Carnival of Debt Reduction #166

In an effort to be fair to next week’s host, I resisted the urge to go with a Thanksgiving theme. Instead, I decided to use Sarah Ban Breathnach’s idea of “Simple Abundance” and some of the quotes she gathered in her book. In the face of struggle and worry over debt and finances, becoming aware of all the abundance around us can truly help lighten our load.

(image by Scott Granneman)

Often people attempt to live their lives backwards; they try to have more things, or more money, in order to do more of what they want so that they will be happier. The way it actually works is the reverse. You must first be who you really are, then do what you need to do, in order to have what you want.
-Margaret Young

These first three posts are my editor’s picks –

It can be really easy to get into debt and really difficult to get back out. The Financial Wellness Project hopes you will be able to resist the urge! “The Beginnings of debt (or how I was unable to resist a free T-shirt)” explains where that first step can lead.

For a well thought out review of the basics of debt reduction read “Back to Basics: Reduce Your Debt”. Mighty Bargain Hunter lays it all out for us!

Are all the finance tips you read “preaching to the choir” when it comes to you? Are you already doing everything you are supposed to and still have some big debt? Saving Advice.com suggests boosting your income and asks, “Can Adult Education Help You Become Debt Free?”.

(image by Abby Eggers)

Perhaps if one really knew when one was happy one would know the things that were necessary for one’s life.”
-Joanna Field

That One Caveman recently paid off his car loan and talks about “The Rush of Paying Off a Debt”. That’s the feeling we’re all working towards!

There must be some good reason to have credit card debt, right? No Debt Plan has “10 Great Reasons to Have Credit Card Debt”. It’s a humorous look, which, unfortunately, probably rings true for too many!

In order to get out of debt, FIRE Finance, (which stands for Financial Independence, Retire Early), created a system, which they refer to as TCT, for Track, Compare and Trim in order to become debt free. They share their system in “Three Quick Steps to Get Out of Debt”.

Debt Aim has some good solid advice for improving your financial position in “6 Tips for Reducing Your Debt”. You can never have enough reminders of the basics!

MoneyNing explains in “Reduce, Reuse, Recycle and How It Helped With My Personal Finance” that the lessons learned about recycling as a child were helpful later in keeping his finances under control. Recycling takes a lot of organization and, as we all know, so does keeping your finances in order.


Difficult times have helped me to understand better than before how infinitely rich and beautiful life is in every way and that so many things that one goes worrying about are of no importance whatsoever.
-Isak Dinesen

Is your debt so crushing that you are considering using a debt consolidation company? Military Finance Network suggests some alternatives in “Should You Pay a Debt Consolidation Company?” If you feel that is your only answer, MFN suggests reading the fine print very carefully!

Are you playing the balance transfer shuffle? Art of the Coupon.com recently discovered the negative aspect of this activity and shares it in “What a Balance Transfer Did to My Credit Score”. Think carefully before you make a decision as to whether or not a balance transfer will be a good thing for your financial picture.

Debt Free Destiny advises to “Cut These 7 Things Out of Your Life and Save Big”. DFD quotes an expense of “up to $4,000 a year” if you buy just one beer a day at your local pub. I did the math and that comes to almost $11 a beer. If you are paying that much for beer, I think you need to find a new watering hole!

Prioritizing the order in which we pay our bills is one of the tips in The Smarter Wallet’s “4 Ways to Survive The Credit and Mortgage Crises”. Check out the article for some more advice.

The Personal Financier came up with some interesting correlations during tough economic times in “Surprising (and Promising) Aspects of the Financial Crises”.

Have you been wondering about your credit score but have discovered that, clever commercials notwithstanding, credit scores are not always free? Five Cent Nickel provides a review of “Free Credit Scores from Credit Karma”. I’ve been using the service for awhile and, although it’s not actually your FICO score, it does give you a good idea of where you stand.


Until you make peace with who you are, you’ll never be content with what you have.
-Doris Mortman

Broke Grad Student writes about “5 Easy Ways for College Students to Make Extra Money”. While I think ways to make extra money are a good thing, as a parent of a college student, if he’s getting any student loan refund, it had better be coming to me!

15 Minutes to Riche$ suggests you “Shake a Stick at Unnecessary Gym Expenses” by making your own protein shakes at home and helpfully provides a recipe!

Budgets Are Sexy tries a new way to explain the difference between APY and APR. Does that help?

They are not presidential “candidates” anymore but Credit Addict came up with some credit card debt information on the McCains in, “Presidential Candidates and Credit Card Debt”, which was written before the election. Credit Addict hopes the McCains have a good rewards card!

No Debt Anymore.org has a few good “Tips on How to Save Money” including identifying needs vs. wants and tracking your spending. We all know that’s where we have to start!

What would you do with $1,000 extra each month? Passive Family Income answers that question in “If I had an Extra $1,000”. He says he’d save more and give more. Those are good goals.

Jonathon from Master Your Card, in a guest post at The Digerati Life, writes about how to “Improve Your Shopping Habits: How to Recover from a Huge Impulse Buy”. Did you know that when you make an impulse buy a marketing executive does a little happy dance? I’m glad to know my shopping mistakes are entertaining someone!

Ben from Trees Full of Money gives us some tips on ways to seal up air leaks in our homes and reduce our heating bills with, “How to Stop Cold Drafts in Your Home”. He has provided some convenient links to the inexpensive solutions he proposes.

New Homes Section Blog relates some information on the “Hope for Homeowners Act of 2008”. If you are drowning in your mortgage and your home is rapidly devaluating, this may be the information you are seeking.

There must be more to life than having everything.
-Maurice Sendak

That’s it for this week! If this is your first visit to SimplyForties I hope you’ll take some time to look around and consider subscribing.

If your article appears in this carnival don’t forget to publicize it on your own site and on your favorite social networking site. You can submit an article for next week’s carnival on this carnival submission form.