Here are 7 things to be grateful for, even during the bad times:

Your Reconnection to Family
Since so many families have had to cut out entertainment resources outside of the house, you can be grateful for the chance you have to reconnect to your family at home. Playing board games, card games, or creating your own kind of free family fun is bringing families back to themselves again and allowing people to realize that putting family first is essential.

Your Reconnection to Close Friends
There is a good chance your friends have also made a commitment to start saving more money. Spending quality time hanging out at home is a blast once again. Too=busy lifestyles are being put to the side in favor of frugal get-togethers at home.

You Enjoy More Productive Time
If your idea of an afternoon out involved going to the mall for hours on end, you have more time now to find new, more productive hobbies. In fact, many people who have been hit hard by the recession have taken the opportunity to focus on frugality and have even turned it into a new career – one that brings home additional monies.

You Feel More In Control
In better times, you may have been less concerned with where you money went. Now that you are more  in control of spending and your finances in general, you can relish the new money management habits you have been able to incorporate into your household.

You Patronize Your Local Community
Since money is tight, travel may be out of the question. You should be glad to have rediscovered the interesting facets of your own neighborhood. From museums to parks and historical places, you have the opportunity to check out local places of value you may have otherwise forgotten. You also help the neighborhood by contributing money to your local economy.

You Get To Rediscover Old Pleasures
As we grow, we develop different tastes but there are some tastes that still bring us comfort and a smile. Remembering and savoring a grilled cheese or peanut butter and jelly sandwhich doesn’t have to be embarrassing. Getting back to the basics is a great way to save money and have some fun with your tastebuds at the same time. It can also be great fun creating and sharing old family recipes with your spouse and kids since dining at home has become more common.

Your Stresses Have Been Reduced
Of course it is stressful to struggle financially but there are other stresses that can be reduced or eliminated all together. Since we as a society no longer feel the need to “keep up with the Jones’”, there can be quit a bit of relief to not have to overextend yourself financially anymore.

7 Things to Be Grateful for During Hard Times was created by and is property of American Consumer News.

Here are some tips to keep in mind when preparing to borrow money from someone you know.

1. Ask yourself honestly why you need the money. If you can’t be honest and upfront about reason you need the money you are looking to borrow, you do not need to be asking for a loan.
2. Consider all of the options you can reasonably use to pay back the money before approaching someone for a loan. The lender will feel much more comfortable if you have thought the situation through prior to asking for the money.
3. Consider the consequences of reneging on the loan. No one wants to lose a close relationship over a financial situation. If you foresee any reason that would present a problem with the person you are asking, do not ask for the loan.
4. Put everything in writing just as you would with a professional lender. No matter how much the amount is, put all aspects of the agreement in writing. Make a copy for each involved party. Make sure your agreement includes:

• The names of the lender and the borrower
• The date of the loan agreement
• How much money is being borrowed
• How much the minimum regular payments will be
• Any interest rate applied to the initial loan
• The date the loan is to be repaid in full
• The timeline for making payments (weekly, monthly)
• The total amount of payments to be made

Depending on the size of the loan, the lender may not be interested in arranging a formal agreement; however, it is still a good faith effort to ensure you will not default on the loan. If the sum of money is particular large, it may be worthwhile to utilize the supervision of a lawyer to protect the interest of both parties, should something happen during the deal. It may also be important to the lender to feel confident knowing you are working on a solid plan to avoid a similar situation in the future. If you are expecting a loan from them, they are expecting not only repayment, but honesty in return.

Ultimately, your gut instinct may help you decide whether or not to approach a family member or friend for a loan. If you do not plan on sticking with your agreement or you make promises you know you can not keep, it is in everyone’s best interest that you look elsewhere for financial assistance. Respecting your family and friends and maintaining a good relationship can not be repaid if you lose their trust over a financial matter.

Having one too many credit cards could have you running for the quickest online loan you can get. A consolidation loan is one of the many debt solutions that could help you with spiralling loans and credit cards. Check out all your options which can help you get out of debt – an IVA or Debt Management might be more suitable for your financial situation.

Personal Loans: Should You Borrow Money from People You Know? was created by and is property of American Consumer News.

We need to stop caring what other people think about our financial situations. There’s no reason to buy nice things just so other people think we’ve got it made. If we play the game of “keeping up with the joneses” we’re just going to keep buying stuff that we cannot afford and never build up any significant amount of wealth. You’ll have a lot of stuff that won’t be worth anything in 5 years, but that’s about it!

Instead of buying things based on others perceptions of us, we need to base them off the value that they will provide us. Buy things because you have a genuine need for the item, because you got a great deal, and because the product will give you an extremely good value for what you pay. I use an 8 year old television, 6 year old car, and 2 year old computer even though I have plenty of money in the bank to buy nicer things. The items that I have now are still giving me all sorts of good usage left, so there’s no reason to go out and buy anything new!

Before you make a purchase, carefully examine what your motives are. Are you buying the product because it will provide you a genuine value or are you more concerned about making sure others know that you made that purchase?

You Shouldn’t Care What Other People Think, Period. was created by and is property of American Consumer News.

The problem with co-signing other people’s loans is that there are just no up-sides. You are taking 100% of the liability and none of the benefit. Your friend gets a new car and you get chased after by debt collectors if he or she does not pay off his loan. What kind of deal is that?

Most people end up co-signing loans because they believe they are helping out a friend or family member in need. In almost all cases, you aren’t helping the person who thinks he or she needs a loan. Carefully consider the reasons why the bank asked for a co-signer. Does the person who wants you to co-sign for the loan make enough money to pay it off? Have they had a history of not repaying their bills? There are all sorts of reasons the bank might want a co-signer, and almost all of them would indicate that you should definitely not “help” this person out. The only “help” that you would be giving them is enabling them to get into a huge amount of debt with a payment they likely wouldn’t be able to pay. That’s not “helping” anybody.

If someone asks you to co-sign a loan, be polite about it, but just say no. If they ask you why, just say that you don’t co-sign loans and leave it at that. If they make a big deal about it, that’s their problem. Don’t get suckered into co-signing the loan if you think your friend will get mad at you if you don’t. If this is the case, you likely don’t have much of a relationship to begin with.

People Who Co-Sign Loans Aren’t Smart. was created by and is property of American Consumer News.

If you don’t have a will, the state can legally take away your children from whoever they’re with, put them in a foster home temporarily and then decide according to some cookie cutter formula as to who gets to keep your children! The intentions of who the god parents were could have been perfectly clear between the family, but unless it’s written down on paper and notarized, it does not matter to the government! Not only could your children end up with someone you don’t want raising them, your money could be given to a relative that you really don’t even like! Depending on which state you live in, your spouse might not even get all of your money. In some of the more conservative states if a husband dies and the couple has not been married for a year, the vast majority of the money will go to the husband’s family rather than his bride! You should be able to decide where your money goes when you die, but that won’t happen unless you get moving and get a will today!

Making a will is incredibly easy to do, unless you have a significant amount of wealth (say a net worth of $500,000 or more), you can do it yourself! There are two sites which offer state specific legal forms to create wills with, which are LegalZoom.com and US Legal Forms. There’s also a piece of software called WillMaker which is highly respected. You’ll probably pay $20 or $30 for the form or the software, but that’s a steal when the alternative is to let the government decide what to do with your children and your money!

Don’t Let The Government Decide What To Do With Your Children and Your Money If You Die! was created by and is property of American Consumer News.