But I do applaud those debt relief companies for trying to expand their business beyond their usual clientele. And lord knows some of us can use the debt help, just witness all those shows on tv like Till Debt Do Us Part.  Not everyone is as finance-conscious as we all are, right?

I found an interesting article online that gave a great name to our ignorance: debt denial. It’s great, alliterative, and so true. We all have, at some point, just ignored the numbers on our bank statments or even just refused to open the bills that come in the mail from time to time — that’s classic denial. We just want to live life the way we want, rather than the way we should.

This blog helps keep me honest, as I tell y’all about the silly things I do, like having an overspend day, or how I found some change on the ground. (see the sidebar for the totals) Seeing everything in black and white forced me out of my denial and made me face what exactly I had done to get myself in this mess. It’s not for everyone, but if works for you, do it! But most of all, I recommend that you face your finances, face your debts and stop denying them because life will be so much better if you worried about more important things, like your health and your family.

Just stop the denial! Your spirit will thank you.

This is an official post from Adventures in Debt.

What’s even better about these tickets is that they’re considered “tickets”, not “passes”, so I can use them on opening weekend of a movie (like I did this weekend.) A friend dragged me to see Fast & Furious because she wanted to see Paul Walker up close. Plus I’m a bit of a gear-head, so I didn’t mind going.

People can buy these tickets at a number of places, if you’re a CAA member you can buy them through them, , and through some property management companies (my apartment building has them.) So just take a look around and see where you might be able to buy some, you can have a cheap night out!

This is an official post from Adventures in Debt.

But now I’ve got a dilemma-what to do with the money. Because I’m currently not working full-time, I’ve got some options for the money. I had previously blogged that I was going to split it into thirds and send the money into debt repayment, emergency fund, and something else (hadn’t figured out what to do with that final third.) These are good option, however I have since changed my mind, mainly because of course I’ve only made $5 as a freelancer so far.

So my options are:

1. Move the money into one of my Lines of Credit. This has the benefit of giving me immediate access to the money, as well as saving me money on the interest I’m being charged, since it’s calculated daily.
2. Move it into my Citizen’s Bank Global Chequing Account. This also gives me the benefit of immediate access to the money, but also earns me a bit of interest on it.
3. Move into my emergency fund. This will replenish what I’ve taken out, plus earn me more interest than Option 2.
4. Pay off the Visa card. Okay, the refund wouldn’t pay it all off, but it would take care of about 57% of that card’s balance, which of course would save me money on the interest.
5. Pay off the MasterCard. Again, this doesn’t cover the entire amount, but it would take care of 38% of the balance, and save me money on the interest.

My main hesitation on moving the  money to either credit card is simply the fact that if I need access to the money for something like rent, I can’t get to it. And since the refund amount wouldn’t clear the entire balance, I couldn’t really use it for living expenses either, you know?

For the time being, I’ve just moved it to the TD Line of Credit so I at least save on the interest, but I’m not entirely convinced I want to just leave it there, you know?

What are your thoughts? Which option do you vote for?

This is an official post from Adventures in Debt.

Plus I’m just a sucker for a great writing pen, and these are definitely fun to use.

I had bought a three-pack for around $10 or $12, and I was a little sad to see that they seemed to be disposable pens. Until yesterday.

I finished off the blue one last week, and threw it out. I’m not a huge environmentalist, but I was a little annoyed that such a well-made pen was disposable.

Then yesterday I was in my local discount department store, and saw that they DO make refills for the G2 pen! Hot diggity! So I immediately picked up a 2-pack of refills for $4, not a bad deal. But of course on the drive home I had to remember if I still had the empty pen. Luckily due to my lazy housekeeping skills this week I hadn’t actually emptied out the trashcan in my office, so this morning I fished around in there and found it! I discarded the empty cartridge, put in the new one, and voila! I’m good to go.

What’s the lesson here? Well, it’s that you can save money by buying refillable pens. Sure, they might be a little more expensive for the initial outlay, but in the end you save money with the refills that could be up to one-third cheaper than an entirely new pen.

How have you been saving on your office supplies? Buying printer paper in bulk? Leave a comment and let me know.

This is an official post from Adventures in Debt.

Cutting the Food Bill

In DecemberI blogged about how I was going to be super-frugal in my food spending to make a bit more of a dent in my debt repayment (again, because I’m impatient.) I called it Plan B, and it worked well, as I was able to add about $100-150 more to my debt repayment in January. But I was one unhappy camper. I realized that cutting back to the uber-cheap meals was not something I’m able to do. I wasn’t even going the Ramen noodle or KD route, but was doing some cheap and tasty pasta meals, but I must say that I was bored pretty quickly with that. So I definitely can’t do that on a regular basis, but it’s something I try to do once or twice a year.

Cutting the Fuel Bill

This one’s an easy one right now, since I’m now a work-at-home freelance writer! But when I was still commuting, I made sure to buy gas when it was cheap, I drove slower on the highway, made sure to use my cruise control whenever possible, and kept my tires properly inflated. This definitely helped me cut down on the fuel costs, as did the lowering cost of the price of gas. If it was still up at the $1.30/L mark it was at in November 2008, then I would have had to change my job situation much sooner than I did. But after Christmas it went back down below $1, and then it hovered around 75 cents (+/- 10 cents), which is a much more manageable situation. But now that I’m working from home full-time, that cost is reduced dramatically.

Stop Buying Clothes

An easy place to cut out the extra expenses is on clothing. I realize that I’ve got a ton of clothes that I don’t wear on a regular basis, so it’s easy for me to cut out the extra expense here. Sure I have bought a few things here and there when I needed to replace something, like new socks, but I have been quite good at passing on the “ooh, that’s a good deal on a coat/shirt/pants/whatever” situations. I might walk around the store holding the item for a bit, but then I just put it back on the rack and walk out. Makes me feel good. Last year I even did a Clothing Experiment where I tried to see how long I could go without doing laundry. Click here to read the final results. It was a fun thing to do, and I highly recommend it to all of you who think you don’t have anything to wear.

Cutting the Cable Bill

The last place I can really cut down on variable spending is with my cable bill. I’ve got digital cable, which means I have a few extra packages on my bill for those great specialty channels like the Game Show Network or the Biography Network. Depending on how frugal I’m feeling, I modify my cable package pretty much once a quarter, so I’m definitely aware of where I could cut back there. In fact, I might just take a look at my packages this afternoon and see where else I can cut back. I’m one of those that couldn’t get rid of the tv entirely, but I can definitely cut back on some of the channels. I watch far too much tv anyways, so getting rid of the channels might have the added bonus of causing me to do more freelance writing and earn more money! So I guess in the end it’s a win-win situation for me.

How have your efforts to cut back been going? Has it been tough for you and your family? What lessons did you learn from your experience? Share your stories in the comments, I’d love to hear them!

This is an official post from Adventures in Debt.