Financial Abuse costs you more than money. The reality is when you abuse your budget you pay with retirement, child care costs, health costs, and other fees too numerous to mention. So what can you do about it?

These suggestions will help you put in place a financial management system that works effectively all the time, every time, to save you money.

Meal Time Planning and Freedom

As a parent you may believe, mistakenly, that if you don't prepare food for your child for every meal, your child will be permanently damaged. Sometimes you need to allow your children to fend for themselves, and prepare exactly what they want to eat. (I'm not talking two year old cooking stew here, I'm talking simple meals anyone can prepare.)

Growing up, my family had Fend for Yourself Night once a week. Everyone prepared something they wanted from a specific selection and had a great meal, filled up their belly, and didn't break the bank. From a selection of ramen noodles, frozen veggies, fresh veggies, fruit, breads, and a few small canned meats and soups, we were allowed to prepare what we wanted. The only rule was it couldn't be fast food, and it had to be somewhat healthy (no candy bar/soda pop dinners). My favorite meal was buttered wheat toast, fruit, and tea. My tummy was happy, mom was content, and I didn't have to work hard. It's still my favorite fast food meal.

How often do you grab McDonalds or Arby's because you're out of time? Is it really faster to drive across town than to pop bread into the toaster. Top toast with peanut butter and add a banana or an apple and you've got a healthy FAST meal, that only cost you pennies. No, you can't do that for every meal, but why abuse the fast food privilege? Why not use that option only for special times, when you really want to spend that money?

The best part of Fend for Yourself Night, it teaches children to prepare simple foods for themselves, a skill they'll need in college, that will keep them healthy and well fed on a limited and very SMALL budget?

I remember my daughter calling home and saying she'd been careless with her money, but she still had food for the last week of the month. I asked what she had, and she told me she still had peanut butter, two cans of tuna, two cans of pineapple, a case of ramen noodles, several cans of veggies and fruit, a can or two of pudding, and a box of tea bags. She had eighty-five cents for a loaf of bread. She restocked her supplies on the next paycheck, and was happy eating at the dorm until she got paid.

Prices at the pump continue to skyrocket, leaving most Americans frustrated and stressed by budgets that are strained to the limit. High gas prices shocked consumers and made headlines a couple of years ago, but by now everyone knows that they are here as a permanent reality. The only news worth mentioning nowadays is practical advice on how to survive the rising expense of fueling our cars, trucks, SUVs, recreational vehicles, boats, and other kinds of miscellaneous gas-powered equipment.

But many consumer experts recommend a simple and straightforward solution that offers a direct way to address the problem. Credit cards that offer cash rebates and other benefits are not only safe and convenient for buying gas, but they offer significant savings that go directly back into your wallet, not into your fuel tank. By buying gas and other items with the right card - or the right combination of different cards - you can offset the financial impact of overpriced gasoline without paying added fees, high interest rates, or hidden costs.

The credit markets are in turmoil because of the spillover of problems related to bad mortgage loans, and banks and other lenders who offer credit cards are competing fiercely to get your business as their own profits get pinched. Take advantage of their generous offers while you still have the chance and you can leverage the bleak situation to your own advantage by paying less for gasoline.

For example, dozens of major credit cards now offer a wide range of benefits, cash-back offers, and other incentives for using plastic, including these:

* Apply for some cards and they will give you $50 back after your first purchase.
* Many cards pay 5 percent or more cash back to you for ordinary purchases such as gas, groceries, or prescription medications at the local drug store.
* Some combine these rebates with other perks; such as coupons you can redeem for merchandise or travel upgrades.
* The more you use some cards, the more cash you earn. Use these types of cards often enough to qualify for preferred card user status - which isn't hard if you buy gas on a regular basis - and companies will even throw in other gifts and cash rewards.
* Lots of cards do matching programs; so that for every dollar you spend you get a bonus point. Many offer double rebates, to double your points or cash savings.
* Apply for many of these popular cards and you can get a free signing bonus worth, for instance, as many as 12,000 bonus miles that you can redeem for travel awards with any airline without restrictions on which dates you fly.
* An important feature of the best rebate cards is that they do not charge you any annual fee, unlike most frequent flier or frequent user programs that charge as much as $100 or more just to join and be a member.

With lots of these cards you can also get zero percent financing for up to a full year on all your purchases and credit card balance transfers. So if you have costly credit card debt you can switch it to a rebate card and make money in a matter of minutes. Say, for example, that you owe $3,000 on a credit card that is charging you 18 percent interest. Shift that balance to a zero percent card and you automatically save yourself 18 percent interest, which is approximately $540 or nearly 50 bucks a month.

On top of that instant interest rate savings you will, of course, still be entitled to whatever rebates and benefits the card offers. That kind of consumer strategy is like giving yourself an unexpected payroll raise. Soon the credit card company of your choice will be pitching in to pay for your gas each time you fill up the tank. That is a great way to manage your finances in partnership with those who issue plastic, during these challenging economic times.

I've decided that having fun is actually critical to getting anything done. Someone once said have fun and get it done, and it's really true. That's why dealing with money has to be fun. We have to enjoy the process of taking care of our money, because that's how we take care of ourselves, and actually it can be extremely rewarding, esp. if you are coming from a low level of functioning, like I was, which rendered my situation chaotic.

Chaotic and disturbing are the words that spring to mind when I think of my approach to the worldly goods to which I had been endowed. And no wonder-I never wanted to face my finances because so far from being fun, my bills, saving and spending were frightening to me. I never felt there was really enough, and this in turn left me feeling scared and dodgy. I would do anything to avoid dealing with the numbers, but now I look at things differently.

It pays pays pays to look your money square in the eye with gratitude and a sense of fun and adventure. I can feel that way with no problem when I'm shopping, it's just all the other times that require a conscious application of joy and bonhomie to get me into the spirit of things.

Take when I'm paying bills. After setting up a system of tracking and paying bills, I now actually get a thrill of satisfaction when I have dealt with my bills. The dread of being overdue, not knowing when things were due, wondering how much was due, wondering how much I had in the bank to pay what was due ... you get the picture ... has changed to a real sense of accomplishment. I feel solid and powerful when I know my paperwork is up to date. It's a relief and it actually helps me feel and sleep better. What's interesting too is that it gives me a better outlook on the present and future in terms of what I can spend, and how to spend, because I'm mindful of where my money is currently flowing to, and this allows me to realistically project where future money may go.

For instance, the other day I was looking at my credit card bill and noticed how much I had spent on medical and supplements. My initial reaction was "Oh Lord, not all that!", but that was immediately replaced by a feeling of real thankfulness about how improved my health is over what it was 10 years ago, and that the reason for this is that I now spend the time and money required to mend and maintain my body, and that just made me feel so good.

Another thing that happened was I saw there had been no vacation expenditures. I'm the kind that has to be reminded to play, so I took one small step towards recreation, and set up a regular date night on Friday nights with my boyfriend. Just monitoring where the money went helped me to actually get a read on how I was living my life, and how to make minor adjustments if need be, or express happiness at knowing I'm on track.

Having fun with money isn't all that hard if you start with the small things and do them consistently. You could try just organizing the cash in your wallet every day for a week, so they are in order and so that you know how much you're carrying. You could spend 15 mins. a week working on balancing your checkbook. You could start the habit of sorting your mail every single day when it comes in, immediately tossing the junk and paying the bill when you lay eyes on it, even if you don't mail it till later, or send the payment electronically till later. You will be surprised at how these little things you do for yourself on a daily basis will make you smile and lighten your load.

Time and money are valuable assets for most people like you and me. Success seems to be measured in the quantity that a person possesses of at least one of these assets. However, due to the enormous luxury of the internet, there are many ways for us to increase both our free time and personal income. By simply taking advantage of many free opportunities available on the internet, people, just like you or me, can increase monthly income while also gaining valuable free time for family, hobbies or doing nothing. This is a path to success that everyone can be excited about.

Through the use of fantastic tools such as affiliate marketing companies, Craigslist postings and a few minutes per day, a person can spend absolutely NO money out of pocket and create extra income to be used for whatever purpose one needs. By using such free opportunities as the article that you are reading right now, I have been shown ways to provide security for my family without taking the risk of losing a single dime. Few other business opportunities can offer this incredible option.

There is no need to invest thousands in real estate, multilevel marketing or inventory supplies that you may or may not be able to resell. Take a few moments to observe people that claim to make money online. Do the claims sound too good to be true. They may be. With such programs as affiliate marketing, ezines and blogs, a person with simple word processing skills (or a few minutes to learn them) can begin to create an entire home business. There are no get-rich-quick schemes. But, there are ways to gain a small education and quickly begin to build a true, reliable and consistent income for you and your family. No matter how one defines success, more money, more time, greater security and the feeling of accomplishment are always steps on the path to our success.