Gather Little by Little

I gave you a teaser on Friday that the M-Network had a big surprise coming today, well here it is: a new free e-book titled “Money Saving Tips For The Holidays“. No, you don’t have to link to us, subscribe to our blogs, comment or anything else in order to get it. This is our early Christmas gift to you and reading it is as simple as clicking the link below.

The eBook is a compilation of tips and ideas from all 8 members of the network – myself, My Two Dollars, Paid Twice, Cash Money Life, Moolanomy, Being Frugal, Plonkee Money & Mrs. Micah – it is available as a PDF download right here:

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This is a guest post from Kevin, the author of No Debt Plan. He blogs about getting and keeping you out of debt.

Just like any other church ours started out small. A handful of core families from a larger church decided they weren’t happy with the current direction of things and split off. Starting out they held church in ‘borrowed’ buildings – the homes of members primarily.

Soon that starter locations were too small for the number of people each Sunday, so the church moved to a ‘real’ church building. I don’t know all of the financial details of the transaction as it was before my time. I’m guessing there was some debt involved.

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This is a guest article by Jeff who writes at Caddickisms where he shares his “thoughts on everything”. If you like this article, make sure you head over to Caddickisms and subscribe to Jeff’s feed.

Back in July, I missed a payment on one of my credit cards. I only missed it by 12 hours, but still, I missed it. This was a big problem, because I had heavily loaded this particular card under an excellent promotional balance transfer rate of 3.99% for the life of the balance. Give a credit card company a reason, and they’ll rip those promotional rates right out from under you – and missing a payment certainly qualifies as a good reason, from their perspective.

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I work in IT for a bank. During our monthly team meetings, we often have guest speakers from different areas of the bank come and talk to us about their area. One of our recent speakers was from our credit card division. While not a fan of credit cards, learning about the business model was interesting. The amount of profit and high level of default rates was plain scary. The one quote that caught my attention was “Credit cards have become such an important financial tool, that people are now paying their credit cards before their mortgage“. My first reaction was that I didn’t hear what she said correctly which was immediately followed with a resounding mental “WHAT???”. I wrote the quote down along with the question “Why??”. Rather than interrupt the presentation, I decided to follow up with her afterward.

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Photo by: Jeff Kubina

This is a guest article by Otherdeb (Deb Wunder). Deb is a 55-year-old writer who lives in Brooklyn, New York. In addition to her writing (she is a published short story writer, and has a blog called The Dangling Conversation), she makes beaded jewelry and knits (and takes commissions for both), reads anything she can get her hands on, and gets paid to keep a high school cafeteria under control ten months a year. She is between half and three quarters of the way to becoming debt-free.

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Photo by: redjar

We paid off our Chase card last week. It was an amazing feeling and one that has kicked in the afterburners on knocking out our Bank of America card next. My two remaining cards, Bank of America and Wachovia are our last two. While I don’t like the debt, I do like both of these companies. There customer service has been great, they have both been very fair and have not causing any unexpected rate hikes nor refusing the reduce the rates when I’ve called and asked. They are both the opposite end of the spectrum from Chase, whom I grew to abhor. So good bye and good riddance Chase, you will never be in my wallet again.

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Photo by: LabyrinthX

This is a guest post by Miranda Marquit who writes about personal finances for the All Business Personal Finance Corner and edits information on debt consolidation for DestroyDebt.com. Interested in writing a guest post for Gather Little by Little? Contact me!

One of the growing areas of personal finance is an interest in applying Christian principles to how one spends, saves and invests money. Christians are beginning to take an interest in how their financial lives affect their spiritual lives — and especially in how their spiritual beliefs and values inform their financial decisions. From investing to donating money to the less fortunate, Christians are turning to the Bible to help them navigate their personal finances. And as America’s debt problem becomes increasingly many Christians are wondering what God has said about debt.

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This is a guest post by Jonathan who created Friends and Money in March 2007. His site is dedicated to providing reviews of paid survey, social networking, and cash back shopping communities. His aim is encourage visitors to combine the twin goals of making friends and earning money online.

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Photo by: biskuit

My level of detest I have for credit cards and credit card companies is no secret. I’ve many times about the shady tactics of credit card companies and how they prey on people in need. Credit Card companies not only issue credit cards, process credit card transactions, market and sell credit cards but they also aggressively look for ways to make themselves more profitable. Here are just a few of the many secrets credit card companies don’t want you to know:

Credit Card Statistics

According to CreditRatings.com:

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Photo by: mugley

The following is a guest post by Cindy from Oh My Aching Debts, where she blogs about surviving the tough times, getting out of debt, and saving money. If you like this post, consider subscribing to her RSS feed.

Having written a great deal on dealing with debt collectors and negotiating debt settlements, this story by Fox in Philadelphia caught my eye. “Debt Collector Says She Is Coming For You” is an interview with a six figure salary collection agent who loves her job and a look at what these calls do to the lives of the people who receive them.In the interview the woman gloats about insulting people to their wives, neighbors, employers as well as to themselves. She is good at what she does because she is good at intimidating people and scaring them. It works because people like you and I don’t know our rights.

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