My wife showed me an excellent article about the Thrifty Wallet Buddy via Tracy over at Sew Green. You simply print the Wallet Buddy, cut it out and tape it together. Your credit card will fit right into it. This is definitely going into my TrackSuit Tools. If you use the Wallet Buddy properly it causes you to ask
yourself questions that every one of us consumers should be asking before we buy new things and bring them into our home.
If you read my post How to Get Kicked Off of eBay For Free! you know my thoughts on taking free stuff or buying things just because they are cheap. I quote James Madison who said, “Never buy what you do not want, because it is cheap; it will be dear to you.” But the Wallet Buddy helps you with every purchase, cheap or not, causing you to take into consideration the following:
- Can I borrow one, find one used, or make one instead of buying new?
- Will it serve more than one purpose?
- Can I recycle or compost it when I’m done with it? (and many other questions)
One of the questions the little card asks is one our family has asked a lot lately: whether we can “resell it for close to what [we] paid for it”. This is a great thing to consider when you’re buying baby gear.
Now you may say, “This is great for my credit/debit card purchases, but what if I’m a Cash Money Superstar like you TrackSuit?” Well, I though of that for you, being a Cash Money Superstar myself I came up with the cash buddy. I present this with apologies and full credit to the good folks over at NewDream.org (read: “Please don’t sue me!”). Simply print the Cash Buddy, cut it out and wrap it around that big wad of cash or put in front of all the bills in your wallet and Voila! you’ve got automatic cash consumer awareness.
If you’re using the Cash and Wallet Buddies then from now on, when you go to pay for anything, you will have a gentle reminder. It’s like having Jiminy Cricket in your wallet reminding you that just because you have the ability to pay for it, doesn’t always mean you can afford it.
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The TrackSuit family is looking for a house. It’s something we’ve always thought about, dreamed of, but a couple of years
ago we found a beautiful house to rent here in East Austin. And the rent on the place is such a good deal that we put buying on the back burner.
Now, with the new addition in the family, we’re seeing that our small home will only contain us for so long. And we have to be careful about making our living quarters too close because as my wife always says, “Two oysters in one shell will begin cannibalizing each other”. On top of that, the market here on the East Side (and North, South and West) just keeps getting hotter. So we’ve come to the realization that our new house just isn’t going to buy itself and we have to start getting serious about it.
So the first step we’re taking is to repair the damage done before we became Cash Money Superstars. We’ve met with a credit rehabilitation specialist who does all the hard work for us.
- The Game Plan: She helps us understand what we should pay off first and how we should do it. Sometimes paying off a debt completely is not the best strategy as it will re-age the debt on your credit record.
- Legal Dispute Letters: According to her 50-80% of what is on your credit report is inaccurate in some way and it is almost always in a way that reflects negatively on your scores. So she sends the letters of dispute for us and follows up to make sure the credit agencies don’t try to stall us.
- Education & Empowerment: After the first phase of the process is complete she starts sending us to seminars and classes that show us the ins and outs of buying our first home.
You can bet that I’ll be sharing what I learn in this process with my beloved TrackSuit readers. And if anyone wants her contact info just shoot me an email.
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Recently I wrote The Ten Commandments of Working From Home where I proved my street credit based on 2 criteria:
- I used gangsta rap lyrics to convey my thoughts on working from home.
- I also live in East Austin (built in street cred)
Now that I’ve established my authority on all subjects urban, I’m going to show you how to become a Cash Money Superstar. I did a revolutionary thing
a few years back. Because of my entrepreneurial obsession I had accrued a lot of debt and was still not earning enough to stop the credit card cycle. I decided to take drastic measures.
I made the transformation from a typical American Consumer into a Cash Money Superstar. I actually switched everything I did to a cash transaction and to really get myself psyched about using cash only, I closed my checking account. Insane right? I cancelled my direct deposit and cut up all of my credit cards. I replaced them with one prepaid debit card, you know the ones you can get at the check cashing places. I basically left my quaint little credit union and joined the Ghetto Bank. I would take my paychecks into the Ghetto Bank, cash them and hand them a list of dollar amounts for money orders. These money orders were how I paid everything: utilities, credit cards, student loans, etc.
Something happens when you hold your earnings in your hand in the form of cash. There’s something about the cash that makes you realize how much it is worth. There is also a sense of control over the money that we all should feel, but usually don’t. When we hand a credit card to a person at a register they hand us back the card and nothing looks different. There is nothing in the transaction that signifies that you have less money in your account after the transaction. When you hand over a $20 bill and are handed back only a dollar and change you get a much clearer representation of what has happened (especially if that was the last $20 you had in your wallet).
So, if you are having trouble getting through the month without falling back on the credit cards, maybe you should consider taking some drastic measures. Maybe you don’t need to go as far as closing all your accounts (Full disclosure: I’ve since reopened mine) but you could trade your credit cards for one of those prepaid jobs. You also need to give yourself a weekly/monthly cash budget. Meaning that you go to the bank/ATM (or ghetto bank) and take out the ideal amount of money you want to budget for. Look at the cash, that’s it, that’s all the money you have to spend. If you blow it all in the first few days then you’re going to be in trouble.
Even if it isn’t the last of your money, pretend that it is. You will appreciate it much more. If it really isn’t enough money to get you through then maybe you should adjust the budget to make it work. Make it work for you and before you know it, you too will be a Cash Money Superstar.
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