competitive if there isn't a much better, free option out there for people who need it? History tells us no. Defining pregnancy as a pre-existing condition so you don't have to cover it should be a crime. This goes double for cancer treatment.

We need to get over our selfishness about health care. Everyone deserves basic care. I don't want to live in a country where people die because they can't get simple care that would save their life. This is not the 3rd world, we can afford to do this.

Julie

Featured Article

How Did I Get In This Mess?
By Terry Rigg
When I was younger and having all kinds of money problems, I ask myself this question a thousand times. It seemed like one day we were doing fine financially and the next we owed everybody. How can it happen so quick?

This is a problem that a lot of people are experiencing today. It can be one of the most helpless and frustrating situations most of us can find ourselves in. To make matters worse, it seems the harder we try to get a handle on our finances the deeper in debt we become.

There isn't an answer that covers everybody, naturally, but I believe that in most cases we simply weren't paying close enough attention to the details of our finances. We figure that an extra payment here or there won't make a difference, until it's too late.

I know for myself and most of the people I have counseled over the years, that it wasn't until we took a good hard look at how we got ourselves in debt, that we were able to start working on a way out. This isn't for the purpose of placing blame, but is necessary to determine what changes needed to be made and to prevent it from happening again.

I have found that very few people, including myself, have ever been taught even the basics of proper money management, either at home or at school. This hit home when I had to teach all three of my kids how to fill out and maintain a check book, after they graduated from high school. I assumed that they would learn this in school. I realize now that I should have been more aware of what they were not learning and accepted the responsibility of teaching them the fundamentals of handling their money myself. That was my job.

If you are just starting out in the work force or going to college, it is time for you to learn that you have to work at managing your money, everyday. It is essential that you learn as much as you can about setting up a budget and using every expense cutting method you can think of. Even if you are making good money you need to know exactly what you have coming in and what you have going out. There are a lot of people making $70,000 or more a year that are having money problems.

There usually isn't just one thing that causes us to accumulate debt. It can be anything from buying more house than we can afford to running our credit card balances to the hilt. It almost always happens a step at a time.

Let me give you an example: You buy a house with payments that are more than you wanted to pay, but it is exactly what you were looking for, so you decide you can cut back in other areas. Now you've used all of your cash for the down payment on the house, but you still need furniture. It's time to break out the credit cards. You don't realize just how much the furniture, curtains, pictures, rugs, etc. will cost. Now your credit cards are reaching their limit Then the electric bill comes in and it is double what you were expecting. This can all happen within just a couple of months.

The above example may not fit your situation, however, chances are no one purchase caused the problem. This is why it is absolutely necessary to pay close attention to your finances and plan every purchase. The only way to know if you can afford something is to have a budget in place.

For most people, there are too many expenses for the average individual or family to keep track of in their head. You have to take what ever time you need to put this information down on paper after considering all of your possible expenses. You can do this on a piece of notebook paper or find a simple budget form. Which ever way you choose, make sure that you review it before you make any purchases.

As I stated before, it is necessary to know what events led to your money problems so that you will know what actions to avoid in the future. This will be vitally important on the road to your financial recovery.