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The Frugal Creditnista

Budgeting and debt reduction go hand in hand when it comes to rebuilding your credit. If you find that you have more month than money, or are living paycheck to Monday; chances are your credit cards and/or bank accounts are feeling the pinch as well.  These practices prevent you from saving for your dreams – whether it be a home, retirement, kid’s college tuition, or a dream vacation. By managing the money you bring home on a monthly basis, you can take control of your finances, your credit and your future.

Our goal is to ensure your debts are current and remain current.  How you pay your current debt obligations amount to 35% of your credit score! The entire credit repair and credit building process will fail if you are incapable of making on-time, regular payments on your current debts.

Reducing your current debts is another credit building tool; this typically applies to revolving credit, namely credit cards.  FICO scoring model recognizes credit card usage in 20% increments.  So, if your credit card is over the 50% mark you’ll get the biggest increase in your credit score by paying it down to below the 20% mark as soon as possible (or at the very least the 30% mark).  We strongly encourage the reduction of your credit card balances in order to see as large of a boost in your credit rating as possible.

Budgeting & Debt Management Tools That I Love:

Debt Management Calculator – Explains different methods of managing debt via the ‘snowball’ or ‘avalanche’ method; or a combination of both.

Yearly Budget Calculator – Designed to help you create and manage your budget on a monthly basis, all within a single worksheet. It allows you to (1) easily add or remove budget categories, (2) plan for irregular expenses, (3) plan based on a variable income, and (4) make future predictions to aid in decision making.

Richest Man In Babylon
 – One of my favorite books on finances, an excellent read filled with easy to understand financial advice. Written in parable form, the simple principles by George Clason can forever change the way you look at your money forever! CLICK HERE FOR FREE EBOOK

Dave Ramsey’s Guide To Budgeting – Great guide on Dave’s award winning 7-Baby Steps to Budgeting CLICK HERE FOR FREE ONLINE GUIDE (PDF)

Bill Cutterz
 – This company will help with negotiating the lowering of your rates on your bills with your service providers! You split the savings difference with them (50/50) https://billcutterz.com

My Favorite Budgeting Apps 

My FAV: YNAB (You Need A Budget); why do I LOVE it? You can enter items on your desktop and on your phone/tablet and everything is synced/updated.  It works on the $0 based budget, meaning every cent has a job/purpose.

Other great apps:  Prism, BillGuard, Mint, Level, Mvelopes

Budgeting Software: In case you don’t trust you financials in an app, try one of these free online software:  Budget SimpleEvery Dollar (Dave Ramsey), Budget Tracker