- A debt management plan is a voluntary arrangement between a borrower and their creditor. You can contact each of your creditors and agree to reduced payments over a longer period. Some may even freeze the interest, but there’s no guarantee. Basically, what you’re doing is buying time to pay off your loan.

- Try writing a detailed balance sheet listing income versus outgoings. Then work out how much you can feasibly trim off.

- Find a 0% balance-transfer deal for your credit card debt.

- Consider short-term lifestyle changes such as stopping your (unused) gym memberships, limit your socializing, or try doing a weekly budget for it, and start using up your unused points on your loyalty cards.

- Take your weekly budget out in cash and put it in a jar. When it’s gone, it’s gone. Then whatever is left, you can use it to pay down your debt (preferred) or just save it until you have enough to treat yourself to something. The goal is to save small amounts until you have enough money to buy what you want, instead of buying what you want right away.

- Use price comparison websites to save money on your insurance, travel and utilities. Or even to do price comparisons on items. Buying a book of Amazon.com might only save you a couple of dollars, but that couple of dollars could go towards something else. Think of your money as a pair of shoes. And each time you want to buy something, you have to give up a ‘pair of shoes’ to get it.

- Stay positive and be realistic. Don’t beat yourself up. Things happen. Life happens, or so they say.

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The situation: Carrie needs to buy her apartment from her ex-fiance Aidan Shaw because they broke up and he has to either sell her place or have her buy it from him at what he bought it for to allow her to stay in it. But she has 100 pairs of shoes, at $400 a pop, which is about $40,000, and is equivalent to a down payment on her apartment but unfortunately her savings hasn’t matched it, as she has only saved about $1600 so far.

Miranda: “Why not, we talk about everything else..”

Women don’t talk about money with one another, and we don’t help ‘police’ one anothers’ spending habits either. Correction, most women don’t. I occasionally brush upon it with my close friends on things like how much we pay an accountant to do our taxes, or how much an apartment costs and whether or not to invest in a condo, but generally, we don’t discuss any financial matters. It’s not that I don’t want to. It’s that I pretty much have my own life under control financially. I have a goal, and come hell or high water, I’m trying my best to stick to it, even though I do lapse now and then. (Hey, life happens!)

At any rate, this reminded me of Budgeting Babe’s column about this very matter, and it got me thinking about it. Why don’t women ever talk about money with their girlfriends? We can talk about all the 1001 sexual positions to try (I don’t do that though..), about whether or not we should get breast implants, about diseases and all of these other things that make up our lives, but we can’t even discuss the one thing that ‘drives’ it all, for lack of a better word – money.

In my situation, I have maybe 2 or 3 friends I’d ever consider asking money advice from. And only because they’re level-headed, and my one friend has ‘been there and dont that’. But we don’t regularly talk about how our stocks, index funds or retirement savings plans are doing and I kind of wish we would. But I think it’s also the Internet Age that we live in. Anything we need to learn or understand can be gleaned from Investopedia or other “How-To” sites. I think that’s what started me blogging about finances (which has slowly started lapsing into becoming a beauty+fashion+shopping blog), because I don’t have anywhere else to say it.

The funny thing is that I can talk about finances with my guy friends with nary an issue. They’re thrilled to be discussing the returns on a certain index fund, or a stock, or how to best invest your retirement using a proper asset allocation strategy. Or even whehter or not we should rent a place, or buy a place, where the cheapest living accomodations are, etc. But they’re not my girlfriends, and I wish that they were, because while I don’t want to be the one to say: “Hey.. I noticed that you seem to be really stressed out lately about finances but you’re also spending a lot of money lately.

Can you afford that shirt you have in your hand?” But I can’t. Because it’s considered rude, and is quite awkward to try and bring up something like that. Plus, since I don’t know their situation, I don’t know if they’re hurting for cash to clear their credit card bills. They don’t tell me anything, and even if they do mention that their credit card got declined, they laugh it off like a joke, or a badge of honor to attest to how much they love shopping, or doing their nails at $30 a pop per week, or eating out at restaurants and blowing $50-100 a night because they think they should.

I’d imagine a lot of my friends think I’m a bit of a anti-social hermit sometimes. It’s not that I don’t want to hang out with them, but it costs money to even go and SEE them for the day. Then it balloons into going out to the mall to pick up a couple of things, then into dinner or a lunch, then into drinks or dessert afterwards. And how can you say no when you’re in the middle of it, and you just want to go back to her place and just talk while watching TV? You can’t. Well, at least I can’t. I feel rude, and a bit ashamed at how ‘cheap’ I’m being. And this stems not only from society shunning a ‘cheapskate’ but from experience too.

I remember the one time I went on a “No shopping. No dinners. No lunches. No more spending” plan, to clear $8000 one summer so I could qualify for a $15,000 loan to pay for school. My one friend was incredibly put out every time I suggested that she just come over and ‘hang out’ and watch TV with me, and make sushi together, and just relax and talk. Instead, she wanted to go to the mall, or go to the movies, or some other event.

After it was all over, and I ended up having lunch with her, she sighed with effusive relief and said: “THANK GOD you’re off that whole cheap thing. It was getting really boring having to stay in and not being able to do anything.” I got kind of quiet. And I didn’t want to say anything back about it, because in my heart I was a little upset and hurt. See, her parents pay for everything. Everything. I’m talking school fees, trips, clothing, shoes, credit card bills, her apartment and her utilities, and her food on top of all of that…..PLUS she gets spending money on top of that. And here she was, making me feel angry and ashamed about the fact that I was trying to be cheap and save money to be able to pay for next two years of school.

I didn’t hang out with her for about 3 months after that. I had to cool down, and just be by myself, with other friends who didn’t think like that. But it’s interesting how if we had just talked about money, and maybe I could’ve had her see that I couldn’t afford to do those things because I didn’t want to put my education on credit cards, just so I could have lunch with her. Plus it’s cheaper to eat at home. That’s why I tend to try and just get a group of girls all together at once, because then the entertainment is each other, (but I need to pick up some Sex and the City DVDs), and the food is free, because it’s potluck. That way, it doesn’t feel cheap, and feels more like a gathering.

And sure, I may spend my money on big purchases once in a while, but only if my think our finances can handle it.

But that doesn’t seem to matter to people regarding our finances. One big purchase, no matter how well thought out or planned, immediately classifies you as a hypocrite if you turn around and say you’re trying to save money to pay down your debt. But all of that stems from women not talking about finances, because if they did, they would’ve known that we were foregoing a lot of things that they take for granted like vacations every couple of months..

So ladies, go out there and make an effort to exercise your financial muscle with your girlfriends! You may learn a lot in the process.

Admit it! You’ve never even read those stockpiled catalogs piled on your coffee table, and probably have a broken CD player somewhere. Do you need even more incentives to purge? It’ll literally make you feel lighter and happier. We got rid of about 50% of the junk we had, and we’ve kept what’s really important to us. And when we get a house, we’ll be able to really invest in a good set of pots, pans and plates instead of buying throw-away $20 sets. Make a few small changes each week and you can cut your housework by as much as 40% (less to dust, clean and move!). Plus it makes you feel better, when you come back from a busy stressed out day and you look at how orderly your house is.

BEGIN WITH THE BASICS
Be kind to yourself: Many people struggle with their things because they attach sentimental value to them, or we think we might need them some day. You have to give yourself permission to get rid of anything cluttering your life, no matter what it is. It helps you regain control of what says and goes, rather than giving that power to that clutter. If you haven’t used it or seen it in about a year (my range is 2-3 years actually), then you won’t miss it.

Do good: Find a person or an organization that will cherish your items as much as you do. It’s a lot easier to let go of things if you know someone else will use it. Try Craig’s list to get rid of washers and dryers, or other electronics you think people might use, like TVs, or old CD players. The only thing is just getting the items to the charity shop, so designate a corner of the house or apartment as the “charity shop” pile, and get rid of it all at once when you make that one trip down there to offload the items. Even think about getting rid of unused furniture that’s just housing more junk in its crevices.

Take inventory: Start with a small section of your living room like the pantry, or laundry room and make a list of the items you need, and what you have duplicates of. I for example, have 7 different detergents and dryer sheets because of the travelling I do. You’d be surprised to find that you have the same sorts of half-filled collections like I do. So here’s what to do: combine or give away your extras, and keep your need-to-buy list handy for your next shopping trip. Look in your bathroom too or your vanity. In the bathroom, you may have half filled shampoo, conditioner or facial cleanser bottles, or fifteen different eyeshadows that need to be pared down to the two that you use on a regular basis.

BEDROOM MATTERS
File your piles: If you have more garments tossed over your bedroom chair than your closet, use three canvas-lined baskets to sort the items you’re not ready to put away. Designate one for clean clothes that need to be hung, another for dry cleaning or tailoring, and the third for dirty laundry. Just make sure you clear the canvas bags before it overflows. You can even pick out cute dark-coloured wicker baskets so that they look really cute in the corner of your laundry room.

Keep even-heeled: There’s no such thing as too many shoes if they’re organized and in good shape. Divide them into the following piles: Off season, Special Occasion and Everyday. Store the off-season shoes under the bed in a flat storage box, or put your Special Occasion shoes in clear plastic boxes at the top of your closet. For your Everyday shoes, hang them on a rack for easy access.

Dangle the jewels: This is a great way to stop delicate necklaces from tangling, especially if you don’t have a jewellery box, or in my case, a box big enough to hold all of them. Hang necklaces on clear tacks on a small bulletin board in your bedroom, or use those cheap bead or tackle boxes to separate out earrings into their own little sections.

CONQUER THE KITCHEN
Stash munchies better: Transfer snacks like cookies, crackers and chips (or even cereal) into clear plastic containers that have a silicone seal so they don’t go stale. You’ll also be able to see when you need to go shopping to refill the containers.

Rack it up: Install wire shelving in your pantry or cupboard. This makes items easier to see, allows air to circulate which cuts down on dust. Consider using sliding wire baskets to utilize the free space under your sink. It’ll make it easier to see the items at the very back when you’re able to pull out the shelves.

Make a running list: Post a pad on the fridge and have your family write down every food item as it is used up. It’ll save you from having to do an inventory list every week. You can also try writing down a set grocery list of items that you know you’ll always run out of or need to buy every week, especially if you have planned meals weeks ahead of time. Then you can take that sheet of paper, get it laminated, or put it in a clear plastic protector, and use a dry erase marker to check off items that need to be repurchased that week, and/or check off the list as you’re shopping in the store, and just clean it off when you get home to reuse for the next week.

That brings me to my other minor point. Try planning meals 2-3 weeks ahead of time, so you can reuse items. For example, if you buy a large chunk of cheese, and only use it once for your fabulous Cheese Potato dish, it’s a waste because the cheese will go hard, stale, or be inedible. Think about buying that block of cheese, and using it for Cheese Potatoes, Chili Cheese Hotdogs, Grilled Cheese Sandwiches, Casseroles, etc.

MIND YOUR MEDIA
Get in tune with your music: Remove the liner notes from CDs (the booklet inside the CD jewel case) and toss the bulky case. Use it to organize your CD in CD binders. Or even better, just download the iTunes tune for $0.99 each time.

Clear out your inbox: Use your email program to create a set of folders for your correspondence with labels such as kid’s activities and monthly bills. (Try File > Folder > New). Then go through each message and read it, and action it. You either file it and/or delete it immediately and/or make a note if required (like if an event is coming up, file the email just in case, and make a note in your calendar immediately), but move it out of your inbox immediately so that when new mail comes in, you can deal with that.

Store your snapshots: Organize your photos into albums, and try doing them chronologically in acid-free photo storage boxes if you’re lazy and don’t want to slot them into the albums. I went out and purchased gorgeous silk albums and I am going to fill them with choice selections from certain events in my life. I’ll get rid of duplicates, photos I don’t like, and photos that are too similar to one another.

HOME OFFICE HELPERS
Play it safe: Once a year, ask everyone to empty their wallets, and make colour photocopies of their licenses, credit cards and other pieces of ID. Add the copies to folders, and file them away into a safe place, like a locked filing cabinet.

Have backup: Few things are more devastating than spilling coffee on your laptop and losing your work. Back it up on the dance floor, and back it up at home! Save them to an external hard drive (Western Digital is great. You can drop it, and it’ll STILL work. Stay away from the cheap drives. Your data is worth it. Trust me.) Or you can try burning it to a CD (holds 700MB of data) or a DVD (holds 4GB of data) or on online servers like iomega.com. But I’m an old-fashioned girl, I’d like the items physically saved, in a personal device or item, because you never know who can hack into what server online and steal all your data.

Avoid pile-ups: Business cards can amass in your home office. Ask yourself each time you collect a card, if you will ever use it again. If you can’t imagine talking to that person for a year, then toss it, or put it into a business card rotating folder.. or even better (if you have time), scan it into your computer, and keep a digital copy of it. (You can also do the same for recipes you want to keep, but always seem to lose that scrap of magazine paper you’ve stuffed in your purse all this time). I am a HUGE fan of scanning items into the computer, and of course, keeping a backup copy on a digital drive.

Summer is just around the corner, although from the last couple of days, you wouldn’t know it!! But if you’re looking to freshen up your wardrobe here are some items you can add to ensure you always have the right outfit on hand.

A few pairs of tailored pants

Find a brand that looks and feels great, and purchase several pairs in neutral colours. Stick to a summer-weight material or a light wool gabardine, so they’ll be wearable year-round.

A little black skirt
Go for the knee-length, pencil-shaped classic. I’m not talking about the super hip hugging wiggle pencil skirts that you can’t walk in, pick something that skims your hips, doesn’t have too tight and thin of a waistband so it’s comfortable. And consider buying the same style in a basic chocolate brown or a dark metal grey. Make your wardrobe even more versatile by matching your skirts with cardigan sets so that you always have an outfit to mix and match. So you could pick up a ruby red cardigan ensemble, and match it with any of the neutral coloured skirts, and of course, a black or dark chocolate brown (whichever fits your skintone better) cardigan sweater set because black is incredibly versatile.

A wrap dress
I am a huge fan of wrap dresses. It’s elegant, easy to throw on in a simple step, and can be accessorized to the hilt, or left the way it is if the print is bold enough to carry on by itself. Just ensure that when you sit down, the wrap dress wraps around enough to cover your thighs. I run into the problem of having to always wear a full body slip so I don’t end up looking tarty by accident.

Two pairs of well-made pumps in black and dark chocolate brown (big fan of chocolate here..)

Opt for the three inch heel or lower, so it’s comfortable. You want to be able to walk in it. Think about a chunkier heel, but not so chunky that you look like your feet have been potted.

Bold hues
Using bright colour is a great way to liven up an outfit. Supplement your wardrobe by choosing sweaters, tanks and shirts in vibrant jewel tones like purple, green, red, orange, etc. Choose materials like lace or silk for added sexiness and sophistication, but if you want to err more on the practical side, look for cotton blends, and steer clear of 100% polyester!!

Accessories
Buy a jewellery piece or two that looks fantastic when worn with anything. For me, it’s 3 rows of thinner turquoise beads that spice up any dull too neutral outfit, or add a nice lively contrast near my face against white or other summery colours. Experiment, and try on chunky necklaces if your neck can handle it. If you have a shorter neck, that’s a bit full, then try a longer strand of chunky beads, or go for the dainty thin long dangling chains. They’ll elongate your neck by drawing the eye down.