After countless hours spent holiday shopping, you finally finished. Now, you’re faced with the credit card payments as you roll into the new year. While it may have been difficult to keep your finances – particularly your credit cards – top of mind amid the dash from store to store, those payments aren’t going anywhere.

Managing your credit can seem like a daunting task – but it doesn’t have to be. Even if you’ve blown your budget and maxed out your cards, you can still take control of your credit and become financially fit in 2014.

Here are five things you should do right now to help get your credit back on track and sustain your financial reputation all year long:

* Review your credit report. Start with taking a comprehensive look at what’s there, good and bad. Make sure you thoroughly review your report for any errors or mistakes, especially after the holidays. Tools like AnnualCreditReport.com let you check your report annually for free. It’s also a good idea to check your credit score to see if it’s dropped and to give you a basis for comparison moving forward. Resources such as Credit.com allow you to easily pull your score.

* Know what you owe. Tally up those balances and determine your debt to credit ratio – that is, the amount of money you owe on your cards versus your available credit, which accounts for approximately 30 percent of your credit score. If you’re using more than half of your available credit, this will likely lower your credit score. This means that if you have three credit cards with a combined limit of $10,000, your total balance should be below $5,000.

* Be sure to pay your bills on time and at more than the monthly minimum. Sure, it’s intuitive, but simply paying your bills on time accounts for about 35 percent of your credit score. Start with your holiday shopping bills and make sure that at least the minimum required balance is paid – even if you can’t pay them in full.- Also, pay more than the minimum payment every month to pay down your balance faster and decrease interest charges.

* Pay off the card with the highest interest rate first. These are the cards that are costing you the most, so paying them off ahead of a card with a lower interest rate will save you more money in the long run.

* Keep your cards open. Unless you have a compelling reason to close a card – for instance, if you’re paying a large fee on it – it’s best not to close credit cards, especially ones where you have a long positive payment history. When closing a card, not only can your debt to credit ratio increase, you also end up losing the history associated with the card and change the mix of your credit, which could negatively impact your score. And, in the future, do your research before signing on that dotted line. It may have been tempting to open up a retail store credit card to save 15 percent on a recent purchase, but those savings are now ultimately going to end up on your billing statement as interest. Instead, look for a card that works with your lifestyle. Review your options and find a card with a great rewards program and the lowest interest rate possible.

To learn more about budgeting, credit and personal finance, check out a recent Google Hangout, Better Money Habits: Understanding Credit. You can also visit BetterMoneyHabits.com, a free platform from Bank of America in partnership with the Khan Academy offering dozens of personal finance videos on everything from using credit to saving and budgeting that you can watch any time.

*BPT

The post Financially fit: five steps to get a handle on your credit appeared first on AKAMom Magazine.

Beyond Couponing shows people how to do more with less 

“Budget Meals, Inc. and Beyond Couponing take to heart the ancient proverb ‘Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.'” – Carol Scudere, author of Beyond Couponing

Did you know that most people on food assistance run out of money by the 3^rdweek of the month, because they do not know how to properly grocery shop or even cook?

Your grandmother never heard of Campbell’s soup, frozen pizza, Windex or McDonald’s yet because we are all so busy the name of necessity was born.  However, with so many being unemployed, you need to learn that you can save up to thousands of dollars a year by making your own convenience foods and household cleaning supplies.  Our book, Beyond Couponing will show you how and will also supply you with hundreds of recipes that your family and friends will devour.

Carol founded the charitable organization, Budget Meals, Inc. over two years ago and started presenting free classes to churches, food pantries, and the like, so that people could learn these “old fashion” but much-needed skills. Her new book,Beyond Couponing, grew out of those classes and shows readers that saving money on grocery shopping involves more than just cutting coupons.

The book discusses the importance of developing a budget, planning a weekly menu, creating a shopping list, and stockpiling. It also offers numerous tried-and-true recipes and explains the ins-and-outs of food storage, purchasing in bulk, making your own convenience foods, stocking a food pantry at home, making your own cleaning supplies, and much more.

Carol comments, “These are life skills and habits that people need. I feel compelled to help those families who face a radical loss of income due to job loss or the replacement of a well-paying job with one where the ends no longer meet, or for anyone who wishes to stretch their food dollar while improving their nutrition and the quality of their food.”

You will find that once you start using this book, that it will have a permanent place on your kitchen book shelf…the reference book you will never want to be without.

Get your copy today at www.beyondcouponing.com

FOR EVERY BOOK DONATION, BUDGET MEALS WILL PROVIDE A FREE BOOK TO A NEEDY FAMILY!

Author: Carol Scudere founded Budget Meals, Inc., in 2009. For more information on this 501(c) 3 non-profit organization, visit www.budget-meals.org

The post Beyond Couponing appeared first on AKAMom Magazine.