Today while searching the web, I came across a list of “The Best Procrastination Quotes.”  The list has a wide variety of quotes; some tailored to the seriousness of putting things off until the last minute and others taking the results of a carefree life a little more light-heartedly.

Procrastination has always been a personal battle of mine. Homework, laundry, plans for Friday night… I always find a way to wait until the last minute to do everything. This summer I caught an episode of the popular AMC show “Mad Men.” I really enjoyed the show and decided I would work it in to my fall television schedule. It’s the second week of November and I have not watched another episode of the show. Mad Men’s season finale has already come and gone.

Waiting until tomorrow to do something you could do today can make a big difference. This applies to making sure you have clean underwear, but more importantly, it pertains to personal finance. Staying on top of your money habits is imperative to having an accurate picture of your overall financial health.

Budgeting

Keeping track of every transaction seems tedious and time consuming, but it doesn’t have to be! Doing your budgeting in a timely fashion really helps when it comes to overall money management.

A lot of people blindly trust their bank’s records for all of their transactions. Most of the time, this is an ok practice, but there is usually a delay between when a transaction happens and when it appears on your statement. Having a hard copy of all of your purchases and withdrawals will keep you on top of your spending and possibly even help you catch an error on your bank’s statement.

Evaluating expenses

Review your habits and go over expenses frequently. Save receipts and actually look at them at the end of the month.  Separate the items you bought that were necessities from the items that were luxuries. Add up the cost of those late night pizza runs and impulse candy bars, and try to eliminate the things you don’t really need.

If you make a point to schedule time to review your smaller purchases every month, you will end up catching your unhealthy spending behaviors before they get out of control.

Paying bills

I consider late fees an arch-nemesis. Who wants to pay an extra $25 because you forgot about that utilities bill you got two weeks before it was due?! If at all possible pay bills off as soon as you get them, even if there is a grace period between the time you receive it and the due date.  If you can’t pay it off just yet, make sure to pin it on a bulletin board or stick it to the refrigerator so you don’t forget.

Buying gifts for birthdays and the holidays

The holidays are coming up.  Waiting around until the last minute to purchase gifts could mean having to buy a more expensive model or spending more than you initially wanted to in order to compensate for not being able to get the perfect gift for that special someone.

In addition, unless you plan ahead or save up for the holidays, you could find yourself in a pretty big hole if you don’t take the excess spending into account when updating your personal budget.

Plan ahead for who you are shopping for and what you need to buy, even if that means buying gifts right now. This will leave more time for learning how to wrap gifts with only three pieces of tape, and truly enjoy the most important part of the holiday season: cookies.

Learning to overcome procrastination is something that could take years to do. However, the best way to defeat the habit is to start making changes today. Sally Berger once said, “The secret of getting ahead is getting started.” With the help of money management tips and tools in Quizzle, I have started practicing better money management that will ultimately help me save in the long run.

Photo credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/rwjensen/ CC BY-NC-SA 2.0.

Hi! My name is Angela and I am the Web Project Manager intern here at Quizzle.

This next year is going to be a big one for me. Not only do I graduate from college, but I am also hoping to buy a house in June and am getting married in October.

In addition to saving for the wedding, my fiancé and I have begun to save for a down payment on our first house. We would like to put down at least 10% (~$10,000). In saving for such a big purchase, we’ve learned a few things that work and a few that don’t. Here are our six best tips for saving money for a down payment:

1. Check your credit report

The first step to buying a house is to understand what other expenses you will incur in addition to the down payment, for example, closing costs.

Check your credit report (you can get a free credit report at Quizzle.com) when you first decide that you are ready for a house, as well as periodically throughout the process.

Get an understanding of what is on your credit report and make a list of the items, if any, that must be taken care of to ensure you will be approved for a home loan. Knowing what items are on your credit report ahead of time can help you manage your money,  know what debt you need to pay off and ultimately, save for that down payment.

2. Know your income schedule

Check which weeks of the month have more bills than others so you know when you are able to put money aside for the down payment. Some weeks of the month may not have any bills allowing you to set aside an entire week’s pay.  If you get paid on a weekly basis, keep in mind that some months will have 5 paychecks as opposed to 4 paychecks. In these months you can set aside that entire paycheck as most budgets are based on 4 paychecks a month.

3. Create a budget and set goals

Creating a budget will show you how much money you have coming in on a monthly basis compared to how much money you are spending on debt and living expenses. You can create a simple budget using free personal budgeting software from sites like Quizzle.com.

Once your budget is created, look for areas in which you can cut down expenses. For example, my credit cards add an extra $500 to my expenses each month simply because I am carrying balances on them.  If I can spend a few months paying off those balances, in the long run I can save $500 a month. Imagine what kind of house you can afford if you have an extra $500 each month for a monthly payment!

Set new goals each month to eliminate certain expenses so you have room in your budget to save for your down payment and later on for our home loan payment. I’ve found that it helps to make a game out of it to see how many expenses I can eliminate each month.

4. Only carry cash

I know it’s sometimes tough to make time to stop at the ATM to get cash, but include it on your way to other errands such as getting gas. If you happen to use your bank card, use it as a debit card and get cash back when you are making other purchases.

By only carrying cash you are less inclined to use your credit cards, allowing you to pay down your debt even faster because you’re not constantly adding to your balance. Set a weekly budget amount – I like to call it my “Miscellaneous Fund” – and take out that much from the ATM each week.  If you budget yourself, say, $40 each week and only carry the $40 and no credit/debit cards, you will be more likely to stick within those limits. Any money that I have left over, I add it into the next week’s miscellaneous fund. Some weeks you might have enough money for extras, like going out for dinner.

5. Avoid going out for lunch and dinner

Even though it is really tempting to go out for lunch, it can become costly. Consider this: If you eat out each day at work, 5 days a week, you may be spending an average of $50 a week just on lunch! By simply bringing your lunch, you might only spend $10 each week.

Buy items in bulk such as snacks and water that will last you the entire month. If you always have that urge to eat out, then make it a once a week thing. Treat yourself to a Monday “get the week going” lunch or a Friday “we made it through the week” lunch. This lunch should come out of your miscellaneous fund that I talked about above.

I know that some restaurants are just too good to give up. I love eating out myself and some days I just don’t feel like cooking. But by eating out for dinner, you are more than likely to spend more than you’ve budgeted.  What you think might be a $25 dinner, will turn into a $40 dinner after an appetizer and dessert.

By eating dinner at home, the average household can save about $400 per month. If you must eat out then nix an appetizer, order water because it’s FREE, and eat dessert at home.

6. Cut out late night shopping trips

I’ll admit that when I am bored I love to go shopping. It’s probably one of my worst habits. By simply not going to the store unless you need too and skipping the mall all together, you’re less inclined to spend your hard earned dollars. If there is something that you must have, take a look at the budget and see what can be eliminated to help you make your purchase. See shopping as a reward if you eliminate something from your budget; reward yourself for meeting your ultimate goal.

Bonus Tip:

7. Use one bank account

If you are living with your significant other or married, you may want to consider using only one bank account. I have always said that I would never combine my money with my partner, however it just makes sense to do so. My fiancé and I only use one bank account; he has his paychecks direct deposited into my account and we pay all of the bills from my account. Because he is limited to spending what money I give him and I am less inclined to spend money that isn’t really mine, we have seen our money grow faster together than it would have separately. By using one account, it is easier to pay your bills and keep track of your budget.

Budgeting for a down payment isn’t that easy. I know there are times when you must spend that $30 to get your oil changed or $25 on a birthday present; those are occasional purchases. Even if you occasionally spend money you can still watch your bank account grow with the tips listed. I personally don’t see a reason to budget everything I buy, just as long as I keep those occasional purchases to… “occasional.”

Keep in mind these are just 6 tips of many that I have for budgeting and saving. There are a lot of other ways to save money, whether it be for a down payment on a home or some other goal. The key is to always remember your end goal. If you constantly remind yourself of what you are trying to accomplish, you will save money faster than you ever have before.

Want a chance to win a million dollars? (Now THAT would certainly boost your Quizzle rainy day fund grade…) How ’bout some $2,000 VISA gift cards? I know…it sounds too good to be true, right?

Not necessarily!

Our friends at Quicken Loans just launched a fun sweepstakes called Unlock Your Inner Millionaire where not only do you enter for the chance to win some big cash, but there’s also a lot of daily gift card prizes too – like gift cards from Fathead, Xeko, Target, and Amazon.com.

In the online game, you get to select a key and then try to unlock the door of a number of homes – and you can keep trying every day! The sweepstakes runs until December 31, 2009 so have a little fun and see if you can unlock some prizes!

The Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) – a bunch of smartypants from the Federal Reserve Board and Federal Reserve Bank – meet eight times a year to talk about money issues, one of them being the federal, or “fed,” funds rate.

The fed funds rate is the rate at which banks lend money to one another and may affect the interest rates on your credit cards, savings and short-term loans like adjustable rate mortgages (ARMs).

Here’s how it works:

Credit Cards If you have a credit card, chances are it’s tied to the prime rate. Prime is simply three percentage points greater than the fed funds rate. So, for example, if the fed funds rate is 1%, then prime rate is 4% (1% + 3% = 4%). A lower fed funds rate means a lower prime rate and a happier credit card holder.

Short-Term Loans The fed funds rate also affects short-term interest rates such as those on adjustable rate mortgages. As is the case with your credit cards, a lower fed funds rate means lower short-term rates and happier homeowners.

Savings So we’re always crossing our fingers for a lower fed funds rate, right? Not quite. The fed funds rate also affects the interest rates on savings accounts, money market accounts and CDs. The lower the fed funds rate, the lower the savings rate, which makes for an unhappy saver since you’re making less on your money.

Long-Term Loans It’s a common misconception that the fed funds rate directly affects long-term interest rates, like what you might pay on a 30-year fixed rate mortgage. Long-term interest rates are actually determined by the people who buy and sell bonds in the bond market everyday. And bond yields are affected by the health of the economy and inflation. So while the fed funds rate may indirectly impact long-term interest rates, it’s not a as strong of a relationship as some might think.

In sum, when the fed funds rate is low, that’s good news for your credit cards and short-term loans, but bad news for your savings.

At Quizzle, we’re all about awesome freebies – especially ones that could help get you on the right financial path! Duh…Quizzle is free and full of freebies, right?

So, here is a very cool freebie from TV Queen Oprah and her favorite finance expert, Suze Orman. From now until Thursday (January 15), you can download Suze’s new book, the “2009 Action Plan,” for free! It’s  over 200 pages and goes over everything from credit to real estate to 401k to saving for college.  Pretty awesome!

But you do have to hurry – it won’t be available after Thursday. So get over to Oprah.com and download it! Heck, with your free credit report in Quizzle and Suze’s advice, you can totally get yourself on the right financial path in 2009!