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Do you have a pile of unopened bills? Are you stressed out because of your financial situation? Do you feel “out of control” when it comes to month to month money finances? Here is a way that can help you get in control.

The first thing you need do is to sit down and open all your bills. If you do not know exactly how much you owe or exactly what you are paying out, you will never get in control of the situation. Find the most current statements and write down: Name of the account, monthly payments, how much owned (remaining principle) , and minimum payments allowed, do this for each and every bill and account you have. This will give you a good idea of the minimum amount to must come up with every month.

Add up all your monthly payments. Subtract it from your monthly pay. This is the amount you have to work with. If you do not have enough left for necessities such as food & gas, then it is time to sit back and decide how to downsize.

Ignoring it, or not knowing the facts does not make them go away!

Keeping Tract Month to Month

It may seem overwhelming and confusing at first, but it gets easier as you go along.

Once you get everything organized , you will only need to sit down once a month for an hour or two. The power of this method is that you have to face it every month and it will help you understand exactly where your money is going.

There are many computer programs that can help you keep tract of money spent, however,

I found that keeping a written book and actually jotting down the numbers by hand each month, keeps it real, and keeps me more in-tune with how I spend money not only monthly , but also daily.

How to get started.

Get a column pad note book

By now you have opened all your mail and found the latest statements and have written down everyone that you owe and what the monthly payments are. Start with fixed amounts such as: house payment, car payments(s) , insurance etc. With the electric, gas and other bills that differ month to month put down the higher amount. Jot these down along the top of the columns.

Next start columns headings with your non-fixed bills… such credit cards (first jot down min. payment, although you never want to pay just the minimum). We will talk about credit cards in the next section.

Next make columns for the other items you spend money on monthly, start with essentials and work down to non-essentials.

Example: food, gas, medical, etc. then things like clothes, entertainment,. beauty supplies and what ever else you spend money on . In my book I also have dog food & vet bills. If you smoke, make a column for cigarettes and write down the amount every time you buy them, you will be surprised to see how much you actually spend each month on them, it may help you decide to quit!

At the end of each month, sit down with your check book and go through each check or debit amount that you spent and jot down the amount in the appropriate column. Add up the total for each month. Now you have a written account of where all your money is spent. I have been doing this for several years now, and you never hear me say “Where did all that money go? ” All I do I open my book and there it is in black & white.

So now that you know where your money is going it’s time to figure out ways to cut back and start to save.

The first thing I’d like to mention is to try not to carry too much cash with you. Cash is too easy to spend and we are usually in a hurry and do not write down what it was spent on. Of course you need to keep some on you in case of an emergency but only spend it if you have to. It’s much easier to keep tract of things when you use your bank card, plus you will have an automatic receipt and be able to track a transaction if you need to. If you do use cash, make sure to keep your receipts.

Credit Cards – Credit cards should be available in case of an emergency. In your money book you had written down the minimum payment each card needs per/month. That was just to see what you absolutely needed each month to make ends meet. You should always pay as much as you can per month above the minimum . Get those credit cards paid off as soon as possible! When your credit cards are paid off, you should only charge as much as you can pay in full at the end of the month . Avoid getting credit cards at department stores, if you have to charge something, you can’t afford to buy it.

Other ideas to help save money.

Shop at outlet stores and thrift stores.

Shop on the internet, a lot of times you can find great bargains online

Use coupons for groceries, just be careful not to buy something you would not normally buy just because you have a coupon.

Insulate & weather proof your house.

Use cold water as much as possible for washing clothes.

Buy a water filter instead of using bottled water.

Grow a small garden for vegetables.

Don’t waste food, get used to eating leftovers.

Keep you vehicle tuned up & oil changed

When you are about to purchase something, stop and ask yourself “Do I really need this right now or is something I just want at the spur of the moment? ” You may find yourself putting it back on the rack and then feeling good about yourself.

“Live within your means” we have all heard that over and over. Now you have a way to determine just what “your means” are.

One more thing, make sure to pull some money out of every check and deposit it into your savings. Whether it is $10. 00 or $50. 00 doesn’t matter. Maybe give up that 5 dollar cup of coffee a day and put that money into your savings. You will be surprised how fast it will grow.

Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/finance-articles/old-fashioned-method-to-saving-money-5667940.html

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• Choose company that have great CEO. The company depends on the leadership of the CEO. He must serve as a
  motivator for his employees and strategist for the company. You can see the capability of the CEO from his track record. Does he can bring the company better previously? Look at their degrees and job experience. Where have they worked and for how long? Would you hire that individual to run your company? If the company have known politician to sit on its board, he will help the company with his experience on working in the government. Retired military officials are also very beneficial to companies if he is in the board.
• Companies that have over seas production can take advantage of lower cost. Lower cost can bring higher sales to more customers and a higher profit margin on each unit.
• Companies that operates over seas can enter in untapped market, this will usually bring more sales.
• Company must have competitive advantage from other company. If a company is selling the same product and service, then they are the same as other company. How can they beat other company if they don’t have any advantage from other company.
• Find companies which is expanding. One criteria of this is the company is hiring new employees.You can try speaking to the human resources human manager ask her if she is hiring. If the human resources manager tells you that they are hiring employees it is very important to find out for what positions. The position they are looking can tell you where the company is heading. You can ask him by telling that you are a prospect investor for the company and would like to know more about the company.
• Survey the company’s supplier. Ask them what they think about the company. Do they like doing business with them? Do they pay on time?
• Survey the company’s customer. Ask them what they think about the company. Do they like buying from the company?
• The company have reasonable debt. To measure the safety of a company, we use the debt to equity ratio (D/E). It is a financial ratio indicating the relative proportion of equity and debt used to finance a company’s assets. This ratio is also known as Risk or Gearing. It is equal to total debt divided by shareholders’ equity. The two components of debt and equity are often taken from the firm’s balance sheet, but the ratio may also be calculated using market values for both, if the company’s debt and equity are publicly traded, or using a combination of book value for debt and market value for equity.
  A high debt/equity ratio generally means that a company has been aggressive in financing its growth with debt. This can result in volatile earnings as the result of interest expense. If a lot of debt is used to finance increased operations, the company could potentially generate more earnings. If this earnings is greater than the debt cost (interest), then the shareholders will benefit. However, if the cost of this debt outweigh the return that the company generates on the debt through investment and business activities, the company can go bankrupt.
  The debt/equity ratio depends on the industry in which the company operates. For example, capital-intensive industries such as auto manufacturing tend to have a debt/equity ratio above 2, while personal computer companies have a debt/equity of under 0.5.