So yesterday the blog talked about tracking your spending so you can find places where you can save. Now today we are going to give you some ideas!

Take your lunch to work

This has been estimated to save you over one thousand dollars a year, why not do it. If you feel like this is depriving you, start with bringing lunch three days a week and work your way up to not eating out at all.

Eat at home

Instead of going out to a nice dinner for date night. Stay in, make it a competition to see who can make the cheapest dinner that you both enjoy, then cook it together. You will appreciate it more!

Continue reading “Financial Literacy Debt Series: Quick Money Saving Ideas”

Track all of your spending for the month. This means tracking everything including your $1.00 per day vending machine habit, everything counts. This stuff all adds up! It is important that everyone in your family participate in this process and make sure that the tracking is as accurate as possible. Once you have completed this process it is time to analyze your expenditures and see where you can save some money. There are things we spend money on everyday that are not necessities and this is where you can pull from.

Find the things you can cut down on and maybe start out small so you don’t feel like you are being deprived. Then take this money and put it towards paying off your debt. A little bit of extra money going toward debt will go a long way.

For all of LearnKey’s Financial Literacy Month resources, visit learnkey.com/financiallitmonth

Find out how annual interest rates, months remaining, monthly payments, and principal affect you every month. Make sure you find this information and use because not knowing could be costing you money. All of these terms are important to know for your financial well being.

Continue reading “Financial Literacy Debt Series: Get Informed”

Use a systematic method to eliminate debt, pay one item first then apply that amount to the next obligation and so on. You should have already  prioritized your debt so that you know what payment to focus on first. Now you will want to focus on that first item on your list and apply any extra amount of money to that payment. When this payment is gone you will move on to the next payment and instead of spending the money you have extra from the first payment, you will apply that extra amount to the payment.

Continue reading “Financial Literacy Debt Series: “Power Down” Your Debt Method”

Prioritize your debt by either the shortest to longest maturity (shortest to longest debt period), smallest to largest debt or the highest to lowest interest rate. Don’t just apply extra money to your debt randomly, have a plan and make sure you stick to it. Most people, when they decide to create a plan to pay down debt, decide to go after the debt that has the highest interest rate or the debt that has the smallest balance, both of these are good options, but in many cases the debt with the shortest to longest maturity might save you the most money.

Continue reading “Financial Literacy Debt Series: Prioritize Your Debt”