Do you frequently find yourself wondering where the money went?

Xpenser is a convenient free tool that lets you phone, IM, e-mail or Twitter your expenses directly onto a spreadsheet. Use it to remember that cab fare, that lunch or Cinnabon and coffee on the go, use it to record a business expense you need to be reimbursed for.

Basically you can add your expenses directly to a spreadsheet by using just about anything except a carrier pigeon.

Then go online and upload, download or transfer your expenses into whatever accounting program you use, or just use Xpenser. Your accountant will love it, you’ll love it as well. Use Xpenser and you will know where the money went.

More about Xpenser can be found here.

Rainy days are a retailers worst nightmare. When it rains, people don’t shop. That’s gotta hurt even worse in rainy cities like Seattle, Washington.

For you, rainy days mean days that you don’t spend as much. Be sure to put away a few dollars each rainy day towards your own rainy day fund and you will always be prepared.

HOLC or Home Owners Loan Corporation was an agency formed as a viable alternative to foreclosure.

The Home Owners Loan Corporation essentially bought mortgages from failed banks during the Great Depression of the 1930s and modified the loan terms to much more reachable ones. They offered easier refinance options to homeowners than the remaining banks, afraid to take on mortgages. It extended the loan repayment period and divided the single lump sum payments into much smaller installments.

Result? The Home Owners Loan Corporation assisted more than one million American families in repaying their mortgage debt and to avoid foreclosure.

Contact your representatives and legislators and ask them about reviving the Home Owners Loan Corporation.

It was there all along, waiting on the horizon years ago. I’m talking of course of the housing bust. I casually mentioned the artificially inflated housing problem to a group of friends in the Summer of 2005, and how the housing boom was going to adjust in the coming years and come back and haunt us. What I didn’t foresee was how hard and how far it was going to spread.

What I still see as a problem that no one is talking about is the 0% interest financing that has to come to an end. Automotive manufacturers make their dividends, the real bulk of any profits in the financing arm, not from the manufacturing. Auto makers have been giving away their product for years, all while biting their own tails.

Two, low and non-existent interest on passbook savings accounts does no one any good. Savings accounts should not be necessarily tied to the current federal lending rates. Savings accounts should be used to insulate both the banks and the consumers by encouraging healthy saving habits.

Three, spending the bulk of the stimulus monies on programs simply results in budget crises down the road. “Projects, have a begin and end date, programs usually don’t”. I guarantee that in 2-3 years we will be at one of those periods when the U.S. Senate can’t pass a budget because of party bickering and forces our government to a temporary standstill.

How do you make money in a recession? Moreover, how do you make money in a recession when you live at or near a paycheck to paycheck existence?

For many Americans, myself included, paying the utilities, the insurance, the mortgage or rent becomes nearly an impossible act of juggling from one week to the next, and one pay check to the next. But you do it, you continue to pay your bills in good faith.

The only way to make money in a recession, is to not spend it in the first place. My dear Uncle John taught me it’s not what you earn that makes you rich, it’s what you don’t spend.

That’s not to say you don’t invest, invest in a Roth IRA, forget a standard old IRA, invest in building an emergency fund if you don’t already have one. Most recommend 6-8 months, I suggest 12-15 months if you can swing it.

Back to the whole “how when there’s nothing left of the paycheck”? You can look at it one of two ways, pay yourself first, YOU are a bill that’s due each month, week whatever. OR, each time you make an impulse purchase try your darnedest to say, you know I don’t need that bag of chips, I’ll wait till they’re on sale. Whatever you can do to pinch a penny here and there. Change is also a great starter tool, the average couple can save and extra $100 a month or more just by gathering up their coin change each night.

A $20 spot here and there slipped into savings develops in to an almost incurable habit of setting money aside. Start small, dream big.

Building a savings account today couldn’t be easier, but it should never be convenient. Even though you can set up an automatic deduction from your checking account each payday, making it just as easy to withdraw the money can create temptation.

If at all possible, do not link your primary savings account to another account as an overdraft protection line, and do not if you have the option get a ATM or debit card linked to your savings account.

Making a withdrawal from your primary savings account should be wrought with thought before doing so or you may find yourself dipping into the account for non-traditional use.

As the economy worsens, so does the fear. The scrutiny of each purchase, the fight with your husband because he bought Gain Detergent instead of the more economical Sun Brand Detergent as you had asked.

Of course you should think about each purchase, but it seems ridiculous to some to have to make such decisions over a choice of soap. It’s not, and never has been. Watching and being aware of what your everyday purchases really cost goes along way towards reaching your financial goals.

Typically buying in bulk, when on sale and with proper storage space can result in net savings that can pay off debt, save for the future or simply build wealth.

As the economy worsens, which it will in the near future anyway, tighten that belt, limit eating out to once or at the most 4-5 times per month and you will see an immediate increase to your available cash flow.

When the economy slows down, build your future nest egg through structured savings. Though savings accounts typically aren’t the best ways to save money, when an economy tightens, it is the safest place.

If you don’t already have a rainy day fund to match about 8 months of your planned and un-planned expenses, open a savings account right away. Even if you only add $20 a week, or even $20 a month, you will be well on your way to having the fund when you need it down the road.