Getting out of debt and saving money are two important financial ideas that, really, go hand in hand. The fact of the matter is that, just by getting out of debt, you are already saving money. You are saving money in interest and fees, at the very least. Having said that, it is important that, in the process of getting out of debt, that you still make a point of saving money somewhere else.

The first thing you need to think about in terms of getting out of debt and saving money is to know how much it is that you have each month to spend on debt reduction and savings. Once you know how much that is, then you need to find out how much it is that you owe in debt, in terms of monthly obligations. What you will do is to rank your debt from highest to lowest, in terms of the interest rates on the debt. For example, a credit card with a 19% interest rate would rank higher than a 6% mortgage. In turn, that 6% mortgage would rank higher than a 4% student loan.

Once you know how much extra money you have, you should set aside half of it immediately for savings. Having money in savings will, among other things, help you from accruing extra debt in the long run. In addition, saving money will help you to earn some interest on your extra money, even if it is just a little bit. Then, you will take the other half of your extra money and use it towards getting out of debt. What you will do is to send that extra money to the debtor that has the highest interest rate, every month. Eventually, when that debt is paid off, you will want to pay off the next highest interest rate debt, and so on.

You may wish, after you have gotten out of all of your other debt and begun saving money, to consider leaving those lower-interest debts alone, such as student loans and mortgages, and paying just the minimum payments. In some cases, this may be the thing to do. You may wish to speak with a financial planner in that specific regard.

Paying Off Holiday Bills
The Dollar Stretcher
by Gary Foreman
gary@stretcher.com

Many people dread January. That’s when the bills come due for all the gifts and holiday partying. According to the National Retail Federation, Americans were expected to generate over $450 billion in retail sales during November and December, 2006.

Not surprisingly, much of the spending is done with plastic. CardWeb.com estimated that between credit, debit and store cards, shoppers will sign for $135 billion in goods and services for the holidays. The largest portion of that ($85 billion) will be on credit cards.

The results? A lot of people will be facing nasty credit card bills in January. Consumer Reports expects the average holiday credit bill will be $626. Depending on how big the balance is it may take until summer to pay if off. What’s a consumer to do?

Just as the smart shopper compared prices in November and December, the smart credit card user pays off the resulting bills as quickly as possible. The reason is simple. If their interest rate is 18% (a little high, but an not uncommon rate) the cost of that sweater for Aunt Polly goes up by 1.5% per month. So much for the big sale!

Some people may be fortunate and find one or two things that they can do to completely pay off their holiday bills. There are a few places that you might find hundreds of dollars of savings.

One such place is in your auto or homeowners’ insurance. It’s possible that you have the wrong coverage or by comparison shopping you can cut your premium significantly. Talk to your agent about your coverage. Then check with an independent insurance agent or comparison website to see if you’re getting the best rates.

Most of us will need to chip away at the credit card balance a little at a time. And some ideas will require a bit of sacrifice (never a popular idea).

One place to look for savings to put towards the bills are things that you get via subscription. Like the premium services from your cable company. Or your membership in a video rental club. Or other services that are automatically charged each month. Each one might only represent $10 or $15, but you only need to take action once to save money each and every month thereafter.

The biggest target for saving is in the food and grocery area. The reason is simple. We spend about 20% of our money on food. So we’re dealing with a large amount of spending. And we’re making decisions about buying food all the time. Whether it’s the weekly trip to buy groceries or the daily visit to the company cafeteria at lunch or break time, we make many small buying decisions that add up quickly.

Look first at your habits. Think of where you’re buying food each day. For some people it’s lunch out with the gang. Bringing in the previous night’s leftovers could save you $30 a week.

For others it’s the morning and afternoon break times that find you reaching into your pocket. Even a $1 cup of coffee or soda adds up if you do it two or three times a day.

Your grocery shopping can yield big savings. For instance, a pricebook is an invaluable tool. It’s a simple listing of items that you purchase regularly (i.e. milk, bread, ground beef, etc) and the lowest price that you’ve paid for it recently. The most effective pricebooks include one sheet for each item. On the page is the store name, date and price that was low.

Taking the pricebook to the store allows the shopper to quickly identify real sales. That gives them the opportunity to stock-up on an item when the price is right. It’s common for people to report savings of 10% or more. And, that’s without changing the items that they buy. Just when and at what price they buy them.

Don’t forget the food that you purchase away from the grocery store. We’re spending nearly half of our food budget on meals that are prepared outside the home. Restaurants are an expensive place to buy your groceries. For most simple meals you can buy the ingredients for about 1/3 of the restaurant price.

One reason that we eat out so often is to save time. But there are other ways to feed your family without spending hours in the kitchen. Freezer meals can replace the drive-thru window and save you money.

Many recipes are well suited for freezing. It’s easy enough to prepare two meals at once. One for tonight’s dinner, the second for the freezer. If you do a search on “freezer meals” you’ll find quite a bit of info. Two of my favorite sources for information and recipes are Debi Taylor-Hough and Leanne Ely. Both are experts at making your freezer your best friend at dinnertime!

For most families it will take a combination to conquer the holiday bills. And some determination. The easiest thing to do is to just pay the monthly credit card minimum. But that’s the best way to pay the most for the holidays and go from Santa last year to Scrooge this year!
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Gary Foreman is a former financial planner and purchasing manager who currently edits The Dollar Stretcher.com website. You’ll find hundreds of articles to help you stretch your day and your dollar. Visit today!

While the holidays are definitely an exciting and joyous time for many people, they can also be very hectic. Rushing around from one party to the next, trying to shop for gifts, bake goodies, and take care of the children while they are home from school can be difficult for even the best multi-tasker. Fortunately there are a few simple tips that you can use to survive the holidays.

The best advice that you can get in regard to surviving the holidays is to plan ahead. By being on top of your holiday schedule, you can reduce stress, depression, anxiety, and even that general harried feeling that we all get. Set aside specific times for Christmas shopping or baking, and don’t do those things unless it is the schedule time. Know what you can afford for Christmas, too; make a holiday budget, and stick to it. Recognize ahead of time that you will want to spend more on gifts than your budget allows, but resolve not to.

You should also make sure to take some time to recharge during the holidays if you are going to survive. Benjamin Franklin’s advice about early to bed and early to rise is particularly appropriate advice for surviving the holidays. Get enough sleep at night so that you have the energy you need for the next day. Take a little bit of time, even if it is only a couple of hours once or twice a week, for some alone time. Enjoy a bubble bath, or read a good book. Do something that, for a little while at least, will take your mind off of the hustle and bustle of the holidays.

You should also rely on your friends and family to help survive the holidays. Parents and grandparents have often seen many more holidays come and go than you, and their advice and encouragement can be invaluable during the holidays. Listen to their tips, and use them. In addition, take some time to enjoy, not just care for, your children while they are home from school. Try to enjoy a special lunch with your girlfriends, either on a shopping day or during the week. Use these types of social events to relax, and to prepare for those bigger more stressful social events.

Finally, be willing to ask for help. If you are struggling with depression during the holidays, understand that depression can be extremely dangerous and even be disabling. Be willing to talk to your health care provider or mental health care professional if you believe you may be depressed.

Christmas can be an excellent time to take a family vacation. In addition to getting away from the regular hustle and bustle of the holiday, vacationing at Christmas can provide you and your family with a tremendously enjoyable experience. There are several locations that are good choices for vacationing at Christmas.

Why not take a trip to the North Pole for Christmas this year? Just north of Lake Placid in New York, there is a little town called “North Pole.” During five weekends during November and December you can stay here, even taking a visit to Santa’s workshop and helping trim the North Pole Christmas tree.

The warmth of Orlando, Florida attracts many Christmas visitors, particularly those that are vacationing from northern climates. Over 1,500 Christmas trees are set up at Walt Disney world, and there are special Christmas related events. On some nights, the Mickey Mouse parade at night even includes Wooden Soldiers and Gingerbread Men. At Epcot, you can hear Christmas stories from around the world. At the MGM studios, there is a spectacle of lights including more than five million Christmas lights. At Universal Studios in Orlando you can see an authentic Macy’s holiday parade every night. There is also Grinchmas, featuring the Grinch and Whoville from the famous Dr. Seuss story.

Hershey, PA has a Christmas Candyland that many people enjoy visiting. The theme park in Hershey opens up with over 1 million lights, along with Santa and live reindeer! There is also something known as Hershey Sweet Lights, a two mile drive through the woods that are filled with lights and over 600 animated Christmas displays.

If skiing is your thing, Breckenridge, Colorado is probably the best location for your Christmas vacation. In addition to awesome ski slopes, Breckenridge has a Christmas Bazaar, strolling carolers, and visits from Santa Clause.

American history buffs might like a Christmas in Colonial Williamsburg, Virginia. This restored historic district has real-life actors who really bring to life the Christmas celebration of the days before the American Revolution. Colonial Williamsburg also includes a Christmas parade, tea with Charles’ Dickens great-great-grandson, and live musical performances on period instruments.

When new families are just starting out, Christmas can be an especially memorable and special time of the year. Almost every incidental activity that the family engages in has the potential to become a Christmas tradition in your family. From such simple things as making cookies to complex gif-opening rituals, each family has their own traditions. In fact, there are nearly as many Christmas traditions as there are families!

Christmas traditions often start by accident for some families. One family, for example, always eats Chinese take-out on Christmas Eve. This all started one year when the couple was first married, and things were so hectic on Christmas Eve that they decided to go out for dinner. Of course, no place was open all around the entire town. Finally, they came across a small Chinese take-out place. Every year thereafter, even after the children came, they eat Chinese take-out on Christmas Eve. In this case, the Christmas tradition started around a silly bit of poor planning, and became very memorable for the entire family.

Many families decide to start their own Christmas traditions in a more methodical manner. The spouses can look at the traditions that your family and your spouse’s family had when you were growing up. You can look at them together, and talk about which ones you will keep as a new family, and which ones can go by the wayside. You can also start thinking about traditions that you have heard that other families practice, and add them to the list. Then, you need to think about how those traditions work with your family. If you have children or plan to have children, how will they fit in with those traditions? When starting Christmas traditions in your family, it is important to think about how those traditions will play out in the long term.

Families should also always be open to starting new Christmas traditions. As you talk to other families or read stories of other families, you might find Christmas traditions that sound appealing. Try them out one year, and if they don’t work for your family or your family just doesn’t enjoy them, try something else next year. Before you know it, your familiy will have started may Christmas traditions of their own.

There are many reasons that you might want to make some personal Christmas gifts this holiday season. It could be that you have someone who is very difficult to buy for. It might be that you want to communicate a very special feeling to someone. Or, it may even be that you are hoping to scale down your Christmas budget a bit, and to make things a little less materialistic for your family. Here are several personal Christmas gifts that you can make:

Customized Gingerbread people. You can make gingerbread men, women, and kids, and you can decorate them to resemble the person or people who are going to receive them. you can even put their names on them, or their initials if there is not enough room for their whole name. These are excellent personal Christmas gifts when you are going to be visiting another family.

Name poems. Name poems are excellent personal Christmas gifts, and very easy to make. You simply use a person’s first or last name to make a poem for her. If her name is Sally, she might be Sweet Active Loving Loved Young. You can then decorate the poem in any number of ways, such as printing it on the computer or coloring it by hand, and place it into a nice picture frame.

Photographic gifts. There are a good number of personal Christmas gifts that you can make with photographs. You can make a photo album of your family and include family recipes, for example. Or, you can decoupage an ornament with photographs. You might even make a “special friend” photo album, in which you include only pictures of you with the recipient. You can make the photo albums from any number of kits, or at home using rag board and colored paper.

Homemade books. This one is especially fun for children to help with. You essentily use two pieces of 9 ½ by 6 inch cardboard to serve as your book covers. You can then use white paper, folded into quarters and cut along the top, as the pages of the book. You can use a hole puncher and string to hold the book together. The book can be a “you-and-me” book, where you make the book about topics that the giver and recipient have in common. For example, one page might be “my favorite movies” and the other page might be “your favorite movies.”

With a little effort, you can make fun and personal Christmas gifts that will be cherished for a long time.

As they get older and start to have families of their own, many people look back with fondness on the Christmas traditions that their family followed. From simple things, such as opening just a single gift on Christmas Eve as a teaser for the big day, to making homemade cookies, to shopping on the day after Thanksgiving, there are nearly as many Christmas traditions as there are families. Making Christmas traditions that last a lifetime for your family can be a very special part of the holiday season.

First it is important to realize that those long-lasting Christmas traditions often start by accident. One family, for example, always eats Chinese take-out on Christmas Eve. This all started one year when the couple was first married, and things were so hectic on Christmas Eve that they decided to go out for dinner. Of course, no place was open all around the entire town. Finally, they came across a small Chinese take-out place. Every year thereafter, even after the children came, they eat Chinese on Christmas eve.

You can also create your own Christmas traditions. You can look at the traditions that your family and your spouse’s family had when you were growing up. The ones that you still have fond memories of have already lasted your lifetime. You can look at them together, and talk about which ones you will keep as a new family, and which ones can go by the wayside. You can also start thinking about traditions that you have heard that other families practice, and add them to the list. Then, you need to think about how those traditions work with your family. If you have children or plan to have children, how will they fit in with those traditions?

You should also always be open to new traditions. As you talk to other families or read stories of other families, you might find Christmas traditions that sound appealing. Try them out one year, and if they don’t work for your family or your family just doesn’t enjoy them, try something else next year.

Christmas parties can be one of the most exciting types of events that people attend during the holiday season. On the other hand, some Christmas parties wind up being duds, where guests leave early and the ones that don’t leave early want to. Here are some tips for you on how to throw the best Christmas party:

First, you want to make sure that you plan sufficiently and that you plan early. Nothing will ruin a party as quickly as running out of food, for example. Having too many or too few group games and activities can keep your party from being the best Christmas party ever, too. It is a good idea to plan lots and lots of activities, but when the party actually starts to be willing to drop some of the activities if everyone is already having a good time. If your guests are having a good time already, why change that by having them play a game?

Planning early will greatly help your Christmas party. By planning early, you can make sure to get on everyone’s calendar. If you plan for a big bash and only have a few people show up because you planned it at the last minute, those that do come to the party will probably be disappointed that there weren’t more people there. Along these lines, you might consider trying to either do an RSVP with your invitations, or at least do an informal head count the week before the party.

Decorations are key component to the best Christmas parties. While you don’t want to have guests stumbling over boxes of presents, a few lights, a nicely decorated Christmas tree and some strategically placed mistletoe can add to the overall experience at your Christmas party.

Something else that you can do to make your party memorable is to send a bit of Christmas cheer home with each guest. As they leave the party, provide each guest with a small ornament or other appropriate Christmas gift, perhaps even with “Smith family Christmas Party, 2007″ printed on the gift.

By planning ahead, you can avoid the most common Christmas party pitfalls. With some extra attention, you can throw the best Christmas party ever!

Having a Christmas wedding can be a very special celebration. In addition to the general holiday celebrations, starting a new life with the person that you love the most can make Christmas even more special for you. Planning a Christmas wedding can also be a wonderful experience, as there are many options available to integrate the themes of the season into your own wedding ceremony.

One of the most wonderful things about planning a Christmas wedding is that, if you are having the wedding in a church, the facility is probably already decorated. You can often plan on building onto what the church already has in place. You can add poinsettias, for example, as your choice of wedding flowers. You can plan on using red and green decorations, or you can add decorations that complement the seasonal colors. Some great combinations include silver and white or silver and blue, burgundies, darker greens such as forest greens, gold and cream colors.

You can also integrate your Christmas theme into your wedding invitations. While you don’t want them to look like Christmas cards, you can use a variety of seasonal trims on your invitations, such as holly or snowflakes. You will also want to make sure that invitations for your Christmas wedding go out a little bit earlier than you would normally send out wedding invitations. By sending invitations about twelve weeks before the date, you can help your guests to plan accordingly.

Dresses are another way to make your Christmas wedding wonderful. You might use a long velvet cape with your gown, perhaps of red, or find a dress with sparkly beads or sequins. You might complement the bridesmaids’ dresses with muffs or long wraps and accessories.

At the reception, you can use a variety of techniques to accent the Christmas theme. You can use centerpieces that are made from ornaments. You could use Garland instead of ribbon to trim the tables. You can have your wedding cake designed to look like layers of wrapped Christmas presents.

With the right amount of planning, your Christmas wedding can indeed be wonderful.

Having a birthday on Christmas day is special. Not only is Christmas the “most wonderful time of the year” for you, it is extra-special for your child. Still, there are certain things that you can do to make your child’s birthday special when it falls on Christmas days.

One of the best things that you can do is to distinguish the birthday from Christmas completely. You can make a point to celebrate your child’s birthday perhaps on the weekend before or after Christmas. It is not uncommon for children who have a birthday in the middle of a week to celebrate on a weekend, and this is often a good option for children whose birthdays are on Christmas as well. Christmas decorations should not be used for a birthday party, either.

Another way to keep Christmas and your child’s birthday separate is to think about the gifts you give and the way you give them. If you wrap her birthday presents in Christmas paper, it is certainly convenient, but can take away some of the specialness. Also, if your child has a Christmas list and gets things only from that list for her birthday, it can take away from the birthday as well. On the other hand, if your child wants a larger and more expensive gift, it is probably OK to give it to her for both her birthday and Christmas, as long as she understands that she probably wouldn’t have been able to get it at all if she hadn’t been born when she was.

Some families have found other ways to make their child’s Christmas birthday special. Some families choose to celebrate a Christmas birthday in June, so that the birthday has its own time altogether. Other families, for whom religion plays a strong role, treat it as a special celebration, as the shared birthday of their child as well as Jesus.

The most important thing that you can do to make your child’s birthday special when it falls on Christmas day is to make sure to talk about it with your child. Find out how he feels about it. Ask him what bothers him about it, and what doesn’t. Try to figure out together what ways you can make the birthday more special.