Are You Headed For A Debt Crisis?

Guest Post

Today I am excited to introduce Gary Foreman who is the creator of The Dollar Stretcher.com.  The Dollar Stretcher is one of top personal finance sites on the internet in terms of traffic and prestige and has been running since 1996, which is basically forever in internet years!  Thanks to Gary for providing this wisdom on avoiding a debt crisis and finding the way out of debt.

I am proud to have one of the top personal finance publishers on the internet write a guest post for my blog.

Without further ado, here's Gary:

“I don't really have a debt problem. Right?”

Do You Have A Debt Problem?
Image Source: https://pixabay.com/en/photos/download/frog-1367440_1920.jpg

We all know the story about the frog and boiling water. If you turn up the heat gradually the frog won't pay attention and will eventually be boiled. The same thing is true of debt. You'd never borrow $10,000 with nothing to show for it. But adding $100 or so to your credit card balance each month doesn't seem like a problem. Until the water starts to boil...

So how can you tell if like the frog, you debt is slowly killing you? We've come up with a list of indicators that it's time to be concerned about your debt. Review the list below and see if any of these apply to you:

• If your credit card balance is over $10,000 and rising
• If, after paying your bills, you don't have enough for your day-to-day living expenses (i.e. food, gas, etc)
• If you've been late paying your rent or mortgage more than once in the past 12 months
• If you're afraid to total up all your debts because you don't want to know how much you owe
• If you've been hiding some debts from your mate
• If the amount you owe on credit cards and personal loans is increasing each month
• If you use a cash advance on one card to make a minimum payment on another
• If the interest rate on your credit card increases to the upper teens or higher
• If you have to choose which bill you'll pay late this month
• If your credit card balance is more than 50% of your credit limit
• If you've been rejected lately when you applied for a new credit card or personal loan
• If you've paid overdraft fees twice in the last 3 months
• If your credit score has dropped more than 25 points in the last 6 months
• If the total that you pay in credit card minimum payments, student and personal loans totals more than 10% of your take home pay
• If your mortgage is more than 30% of your take home pay
• If car payments are taking up more than 15% of your take home pay
• If you find that you don't have any money left at the end of the month to add to an emergency fund or retirement account

The Price You Pay for Being In Debt

Before you decide to do something about debt, you need to recognize what that debt is costing you. We've listed a few of the prices you pay for being in debt.

• Higher interest rate for credit cards and personal loans
• Some loans are not available to you
• Higher auto insurance rates
• Money spent on interest cannot be used for other things
• Higher rate for home mortgage or home equity line
• Lower credit score
• You can't control how much you spend for past purchases each month

Is It Time to Take Action?

If you checked any of the problem indicators or find that you've suffered any of the costs of being in debt you have a choice to make.  You can continue to pay an ever increasing price for your debt and hope that eventually you don't lose everything in bankruptcy. Or you can take action to free yourself from it.  You can improve your penny pincher skills, and prioritize your bills. The choice is yours.


About the Author:
The Dollar Stretcher has been helping people "live better...for less" since 1996. Their free Dollar Stretcher Debt Course will introduce you to the tools you need to get out of debt. Sign up for their free weekly newsletter “Surviving Tough Times”. Each issue will show you ways to save money that can be used to reduce your debt burden. You'll also find at least one article specifically related to getting out of debt.

Penny Pincher Journal

Copyright © 2016 by Dr. Penny Pincher.  All Rights Reserved.  Privacy Policy

My First Haircut in 8 Years... Why?

My First Haircut in 8 Years!

My First Haircut in 8 Years!
Image Source: https://pixabay.com/en/hairdresser-haircut-kid-659145/

For most people, I don't think getting a haircut is very exciting, but for me it was a big deal.  Today I had my first haircut in 8 years!

I have been cutting my hair at home to save money since the big economic downturn in 2008.  I needed to find some expenses to cut and haircuts for me was one of the easy things to give up.  Actually, there are a number of advantages to cutting your own hair at home.  Of course there is the money savings.  I bought a hair buzzer kit for about $30 to get basically unlimited haircuts.  Cutting my hair at home also saves time.  I don't need to drive to the barber shop and wait for my turn.  I probably save at least a half hour in time every haircut at home.

So with all of these advantage of cutting my own hair at home, why did I decide to go to a barber and pay $12 plus a tip to get a professional haircut for the first time in 8 years?  The short answer- I was tricked.

How, you may ask, can you get tricked into getting a haircut?  This scenario makes a lot more sense if you know my son.  I had the day off and he came with me to run some errands on Main Street in our small town.  We stopped by the grocery store and also stopped by a small business to pay a bill.  On our way out, my son said, "let's go this way," and started leading me down the street in the direction of the hardware store.  This made sense since my son is always building something and often needs parts for various science experiments and projects.

As we neared the barber shop, he suddenly announced, "We are going to do something about that hair!" and led me inside.

I have to admit my hair did need something done about it.  I had not used my buzzers for the past few months because I liked having it a bit longer than the #8 buzzer guard that cuts to 1 inch length.  I have not mastered scissor skills, so if I cut my hair at home with the buzzers, it would have to be 1 inch or shorter.

As soon as we got into the barber shop, I realized that I had a way out.  I only had $2 with me, and I knew haircuts cost a lot more than that.  This small shop does not take credit cards.  I explained this to my son, who immediately hatched a plan to go home to get some money.  After we got home, my other son joined the cause and came with me to the barber shop too in order to help ensure that I actually got a haircut.

I had short buzzers, #2 I think, on the back and sides, but left the top longer.  It is a sharp looking haircut.  A bit of trivia for you on hair buzzer guards:  the guard number is in 1/8 inches.  So a #2 guard is 1/4 inch.

It was a nice treat to get a fancy haircut.  I don't know yet if I will pay for a haircut again soon or not though.  I could probably use my buzzers at home on the back and sides for a few months and maybe go in and let a professional handle the scissor work a few times a year.  Or I could go back to the #8 all over for free with my buzzers at home.  Sometimes free is hard to beat...

Penny Pincher Journal

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Make a Chromebook With Your Android Phone for $20

Making A Chromebook

I couldn't handle spending $150 for a Chromebook, so I made one using my Android phone for $20 instead...

I Made A Chromebook for $20
Image Source: Dr. Penny Pincher

I was recently on the road and had an article I needed to write to meet a deadline.  I did not take a computer with me on the trip- I planned to use a computer at the business center of the hotel to type my article.  Unfortunately, the office center was closed due to flooding.

I considered typing the article on my cell phone using the on-screen keyboard.  This would have been possible, but would have been frustrating and would have taken hours to get done.  I needed a better way to type my article.

I walked to a nearby Best Buy and checked out cheap computer options.  I could get a Chromebook or a cheap Windows 10 computer for about $150.  I quickly decided that spending $150 was more than I could handle.

Studying these netbooks did give me an idea, though.  I realized that these inexpensive computers have solid state drives and small screens.  I realized that this was similar to the capability of my Android cell phone that I had with me, except unlike my cell phone the cheap laptops had a keyboard.

I checked out Bluetooth keyboards and found a nice solution.  With a $20 Bluetooth keyboard, I could essentially make a Chromebook that would allow me to type up my article just as fast as I could type it on a computer.  With my homemade Chromebook, I could work with Google Docs and do basically anything I could with a real Chromebook.

The Bluetooth keyboard can also be used with a tablet computer, so I could have a bigger screen by using a cheap Android tablet computer.

Bluetooth Wireless Keyboard I Used To Turn My Android Phone into a Chromebook
Image Source: Dr. Penny Pincher

Making a Chromebook using my Android phone and a wireless keyboard was a great solution when I needed a computer and didn't want to spend much money.  The screen size using my cell phone was pretty small, but I made it work.  An Android tablet computer with Bluetooth would make a better homemade Chromebook.

Penny Pincher Journal

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Effective Ant Control for Cheap

How Ant Poison Works

Ant Control: Liquid Ant Poison (left) and Plastic Ant Bait Station (right)
Image Source: Dr. Penny Pincher

Last year we had some small ants in the kitchen.  I put out a few plastic bait traps that I got at the grocery store for about $5, and the ants were gone after a few days and I didn't see any ants for a whole year.  You might wonder why I would pay $5 for some fancy ant bait traps when I could simply smash the ants for free.

Killing individual ants doesn't really solve the problem.  More ants will come to take the place of the ants you kill.  The same thing happens when you spray ants with bug spray.  It may kill a few, but the ant colony continues to produce more and more ants, and eventually some of those ants find their way to you.

You can use bug spray to make a perimeter, spraying it around your house to make a barrier to keep bugs out.  I have had some success with this, but ant trails can go places that are difficult to spray.  Plus the spray barrier breaks down after a few months and ants will start coming in again.

The best way to control ants is to take out the entire colony with a poison bait.  Ant bait stations use this approach, typically containing bait in granular form inside the plastic housing.  Worker ants take the poison bait back to the colony where it is fed to the larva and takes out the next generation of ants.

One of the nice things about using bait to take out ants is that you don't need to find the colony or even know where the ants are coming in.  The ants do the work of finding your poison bait and taking it back to the colony.

I don't like the idea of killing ants- I think they are neat little animals that have a social order and work very hard.  But I can't let ants take over my kitchen.

My Ant Problem This Year

This year, the little kitchen ants were back.  I put out some new plastic bait traps but they weren't working.  My wife noticed that the ants seemed to be ignoring the ant traps, walking right around them without bothering to climb up and explore them to find the bait inside.

The plastic ant traps are designed look decorative and have a flower pattern stamped into them.  It is nice that they try to make the ant traps look fancy, but it is still pretty obvious that they are ant traps.

Plastic Ant Bait Station
Image Source: Dr. Penny Pincher

I decided to go with an even cheaper ant control solution- Terro.  This is a sticky liquid bait, sort of the consistency of honey that you put on small pieces of cardboard for the ants to find.  I bought a small bottle of Terro for about $2.59.

Terro Liquid Ant Bait
Image Source: Dr. Penny Pincher

Ants Eating Liquid Ant Poison
Image Source: Dr. Penny Pincher

The little ants really like the Terro!  Within a couple hours, there were at least a dozen ants lined up around the drop of poison sucking it up- in the photo above, the ants are eating the bait on the card like crazy.  The worker ants take the poison back to the ant colony, where it starts acting and kills the entire colony.

As I said, don't like the idea of killing ants, but I can't really put up with ants in my kitchen.  Within a few hours of putting out the Terro bait, there are very few ants still wandering around.  I'll leave the bait out for at least a few days to make sure my ant problem is solved for this year.

It looks like I'm going to get away with not calling an exterminator, which would cost WAY more than $2.59.

Penny Pincher Journal

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Audiobook Announcement: Pinch Like You Mean It

Pinch Like You Mean It- Audiobook Launch!

Pinch Like You Mean It:  The Audiobook is out!

I am excited to announce the release of my first audiobook!  It is the audio version of Pinch Like You Mean It! 101 Ways To Save Money Now.

This book works very well as an audio book thanks to outstanding narration from Peter L. Herrick.  This guy could read a list of names out of the phone book and it would be gripping and compelling...  just imagine how great my book sounds with Pete reading it!

It took about a month to produce the audiobook version, so I hope you will check it out.  I developed this under a cool program by ACX that matches book authors with audiobook producers.  I held some auditions to find the right narrator for this book.  I think you will enjoy the results from all of the hard work that went into this project!



When I got the draft version of the audiobook, I intended to take a few minutes and listen to a few tips, but ended up listening to the entire book non-stop!  I think listening to the book makes a bigger impression than reading it.

If you have an Audible.com account, you will be able to get this audiobook for free as part of your subscription.  Enjoy!

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