Interesting Money Management Ideas

Due to various financial issues, we have found ourselves living much more meagerly lately. Thankfully Chris has wholeheartedly stumbled upon the couponing idea to help us save money on our groceries.

Essentially we are out of debt, other than our house. However, we find ourselves still using credit cards all of the time for various purchases. And it always feels like we are just one step away from ... (who knows what).

Do you ever have that feeling?

I saw this article and was intrigued by a couple ideas presented in it.

Most importantly were these 2:

1. Opening ING Direct savings accounts that automatically withdraw money from your checking account into an interest bearing savings account that you can use later.
Essentially, he is proposing creating different savings accounts for different goals you have - vacations, electronic gear, new vehicles, etc - so you can slowly save up and pay for them.

2. Using prepaid credit cards - instead of traditional credit cards (which rack on fees and interest rate hikes, etc).
This idea says you will use these prepaid cards to maintain any ongoing accounts, online orders, hotel booking, etc. - instead of using traditional credit cards.

Both of these seem like very interesting ideas to help people move out of dependency on credit cards and banks who think of us as money instead of people anyhow.

I just thought I would share, and see what you think about the idea.
I'm not sure I'm ready to go this route yet. But it is a very intriguing way to battle back against the insanity of the current economic environment we face.

Merry Christmas!
Al