For grocery shopping, Cohn suggests not shopping at gourmet grocery stores and start shopping at Trader Joe’s or warehouse stores. You can also use coupons found online from sites like CouponMom.com or Coupons.com. If you don’t mind spending a bit of money each month, a service called Shopping Nanny will customize coupons for you based on shopping lists. Shopping Nanny guarantees that if you spend $90 a week in groceries, you will save at least $40 a month, or your membership for next month is free.

Two other services that may come in handy with trimming costs would be BillShrink.com and MyRatePlan.com. Both services allow you to input information about your bills, like cell phone service or television service, and the site will analyze your information and show you the rate that would be best for you, including extras you also may want.

To see more of Cohn’s suggestions, click here.

5 Easy Ways to Budget
Get on top of your expenses so you aren’t living from paycheck to paycheck

How to Create a Budget
Here are the basics of money management to help you take inventory of your finances and make goals

Household Budget Worksheet
Get on top of your monthly living costs by projecting expenditures in various categories, and then comparing those projections to what you actually spend

The Trouble with Budgets
Here are 8 common problems that plague would-be budgeters

The amount owed varies greatly with the amount of money a country generates, its population and how much its government spends. In Germany, the national debt is $1.79 trillion. This represents 62.6 percent of Germany’s gross domestic product, or GDP. In The U.K. the national debt is $42.2 trillion. This is 47.2 percent of the GDP of the U.K.

In Russia, the national debt is $151.3 billion. This is 6.8 percent of the Russian GDP. Italy owes a national debt of $1.89 trillion, or 103.7 percent of the Italian GDP. The national debt of France is $1.40 trillion. This is 67 percent of France’s GDP.

One of the highest levels of national debt relative to the country’s GDP can be found in Japan. The Japanese national debt is $7.47 trillion. This is 170.4 percent of the Japanese GDP. India has a national debt of $2.55 trillion. This debt is 78 percent of the GDP of India. Zimbabwe has a national debt of $472.51 billion. This level of national debt is 241.2 percent of Zimbabwe’s GDP.

In the Americas, The United States has a national debt of 8.68 trillion. In the U.S., this is 60.8 percent of the American GDP. The Canadian national debt is $814.26 billion. In Canada, the national debt is 62.3 percent of the GDP. In South America, Argentina has a national debt of $293.56 billion. The Argentinean national debt is 51 percent of the GDP of Argentina.

The gross domestic product of a country is the market value of all of the products and services that a country produces in one year. This includes spending that is done by the citizens of the country and by the government of that country. It includes the value of items produced within the county and exported elsewhere, but it does not include the value of any imported items. The GDP is the primary way to calculate the size and status of the economy of a country as a whole. It is calculated quarterly as well as yearly.
(from Visual Economics)

2. That red flag tells the mail carrier—and me—that you have outgoing mail. And that can mean credit card numbers and checks I can reproduce.

3. Check your bank and credit card balances at least once a week. I can do a lot of damage in the 30 days between statements.

4. In Europe, credit cards have an embedded chip and require a PIN, which makes them a lot harder to hack. Here, I can duplicate the magnetic stripe technology with a $50 machine.

5. If a bill doesn’t show up when it’s supposed to, don’t breathe a sigh of relief. Start to wonder if your mail has been stolen.

6. That’s me driving through your neighborhood at 3 a.m. on trash day. I fill my trunk with bags of garbage from different houses, then sort later.

7. You throw away the darnedest things—preapproved credit card applications, old bills, expired credit cards, checking account deposit slips, and crumpled-up job or loan applications with all your personal information.

8. If you see something that looks like it doesn’t belong on the ATM or sticks out from the card slot, walk away. That’s the skimmer I attached to capture your card information and PIN.

9. Why don’t more of you call 888-5-OPTOUT to stop banks from sending you preapproved credit offers? You’re making it way too easy for me.

10. I use your credit cards all the time, and I never get asked for ID. A helpful hint: I’d never use a credit card with a picture on it.

11. I can call the electric company, pose as you, and say, “Hey, I thought I paid this bill. I can’t remember—did I use my Visa or MasterCard? Can you read me back that number?” I have to be in character, but it’s unbelievable what they’ll tell me.

12. Thanks for using your debit card instead of your credit card. Hackers are constantly breaking into retail databases, and debit cards give me direct access to your banking account.

13. Love that new credit card that showed up in your mailbox. If I can’t talk someone at your bank into activating it (and I usually can), I write down the number and put it back. After you’ve activated the card, I start using it.