*Expired* Uniroyal Emergency Car Kit Giveaway

Kim Danger, nationally-recognized savings expert and founder of www.mommysavers.com, has teamed up with Uniroyal Tire to release a series of e-books for the frugal-minded. The team’s e-books and videos can be found at www.uniroyaltires.com/moremileageforyourmoney, and they are available for free.

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Calculate your cost of living.

It will be impossible to get your finances in order without determining your monthly cost of living. Everyone has a general idea of what they spend in a month, but the numbers grow increasingly vague as you start to examine where that money goes. Collect all your receipts for the past year (if you don’t have a year’s worth, go back six months; if you don’t have six months, go back as far as you can) and add them up. Make sure you count all expenses, including mortgage payments, credit card bills, bank statements and the like. Divide by the number of months you have added, and you’ve got your cost of living.

The logic behind using a full year for your calculations is that you don’t want anything to get left out. No one forgets to buy the people in their life Christmas presents, but those kinds of irregular expenses are easy to overlook when you’re putting everything down on paper.

To get a budget out of these calculations, decide how much money you are going to allocate to each category (like automotive, food, utilities, etc.). It would be impossible for most people (myself and my family included) to work with a budget without these specific categories. Even if you’re only putting a little bit of money aside each month for Christmas presents, it’s crucial to the survival of your budget to do it. Remember, if you don’t account for it, you’re not going to know where the money is going.

Prioritize paydowns.

You’re probably pretty sick of hearing about the shape of the economy, but since everyone is becoming more money-conscious, this is the perfect time to pay off your consumer debt. If you have multiple cards you’re trying to pay off, you’re going to have to decide which debt to make a priority.

The choice you’re going to have to make is whether you want to save money over the long run or to have the satisfaction of paying a card off right away.

• If you choose the first, you’ll need to rank your cards in order of highest interest rate to lowest.
• Make minimum payments on all cards except the one with the highest rate.
• Put all the money you can toward paying it in full.

If you want your cards paid off as quickly as possible:

• Rank your cards from lowest to highest interest rate.
• Make minimum payments on everything but the card with the lowest interest rate until it has been paid off.
• Enjoy the peace of mind that comes from paying off your card.

Whichever method you choose, don’t close your account with the credit card company right away — doing so might negatively impact your credit rating. Once a card is paid off, keep it at home and don’t use it for anything except emergencies.

Shave off some common expenses.

There are a lot of ways to save your family money without cutting out the fun. For example, look at your phone plan. Do you use all your minutes in a month? Does anyone in your family actually use the landline? Give your cell provider a call and switch to a plan that fits most closely what you use over a billing period, and get rid of your landline. This could save you about $50 a month, which comes to $1,200 a year.

Something else you can lose is your gym membership. Instead of paying up to $75 a month on fees, exercise the old-fashioned way and get things done around the house at the same time. Gardening, dusting, raking leaves or washing your car are great calorie burners. This could net you another $900 by the time next year rolls around.

Cut back on extracurricular activities as well. All families are overscheduled these days, and dropping one or two of your kids’ paid activities could shave a bit off your budget. Your kids should be exposed to a number of different activities and pastimes, but they don’t have to play ALL the sports available to their age group. Instead, institute a family game night once or twice a week in order to enjoy family bonding and the savings.

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