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The key to frugal living is avoiding the unnecessary big purchases while cutting back on the little everyday purchases. This may sound simple in theory, but is incredibly hard in practice. This is due to the fact that many consumers are simply unaware of how to cut back on their daily spending, and exactly what about their big expenditures is unnecessary.

The following is an easy to follow guide that will help set you on the path to frugal living:

1. Housing and Transportation

If you are in the market to buy a house, buy small. For every extra square foot of real estate you purchase, you will have to pay that much more in property taxes, utility bills, insurance, and mortgage. If you are looking to rent a space, look for a compact room. With the freedom that mobile technology provides, there’s no reason to have your bedroom be anything more than a place to sleep.

Carpool to work. Share a car with your spouse or roommate if you can. If you have an expensive gas guzzler, trade it in for a smaller, fuel-efficient vehicle. An SUV will cost you much more on gas and insurance and is generally a waste of resources. Most SUV drivers, after all, do not purchase their vehicles with the intent to go off road. If possible, try moving to within walking distance of where you work. The time you save on the commute will also make you better rested and happier, and the morning walk will be good for your health.

2. Don’t Eat Out

If you eat groceries, meals on average can amount to $1 per person. In contrast, a typical restaurant or fast food experience can run you anywhere between $5 and $20 dollars per meal. Over the course of a year, you could be losing thousands of dollars on meals alone. Invest that money and over time the amount can grow into the hundreds of thousands. The power of compound interest is the main reason why saving nickels and dimes is important.

3. Eliminate Debt

Just as the interest from savings accounts compound, so does debt. Worse yet, credit card interest is typically five or six times higher than the growth of your bank account. Debt will devour your finances faster than you can earn it, and cutting the size of your obligations should take priority over any other purchase, no matter how much you think you need it. If it isn’t food and shelter, you can do without it.

4. No More Cable

Cable is a bloated, expensive luxury that offers you 100 channels you never watch and don’t need. When you buy a package from a cable company, you pay for every single one of these channels, from the home shopping network to the soap opera channel. This never made much sense, but in the past people were handicapped by the lack of options. Now you can watch these programs through online and DVD rental services, many of which are low cost or even free.

5. Staying Healthy

The rising cost of medical care has crippled many individuals as they struggle to pay for prescription medication, vital exams, and surgeries. The best way to lower these costs is to stay healthy. Eating right and exercising regularly will help you remain strong and fit, lowering your susceptibility to disease and the need for doctor visits. However, you don’t have to purchase an expensive gym membership and organic food to live a healthy lifestyle. Just utilize your local park for exercise, and eat plenty of fruits and vegetables to maintain a balanced diet.

So you have purchased a long term health care insurance policy just in case you needed it and now after several years have passed you do in fact need to use it. At this point you probably are wondering what you need to do in order to file a claim. The answer is going to vary depending upon which insurance agency you bought your policy through, but the general process is as follows.

Step #1 – Determine Who Needs to File the Claim

Like many health insurance policies, long term health care insurance claims can either be completed by you or your health care provider. Before you start any paperwork determining if your health care provider will file the claim for you or if you need to do it.

Step #2 – Determine If You Are Covered

A long term health care insurance policy can cover a number of shortages produced by your major medical insurance or Medicare. However, when you purchased your LTC insurance you decided what you wanted to be covered for and as a result not everything may be covered. Before you start the paper work make sure what you are requesting reimbursement or funding for is covered in your policy.

Step #3 – Request Claim Forms

If you are responsible for filing the claim and if your medical expense is covered, then you next need to fill out a claim form. To get a claim form you can go to your insurance agent’s website and download a form, you can go to your insurance agent’s office and fill one out in person, or you can schedule a meeting with your agent (or talk on the phone) to complete a form.

You will need your medical bill to fill out this form. The form will most likely ask for specific information about what service was provided, who provided it, what medical billing code was used and when the service was provided. If you have any questions about where to find specific pieces of information, you can call the accounting department or billing department of your health care provider.

Step #4 – Submit Your Claim

It is important to fill out and submit your claim as quickly as possible. Many insurance agents have a limit on how long you can wait before submitting claim forms for reimbursement or coverage. Also, getting reimbursed or being funded for a medical procedure can take weeks. This means that the sooner you complete your paperwork the better it will be for everyone involved.

Learn more about long term care insurance and see other LTC information here…

Well, this might not qualify for “sweet little nothings”, but the truth is that almost all of us feel most comfortable in paying out the lowest possible credit card payment every month rather than making an endeavor to settle credit card debt all at once. It is also not untrue that receiving calls from the debt settlement department is a suffocating experience and when that happens, we have this sudden urge to have access to unlimited amounts of cash to throw in the face of the collection officer and give him an earful for disturbing or otherwise peaceful lives!
Well, in reality such stuff does not happen, as if we had access to unlimited amounts of cash we most likely wouldn’t be in debt in the first place. So if you are in debt and the threat of collection is hanging over you the following tips are going to help you make a credit settlement effectively and hopefully without much hassle:

1. Talk to people who really matter – Most of the times it is either the tele-callers or the recovery agents that try to negotiate credit settlement with us and almost always the propositions that we get sound unreasonable to us. These people are literally willing to leave no stone unturned to pull us into an unprofitable proposition and if you have the habit of making the lowest credit card payment every time you get the credit card bill, the chances are you would not even think of raising your voice in the apprehension of getting ridiculed by them.
   The truth is, you should stop wasting time talking to these people as they usually cannot decide stuff for themselves – is actually a better idea to try to talk to some supervisor and if possible even to people higher up in the chain of command and urge them to help you out. You would be quite amazed to see that in most of the cases, these people are more than willing to help and if you can clearly make them understand that you have at least been making the minimum credit card payment every month and are actually serious about getting out of credit, chances are you will be offered a more manageable deal.
2. You should talk about your problems – In most of the cases, the recovery agents and credit collection officers would make you listen to hour long stories about how they almost stopped the earth from spinning in a bid to get you a 1% discount on your credit – but you really shouldn’t be very patient and listen to them because you will already know for sure that the discounts offered are not going to do you any good.
   The answer here is to actually talk about your own problems and let them know the very reason that has been preventing you from clearing your credit. Stick to your point and make sure it gets across properly to people sitting in the higher ranks to get the best deal possible.
3. All communications should be documented – If you have been in credit for quite some time, chances are different people have dealt with your account at different times. In reality, most financial institutions have very flexible rules as far as credit settlement is concerned and different people dealing with your account will give you their own versions of such rules to make them look lucrative to you.
   Always make it a point that all communications from the financial institution are documented so you can refer to them before taking any decisions.

Robb Biggs is a financial expert working in the debt recovery team at Payday Loans UK. His focus is on helping customers with debt problems and often writes for finance publications and websites giving practical advice on how best to manage a debt problem.

Most people come to a certain point when they have to borrow money to buy something expensive. This could be a house, home improvements, school fees or a car. Times are economically difficult at the moment so getting a loan isn’t always as easy as it once was. If you have a reasonable credit history though, there are car loans available. Here are some ways that you can make sure you get the best car loan possible.

Know your credit history

First of all make sure you know your credit score, this will put you in a much better negotiating position. Money lenders are far more likely to lend you money if you have shown that you can be trusted to repay the money you have borrowed. That isn’t to say that you can’t be trusted if you have a less than perfect credit history, many people have lost their jobs over the last few years and have found themselves unable to repay their credit. Unfortunately the banks will still penalise those people with higher interest rates and less car loan choice. Check the APR on any car finance you are considering and make sure that you work out the difference between the flat rate and the APR as the difference can be considerable. Even if you have a low credit score, there are many ways that you can improve it over time so don’t get too disheartened. There will also still be loans available to you but they will have much higher interest rates. To avoid a footprint on your credit history if you think you will be turned down, try to get car loan quotes over the phone.

Get a higher acceptance rate

Another way of getting a good car loan deal is to apply for PPI, or payment protection insurance. This doesn’t mean that you have to take it out, in fact it isn’t recommended at all. But, just for applying for a loan with PPI means that you are more than likely going to be accepted. When you have your quote and you have been offered your loan then you can say you have just changed your mind and cancel the payment protection insurance and get the car loan company to give you a new quote. You will normally have fourteen days to do this. Doing it this way will usually mean that you get the lower interest rate too.

The best way to make sure you get a good deal on your car loan is to shop around. If you get a good quote, make sure you read the small print to ensure it is as good as it appears.

Landlords have more to worry about than homeowners. As well as the building, they need to protect their tenants as well as themselves. With these things in mind, looking for the right landlord insurance can be tricky at best. It needn’t be a hassle, though, so keep these tips in mind when you’re shopping around to find the best cover for you.

Covered inside and out

Stripping it down to basics, landlord home insurance is split into two types: buildings and contents. Buildings insurance is a given (and compulsory if you have a mortgage). If the building itself is damaged by fire, flood or similar events then you’ll need to be covered to repair and rebuild. Depending on the insurer, this might also cover you for earthquakes and subsidence. Be sure to check if you live in a high-risk flood area, as you may need a more specialised flood-based cover for your property.

Contents insurance will cover the contents that you own in the property, not your tenants. This includes white goods and furniture. If you are letting a furnished property, this is a good idea in case anything damages your items. Everything that your tenants move in with or buy themselves, they will have to get separate home contents insurance of their own. Typically, contents insurance protects you against fire, theft and water damage.

Get specialist

Do you need specialist landlord insurance?  Well, it’s not legally compulsory, but it’s a very good idea. The specifics vary between insurance companies, but buy to let insurance gives you some kind of public liability cover as part of the policy. So for example, if your tenant trips over your carpet and takes legal action, you won’t have to pay the expensive legal fees. You can also get covered for loss of rent, if for whatever reason the property becomes inhabitable or if your tenants are unable to pay. Your standard contents insurance cover may not cover accidental damage, so if you’re letting out a furnished property then it might be worth taking out additional accidental damage cover for your items.

Stay sharp

Be sure to check the ins and outs of the policy details to make sure that you know what is and isn’t covered. As a general rule, landlord insurance policies don’t cover any malicious damage or theft by your tenants. This is why it’s important to make sure that you’ve either got an appropriate tenancy deposit or are satisfied with their character.

Also, low-premium landlord insurance might come with a hefty excess attached. Check that you’re happy with the amount of excess against the premium and the benefits of the policy before you accept, otherwise any claim that you make could leave you in the lurch.

Make sure that you take a look around and find the best policies that are right for you – there’s nothing worse than paying through the nose for cover that you don’t need in the first place.