Adventures in Personal Finance

You’ve been standing in line waiting patiently for your turn to pay for your new Nikes. You hear the amount and give the cashier your credit card. Your mind goes on autopilot and you start planning your next errand. Your reverie is broken as the cashier tells you your card has been rejected.

You’re painfully aware of the customers standing behind you. This is like being on the receiving end of a breakup and hearing your dinner partner scream, “I’m just not that into you anymore!” in a crowded restaurant. You mumble about how this isn’t possible. Perhaps you weakly protest, “But I just used it two days ago.” You slowly turn to leave and wonder if the other customers in line are judging you. Do they think you have bad credit?

Most likely, they aren’t judging you, but feeling your pain. Still, this is a mighty embarrassing experience for adults who pay their bills. But this scenario has become all too common. Credit card customers are being cut off, having their credit limits reduced, and being treated, in general, like they’re not all that special anymore. There are a couple of reasons that credit card issuers appear to be behaving badly. One reason is the economy. You already know this, but it bears repeating. Credit card issuers are in survival mode. Default rates are high and they’re cutting people loose for various reasons.

Another reason is because they can. In a Wall Street Journal article this week, “Cardholders Get Rude Surprise at the Register,” it’s made clear that an issuer can legally cancel a card without giving any notice if you haven’t used the card in over a year or you’ve defaulted or are delinquent on the account. Issuers can also cancel an account and then send notice within 30 days if they decide you’ve become a risk. It’s the definition of “risk” that has caused many an account to be canceled and left the cardholders wondering, “What the heck happened?”

So what should you do if your credit card issuer breaks up with you? I recommend reading my article, “Dumped by your card issuer? 5 tips to survive the breakup,” on CreditCards.com. Here, you’ll get the scoop on the first five things you should do when you get dumped, such as get a copy of your credit report to see if there’s a mistake on it.

Above all, stay calm and find out what happened. Then, if you’re sure that your credit really is in good standing, go back and get your Nikes.

As a freelance writer, one of the things I do to sell my ideas to editors is come up with something unique. In my world, this is called a “fresh” idea. With the economy tanking for a while now, it seems like everyone is a financial expert. I wouldn’t mind it if they’d come up with something, um, fresh. 

Here’s my Top 10 list of tiresome tips:

1. Give up your lattes/iced mochas/insert favorite beverage here.  I’m not big on a lot of self-sacrifice. Of course, if you’re spending $1,200 a year on your caffeine fix, then perhaps you do need to heed this advice. But I think you need to have a few luxuries. If you don’t keep a few treats for yourself, you’ll go on a binge and spend more than what you’d pay for a latte.

2. Make a list before you go to the grocery store. I do think this is a good idea, but I think you need to make it a flexible list. Otherwise, you miss out on sales in the store. I have a computerized list and I do a basic inventory (pantry staples, health-related products, etc.)  before I go the store. Then I do a couple of quick online searches to read my grocery stores’ flyers. But when it comes to fruits and veggies, I sometimes wing it because I want to see what’s fresh. 

3. Increase the deductible on your homeowner’s insurance. How many times have you read this tip over the last month? Enough said. Again, it’s a good idea unless you live in Tornado Alley or in California. But here’s a better–and wait–fresh tip:  Learn about cashing in on car insurance incentives from a piece on Wallet Pop.

4. Get organized. For the record, I’m an organizing geek. Ask anyone who heard me speak about this topic at the ASJA Writers Conference in NYC this past April. And I do believe that organization saves money. But if just “getting organized” was the answer, wouldn’t we all do it? In this blog, I’ll be covering organization quite a bit because when it’s tailored to meet your needs, it can increase your chances of meeting your goals, both personal and fiscal. But I’ll be giving you details on how to make it work for you and your personality type.

5. Grow your own vegetables. I come from a long line of farmers, so I’m not dissing this idea. But unless you live on several acres in a rural area, this has practicality issues. If I had corn stalks reaching for the sky in my back yard, I’d get a visit from my Homeowner’s Association. But I tried this in small doses on my deck this year.  I have a thriving tomato plant and a luscious-looking basil plant. My advice? Pick a few things to plant that you tend to spend money on frequently. I like to make Italian food, so there you go.

6. Take a staycation. Has there ever been a more overused word combo? Well, maybe Watergate or Brangelina tops it. Okay, I don’t have a better word for it. I also don’t think this is a new concept. Families have been making decisions about how much they can spend on vacations for quite a while.

7. Make your own clothes. No one wants see what I’d be wearing if I made it with my own two hands. Trust me on this. If you’re handy with a sewing machine, go for it. Now I do bargain shop for clothes at places like Target. I also wait until a season is well underway before I buy new clothes. Right now is a good time to get deals on summer clothes.

8. Watch DVDs at home instead of going to the movies. Good advice, but is anyone else tired of watching movies at home? One way to spice this up is to invite a few other families over for a night at the movies. Make popcorn and enjoy watching a movie in a crowded room. And enjoy using a bathroom that has toilet paper in it.

9. Stop eating out. My personal favorite. Probably because this is the one rule I used to abuse the most. I’ve gotten much better about this since I started using Mint.com. I almost choked when I first saw how much I spent on restaurants. Now, before we go out, we have a family meeting and set the budget for the dinner. Added bonus: Your kids get practice doing math in their heads!

10. Stop using credit cards. In theory, this makes sense. If you stop using credit, your debt stops growing. But we all know there are times when you have to use your card. Maybe you’re buying something online. Or maybe, like me,  you use online money management software and you use your credit cards for purchases so you can track your expenses. The key to this  is self-control. Not everyone has it, of course. If you don’t, then  Tip #10 was written for you.

Sure, all these tips have merit. But, geez, I happen to think that we’re all smart enough to know this stuff. In fact, I’ll best most of you already practice most of these basics. Just for fun: Are there money-saving tips that you’re tired of hearing about? I’d love to know what yours are.