4 MORE DAYS! FREE WEDDING PLANNING EBOOK!

Yes, you heard it right.  My ebook 99 Ways To Have A Memorable Wedding On A Shoestring Budget is available for 4 more days on the Amazon Kindle.

For almost 100 ways to save on various aspects of your wedding, from the photography and wedding rings to limosuines and the honeymoon, be sure to check this book out.  For FREE!

FREE EBOOK - 5 DAYS ONLY!

For 5 days only, my ebook 99 ways to have a memorable wedding on a shoestring budget will be available for FREE on Amazon's Kindle site.

If you want to save $$ on your wedding, or if you know someone who's getting married and needs a little help, please pick this book up.

Did I mention it's FREE for 5 days only?

I found an error on my credit report - now what?

You got your free credit report through the Annual Credit Report site and you found an error.  Now what?

This is fairly simple.  First, you send a letter to the credit bureau agency with the error (send this certified mail, return receipt requested, so you prove that you sent the letter) and explain the error.  From the moment they receive your letter, they have 30 days to either prove the accuracy of the entry or remove it completely.

Then, once the 30 days is up, the credit bureau should contact you with their decision.  If they prove the accuracy and you still know it to be wrong, you will need to contact the creditor directly to resolve it.

The yearly financial check-up

Once a year, it's a good idea to check your credit report.  You can get one from each of the three reporting credit agencies--Equifax, TransUnion, and Experian--by going through the Annual Credit Report site.

There are many places that say they can give you a free credit report, but the link above will take you to the official place.

You can either do it online, print out a PDF and send it through the mail, or call and request one.  You can get one once a year--or, if you want to spread it out, you can set a schedule and have one of the three done every 4 months.

10 tips on having a frugal wedding - a short review on Frugal Dad.com

I recently found a very interesting post by Frugal Dad.com that I just had to share on this blog.

In this blog post, he has his top 10 list for planning a frugal wedding.  From invitations to photography and the venue choice to music, you can't go wrong to check this out for idea on how to trim the costs of your wedding.

It's odd too, because a number of the tips are also in my ebook 99 Ways To Have A Memorable Wedding On A Shoestring Budget.  Hmm, great minds think alike, huh?

So, be sure to check out Frugal Dad.com for "Insights on Family, Career, and Money."

4 Ways To Help Boost Your Wedding Fund

You have a wedding budget of $12,000 and already have $2,000 saved.  Now, with the wedding 18 months away, you need to save like crazy.  You'll need $555 a month in order to achieve your goal.  But what if you can't do it?  What if all you can do is $250.  How will you do the extra $305 needed each month?

There are four easy ways:

1) If you are currently working, do some overtime if you're able to.

2) Get a part-time job.  Taking on a paper route, delivering pizzas, working as a waitress or bartender on nights and weekends are only a few such part-time jobs out there.

3) Sell something.  Put stuff on eBay or Craigslist.  Here's a blog post where I give a few tips on how to do this.  Do both of you have furniture?  Sell one set.  If you're both going to be living under one roof soon, you might as well get ready for it.

4) Start your own business.  Most small business can be started with little or no capital, like mowing lawns, raking leaves, painting houses, and shoveling snow.  #3 above could align with this if you happen to stumble upon a niche item that is easy to sell for you.  Check out this blog post regarding what I found as a niche market that worked for me.

Please share your "earning money" stories.  What have you found that worked?

A clever way to deal with debt collectors

One clever way to deal with debt collection agencies is to do this: pit one against another.

Let me explain.  Let's say you have two credit cards that are in collections, and let's say each are around $1,000 each.  You don't have $1,000 or else you'd be done with them.  You can settle, but let's say they won't budge.  A technique I've used (and worked) is to pit one against another.  Let's say you have $300 to settle.  Offer to each of them this $300 and the first one to respond will get it.  The other one will have to wait.

The first piece of advice is to make sure you have $300, if that's what you're going to settle on.  If you don't, this deal isn't going to work.

You can also tell one that the other collector took it for $250, so if you want to match you can be done with this debt.

I am not giving advice to avoid paying your bills.  If you have $1,000 to pay off a debt, do it.  But if you do not and wish to settle, you could try this.

**Please keep in mind, the advice given above is only my opinion, and your situation may be different so it would be advisable to seek legal counsel**