The Credit Crunch Song

The last time I posted a video here is was very popular so in a cheap attempt to be popular a second time here is a song all about the credit crunch. It's called "The Credit Crunch Song" (funny that)...

Crafting--A Frugal Pastime

By Cyndi Roberts

Crafting is a part of most frugal people's lives. In today's busy world, crafting not only offers a way to exercise our creativity, it is a constructive way to wind down--a way to use leisure time to its greatest advantage.

If we're not careful, though, any hobby can become a drain on finances, instead of a boon!

The best way to keep this from happening, is to find a craft that is frugal by nature. One that uses up what you already have or recycles things you would otherwise throw away. For example, making a quilt from scraps of your old jeans or your husband's shirts.

Any craft can be made more frugal by learning to modify projects to fit supplies you have on hand. For example, if your project says to use "wiggly eyes" and it's a painting project, learn to paint eyes on instead. If it's a sewing project, French knots can be substituted for eyes sometimes, or use buttons.

» Continue Reading: Crafting--A Frugal Pastime

Frugal Gifts For Frugal Gals

By Cheryl Johnson

A frugal gift is measured first by it's usefulness. Speaking from my own experience, I would say that my most appreciated gifts are those that I not only find useful, but that I would have had to purchase myself at some point. With that in mind, the frugal mind that is, the gift actually serves two practical purposes; It is useful and saves me money.

If you are a frugal gal, this task will be much easier for you. If great minds think alike, the same is true of frugal minds. Simply look within yourself. The frugal gal can get excited about the most ordinary items. For the rest of you, here's a little help.

Although you may question some items on the list, remember, the frugal gal enjoys frugal things! She looks to get the best value for her money and this IS what makes her happy! It just makes sense that providing a practical frugal gift that may also save money, will make her happy. Isn't that what great gifts should do? So here's to happiness and the pursuit of the frugal lifestyle! Happy holidays, happy birthdays, happy Mother's day, etc. etc. etc...

» Continue Reading: Frugal Gifts For Frugal Gals

What is a credit crunch and how do I face one?

The wikipedia says that a credit crunch is a sudden reduction in the general availability of loans (or credit), or a sudden increase in the cost of obtaining loans from banks. it goes on to say that A credit crunch is often caused by a sustained period of careless and inappropriate lending which results in losses for lending institutions and investors in debt when the loans turn sour and the full extent of bad debts becomes known. So let's take a look at how that effects us and what can we do about it.

The short story is that right now it's expensive to borrow money because it was too easy to borrow money before. As money is tight remortgaging is a good idea right now but you can't remortgage anymore because money is tight. Darn.

The slightly longer answer is that for most of us the best move is to reduce our overheads as far as possible and get rid of any excess liabilities (expensive credit card interest payments for example) with the money we free up cutting our costs down. That's what this site is all about and over the next few weeks we'll be hearing from a number of writers as they share ideas on how we can do just that.

» Continue Reading: What is a credit crunch and how do I face one?

Credit Crunch Cerial - now with real tears

Credit Crunchies are so wholesome we don't need to advertise - unlike our competitors. See the all new advert for the leading rival brand of credit crunch cerial!

A basic intoduction to financial health

Right now the economy is not doing so great. What that should mean to you is that now is not the time to leave things hanging. Much like me a year ago being physically unfit many of us are financially unfit. This guide (and indeed all of credit crunchies) will be looking at what you need to do to reduce your risks during financial crisis.

The first area to look at is debt. Debt is a liability and ideally you need to reduce it quickly. Right now you may have a job (lucky you) and so you can manage your repayments but should unemployment come looking for you - you need a plan. If you have savings now would be a good time to consider using them to pay off debts. You are likely to be earning between 2% and 4% on most savings but paying 8% to 25% on debts. That means that you are paying more to have their money than they are paying to have yours.

Even if you are in a possition where the interest you earn covers the interest you pay I'm willing to bet it is because you have borrowed less than you have saved. Using a slice of your savings to pay off your borrowings should tip the balance and leave you getting more in interest than you are paying.

Some debts, like mortgages, are a long term project and for these you need to make sure you are paying as little extra as possible. This being a credit crunch that's not going to be easy.

If you have not got any savings then now is not the time to start to imitate a headless chicken. You are going to need to take a good look at your income and then figure out where it is all going. A saving of as little as £10 a week through simple savings could net you as much as £450 a year.

Right now I hope that you are coping well with your borrowing and with your spending habits but the time to trim down is not when disaster strikes but before. Writers on this blog are going to be looking at things like how to spend less on shopping, how to get more bang for your buck (as it were) and even things you can do to not need to spend at all.

So let's just look at the big items at the moment.

Cars - these babies are popular (especially in the USA) and often the "sexy looking car" is the cash guzzling type. You can make a considerable saving just by trading in for a less expensive lower volume mode of transport. You will save on the insurance premium, the fuel costs and (in the UK at least) on the price of road tax.

Also you are likely to walk away with money in your pocket. Put that cash in your savings account and let's move on.

Eating out - we all love to do it and right now socialising at the Billion Dollar Steak House might be normal but if the bottom falls out of your income you need to already have formed less expensive habits. I'm not saying never eat there but I am saying that getting into the habit of home entertaining could leave you considerably more to stash away in that savings account.

Not only does the saved money serve to protect you from instant fall out if your job evaporates but the new habits you have formed will serve to stop you killing your resources on things you can no longer afford.

It might come as a shock but most millionaires are not high flyers but people who treat living well within their means as a religious way of life. In other words if they pull in £25,000 a year they would be looking at a living cost of no more than £19,000 to give then £6,000 to invest in assets. Assets are things that earn you money. Savings bonds, stocks and shares are assets. The house with a huge debt on it - that's a liability just now.

Our aim here is to reduce liabilities.

I'm going to open the floor up to you guys to share you ideas of how you can leave yourself with money to save at the end of the month. Take it away...

Thunderbirds are go!

Credit Crunchies is a group blog and right now we are open to new members joining the team.

When you blog as part of a team you get more than just a ready made platform. Effectively you get the power of full time blogging without the cost and effort required to maintain a full time six updates a day blog. As such your work can expect to enjoy a much higher readership level and your adverts (which you will control) will enjoy a much more profitable rate of clicks as a side effect of this.

Furthermore your posts form part of a much larger body of work which means that in "SEO terms" you gain a considerable advantage. This advantage goes further to allow you time off from making posts without a drop off of readership on the blog. Also the promotion, link building, technical, design and other tasks are already taken care of. You don't have to go it alone.

With other writers already present at the start of the project your posts will not sit naked and bereft of comments for very long. This social proof of the popularity of your work should help to propel your blogging carrier forward. If that's not enough myself and other writers will be happy to help you with any areas of your written abilities you would appreciate additional advice on.

In short blogging as part of a team is a win-win situation.

Team members will get all of the following:

Freedom to write to their own schedule
Freedom to address topics their own way (within reasonable limits of good taste, topicality and family friendliness)
The ability to harness the power of working as part of a team
A profile page which focuses link love to your other projects
A short biography space at the end of each item that provides link love to your other projects
Exposure to new readers and new ideas
The chance to help people with your skills and experience while also possibly helping yourself
The chance to make new friends
Technical support
Networking opportunities
Access to an advanced advert rotator which will display ads against all posts you make (under development currently)
A contact form to protect your email address
All the other benefits of being in a friendly team of successful bloggers


So what do you need to get in?

First visit this form and create yourself an account. This will allow you to log in and set a few basic details.

Second come back here and after logging in introduce yourself with a comment about who you are.

Third - I see your comment and we chat and so long as you are not incapable of putting a few words into a logical order to convey an idea I will probably add you to a team (or maybe two). At the moment (October 2008) there are the main blog team and the mini blog team. At the moment (October 2008) I will mostly be adding people to the main team and the mini team.

Fourth - blog away - we're hear to look at budgeting, credit crunch issues, making and fixing and saving money. This can include growing your own veg, healthy eating on a smaller budget, investing, banking advice, job hunting or anything else that will help people. If there is not a suitable category message me your ideas.

Fifth ... only joking that's all there is to it.

Credit Crunchies - Stumaching The Bills At Breakfast

2008 was the year that saw the cost of living start to spiral upwards. This has happened before and will probably happen again. Those who have lived through this and far worse conditions (like the last world war, for example) developed ways of coping with the reduced buying power.

We are here to explore those methods and to share what we have learned about riding out periods of relative increased poverty like there was nothing wrong at all.

If we can help to make the morning post a little less intimidating then I feel that we have done our job.

The blog itself will be written by a number of authors each of which will be opporating semi-indiendantly. Each writer brings different skills and experience to the bubbling pot that we have as we help to create the best stone soup you have ever tasted. There may even still be a little space for another cook in Mother Hubbards Kitchen so if you feel you have something to contribute speak up.