Be sure and check out the guest posts I have been writing for the Charlotte Observer Newspaper in a series called “Hot Summer Savings, 2 Weeks to Save You Money”.

Read about  lots of money savings ideas including how to get free money through coupons and discounts, travel the world without breaking the bank, and undertake a fabulous and frugal home makeover.

Read about the terrific items I found on a recent visit to a Habitat for Humanity ReStore.

Included is this brand new pedestal sink for $ 22! Wow!

It’s time to get going on that bathroom project!

I LOVE this fabulous Black chest of drawers I found for $ 25!

Give a room a whole new look for very little money!

Read much more at the Charlotte Observer.

Then every day, with every financial decision you make, remind yourself that there are 2 main methods to achieving that goal.

It is a simple concept: Make more (revenue) and spend less (costs). The more money you accumulate, the more you have to invest, which increases your wealth and helps you get rich.

We learned a long time ago, that with some effort, we could save 50% of our meager incomes in order to save money for a down payment on an investment property or to add to our investment accounts.

You may ask, what does that have to do with this great bread machine?

As regular readers of this blog know, I LOVE bargains and believe you can get pretty much everything at reduced prices if you search for them.

The less you spend- the more you have to save and invest!

Long ago, I discovered the gold mine of estate sales and garage sales!  I have been amazed at what people have sold and the fantastic stuff I have been able to buy for a song.

Recently, I spotted this brand new, never used Williams-Sonoma bread machine at a garage sale.

The woman running the sale said her husband had given it to her as a Christmas gift several years ago and she had never used it! She no longer had the box or the instruction book, and that’s why she had it priced at $10!

I asked her if she would take $5 and she happily said Yes!  This terrific Williams-Sonoma item probably sells for $100 or more!

After I paid her, I asked her “If you didn’t want it, why didn’t you take it back, get the money and buy something else?” She said, “Oh I didn’t want to hurt his feelings.”

I said “The money he spent belonged to both of you–doesn’t that seem nuts to basically throw away $100?” She said “Yeah, I guess so.”

So, thanks to her and her husband I now have a brand new bread machine!  There are bargains like this everywhere!

At another yard sale, all books were priced at 50¢ and I found this terrific Bread Machine book!

So now for the cost of one loaf of gourmet bread--I have a terrific machine that will make me countless loaves of fresh bread!

The money I save will be invested in appreciating assets that will build wealth!

The savings all add up!

A loaf is baking right now! Yummm!

Determine the exact amount of money you want to accumulate per month. Earn that extra money and along with your reduced expenses, pay off debt, then start SAVING and Investing it. Then, Get Rich!

There are so many ways to increase your income that you might not have considered!  Keep an open mind!

My Absolute Favorite: Sell on eBay www. eBay.com There is a market for practically everything on eBay!  Clear out your closets, go to Spring yard sales, or offer to sell things for other people and make a commission! I will talk much more in depth about this in future posts and give you tons of ideas to get maximum money for your items.

Check out Amazon. com to see how easy it is to sell current books, tapes and DVDs.   Amazon.com You don’t even need to take pictures or write descriptions! Simply enter the name of the item you want to list and Amazon will bring up all the information.  Along the right hand column, look for More Buying Choices. Below that it says “Sell Yours Here”. Click that and fill out your info–and the item is listed!

Are you crafty or artistic? Check out www.Etsy.com This website allows anyone to sell their handmade items!  I know 2 gals that are making great money by selling their handmade yoga bags, totes, and clothing!

The beauty of the Internet is that you can make money online with NO childcare costs!

Learn how to do something that other people want to know about–then teach others how to do it!!  Call community colleges and continuing education departments at local universities, as well as senior centers!  That’s what I did after becoming a successful eBay Powerseller!  Now, I am trained by eBay & teach folks how to become successful sellers on eBay!

I wanted a website and didn’t want to spend thousands of dollars to get one, so I took training and learned how to build my own FREE website.  Now, I teach other people how to build their own Free websites!

There are teachers for everything from painting to auto mechanics to cake decorating.  Anything you can think of could be offered as a class! Learn something!

An added bonus of my teaching gigs is I get a gift certificate from the school that allows me to take 2 FREE classes each year!  I receive that just because I am a teacher!!  How awesome is that?  Ask your school- maybe they offer teachers free tuition too!  What a great way to learn more skills to make you extra money–at NO cost to you!

Take look at this fabulous list of 52 other ways to make extra money.   52 Ways to Make Extra Money

Now–get going!

Did you know that when you have this type of debt, the magic of compound interest is working against you, rather than for you?  Face it, you are making the credit card companies rich–not yourself! That should the incentive to get moving on this!

Start to turn things around right now and gain some financial peace of mind.

First and most importantly, STOP using your credit cards now!  Don’t make things any worse than they already are! The next step is to determine what money is coming in and what is going out each month.  Where do you stand on both sides of that equation?

Let’s look at the income side of things.  How much do you have coming in each month?  Add up all salary and wages, child support and any other income you receive.

Then, determine what you have going out each month.  Be honest! In order to see exactly what you owe, add up all credit card bills and the all bills paid through your checkbook.  Once you you know exactly what is coming in and what is going out, you can develop a spending plan.   If you find you are spending more than you have coming in, you are not alone! It is reported that over 40% of American families spend more than they earn each month!

Once you know exactly where you stand, you can focus on the 2 basic sources for the cash you need to pay off debt: spend less of what you currently earn or make more money.  We’ll examine the ways to do both of those in Part 2.