LIVING ON A SHOESTRING WITH GUEST AUTHOR LYNETTE SOFRAS

A former English teacher, Lynette Sofras gave up a high level career in education to focus on her writing a few years ago, thus fulfilling her lifelong dream. She mainly writes women fiction, often with suspense and/or a supernatural twist. When not producing novels, she works as an editor and writing tutor at 24houranswers.com. Learn more about Lynette and her books at her website and blog.

It's said that most Americans will experience poverty at some point in their lives, particularly inner city or rural dwellers. What seems almost ludicrous to me is that as the world advances in so many ways, poverty is steadily increasing. In the UK, the dramatic rise in the number of people using food banks is testament to the fact that poverty is no longer a third world issue.

When times are tight, there are numerous ways you can cut back on expenses to save money for essentials. You don't have to starve or live in misery, thanks to food banks and the supermarket price wars. Buying budget brands doesn't always mean sacrificing quality and essential nutrition. In the UK, stores like Lidl and Aldi are forcing competition and the big name supermarkets are having to downprice accordingly. If you don't want to switch loyalties, try switching brands for a month to see how much you can save. Search for offers and money-off vouchers in free magazines or the Internet. Visit markets, boot/garage sales and auction houses to hunt down cheaper alternatives.

Foregoing expensive forms of entertainment for a short while can also help you save pennies. Cut out fancy restaurants and get experimental in the kitchen. Visit museums and libraries and broaden your mind for free or simply get healthy with a walk in the park and perhaps a picnic lunch.

While I've never known real deprivation, I did go through a period of financial hardship when I was bringing up a young child with virtually no support from the father, while putting myself through university and beyond to ensure I could provide for us both in the future. It is perhaps hardly surprising, therefore, that money issues infiltrate some of my novels. In my latest romantic suspense, The Nightclub, two half-sisters, fleeing a pretty dreadful past, find themselves living hand to mouth and surviving only with great difficulty. Money is so tight, they have to live in a squalid flat, shop at charity shops or scavenge for market bargains, and re-use teabags to save pennies. But they have each other, determination and ambition.

The Nightclub

Trying to make a living for her teenage sister and herself, naïve Laura Hamilton accepts a job offer as a hostess at an infamous London nightclub. As she struggles to survive in a world of sex, drugs and corruption, she certainly doesn't expect to find her own knight in shining armour in the club's owner, Julian. But will he really save her from a future as a fallen woman? And is he involved in the criminal organisation that threatens not only her sister's life, but will change her own fate forever?

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MONEY MATTERS WITH SHEILA--HOW TO SAVE IN 2015

Did you make a resolution to save more and spend less this year? If so, you’re not alone. However, most resolutions fall by the wayside by Valentine’s Day—if not before.

Here are a few sobering facts: Did you know there are twice as many poor women as men? Did you know that women have 40% less money saved in their retirement accounts than men? Given that women live longer than men, this doesn’t bode well for our golden years. As a matter of fact, those golden years may be anything but golden if you don’t start saving more and spending less this year.

Here’s a tip that will save you an additional $1,000 in 2015:

Resolve to save $3 a day every day in 2015. Do this by setting up an automatic weekly transfer of $21 from your checking account to your savings account. At the end of the year you’ll have nearly $1,100. Use that money to open an individual retirement account where your money will grow tax-free. The younger you are, the more money you’ll have when you retirement age. That $1,100 a year over the course of thirty-five years will grow to nearly $130,000. The more money you save, the more you’ll have for retirement. So try to increase that daily amount to $5.

Now I suppose you’re thinking you don’t have an extra $3-$5 a day to set aside. I’ll bet you do! As a matter of fact, I’ll bet you spend far more than that every day on things you could do without. Think of all the ways you spend money during the week. Here are some ways to lower that spending:

1. Bag your lunch instead of going out to lunch every day.

2. If you can’t live without your daily Starbucks fix, order the smaller size latte.

3. Skip happy hour or only order one drink.

4. Only use ATM machines connected to your bank to avoid withdrawal fees.

5. Hand-wash your delicate blouses instead of sending them to the cleaners.

6. Stop downloading apps you have to pay for.

7. Listen to music free on Pandora instead of downloading tunes.

8. Make a budget and stick to it! Shop only for what you truly need.

9. Consider store brands rather than pricey name brands. The quality is often comparable.

10. Walk more; drive less. Gas may be coming down in price, but you still have to pay for it. Along with saving money, walking also gives you the double benefit of exercise and weight loss.

MONEY MATTERS WITH SHEILA--GUEST AUTHOR KAREN McCULLOUGH

Karen McCullough is the author of a dozen published novels and novellas in mystery, romantic suspense, and fantasy and has won numerous awards, including an Eppie Award for fantasy. Her short fiction has appeared in several anthologies and numerous small press publications.

Today, along with telling us about her newest release, Karen brings us some money-saving tips. She’s not a financial adviser, nor has she played one on television. She’s culled these tips from a lifetime of struggling with her own finances. The advice she presents here has worked for her, and she’s happy to share it with our readers today.

Read more about Karen and her books at her website and blog.

Five Practical Hints to Make Managing Your Money Easier

1.  Carry a small notepad in your pocket or purse and each time you use your debit card or write a check during the day note down the amount on the pad.  At the end of the day, give it a quick glance to check the total and mentally compare it to the cash available in your account.

2. Use a program like Quicken to track your financial situation.  I update it once a week, entering all the transactions from the previous week.  By doing that, I know how much I have in the bank and therefore how much I can afford to spend the coming week.  It's made it much easier for me to keep up with what I have.  I also keep up with my credit card expenditures as well.  You can even set it up to download transactions from your bank, so you don't have to enter them yourself.  You just have to be sure your notes match what the bank says.

3. Use Quicken or some other program to track all your accounts -- savings, investment, etc.  You can keep up with your mortgage and other loans as well, so you can quickly get a look at your net worth.  I know it can be a bit depressing (believe me, I KNOW!), but ignorance is not bliss.  Ignorance can mean ugly surprises. And knowledge can both help you plan for the future and provide incentive to improve your situation.

4. Sign up for electronic bill pay if you haven't already. Your bank doesn't support it?  Find a new bank. Seriously.  This is such a time and money saver it's worth the effort involved in changing banks.

5. Okay, this one is going to be a bit more controversial.  You know all those articles that say you can save xxx amount of money by not stopping for that latte every morning or taking your lunch to work in a bag instead of going out and buying it?  I say the heck with most of those.  The savings are small potatoes and probably largely offset by the irritation of doing without a treat that helps make the rest of your day bearable.

Instead, look at the bigger picture.  Can you have ten or fifteen or even twenty dollars a month transferred automatically from your checking account to savings the day after your paycheck is deposited or once a month on a specific day?  It's so much easier if the money goes out before you ever see it.  Find trade-offs: things you maybe don't need as much that you can sacrifice.

The Wizard's Shield

To solve a murder and retrieve a stolen magical shield, a pair of wizards journey into a dangerous, magical underworld, where the weapons of choice might be guns... or lightning bolts.

A powerful wizard with a physics degree and a checkered past invents a shield to ensure he'll never again be tortured almost to death. The wizarding powers-that-be fear the repercussions of such a device and send his former girlfriend, an accomplished wizard herself, to retrieve the device or destroy it. When the shield is stolen by the magical mafia, Ilene McConnell and Michael Morgan have to set aside their differences and work together to recover it. Michael claims he needs the device as insurance against the kind of injury and injustice he suffered once before. Ilene maintains its potential to upset the delicate balance of power makes it too dangerous and that it needs to be destroyed. But none of that will matter if they can’t retrieve it before a ruthless, powerful wizard learns how to use it for his own ends.

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MONEY MATTERS WITH SHEILA - CREATING A PERSONAL FINANCIAL BUDGET

Today we have the folks at Happy Health visiting to discuss personal financial budgets. Happy Health provides useful lifestyle and product information, including home security reviews. Check them out at their website. -- AP 

Creating A Personal Financial Budget

Many people will go through life without ever putting together a budget for their household expenditures. Many others have created a budget but don't keep it current when they experience a change to income or expenses. This is too bad because knowing exactly what income you make and what your monthly expenses are is one of the key pillars to financial success. A well-managed budget ensures that one does not spend their way into consumer debt.

Early last year I had the opportunity to help a friend with her monthly budget. She was hopelessly in debt. After working with her on a monthly budget we, put a plan together to control her spending and help pay off her cards. Most importantly we checked her monthly progress against the budget we prepared. It was very hard for her to make the changes she needed to make but as every month went by she started to get better and better and staying with her budget. Even more exciting was that she was able to figure out ways to save even more money from her personal expenses.

Many people's financial dreams are ruined by their personal debt. Not all debt is incurred based on bad decision in incurring consumer debt. There are many people who have been dealt with some bad luck such as health problems and have been forced into debt just to ensure that they have appropriate health care. Regardless of how you have incurred your debt it is important to put together a personal budget to ensure that you have a plan for your future financial success.

I've spoken with many people who make a lot of money and they often think that they don't need a personal budget. I could not disagree more. In fact these types of people I believe need a budget more than others.  The reason for this is that while they make a lot of money including an excess of discretionary spending money they spend almost everything that they make. What they should be doing is carefully watching what income they make and their expenses and making sure that a respectful amount of their income is being reinvested into cash flow producing assets instead of wasted on expensive goods and services that they did not really need.  With a proper plan and good budget those who make a lot of money are able to continually reinvest their wealth producing a cascading flow of cash flow.

Make time out of your busy schedule to ensure that you have a personal budget. More importantly take time out of your schedule to make sure that you compare your budget to your actual real monthly expenditures. The road to financial success is not easy but ultimately it is very rewarding. Ensuring that you have a plan including a monthly budget is a step in the right direction in ensuring that financial success is not just a dream but a reality.

MEANINGFUL HOLIDAY GIFTS

According to one statistic I heard on the news, the average person will spend approximately $700 this season on holiday gifts. Whoa! I guess we here at American Woman are not your average people because my random, unscientific polling of my fellow editors didn’t produce a figure anywhere near $700. If your bank account is still feeling the pinch of the recession, here are some holiday gift-giving ideas that won't start you off in debt for 2012 from our staff. -- AP

From yours truly, craft editor Anastasia Pollack: Get crafty! Check out all the craft projects posted each Monday at Killer Crafts & Crafty Killers. We specialize in crafts that take no special talents or expensive, hard-to-find tools and supplies. In addition, that handmade gift will probably take a lot less time than the time you’ll spend driving to the mall, trolling for a parking space, going from store to store, coping with the checkout lines, and bucking traffic.

From food editor Cloris McWerther: Edible items are always appreciated. Consider making something yummy and give it along with a binder filled with your favorite recipes.

From beauty editor Nicole Emmerling: Small nylon sachet bags are inexpensive and available in many colors at craft stores. Fill several with lavender potpourri and tie with ribbon for a thoughtful and sweet-smelling gift.

From health editor Janice Kerr: Fill small jelly jars with loose teas such as chamomile and mint. Add a tea strainer, and you have the perfect gift for a tea drinker.

From money guru Sheila Conway: Give of yourself. Provide a gift of time or experience. Promise to drive an elderly friend or relative on her errands or offer to do them yourself. Rake the leaves, clean the gutters, or clean her home. Offer to do her taxes if you have the expertise. These are gifts that will be cherished long after that box of chocolates is eaten.

From fashion editor Erica Milano: If you have a large family, consider one family gift rather than individual gifts for every member.

From travel editor Serena Brower: Invite a group of friends or family members on an outing. Whether it’s a trip to the zoo, a local sporting event, or a picnic at the lake, you’re certain to find something that fits your budget.

From decorating editor Jeanie Sims: Not every gift has to be brand new. Troll flea markets and garage sales, and you might find that perfect memory from a loved one’s past, whether it’s a vintage record album or a classic Barbie lunchbox.

And you won’t spend anywhere near $700 giving any of these gifts. So enjoy the holidays without going broke. What are some of the ways you keep holiday costs down? Or don't you? Post a comment to enter the drawing for a book from our Book Club Friday guest author. -- AP

MONEY MATTERS WITH SHEILA--BUDGETS

As many of you know, when Karl, my dead louse of a spouse, permanently cashed in his chips in Vegas, he left me in debt up to my eyeballs. Our finance guru Sheila Conway has been helping me formulate a plan to dig my way out of debt. Today she offers some tips to aid anyone mired in budgetary woes. -- AP

Thanks, Anastasia! It’s hard to chip away at debt when it seems overwhelming, but the biggest hurdle many people face is their own denial of the situation. You have to accept that you have a problem before you can take steps to solve it.

So the first thing you need to do is put it all down in black and white. Make a list of everything you owe, what you’ve saved, and what you need to spend each month. Numbers don’t lie, and they don’t make excuses.

Now, formulate a realistic budget based on those black and white numbers. If you need to whittle down debt, study your monthly expenditures. What can you do without or downgrade or cut back on? Most Americans spend far more each month than they realize and spend it on items that are non-essential. If you got yourself into debt by spending more than you earn, now is the time for a bit of austerity.

Once you accept that you need to change your lifestyle in order to keep having a life, you’ll be amazed by what you can do without. The kids want pizza for dinner? Fine. Throw a frozen pizza from the supermarket into the oven instead of picking up the phone for take-out. Borrow a DVD from the library for a home movie night instead of piling the family in the car for a trip to the multiplex. Get together with a girlfriend to do each other’s nails instead of that weekly trip to the nail salon. If you’re a smoker, stop. Not only will you save money, you’ll save your health. And most of all, step away from the mall. Too many Americans spend a good chunk of their free time on weekends at the mall where the temptation to buy, whether we need something or not, is too great.

Brutal as always, Sheila. But totally on the money. What do you think, readers? Are there things you spend money on that you could just as soon do without? Let’s hear from you. Remember to post a comment to be entered into the drawing for a book from this week's Book Club Friday guest author. -- AP