Kick Debt's Butt

Mrs. KDB and I had reached a bit of an impasse. There are two words in her vocabulary which are not in mine. Cut and Color.

When I created our family budget this month, I set aside some money for hair cuts...ladies, please don’t shoot me...but I allowed what I thought at the time was a generous $50.00 per month!

Boy did I set off a maelstrom two days ago when the Mrs. decided she was overdue for a "cut and color." My son’s hair grows like kudzu, so we had him touched up in early January for a reasonable $18.00, leaving $32.00.

Easy. Simple. "Here honey, take the $32.00 and go get your cut and color." Needless to say my eyebrows are still singed with the heat from her retort! She practically choked on her chewing gum when I told her that was all that was left.

Her argument makes some sense; she doesn’t get a hair cut once a month, but her cut's and coloring for her long hair is waaaay more than $32.00. I was originally hoping to roll the January balance in to February’s new budget and then maybe on in to March for a "major" hairdo – but the whole point for her quick desire to get her hair done was the need to get “ready” for a bid presentation we were invited to give at another local soccer club.

The story behind the story is that Mrs. KDB just started her own promotional marketing, custom embroidery, and screen printing business late last year and the thing has actually grown pretty large in a few shirt months. This club invited us to propose taking over their spirit wear and promotional marketing business and my wife was going to be doing a lot of the public speaking. She felt a new look was in order and I pushed back a bit. Well, I actually agreed to tweak the budget accounts to come with an "appropriate" amount of cash and she made it to the salon.

Not a bad conflict to have I know and I fully expect the extra money her business brings in (or at least the moving of our former personal expenses such as her car and petrol which is now used 80% for the company, on to the business) to be a huge weapon in our debt battle.

So she did get her hair done. She looks great. She had that salon confidence. Oh, and we won the bid!

I was listening to NPR yesterday morning and wanted to write a few words on their story about the process of replacing U.S. Attorneys.

What caught my attention was not the process itself, but the fact that even former U.S. Attorneys are having trouble finding a job!

Traditionally, once you sit as a U.S. Attorney, you pretty much get your pick of the litter for plush, marble-walled, mahogany-bookcased, high paying partnerships in the biggest firms in whatever town you were based out of...but according to the last paragraph of this article, those jobs just aren't there!

A down economy doesn't mean fewer people break the law and in fact, I'm guessing the demand for bankruptcy attorneys has increased, but the reality is a lot of the big law firms rely on representing corporate clients.

So when corporations aren't expanding, merging, acquiring, stepping on toes, going public, going private, or going anywhere, then they don't need attorneys to guide them.

I have quite a few "budget codes" or "accounts" in my budget. I guess this can be credited to my days working as a Fed - when adherence to a budget was a matter of public law!

This is my first real month using this process so I'm still trying to tighten up the accounts. For example, several unexpected birthday invitations busted the gift budget and my son is in American Literature, so the book budget got stretched too (he needed to take notes in them so the Library wouldn't cut it)...but for the most part, we've done quite well and I've been able to borrow from other accounts to cover the overages, rather than go to the bank for more dough.

One of codes I forgot to create was what we call HBA (Health and Beauty Aids). This is to buy things like soap, cosmetics, vitamins, etc. - so I'll have to figure that one out going in to February.

I'm also not 100% on where to put cleaning supplies, paper towels, mop heads, dusters and that kind of stuff - I'm thinking it belongs in "house upkeep" but I was originally earmarking that money toward projects...I think I just answered my own question - time to set aside a fund for specific home improvement projects!

The other two new categories are allowances for both kids. My son is older and has more responsibility; therefore his allowance is greater than my daughters.

I'm hoping to have my budget pretty well set by April. I think about three months of tracking should help cover some of the unexpected items and give us a solid foundation.

When I wrote the piece on being cheap a couple of days ago, I was reminded of my post back in late August called, “Tackling Debt 101 - Be honest about your assets and liabilities.”

As I re-read that column, I saw pretty quickly that I needed to revisit my "debt reduction balance sheet" so to speak – as I believe some of our items have shuffled around in a very positive way!

The original list is block quoted while my new thoughts are in regular text underneath:

Assets:
1. Me – I’m naturally cheap. In fact, the great irony of this mountain of debt I face is that, for years, I was exactly like my mother! I never paid interest, never missed a bill, always had a savings account, and basically lived debt free.

What happened? For me, I know exactly when it happened. I bought a house. Ever since my first house, I’ve surged in to debt and out again as I added window treatments, furniture, basketball goals, and the list goes on and on.

Frugality is still a part of my nature and having a budget has helped re open those old skills!

2. Intelligence – I know enough to know that we are in trouble.

I know a lot of brilliant people in debt...I don't feel too bad - and I now I know I know enough to get us out of trouble.

3. Business acumen – my job requires me to be on top of client problems like white on rice. I can improve processes, create status reports, understand gap analysis, make recommendations, etc. all day long. It’s high time I turn some of that back on my own business. That is the business of personal finance.

I'm treating my debt reduction cause like I treat a client challenge - burning the midnight oil, thinking creatively, and being diligent.

4. Support – my mom and grandparents are fantastic role models for debt free living. I know I can turn to them for advice.

I need to call them more often ;-)

5. Technology – I am computer literate, have laptops, desktops, internet access, etc. and the ability to figure out how to use these tools in my favor. You’re reading a perfect example of how I plan to make access to technology an asset in my debt battle.

Using it every day!

Liabilities:
1. Sports – first let me qualify. I love love love the fact my kids are involved in sport. By itself it’s not necessarily a liability, but the reality is, having a family is expensive. I have soccer and cross country dues, uniforms, balls, tournament fees, etc. Basically a whole set of variable costs that make budgeting that much more complicated.

As I said originally, sports are not a liability - in fact - I believe maintaining health is a critically important way to control your families' costs! Sports fees however still belong in the liabilities column - the big difference is that today, I have a "Sports and Extra Curricular" set aside in my "Cash Budget Box."

2. My sweet wife – right now my wife doesn’t work. Right now, my wife likes to occasionally engage in what she calls, “retail therapy.” This means that sometimes, when she may have a bit of the blues, she’ll hit Target or Costco and load up on CDs, DVDs, or other superfluous purchases which zap our reserves’ or push our credit card debt that much further out. This is what lands her in the liabilities column.

The flip side is that if my wife got a part time job, she would have less time to fret, feel more engaged and productive, and could become a part of the Kick Debt’s Butt solution rather than adding to the problem.

I know that until she is 100% on board, this effort will fail. And as soon as that happens, she gets moved to the assets column.

Oh what a difference four months can make! We had our prayer meeting right before the new year when I showed her the full picture of our consumer debt - and now I have a converted budget-a-holic on my hands!

She loves the idea of having a fund to use for certain things and, ironically, she feels much more secure now. For her, being frugal and spending smartly is psychologically more rewarding than spending at will!

Plus she started her own business, which she is growing organically so that she doesn't bite off more than she can chew. Her revenues are already helping to pay for her expensive car, petrol, and auto insurance. If she can sustain this level of revenue, then we will be able to ratchet up our debt snowball even higher.

I am incredibly proud of her efforts and now that the kids see she and I as a united front, they are starting to tow the line as well.

My wife's approach to personal finances now officially moves from a Liability to a major Asset and becomes a key to our success!

Step 8 in my 10 part series, "How to Make Extra Money Blogging" - Remember the mighty Amazon, Amazon.com that is:

We are almost done with the "Money Making" part of our journey to date. There are future money making avenues I hope to explore, such as writing reviews for money, selling content to publishers, syndication of writing, etc.

But most of my research thus far suggests that my blog will need to be up and running for at least six months - and most likely a full year - before product managers or publishers will even give me a glance. I will let you know as soon as I get some more intelligence on that revenue stream...and in fact, if anyone out there has had success, I'd love to hear your story!

So speaking of streams, I wanted to talk to you about one of the mightiest of streams in the internet jungle, Amazon.com! In Step 7, I talked about placing ads as an affiliate marketer with vendors; now I want you add one more item to your growing "to do" list, and that is sign up as an Amazon.com affiliate.

I separated this step from the previous because of one reason - the Amazon store. As an Amazon.com affiliate, you'll not only have access to link buttons, but you'll also be able to create your own storefront to sell products related to your content! Pretty cool huh?

For example, on my post about my beloved Rice Cooker and my beloved Slow Cooker, I was able to find both at Amazon.com. So, IF someone loved my right ups so much that they felt compelled to buy their own, THEN they could simply click the links I provided, purchase the items from Amazon, and then Amazon would send me a commission check! Sounds so easy doesn't it...well, so far I've not sent a single customer to Amazon, so while on paper the idea is great, the reality remains elusive, at least for me.

In addition to linking, you can build your own Amazon.com store. With your Amazon store, you can add only the products you want to sell, or you can add products by category. For example, I love soccer, so I created the Amazon.com Soccer Store where I sell soccer books, videos, gear, and subscriptions to soccer magazines.

Either way, you should certainly consider giving your readers the option to browse your own Amazon store. Again, it's a commission model which means you don't have to do anything but send people that way, cross your fingers, and hope for the best.

I do. I admit it.

In my zeal to lower my APR using balance transfer promotional interest rates, I open every credit card offer I get in the mail these days and go straight to those tongue twisty terms and conditions.

Sometimes this works and sometimes I get burned. Here are my key lessons learned:

WARNING NUMBER 1: Check the balance transfer fee.
Every time you open a new card and transfer a balance from an old card, you get charged a balance transfer fee from your new card company. You better make sure that the fee you pay for the transfer is justified by bouncing it against the finance charges you're paying with your current card. In most cases, it is justified...particularly if your new card has a 0% APR for more than say 6 months.

WARNING NUMBER 2: Get Organized!
If you're going to be wheeling and dealing and slicing and dicing your credit card debt among a bunch of different low rate cards, you better have a plan for keeping up with them. I went from one massive credit card, to 6 - yes 6- smaller ones. And guess what, if any one of those 6 falls through the cracks - BAM - you get hammered again with the higher rates plus late fees.

WARNING NUMBER 3: Do not bother activating.
I'm happy to hear alternative advice on this, particularly if this is a credit hit or security risk, but when my new plastic comes in, I don't even activate my card. Instead I staple it to the terms sheet and file it away with the rest of my "debt files."

If anyone else plays this dangerous game, I'd love to hear your war stories.

Step 7 in my 10 part series, "How to Make Extra Money Blogging" - Affiliate Marketing:

You may have noticed on some blogs and websites, folks have more than just adsense ads up and running.

So do you want to know how to got hooked up with global brands like Adidas, TicketMaster, Busted Tees, and so on? Be ready to use some elbow grease folks, because this gets to be a bit like work.

First of all, the decision for these guys to let you list their ads is not automatic, so you really do have to have good content. But to get these ads set up, you may need to put down your pen for a while and roll up your sleeves.

It took me about three weeks to get all of the ad partners up and running on one of my sponsor's sites, Gruffgoat's Soccer Blog. With the benefit of this post, hopefully it won't take you quite that long.

We decided to try running ads as an affiliate marketer. Basically that means that the blog owner earn a commission off of anything a shopper buys, IF they click through to the shopping website from an ad on my site and IF that shopper ends up buying something! Those are two very big IFs!

There are some firms, such as Ticketmaster, who run their own affiliate program, but most farm it out to an affiliate clearinghouse to manage the sign-ups, the tracking, the links, and so on.

The two affiliate partners we picked for Gruffgoat's Soccer Blog are:

Affiliate Future

Commission Junction

You will have to spend some time in this process, but this is a big step to getting your site looking the way you want it, placing their ads in such a way as to not overwhelm your readers - I call that pimping it out - and then getting back to the fun part - writing.

I did my seven day pulse check back on January 7th, and decided now that we’re over the half way point in this month, it’s time to do another quick check on how we are progressing.

I’m going to run down the list of major initiatives and give you a brief update one by one.

1. Cash Box Budget: so far this has worked tremendously well. We’ve had to make some adjustments here and there – for example, we had quite a few birthday invitations this month and I didn’t have the heart to decline them, so we borrowed from other budget items to pay for birthday gifts. This may mean I need to beef up our gift budget and trim other budgets even more.

2. Debt Reduction: I’m happy to report that the first payment of !148.00 minimum plus $395 in Attack money was made and I’m looking forward to making the next attack payment in February.

3. New Ideas: As a result of this blog and the Personal Finance network I’ve grown I’ve been introduced to the idea of Snowflaking (thanks Beachgirl and I’ve Paid For This Twice Already!)

I’ve also learned there is more than one way to get your debt repayment snowball rolling…the psychology of an early payoff doesn’t bother me that much, so I’m charging ahead on APR only

And finally I’ve learned that your rice cooker can make a mean mess of Oatmeal (thanks K-Money)!

Kickin’ Debt’s Butt everyday now so let’s hope February brings some more opportunities to give our debt the beat down it deserves.

Step 6 in my 10 part series, "How to Make Extra Money Blogging" - Using Google Adsense:

So here we are, six steps in, and we're finally starting to talk turkey - and by turkey, of course I mean money.

If I were to break down the "How to Make Extra Money Blogging" series in to "How to Advertise my Blog", then this would be Step 1. I'm not sure if that's a consolation prize for you or not, but nonetheless, you have to march from Step 1 to Step 5 before you can offer any one anything even remotely compelling.

The first ad program that I tried is definitely the road most traveled...it is also the road most accessible. And when you're just starting out, seeing the road in front is a big big plus.

If you are using blogger per my suggestion in Step 2, then you will see that it is already tightly integrated through the Layout tool with Google Adsense.

But not so fast, make sure that you have signed up for a Google Adsense account at:
https://www.google.com/adsense before you being.

WARNING - whenever you download those handy cool templates - if you picked something new per my suggestion in Step 3 - then make sure you comb through the HTML and replace any embedded adsense code with your own adsense ID. Otherwise you're just generating clicks for whomever created the template, rather than for the your content.

When you sign up with Google, you will get a unique id that will be associated with your Google account and this id will provide the tracking that Google needs to ensure they are counting the clicks right and paying you accordingly.

And here's an important rule you should know about - you sneaky little rascal - you can't click on your own ads to generate revenue (not that you would of course)

Get those adsense ads set up and working!

By the way, so far I've made exactly $16.75 off of adsense. Which is kind of funny, becuase you have to reach a minimum balance of $100.00 before you ever get paid...oh well, we'll see.

Remember, I didn't name this series "How to get rich blogging" ;-)

One of my favorite posts talked about my natural inclination toward, well, I won’t sugar coat it, being cheap.

That being said, if I’m cheap, then I’m a mere servant in the realm of Cheapdom and my dear Grandfather is the King of all Cheapdom!

I began to think and write down all of the things he and my Grandmother do that most people would consider “cheap.”

Thus began “The Cheap List.”

And now I want to invite all of you to send me either the things you do that make your friends, your spouse, your kids, your boss, etc., call you “frugal” if they’re being nice, and downright “cheap” (that’s usually the one I get) if they’re being not so nice.

On the flip side, if you're that spouse, friend, kid, boss, then tell me what your cheap (insert relationship here) does that you think is downright stingy!

Don't be shy about attributing your real first name or initials to your cheap list contribution. I would like to be able to package the list up and share with all our readers once we get a healthy number of frugal items.

Some of them may sound silly, but I’m guessing that somewhere in this list, you will find something you hadn’t thought of before!

Oh, and send this request out to your frugal friends as well! Thanks for your help!

KDB

Either leave your Cheap List item in the comments on this post or use the Cheap List Input Form below if you want to remain anonymous;-)

After exchanging a couple of comments with Budget Save Buy about her latest copy of Money magazine being wafer thin, I began thinking about how people are getting their financial nuggets of wisdom these days.

A lot of folks listen to Dave Ramsey's radio program...I'll be honest, other than a big billboard on the interstate, I had no idea who Dave Ramsey was until I started this blog.

Some folks swear by certain books, or subscribe to the Wall Street Journal, and still others just cruise the internet superhighway picking up salient pieces of information as they go.

I'm a big fan of CNBC and the Journal myself, but that's mostly for straight news, so I think most of the recent bits of good personal finance information I've received have to be credited to my friends in the blogosphere. So count that as one vote toward Blogs (I realize of course there may be a bias toward the same medium in which people are communicating...but we'll see).

The polls are always open to your right ->

The polls have closed on Kick Debt's Butt's first ever KDB Poll and the results have flooded in (ahem)...anyway, to start out the poll, I wanted to get an idea about what most of you are using to manage your finances day to day.

Here's what you said:



No surprise that in this day and age, the majority of use the powerful and ubiquitous spreadsheet! It is in fact my tool of choice as well. It has a lot of the power of a financial calculator plus the option to do easy "what if" analyses.

Step 5 in my 10 part series, "How to Make Extra Money Blogging" - Submit Your Site to Search Engines:

Congratulations! With several posts on your blog, you're starting to get in to a rhythm. You are building some read-worthy content!

Now if someone goes to Google and types in the search bar, "personal finance blogs," do you have any idea how it returns all...hang on, I'm about to try it...17,700,000 results after you hit the search button? I didn't have any idea, so I set out discovering the secret of search engines.

It's actually not that much of a secret anymore. Search engines are inescapable creatures - if the internet is your body, then search engines are your neurons, processing requests for information from your top of your head to the tips of your toes, and at lightening speed.

They are ubiquitous and they are at the core of two of the internet's biggest players, the rising Google and once mighty, yet waning, Yahoo, all the while other tech giants, such as Microsoft, have done their best to grab a piece of this vital pie.

When you want information on the internet, if you are like most people in the world, your first stop now is Google. And most likely, you're reading this post to learn how to get your new blog to show up in any search for the knowledge you're sharing!

Sound technical? Well, it's not...at least as far as we're concerned...not by a long shot. Submitting your sites maybe the easiest step we'll encounter in the journey to getting your blog found.

Simply have your URL ready and some key words and follow these links:

Google URL Submit

Yahoo Search Submit

Sure there are more out there, but I'm just telling you what's worked for me.

I learned you have to be patient, the technologies are not immediate...and you must understand that listing is a long way from showing up at the top of the heap.

You saw the number of results when I typed in "personal finance blogs" - but if I type in "Kick Debts Butt", guess what? Number one! Of course, the name of my blog doesn't mean a whole lot to anyone except me...

So if I type, "Key kitchen conveniences", I discover - much to my surprise actually - that my post on getting a quality rice cooker is number 1 out of 201,000!

Well, everyone loves rice...he he.

Oh how many times have I heard that. But hearing this makes me wonder,

"What do you do that makes your friends or family call you cheap?"

When I first started this blog back in August – before I really started taking our families financial health seriously – I made a list of my assets and liabilities.

One of the top items on my list of assets is my natural inclination toward parsimony…in other words, I’m CHEAP!

Whether it can be traced somewhere in my genetic code (I come from at least four generations of hyper thrifty individuals) or whether it’s just my general unwillingness to depart from my money, I don’t know the root – what I do know is that somewhere along the path of my life, my “cheapness” has been overwhelmed.

Heck, even in high school, our senior class gave out mock awards and they all voted to award me “Mr. Spendthrift”…oh the sweet and terrible irony.

So fast forward to today, and now that my family is on board with our “Cash Box Budget,” and we are waging a consolidated war on debt, I can feel those old thrifty memories starting to stir.

With this new age of energy efficiency and environmental awareness, suddenly hanging out the laundry or carpooling or growing your own vegetables, doesn’t make you cheap, it makes you chic!

So I was wondering, what are the things you do that earn you the proud moniker of “cheap” – I prefer "frugal" of course?

Me, I put a lock down on our thermostat and have told everyone to layer up if they’re cold. At first I encountered a LOT of whining, but I showed everyone last month’s natural gas bill, the whining dropped off and the sweatshirts pulled on.

I work from home while I’m not traveling so I use a high speed internet connection.

I’d had my Comcast Bill set up for an automatic bill pay at $51.99 per month. We frankly watch very little TV around here so basic cable is more than enough for us, but I do need the high speed data, so my bill broke down as:

$14.95 for basic cable
$33.00 for high speed data
$a few bucks for taxes

Well, I had forgotten that my $33.00 for high speed data was a 12 month promotional deal that expired a couple of months ago and that the actual price for high speed internet is $42.95 – plus they bumped up basic cable by $4.00 so that basic is now $18.95. The net being a new bill of $63.29!

I have been growing a balance due for a couple of months and didn’t even realize it.

When I called Comcast yesterday to ask what had changed, their customer service department was very courteous and explained it.

So here’s the cool part – I really didn’t feel like paying $62.95 a month on internet and cable TV so I asked if there were any other high speed options.

Much to my utter delight Comcast offers an Economy Class internet service! For $24.95 per month, I can get data at 4 Megabyte speed as opposed to my current 6 Megabyte speed which costs me $42.95.

Let’s do the math – I really love math these days – one phone call means that for each month, I’m now saving $18.00 bucks. That’s an extra $216.00 per year.

The lesson: take a look at your subscription services and make sure your service matches your need.

For example, Comcast made the switch immediately and this morning is the test. Will I still be able to watch English Premier League soccer on my laptop? So far, the match is pretty bad, but the signal is awesome!

Step 4 in my 10 part series, "How to Make Extra Money Blogging" - Write:

Stop what you’re doing and write. That’s right. Write.

Well don't stop right away...first finish reading this post, make a comment or two, and then write. (You just said the word "write" 8 times...at least phonetically...he he)

I promise this is not a cop out step to frustrate you. Nor is a step just so that at the end of these, they'll total ten.

This step is meant to remind you why you’re here in the first place.

I’ve been there and I know you’re getting excited. Especially if you're writing a debt reduction / personal finance blog like me. And doubly especially if you're just starting out as a part of the new year...also like me!

You want to get your whiz bang blog up and running, you want to share your knowledge, your stories, your tips and tricks, your frustrations, and it would be nice if you could generate a couple of bucks here and there without totally pimping out your material.

No doubt you’ve followed Step 3 and picked a new template and boy I bet it looks good. But guess what – you can’t have white space in your blog posts.

But blogging effectively is much more than just filling white space; you need to make sure your material is good. And by good I mean timely, well written, and interesting! Let's face it, you and I both have tons of stiff competition competing for reading eyes.

So don’t worry about anything else now except writing. Shoot for five to seven solid posts before you even bother with Step 5.

Now put pen to paper (or fingers to keys) and spread some knowledge!

Oops, I'm going to have to fire my editor! umm, ok, so that's me.

As I was reading over the post on my beloved Slow Cooker, I saw that I had forgotten to post a link to the book I proceed to go on and on about (I've since gone back and added it).

That being said, this little gem is worthy of its own post.

Here's a link to it on Amazon.com. I've included the link as a part of my Amazon Affiliates program - I'll never recommend anything I don't use myself by the way - but as a fellow Debt Butt Kicker, I expect you to shop around for the best deal:



Happy Reading and Happy Cooking!

As I've mentioned before, I happen to really enjoy cooking, but sometimes struggle with fitting the "process" of cooking in with a hectic daily (and evening) schedule.

Here is another suggestion for an essential kitchen item you should add to your arsenal to make cooking at home even easier and far more convenient:

A good slow cooker –
These magic little appliances originated 37 years ago, almost by accident. Their original intent was pretty specific - cooking beans. But folks quickly begin to experiment with the electric bean cooker, and today we have a great kitchen tool.

I use the original Crock-Pot® brand slow-cooker from Rival (pictured below), but the technology is pretty simple so don't get too hung up on brand names. The picture actually links to my amazon.com affiliate program, if you were inclined to purchase this exact model, but I encourage you to shop around. I actually bought mine at Costco a couple of years ago.

To help you get started, there are literally thousands of books on slow cooking so I’m not going to recreate a list for you here. I bought this book shortly after I got my slow cooker and have had some great successes from it:

As you can see, Amazon has it listed for around $12.00 bucks...not too bad and I go to this little book for more than just the slow cooking recipes.

William Sonomoa put it together and I love how it's laid out. Basically it's divided in to 3 main sections. The recipes are designated by "preparation" time and each page has a big color close up picture of what your finished result is "supposed" to look like (supposed is in quotes because you know as well as I they never quite look like that;-)

The first section of the book has 10 recipes that you can prep in 15 minutes.

The second section has 16 recipes that you can prep in 30 minutes.

The last section of 14 recipes is a list that will give you food plus extra for storage.

I love the appendix almost as much as I love the recipes. It has great tips on getting started, stocking the kitchen, saving time, and so on.

So in summary a slow cooker is a great time saver once you get the hang of it and when done right, it makes most any meat dish, stew, sauce, ratatouille, bolognese, gumbo, etc. turn out awesome.

Happy Cooking!

I happen to be a one of these guys who enjoys cooking quite a bit…and I’m not talking about manning the grill (which I also love by the way), I’m talking about chopping veggies, seasoning meats, putting together stews and sauces, etc.

I travel quite a bit for my day job, so I don’t get to spend as much time in the kitchen as I like. That being the case, convenience is also very important to getting yourself in to the kitchen.

Here is a suggestion for an essential kitchen item you should add to your arsenal to make cooking at home even easier:

A quality rice cooker -

My wife is Korean and Filipino and she grew up with rice at the ready for almost every meal; she brought that tradition with her to our family so we have basically always had a rice cooker. These appliances used to be sort of hard to find, but now you can buy a good one just about anywhere.

My mother-in-law and father-in-law bought an “old school” Zojirushi for us 15 years ago just like the one pictured below, we’ve probably used it over 3000 times and it still works beautifully!


Basically, you can put a couple of cups of rice in there (I mix brown and white to build up the whole grains a bit) and it makes perfect steamed rice as a healthy side dish.

Wash the basin with hot water and mild dish soap, don’t immerse the electrical bits, and enjoy it year after year.

Happy Cooking!

My gym membership is expiring this month and I'm not going to rejoin...and I actually used the heck out of it!

Here's why?

1. Money - I can think of 50 better things to do with my money than spend it on a gym membership

2. Need - this is the biggest reason - I don't need the gym (and chances are neither do you) - I have no excuse to not work out at home. I have a complete set of free weights, a good sturdy bench, a complete set of dumbbells, a heavy bag, speed bag, AND an elliptical...so why on earth did I ever join to begin with? Mrs. KDB wanted a personal trainer and when the PT she was using left the gym, the gym owner converted her prepaid payments in to a membership for us.

And I'll totally grant you the equipment there is much much nicer than mine at home, and there are a few pieces of equipment at the gym that I love having access to that I don't have at home.

Now here's the reality. Body weight workouts are absolutely awesome and you don't need anything. If you do want to amp it up, just go to the local sporting goods store and get a couple of sets of dumbbells. Push-ups, sit-ups, pull-ups, and yoga poses will help most anyone reach their muscle development goals.

The other biggee for me is, I've grown to absolutely hate doing cardio inside.

As a soccer player, I have always loved running, and now I've gotten so used to running outside over the years, the thought of parking on a treadmill or stationary bike makes me cringe.

I've got gear for year round running in all but a torrential downpour - so weather is never an obstacle.

Do this before you join the gym: try getting out on the pavement - no reading books, no magazines, no chit chat, no iPods - just you and the road, the wind, the sounds around you...it's pretty awesome and I bet you'll get hooked too.

Good luck to all!

By now you may have read the Yahoo! article by Stacy Rapacon courtesy of Kiplinger.com.

If you haven't, it's not a bad read and there are a couple of really good tips for fellow debt bootie kickers out there. Some of the tips are more suited for folks well in to their financial journey; folks who have turned the corner on debt and who are starting to build wealth.

Since I'm not there yet (hi wealth...I can see you waaay off in the distance), here are my comments on what I think for near term and long term savings.

1. Get your spending under control: Definitely get your spending under control. We've instituted a very tight, cash based budget around here and so far, everyone loves it.

2. Set up a flexible spending account: You now, I'm no fan of taxes, but I've never really gotten in to these - the idea of over committing funds and then losing them at the end of the year scared me away.

3. File a new W-4: this one is HUGE! Do not let the feds hold too much of your money! Definitely get with your tax professional to determine how many deductions you can take. I did this late last year and basically created my Debt Attack Amount. This is what I call the money I can dedicate to debt beyond the minimums.

4. Raise your insurance deductibles: meh...I've always done this so nothing big here for me.

5. Cut the cost of credit: I'm still playing the credit card balance transfer game, but now that we've stopped using cards all together, I feel much more confident I can keep up with it...I'll keep you posted.

6. Open an online savings account: maybe later - I have my small savings account as a part of my checking but I'm not ready to stash any more cash away until the consumer debt is gone.

7. Bump up your 401(k) contributions: same as above - you better believe this is the first thing I do when consumer debt's butt is well and truly kicked!

When it comes to beverages, water is nature's perfect gift. What is cheaper than water? What is more refreshing than water? What is more accessible than water? What hardly ever makes it to the dinner table in American households? Water!

I love water, so for me, moving toward water for dinner was easy. But for the rest of my family, not so much. Since we're on a super tight budget, I'm re-introducing something we picked up in Australia.

While we were living down under, one of the first things we noticed when dining out was that rather than bringing your table full glasses of water prior to ordering like most American sit down restaurants (pre-drought if you're reading this in the South), they would bring the table four empty glasses and a very nice glass bottle of chilled water.

Australia is of course an English commonwealth nation, populated largely by people of English decent, so I'm only guessing that ice was never high on their list of things to put out for dinner.

That being said, we absolutely fell in love with the practice. Most restaurants would simply wash out recyclable wine bottles and use them for serving water. We actually brought four of these home with us (pictured at left in my kitchen).

My kids love it, my wife loves it, and it adds a little sophistication to drinking "plain old" water!

Step 3 in my 10 part series, "How to Make Extra Money Blogging" - Pick the Right Layout For Your Blog's Purpose:

So you've noticed I don't actually use a standard Blogger template huh? The blog template I originally picked from blogger looked like all the rest! Now that's fine if you've been blogging for three years and have 1000 posts floating around the internet. But my marketing brain said that I ought to figure out some way to differentiate myself.

Remember, I haven't spent a single cent of my money so far on Kick Debt's Butt and I'd like to keep it that way for as long as possible. So I went to my old friend the Google search bar and typed in a very simple search query:

Free Blogger Templates

Try it now using the search bar below:

BAM! I was flooded with sites offering free - DIFFERENT - templates. Like I said, I didn't want to pay for my own unique template, so I spent a couple of days cruising through the various sites until I found one that I thought looked clean and professional, had some ad space should I desire to offer ad space, and had features that I could adjust in my blogger dashboard.

And then I changed it anyway! So don't be afraid to be flexible when you're starting out.

So to summarize Step 3, before you start cranking away trying to format and tweak your blogger blog template and your graphics, decide if it's the one you want to keep. If not, spend some time searching for a FREE template you can use.

Last night, my family was begging me to take them on a “dessert” run. Trust me when I say this, I love dessert. I have a huge weakness for dark chocolate and French twirls with vanilla crème, and Girl Scout cookies, and…well, you get the picture.

So last night, after an excellent family dinner (something we seem to be having more and more of since instituting the budget), and it being Sunday and all, everyone was feeling a bit sweetish.

We looked around the pantry and whala! An idea! Rice Krispies Treats®!

I’m not talking about the pre-packaged individually wrapped things...no I mean the real, melt the butter, stir in the marshmallows until it’s rich and creamy, and then finally stir in the Rice Krispies and gobble it down in a big warm spoonful of goodness kind of Rice Krispies Treats.

So we did a quick ingredient check. Rice Krispies? Check. Margarine? Check. Marshmallows? Check.

We all pitched in to make this delicious treat I greatly enjoyed as a child. Interestingly enough, Rice Krispies are still rather expensive in my grocery store so you may want to try some alternative off brands if you can bring yourself to do it. But we went with what we already had…originals…and ate them warm right off the spoon.

Oh and by the way, we now have a full Pyrex container that will deliver good treats for the next three or four days!

I'm sorry to disappoint my thousands...ok dozens..ok my reader ;-) but I'm going to have to spend an hour or so tonight redoing my blog layout. My current template seems to be jacked up beyond repair and is not letting me do anything with widgets.

So with that being the case, I'm thinking of opting for just a good old fashioned plain blog template without too many bells and whistles.

As I look up and down the side columns I see a couple of cool features I definitely want to keep: my NCN chart, my list of PF Blogs I dig. I think everything else I can add back fairly easily. Wish me luck!

Folks I just opened my gas bill for what I thought was a rather warm December and it just about blew me away.

$266.49!

That’s a full 128% increase over our therm usage from the same period last year.

Now after a little research in to this; I’m thinking that it was actually quite cold in late November and early December, and the actual billing period runs from Nov 22 – Dec. 23.

I’ve issued a strict edict that the thermostat should not, under any circumstances exceed 68 degrees Fahrenheit. I’ll give you guys an update next month on how well we did.

Step 2 in my 10 part series, "How to Make Extra Money Blogging" - Now Where Do I Begin:

As you began to ponder the possibility of writing about something you love, you begin to ask yourself the basic questions, "how do I start...where do I begin?"

This has technical implications, convenience implications, and potentially financial implications as you begin to explore the options for how and where to host a blog.

No doubt you have reviewed my post on content, and your idea is ready to find a home.

The first step is to chose your medium. I knew about Google's "blogger" program and knew that to get started, it would cost me exactly ZERO dollars! That's right, to get a blog started on Google blogger, you pay nothing. Zip, zilch, nada. As I'm saving pennies everywhere I can, this was a big deal for me.

A blog on Google will get you a url - that address with the "http://www.com" stuff - that reads something like, http://kickdebtsbutt.blogspot.com. Not too bad, and there are millions of good blogs out there with Google's blogspot address embedded in them.

If for branding purposes you want to move your content to a new domain, such as www.kickdebtsbutt.com, you certainly can. If you sign up at Google, and if you have an extra $10.00 to spend, you simply go to the Settings Tap - Publishing Option - and follow the instructions for switching your blogspot address to a custom domain. This is super easy as Google's custom domain partner changes all of the Domain Name Server settings for you automatically...if you don't even know what a Domain Name Server is, then this is definilty a good option for you. ;-)

Within the first week of starting one of my other blogs, a now highly visited blog on soccer, I was finding myself at the top of Google searches for World Soccer stories and was averaging 100 impressions a day.

I'm fairly technologically savvy, but an XML programmer I am not. Google's blogger is a great way to start getting your content pages out of your head, and in to cyberspace.

Links You Need:
http://www.blogger.com/home

Step 1 - Content is King:

A lot of folks are blogging these days. Millions in fact. Hardly any of us are making a living at it. But remember, this series is not about getting rich, it's about making a few extra bucks on the side.

So if these posts are to be considered a road map for success, then the first, most vital step, is to figure out what it is that you can write authoritatively about. Then figure out if you can write about it a lot. I mean...a whole lot.

Is there enough there to sustain an audience with a billion choices at their collective fingertips?

This will be your blog CONTENT. Content is bold for a reason. On the internet, a blog, website, newsroom, discussion forum, whatever, is nothing without useful content.

Content keeps people coming back for more and more, convinces people to try the products you're selling, encourages them to talk about your site with their like minded friends, and so on.

For example, I love soccer. But I need to ask myself, "is soccer something I can write about day after day, week after week, and even year after year?"

That being said, I also love making money, saving money, and the idea of being debt free. So why not share my debt journey with those who are also interested in living debt free? Ergo, the blog you have before you!

Today is Friday and the much awaited jobs report has had an interesting effect on the markets, they’re actually a bit higher because the number was not as bad as anticipated.

I do find it both sad and funny that a jobs loss number for December of 524,000 makes stocks rise a bit, but basically we have a case of Wall Street reacting to news that was not as bad as they expected. Economists’ had originally forecasted a loss of 550,000, so congrats to the 26,000 who hung on!

For the rest, and basically for anyone looking to beat down their debt, there are of course two sides to the cash flow equation.

Budgeting and restricting what you spend in order to free up more cash to attack your debt only addresses the cash out flow. What about the cash in flow?

With that question, I’m starting a series of posts on things people are doing to make a little extra money on the side. My employer frowns upon second jobs so I have to keep any extra curricular stuff a bit discreet – in other words, I can’t head down to the mall and pick up a part time job at Borders.

So the first part of the series is on “Money makers you can start without needing another W2.”

Please send your suggestions for Money Makers at the contact page.

As I mentioned in my Budget flexibility post, I do quite enjoy my fair share of statistics.

With that, I'm going to run a bi-monthly poll on Kick Debt's Butt...but here's the catch, some weeks they'll be about debt reduction, savings plans, personal finance tips, investing, and so on...but other's may be about, well, anything!

Of course for the inaugural poll, I'm sticking with personal finance.

I promise I'll write a post summarizing the poll results for all to enjoy.

I've just spent the last 20 minutes shaving $10.00 here and $20.00 there to try and make something I didn't expect on January the 1st, fit my budget.

We need to hire a tutor.

I'm fairly decent at math and frankly I'm pretty darn good at statistics, but my dear child just has never really "gotten" it so to speak. This was not something I anticipated when I first built the budget but it turns out that we are going to try out Mathnasium.

I'm really impressed with the owners and my child is absolutely ecstatic about going, so that alone means a whole heck of lot. Anyone who can get a kid excited about studying math is doing something right!

The problem is it's not exactly cheap; and it probably won't be for a full year, but either way, I've got to find a way to pay for it and I'm not coming off my credit debt attack plan!

I've moved some numbers around, tightened the belt here and there, but still it's a bit too early to know exactly how realistic it is. Here's hoping...oh, and GO MATH!

Well we are seven days in to the new year and this new way of looking at our finances and I’ve got say, I’ve already seen some major changes.

One of the first and most interesting things both my wife and I are doing is, we are actually talking about our errands in detail before we leave the house.

You may be asking, “how in the heck do you leave the house and not know where you’re going?” Legitimate question. But no kidding, many times we’d pile in the car and say “we need to go Costco” and head out with guns a blazin’.

Little did I realize that this nonchalant approach to errands, along with our unfettered access to our bank check card or Costco American Express, resulted in a perfect storm of overspending.

Now that we are operating with a tight budget, we have a whole different mindset before we ever even leave the house. We ask, “what do we need?” “where will we get it (for the best deal...bulk sometimes is not always best...but that's a topic worthy of several future posts)?” and then the real kicker, “how much money do we think we’ll need?!”

Because I’m using a cash budget, I really have to think about how much my predetermined shopping list is going to cost me. What a refreshing revelation...or should I say, realization.

Most days when I go to the mailbox and see a letter from my mortgage company, I expect to see a statement; however, I start paying much closer attention to those letters around the end of December/beginning of January time frame.

There are a couple of reasons for this heightened sense of mortgage awareness, foremost being tax statements, but secondarily, some years I get a bill for an escrow underpayment and very rarely, I get a check for an escrow overpayment.

This year I'm happy to report that I have over paid my escrow account by about $300 bucks!

It feels a little like free money; however of course I understand that this is actually my own money that they've been holding for the last 12 months in an interest free savings account...but I'm not one to be a Debbie Downer. So I look at this as an extra $300 that goes straight toward kicking my debt's butt...even if it starts with little baby kicks like this. So thanks me, for sending myself an unexpected check!

Coffee is a multi billion dollar a year business and for the past 15 or so years, America's love affair with gourmet coffees has been growing substantially year after year.

This tremendous growth was evidenced by the now ubiquitous Starbucks chain of coffee shops. Now the economy is shrinking and a lot of people are arriving at the same conclusion I arrived at a couple of years ago...I really don't like spending more than $1.00 for a cup of coffee; but at gourmet coffee shops, I was expected to spend around $4.00! This realization has dawned on an America with increasingly fewer discretionary funds and as such, the Starbucks chain is also shrinking.

Of course I hate to see a business contract, but your coffee target should be an easy win for your budget goals. Let's do some quick math:

If you drink 4 gourmet coffees per week at $4.00 a cup that's $16 per week, $64 per month, and a whopping $832 per year!

No, if you're like me and enjoy brewed coffee, then let's look at brewing your own. If you drink between 6-8 cups of regular coffee per week then you'll need a coffee maker. You can buy a Mr. Coffee 12 Cup Coffeemaker for $16.88 at Walmart. Then hit Costco for 48oz of Folgers Classic Roast for $9.99 - one of these will brew you 380 cups! Most likely you'll buy two of these a year so that will put you at $20.00 total. So we'll round up for water, electricity, and the joy of drinking out of your favourite coffee mugs, and your brew at home total for year one is about $40.00!

By changing your coffee consumption habits you could put an additional $792.00 per year in your own pocket!

I realize that in this day of global economic distress, we are supposed to be spending our money to help "jump start" the economy again. I hate to say it folks, buy my frivolous spending economy jump starting days are over.

With the amount of money I'm paying in credit card interest each month alone, I could have several nice fillet mignon dinners! So why are my cards so high? Well, a big culprit is our families' propensity to dine out rather than dine in.

Turns out my wife doesn't really like cooking all that much - although when she does cook it tends to be delightful stuff. I on the other hand love to cook, but my traveling job keeps me out of the kitchen quite often.

Sounds like we are at an impasse right? Not to worry dear reader, I've factored this in to our budget. I've alloted the family a "restaurant" budget as well as a "grocery" budget. The big difference is, I've dramatically shrunk the restaurant and beefed up (no pun intended) the grocery. Meaning we ought to be able to eat better, healthier food if we're willing to spend a bit more time in our kitchen and not someone else's. On our family pledge, we agreed we would sacrifice some, but in my mind, eating home cooking is no sacrifice, it's a privilege...we just need to reprogram ourselves to appreciate it that way.

I've spent the better part of two days getting my financial you know what together and I'm absolutely stunned! STUNNED!

I've finally totaled up all of my revolving debt accounts, credit card accounts, etc., and have found out that our family is facing a debt mountain! An absolute Mt. Everest of debt in fact. We have over $40,000 in debt!

Fortunately, in addition to adding up how much we've managed to rack up; we've also all agreed to a tight family budget and our own "Snowball" debt reduction plan.

As a part of the snowball plan, I've charted every account we have with a balance, on a white board. Thanks to Debt Girl by the way for the idea of lifting it from a spreadsheet to a visible constant reminder. I hope that in moments of weakness, we all will glance at the white board and be reminded of our ultimate goal.

If we stick to it, I estimate we can be out from this debt by September of 2011...approximately 33 months from today. Our first card should go to zero by September of this year...only 9 months away! Here we go!