This article, entitled How to Succeed with your Money-Related New Year’s Resolutions comes from SavingsAngel.com.

In nearly every poll published, the top three New Year’s Resolutions in the U.S. are (in various orders):

1. Save more/spend less/get out of debt


2. Lose weight / Get Healthy


3. Get organized/get more time.

My mission is to give readers real tools to accomplish #1. It’s one thing to have good intentions on getting out of debt and save more money. It’s another thing entirely to have a road map to commit to and accomplish great things over the next twelve months. Sadly, most New Year’s resolution-makers will never achieve the latter – staying instead at the level of wishful thinking. This goes for resolutions made in category #2 and #3. There are, however, a percentage of people who break through and achieve remarkable things. What is the difference? I believe it boils down to one essential skill:

Learn all you can about the achievers and commit to modeling their behavior for an extended period of time.

Statistically, half of all readers will stop reading right here and not bother reading the rest of what I’m saying. Why? They are looking for the quick fix: the miracle pill, the lottery winnings, the wishes granted from the magic genie. Once they’ve read my solution, they’ll see that it involves work and look for an easier path.

If you are serious about getting out of debt, let me start you off in 2013 with a few tips:

1. Get educated. Read blogs, articles, books, listen to podcasts and radio programs, and attend workshops on getting out of debt. Money and time invested in education on this subject will pay you back many times over. Your focus should be on personal growth – not services like debt consolidation. If you’d like counseling assistance, please start with The National Foundation for Credit Counseling www.nfcc.org.
2. Do a serious inventory of how you spend every dollar. Yeah, yeah. I know you know how you spend your money. Do this anyway. Look at the past 3-6 months and use free tools like Mint.com to visualize where everything is going. Only after you can see everything, should you make realistic decisions about how you will attain your goals. You can only get ahead from reducing spending or increasing income. In my experience, it is far easier to save $200-$400 from a grocery bill, for example, than to earn that month after month from a part-time job. No. You don’t have to become a full-time couponer to see that kind of savings any more. Take a look at SavingsAngel.com if you’d like some assistance with your grocery savings.

   If this is a husband-wife budget, a successful give-and-take to get the spending plan right can really strengthen your relationship. It’s smart to budget some flexibility each month. There will always be emergencies and unexpected expenses. Plan in advance for them. Similarly, events like summer vacations, birthdays, back to school, and Christmas all require a bit of money set aside. Do not plan on paying for Christmas in December. Christmas should be saved for each month of the year. Many friends I know actually buy Christmas presents throughout the year when they happen upon really great deals.

3. Have a long-term plan. When you see the pain of credit card interest all mapped out over a lifetime, you’ll see why it’s so important to commit to a debt-free life. It can be done – but it may take a season of austerity. (I like that word!) Live financially proactive for a time and you will come out so far ahead in the long run. It will make the difference on when and how you can retire. It will make the difference on what your children will do after they graduate high school. It will make the difference on how you enjoy next Christmas. All of these seasons of harvest require a season of planting and caring.

I know it may be stressful to even think about saving for retirement if the current bills aren’t even being cared for. Changes need to be made in order for the cycle to be broken, however. If you’ll commit to positive changes each month in 2012, you’ll be in such a better position for 2013 and you’ll be so grateful to yourself as you cross those finish lines along the way. When you finally achieve that day when you are debt-free you will feel that elation not just from that final payment but from the satisfaction of many months or years of discipline.

As you see yourself making small achievements, do not ‘celebrate’ by going off-plan. Stick with your plan for the long haul. Surround yourself with friends who will influence you for good. Find mentors who will inspire you to create all the abundance you’d like.

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The best couponers save hundreds of dollars every month at the grocery store. However, extreme couponers can end up living very extreme lifestyles to get those savings. For over five years, SavingsAngel.com has equalized the playing field – giving extreme savings to busy families who don’t have the time or ability to be an extreme couponer. Each week, SavingsAngel.com’s over 70 angels combine over 2,000 products on sale at local grocery and drug stores with an enormous database of over 2000 different manufacturer coupons. These combinations result in our members getting access to over 300 products each week for 50% off or better. Simply log in, choose the deals you want, print or clip only the coupons you need, and save hundreds of dollars a month at regional and national stores. Our angels will personally work with you to craft a plan that will help you buy healthier food at lower prices – helping you keep $200 to $400 in savings each month.

Josh Elledge is the Chief Executive “Angel” of SavingsAngel, Inc. – launched from his home in January 2007. A husband and father of three, he now appears each week on television, in eight newspapers, and a number of radio stations across the country teaching families how to cut their grocery bill in half using the Internet. Elledge created the technology found on SavingsAngel.com through the need to save his own family’s money. Successfully able to cut his own grocery bill from $600 a month to less than $300 a month, his message has reached hundreds of thousands of families. SavingsAngel.com is now growing rapidly throughout the country. You can watch a short video at SavingsAngel.com that will explain more information about how to cut your own grocery bill in half with the help of SavingsAngel.com!