Some towns are taking note and learning how to survive a depression by using old tricks from history’s playbook. When people have no ready cash on hand, some towns are trying to stimulate commerce using some dollar alternatives that work in local areas. One of these alternatives is scrip, local currencies that can be used to trade within a select group of merchants. Another alternative that can work is a time bank. Instead of using dollars, people trade hours for different services. Each of these probably can’t uphold an economy all by themselves, however they do support additional ways to create commerce when cash is in short supply.

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Are you handy in the kitchen? If so, you have probably found that cooking from scratch saves you tons of money in grocery bills. How about extending your skills to other types of activities that can help save you even more? It can also come in handy in a pinch, when some emergency bills steals your grocery money. While you can opt to get a short-term loan, like a payday loan, the other possibility is to have your food stored away in the pantry or refrigerator to allow you to weather the small financial setback.

Harvest Is Here

Notice food prices being low right now in grocery stores? That’s because the harvest is here and with that comes an abundance of produce. A large supply and average demand means lower prices. Take advantage of that to buy up large quantities of cucumbers for pickling, fruit for jams and jellies, and vegetables for freezing. Take them home and have yourself some fun in the kitchen, while preparing an edible emergency cushion.

Canning

This requires some equipment to do, but it’s relatively inexpensive. Be sure you can raise the temperature of the water in your canner to boiling. Some older electric stoves have too small a burner and difficulty reaching the right temperature. Take a canning class at your local community college or check out a book from the library. It’s not as hard as it sounds and the jars are reusable for next year. Once you’ve invested in some quality canning equipment, it can be re-used year after year, except for the lids that need to be replaced.

Canning can allow you to store items on a room temperature shelf without fear of spoiling. You can make pickles, jams, and jellies very easily at home, and for a fraction of the cost it takes to buy them. After you start experimenting you will find that the produce tastes better too, than canned goods from the grocery store. It allows you a way to be creative with recipes and provides hard to beat enjoyment during the winter time, when fresh foods are costly.

Freezing

If you don’t want to go to all the fuss and bother of canning, there is still freezing. This is the modern way to store lots of food. You don’t even have to cook it, if you don’t want to. You can buy an entire steer from a butcher, share it with a family, and freeze the rest in a large chest freezer. You can take extra produce from the farmer’s market, and freeze fruits and vegetables for use in pies, casseroles, and stews in the winter time. Freezing is very easy, but may have less “shelf life” than canning. It also tends to taste fresher than canning. It can be used with herbs, butters, cheese, and other types of unusual products that you would never consider canning on your own too. Just buy the items when they are cheap at the store, and store them in the freezer until you have a need for them. Add the date you refrigerate them, so you know how old each item is and don’t eat anything too old.

photo credit: DeclanTM

Are you tired of sending checks via mail to pay all your bills? Some people have to send out 10 or more checks each month; and this is when things are slow. If this process is on your nerves, for whatever reason, it may be time to look into paying your bills online. There are many benefits of doing so, and chances are that once you get started you will never look back. (more…)

While the financial crisis might feel like it’s hitting our own bank accounts hard, as individual consumers we sometimes forget that it’s also a tough time for companies, and that they don’t want to lose us as customers. But it’s something we should remember, as proven by an article on negotiating phone bills on Yahoo’s Finance section.

In this story, there’s a great example for us to follow: a customer of AT&T who was frustrated by a high monthly bill for his television, internet and telephone service rang them up to ask for a discount, telling them that because of the tough economic situation, he didn’t think he would be able to continue paying such a high fee for long. Instead of the 10% discount he was hoping for, they cut his charges by almost half for the next year - because they don’t want to lose a customer. So as consumers it’s really important to think of the consequences - if a company loses us as customers completely, they’ll lose a lot more money than if we pay a bit less. And as always, if you don’t ask, you don’t get - so don’t be afraid to try and negotiate cheaper rates for your regular payments. You might be pleasantly surprised.

If you are trying to save money, start by paying your bills on time. You can cut coupons, rummage through dumpsters, and buy dented cans of beans to save $35 only to have those savings gobbled up by a credit card late-fee.

Don’t have enough money to pay all your bills? Pay the credit cards first. Consider this:

If you had 5 hungry mobsters standing outside your house waiting for money but only 4 pieces of lasagne, you’d feed the 4 meanest-looking ones first, right? Think of your utility company as the 5th jolly mobster who doesn’t mind waiting a few days to eat.

Avoiding late fees, increased interest rates, and return-to-service fees is just like winning free money! A few simple steps will get you on track to maximizing your winnings: (more…)

Have you ever given any thought to paying your bills online? If not, you should be aware of the benefits before you pass this by. Here are three benefits of using the internet to pay your bills:

1. It is quick. Why would you want to fill out a check and mail it when you can simply pay your bill online? It is much quicker to login to an online account than to mail a check.

2. Cuts back on stress. Do you constantly worry about your payments getting lost in the mail? Again, online bill paying can help you. When you pay online you never have to rely on the post office. How does that sound to you?

3. Avoid late fees. If you send your payment via check you never know if it will arrive on time. In turn, you could get smacked with a late fee when you don’t really deserve it. By paying your bills online you can send the proper amount at any time, as long as it is before the due date.

As you can see, there are quite a few reasons to pay your bills online. To take advantage of the above benefits begin to setup online accounts today for all of your bills.

Times are tough and money is tight for many people. What will you do if you cannot pay your bills on time? This is not a fun question to ponder, but it is a situation that many people are facing. If you are one of them you need to be aware of all your options.

If you cannot pay your bills on time you need to review your budget. Are there any unnecessary expenses that you can cut out to free up money for more important bills? For instance, you may be able to get rid of cable television which will save you $50 or so every month. In turn, this money can be put towards bills that are more important such as your mortgage, car payment, insurance, etc.

Do you know you are going to miss a payment? In this case you will want to call the appropriate party to discuss your situation. For instance, are you going to be late on your next mortgage payment? Instead of running and hiding, call your lender and tell them that you are going to be late. Let them know your situation and what you are doing to make things better. You may be surprised at how accommodating some lenders and companies will be if you give them the chance to hear you out.

Not being able to pay your bills on time is a big problem. If you are in this position you should review your budget and then get in touch with the lenders and companies that you are dealing with. And of course, you need to come up with an eventual solution that will ensure that this does not become a long term problem.

photo credit: jimmyroq

Paying bills is one of those tasks in life that nobody really wants to do, but it’s definitely necessary. It’s also important to pay your bills on time so that it doesn’t affect your credit rating or require you to pay extra fees or penalties.

One way to make sure you pay your bills successfully is to follow the Bills in a Box system. A few tips on how to set up such a system include:

• Use folders to separate bills by the month in which they are due.
• Use a calendar for the year to write due dates for bills on the right days.
• Sort through your stack of bills once per week - try to pick a regular day.
• Note when each bill is due on the calendar and file it in the right folder.
• Spend some time once a month writing out all the bill paying checks in advance - you can post them later if you don’t want to pay too early or are waiting for income first.
• For bills that can be paid through online banking, instead of writing a check you can schedule them online in advance, and they will be automatically paid on the date you want.

Many companies are now offering consumers the ability to pay their bill online. This holds true for credit card companies, mortgage lenders, auto lenders, any utility companies among others. While it may sound like a good idea to pay all your bills online you must first make sure that what you are doing is safe.

Generally speaking, companies that offer online bill pay options are devoted to making sure that your information is kept safe at all times. Remember, if they mess up even once they are going to be in a world of trouble. Of course, you should still check to make sure the system you are using is secure. Are you visiting a secure site? Is your login ID and password unique?

It is safer than ever before to pay bills online. More and more people are beginning to realize the benefits of paying online, and you can be next. Just make sure that you always keep your information safe. The company you are paying will do their part, and it is important that you do yours by choosing a unique ID and password and ensuring that you never leave your account open for another to see.