I have become a loyal Staples customer for one main reason: Their ink cartridge recycling program. Bring them your tired, dried out, used up HP, Lexmark and Dell cartridges to any store, and Staples will give you a $3.00-off coupon that can be used immediately. Best of all, you can use up to three coupons per purchase.

What I didn’t realize is that there are lots of options for recycling printer cartridges.   ThinkRecycle.com lets you earn money for schools or nonprofits by recycling printer cartridges and cell phones. Not feeling so philanthropic? Try FundingFactory.com, which allows you to earn credits toward new equipment for your business when you turn in those old phones and cartridges.

And, speaking of those old mobile phones, one of the most worthwhile and smart programs I’ve come across in recent years is the Verizon HopeLine program. Give your old mobile phone back to Verizon. The phones are refurbished or recycled. With the funds raised from the sale of the refurbished phones, Verizon Wireless donates wireless phones and airtime to victims of domestic violence, and makes contributions to non-profit domestic violence shelters and prevention programs across the country.

 It may not save you money, but it may help save a life.

 What’s your fave recycling or combo do-good/fundraising program? Share it in the Comments section.
 

Did you do the list that we discussed in the last Debt Challenge post? If not, I encourage you to spend some time outlining your debt, however tough that may be.

Once you have a handle on your debt and interest rates – the ones you reduced by calling the credit card company – Scott Bilker from DebtSmart.com says it’s a good idea to begin tackling debt from highest interest rate to lowest. So, if you have a card on which you’re paying 20 percent or more, let’s tackle that one first.
 
If you’re paying 22 percent on a $5,000 balance, making $100 payments each month, it’s going to take you 137 months to pay off that loan. If you up your payment by $50 per month to $150, you’re down to 52 months – less than half of the time. If you are able to talk your way down to a 19 percent rate and you increase your payments to $150, you’re down to 48 months. So, it clearly pays to attack your debt from highest to lowest.
 
Scott has a good Q&A on this subject, as well as tips on how to get a free debt reduction worksheet.
 
But what if you’re in too deep to even make the minimum payments? You still have a few options:
 
First, you could call the credit card company and work it out. Scott says you’ll have the best chance of negotiating a better deal with your bank if you have these three ways/things ready when you call:

(1) A deal-breaker. You need to know the deal you want and what you will do if they don’t give it to you. You can often find great deal-breakers in your mailbox. Use a low-rate offer from another bank and tell the rep that you’ll transfer your balance if they don’t reduce your rate or waive that fee.

(2) Persistence. When you call, expect to be on hold for a while, but don’t give up! Also, be ready to ask to speak to a supervisor if the first rep cannot do what you want.

(3) Confidence. Remember that you are in control! Reading through the calls I made will help prepare you for most call scenarios/situations. More details and script are here.
 
You can also contact a nonprofit credit counseling service. If you simply can’t handle the debt on your own, this is a better option than ruining your credit or declaring bankruptcy. These organizations work directly with credit card and other loan companies to create a payment plan for you to pay off your debt. Scott has some great tips about finding a good one here.  
 
So, how much are you going to reduce by January? Don’t worry – in the coming weeks, we’re going to give you some great ideas for dealing with holiday expenses.

Share your debt challenge story or goals with us in the Comments section.

Halloween continues to grow like the blob – Americans are going to spend $5 billion on it this year, according to the National Retail Federation. (And, yes, I will contribute a big chunk of that in trade for bite-size Snickers bars and candy corn. Part of my platform is being pro-candy corn.) Pets are even getting in on the act.

My 5-year-old declared her intention to be a cheerleader last Halloween and nothing has changed. That’s a pretty easy costume. I feel for my friend, whose son wanted to be the Empire State Building. (Thank heaven for little girls.)

Not ready to fork over more of that $5 billion than you have to? Never fear. Some fine and resourceful souls have come up with great ideas to scare up some great Halloween savings:

The folks at Halloween Online Magazine recommend opening up a Halloween savings account — like a Christmas Club account, but for vampire teeth and fake cobwebs.

Savingadvice.com has an old post with some good info about saving money on Halloween candy. Some alternative ideas: Give away stickers, erasers, balloons (but not for little ones) or other fun tchotchkes. Go on the prowl at the dollar store and see what you can buy in bulk for a buck.

On the costume front, skip the $30-40 pre-packaged variety and make your own (Really…it’s possible and not that time-consuming. And I don’t sew a stitch.)

There are also some good tips in this Kiplinger’s article, which also includes a couple of good places to hunt for deals online.

Halloween doesn’t have to break the bank. Now, you only have to fear the awful shrieks from your child’s post-trick-or-treat sugar crash.

 Now, THAT’S scary.

Last week, I spent some time on the phone with Scott Bilker from DebtSmart.com. We talked about the debt challenge and what the best next steps are after hauling out all of the bills and making a list of debt. Since most people don’t know what they owe – and many get overwhelmed and bury their bills without even looking at them – that list is an important first step.
 
He told me that the list should include more than just the bill and the amount owed. Make a chart that includes the following:

* The name and payment address of the account
* The total amount owed
* The minimum amount due each month
* The due date (but remember that this can change from month to month)
* The interest rate
* The repayment terms
 
That’s a lot of detail, but it will help you get a handle on how you are going to repay your debts. It’s usually a good idea to start out with the highest-interest debt and pay that off first. So, once you create your list, put it in order of interest rate, from highest to lowest. The name at the top of the list is the one that we’re going to tackle first. That’s what I thought, triumphantly, until Scott corrected me.

“But what if your income is $4,000 a month and your debt payments are $5,000 a month?” he said. Hmmm…that was a situation that I remembered being in shortly after college. Between student loans, a new car loan, rent, commuting expenses, and all of those credit cards I’d accumulated during my undergrad years, even if I had a plan, I wouldn’t have been able to afford it.

So, Scott told me this great little secret: Credit card companies want your business. And when a company wants your business, there’s room to negotiate. So, he told me that you can call the credit card company and ask that your interest rate be reduced. You simply call the customer service department and tell them that you would like your interest rate reduced. If you have decent credit and can qualify for another card on which you can transfer your high-interest balance, you’ll have plenty of leverage. You can often get your interest rate reduced a few points even if you’ve got late payments in the past. Say you’re paying 20 percent on a $5,000 balance and $200 per month in payments. That will take 33 payments to pay off, and cost $6,600. If you renegotiate that rate to 17 percent, then the payment time is 31 months. That saves two months, or $400 in interest payments, which can then be applied to paying down debt. 

So, by the end of this weekend, get your list together and choose the debt you want to tackle. By Monday, call the 800-number of your credit card company and ask for a better interest rate. Tell us your results in the comments section. I’ll take any questions you have to Scott and see if we can take advantage of his excellent experience in debt reduction.

Meantime, read this excerpt from his book, which is truly inspirational. 
 

My friend, Leah Ingram, and her family bought their dream house a few months ago. It was a bit of a stretch, so they needed to adopt a more frugal lifestyle. They’ve also become more “green,” adopting more eco-friendly habits that also save them money. She’s started a blog about it that I think is really worth checking out.

On another note, several weeks ago, my daughter came home with one of those coupon-book fundraisers. I’ve bought this type of book before and forgot to use it, so it was a waste of money. I was going to return it to the school without purchasing it, but I took a look. There were actually many coupons for stores I visit regularly. So, I decided to fork over the $25.00. Most coupons in it are valid from now until December 2008.

Here’s my plan to make it pay back: I’ve already torn out the coupons for the stores and restaurants we visit most frequently. Those are in my purse. I’ve put the book near my computer, where I’ve gotten into the habit of searching online for coupons before I go shopping. That way, it’s in plain sight and I will remember to check it before I go out. A quick calculation tells me that, conservatively, I can save about $78.00 over the next six months, just by using the coupons in my purse. All in all, not a bad investment.

But the school fundraising thing can get expensive, especially if you have more than one child. Add that to club and group fundraisers and you need a budget just to buy candy, cookies, wrapping paper, and calendars. It may sound harsh, but we are saying “no” to any “purchasing” fundraisers that don’t give us something we need or want. And nothing with sugar in it. Having 17 boxes of Girl Scout cookies lying around doesn’t do anyone any good — least of all the family member who works from home. (That would be me.)

How do you rein in the school fundraising beast? Do you have parameters for making school fundraising purchases or donations? Share your tips in the comments section.

Who’s afraid of money? Apparently a lot of us are — and with good reason. A recent study by U.K. medical research firm Wellcome Trust, used gambling to study our reactions to money. They found that losing money activates the same area of the brain that responds to fear and pain.

So, if you’re stuffing incoming bills in a drawer without looking at them, there’s a reason for it. Getting swept up in debt can be scary and leave you feeling hopeless. Worse, the holidays are around the corner, so the potential for things to get worse — much worse — is just about here.

Between now and January 1, 2008, we’re going to actively work together on ways to find ways to reduce debt and manage holiday spending. The goal is to enter 2008 without the massive bills that can leave us scrambling and feeling slightly ill. To help us, I’ve called on debt expert Scott Bilker, founder of DebtSmart.com and the author of Talk Your Way Out of Credit Card Debt.

Here’s how it’s going to work: Each week, you’ll hear from Scott or me about reducing your debt and managing your holiday spending. But this is not just about us — your participation is important. Share your tips and ideas to help your fellow challenge participants. We’ll pick three participants at random to receive a free signed copy of Scott’s book.

 And this challenge starts TODAY. Scott’s first tip is to get organized, financially. Since many people don’t know exactly how much they owe, we want you to take a deep breath. Now, open up that drawer stuffed with bills, grab a pencil and paper, and start calculating. This may be scary, but you can’t make a plan for reducing debt until you know what that debt is.

Next, create a filing system other than your drawer. Find a place to keep bills that need to be paid and bills that have been paid. Note typical due-dates of each type of bill so that you avoid paying late fees, which can add up to big bucks.

Invest in an easy-to-use software program like Quicken or Microsoft Money. While you may have a bit of a learning curve getting started, this will save you LOTS of time over the long-haul and will help to keep you more organized. Don’t forget to back up all of your data!

 Once you’ve gotten yourself organized, set a reasonable goal for debt reduction. Look at your income and how much you can reasonably devote to paying down what you owe. You may want to choose one credit card or a portion of overall debt. The goal is to enter 2008 with less debt than you had in 2007.

 Ready? We’re in this together! Challenge on!

And don’t forget to help your fellow challenge-mates by sharing your own tips, ideas and encouragement in the comments section.

Next week: Making a holiday spending plan.

Wow…we all have pretty strong feelings about this issue of who makes more in the relationship and how that impacts the household duties. Many who e-mailed, commented and answered the Q&A felt that equal duties should prevail, regardless of who makes more — unless the lesser-earning partner is a part-timer. In that case, there was a prevailing sense that if you work less, you should pick up more slack around the house.

There was also an interesting money-related element to the discussion. At what point do you cry “uncle” and hire some help? Until my cleaning service flaked out on me a few months ago, I had someone coming in between twice and four times a month to give us a hand. With two spouses working full-time, it can get a little scary around here, and my hubby defintely has a higher tolerance for mess than I do. (Although I will, in no way, admit to being neat.) Having a deadline by which we had to clear clutter once a week or so also helped us keep on top of paper and keep a bit more organized. But it was a big expense and, while I miss the help, I don’t miss writing out that check.

 Is that the solution? Or are there better, more money-consious ways to keep the peace while keeping the house somewhat clean? Let’s discuss in the Comments section.

A few months ago, a friend and I were discussing the stresses of being working mothers and how to keep all of the balls in the air. During the course of our conversation, she mentioned that it was her job to clean the house because her husband made more money.

That floored me. My husband and I are both self-employed. There have been years when he’s made more money and years when I’ve made more. I never really factored our income statements into our regular argu…er, discussions about who should throw in a load of laundry or scrub that black stuff off of the shower tiles. (Note to self: Could this be because we’re both terrible housekeepers? Think about that while clearing a path to the front door through the debris on the living room floor.)

I tried to understand the rationale behind the statement. It seems like there’s an assumption that the person who earns more works harder. But what if your job just naturally pays more? Is a social worker who is married to an investment analyst doomed to a life of indentured servitude? Of course, if you’re married to an investment analyst, you probably have help in theis department, so maybe that’s a bad example, but you get my drift. Should money factor into the housekeeping equation at all?

So, I posed the question in the Q&A section: Who in your relationship makes more money? And does that have any correlation to who does what in your relationship? Weigh in here or in the comments section.

Candy, costumes, decorations — my wallet is shrieking at the prospect of Halloween. (And don’t even get me started on the red and green decorations already peeking out from behind the orange and black.)

Thankfully, Amy Clark has posted a great piece on how to do Halloween on the cheap on MomAdvice.com, a great collection of frugal-living tips. Although this craft-averse mom doesn’t think she’ll ever be brave enough to create my own face paint, I can get on board with a costume swap and a bit of creativity. My daughter has wanted to be a cheerleader since last Halloween, which is a pretty inexpensive and easy costume to pull together. And, we’ve been cultivating (real) cobwebs on the porch since the summer, so I can save a bit on decorations there. Although you may or may not want to steal that tip.

How are you saving money this Halloween? Scream about it in the comments section.

When my daughter turned 5, it seemed like a good idea to start giving her allowance as a way to 1) begin teaching her about money and 2) fend off the “gimmies” — as in, if you want it, save your allowance. It also seemed like a tool to incentivize good behavior. She gets a quarter deducted every time she misbehaved.

I started out with $2.00 per week. However, according to certain allowance calculators and conventional wisdom, I’m a cheapskate and her allowance should be more like a dollar for every year of age. I’m also the worst allowance-giver in the world and often forgot to dole out the dough on Fridays. This completely undermines the responsibility I’m trying to teach, so I’m trying to get better about that.  

What I didn’t expect was that allowance is controversial. One school of thought says that you shouldn’t tie your kid’s allowance to chores because they should have to do them as part of the household, anyway. These folks think that teaching kids that you get paid for holding up your end of the household chores isn’t a good message.

The other school of thought is that children shouldn’t be rewarded for not participating in the household, and that paying allowance tied to chores teaches them about earning.

Of the two philosophies, I agree most with the former. I think that tying allowance to chores does send the wrong message, and that there should be other privileges that are awarded or taken away based on chore performance.

How do you set allowance? And do you tie it to chores or not? Give your two cents in the comments section.