Jill Russo Foster

Tips for Successful Personal Finances

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Your Path to Great Credit

You know that your credit is an important part of your financial life.  You know that the higher your score the better the terms are when you apply for credit – lower interest rate, lower monthly payments and more.  You may have wanted to improve your credit score, but it’s too confusing and you don’t know where to start.

Let me tell you that this is a journey and there is no instant magic pill.  It takes hard work and dedication on your part.  Where do you start?  The first step is to know your credit score.  You can get a close approximation of your FICO score.  Yes, it’s time to face the reality and look at it.  You need to know where you stand.  To see your credit score, go to my resource page and see how to access your credit score for free.

The next step is to make a plan.  These are the small steps you take each week to do just one thing to improve your credit score.  They can range from not using a credit card to make a purchase, make sure to pay that bill on time, bringing in more money to be able to make that payment and more.

I know this is hard.  Years ago I had way too much credit card debt and I couldn’t image that I would every be debt free.  But there came a day when I came to the realization that I needed to deal with it.  I made a plan and stuck to it and was out of debt. As a result, my credit score increased to be excellent.  I know that you too can do this.

Here are some more information to help you understand what it’s costing you.

Good credit card debt

Reading your credit report

Budgeting

We’ll talk more about this tomorrow.

Saving money daily – discounts

I love getting a discount.  Don’t you?

When we grocery shop, we use coupons, meal plan and shop the sales.  We eat healthy with any organic products, so there aren’t as many coupons as in the past.  Yes, items do go on sale, but it can still be expensive.

Our grocery store gives us gas points.  For every dollar we spend, we get points – 100 points is 10¢ off per gallon.  Last weekend we saved 90¢ per gallon.  That certainly helps our budget and can helpful to you.

Are you getting all the rewards possible? Learn more on discounts and rewards.

Saving money daily – eliminating expenses

What are the things you are willing to do without or do differently?

In our household, we do our own yardwork and save by not having to pay for a lawn or snowplowing service.  The trade off is that it takes time to do these tasks and we had to purchase the lawn mower, weed wacker and snow blower.  This can be a big initial expense.  But, we don’t have monthly bills.

Our town has private trash collectors, that’s another monthly bill.  We take our own trash to the transfer station and eliminated that bill years ago.

What are you willing to do or doing that have helped your finances?

For more tips, please visit my website.

Saving money daily – our garden

As far as I can remember back, my family has always had a garden.

Ours in smaller, but we grow what we need.  Ever spring we start with herbs in a flower box, just outside the back door.  This year is rosemary, parsley, basil and cilantro.  You can start from seed or buy the plants all for a minimal amount of money and have fresh herbs all summer long.  When the weather turns colder, we will freeze the remaining herb for later in the year.

Our garden has tomatoes, lettuce, cucumbers, squash, broccoli, peppers, kale and more.  There is nothing better than to be able to walk out into the yard and pick what you want for dinner.

Everything we grow is that much less that we buy at the store.  As August arrives, everything is starting to be ready to pick.  This saves money each and every trip to the grocery store.

For more money saving tips, follow me on social media Facebook, Twitter, Linked In and my website.

Getting Rid of the Clutter

After two long years of sorting of and on, we have finally sorted through all our family’s photos, slides and movies!

My mother was the avid photographer and there were many photos, slides and movies to sort through.  It took me many years to be comfortable with the idea of tossing some.  Now that it’s done, we have kept the best, most meaningful photos of all and scanned them.  The old family movies were restored and transferred to DVD by Southtree.  Really love their services as they kept us informed with emails all the way through the process.  Now, will be sending them the slides to work on. Once there done, we’ll be set.

We cleaned out 4 storage plastic tubs and a full file cabinet of family photos.  It was a thrill to relive memories and painstaking at the same time.  Another clutter project completed.

For more resources, visit my website www.JillRussoFoster.com.

Getting Rid of the Clutter

It’s summer and wedding season for us.

Our dilemma, what to wear.  You may be thinking we have a closet full of clothes to choose from and you are mostly right.  Lately, we have been getting rid of stuff.  So here’s what we have done so far this year:

Gowns and cocktail dresses – donated to our local high school for the prom

Suits – Men’s and Women’s – lots of peoples in need for clothing in good condition

Clothing – Check out your local shelter or other organizations that are in need.

Cleaning out and giving back all in one tiny action.  All this has streamlined our closets and hopefully made a difference in the life of someone else.

For more suggestions, view my resources page.

Getting Rid of the Clutter

As we continue to clean out, we have donated several electronics (old computers, printers, scanners, cameras and more) to great local organizations in need.

This is really easy to do with the help of the Cristina Foundation.  They have a website that you can search local non-profits in your area and see what they are in need of.  If you have the item(s), you connect with them for the drop off and/or pick up.  It ‘s a great way to donated and help out others in need.

For more suggestions, view my resources page.

Getting Rid of the Clutter

As we clean out stuff from our home, I wanted to share with you some great resources.  I like to give items to people or charities that can make good use of the items, instead of just tossing.

We had too much luggage.  Yes, we travel and need both small and large suitcases as well as carry-ons, but we had too much!  eBags has this great program called Trade In Trade Up.  You can donate two suitcases in good condition and in return you get a $25 credit at eBags.  We donated two suitcases in June and recently received our credit.  This weekend, we received our new eBags items.  eBags isn’t only luggage, it much more including has back to school items.

For more suggestions, view my resources page.

 

 

Having trouble keeping track of your money?

We all go through stages in our lives where money seems to be going out faster than coming in.  In my 20’s, I was a spender and learned my lesson.  Now, I keep track of my spending.  I want to accomplish my goals and live within my means.  It may sound boring, but it keep me out of debt.

If budgeting isn’t working for you, read this.