Green Panda Treehouse

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Photo Credit: by alborzshawn

Welcome!

If you’re visiting from US News’ AlphanConsumer, thank you for visiting my blog. The post was inspired by my last 2 apartments.

Here’s an overview of some of my most popular posts to get started:

Banking

• Does Your Bank Care About Online Banking Security?
• Another Reason Why I Hate Bank of America
• Make Banks Treat You Like The Valued Customer You Are
• Bank of America Raises ATM Fees

Budget & Savings

• His, Mine, and Ours: How We Pay Our Bills and Budget
• Rebuilding An Emergency Fund
• Eat Healthier & Save Money: Brownbag Your Lunch
• Build a Doable Budget in 2 Weeks
• Easy Ways to Get an Emergency Fund Started

Credit Cards

• How to Use Credit Cards Wisely
• I Got a Lower Rate on the Credit Card I Use
• Rich College Student: Understand Your Credit Cards
• Top 5 Credit Card Mistakes

Debt

• Worst Credit Card Offer I’ve Seen
• 5 Ways to Get Out of Debt
• Pay Off Debt First or Start Savings (Chicken or the Egg)

Education

• Getting The Most Financial Aid
• CLEP Can Reduce Your Student Loans
• Which Foreign Language Should I Learn?

Life

• What’s in My Wallet?
• Frugal Pet Care
• How to Avoid Arguing About Money
• 3 Ways To Wisely Spend Your Bonus
• Family and Finances

Here’s a series describing our struggle to get our money back from a car mechanic’s negligence.

Car Repairs Gone Bad Series:

• Car Repairs Gone Bad: When a Shop Refuses to Pay for Damages
• Car Repairs Gone Bad: When a Shop Refuses To Pay Part Duex
• Car Repairs Gone Bad: When a Shop Refuses To Pay Part Three
• How to Pitch Your Story to the Local News
• Small Claims Court: Basic Information
• Our Day in Court
• Win in Court!

Feel free to subscribe to my site to get the latest delivered to your inbox.

Photo Credit: The Consumerist

Credit card (and other) debts can grow like weeds. Try to tame the it before debt gets out of control. I’ve many of these lessons from experience.

• Remember real money (yours) is involved. You have to pay this back and it will be with interest. Cash advances typically have a higher interest rate than standard purchases. I learned this the hard way. I feel so stupid knowing I spent YEARS paying off a card filled with stupid charges.
• Review your monthly statements. Identity theft is becoming more common and a good habit is to look at your statements every month. Sometimes credit card companies make mistakes on charges. I login to my credit card account every couple of days to see if anything suspicious happens. I need to work on checking my paper statements.
• Pay your bills on time. A good credit history can help when looking for a home as a higher credit score leads to lower interest rates. I had a bad habit of losing paperwork, so I automated all my bills. It saves on late fees and stamps. Many banks have online bill pay as a feature.
• If you can, pay the full amount owed. Credit card companies might call you a “deadbeat“, but at least you’re not tied to them each month. If you can’t, then pay as much as you can. Try a debt snow ball or even snowflaking. Find money in your budget to eliminate your debt.
• NEVER, EVER lend your credit card to anyone! Even if it is a trusted family member or family. This account is tied to YOU and you will be held responsible.

I amazed at how long it took me to learn these lessons. What do you personally do to keep credit card dbt at bay? How many credit cards do you use?

Photo Credit: bnhsu

There are 5 Fridays in March, so I got an “extra” paycheck this month. How will I spend it?

• 54% will go towards my emergency fund/snowflake account (I’m also putting my extra car payments here)
• 18% will go to my IRA
• 14% will go for gasoline for the week
• 5% will go towards eating out (so far I’ve been under my budget this month)
• 9% left over will go towards padding my checking account

The credit union where I have my car loan isn’t budging, so I’ll send one large payment for March so the extra cash will go towards principal.

I’m going to get aggressive on killing this car loan. I’m seeing if I can work a few extra hours a week (from my home). I can do 5 of my reports from my computer at home and that would open up 4-6 hours of my office time for other projects that require my physical presence. Wish me well as I try to convince my manager next week.

 I’m also getting more focused and organized on the site. As you noticed I have some ads and will try to increase my income with them without cluttering up the site. Please give me feedback. My intention is to make this a win-win situation where we pick up helpful financial information and I’m able to eliminate my debt.

Right now the pay-off total is $5,108.97. It grows each day with interest (something like $1.76).

If you have any suggestions for paying this loan off quicker, please let me know. What debt are trying to ‘kill’ this year? What’s your strategy?