Our lives are made up of important milestones like graduations, birthdays and anniversaries.  Many people like to celebrate these milestones with parties and big events. These are a fun time for family and friends to get together, share memories and make new ones.  For individuals who are currently involved with a Christian debt management program you may think that any fun events like these are off limits until you have reached your goals concerning your debt. It’s true that there is a lot of sacrifice involved in Christian debt relief. However, that does not mean you can never celebrate another big event with your family and friends.

Rethink Party

You just need to rethink your definition of what a party or big event is. If in your past you could not have a party without expensive decorations and professionally catered food, then you must stop and re-evaluate. Most of these ideas are based on pride anyway. Many money troubles stem from a sense of pride and an un-Christ like desire to make people think highly of us. If you are throwing a party or hosting a big event for someone the event is not about you. It is about the person celebrating the milestone. Remember that your loved ones will be touched by your efforts not by how much you spend.

Old Fashioned Pot Luck vs. Catering

Never underestimate the power of a good old fashioned pot luck style dinner. People get excited when they get to participate. A pot luck evens out the burden of providing food for your event in such a way that no one feels overwhelmed and in most cases each person will not spend more than they normally would on making a meal at home. A pot luck style meal is appropriate for a number of different events and are far more interesting as there will be a bigger variety of foods to choose from.

Bulk Tableware

If you are planning a large event visit a bulk supply store to purchase plates, napkins and flatware. You can get huge discounts when you buy large amounts of these products together.

Chill on the Decorations

There is no law requiring you to decorate every inch of every event. It is far more cost effective to decorate with something like photos of the folks you are honoring. Clothes lines strung with photos, or individual notes written to the special someone are a touching way to decorate your event space. These can be organized and gathered together weeks ahead of time. Another great alternative to excessive decorations would be to organize a slide show of photographs celebrating the life of the individual. When set to appropriate music these are usually an emotional addition to any celebration and in most cases the decorations or lack of decorations will be forgotten about as every one reminisces together in this special way.

Research Freebie Venues

There are many organizations which will allow the use of their facilities by the community for free as long as you agree to care for and clean the area during and after your event. Community centers, schools and churches are a great place to start looking for free venue options.

Choose Emotion Over Expensive

Taking the time to make the event emotional and memorable will create a far greater and longer lasting effect on those present than expensive food and decorations. Remember that these celebrations are about people not hundred dollar shrimp platters.

Christian debt relief programs are built upon the concept of creating a plan and sticking to that plan no matter what. When you have a financial plan and stick to it like glue, there are few money obstacles that you can’t successfully tackle. Most people find themselves in a debt disaster seeking Christian debt help because they did not have a plan in the beginning. Each area of our lives will require its own individual financial plan. Near the very top of our list of financial priorities should definitely be our homes.

Why Plan?

Our homes are our most important investment. Shelter is one of our top legitimate needs which income must be allocated for. But even with this most necessary of human needs, there are different ways this need can be met. Once you have invested in purchasing a home you want that home to continue to meet your needs for as long as possible. This can only happen if you have a plan concerning home maintenance.

Expect the Worst

One of the great fallacies of money management is to wait until something goes wrong to decide how to pay for it. Go ahead and accept the fact that things will go wrong with your home. At any given time there are a number of things that can go wrong. Appliances, plumbing, electrical, HVAC, pest infestations and general wear and tear all add up to big money over the years. Many of these issues can be handled with money from a carefully maintained emergency fund. When you think of how essential to our daily life and comfort something like hot water is, you can understand how important it is to be able to go purchase a new hot water heater the day you need it. An emergency fund makes this possible.

Common Sense Saves You Money

Some of the home maintenance issues that you will face are simply the result of time and cannot be helped. However there are also a myriad of home maintenance problems that would not be problems if a little forethought was used. There are some steps you can take to save yourself a lot of trouble and money in the future.

In an ideal world everyone would have enough cash to take care of their monthly expenses without ever having to take on unnecessary debt. However, the way our economy operates, it is quite inconvenient (although not impossible) to conduct your financial life without an adequate credit score. The question then is how to build or re-build healthy credit for those necessary times in life when your character is being judged by a FICO score.

Secured Credit Cards

Secured credit cards are a hybrid between a loadable debit card and an unsecured credit card. Basically secured credit cards allow individuals with poor or non-existent credit scores the opportunity to use a line of credit granted that the person first make a security deposit usually of $300-$500. Charges on the card are not deducted from this amount, but are actual credit charges. Paying off the entire balance each month will quickly begin to affect your credit score in a positive way.

Gas Cards

Applying for a gas card is another very safe way to build credit because you will be limited to purchasing only one necessary item, gas. Gas is already part of your regular monthly budget, so if you simply put these purchases on the card, and then use the cash you have set aside for gas to pay off the balance each month, then you will be building your credit with no extra expense or risk to your financial security.

Pay Student Loans on Time

Many people do not realize that Federal Student Loans will affect your credit score negatively or positively. Student loans are usually a very easy debt to manage because the interest rates are generally very low, late fees are small or non-existent and in most cases re-payment plans are ultra-flexible. Staying on top of this easy debt can re-build a credit score very quickly.

Do Utility Bills Count?

Paying utility bills will usually only affect your score negatively if you allow a bill to become delinquent. However, the opposite is not true. If you consistently pay your utility bills on time it will not necessarily affect your credit score in a positive way. So, yes pay your utility bills on time, but do not except that alone to make much of an improvement to your score.

Is Cash Really King?

Attempting to live a cash only lifestyle is a wonderful, tried, and true method of controlling spending and reinventing your finances. However, you will want to consider that there are a growing number of areas in which a good credit score can assist you in reaching your goals. Operating entirely on cash will result in a non-existent credit score, which can translate into rejection. Individuals looking to rent a house or apartment are often very disappointed to learn that a good credit score is required. Purchasing a home definitely requires good credit, and even some employers are checking into your credit history in order to make a judgment of what kind of employee you will turn out to be.

Pay Down Debt Increase Income

New credit laws and credit practices are turning toward a more common sense approach when it comes to approving an individual for a line of credit. Many lending companies are looking more at a person’s credit to income ratio to help make a decision. You can improve your credit score by paying down current debt and making an effort to increase your yearly income by means of a part time job or generating side work in your current field of experience. Paying down debt is one of the key elements to restoring health to a damaged credit history.

Christian debt settlement can help you evaluate your current debt situation, and map out a Christian debt program that will work for you. Visit the link above, or fill out the short form to the right of this article to contact a representative for a FREE no-obligation quote today.

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We often look back on certain time periods in history, like the Great Depression, and wonder, “How did people manage to get through something like that?” The answer is that they knew how to switch into survival mode. They understood when pride needed to take a back seat to priority and practicality.

No time is this more important for modern people than when they are attempting to work their way out of debt. Seeking Christian financial help and starting a Christian debt relief program is a great starting point toward the goal of a debt free life. However, there are some deep seeded changes that have to take place in the hearts and minds of many people if they ever hope to make “debt free” a way of living.

Changing the way we shop is one of the more difficult areas that people deal with when attempting to revolutionize their finances. For many people shopping is an emotional outlet which serves a few different purposes. One it is a stress relieving distraction for many people. It is their hobby. Secondly shopping, for some people, provides quite the ego massage. Buying a new shiny item, with a chunky price tag makes them feel like a different person for a while, a better person. The problem with all of this is that it is an illusion, it is short lived and it is not financially practical.

If you are attempting to heal your finances through a Christian debt settlement program, then you must seriously evaluate any type of emotional spending.

Shopping is a necessity; we need things, however, it is the way we meet that need that makes all of the difference. When you are in the trenches of your Christian debt management program you will need to look into alternative shopping. Alternative shopping simply means finding new, creative, cheaper ways to get what you need. This includes consignment, clothing swaps, yard sales, Free Cycle programs, Craigslist and yes the old thrift shop.

Sure when buying used you do have to be more careful, but that does not mean thrift shops should be entirely counted out as an alternative shopping venue. There a several myths surrounding thrift shops that prevent people from saving a lot of money on things they really need.

Myth # 1

Thrift shops are dirty. Thrift stores must meet the same standards of cleanliness and safety as all other businesses in your community. Stores such as Goodwill have very strict standards concerning their clothing, furniture and other household items.

Myth # 2

The item I buy won’t work. If you doubt if an item will work or not, ask a salesperson to plug it up so you can operate it. The salespeople are used to this request. Check it out first and see if it works.

Myth # 3

People will make fun of me. This isn’t middle school. You are an adult who needs to spend wisely. If you have people in your life who would mock your desire to get out debt and change your finances your problem lies in the relationship not in the thrift shop.

Myth # 4

They won’t have what I need. This is where thrift shopping can get fun. Each trip is an adventure. You’re on a quest. Sometimes you find what you need. Sometimes you find something better. Sometimes you find something else you needed that you never thought would be there.

If you are already in a Christian debt program then you have the guts to try something new, adding thrift store shopping to the list shouldn’t be too scary.