Many consumers surf for internet coupons

Internet coupons are of increasing interest to consumers, according to a recent analysis by consumer and media measurement firm Scarborough Research. Eleven percent of households currently obtain coupons via the Internet, and this has increased 83 percent since 2005. However, the Sunday newspaper remains the number one place for acquiring household coupons. Fifty-three percent of households get their coupons from the Sunday newspaper. Other leading places for acquiring coupons include the mail (35 percent of households usually obtain coupons via the mail), in-store coupons (33 percent), preferred customer/loyalty cards (22 percent), in-store circulars (22 percent), weekday newspapers (17 percent), product packages (17 percent), and magazines (15 percent). All of the coupon acquisition categories have experienced growth since 2005, however none at the level of Internet coupons.

Thrifty Organizational Ideas

Disorganization may cause additional stress in your life. It may also affect your finances. According to the National Association of Professional Organizers (NAPO), it costs an average of $10 per square foot to store items in your home and disorganization may cause "crisis" purchases, which involves buying duplicates of misplaced or broken items and last-minute shopping at premium prices. This does not help in reducing your debt. If your bills and mail are disorganized piles of paperwork, this could result in missed due dates and late fees.

Controlling your clutter does not always have to entail hiring a professional organizer or buying expensive bins and furniture. You may be able to use containers and objects that you already have in your home if you follow some of the tips listed below. Keep in mind that as you begin to organize, you will more than likely come across things that you no longer use. Try to sell them and make extra cash.

Is that really trash? Your family may throw away many boxes and household items each week. Before you toss something, consider if it will help organize clutter. For example, you could use empty cereal boxes to make magazine holders. (Detailed instructions are listed on this site: www.allfreecrafts.com/recycling-crafts/magazine-holder.shtml ). Empty tissue boxes can also be a solution to hold all of those plastic grocery bags. Wash empty glass jars and cans and use them to store a variety of small objects such as office supplies, craft beads, nails, or screws. Kids also can have fun decorating these types of objects. In addition to saving money and organizing your home, reusing items can also help the environment. Using a tin can as a pen holder is better on your desk than in a landfill.

Do You Have a Credit Card Emergency?

When you received a new credit card, you might have thought that you would only use it for emergencies. Unfortunately, every clothing, shoe and electronics sale became a reason to use plastic cash. Too many of these alleged emergencies can cause difficult debt problems.

You may wonder what constitutes an emergency situation. Obviously, special sales would not be considered an urgent state of affairs. As you may know, department stores frequently have sales for items such as clothes and shoes. Instead of charging theses items, wait until your budget allows you to purchase them with cash. More than likely, you will discover a good sale when you are ready to buy.

If you are stranded at an airport due to bad weather, charging a hotel room is understandable. If your car breaks down, you might use your credit card to pay for repair and towing costs, especially if you need your vehicle to drive to work. If a family member becomes ill, some necessary items and services may not be covered by your health insurance, leaving you no choice but to charge medical expenses.

You may be one of many who acquired debt not because of frivolous shopping sprees, but because of numerous hardships such as the ones above. Unforeseen incidents do occur throughout most of our lives. In order to prepare for the costs associated with these surprise events, you may consider building an emergency fund. Although you are currently concentrating on fulfilling the financial requirements with your debt management company, you should also focus on saving at least $500 to $1,000 to offset the costs of life's unexpected events.

If you are close to completing the program with your debt settlement company, you may be eager to start rebuilding your credit. When you do so, open only one or two credit card accounts to use for actual emergencies and periodically to purchase items that you can afford to pay off in full each month. Showing repeated use of your card with timely payments of the total balance can only help your credit rating. Keep the charged amounts small, and make sure that they are for necessary items or services. Life can change in the matter of a day. Using most of your credit line for nonessentials today will not help you in an emergency situation tomorrow.

Debt Management Tips

Here are just a few debt management tips to help you in these trying times. Credit Answers is always here to help you live better debt free

Shop around for prescription drugs:
For consumers who pay for all or most of their prescription drugs out of pocket, a new price study by Consumer Reports finds that it pays to shop around. Not only do prices vary from store to store for the same drug, but the fluctuations can be dramatic, sometimes more than $100 for the same prescription. Consumer Reports placed more than 500 calls to 163 pharmacies nationwide to gauge price differences among four prescription drugs. For example, prices ran from $29 to $85 for the drug Levoxyl (for treating hypothyroidism). Plavix, which prevents blood clots, could cost anywhere between $382-$541. Costs for generic drugs may also differ. The price range for the drug alendronate (for osteoporosis) was $124 to $306. Overall, the study revealed that Costco was the cheapest for the four drugs, followed by AARP.com and Wal-Mart. The prices at major store chains such as Rite-Aid and Walgreens could also vary depending on the geographical location.

New regulations require financial institutions and creditors to have identity theft prevention programs:
Financial institutions and creditors are now required to develop and implement written identity theft prevention programs under the new "Red Flags Rules," which is part of the Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions (FACT) Act of 2003. Under these Rules, financial institutions and creditors with covered accounts must have identity theft prevention programs in place by November 1, 2008, to identify, detect, and respond to patterns, practices, or specific activities that could indicate identity theft.

Tax-Free Days:
Visit the web site of the Federation of Tax Administrators (FTA) located at www.taxadmin.org and click on the link at the top of the page entitled "2008 State Sales Tax Holidays." Many states are waiving sales tax for back-to-school shopping.

Frugal Green Tips:
According to the U.S. Department of Energy, 75% of the energy used to power electronics in the home is consumed while the products are turned off. Consider unplugging items such as microwaves and cell phone chargers when not in use.