I spend way to much money on food. Here’s is my idea to control my spending and stick to my food budget:

Gift Cards

Yep, gift cards.

I’ve heard of the envelope method of budgeting before, but it never seemed very practical. Who carries envelopes full of cash around with them? Yeah, no one.
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I'm 300K in debt. Gulp. I'm 24 and day traded away a fortune. Now I'm trying to crawl back to zero. Why not subscribe to my RSS feed and join me on this journey. You can also subscribe via e-mail. I appreciate tips and feedback! ~ DebtKid

*This was a post I wrote for Lending Club (I’m a guest blogger for them now!). I don’t think it was quite what they are going for, so I figured I’d post it here rather than let it waste*

Making mistakes with your money is pretty easy to do. A department store credit card here, a financed 60” plasma TV there, and next thing you know you’re thousands in debt with not a spare knut or sickle to your name.

In honor of Harry Potter (just in case he dies) I’ve decided to go with Potter themed analogies to help lighten up these 3 unforgivable money curses, um, er, I mean mistakes.

Muggle Money Mistakes

#1. Buying a Firebolt, when you really just need a Cleansweep

When I was 23 I bought a nearly half-million dollar home because I could. A year later I was short selling the home to avoid foreclosure. Sometimes, just because you can do something financially, does not mean that you should.

Think you need a new car because your best friend just got one? Think again! Buy used, save the difference and see who’s doing better in 5 years. You’ll be pilling up the galleons (loads of cash) while your friend is slaving away in the kitchen cleaning treacle fudge out of the dishes to pay down his now 5 year old car loan.

Remember, if you want to pass your O.W.L’s in finance, you need to think about the long term effects of your financial decisions, not just the short term.

#2. Not depositing your Galleons at Gringots regularly

For many of us muggles, saving money isn’t easy. We often (especially the younger ones) think that we’ll save later, and just live for the moment now. It’s a bad habit, and if you aren’t saving now, START!

Many online savings account earn over 5%, and if you want to open a mutual fund, most will auto-draft your checking account as often as you’d like to save. No winding, death-defying trips down to your vault at Gringots! If you have trouble saving, sign up for a savings program or investment product that automatically drafts your account.

Hermione would do it, so you should too!

#1 Thinking your money problems will go away magically

If you are having financial or debt problems, one of the worst things you can do is ignore the problem and go looking for your invisibility cloak. Not dealing with a creditor or not planning for the future will just make things worse. Drinking another glass of pumpkin juice will also not remedy your situation.

Even Harry Potter has to study, and one of the best ways to help deal with money problems is to learn what resources are out there. See how to build a balanced financial plan, and write 2 scrolls on what you learn!

Harry has also had some great mentors and advisors in his life, as well as supportive friends. If you have made some of the 3 Muggle Money Blunders, don’t worry, you’re not going to Azkaban. You can change your habits! Find a wise old Dumbledore in your life to be a financial mentor and keep you accountable.

Make a plan, avoid the 3 big mistakes, and you’ll be on your way to Muggle financial freedom faster than you can say, “Expecto Patronum!”

Top 7 Reasons Money Sucks

#7 Whenever you find a bill in your jeans, it’s always a $1 or if you’re lucky a $5 bill. Why can’t I find a $1,000 bill in my pocket just for once?
#6 Money issues can bring out the worst in people. You thought someone was your friend…then they screw you out of $100. I guess you can put a price on friendship.
#5 Your Dad always has more of it than you.
#4 You lent $5 to a friend 3 years ago, and every time you see him you think of the $5 he owes you, but you can’t bring yourself to ask him for it now.
#3 Some people have lots of it. Others have some of it. Billions have none of it. That’s fair. Not.
#2 Woman are attracted to “stability” in men. What’s another word for “stable”? Oh yeah, rich.

And the #1 reason money sucks?

#1 I don’t have enough of it!

Cancelling my XM radio was fun. Not.

I called last saturday to cancel and was told to, “call back in one hour because we are having a problem with our system and cannot cancel you at this time”. That sounded like bull, but whatever, I called back today.

After giving all my info to the first rep, I was transferred to the “deactivation department”. After explaining about 10 times why I was cancelling, the guy asked a whole wonderful script of qustions, “what is your favorite XM channel?” “what can we do to keep your business?” (my answer. cancel my account). “what if we offered you 3 months of service at a reduced, $4.99 rate?” (no, not interested). “what if we offer you two free months?” (interesting, but no).

Lesson? If you want 2 months of free XM radio, pretend you are going to cancel. It’s actually a pretty funny experience listening to the script the guy went through. It’s cancelled now. Another $15/month saved.