We’ve just posted a new item on the site at Get the Biggest Bang for Your Buck Book …

In Today’s economy, anything that can help to keep some of our dollars in our pockets is a good thing.  This little book, written by a master online searcher, covers many ways to save money, without being frugal and without giving up food, drink and clothing…

We priced it at only $10.00 so people would be able to afford it in the first place.

One of the best ways to change bad spending habits is to cut up all your credit cards.
Money that you spend using a credit card is money that doesn’t belong to you. You have to pay it back – along with interest, which makes the purchase price of your item that much more expensive. A debit card is much more preferable. That way you can’t spend more than you have in the bank, but even that can be dangerous if you are prone to impulse buying of luxury items.

Another way to change your bad spending habits is to sit down and really look at the things you have spent money on in the last few months. Ask yourself if they were really needs or wants. A want can be classified as something that you can get by without and still live in reasonable comfort. That expensive pair of shoes could be a want – unless you don’t have any! Even some food can be considered a want, rather than a need. Dining out is not a need unless it is part of your job description. Salesmen for instance often close a deal over a meal. In this case their meal is a need. Taking the kids out every evening is not.

Once you have defined what your needs are against your wants, the next step is to look at your future. Do you have a big need coming up in the near or distant future? Maybe you need to start saving for the children’s education or your retirement. Maybe you have decided to save for something that isn’t really a need, but will help you to learn to save, so it is good in itself – something like a trip overseas or a cruise.

This can be classed as setting long-term goals and will help you to change your bad spending habits. You will be motivated by what you want (or need) in the future. Taking charge of the finances by keeping a record of all the incoming and outgoing finances can also help you. By seeing exactly where your money is going, you may be more motivated to save it instead of spending. Just sitting down and keeping a record of where all that small change went to can make you more aware of spending habits that are unnecessary.

For instance, buying your morning coffee on the way to work can add up to a sizeable amount by the end of the month, especially when there is good coffee to be had at home. The same goes for buying your lunch. The cost of one bought lunch will keep you in lunches for a week if you make them at home. Most work places provide a fridge to keep food in; otherwise, you can take yours in an insulated bag.

Changing bad spending habits can only help you in the long run. Why not give it a go? You’ll be glad you did.

Find many more tips and hints about creating a Family Friendly Budget at http://familybudget.howto-you.com

The best way to teach young children about money is to let them have some. Since most of us have to work for our money, it is a good idea to give them chores to do by which they can earn money. These should be different from the chores they must do as part of the family. You have to do chores that you don’t get paid for and so should they.

Just as you would prefer to do a job that you like, so they should get to choose what they would like to do to earn their own money. Of course it will still be a chore around the home if they are very small, but as they get older and are more responsible they can accept paying jobs from others, such as babysitting, raking leaves and walking the neighbors dog, to mention just a few. Make sure they choose something they can do quite easily, or they will tire of it quickly. They need to be praised for it too.

Once they have agreed what job they will do, show them how to keep an account of their income in a simple exercise book. They should have a moneybox or purse to keep their money in and should also have the pleasure of spending it on something, after they have saved it up. They will love to get their money out and count it; if they are really young they will probably even want to play with it. Let them do this until they get used to having their own money, but encourage them to always put it away in a safe place when they’ve finished.

After they have done their chore, be sure to pay them promptly. This will give them greater satisfaction than if they have to wait for payment. Older children can save up for some time before they spend their money on something they may want, like an ipod. Younger children may want to rush down to the mall and spend theirs the moment they receive it. Try to accommodate this desire at least at first. As they get older they will learn to wait a little longer to save for something ‘bigger’.

Some of the chores children can do are: -

* Feeding a pet.
* Watering plants or the garden.
* Vacuuming one room or the whole house, depending on their age.
* Baking cakes or biscuits for the family.
* Cooking dinner one night a week.
* Dusting the ornaments once a week.
* Cleaning the bathroom.
* Washing the car.

When young children first start doing a paid chore, they may need prompting to do it. If they then don’t keep on doing without being told over and over, you should just let it go. They will soon realize that they are not getting any money to spend. If they are happy about this, then perhaps they are getting too much pocket money, or maybe they aren’t ready for the responsibility yet. In that case, you can include them in the household economy by pointing out the prices of things in the supermarket and quiz them to see if they can work out what will be the best buy. This will help to make them aware of what things cost and that you must keep to a budget.

Visit familybudget.howto-you.com

Every family unit, no matter how big or how small, needs to plan their finances. Why?
For starters, no one wants to run into debt they can’t pay, or lose a purchase they have paid a deposit on and then find they can’t keep up with the payments. If the electric is due and you don’t have enough in the kitty to pay for it, then disaster isn’t far from your door. If you plan your family budget wisely, these problems can be avoided.

Not only will you avoid problems of debt and loss; if you have a good stable financial plan and stick to it, you’ll find that impulse buying will be less of a problem and you could end up having more to spend on the luxuries than you had anticipated. You will be able to save for the important things like the children’s education, a holiday or a new car when it becomes necessary.

With a budget, you will always know when the major bills are due and that you can pay them. You will be able to have finances set aside for unexpected problems such as dental care, or doctors and hospital fees, the washing machine breaking down or car repairs. Of course, we all hope that these problems won’t occur, but in real life teeth sometimes ache and accidents do happen. It’s far better to be prepared than to be caught without the cash.

Budgeting your finances may seem like a bore, but you may be surprised how easy it is to find ways in which you can save money. Sometimes we waste money without realizing we are doing so. This can be especially so in food purchases. Many people complain about their checkout costs without stopping to consider if all that soda pop and chips are really necessary. Snacks like these could easily be kept as treats for special events like birthdays. You’ll be surprised at the amount of cash you’ll save; your waistline will thank you and the children’s health will improve; all good reasons for keeping to a good family budget.

Once a family budget is implemented, the stress of wondering if or how you’ll pay the bills will be eliminated. It will also help to teach your children to be responsible teenagers and adults, as they learn from you how to care for their own financial needs.

Visit familybudget.howto-you.com

You might feel as if most lenders are big, bad bossies that breathe the foreclosure word down your neck every time you even look like missing a payment, but this is not so. Many people feel this way because when they try to do the right thing and contact the lender due to payment struggles, they either get a pay-up-or-else attitude, or find someone who tells them to ring back after it happens, not before. This causes a great deal of frustration.

If you are trying to contact someone about your payment problems before you’ve missed a payment, ask for the loss mitigation department. They are the ones who will know what you are talking about and can advise you. Meanwhile, remember that the lender does not really want to be saddled with a home. What he wants is for his money to be earning him interest, free and clear of any other hassles.

If he has to foreclose, then he is in for a lot of hassles. His payment and his profit from the loan have stopped coming in. Filing for foreclosure is costing him money and so will all the rest of the procedures. He has to insure the house, maintain it and then market it. All this will make a big dent in the money he loaned. And he cannot be sure of getting back the amount he loaned out, let alone the interest on it. In fact, the only thing he can be sure about is that he will be saddled with a house he doesn’t want, that will cost him money.

Lenders frequently make a loan and then sell it, along with a lot of others to an investor. The servicer takes a part of the payment as his share of the investment and the rest is pooled and goes to the investors as dividends. Many times the lender you work with is not the actual lender, but the servicer. He makes the loan on behalf of another organization and is paid to collect the money, or ‘service’ the debt. When he has to foreclose, his income stream is dried up.

Even when the original lender holds the loan, foreclosure is a bad outcome for him. He is simply not likely to get all the money he would have made had the mortgage continued successfully over the years. Even when they sell the house to someone else, they don’t get anything that’s left over after their debt is paid. Anything left over has to go back to the borrower.

Finally as the problem of foreclosure has increased, lenders have been leaned on to make other provisions wherever possible. This pressure from FHA, and those two other bigwigs, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, has helped to turn the tide in the favor of homeowners – about time, too.

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If things have gone from bad to worse and your bank has decided to foreclose, don’t give up hope of keeping your home; there may still be some way to save it. For foreclosure to become a fact of life, you need to have missed more than one payment on your mortgage. Most often you will be at least three payments behind.

The first payment you missed, the bank will send you a late notice. If you do nothing and miss the second payment, the bank will usually try to contact you. At this stage, they still want to help you resolve the situation. If no conclusion is reached, or if they cannot contact you then things go from bad to worse. They may allow another late payment, or they may invoke your acceleration clause instead.

An acceleration clause is when the whole of your mortgage comes due all at once. In other words the bank wants all their money right now. No waiting for thirty years to pay it off. You must pay the whole lot, including all the interest, costs and fees, immediately. This procedure is known as “calling the loan”. It is also the point of no return.

When the bank calls the loan, you need to get a good attorney – because you need legal help. You need an attorney who knows all about foreclosure law and can protect your rights. Strangely enough, it may still be possible to save your house.

But if you do nothing, then the bank will continue with the foreclosure and you will find an eviction notice in your mail within 6 to 12 months, depending on how aggressively the bank pursues their course of action. By the time you get that, your home will have been sold to the highest bidder.

However, with the right attorney to advise and work with you, you can file a Chapter 13 bankruptcy claim and stop the foreclosure in its tracks. This doesn’t mean that you’ll get away with not paying any more debt. It simply gives you time to breathe – and prepare other plans.

If you are delinquent on your mortgage payments, then you could well have other creditors hounding you. Once you’ve put in place the legal foreclosure prevention it also applies to other creditors. All must stop trying to collect moneys owed. Secured debt must still be repaid in full, but unsecured will have to be satisfied with a ten cents in the dollar amount.

The new payment plan that you get under a Chapter 13 will last for up to 5 years, giving you ample time to get back on your feet.

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Myths are a bit like gossip, the more they are repeated the worse they become. And in most cases they are not true to start with. All bad things bring their own spate of myths and gossip and foreclosure is no exception. One of the most common myths in foreclosure is the one that banks want your house so they can resell it at a profit.

This is just not true; banks are in the business of lending money, not real estate. True, when they are forced to repossess a home they do resell it to try and get their money back, but they don’t make anywhere near as much as they would have, had the loan continued. That is why you should be quick to seek help from the bank as soon as you know there could be difficulty paying up.

Some people think that the bank won’t accept their payments and there is nothing they can do. This myth may have sprung from people trying to make a partial payment without contacting the bank first. A bank – or any lender – wants the full payment agreed upon at settlement, not a portion of it.

Another myth that is current is that you have to move out on the same day you receive the foreclosure notice. Nothing could be further from the truth. The wheels turn slowly and you could have up to 12 months before you need to move out.

Some people also believe the myth that if they file for bankruptcy it will save their house. It won’t. Filing for Chapter 13 bankruptcy will delay foreclosure proceedings, but you still need to do something else to save the house…like pay for it.

People may also believe that once the bank has their house, that is the end of all their debt. This is not necessarily true. The bank is legally able to file a deficiency notice on you if they don’t get enough from the sale of the house to cover their debt. This option is not always taken up, but it is sometimes.

And if you’ve heard that once foreclosure has started it cannot be stopped even if you somehow pay all you owe them, then that is a myth too. Banks are legally obliged to accept the money and stop foreclosure.

Another myth is that when the bank takes your house, they can also take all your goods. That is not true. If it can be carried, it can be taken with you when you go. If it is attached to the house, then it should be left. There is also a myth flying around about the legal fees. Just because the bank started the process does not mean that they are responsible for the legal fees. You are and if that doesn’t seem fair, remember that it was not the bank that started it at all; it was your late or missing payments.

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Foreclosure is more common these days than ever before. This has come about by unscrupulous lenders offering ‘easy money’ mortgages to those who want a home but really cannot afford the repayments. These people do not understand that once the time low interest rates is up, they will then have to pay a great deal more as their interest will soar. All they look at is what they have to pay back right at the present time. They may not understand either, that there is more to pay in fees, taxes and other costs associated with the loan.

Some people do not understand that an adjustable rate mortgage will have very high interest after the ‘teaser’ period is up. They may think that there is as much chance of the interest rates falling as there is of them rising, but this rarely happens. If you want to be able to depend on your payments staying at the same amount for the life of the loan, a fixed rate is what you should opt for.

The lenders simply want to have a great many mortgages that they then bundle up and sell to another company. The second company is not personally associated with those who have taken out a mortgage. They just assume that these people can pay and if they cannot, wham! They hit them with a foreclosure notice.

Foreclosure often happens because life happens. No life is perfect and ideal. Costs rise; accidents happen; cars get trashed; teeth need fixing; people get cancer or are injured. The borrower may lose his job through no fault of his own. Sometimes simply having children unexpectedly can put a big dent in your budget. So these things happen and it takes more money than you expected. Some of the fault may lie with the lender, who pressed more money on you than you could really afford.

All he thought about was the interest he could make. You didn’t think it through because all you could see was that enticing vision of your dream home – one that had four bedrooms and a swimming pool. Suddenly you don’t have the money for the mortgage payment. If you don’t do something about it quickly, the next thing you know there is a foreclosure notice in your mailbox.

We all need to think about what we are taking on and make sure we can afford it for the thirty or so years that paying it off will take. It’s much better to buy a cheap home and be able to keep it, than buy an expensive one and lose it in a year or two.

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