Sharing insights since 2007 on carefully saving money, investing, frugal living, coupons, promo codes because the little things matter in achieving financial freedom!
There comes a time in your life when having a baby seems like a great idea. Never mind the cost, the sleepless nights and all the other anticipated difficulties, babies are incredible. Still, eventually the reality of the financial impact will rear its ugly head. There are some ways you can save tons of money while still providing everything your little one needs though, so read ahead.
Prenatal Purchases
While it is really nice to have one or two sets of prenatal jeans, you can usually get by for quite a while in your regular clothes. If you are handy with a sewing machine, get it out and install a pregnancy panel in a couple more of your pants and you should be able to make it through the pregnancy.
Goodwill stores are a great place to find gently used pregnancy clothing, as are friends, relatives, and coworkers. For some reason people are very eager to get rid of these clothes, so advertise your condition and watch the donations roll in. [ continue reading… ]
For most of us, the biggest purchase we’ll ever make is a home — whether we’re talking about a condo or a mansion, housing is the largest portion of most of our budgets. There are plenty of opinions on whether that’s a good situation, but the fact of the matter is that, here and now, most people are interested in owning their own homes.
Considering Transportation Costs
But while a house is typically the biggest purchase we might make, there are a couple of other sizable purchases that many households make over the years. The second largest is most often an automobile: the cost of purchasing a car is generally sizable and it also has extensive upkeep costs that an owner must pay over the years. A vehicle is not absolutely necessary, especially in big cities, but they have become incredibly common. The U.S. Department of Transportation estimated that there were 254.4 million registered passenger vehicles in the U.S. in 2007 — that’s more than the number of licensed drivers in the country. [ continue reading… ]
Recently, I had the opportunity to publish a guest post on managing tricky gift situations in families on the wonderful Frugal Dad’s blog. I was impressed by the insights given in the comments section. One comment regarding family pressure to “figure out” Christmas well in advance by setting guidelines such as limits or exchanging names gave me a lot of food for thought. I’d always thought that such arrangements were a positive thing to help make things less stressful and more fair, but that comment made me realize that there are cons to these sorts of arrangements.
Even though the holidays are several months away, many people start planning for the holidays and talking about them well in advance of the season so now is a good time to start thinking about what you’ll do, if anything, to manage gift giving in your family or circle of friends. This list of common gift exchange rules/arrangements is meant to help you think about whether this kind of arrangement will work for you when deciding if you’ll want to suggest or participate in one this year.
A note: Although it’s tempting to dismiss a lot of concerns as being immature, I believe it’s human nature to want things to be fair and to get your share. Sometimes life doesn’t work out that way and it’s certainly better to handle it with grace and a positive attitude, but I don’t think there is anything necessarily wrong with addressing these kinds of concerns. And let’s be honest, we can’t always choose every person in our life and doing what we can to appease difficult people is sometimes necessary. [ continue reading… ]
Whether you are running a small business or simply want to set up a home office, saving some money on office supplies can be important. In a business, every penny counts, and the same holds true for a household budget. Purchasing your supplies at a regular office store is about the most expensive choice you can make when stocking up, yet that’s what most people do. Try these tips, and you may find that your money does go a bit further.
Saving Money on Office Supplies at Superstores
Although you might think that no one could possibly go through a pack of 25 pens or a full box of printer paper, most do, given time. While the initial investment in getting a large supply of something non-perishable may be more, in the end it pays off.
Note though that too many people lose their pens well before the ink runs out. If buying a huge pack “helps” you forget more often, then buy them one at a time even if it seems more expensive at first. [ continue reading… ]
During a time when we are still plagued by unemployment and an under performing housing market, is it practical to believe in a world of financial abundance? I sure hope so, as the positive mindset is a key factor for achieving significant wealth.
Don’t Lose Hope
This could be difficult, but do not allow a fear-mongering media to determine your economic outlook. A thousand planes will land safely, but only the one that doesn’t will make the news. News programs are in the business of sensationalism because that’s what sells. But just because a topic is garnering mass media attention doesn’t make the viewpoints shared correct, even if there are economic pundits doing the speaking. Consider how late the media was to catch on to the fact that we were in recession. In fact, brilliant and controversial economist Art Laffer was emphatic that we were not in a recession and later apologized for getting such a significant call wrong. By the time we officially declared that the economy was in a recession, we had been in it for well over a year. [ continue reading… ]
We used to take it for granted: young people go to college, get an education that would enable them to land a good job, then start their careers. Over the course of forty years, if you’re smart and frugal and make good money at your work, you accumulate enough money to retire comfortably at the age of 65.
Some feel that this scenario has never been a good one, that it means people sacrifice their “good” years to build that nest egg. In fact, I read more and more Y-generation people saying that they refuse to work the 9-to-5, refuse to sit in a cubical or even in an office for 8 or more hours each day. More and more young people are rebelling and are trying to succeed on their own terms, hence the huge success of books like The Four Hour Workweek.
For Many Americans, Retirement is Slipping Away
But even if you accept that this is the way things are supposed to be – even if this is your dream – to work for 40 years, accumulate a nice nest egg, then retire, for a growing number of Americans the recession means that this dream is slipping away. [ continue reading… ]
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