A few weeks ago I started the 30-day bag diet. It really isn’t an issue but I have been more aware of the bags that I receive and the packaging that items are in. There are a lot of things that can be recycled such as toilet paper rolls, cereal boxes and other items. Plastic bags are just as reusable as cloth and paper.

Even as I sort through some of the things that need to be shredded I find some pieces of paper without any identifying information on them and I can just put those into the recycling bag instead of wasting more energy shredding additional pages. This adds up over the course of a week.

Something else I noticed is that I save a lot of paper because I have a reusable filter that I use for my coffee pot and don’t use a filter at all when I use my stove top espresso maker. I didn’t give up filters. I used them a few times and didn’t like it. I prefer to just dump the grounds instead of having to empty the paper filter which always seemed to make a bigger mess.

The biggest thing that I have given up and haven’t really noticed is the paper napkin. I do not miss paper napkins. Along with the 30-day bag diet I gave up buying paper napkins. Instead I use random cloth napkins that do not go with a table cloth, so when I want to use the table cloth, the napkins are not faded. There are many stores that sell just random cloth napkins and for the price of a package of paper napkins I can purchase truly reusable napkins.

At first I thought that this was going to be difficult, but it hasn’t been. If I eat something that is really messy, I can take a paper towel and moisten it and put it on a placemat and use that to wipe my fingertips or use one of the paper napkins. Paper napkins are still useful just as paper towels are, but it is important not to use them as much.

There are alternatives to paper products: cloths. There are times when the mess is too great (or toxic) and you just want to get rid of the waste. Then you can use a recycled paper product and use it sparingly.

When you use cloth in place of paper or something that can be reused several times before discarding it makes you consider how much you consume and the amount of energy or resources that could be saved. Some foods and messes just are not conducive to cloth napkins, and when you eat those once in a blue moon, use paper but make sure you don’t use a lot and that it is recycled.

We are in the middle of America Saves week (February 24-March 2, 2008).

Although some people may feel that it is too late, it is never too late to start saving money. The purpose of America Saves week is to get more people thinking and involved in saving money. Yeah, we consume a lot but saving money is also a good thing to do as well. For me, saving money to spend it later and not having to worry about debt. It is great to enjoy a vacation or a night out because I have budgeted for it.

America Saves states on its website…

America Saves Week is a new effort aimed at reaching institutions and individuals to increase awareness that people need to save money, reduce debt and build wealth.

When the conversations on national news programs focus on money, the pundits discuss the first two most and neglect the wealth building aspect. Slow and steady is what makes real difference.

Yesterday I had some errands to run and in the process I found 3 pennies. It doesn’t seem like a lot but all I had to do to get those three pennies was pick them up. If I added those three pennies to my next month’s mutual fund contribution or add them to the principal on my mortgage, then I know I will earn more for them than I would if I just kept them in my purse.

If I gathered a few friends for the copper stars I found yesterday and even put them into a bank account I would earn a little over the course of a year. Saving really makes a difference with compounding interest. High interest is a saver’s (investor’s dream). High interest is bad for a borrower.

Building wealth on 3 pennies is not going to give me enough to live on but even saving/investing a few cents or a small amount weekly or monthly say $20 a week or $100 a month can make a difference. If you reduce your debt while increasing what you have saved then you are building wealth. Even though you may save, which is admirable, but having a large amount of debt reduces your net worth. America Saves offers reasonable tips for people, especially a section on saving on a tight budget.

High interest is an investors best friend and a debtors nightmare. If you don’t believe this, would you rather have a steady return of 15% annually or have to pay off a credit card with a 15% interest rate? Saving $10 or $20 a month would yield you more than paying “the minimum” with the same rate of interest.

It is never too late to start saving, sometime this week, check out America Saves and try to put away something extra, if you can.

Friends are often a food source of advice for information. If you extend your network of friends then you may get more advice.

For those who are looking for information about money, the newest trend in networking is social financial networking.

If you have a problem, you can post your concern to the community and then others will give you advice about how to handle your situation. With social financial networking, people are solely restricted to financial issues. One such site is Wesabe. The site offers good information but you have to sign up to get to see some of the advice features.

You may not tell someone exactly how much you make but online there is always someone out there who has a similar problem so if you search for a solution you can usually find it.

Wesabe has a community feel and you can participate in discussions with others where you can gain information or just make a public proclamation of your financial downfalls of goals. If you just want to lurk on the site, it is difficult to get any good information from just lurking so you do have to sign up. That is a big drawback if you just want information and don’t want to join.

Once you go to the site and if you set up a goal, whether it is to get out of debt or save for something big, add a couple of tags and you have information that will help you achieve your goal. I entered a long term savings goal for a world cruise and after submitting my goal I had a few dozen tips related to saving in general which were offered by my fellow Wesabe members.

Geezeo works on a similar premise but features a few more bells and whistles. You also can navigate and search more of the site before deciding whether or not you really want to join. My personal preference between the two would be Geezeo because of some of the features that were interesting to me such as money confessions and the variety of groups on the site.

Social personal finance is the latest trend in online financial management. Financial sites have community forums and allow posters to start new threads. But if you took away the main focus of the business (e.g., trading) as in the case of Zecco, you have a collaborative education area. Anyone who signs up and abides by the rules of the community can participate in the discussion.

Instead of going to someone who doesn’t really know you outside of your comfort zone you can seek out the information you want and use the advice or not. You may only have a small circle of friends who you want to discuss finances with but once you join a community of people that grows daily you can always learn something new or gain new insight as to how personal finances affect your life.

Who is affected by cutting back? It’s not only stores that feel the pinch. If you decide to borrow movies from the library or swap DVDs with a friend the video rental store loses revenue but what about when you decide to use your babysitter less or cut back on other services?

People who rely on a regular customer base for services are suffering as other people cut back.

Susan Reimer really sheds the light on this issue in “Pinching Pennies Pains Us All.” This is true. I never really thought about if I chose to get one or two fewer haircuts or use services where the person doing the service gets the majority of the money.

Though I don’t have a lawn service I do try to cut back on dry cleaning expenses by wearing a washable t-shirt under a wool sweater to extend the time between cleanings. I have tried to do other things.

The economy has already take a hit and things are changing in ways that economists never figured. Yes, some people have acute brand loyalty but others have discovered new brands and a resurgence of quality. Instead of just looking for the cheapest item, people are looking for quality items that make a difference. If you are spending a few pennies more but you know that you are getting better quality and satisfaction or if you are spending a few pennies less and the quality is about the same then guess who wins. The less expensive product/brand.

It is already known that people have pulled back. How far the pullback affects those in your neighborhood or people whose services you depend on makes a difference.

Our economy is sick because two thirds of it requires people to spend to keep the pipelines flowing. When people slow up their spending, then the slow down is apparent and makes things more difficult. Retailers know this but what about other people like manicurists and hairdressers, babysitters and cleaners? They are on the frontlines and when we spend less with them, they have less to spend for themselves and their families. There is no true solution for this especially then the basics like food and gas are increasing.

Your credit score may improve under the new rules outlined by the Fair Isaac Corporation. If you already had good credit and have low balances on your credit cards, have installment loans (e.g. car or mortgage) and make regular timely payments then your score may improve.

If you can pay, you are rewarded with more credit. If you have no credit history or one with only credit cards and large balances then your score will decrease. It doesn’t seem fair but that is what will happen.

The divide will be greater between those who were able to make better financial decisions (or chose to) and those who didn’t.

The new system has been in the works for over a year.

Having money makes a difference. If you have none or have bad credit, your credit score may decrease if you do not pay your bills on time or have only credit card debt.

Establishing a good credit history is also an important factor that a score cannot determine. A great salary does not mean that someone is fiscally responsible and having a small salary does not mean that someone is a deadbeat.

On paper you may look like a good credit risk but you may stop paying for an unknown reason. This makes a difference. For those who have difficulty repaying their mortgage loans, even if they had paid their bills before and seemed like a good credit risk, decreasing equity in their home may make people just walk away.

This is a hard decision to make but it will affect your credit score in the long run but by the time it really shows up on your credit in about three months or more by which time a person could already be deeper in debt.

Another change to the scoring is that “authorized users” will not be able to ride someone else’s good credit coattails to improve their credit. So if you are an “authorized user” and have used that to boost your credit score, this will no longer be included in the score calculation.

This is what Fair Isaac has to say about authorized users…

From our long experience working with credit card issuers and consumers, we believe that many authorized user accounts are held by family members. Unfortunately, consumer credit reports don’t indicate why an authorized user is being added to a credit account. So the FICO score is unable to distinguish between an authorized user who is a family member, and an authorized user whose only connection to the primary user is a desire to defraud lenders. To help protect lenders from fraudulent use of authorized user accounts, we decided to remove authorized user accounts from consideration by the FICO score, starting this fall [2007].

Basically, financial education and fiscal responsibility are important. There is a greater divide between the haves and have-nots. Have-nots who tried to finance their way into seeming like someone who had money will be in for a rude awakening when all of the changes to credit scoring take affect with all three of the credit reporting companies.