Frugal Fridays: 12 Tips to Improve Your Financial Health

Welcome to Frugal Fridays where we share money saving tips, discuss living frugally and generally talk about personal finance issues.  

Thanks again to plf515 for guest hosting last week and thanks in advance to AnnieJo and blue jersey mom for taking on next week and the week after.  I'm still looking for other guest hosts for the future.  If you are interested, email me: frugalfridays (at) gmail.com.

I keep coming across articles on 10 tips for this or 5 tips for that.  I am jealous of all the good ideas that these authors come up with, but rather than put the effort into researching and writing my own list of helpful hints, I thought it would be just as helpful (and a lot easier on me) to link to some of the ones I've found most interesting.  So, without further ado, I present the ultimate list of financial tips: my List of Lists.

1.  The suggestions in  Do as these 10 rules say and you'll be fine define a very good overall approach to help you achieve financial happiness.  These are mostly "big picture" suggestions (i.e., save more, spend less) but he has some very good concrete advice on how to frame your goals and then structure a plan to achieve them.

2.  If you are drowning in credit card debt, there is some good advice in Ten Tips to Getting Out of Debt.  The one piece of advice that I think is really smart, but I always forget to suggest myself is #8. Contact your creditors and try to work out repayment plans.  Creditors can be very willing to work out an alternate payment plan, reduce or eliminate fees or reduce your interest rate, but you need to ask.

3.  With housing market in such a slump, if you are a renter with a good credit rating, now might be a good time to think about buying a house.  If you have never owned a home before, be sure to check out the tips in Buying your first house.  I hesitated a bit to include this in my list.  While most of the advice in this article is good, there is one bit I really objected to.  They advise you to check your credit score before you start shopping for a loan (a really good piece of advice I heartily endorse) but then they link to a site that tries to sign you up for a service you could end up paying for.  Instead, you should get your free credit report from the site that is federally mandated to deliver you a truly free report once per year from each of the three credit reporting agencies: www.annualcreditreport.com

4.  If you already own your home and you want to accelerate the payoff of your home mortgage, check out Five Ways to Pay Off Your Mortgage Loan Faster.  One thing I really like about this article is that it covers up front the reasons why early payment of your mortgage may not be the wisest course for everyone, but if you decide it is right for you, these suggestions can help you accomplish it.

5.  If you are self-employed, definitely look at this list of 13 things on What every freelancer should know.  My favorite financial tip on this list: #2 Set up a different bank account for your business earnings.  It's a very simple thing to do that will make your life so much easier come tax time.   Tip #8. Take a shower. At least every other day. is also priceless advice for all of us.

6.  Before you merge your finances with a partner, whether through marriage or some other method, check out these 10 tips on Marrying your financial future.  There's lots of good advice here, but my favorite tip would be #6. Get used to tackling goals together.  The only times I've seen financial affairs tear apart a relationship is when fundamentally the pair never really considered themselves a team, but rather individuals yoked together unwillingly.

7.  This entry is actually a list of lists itself.  To be honest, I haven't read every single one of these 66 Ways to Save Money Every Day because I don't really have any interest in updating my bathroom for less than $50, but if I did, I would check here first.  There are so many shopping and decorating tips here, you should find something new and helpful.

8.  This is sort of an anti-money saving tip, but hear me out.  Raising kids is expensive and it is tempting to save money whenever you can, but before you buy used baby toys and furniture, check out this list from Consumer Reports: Don't buy these 5 baby products used.  The best advice from this article: there are so many products that are still in use that have been recalled for serious safety defects, that you should always check out the government web site www.recalls.gov before you buy used.  Your kid's life is not something you want to risk to save a few bucks.

9.  There are some people out there who are amazing and hunting down the best bargains available.  I think I'm pretty good at it, but I am a rank amateur compared to some of these people.  Check out this list where Extreme Savers Share Their Secrets in seven categories.  There are many ideas in here I hadn't thought of.  I got at least one idea from this list that I'll try to put in practice in the future.

10.  If you are interested in taking a foreign vacation, but are appalled at the thought of most foreign currency exchange rates, don't despair.  Here is a list of 7 places you can Vacation where the dollar is still strong.  They all look exotic and attractive to me, but Panama is particularly appealing.  The engineer in me is amazed at the construction of the canal and I'd love to see it in real life.  I'm ready to start packing my bags.

11.  Before you book your vacation, make sure you understand what fees you would incur for cancellation.  Here are  10 tips to clip travel cancellation fees.  Most of these require you to do your homework before you book.

12.  Last, but by no means least, Mother's Day is on the horizon but you don't need to spend a ton of money to show Mom you care.  You need to give her something from the heart, and often that doesn't cost you much at all.  Here's a list of the Top 6 Super Cheap Mother's Day Gift Ideas.  My favorite is a framed picture of you or your family.  It's something she will treasure every time she sees it.  If you want to give her something that doesn't cost anything but effort, you can always take Garrison Keillor's advice and write her a sonnet.  Trust me, she'll be blown away.

Frugal Tip of the Week: This is the season when college aid packages are sent out.  If you are trying to compare packages from different schools, here is a handy calculator to help you summarize for contrast and comparison your different offers.