Don’t despair. I know getting to Debt Free Forever is no cake-walk. Sometimes it feels as if the debt is a forty-foot fence, and you’re looking at a lot of barbed wire on top. It requires a plan and the gumption to stick to the plan. Here are some things that may make it easier for you and your family:

Get Everyone Involved. While your instinct may be to hide the mess you’ve made from your children, your parents, your siblings, and your friends, this is counter-productive. Very often I make my fams confess their debt to get them out of the habit of keeping secrets. Most people underestimate how much family and friends will chip in to support your goal. Whether it’s offering hand-me-downs to cut down on your clothing costs, or suggesting pot-luck dinners at home instead of restaurant celebrations, the people who love you will want to help you. And they are more likely to understand why you suddenly won’t spend a cent if you tell ‘em you’re in hock up to your eye-balls. Instead of hiding from family and friends – leaving them with a big sense of “what happened?” – enroll them in your plan. Explain to children that you’re all working towards a goal of having no debt and why it’s important.  Many people are afraid to let their kids think that everything isn’t perfect. But if you’re trying to pretend that everything’s same-old same-old, they’re not going to understand why they can’t have the toys or expensive clothes as their friends. Even if they don’t understand everything you say the first time you say it, it’ll be an important lesson for them in living within your means.

Set milestones. Create a goal that is achievable and set a date for completion. Make that goal clear to everyone in the family so that when the temptation to spend arises, you can focus on the goal. So, if you decide you’re going to have that dumb department store credit card that’s charging you 28.8% interest paid off in 10 weeks, that means you need to put $176.45 a week against that card. When Little Lucy says, “Mommy, I really need new runners,” you can say, “Sure Lucy, as soon as we’ve achieved this milestone of getting the Dumb Department Store Credit Card paid off, we’ll look at how to get you those sneakers.”

Make saving money a game. Assign everyone some part of the budget and challenge each person to find ways to cut back on the money you typically spend. If Lucy decides to become the “electricity monitor,” praise her liberally. Then, when the next electricity bill comes in, celebrate how much Lucy has saved with her vigilance and apply that savings directly to your debt repayment so Lucy can see her contribution. If Tony decides he’s going to help cut the grocery bill by shopping with coupons, praise him each time he scores a savings.

Create a “We Saved” Jar. This will help the whole family visualize what you’re accomplishing. Whenever anyone in the family makes an active choice that saves money, put that money a jar and let it sit where everyone can see it. When it’s time to apply those savings to the debt, put a label on the jar that says how much you’ve saved so far.

Create a chart to monitor your progress. Whether you use a “thermometer” drawn on poster board, and have the kids colour in the thermometer as you move towards your goal, or you create a poster board with a picture of your goal, and boxes you can check off as you get closer, keep your chart in a place where y’all will see it all the time and everyone can remind themselves how your smart saving moves are paying off.

Making debt repayment something you focus on as a goal, as opposed to a dirty little secret you keep hidden, is much more likely to keep you on track and get you to Debt Free Forever! After y’all have worked soooo hard to get to Debt Free, y’all are going to be that much more vigilant about staying Debt Free!

There are gobs of ways money leaps out of our wallets every day, week, month. And there are equally as many ways to cut back, just a little, so that you can have the things you enjoy while saving a bit of dough.

Yes, taking lunch to work instead of buying lunch can save you a whack. But if you don’t want to cut out lunch with your pals completely, you can still find ways to trim back. Rather than spend $2 a day for bottled water, get yourself filter jug for your desk, or a refillable water bottle, and rehydrate for pennies a glass. And instead of expensive protein bars as an afternoon snack, pack yourself a handful of nuts and some fresh fruit and save a bundle.

Need a caffeine fix? Love that gourmet coffee that runs $5 a cup? Why not splurge on a pound of gourmet coffee and a small drip machine or Bodum. Add a little hot water and you can have fresh brewed whenever you want for pennies on the dollar. Ditto you tea drinkers. Ever compared the price of a cup of tea in the local coffee joint to what you pay for a single bag? You should. You’d be motivated to DIY.

Planning ahead can eliminate the need to buy prepackaged food… all those “convenience” foods that are meant to save you gobs of time, but end up costing gobs of money. Do you really not have the time to slice up some cheese, a couple of pieces of salami, and slap ‘em in a container along with some crackers?  A pre-packed box of sliced vegis and fruit with dip is multi-times more expensive than making it at home. Yes, I have to get up early to pack the kids’ lunches. But it’s worth it to know they’ve got good food and to cut my costs.

Lots of folks rush out to buy the latest CD by their favorite artist even though there are only one or two songs they really like? Instead of ponying up $16 for a CD, why not pay to download just those cuts you really love at just 99 cents a pop.

Car maintenance from the dealership cost way more than at a local mechanic. Once my car came off warranty, I switched to a local guy for routine maintenance and repair. While your dealerships may lead you to believe that certain work can only be done by authorized dealerships, it’s a myth. You need to find an honest and reliable mechanic and save yourself some money.

A night at the movies for two to see a first-run movie costs twice as much as waiting until it goes to a discount house. Better yet, wait until you can rent it at your local video store. And that doesn’t even count the babysitter, and the savings for snacking at home. Willing to wait a little longer for new releases? Then borrow them free from your local library.

ATM Fees, overdraft protection costs, and credit card penalties are a total waste of good money.  No more need be said.

Okay, it’s your turn: How have you found ways to enjoy the things you love for less? And how much are you saving a year by being mindful of your spending? You can use the Continuous Savings Calculator to see how much you’re saving with your smart shopping.

With all the hullabaloo about Going Green, I started thinking about what I do and what I need to change. Going Green isn’t just a good idea environmentally, it often brings significant savings along with.

Some time ago I forewent bottled water. It was a combination of something PJ said and that great ad on TV: “one hour in a meeting, forever in a landfill.” So now the kids and I drink water from jugs or reusable bottles I keep in the fridge. Each day I have to wash and refill the bottles, but that beats the hell out of the bag of plastic bottles I used to haul to the curb. I live in Brighton, which means I don’t have to do anything to the water from my tap…  yeah!

I’ve been an avid composter ever since I moved from the city to the bush. I compost about a garbage-bag’s worth of stuff every week. I know this because about several weeks ago my last composter (I had two) filled up and I had to resort to the garbage as I contemplated my next move. My garbage doubled! Yea gads! Part of my quandary was that with two composters already on my lot, I wondered where I was going to put the other five I would need before the first two broke down completely. Yup, I have a lot of compost. Hey, a cantaloupe and a pineapple and the bucket’s full!  Never mind all the orange rinds if I make my chicken in orange sauce. When I was at my old house it wasn’t a big deal since we could just walk out to the pile in the Back 40. But now that I’m in a neighbourhood, I wonder how many composters I can put on my very small lot before the neighbours start stoning my house. I decided to start with two more, and managed to find a discrete place to put them. The township sold them to be for $36, which means they’ll pay for themselves in half a year (garbage bag tags divided into composters equal 26 weeks).

I recycle everything I can. Hey, with garbage tags at $2.75 a pop, recycling is not only environmentally sound it saves significant amounts of money. I usually have two bags of recycling… sometimes three if I have to throw away the laundry soap bottles! When are companies in Canada going to start selling their products in “refill” containers: tetra-packs and the like that use less plastic? They’d have my biz in a heartbeat.

I’ve long been a user of those compact fluorescent light bulbs. Every time I switch out an existing bulb, I replace it with a fluorescent. My friend Tasha refuses to use them because she says they burn out in no time flat. But mine have lasted as long as five years. Anyone else had experience with fluorescents that burn out fast?

I never use the dry cycle on my dishwasher. I leave the oven door open to let the heat into the room after I’m done baking or roasting. I usually wash in cold water. And I bought those nifty Loblaws shopping bags so long ago, mine have already paid for themselves. I can’t believe how much stuff they hold and how strong they are.

I’m one of the few people I know who hates line drying… no matter how much money I might save or how environmentally friendly it is, I’m not about to switch to scratchy sheets and towels. And I haaaaate putting on stiff clothes. I do hang-dry most of my good tops and anything Alex doesn’t want to shrink… and that saves about a load of drying a week. It also adds moisture to the air in the winter. In the summer our clothes are lighter and so the moisture build-up is less.

I won’t give up my paper towels. Yes, I have loads of cloth ones that I use regularly – I do a load of kitchen/cleaning towels a week — but there are some things a paper towel is good for (resting over a plate of food in the microwave, wiping up chicken goop, sopping up bacon grease) that I won’t give up the convenience. I guess I go through a small roll a week. How does that compare to you guys?

I’m not prepared to turn off my shower and freeze my buns off while I shampoo my hair. But I also don’t take more than a 12-minute shower. I know people who won’t flush their toilets more than once a day because it wastes water, but I draw the line at watching last night’s dinner float around the bowl.

I’m contemplating turning off my power bars at night. I’ll have to admit I’m not convinced of the value of this just yet. I do turn off the one for the kids’ desktop since it sometimes goes days without being used. But mine stays on… hmmm. Anyone ever done an analysis on how much electricity you actually save?

I live in an R2000 house now so I don’t know how much room there is to improve my energy efficiency. And no one in my house leaves a room without turning off the lights. But is there more a body can do to make their home less energy consuming?

I telecommute three days a week. On the other two days I more than make up for the time I wasn’t on the road as I drive, drive, drive to get to the people I work with. I think it balances out. I know this year will be more energy efficient than last because having moved to town I no longer need to commute 160 km a day to get the kids to and from school.

Okay, it’s your turn. How have you become more energy conscious over the past year? And how much money are you saving? What are you using that money for now?